I purchased some canned garden seeds from Augason Farms in May of 2011 (the label gives a shelf life of up to 5 years if sealed.)  The can contains 13 varieties of non-hybrid, non-GMO garden seeds including: beans, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melon, onion peas, peppers, romaine lettuce, spinach, squash, tomatoes and zucchini.  Also included is a planting guide and the following information about the seeds.

“The 13 vegetables in the “Forever Garden” are specially chosen from the highest quality non-hybrid or Open Pollinated garden seeds available.  This means you can harvest the vegetables you grow this year and then replant the seeds year after year….”Forever”.

“These seeds have been chosen for great flavor, and high yields, and have proven to adapt to almost any region, they are quality “short season” vegetables, and if cared for correctly the seeds may be stored in these containers for many years.”

One day, as I was checking expiration dates I realized that I’m putting my blind faith in this can, and I have no idea if these seeds will even sprout!At that moment I decided to give them a test run, so this summer I’ll be planting the seeds in my garden.  I’ve already come across one problem with my plan…I don’t have enough space to plant the estimated 8000 seeds that are in the can.  In a “real world” situation, I wouldn’t have the means to create more raised beds, or have time to amend my soil, so I’ll be using what I already have in place, and plant the remaining seeds in the clay-like soil around the backyard.  I’ll be lucky if any of those seeds sprout!

The first step was to create a timeline of when to plant each seed variety.  Below is the calendar I created using the suggested dates on the guide included. (These dates are based on the average last frost date for Flagstaff, which is June 13th.)

May 18th

Onion, Red Creole (Indoors)

Bell Pepper, California Wonder (Indoors)

Tomatoes, Floradade (Indoors)

May 23rd

Carrot, Scarlet Nantes

Peas, Lincoln

Romaine Lettuce, Paris Island Coos

Spinach, Bloomsdale Long Standing

June 13th

Green Beans, Top Crop

Corn, Golden Bantam 8

Squash, Waltham Butternut

Zucchini, Black Beauty

July 4th

Cucumber, Boston Pickler

Cantaloupe, Imperial

I’ll update this blog as often as possible with the progress of the seeds. 

I hope you will all continue to follow along on this experiment with me!

Cindy Dorfsmith

Local college student, Michael Guintard created this video for a school project. It covers some of the projects I have been working on with the Flagstaff Liberty Alliance.

You can register here: http://azdailysun.upickem.net/engine/Registration.aspx?contestid=43841

and vote for the peanut brittle here: http://azdailysun.upickem.net/engine/SubmissionWidget.aspx?PageType=VOTING&ContestID=43841&SubmissionID=13748911

Note: The term “chicken” includes hens and roosters, but I use the term chicken in place of hen in this blog.

I’ve got good news and bad news for urban chicken enthusiasts in Flagstaff.  The good news is the Zoning Code will no longer restrict keeping chickens if the new Zoning Code passes next Tuesday.  The bad news, the restrictions in the City Code are still pretty stiff and need to be brought up to date.

How outdated is Flagstaff’s City Code?  Let’s just say that it’s illegal to “maintain guinea pigs”.  Yep…According to City Code 6-03-001-0001 they are “declared to be a nuisance, injurious to health, a source of filth and cause of sickness” along with swine, cattle, mules, burrow, sheep, goats, poultry, fowl, rabbits and horses. So much for the kids’ pet guinea pig for Christmas.

Luckily there are some exceptions to the City Code, including one  for female poultry.  You may have up to 25 female poultry as long as they are 50 feet or further from any residence building.  Still not flexible enough for those of us with average sized lots wanting to raise chickens for fresh eggs.

So, I guess that means we’ll have to move out to Doney Park on a couple acres so we can raise chickens, or we can take a stand and get City Council to change the City Code!  I have started gathering various city ordinances that are much more chicken friendly.  Some allow a certain number of chickens on any size lot, others give a more reasonable 5 or 10 feet from any residence, all prohibit roosters, which is completely understandable.  You don’t need a rooster to get eggs and female chickens (hens) are no more noisy than the birds that fly around your back yard naturally.  I can place a bird feeder in my yard and attract dozens of birds at a time, but can’t own a single chicken.

Another common misconception is that chickens smell bad.  Unless you leave the coop uncleaned for a long period of time, they won’t smell badly.  And to make sure that chicken owners are not violating their neighbors rights the Council could add a paragraph in the code similar to this one found in code 6-02-001-0011 “…keeping dog pens or dog runs clean and sanitary, generally free of fecal and other matter than may attract flies, rodents, or cause an offensive odor that may disturb the comfort of any person.”  If someone won’t clean their coop, they would likely have to face fines and/or get rid of their chickens.

Not only are eggs a great source of food for the urban chicken farmer, but think of the greater impact.  If I have 3 hens that lay enough eggs for my family all year, I no longer have to purchase unhealthy eggs full of pesticides and hormones that come from over populated “egg factories”.   I can re-use egg cartons so less Styrofoam is going into the landfill.   My chickens would provide a natural fertilizer for my garden, saving me money and allowing my family to be more self-sufficient.  Chickens would also eat insects that are pests in my garden (no more grasshoppers!).  In addition to all these benefits, chickens make great pets.

In the coming months I’ll be working hard to convince Flagstaff City Council to change the City Code to be more chicken friendly (and maybe I’ll address the illegal guinea pigs while I’m at it).  If you’d like to help or give your input it would be greatly appreciated!

Cindy Dorfsmith

I’ve been searching for a simple donut recipe since I bought my deep fryer a few weeks ago.  All of the recipes I found online were too time consuming and complicated.  The thought of spending my morning waiting for dough to rise with a rolling pin in hand was not appealing.  I wanted donuts within 30 minutes!

Determined to make donuts this weekend I started searching my cook books for any recipe that would work.  I found a recipe for Drop Doughnuts in Mormon Country Cooking by Winnifred C. Jardine.  The recipe didn’t call for yeast or a rolling pin!

Drop Doughnuts

Yield 2 Dozen

375 degrees (hot oil)

2 Eggs

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons melted shortening (I used butter)

1/3 cup milk

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat eggs until very light.  Add sugar, melted shortening and milk.  Add dry ingredients which have been sifted together.  Mix well.  Drop by teaspoonfuls into deep hot fat.  Fry on all sides until golden brown.  Drain on unglazed brown paper; sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

Per my son’s request I made maple glaze.

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons maple syrup

Mix well

“These are the best donuts ever!!” said my son after the first bite.

Not too sweet, with a crisp outer shell, these donuts were as tasty as they were simple and will be a great new treat in this house!

http://www.thewondermill.com/index.php/module/statics/action/view_listing/page/13

Thank you to all my readers and to the WonderMill company for producing such a great product!

The woman teaching today’s workshop had some great book recommendations, including Making the Best of Basics by James Talmage Stevens.

This book covers basic in-home storage, cooking with food storage, sprouting & kitchen gardening, dehydrating, and so much more.

Another book that I found useful is The Complete Idiots Guide to Self-Sufficient Living by Jerome D. Belanger.

This book also covers a wide variety of topics but is not as detailed.  I suggest reading this one to find out what part of Self-Sufficiency you would like to focus on.  Once you know where you want to go or what you want to learn it is much easier to focus your energy.

I have personally found the following websites to be helpful in my preparedness journey:

Back to the Basics – Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

Root Simple

Preparing Wisely

Homestead.org

The sites below are great if you’re looking to buy emergency supplies of food.  I have found Sams Club to be the cheapest supplier:

Honeyville

Emergency Essentials

Sams Club (they sell Augason Farms)

Preparing and becoming more self-sufficient can be overwhelming at first.  Often, I’ve felt there could never be enough time to complete all the projects, collect all the supplies, or lean all the trades that I thought were important.  My advice is to take a moment to put all of your ideas and thoughts onto paper.  Then take a deep breath and tackle one task at a time.  Every little thing you do is one step closer to being prepared.

Thanks for reading,

Cindy Dorfsmith

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A couple years ago I started my first raised bed garden, shortly after discovering and reading All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  I was surprised when I was able to harvest lettuce, beans, peas, and spinach out of a simple 4′ x 4′ square made from a couple 2″ x 6″ boards.

Square foot gardens can be as simple or elaborate as your imagination will allow.  I have seen pictures of waist high gardens filing a yard, as well as a few tires piled up with vegetables pouring out of them.  Keeping with the design of my first plot, I built two additional 4′ x 4′ beds.  This year I used redwood instead of doug fir.  Redwood is more durable and will remain intact a few more years than the doug fir.

Building the beds is pretty simple.  When you buy the wood, have them cut it in 4′ pieces.  Then screw the four pieces together to make a square frame.

The next step is filling the frame with soil.  The book suggests 1/3 each peat moss, vermiculite, and compost.  My first year, I used pure compost with good results.  This time I mixed in a half bag of vermiculite and a full bag of peat moss in each frame.  I will post the comparisons of the mixture vs. pure compost in the fall.

Compost

Vermiculite

Peat Moss

I found that using my hands was the easiest way to mix the soil.

Three raised beds ready for seed planting.

Annual maintenance on raised beds is easy.  Since you do not walk on the soil there is no compaction so no tilling.  Just remove any remaining plant waste from the previous year, add some compost and re-mix.  I hope to add another bed every year as I become more familiar with the types of food that grow best in my climate and more daring with different varieties.  Now that the beds are ready, I can’t wait until I can start putting those seeds into the ground.

Thanks for reading, please subscribe and/or comment

Cindy Dorfsmith

This was the first time making any type of preserves but after tasting the final product it will not be the last.

The recipe I used was from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving:400 delicious and creative recipes for today.

A couple of changes I made: I doubled the recipe and used  1-pint jars. Also, I did not add the cherries.

“Easiest Ever Marmalade”

Makes about seven 8-ounce jars

3 small oranges (unpeeled), seeded

1 lemon )unpeeled), seeded

1 small grapefurit (unpeeled), seeded

2 cups canned crushed pineapple, with juice

6 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup chopped drained maraschino cherries

1. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, working in batches, pulse oranges, lemon and grapefruit until finely chopped.  Do not puree.

2. In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine chopped fruit, pineapple with juice and sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium-hight heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Boil hard, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to sheet from a metal spoon, about 20 minutes.  Add cherries and boil until mixture reaches gel stage, about 5 minutes.  Skim off any foam that has formed.

3. Prepare canner, jars and lids. (see detailed information here)

4. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot marmalade.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

5. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

The book recommends using within 1 year for best quality.

Be aware that when making this recipe the mixture can boil and pop out of the pan.

The pineapple in this recipe makes it a bit less tart than traditional marmalade.  The final product is fantastic.

Thanks for reading, don’t forget to subscribe!

Cindy Dorfsmith, Simply Flagstaff

What you need:

-Cotton material of your choice

-Iron on vinyl

-Velcro

First, adhere vinyl to the back of your material.  (Follow the direction on the iron on vinyl, which may vary by brand.)

Cut your material to desired snack bag size (plus 1/2 inch for seams)

I cut wanted larger bags, so I cut my material 9″ x 8″

Fold top of material over about 1/4″ and sew (this will be the bag opening)

Put material vinyl side out and sew three sides together, leaving the side already sewed open.

Cut Velcro to length of bag and adhere.  Self adhesive Velcro works really well.

Repeat until you have as many bags as you want.

This is a very easy project for anyone.  I only have basic sewing skills and I was able to finish in just a couple of hours.  I would recommend using a tight stitch so they are more durable.  These can be thrown in the washing machine and air-dried.  They work well for most snacks, such as pretzels, chips, grapes, cookies, cereals and much more.

Thanks for reading!

Please comment, and subscribe!

Cindy Dorfsmith