They have now added:

• In-house homemade packaged meals (like mango spring rolls. nom nom. :),
• Freshly brewed Hub coffee
• Fresh baked cookies.
• Recipes online.
• As if that wasn’t enough, they have started a series of free workshops. The first was wreth making. The next one is Beginning sewing, and the one after that Gluten Free Baking. I have no doubt that they will reach capacity. Email amber@greatbasinfood.coop

Email Amber early, yo!

Ashley

A guest post by Sheri Mc Laughlin.

The Pioneers did it. More than likely your own grandmother did it. For generations preserving your own food was not only a useful skill, but a necessity. If you hadn’t preserved enough food for yourself and your family, you would not survive the winter. So why have we abandoned this valuable process?

Canned peaches from Sheri’s neighbor’s tree.

Why preservatives replaced canning

The answer is easy- man made additives and preservatives have been put into our food to give it a shelf life of infinity. There is no denying that our lives have become easier, but at what cost? Experts have linked some of these substances with certain health issues and even believe they have influenced the rise of ADHD, Autism, and Cancer. You’ve all heard the joke about the two things that would survive a nuclear disaster right? The cockroach and the Twinkie. Those must be some powerful preservatives! Ones I’m pretty sure the human body wasn’t meant to consume in large quantities. But I digress. I’m not here to scare the preservative filled poop out of you. I’m here to tell you that you CAN can, and you are going to love every minute of it!

What you will need

First lets talk tools. You will need a water bath canning pot. They can be found at any large grocery store like Walmart or Target for about seventeen bucks. If that is out of your price range check your local Good Will or Salvation Army. I have seen them at second hand stores on numerous occasions. Next you will need jars which come in a variety of sizes with seals and lids conveniently included. Next, a jar lifter and wide mouth funnel can be picked up at any grocery store for a few bucks. That completes the tool section. Easy Peesy!

Giving the cans the ol’ hot water bath with boiling water.

The types of foods that do well being canned

Second, you will need food. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables can be canned and preserved for your enjoyment. Although local, organically grown foods that have not been showered with insecticides, pesticides, and growth agents are best, any food works. You will need sugar to preserve your fruits, while most veggies (but not all) require a vinegar mixture of some kind. This is where the fun starts! You have the freedom to prepare your food in low sugar, heavy syrup, white vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, with cinnamon, add some garlic, throw in some fresh herbs, pickled or plain. Whatever floats your boat- the sky is the limit!

Some of the fruits and veggies that Sheri canned: peaches, pears, and green beans.

This is the part where I tell you I am not going to give you a step by step tutorial. Every cookbook printed has a section specifically geared towards canning and preserving. The resources available online are incredible, and range from step by step guides to interesting and unique recipes. Blogs and webpages have been designed solely for those looking to start or master the art of canning.

What I am here to do is peak your interest, get you thinking, and share with you the single most important reason I have fallen in love with this lost art. My family. I care about their health. I want what goes into their bodies to be as pure as possible. I want to provide them the fuel they need to accomplish all they dream of accomplishing. Although I love them dearly, my family isn’t the only reason I can. Any canner will tell you there is something so dang satisfying in that POP! Start canning, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about!

Canning Tutorials on the web!

How to Can-Instructables.com

Hot Water Bath Canning-Frugal Upstate

Contributor Sheri McLaughlin and her family in Sparks, NV.

About Sally: Sally lives with Tommy in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They are beginner bee keepers and neat human beings. Tommy is a biologist who studies mushrooms at the University of Michigan while Sally is a cartoonist and independent user experience designer.  She just finished her first full length comic book, an auto-biographical comic book about being a bike messenger in New York City just after 9/11.

Lessons Learned!

Do:

• Get a mentor. Find someone local who has experience.
• Order your bees in early Spring (March). They sell out quick!
• Read books.

Don’t:

• Forget to check-in with the bees at least once a week.
• Forget to put a water source close to the hive. Bees will travel for water. Which might scare the bajeebies out of your neighbors.

Suggested Reading:

The Backyard Beekeeper by: Kim Flottum

The Beekeepers Handbook  by: Diana Sammataro & Alphonse Avitabile

To find out more about Sally: Go Here!

To read her blog: Go here!

Still not sure if bees are a good idea? Check this article out: “20 Amazing Honeybee Facts.” Did you know that the males have no stinger and don’t do any work. They exist solely to mate with the queen bee to make more bees! Or that the queen lives 5 years, whereas the worker bees only live for 6 weeks? Crazy stuff! Bees are amazing!

To listen to the podcast, click on the “PLAY” button below.

As you might know if you are living in Nevada, green is hard to come by.  The dusty, dry desert is full of golden yellows and browns.  So, we have a bit harder time pulling weeds if they provide us the green foliage we crave. Even the Elm trees that sprout up on virtually every square centimeter of our property are allowed to grow at least 3-6 feet before we take the cutters to them.

So, one day, Tommie, our 70+ year old sage neighbor comes over and tells me, “You know, I think that what you have growing there is a vegetable that Americans think is a weed.  If I’m not mistaken it has some important omega-3′s.” And when she talks nutrition, I listen. The woman is a sponge for this stuff. And she happens to have a degree in nutrition from Berkeley. ‘Nuff said.

So I consulted Wikipedia for some of nitty gritty on this little gem of a “weed.”

The Benefits:

• No bitterness
• Peppery taste when sauteed
• It’s a great companion plant for corn-the purslane roots can get into tougher dirt better than the corn. The corn roots will follow.
• Creates a humid microclimate for plants around it.
• Purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular) than any other leafy vegetable plant.
• Edible landscape-It is great ground cover and is edible!

The Drawbacks

• The Perfectly Manicured Lawn-If you want the perfectly manicured lawn look, these will look like weeds mixed in amongst the lawn.

How it is used in cooking around the world:

• Turkish-besides being used in salads and in baked pastries, it is cooked as a vegetable similar to spinach.
• Greeks-fry the leaves and the stems with feta cheese, tomato, onion, garlic, oregano, and olive oil, add it in salads, boil it or add to casseroled chicken
• Portugese-”baldroegas” are used as a soup ingredient. Because of its high water content Purslane cooks down quite a bit. Pick more than you think you will need. Makes a quick cold soup in hot weather by cooking and blending together with other vegetables.

Tasty Recipes

Huevos con verdolagas (eggs with purslane), from Amy Hernandez for the Examiner.com

Leafy, No Lettuce Salad, from Bon Appetit

So far we have tried the Huevos con Verdolagas. They were great. The eggs, onions, and purslane together tasted almost like fried rice, without the rice. It was quite tasty. Do you have any experience cooking with this oft overlooked veggie?

We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Cheers,

A & E

As luck would have it, on a whim on Friday Eric stumbled across the Bonaire Durango 5500 on the web. Thank the good lord. It is a swamp cooler, but it doesn’t look like the humongous sqaure metal ones (that eventually rust). I have to admit I was  skeptical at first, since it only came in at $534 including tax. The quotes I was getting for the giant Saudi Arabian swamp cooler that a local heating and air could install for us on the roof were up towards 5k. We are die-hard DIY-ers. The only thing we would ever spend 5k on would be geothermal. Too bad it isn’t only 5k.  And since our windows are very old, tall, and narrow our options were very limited in the window unit department.

In the end we decided to cut a hole in the wall and through the brick instead of forcing anything with our already fragile windows.  Thankfully the introverted boys in the family were willing to do it while the extroverted girls got to go to a birthday and a BBQ. It took them all day, sadly. But it was oh so worth it. We cracked the windows upstairs and the air goes right up the stairs and cools both the top and bottom floors.  In fact, we only have to run it at level 1 (there are three levels) to keep the house 15 degrees cooler than outside. It’s almost over-the-top how efficient this swamp cooler is.

Adding a Thermostat by Eric Jennings

Eric:
While the Durango cools the air amazingly, it’s a little lacking in the electrical feature department.  That’s not to say it’s not well-built–it really is, the wiring and design is very professional and solid.  It’s just that there is no thermostat to automate the temperature.

Before installing the cooler, I wanted to take a look at the wiring to see how difficult it would be to add a few relays and an circuit to make a thermostat.  Shouldn’t be hard, but I wanted to make sure it was possible.  Well, the good news is that it’s totally possible.  There are four main wires for the circuit; a low, medium, and high speed for the fan, and an off/on for the water pump.  When running in fan-only mode, the three speeds spin the fan accordingly.  In cool mode, the three speeds are still available, along with the pump turned on.

So to automate this sucker, you’d need two relays for the fan speeds–an SPDT and a DPDT relay.  These, I *believe* need to support 15A and 240v (at least that’s what the switch says, which we’ll be replacing with relays).  You’ll also need a relay for the pump.  This one I believe would require a lower amp/voltage rating.

The good news is that there is a ton of room in the sealed switch/capacitor area, so three relays should definitely fit in there.  Furthermore, once we have our Bean sensor network up and running, we can get this device controlled wirelessly, as well as turning on and off on its own.  Woo!
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In hindsight, some of these requirements turned out to be absolutely essential, and others weren’t really necessary.  As they say, live and learn!  Below are the requirements we now know are essential to having an enjoyable long-term chicken coop.

The Requirements

• Plenty of ventilation to keep things disease-free and non-smelly
• Ability for the coop to protect chickens from blowing snow and wind
• Very easy to clean the coop–as in 5 minutes or less easy
• Simple to fetch eggs from every day
• Lots of room for at least five chickens to stay in their coop comfortably if we are away for a few days
• Safe and enclosed, to keep the raccoons from slaughtering them all
• Must be kept under 120 square feet in order to avoid a building permit requirement in our county

What we ended up with was a mashup of lots of coop ideas we found on Backyard Chickens as well as other sites we stumbled across on the Series of Tubes.  We basically took all the ideas we liked the most, threw them in a blender, and hit frappe.  So far we’re very happy with it, though there are some things I’d change if I had to build it over again.  The plans at the end of the post have those changes incorporated already.  I’ll touch on the particular changes made at the end of this post.

The Details

Below is the materials list, with prices taken straight from a major home-goods store.  Note that this is probably the worst you can do with prices.  It’s very possible to get most or all of this stuff at much cheaper or even for free, if you know where to look.  Some excellent places to check are the Free and the Materials sections of Craigslist, as well as your local Habitat for Humanity stores.  These places usually have leftovers from larger projects, and you can do pretty well here, especially for the shingles, roofing paper, siding, and perhaps a door.  For paint, check out the miss-tints that home-goods stores usually have, where a customer has returned paint that didn’t match.  You can usually get these for extremely cheap or free.

Materials List

Total Cost of Materials: $695.00

Build Time

The Build

1) The Foundation

The first thing you want to do is to clear out about 12′ by 6′ of ground, and level it as well as you can.  While the coop itself only takes up 9 1/2′ by 5′, it’s good to have a bit of walking around room around the structure.

(Click image to see full-size)

First, lay out the deck blocks according to the dimensions in the picture.  Don’t worry about sinking them in the ground yet, what you’re after is a simple layout to get started.  Also, this is where you want to determine how to orient your coop.  Consider prevailing winds, especially in winter, and try to face the hen house-side of the coop (the top of the picture here) on the side where the wind comes from.  This will block most of the weather from the hens.

Next dig down about 6″ into the ground and position the deck blocks into the dirt. You’ll also want to dig down 6″ between the deck blocks, where the foundation boards will go.  We sink these into the ground a bit to keep predators and chickens from digging underneath.

A handy trick to get all of the blocks level is to take one of your 2 x 12 boards, and set it on top of the blocks in the slots.  This lets you set a level on the board and you can instantly see how your leveling out.  It also lets you get all the blocks at pretty much the same height–which is important for later structuring.

Now, cut the 2″ x 12″ foundation boards so that they fit in between the deck blocks snugly.  You want a pretty good fit here, to keep critters out, and to keep the chickens from thinking they can scratch their way out.  Depending on your blocks, you might need to cut various angles at the ends of your foundation boards.  Here’s what our foundation boards looked like after cutting:

(Click image to see full-size)

Complete all of the foundation boards, set them into the ground, sliding them between the deck blocks.  Don’t forget to include the one that’s inside the perimeter.  Back fill the dirt you dug out so that the ground is again level, and you should be good to go for step 2!

2) Framing the Coop

This is the fun part, where you get to actually see the coop come together!

First, take 6 4″ x 4″ x 8′ boards, and cut them so they’re 6′ long.  Save the 2′ scraps for later.  While you have the saw out, also cut 4 2″ x 4″s to 5′ 3″ long, take the leftover from these four cuts, and cut those to 1′ 10 1/2″ long.  You should now have 6 4″ x 4″ x 6′ boards, 4 2″ x 4″ x 5′ 3″ boards, and 4 2″ x 4″ x 1′ 10 1/2″ boards.

(Click image to see full-size)

Next, it’s easiest to attach the 2 x 4 double-shear Simpson Strong-ties to the 4″ x 4″ x 6′ vertical posts you just cut, while they’re on the ground.  It also lets you get the measurements right so everything is level.  The photo to the right is what the Simpson Strong-tie looks like that you’ll use.

Lay the 4″ x 4″s down on the ground, measure up on each of them to the correct distance, and attach the strong-ties with the 1″ screws.  Note that there is one set of shorter  2″ x 4″ boards that are laid flat instead of vertical (shown in the upper left of the photo below).  Make sure you do this as this is where a roosting board will go later.

Once you have them all attached, take the 8 2″ x 4″s you cut above, slide them into the strong-ties to make the side walls.  When both walls are completed, set a wall vertical resting in the deck blocks, and ask for some help to hold it while you set the other wall up on the other side.

Here’s what your walls should look like (shown here already on their deck blocks).

(Click image to see full-size)

Now take another 2″ x 4″ x 10′ and cut it into two boards 4′ 5″ long each.  Attach them across to make the hen house floor, and also to hold your walls upright so they don’t fall over.  It should now look like this:

(Click image to see full-size)

(Click image to see full-size)

Now add the 4 x 4 post cap Simpson Strong-ties to the top of the six vertical posts.  You’ll want to align them so that you can set the 4″ x 6″ x 8′ headers onto the top of each wall.  The 4 x 4 post cap strong-ties look like the photo to the right.

On top of the 4″ x 6″ headers, you’ll then set two 4″ x 4″ cross beams at the ends of each wall.  These are 5′ long each, so cut two of the 8′ boards and save the left-overs.  You’ll need these for the roof.  Use the same post cap strong-ties to attach these cross beams to the 4″ x 6″ headers.  Screw everything down and your structure should be nice and solid.

Lastly, take a 2″ x 4″ and cut a 5′ long board.  Attach it to the top of the 4″ x 6″ headers, and line it up above the center posts in each wall.  This forms the top of the hen house door.  You can just screw this board down through the 2″ x 4″ into the header with the 2″ screws.  No strong-ties necessary.  Your coop should now look something like this.

(Click image to see full-size)

Good!  Now on to the hen house.

3) The Hen House

The magic number for the hen house is 30 degrees.  This is the slope of the nesting box roof, and so you’ll need to make a couple of 30 degree cuts.  If you have a protractor, or another way of cutting angles accurately, you’re good to go.  If not, not to worry, you can do it without a protractor, you’ll just need to measure both sides of the board, and draw lines between them.

First, cut the two remaining 4″ x 4″ vertical posts for the nesting box.  They are 3′ 4 5/8″ long on the longest side, with a 30 degree cut at one end.  Another way to measure it is the following.

(Click image to see full-size)

Cut 2 4″ x 4″ vertical posts 3′ 4 5/8″ long.  On one side of each post, measure down 2″ and mark it.  Then draw a line from that mark up to the top edge of the post.  The picture to the right might make more sense.

(Click image to see full-size)

Next you need to cut the angled 2″ x 4″ braces to connect the nesting box posts to the main walls.  Same process as for the posts for cutting.  The measurements are 1′ 8 3/4″ on a side, with a 1″ angled cut on either side.  Like the photo to the left.  Once cut, use the 2″ screws to attach these to the nesting box vertical posts.

Now place the two posts into the remaining deck blocks, and attach a 2″ x 4″ x 5′ brace between the posts.  Again, use the 2 x 4 double shear strong-ties to attach these.  Then use the 2″ screws to attach the angled 2″ x 4″ boards to the main coop walls.  Once everything’s attached, it should look like this:

(Click image to see full-size)

Now we finish off the nesting box floor framing.  Cut two 2″ x 4″ boards 1′ 4 1/4″ long.  Cut a third 2″ x 4″ 4′ 5″ long.  Use the double shear strong-ties to attach them as outlined in blue in the following picture.  The distance from the 4″ x 4″ vertical wall post to each short brace is 1′ 2″.  There’s a last vertical 2″ x 4″ by 2′ 6″ post that acts as the storage area door frame.  Attach it lined up under the right hand short brace, down to the 2″ x 12″ foundation board.

(Click image to see full-size)

Now we attach the hen house floor sheeting and the nesting box dividers.   Take one sheet of 4′ x 8′ chipboard and cut one piece 2′ 5 1/2″ x 5′.  Notch out the corners so that there is room for the vertical posts according to the following dimensions.  The smaller notches at the top of the picture below are inserted towards the nesting boxes, where the slanted braces are.  Screw this down with the 1″ screws to finish the hen house floor.

(Click image to see full-size)

Now to make the nesting box dividers.  These look complicated, but they’re not really.  Remember, that angle is 30 degrees.  You don’t need a protractor though if you start with a square chipboard sheet of about 2′ x 2′, and measure all of the cuts from one corner.  Make two of these dividers.

(Click image to see full-size)

Attach each of these to the side of the short brackets closest to the center.  With both added, you should now have three nesting boxes, separated by two dividers.  Add the horiztonal 2″ x 4″ x 4′ 5″ board resting on top of the nesting box dividers, and attach to the vertical posts using two more double shear strong-ties like such.

(Click image to see full-size)

Next, cut and screw in the nesting box sheeting.  Cut three 1/2″ chipboard sheets according to the measurements below and attach to the braces with 1″ screws.  The right and left hand side are identical, so only one set of measurements is shown.

(Click image to see full-size)

Cut the 1″ x 2″ board to fit at the inside edge of the nesting boxes.  This helps keep the wood chips inside the nesting boxes.  Active hens often end up kicking out the wood chips otherwise.

(Click image to see full-size)

And now that the flooring is in, add the 2″ x 4″ x 4′ 1″ vertical hen house door brace, and the 2″ x 4″ x 5′ horizontal roost.  These remaining items are shown in blue below, along with measurements.

(Click image to see full-size)

Nice work!  The most difficult parts of the project are behind you now.

4) The Roof

Now we’ll tackle the roof.  This part goes pretty fast because there are so many similar pieces, that you can make all your cuts at once and cruise through this step.

First, the vertical braces are cut from leftover 4″ x 4″ board.  Make two of them, each of them 1′ 2″ long.  Attach them to the center of the joists spanning across the walls, using the remaining two Simpson strong-tie 4×4 post caps.

(Click image to see full-size)

Next, cut three 2″ x 6″ boards 9′ long each, and set one of them on top of the vertical braces. This part of the roof is called the ridge, and will act as support for the rafters.  Attach the ridge board to the vertical braces using the two Simpson strong-tie saddle rafter tie.  They look like the photo to the right.

Once you have everything in place, your roof should look like this:

(Click image to see full-size)

Now take more 2″ x 6″ boards, and cut 16 rafters using the following measurements:

(Click image to see full-size)

Now attach two rafters, butted up against the inside of the 4″ x 4″ cross joist connecting the walls.  Attach the top of the rafter against the ridge board using the Simpson ridge rafter connector.  Use a second ridge rafter connector to attach the bottom of the rafter to the 4″ x 6″ top of wall board.

Note that you’ll need to bend the lower ridge rafter connector, but it’s pretty easy if you attach the connector to the rafter first, then use a hammer to pound the connector flat with the 4″ x 6″.  Then attach with the 1″ screws.  It should look like this:

(Click image to see full-size)

Now add four more rafters between the outer two, spaced 1′ 4″ apart, as shown below.

(Click image to see full-size)

Now take the two other 2″ x 6″ x 9′ long boards and attach them to the ends of the rafters.  Use the 2.5″ screws and drill directly into the ends of the rafters.  Make sure that both sides have 9 1/2″ hanging over on each side, as shown here:

(Click image to see full-size)

Next, attach the two outside rafters to the ends of each side of the roof using the same method; Simpson strong-tie ridge rafter at the top, 2 1/2″ screw through the eave at the bottom, like such:

(Click image to see full-size)

Now repeat this process for the other half of the roof.

Rest of the build coming soon!

5) Covering the Sides

6) Hanging the Door

7) Painting

8) Attaching Welded Wire Mesh

9) Shingling the Roof

The Plans

Here are 10 things I learned:

1. If a goat sees a reflection of herself in a window, she will head butt her own reflection.  The sweet goat in the picture above did it three times.  It was hysterical.
2. Tomatoes come in purple–not just green, yellow, and red. I scored some Cherokee purple tomato seeds.
3. How to make Kombucha! I was gifted a Kombucha starter by a kind single Dad and his daughter.
4. You can’t just dry out any type of seed and replant it. Some seeds don’t work that way.
5. The River School has a permaculture class coming up! Eric and I will likely be attending it! April 7th. You can find their list of workshops here.
6. I will be picking up at least 7 baby chicks on Friday. I added on to the order that Tom already made. In 6-7 weeks I will have meat chickens ready to be food for the family and a few more layers.
7. The River School teaches classes on how to process chickens. Whaaaa?!?! How awesome is that? And they have a little ceremony thanking it for its life. How neat is that?  I can’t think of a better way to honor its life.
8. Old retired roosters and hens still taste good. For some reason I thought it would be really tough meat.  Tom convinced me otherwise. He claims that after cooking it all day in his solar oven, it still tastes better than store bought chicken.
9. Radishes grow really, really fast.  I picked a few radishes in one of the hoop houses that had a diameter of 1 inch. Whaaaat? Crazy!  They were planted only 6-7 weeks ago and were ready to be harvested. They were yummy with a little bite to them.
10. You can raise Talapia in your basement.  Craazy! Don’t tell Eric, he will be all over that in a NY minute. Check out this cool video one of the women told me about: Talapia Farm in Basement

Events like this make me happy to be alive! Have you ever been to a seed swap? What was your experience like? Please do tell!

At this point you can keep adding paper to give the design more depth.  I added birds and stamps from the paper I picked up at Papermoon. I also cut out a few clever quotes from this week’s R&R. I plan to add a few pics of the family too. It is just one more way to put our mark on this house.   Below are the results. Note, the backsplash is not done yet and we have not put new cabinet doors on yet, but you get the idea. The shelves feel a lot cleaner now!

I would love to hear about any other clever uses you can come up with for using Mod Podge.  As an aside, this project can be done using household supplies you already have. You don’t need to go out and buy anything, in fact, I think it might have turned out even better if I had only  used stuff I already had. Old newspapers, magazine, greeting cards, and wallpaper all work. Copies of old family pictures would also be amazing.  Also, a DIY Mod Podge can be made using 1 part Elmer’s white glue to 1 part water. Place it in a mason jar, put the lid on, and shake it up.  For a glossy sheen add a dollop of water-based varnish. Voila! I will post a picture when the backsplash, red floor, and cabinet doors are finished, so that you can see it all together. For now, you will have to use your imagination.

After the seeds are planted I anticipate their sprouting.  After they sprout, I anticipate them getting their second leaves, after they get their second leaves I anticipate the last frost, and then the hardening off, and then the planting outside, and then…there is always a new stage to look forward to. We don’t start all seedlings early as that would not be practical. Certain plants like squash are so hearty and grow so quickly in Reno that I don’t find that I need to start them early.  Even if there is a late frost they usually still produce well in the Fall. Others, like green peppers, rosemary and thyme could benefit from 4-6 weeks of coddling before they brave the inconsistent Spring weather where temperatures rise and fall at the drop of a hat. By starting seeds indoors I am attempting to lengthen the growing season for the ultimate purpose of having a higher yield. Below are some tips on how to give your seeds the best chance of surviving germination and then thriving once they are transplanted outside.

 

1. Temperature is huge-In order for the seeds to germinate the soil needs to be between 65-77 F degrees. This is not a friendly suggestion that can be overlooked.  Our house hovers around 63 degrees, so our solution was to put the seedling shelf (complete with grow lights) in our room and tried to keep the door closed at all times.  That way we could use a standing heater that is equipped with a thermostat to make sure that the temperature stays above 65F degrees. It also helps to keep the plastic dome on the trays until the plants are a few centimeters tall.

2. Watering-The seeds are doomed if you water them too much or too little. This is also why it is convenient that the seed shelf is in our room, where we are able to check it at least 1-2x per day. The easiest method of watering has been the water from the bottom method.  This can be done using the seedling starter trays.  I do not recommend the peet moss ones as they seem to dry out quicker between waterings and they fall apart quite easily.  The starter trays come with a tray that sits under the seedlings. When you pour water into the tray, the water is drawn upward through the roots. This is a much less traumatic experience for the fragile seedlings than being doused with water everyday. While this process makes it harder to over water, it is still possible to do so.  Keep your eye out.

3. Seeds- You can use any non-GMO seed varieties. I also try to stay away from the hybrids, but that is just a matter of preference. You should be able to find out this info on the seed packets. I also like to buy online from places like Humble Seed and Annie’s Heirloom Seeds.  The Great Basin Food Coop, The River School Farm and the UNR Agriculture Extension Program should be broadcasting the dates of any local seed swaps going on as well. Visit their websites for more info.

4. Light-We chose to use artificial light because natural light is hard to come by in our house.  Even if there was a ton of it, say on a South facing window ledge, it still might not be enough for these delicate little guys. They need LOTS of light.  We have grown seeds indoors with and without artificial light and the difference is significant. We use a typical shop light with full spectrum fluorescent bulbs that is connected to a simple outlet timer. The lights work great because they don’t get hot enough to dry out the soil.  They should be kept on for at least 14 hours a day and need to hang about a 3-4 inches above the seed containers. You can adjust them higher as the seedlings grow taller. If the distance between the two is any greater than 12 inches, the lights become ineffective. It’s sort of hilarious that the lights automatically go off at 10 pm, which is occasionally later than we go to bed.  We have sat up reading, essentially waiting for our seedlings to get their recommended 14 hours of light.

5. Planting Depth-Each seed packet has specific instructions on how deep to plant each seed.  This is important because some plants need light to germinate. Others need less light and thus can be planted deeper into the soil. Make sure to read the instructions on the back of each seed packet.

6. Soil-Using a sterile soil is important.  Store bought seed starter mixes work perfectly.  If you use your own soil you have to go through a process of sterilizing it to prevent Fungi from growing.  I think it’s more work than it’s worth, so I like to stick with a bag of seedling starter that says “sterilized” on the bag.

7. Timing-Make sure you don’t start your seeds too early.  We thought we were getting a good jump on the season by starting our seeds in February. Wrong! That just means that our seedlings will be stuck in a pot that is way too small for far too long. Especially the fast growing ones like the cantelope, beans, and squash. We are now scrambling to find bigger containers to transplant the fast-growing ones into.  It is becoming a pain in the neck. If the last frost in your planting zone is in the middle of May, then you will likely be planting in the middle of May. You wouldn’t want to start your seeds until the tail end of March.

8. Hardening Off -Seedlings need to be “hardened off” and acclimated to the outdoors before being planted outside to reduce transplant shock. One to two weeks before planting the seedlings, place them outdoors during the daytime  and bring them indoors before it begins to get chilly. Ideally, I would not start this process until the daytime temps hover around 50 F degrees.

9. Transplanting- After you have “hardened off” your seedlings you are now ready to plant them.  Since the seedling mix is mostly composed of vermiculite or perlite and peat moss, you will need to throw a bit of compost into the hole that you dig for the seedling. The depth of the hole you dig should be the same depth that you planted your original seed (refer to your seed packets for instructions if need be).  You can add mulch around the top of the soil to give the plant a little more protection.  You might also put an old sheet over the plants at night, to protect the fragile plants from the late Spring frosts.If all goes well, you will be harvesting some beautiful, yummy, organic veggies that taste better than you could imagine, come Fall.

I hope this encouraged you to grow your own seedlings indoors. The information in this post is not new. It is stuff we learned from others and can also be found all over the web. However, experience is the best teacher. Be prepared to kill a bunch of seeds, this is part of the process. Being a newb is fun! Join us!  It has taken a bit of work to get our system going– we have already killed an army of seeds– but it has already proved to be worth it.  Our seedlings are looking awesome. Better than we ever expected now that we made the leap to using artificial light.

Have fun with this! It is hugely gratifying. And please report your successes and failures. We would love to hear what works and what doesn’t. As an aside, we found all of the supplies we needed on Amazon.com. If you live in Northern Nevada, Amazon has a distribution center in Fernley, so items will generally appear on your doorstep within one to two days.  That beats going to three different stores around town, plus the prices are usually hard to beat, especially with Free Shipping included for Amazon Prime members. If you prefer to shop local, you can get most of your supplies at Carter Bros. Ace Hardware. They are locals who have amazing customer service.

Cheers!

Here are the next three projects I am going to tackle this week! Check back next week to see the results.