How to Grow Potatoes!


Here is a 30-page booklet that takes you step by step through growing potatoes. The cover is a bit cheesy, but don't let that fool you. This book had some great information. For example, did you know:

- Potatoes produce more nutrition calories for a family garden per square foot than any other vegetable?

- One medium potato has 110 fat-free calories and provides 45 percent of your daily vitamin C?

- Potatoes are one of the most pesticide intensive vegetables in the grocery store, but when you grow them yourself organically (which is easy, with the help of this book), you don't have to, as this book puts it, "play roulette with your children's health"?

- You can grow potatoes for almost no cost?

This book is a quick, informative read.  -Caleb

Illegal GMO wheat appears to have “escaped” into nature

According to a new article in the Washington Post, Japan has suspended all imports of U.S. wheat after genetically modified Monsanto wheat mysteriously appeared in an Oregon field.


The fear now is that this illegal wheat has “escaped” from open field trials 12 years ago and has naturalized, which would have huge food implications. Although it is early days, this certainly appears to be the most likely explanation right now. Yikes.


Monsanto says the mysterious appearance of its GMO wheat is not a big deal because it is safe. People like me say it is not safe, for many reasons. The two biggest are: First, at the very least, Roundup-Ready vegetables and grains mean farmers are drenching wheat in chemicals -- and the land where the wheat grows. And second, the GMO genetics can spread through pollination, contaminating and irreversibly changing natural wheat varieties. It is hard to overemphasize that once this contamination takes place, it cannot ever -- EVER -- be undone. This is why GMO food is illegal in most of the world -- except the U.S., where corporate patents are more important than global health.


Here is the problem. The wheat was last approved for test-growing 12 years ago. This wheat was genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup, so that farmers can spray this poison on the wheat and kill all the weeds around it, but not the wheat.


Ironically, the illegal wheat was discovered when the farmer spayed his field with Roundup, but this wheat refused to die.


Japan was the first to cancel orders for U.S. wheat, but won’t likely be the last. Europe imports 1 million tons of wheat a year, according to the Washington Post, and since the discovery they have said they are watching the situation closely because they have “zero tolerance” for GMO food.


Here is another eye-opener:


“The United States already relies heavily on genetically modified crops,” reports the Post. “Genetically engineered corn, cotton and soybeans have gone from 5 to 17 percent of the U.S. market in 1997 to between two-thirds and more than 90 percent in 2012. By some estimates, more than 70 percent of processed foods sold in the United States contain ingredients and oils from genetically engineered crops.”


Food safety groups are demanding an investigation, pointing out that the illegal wheat isn’t supposed to exist in fields and didn’t just “magically” appear.


“This was not from a recent trial, which means it’s been sitting there in the environment,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit group, as quoted in the Post.  “It’s highly doubtful that it’s just on one farm. If it’s out there, it’s out there.” The center’s science policy analyst, Bill Freese, added, “It’s been 12 years since this wheat was grown officially in Oregon. It doesn’t just disappear and magically appear 12 years later.”





Dandy Noodles -- Backyard Renaissance Indeed!

Here is what we had for dinner last night: Dandelion noodles, picked with revenge in my garden, and eaten up with zest! So great, and so easy to make this recipe from the brand-new Ultimate Dandelion Cookbook! First, I sauteed the dandelions in a bit of water and then pureed them with an egg in the food processor, added flour and rolled out the dough:


Then, I let that dry a bit and then cut the noodles with a pizza cutter:


Then I cooked them and served with a homemade tomato mushroom sauce that I simmered for two hours with fresh parsley, oregano, and chives from my garden:


Just writing about it is making me hungry again! And this dish even got a rare complement from my wife, so you know that is success!! We will be having this again. Delicious! Get your copy of the Ultimate Dandelion Cookbook on Kindle by clicking on the link below. -Caleb

Don't Miss This Self-Sufficient Cookbook!! "Ultimate Dandelion Cookbook"


I love this brand-new cookbook, even though I didn't write it :) I wish I had thought of it first! You can get your copy on Kindle. Why eat dandelions? Well, here are some of the facts from the book:

- Dandelion greens have more protein than spinach or collard greens!
- Dandelion greens have twice the Vitamin A of spinach or collards, and five times more than kale!
- Dandelion greens have more Vitamin C than spinach or collard greens!
- Dandelion greens are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids!
- Dandelion greens are a great source of calcium, iron, and many other vitamins and minerals. See the full chart and details in the book :)
- Best of all, dandelions are free!

Here are my favorite recipes in this cookbook:

- Dandelion Noodles -- if you like spinach noodles, you'll likely love these! And so easy to make!
- Dandelion Quiche -- (we have lots of backyard eggs, so this is PERFECT for us)
- Crockpot Gingered Dandelions, Chicken & Chickpeas
- Dandelion Pizza
- Pumpkin-Dandelion Soup
- Chinese-Style Dandelion Dumplings (this recipe reminds me of my Dandelion Ravioli in my Forgotten Skills book)
- and there are dozens and dozens more. Yum!

Want to browse the cookbook? Simply click on the link on the above right! Enjoy! -Caleb

On May 8, My Wife Found Me Passed Out on the Floor



"They dies everywheres," said the boy. "They dies in their lodgings... and they dies... in heaps. They dies more than they lives.” (Bleak House, Charles Dickens)


On Wednesday, May 8, 2013, my wife found me passed out on the bedroom floor. This is the story of my comeuppance.

I first felt a tickle in my throat on Sunday afternoon, May 5. By this time, my wife had been sick for nine days. A hellbent virus had swept through our extended family, toppling everyone into bed one by one. I alone was untouched -- and I had gotten cocky about it. I had been publicly evangelizing the virtues of sinus rinsing. Twice in the previous month I had given public demonstrations in classes at my home (one woman left the room and wouldn’t watch. “No extra charge for that,” I quipped when I dripped on another woman’s notes and she protested.)

My confidence was earned. Sinus rinsing had changed my life. By May 5, 2013, I had handily avoided many family illnesses by faithfully rinsing. I had every confidence that this wave of illness would be no different.

When my wife first got sick, she told me to quarantine myself by sleeping in another room of the house. I was so confident in the protective power of nasal rinsing that I dismissed the idea. After nine days of being right, sinus rinsing had become my superpower.

Then the tickle at the back of my throat.


"You had better turn him out," said Mr. Skimpole.
"What do you mean?" inquired my guardian, almost sternly.
"My dear Jarndyce," said Mr. Skimpole, "...I have a constitutional objection to this sort of thing. I always had, when I was a medical man. He's not safe, you know. There's a very bad sort of fever about him."        (Bleak House, Charles Dickens)


By Wednesday, May 8, I was feverish and aggressively treating myself herbally -- using Caleb’s Blend (marshallow root, mullein tincture, yarrow flower) in tandem with peppermint compresses, rinsing my sinus with salt and sodium bicarbonate, pounding fresh yarrow leaves from my garden for anti-inflammatory tea. But I worsened.

That morning, I drove myself to the doctor. My wife’s virus had turned into infection in her ear, and I was afraid I might follow. The doctor determined there was no bacterial infestation and wrote a prescription for a lidocaine gargle to numb my throat, which by this time felt like it was bleeding.

Driving home, I began to see auras. A migraine caused by sinus swelling had set in. By early afternoon, and home alone, I was in exquisite pain. I tried to crawl from the bed to the phone to call 911. On the floor, I began to vomit so fast and hard I could not breath. Then I passed out.

At some point my wife came home and found me on the floor. Rousing me, I whispered “blessing.” She got a member of our lay Mormon clergy -- my son-in-law happened to be nearest -- who rubbed consecrated olive oil onto the crown of my head before laying his hands on me to give me a blessing by the authority of the holy Melchizedek priesthood, and in the name of Jesus Christ. I then whispered for Excedrin Migraine, a blend of Tylenol and caffeine. Immediately, I either fell asleep or passed out again.

When I woke up, I felt brand new. It did not last. The pain slowly redoubled, intensifying through the night.

At some point the next day, I doubled the recommended dose of Excedrin Migraine, on top of the Tylenol I had already taken -- a dosage I knew would begin to damage my liver. I was desperate. At some point, it became clear to me that I had about two minutes before I would lose consciousness again. I was home alone again. I had to save myself. I prayed, and saw the image of myself opening my grandmother’s fridge. When I was a boy on the farm, and I got a rare migraine, my grandmother would treat me with a cold Coke from her fridge. For decades, she kept one Coke on hand as medicine to cure her own rare headaches. I had been raised to never drink caffeinated soda because -- as my grandmother and my mother would say -- caffeine is medicine and not a recreational drug. Now, a few months past my 40th birthday, I had not had a single caffeinated anything since being treated by my grandmother decades earlier (I don’t even drink uncaffeinated soda). I crawled to the phone and dialed my wife, who immediately left her office to buy me a can of Red Bull.

Within minutes of drinking the Red Bull, I began to weep. For the first time in 30 hours, relief.

It took two more cans to stabilize the pain at a tolerable level. My wife drove me to a chiropractor, who said he could drain my sinus. He couldn’t. (He easily accepted an $80 fee, however.) Next Charmayne drove me back to the doctor, who injected me with a steroid in one hip and an anti-nausea drug in the other. Infection had now invaded both my sinus and right ear, and I was prescribed the antibiotic Cefdinir, created in a Japanese laboratory and given an oddly Celtic name.

That night was spent on the hardwood oak floor of the living room. Propped with a wadded quilt, I managed to position myself just right so I could sleep face down for a couple of hours.

The next day, I had my third migraine in three days. This time, it only took two Red Bulls to quell my misery to the point where I could open my eyes. My stepdaughter managed to get my laptop iTunes to play Alanis Morrisettes’s “Jagged Little Pill” album. I needed distraction from three days of lightning strikes to the brain. I fantasized, envisioning an awl that I would carefully insert between the top of my eye and skull, pounding with my palm until I pierced The Pain. Wiggling the wooden handle would allow a cloud of steam-pain (?) to whoosh out of my head. There was no blood in my fantasy. Just relief.

In reality, when “Jagged Little Pill” became annoying, I was too weak to reach over and shut it off.

Like the other days, I wrapped my entire head with a huge frozen gel pack. By now, my forehead and eyelids were literally burned red from peppermint compresses, which gave me a tiny palliative.

This next sentence sounds masochistic now, but you have to remember I was on my third migraine in three days. I hit myself on the head with my fist and knuckles for over an hour -- tapping and banging circles around the expanding pressure under the left side of my forehead -- until I had to stop because of the swelling.


"Charley," said I, "are you so cold?"
"I think I am, miss," she replied. "I don't know what it is. I can't hold myself still. I felt so yesterday at about this same time, miss. Don't be uneasy, I think I'm ill."
I heard Ada's voice outside, and I hurried to the door of communication between my room and our pretty sitting-room, and locked it. Just in time, for she tapped at it while my hand was yet upon the key.
Ada called to me to let her in, but I said, "Not now, my dearest. Go away. There's nothing the matter; I will come to you presently." Ah! It was a long, long time before my darling girl and I were companions again. (Bleak House, Charles Dickens)


Ah, yes. My comeuppance.

We approach sickness much more flippantly today than we did in 1853, when Bleak House -- Dickens’ best novel -- was published in 20 installments. In those days, sick people were immediately and strictly locked in a room, quarantined against infecting everyone around them. When fever took over, you became delirious and then -- if you were lucky -- you lost consciousness, sometimes for days. There were no antibiotics to save you, no Tylenol for pain, no steroid shots in the hip to drain away the inflammation in the skull. If your fever won the day, you woke up and lived. If your fever lost -- well, graveyards were busy places.

Today, we act like we have forgotten all this. Because we have.

Recently, the five-year-old living next door broke his leg at some place where parents pay to let their kids jump on a bunch of indoor trampolines. Literally the next day, our grandson Xander was begging us to go to this place. With a touch of righteous anger, my wife explained to him and me (I was standing nearby, so I was guilty) that a hundred years ago, no one would have let their child jump on a trampoline because if you broke your leg, you had a fifty-fifty chance of dying from infection. Parents took the health of their children very seriously because children routinely died. It was not uncommon for half of your children to die. Men married two and three times because their wives died in childbirth. Just this week, there was a major story in our local newspaper about a stunningly beautiful young woman who died in a neighboring town while giving birth to her sixth child. The placenta had attached to her organs and she went into cardiac arrest during a C-section. The baby lived. This happens so very rarely today that it was front-page news. In 1853, it was too common to make headlines.


“It was not until Charley was safe in bed again and placidly asleep that I began to think the contagion of her illness was upon me. I had been able easily to hide what I felt at tea-time, but I was past that already now, and I knew that I was rapidly following in Charley's steps.”       (Bleak House, Charles Dickens)


If we -- my wife, me, the kids, the grandkids --  had been living in 1853 when this wretched virus mowed us down, how many of us would have lived?

The question is a trick. The answer is that our family would likely have been little scathed, because at the first sign of illness, the sick person would have been quarantined swiftly and strictly. In those days, this was the drill: One “brave” person would be placed in the quarantined room to care for the sick. The sick would become well and then take care of the caretaker, who had now succombed to the contagion. Daily food and updates were passed through an outside window. The quarantined room was eventually unlocked and -- ideally -- two people emerged. (The “brave” person assigned to care for the sick was rarely the mother. She was too important. It was usually an older sibling -- he or she only had an iffy chance of living to adulthood anyway.)

Me and my family were saved by modern medicine. But we were sickened in the first place by modern stupidity. How I wish now that I had followed my wife’s advice and slept in another room! (The only advice my own mother has given me since my wedding day: “Do what your wife says.”)

When master herbalist Kirsten Skirven taught herbal healing classes around my kitchen table, she would speak of earthquakes. If the earth moves violently, we will be on our own because hospitals will either be flattened, or swamped with critical cases. Herbal knowledge may be the only thing we have for our family (Kirsten will be busy, for sure). I would suggest that we will need to add the old art of quarantine to our efforts, if we really want to save lives.

And foolish is the person (ahem -- me) who waits until a crisis to remember the virtues of quarantine. Voluntary household quarantine should be used today -- without waiting for an earthquake or the zombie apocalypse.

We rely too much on doctors to save us. We are too casual with the health of our youngsters.
When sick, we are far too quick to go to church and school, fanning our disease across town.

We have been medically spoiled -- may our lives always be so. But a pinch of quarantine can save lives, doctor’s fees -- and easily prevent three migraines in three days.

(Postscript: The day after I wrote this, I blew my nose and immediately my sinus began to swell again. Within hours, I had my fourth migraine in five days. At publication, I am still on antibiotics. Yeesh.)

Tour of Caleb's Geothermal Greenhouse May 2013



This is the herb comfrey growing in a pot.



 The fig tree is sprouting new leaves after winter dormancy.




 An Easter lily coming up








 These are baby Canterbury Bells flowers that have been growing since January.
Peas! Get your pea seed at SeedRenaissance.com :)


Some of the peas are done and dried, ready to save for seed.





 This is a very rare blue-purple pea from England.




 Amsterdam Forcing carrots! You can get some at SeedRenaissance.com.
Mizuna in flower and forming seed pods. 



My orange tree, with a rare variety of winter tomato growing at the base.




 Some of the rarest lettuces in the world are in this mix.




 A fava bean that I am developing for alkaline soil.



 These potatoes, believe it or not, are almost done! They are an extremely early variety.
A bunch of different varieties of tomatoes in a trial. Gee, can you tell which are winning? :)






 On the right is Grand Rapids lettuce. On the left is a bunch of different varieties, some rare. This was part of a cold soil tolerance test.
Parisienne carrots. 



Vernal Broad Windsor Fava beans from SeedRenaissance.com



 This is a peach tree started from a pit in my greenhouse -- almost time to move outside.
HUGE Mammoth Melting Sugar peas.





















 Enormous Golden Sweet Snow peas -- so tasty!







Wild spinach, which I grow in my greenhouse for early harvesting.















And this is one day's worth of eggs!!! We have too many chickens!!