February 2014 Newsletter

Things to do this month:  If you plan on growing a garden this year it is already time to start your planning of it.  There are several things that you can do this month to prepare.

1.       If you have not ordered your seeds you need to order them right away, especially if you are going to grow some things from seed that you need to start indoors.

2.      Get a notebook and dedicate that to be your Gardening Journal.  Use it to take notes of the weather, what you bought, ordered etc.  Most importantly I use it to sketch out my garden area and decide what I will plant and where.  I also note the date that I planted each kind of seed. (Next year I will want to know this.)

3.      If you have fruit trees and live in USDA Zone 6, now is the time to prune your fruit trees.  You should do the pruning before the trees start to bud in the spring.  Your tree should still be dormant.

Gardening corner:  Build your own grow light

If you would like to start growing some of your own vegetables from seed to get a head start on the growing season, and you want to save a lot of money…you can build your own grow light system for very little money.  There are a lot of videos on Youtube.com that show you how to make one of your own.  I did a Youtube search for “Make your own grow light” or “Easy to make grow light” or “PVC light stand”.  My two personal favorite plans are by Phil Crockett called Home made grow light stand/PVC and one by KSREVideo (Kansas State University), called “Easy to make grow light”.

You would want to build this in February and start your tomatoes and peppers from seed this month.  Always start more plants than you think you want in the end because you will lose a bunch to disease and damage.  (This is a learning process). 

Food storage Recipe:  Meat-less Burritos

Ingredients

1 pkg flour tortillas (bought for $1 or less on sale and put in the freezer)

1-2 pkgs of Mexican or Spanish rice mixes (bought for $1 per pkg or less on sale)

Shredded cheese (bought in bulk on sale and put in freezer)

1 can of corn, drained (bought at a case lot sale)

1 can of black beans drained or refried beans (bought at a case lot sale)

Sour cream (bought on sale and can be frozen) or fresh

Fresh cilantro, chopped (this makes it taste fresh and gives it some kick!)

Optional items, salsa of your choice or onions or tomatoes.

To make:  If anything was frozen, thaw it all out.  Make the rice according to package directions.  Heat the beans and drain the corn.  Assemble the burrito filling the way you like.  Roll up tortilla and heat in microwave until hot through, about 1 ½ mins.  Super easy and delicious!  Because you are using rice AND beans in the same dish it makes a complete protein. Of course, if you have meat and want to use it that is delicious too.  This is really fast, easy and an inexpensive meal that we eat at least 1 dinner a month.

Product Highlight of the Month:  Gamma Lids

If you want to store some of your food storage in 5 gallon buckets and want to be able to get the lids off easily these are GREAT lids.  I have found that the easier it is to get to my foods and open them, the more likely I am to actually use it all. These lids can be put on any standard size (12” diameter), 5-6 gallon bucket.  It comes in 2 parts.  The outer ring will need to be hammered onto the top of the bucket.  It will not come off after this, it will be permanent.  The inner part of the lid rests on top of the ring and that part can be twisted on and off.  Advantages to using these lids instead of the cheap free lid that comes with your bucket?

1.       They are EASY to use.  Even all but the smallest child could open the lid.

2.      They are air and water tight.

3.      They are still stackable. They now make these for 2 gallon buckets too so be sure to check the size on the label.

They come in seven different colors.  If you want you could color-coordinate your buckets.  For instance, we have our pastas in buckets with red lids, sugar with yellow, flour with white, etc.   I have one bucket just dedicated to all of the Spanish rice mixes that I buy on sale.  If any of them have weevils in them, at least all the weevils would be contained in that one bucket and not getting into the other foods.

4.      Prices range from $6-11 per lid.  When they have been on sale for $6 I have bought a few at a time and slowly converted nearly all of our buckets to have these lids.  I recycled my old cheap lids.  Lids available at Emergency Essentials, Macey’s Grocery stores and a few other stores where buckets are sold depending on your area.