Friday, August 5, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
My August Classes
SUCCESSFUL SUMMER AND WINTER ROOT CROPS 8-21-2011
For a bounty of crisp crunchy carrots, daikons, sweet potatoes, true yams (Dioscorea) and more the keys are: correct crop for the right time of year, and improving this sand we call "soil". You'll taste fried true yam plus learn of local and mail order sources of truly cheap seeds to make your family self sufficient in these staples year round. The class date is August 21, and your harvests this winter will soon earn you back the class fee, with a huge bonanza awaiting you next summer. To RSVP call John Starnes at: 813 839 0881
FERMENTED FOODS 101 8-20-2011
Many folks are realizing the wide spectrum of health benefits of eating probiotic fermented foods, but that also they can be very pricey in the health food stores and grocery stores. Garden writer John Starnes (Fine Gardening, St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) loves to grow and cook and prepare foods for friends and himself, and in this class will show easy very affordable ways to make your own kefir, natto, tempeh, kimchee, kombucha, bortago and cheese. There will be samples for tasting too. Be sure to bring a note pad and pen to write down the simple steps and ingredients, some of which can come from your own garden. The class will be held on August 20, from 11 AM until 1:30 PM, and the cost is $20 per student. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881 Please park along the south side of Paxton to spare the lawns of my neighbors on the north side. Thanks. Come hungry! John
BACKYARD POULTRY RAISING 101 8-6-2011
Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. See also the ease of raising Muscovy ducks. I am teaching this well-received class again on August 6, this Saturday, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow next fall to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! John Starnes
PLAN NOW FOR AN ABUNDANT ORGANIC WINTER VEGGIES GARDEN- $20 (south Tampa)
With it steamy hot, now might seem an odd time to think about a classic Florida cool weather veggies garden. But this is a great time if you are a super busy family person with either no garden site created yet, or if your past efforts yielded crops of disappointment instead of food for the dinner table, to get started. I had my first veggie garden here in 1967 when I was in 9th grade at Madison Junior High, and have learned since then core principals and techniques that make winter food gardening in central Florida both pleasant and productive. Forget pesticides, forget wasting money on plants and seeds and crops that fail, and forget thinking that you have a brown thumb. Learn how to create a fertile garden site that will bless you with fresh pesticide-free produce for the six cooler months of the year. I wrote about these techniques for eight years for The St. Pete Times and still do for 'Florida Gardening' magazine.
I am teaching this class twice in August, on the 13th and the 27th, from 11 AM until 1 PM. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. You will receive two free packets of easy to grow winter crops seeds. I will provide a handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen. See you then! John Starnes
813 839 0881
COOKING WHAT YOU GROW 8-7-2011
Many of us grew up on" fast food" and processed foods, and so don't know easy frugal ways to transform the produce from our gardens into quick and easy yet satisfyingly savory meals for our family and friends. I LOVE to cook for friends by using what my urban farm is bearing at the moment at the catalyst for "cooking by the seat of your pants". You'll learn key basic spicing themes for ethnic cuisines including Thai, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Turkish, Chinese and more that can you can tweak and mix per your creative cooking spirit and your gardens' production throughout the year. In this class we will together harvest many key ingredients from my urban farm and whip up a delicious entree we will then share. This fun yet informative class costs $20 plus one onion and takes place on August 7, this Sunday, from 11 AM until 1 PM. at 3212 West Paxton Avenue in south Tampa. Call me, John Starnes, at 813 839 0881 to confirm your attendance. Thank You! John
GROW YOUR OWN SALADS 8-28-2011
Many folks want more than anything to simply grow a luscious, crisp, pesticide-free salad to enjoy each day. The upcoming winter season is stellar for the classic salad crops like arugula, chard, romaine lettuce, broccoli, sugar snap peas, scallions, cherry tomatoes and more, plus our hot muggy summers boast their own unique salad crops. This class covers the basic of creating healthy soil either in a garden or a container garden, crops selection and planting them from seeds to cut costs (most are VERY easy from seeds), pest control, proper watering and organic soil feeding. You will quickly recoup the cost of the class in your first dozen harvests of many many dozens to come this winter season. You will get two free packets of unusual seeds for vigorous, mild flavored leafy greens you will never see in the grocery store, and instructions on their easy culture. One nice thing about winter salad gardening here is that, except for the tomatoes, the crops not only are cold hardy they LIKE frosts.....makes them sweeter. Now is the time to plan for six months of home grown organic salads!
I am teaching this class on August 28th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. The cost is $20 per student. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881
Why buy pricey little bags of corporate salads when you can grow fresh salads for just pennies a day?
For a bounty of crisp crunchy carrots, daikons, sweet potatoes, true yams (Dioscorea) and more the keys are: correct crop for the right time of year, and improving this sand we call "soil". You'll taste fried true yam plus learn of local and mail order sources of truly cheap seeds to make your family self sufficient in these staples year round. The class date is August 21, and your harvests this winter will soon earn you back the class fee, with a huge bonanza awaiting you next summer. To RSVP call John Starnes at: 813 839 0881
FERMENTED FOODS 101 8-20-2011
Many folks are realizing the wide spectrum of health benefits of eating probiotic fermented foods, but that also they can be very pricey in the health food stores and grocery stores. Garden writer John Starnes (Fine Gardening, St. Pete Times, Florida Gardening) loves to grow and cook and prepare foods for friends and himself, and in this class will show easy very affordable ways to make your own kefir, natto, tempeh, kimchee, kombucha, bortago and cheese. There will be samples for tasting too. Be sure to bring a note pad and pen to write down the simple steps and ingredients, some of which can come from your own garden. The class will be held on August 20, from 11 AM until 1:30 PM, and the cost is $20 per student. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881 Please park along the south side of Paxton to spare the lawns of my neighbors on the north side. Thanks. Come hungry! John
BACKYARD POULTRY RAISING 101 8-6-2011
Many folks these days are considering, or have followed through on, pursuing a long time desire to raise backyard chickens for fresh eggs or even meat they know the origins of. I've had chickens on and off since the mid 90s, and can share how to raise happy, healthy, antibiotic-free chickens and eggs VERY frugally. See also the ease of raising Muscovy ducks. I am teaching this well-received class again on August 6, this Saturday, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Please bring a note pad and pen as we will cover many points. You will receive a pack of winter greens seeds to sow next fall to provide raw green plant matter VITAL to having healthy backyard chickens. 813 839 0881 or e-mail to RSVP. See you then! John Starnes
PLAN NOW FOR AN ABUNDANT ORGANIC WINTER VEGGIES GARDEN- $20 (south Tampa)
With it steamy hot, now might seem an odd time to think about a classic Florida cool weather veggies garden. But this is a great time if you are a super busy family person with either no garden site created yet, or if your past efforts yielded crops of disappointment instead of food for the dinner table, to get started. I had my first veggie garden here in 1967 when I was in 9th grade at Madison Junior High, and have learned since then core principals and techniques that make winter food gardening in central Florida both pleasant and productive. Forget pesticides, forget wasting money on plants and seeds and crops that fail, and forget thinking that you have a brown thumb. Learn how to create a fertile garden site that will bless you with fresh pesticide-free produce for the six cooler months of the year. I wrote about these techniques for eight years for The St. Pete Times and still do for 'Florida Gardening' magazine.
I am teaching this class twice in August, on the 13th and the 27th, from 11 AM until 1 PM. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. You will receive two free packets of easy to grow winter crops seeds. I will provide a handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen. See you then! John Starnes
813 839 0881
COOKING WHAT YOU GROW 8-7-2011
Many of us grew up on" fast food" and processed foods, and so don't know easy frugal ways to transform the produce from our gardens into quick and easy yet satisfyingly savory meals for our family and friends. I LOVE to cook for friends by using what my urban farm is bearing at the moment at the catalyst for "cooking by the seat of your pants". You'll learn key basic spicing themes for ethnic cuisines including Thai, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Turkish, Chinese and more that can you can tweak and mix per your creative cooking spirit and your gardens' production throughout the year. In this class we will together harvest many key ingredients from my urban farm and whip up a delicious entree we will then share. This fun yet informative class costs $20 plus one onion and takes place on August 7, this Sunday, from 11 AM until 1 PM. at 3212 West Paxton Avenue in south Tampa. Call me, John Starnes, at 813 839 0881 to confirm your attendance. Thank You! John
GROW YOUR OWN SALADS 8-28-2011
Many folks want more than anything to simply grow a luscious, crisp, pesticide-free salad to enjoy each day. The upcoming winter season is stellar for the classic salad crops like arugula, chard, romaine lettuce, broccoli, sugar snap peas, scallions, cherry tomatoes and more, plus our hot muggy summers boast their own unique salad crops. This class covers the basic of creating healthy soil either in a garden or a container garden, crops selection and planting them from seeds to cut costs (most are VERY easy from seeds), pest control, proper watering and organic soil feeding. You will quickly recoup the cost of the class in your first dozen harvests of many many dozens to come this winter season. You will get two free packets of unusual seeds for vigorous, mild flavored leafy greens you will never see in the grocery store, and instructions on their easy culture. One nice thing about winter salad gardening here is that, except for the tomatoes, the crops not only are cold hardy they LIKE frosts.....makes them sweeter. Now is the time to plan for six months of home grown organic salads!
I am teaching this class on August 28th, from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session after. The cost is $20 per student. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa 33611 813 839 0881
Why buy pricey little bags of corporate salads when you can grow fresh salads for just pennies a day?
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
My Articles for Sale
I've learned that for years The St. Pete Times has been charging (and getting) $3 for each edited, abbreviated on-line version of the articles I wrote for them for eight years. No, I've not seen a penny of that. So I am offering for sale, via e-mail, the original texts of articles I wrote for them and The Rocky Mountain News in Denver the seven years my column there ran. Easiest way to pay me I guess is via the PayPal Donate button below, though cash and checks and cannabis are cool too!
I have hundreds of them in my hard drive, and can sell them by category:
Old Roses for cold climates
Old Roses for mild climates
Organic Pest Control
Organic Lawn Care in Colorado
Organic Lawn Care in central Florida
Cold Climate Vegetable Gardening
Vegetable Gardening in Florida
Edible Flowers
Cold Hardy Veggies and Flowers
Fragrant Roses
Frugal Gardening and Landscaping Tips
Adding color to Colorado and Florida landscapes
House Plant care in hot and cold climates
Improving soil in hot and cold climates
Herbs for hot and cold climates
Climbing Roses for hot and cold climates
and more....
In this way I can hopefully boost my income a bit and get out into the world my original articles that were often brutally edited by both columns to make room for ad space...very often I winced with embarassment to pick up either newspaper only to read an article bearing my name! Yikes, total "face palm". I'd love for folks to receive what my editors did, raw and not "perkified".
Best I guess is for interested people to order the type of article and number you wish me to send you, like "John, send me 5 articles about cold climate roses" or "John, send me 2 articles about winter veggie gardening in Florida". Since these articles are all copyrighted, and I have bills to pay, I sincerely ask that you not forward/print out them to folks who have not paid me, just as you'd wish to be paid for your labors. Times are tough enough.
"BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!!!! (just kidding, no free Ginshu knives or spice racks)
John
I have hundreds of them in my hard drive, and can sell them by category:
Old Roses for cold climates
Old Roses for mild climates
Organic Pest Control
Organic Lawn Care in Colorado
Organic Lawn Care in central Florida
Cold Climate Vegetable Gardening
Vegetable Gardening in Florida
Edible Flowers
Cold Hardy Veggies and Flowers
Fragrant Roses
Frugal Gardening and Landscaping Tips
Adding color to Colorado and Florida landscapes
House Plant care in hot and cold climates
Improving soil in hot and cold climates
Herbs for hot and cold climates
Climbing Roses for hot and cold climates
and more....
In this way I can hopefully boost my income a bit and get out into the world my original articles that were often brutally edited by both columns to make room for ad space...very often I winced with embarassment to pick up either newspaper only to read an article bearing my name! Yikes, total "face palm". I'd love for folks to receive what my editors did, raw and not "perkified".
Best I guess is for interested people to order the type of article and number you wish me to send you, like "John, send me 5 articles about cold climate roses" or "John, send me 2 articles about winter veggie gardening in Florida". Since these articles are all copyrighted, and I have bills to pay, I sincerely ask that you not forward/print out them to folks who have not paid me, just as you'd wish to be paid for your labors. Times are tough enough.
"BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!!!! (just kidding, no free Ginshu knives or spice racks)
John
This and That
"Gray Street Grape" is now bearing like crazy, and my Muscadine grape 'Triumph' on the south fence has just begun to drop ripe grapes. For some reason I am having a real problem this year with mealy bugs on eggplants, currant tomatoes, even molokhiya......too much nitrogen? Blasting them off with the garden hose helped but next I am spraying the plants with the same Kirk's Castile soap spray that so many of my St.Pete Times readers still swear by when I run into them. It is so odd and humbling to go from no mealy bugs ever to a near-plague.
Still no convincing sign of growth in my experimental spirulina farm.......was the Chill Dried spirulina I added dead? Do I have nutrient or pH levels wrong? I will keep trying new variables.
I have the PC working enough to today belatedly list my August classes on Craig's List.....just one more to place there. Next I send them to The St. Pete Times, the Barefoot Gardener's Forum, and of course my own blog. Amazing to realize in this heat that it is time to begin planning for the fall and winter gardens!
I'd hoped that Emily would arrive in Florida as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane and give the whole peninsula a DEEP soaking...but now it looks as though she will pass east of us, which often draws moisture OUT of the atmosphere above Florida vs. adding to it if they pass due west of us. Never in my teens and twenties would I have imagined summer days here with no rain, day after day after day. Good thing I now garden mostly in my Water Wise Container Gardens.
Today I took a break from the PC and planted a row of large white lima beans along the anti-chicken fence on the south side of the henhouse, both as food for me and to discourage the chickens who've learned how to jump that fence and cause damage in my inventory area. The sky was odd today....a bleak overcast that let some sunshine through now and then. But it looks like no chance of real rain, though last night we had a very light rain that dampened the mulch.
About 1/3 of the driveway pavers and bricks are down.....amazing how quickly I get so hot moving and installing them. But OH the driveway will look so much better when it is done and I sweep several buckets full of beach sand over them to fill in the seams and voids.
I am propagating lots of plants for sale and friends and am pleased that the Moringa cuttings I stuck for Tim and Kathy rooted SO quickly. My gardening friend Mary Jo has been experimenting again with drying and grinding Moringa leaves to add to her food due to the incredible nutritional profile. Like me she cut hers back HARD to create more of a Moringa BUSH to yield many more leaves and closer to the ground for easier harvest.
No more harvests of my 'Fife Creek' okra....time to let pods ripen for seeds for next summer. Who knows if/when Monsanto will close down the very few seed houses that carry it?
The giant yellow house across the street from me that the former owners walked away from has been sold by the guy who bought it to fix it up (the former owners stripped it bare) to a couple from Illinois I believe. The water and power bills it generates, even when unoccupied, blow my mind! I'll stick with my humble little trippy hippie house thank you!
Cracker has fully settled in and is a near perfect dog after some serious issues of trying to nip visiting women's heels (he was dumped by three female households when I got him when he was about 6 months old), major digging in ground gardens and container gardens, and a protracted problem with pooping and peeing indoors. But he clearly knows that THIS family is his final one amd is very happy and secure and very affectionate dog....and thankfully, he just wants to give the chickens a daily token chase vs. EATING them!
John
Still no convincing sign of growth in my experimental spirulina farm.......was the Chill Dried spirulina I added dead? Do I have nutrient or pH levels wrong? I will keep trying new variables.
I have the PC working enough to today belatedly list my August classes on Craig's List.....just one more to place there. Next I send them to The St. Pete Times, the Barefoot Gardener's Forum, and of course my own blog. Amazing to realize in this heat that it is time to begin planning for the fall and winter gardens!
I'd hoped that Emily would arrive in Florida as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane and give the whole peninsula a DEEP soaking...but now it looks as though she will pass east of us, which often draws moisture OUT of the atmosphere above Florida vs. adding to it if they pass due west of us. Never in my teens and twenties would I have imagined summer days here with no rain, day after day after day. Good thing I now garden mostly in my Water Wise Container Gardens.
Today I took a break from the PC and planted a row of large white lima beans along the anti-chicken fence on the south side of the henhouse, both as food for me and to discourage the chickens who've learned how to jump that fence and cause damage in my inventory area. The sky was odd today....a bleak overcast that let some sunshine through now and then. But it looks like no chance of real rain, though last night we had a very light rain that dampened the mulch.
About 1/3 of the driveway pavers and bricks are down.....amazing how quickly I get so hot moving and installing them. But OH the driveway will look so much better when it is done and I sweep several buckets full of beach sand over them to fill in the seams and voids.
I am propagating lots of plants for sale and friends and am pleased that the Moringa cuttings I stuck for Tim and Kathy rooted SO quickly. My gardening friend Mary Jo has been experimenting again with drying and grinding Moringa leaves to add to her food due to the incredible nutritional profile. Like me she cut hers back HARD to create more of a Moringa BUSH to yield many more leaves and closer to the ground for easier harvest.
No more harvests of my 'Fife Creek' okra....time to let pods ripen for seeds for next summer. Who knows if/when Monsanto will close down the very few seed houses that carry it?
The giant yellow house across the street from me that the former owners walked away from has been sold by the guy who bought it to fix it up (the former owners stripped it bare) to a couple from Illinois I believe. The water and power bills it generates, even when unoccupied, blow my mind! I'll stick with my humble little trippy hippie house thank you!
Cracker has fully settled in and is a near perfect dog after some serious issues of trying to nip visiting women's heels (he was dumped by three female households when I got him when he was about 6 months old), major digging in ground gardens and container gardens, and a protracted problem with pooping and peeing indoors. But he clearly knows that THIS family is his final one amd is very happy and secure and very affectionate dog....and thankfully, he just wants to give the chickens a daily token chase vs. EATING them!
John
Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived. Dalai Lama
Holy Basil: Ocimum sanctum
Monday, August 1, 2011
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