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Joseph Lofthouse has taught adaptation gardening at conferences hosted by the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, National Heirloom Expo, Organic Seed Alliance, Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA-NY), and Utah Farm & Food Conference. He serves as World Tomato Society ambassador. Joseph is a sustenance market farmer and landrace seed-developer. At his garden in the Cache Valley in Utah, he grows seed for about 95 species, and is working to convert every species that he grows into adaptivar landraces. He is the author of the recent book Landrace Gardening, and is a popular speaker at farming conferences around the world. He has been...

NEW and NOW available-  Lofthouse Landrace Muskmelon Muskmelons are a fragrant and flavorful type of melon, hence the name musk.  Classification of melons can get a little confusing.  What exactly makes a melon a "muskmelon" instead of a cantaloupe or other type of melon? The class of "muskmelons" technically include cantaloupe and honeydew, but culturally what we see is that when a recipe refers to "muskmelon" it is typically referring to more old-fashioned, softer, and fragrant varieties of melon- not cantaloupe.  In India where muskmelon is arguably most popular, it is used in super flavorful smoothies and drink and cantaloupe would...

10 Steps to Great GarlicEarly fall is the time to plant garlic and shallots!Growing great garlic is a relatively simple, follow these few steps will have you turning out beautiful heads next summer.1.  Plant individual cloves with the root side down 2-3 inches deep and 12" apart September through the end of November, depending on your climate.  Wait until after your first frost, but before the ground freezes.  It's a pretty forgiving time frame compared to other crops, but garlic that has had a little time to get roots growing will be more frost tolerant when it comes time for...

Will it frost or freeze?  How to protect plants from chilly autumn temps:Frost occurs when the temperatures are still above freezing but the dew point causes ice crystals to form from moisture in the air.  Freeze occurs when temperatures fall below freezing for an extended period of time.  For gardening purposes, I like to remember these key facts about forecasting frost and freeze for my fall garden:-If the weather calls for clear skies, no wind, and temperatures a few degrees above 32 F then FROST is likely-Windy conditions or precipitation can prevent FROST from forming.-FROST is more likely to impact plants...

Saving tomato seeds is super easy, and we love that you can both save the seeds and eat the fruit too.  1.  Tomatoes are (mostly) self pollinating so you can save seed from just one plant if that's all you have.  Keep the varieties separate though if you want them to stay true to type.2.  Tomatoes will ripen off the vine, but for fully ripe seed you need to allow them to ripen on the vine before picking.3.  Cut off the top and squeeze seeds and juice into a cylindrical fermentation container like a bucket or jar.  The fruits themselves can...