News RSS

Motherwort! Here in Idaho, our early winter has been extremely warm.  We're usually under a layer of snow by now.  On these warm winter days, you'll notice bees and other insects waking from their winter hibernation to remove frass and dead bees from the hive, and to forage for food.  While the occasional warmer day can be good for bees to accomplish these chores, too much of this high activity in winter is not good for bees.  Pollen and nectar are extremely scarce right now, with almost nothing flowering in our area.  Bees can quickly burn through their winter stores...

Storing squash all winter long Early spring is famine time in many home gardens. Winter food storage is running out and spring crops are not yet. Not in our house! Ever since I started growing large amounts of winter squashes, its become a huge part of our lives, especially in early spring. Largely because we keep our winter squash in our living room its also become an unintended but welcome part of my identity. Visitors have come to expect dining in the midst of onlooking squashes of all shapes and sizes.   Storing winter squash is easier than fresh storage...

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...