New to Seed Starting? Check Out These 16 Tips to Help You Get Started!

For those of you who are new to gardening, or just need a refresher, I wrote a post in February of 2014 about how to start seeds.  Although I am pretty committed to new content in my posts, I thought that I would run this post again this year since it contains so much helpful information, especially to those who aren't sure where to start with this process.

Enjoy!

16 Tips for the Seed-Starting Newbie

Three of my seed packets that I plan to use this season.  I particularly like Botanical Interests seeds due to their large selection of Certified Organic and heirloom varieties.

 

I’ll admit it: I am a Seed Starting Newbie.  I did start some seeds last year to kick off my first gardening season.  However, without much prior knowledge about how to start seeds, I probably made many, many mistakes.  Most of the seeds that I started indoors last spring simply did not make it, likely because I didn’t really know what I was doing.  I was super excited to start my first garden last year, and I probably went a little gung-ho (okay, probably a lot, actually…).  Essentially, I just forged ahead without studying up on the best methods to approach seed starting.  Fortunately, I had also purchased a lot of starter plants in the spring, so I still had quite a successful garden last year despite my poor seed-starting experience.

  

This year, I am no longer completely new to gardening, but I still have a lot to learn when it comes to starting seeds and having greater success with it.  With that said, I decided to do a little bit of research this past week on the topic.  To increase my knowledge, I attended a free seminar at my favorite local garden center last Saturday, and I also did some reading from a number of gardening books that I own.  

In case you’re like me and you need to learn some best practices for starting your seeds, the following tips should be really helpful.  I know that I will now have a much greater knowledge base going into this year’s growing season, and I hope that many more of my little baby plants will live long enough to make it into my garden.   These tips are not meant to be an all-inclusive class on seed starting, so I recommend that you learn as much as you can about it on your own as well.  This information should be a great start for the beginner, however.

1.  Buying Seeds and Seed Sources.  Seeds can be purchased from individual seed companies online, through seed catalogues, or found at garden centers and home improvement stores.  The newest developed varieties, rare or unusual varieties, and certified organic seed tend to be sold at higher prices.  Other great sources for seeds are from friends, family members, or neighbors who have extra seeds that they saved from their garden last year, seed swap events, and from seed libraries. 

Although it can be very tempting to buy a large amount of different seeds, it is recommended that you do not buy more seeds than you plan to use within two to three years.  Within each seed is a living plant embryo that needs to remain alive until germination occurs, so the fresher the seed, the better the chances are that the seed embryo will still be alive and will germinate. 

The best thing to do if you have leftover seeds from the current season is to store them in an airtight container in a cool space; a refrigerator is ideal.  You can add a packet of silica gel or a teaspoon of powdered milk in a piece of facial tissue or paper towel to absorb any moisture that is present in the container. 

2.  Read Your Seed Packets.  Seed packets contain a lot of valuable information about the growing requirements of the particular plants that you want to grow, including how long it takes the seed to germinate, the seed sowing depth, and when to start growing the seeds inside to get them ready for outdoor planting.

3.  Test the Germination Rates of Your Older Seeds.  If you have seeds that are more than a year old, you should perform a “germination test” to determine how viable the seeds are because they become less viable over time. 

• Place 10 of your seeds on a moist paper towel, and place a second paper towel directly on top of your “seedy” paper towel to sandwich the seeds in between.  
• Roll the paper towel up, place it in a plastic bag, a glass container, or a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, and set in a warm place such as on top of your refrigerator or on top of your hot water heater.  
• Some seeds do better germinating with more light, and some do best germinating in darker conditions, so do some research about which conditions are best for your seeds.
• Check your seeds every two or three days to see if they have sprouted.  Once they have sprouted, determine how many actual seeds have germinated and then multiply that number by 10.  That is your germination rate.   A germination rate of less than 70% is a poor germination rate.  You can probably still use them, but you’ll need to sow your seeds more thickly to compensate for their less-efficient germination rate.

You can also use this process of pre-sprouting on your seeds to avoid some of the risks that naturally go with sprouting seeds in a soil mix, and it can also speed up the germination process.  If you choose to use this seed sprouting method, be sure to transplant them right away into small pots with potting soil as soon as they have sprouted.

4.  Growing Medium.  It is recommended that special seed starting mixtures be used for starting seeds.  These mixtures typically are made of vermiculite and peat, and do not contain any actual soil.  These mixes have several advantages for seeds starting, including a sterile environment, they are free of weed seeds, and they have a texture and “porosity” that is ideal for seed germination and developing seedlings.

Put whatever containers that you are using into a solid tray, fill them with the seed starting mixture, and water them before planting any seeds.  The seed starting mix should settle down into the container somewhat, so you will likely need to add more mix, water again, and repeat the process until the containers are nearly full.

5.  Containers.  Seeds should be started in small individual containers.  You can use divided containers with a single seedling/cell.  If you sow many seeds in a large container, you may run into issues with roots growing into one another that can be easily injured when the plants are transplanted.  “Cell flats,” plastic sheets with many small seeding compartments can be used to start seeds, as well as small individual plastic pots.  Any container that you use to start seeds must have drainage holes.

• You can reuse plastic seed starting containers, but they should be cleaned very well prior to use or you could risk infecting your new seedlings with pathogens from the last time they were used.  The seed starting containers can be easily sterilized by first washing your pots and flats in water with a mild dish detergent and then soaking the cleaned containers in a solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water or other disinfectant for 30 minutes and then rinsing well.   Let the containers dry before you use them for your plants.
• Many different types of fiber pots are available for planting directly into your garden, including those made from peat, cow manure, and shredded wood.  Some gardeners even make their own pots out of newspaper.  These types of pots are especially useful for growing those plants with delicate roots that are easily damaged during transplanting, such as cucumbers and squash.
• Plastic domes that go over the seedling trays help to let light in, keep moisture from escaping, and can help to retain heat for the developing roots of the seedlings.  The domes should be removed when the seedlings are tall enough to touch the top.
• Sphagnum moss can help to prevent fungal growth problems in your seed starting containers, due to the moss’ acidity.  You can put some Sphagnum moss in between the individual rows of your seed flat to help prevent damping off.

6.  Sowing your seeds for germination.  The seed packet should contain directions about how best to sow the seeds that you want to plant. 

• A good rule of thumb is to plant a seed four times as deep as its width (give enough room so that three seeds could be placed directly above it).
• Label which seeds you planted and where using purchased tags, wooden craft sticks, or strips from plastic jugs.  Permanent marker works well when writing on the labels and will not easily wear off under wet conditions.
• Some seeds need light to germinate.  Check the seed packet or do some research to find out if your seeds do.  After sowing the seeds, cover them thinly with vermiculite.   Vermiculite is porous enough to allow light through, but will help to keep your seeding medium moist, which is very important for seed germination.
• Some seeds need to be in the dark to germinate:  Keep those seeds in dark plastic bags or keep them covered with several layers of newspaper until they germinate.
• If using older seeds, plant two or more seeds/cell to ensure greater germination success.  Once the seedlings develop their true leaves, cut off all of the seedlings except the strongest one at the soil level with scissors.  If you try to pull them apart, you are likely to damage some roots.
• Make sure that when sowing your seeds, your growing medium is filled to the top of the seed starting container. If there is a significant amount of space between the top of the growing medium and the top of the container, there will not be enough air flow getting to the seeds, and your seedlings may have problems with damping off. 

7.  Temperature.  While most seeds that are planted in the garden need warm conditions to sprout, some seeds actually need exposure to moist, cold conditions in order to sprout.  Some seeds need to go through such conditions because they have a natural dormancy protection that keeps them from sprouting during the cold winter months.   As spring comes with its freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw cycles, this dormancy protection is broken down and allows the seed to germinate.  Generally, if it’s a tree, shrub, or wildflower, chances are that the seeds need to be stratified. 

For gardeners, the process of stratification mimics nature’s process of breaking this type of seed dormancy: 

            1.  In a clean plastic container, place a layer of moistened growing mix and scatter a layer of dormant seeds on top.

            2.  Cover with more of the moist soil mix, making sure that the layer of seeds that you are scattering is thick enough to find them when you are done with the stratification process.

            3.  Cover your container with a tight-fitting lid and put it in your refrigerator. Make sure that the container is well covered to prevent moisture evaporation.  Different seeds need different amounts of time in the refrigerator.  Do some research about the seeds you are trying to sprout, including from seed catalogs.   

            4.  Once your seeds are sown and placed in the refrigerator, keep them in there for about a week.  

            5.  After a week in the refrigerator, let the seeds sit out at room temperature for 1-2 days, and then put them into the freezer for another 7 days.  Ideally, you would alternate between the refrigerator and the freezer a minimum of two times.  Some seeds have a normal dormancy requirement plus a tough seed coat, so the warm-up period in between satisfies this requirement.

8.  Keep Their Feet Warm (or The Seedling Sauna).  Wouldn’t you know it, saunas aren’t just for people!  Most of your germinating seedlings do best in a warm environment (approximately 70 degrees F), and an electric heating mat placed directly beneath your seedling tray will provide them with the most optimal temperature for quicker growth and the development of healthy roots.  The temperature of your growing medium can actually be about five degrees cooler than a room’s air temperature, so providing that bit of extra warmth will help to keep your germinating seedlings nice and cozy. 

Bottom heat also helps to prevent “damping off,” when seedlings die due to pathogens that can develop at the surface of your seed starting mix.  Electric heat mats are available at garden centers as well as through mail and internet suppliers.  You should provide heat to your seeds and seedlings consistently until your seedlings can be transplanted into small pots. 

Also, don’t plug your heat mat into your lighting timer if you have one!  Consistently warm temperatures are key!  

9.  Light.  Special “grow lights” that provide specific ranges of light required for plant growth can be used to grow seedlings once they have germinated, but using standard fixtures with “cool white” fluorescent light bulbs will also give the plants adequate light and are inexpensive.   If you seek a more visually-pleasing level of light where you are starting your plants, you can use a combination of cool white and daylight spectrum light bulbs.

• Keep the lights between 2-4 inches away from the top of the seedlings.  A 2-inch distance is the most ideal. 
• Growing seedlings need 12-16 hours of light per day, as well as a period of darkness each night for proper growth.  The use of timers can be helpful to keep up with the daily light requirements of your seedlings.
• Lights used for your growing plants can be hung from the ceiling or ceiling beams with chains (dog chains are a great resource to use for this purpose).  Adjust and raise the lights on the chains as the plants grow.  

10.  Water.  As they develop, your seeds and developing seedlings should be misted with a spray bottle until they are transplanted into pots.  Do not use a watering can to water your seedlings at this stage, as this will make conditions too wet for them and can create “damping off,” or fungal problems for your developing plants.

• Once you have planted the seeds in the cells, put your plastic dome on, if you are using one.  The dome will help to keep the humidity in.  Do not put your seed-starting tray by a window with the dome lid on, because it will make conditions too hot for the seedlings.  Essentially, this will “cook” your plants. 
• To water the seeds under the dome, lift up the dome and mist it.  After your seeds germinate, remove the dome.
• After putting your seedlings under your grow light, continue to water them gently using a mister or water bottle.  
• Once you transplant your seedlings to pots containing potting soil, you can start to use a watering can.  Try to water them only from the bottom of the plant at this point, as water on the leaves of plants can lead to the development of fungal diseases. 

11.  Location, Location, Location!  Windowsills are not the best place for starting seeds.   They can be especially cold and drafty, particularly at night, and can have very hot temperatures during the day.   This translates to too many extreme temperature fluctuations, when what seedlings actually need for development are very consistent warm temperatures.  Excess heat exposure during the day can also quickly dry out the growing medium, and this can kill your seedlings.  

In general, the sunlight coming through a window is going to be much weaker than artificial lights that you can provide to your plants.  Since the light coming in through a window comes in from the sides and not from above, your plants can develop bent stems instead of straight ones.

The best conditions to start seeds are where they will be away from heavy traffic, pets, cold drafts, excessive heat, and where you don’t mind a few spills of water, fertilizer, or potting mixture every now and then.  If your plants have adequate bottom heat, such as the warmth supplied by a heat mat, air temperatures above 60 degrees F work fine.  Be sure to leave enough room for the seedlings as they grow.

12.  Transplanting After Germination.  After your seedlings have outgrown their seed-starting container, you can transplant them into pots containing regular potting soil.  Some well-suited containers to transplant these seedlings into are peat or other compostable pots, since you can plant them directly into your garden’s soil when they are big enough.  Alternatively, plastic cups with holes in the bottom to provide for drainage also are an option.

When transplanting your seedlings, carefully scoop out the seedling’s root mass (you can use a spoon or plant tag for extra support as needed) and lift them out.  Avoid holding your seedlings by the stem; they can be easily damaged.  Instead, carefully hold the plant by a leaf or by the root mass, and gently transfer the seedling to its new container.

13.  Getting the Timing Right.  Check seed packets for the number of days until harvest to allow the plants to ripen before the first frost arrives in your area.  Based upon that information, you can determine when you need to start the seeds indoors to get them ready for planting.  Many long-season vegetables have to be started inside in early spring, as well as many annual flowers that will bloom during the summer.  Smaller plants will typically transition more easily to the garden than larger plants will, so don’t worry about growing huge plants to transplant.

Altering the temperature and water conditions can alter how fast the seedlings grow.  Less water and cooler temperatures will slow down growth.  Moving them to a cooler place might also give you some extra time, as much as a week in some cases.  Just be careful that you don’t let your seedlings get too dry, or they could be stunted or killed.

Below are seed starting time suggestions for various vegetables and herbs:

Vegetable/Herb	Weeks Until Transplant Time
Broccoli	4-5
Brussels Sprouts	4-5
Cabbage	4-5
Cauliflower	4
Celery	10
Chinese Cabbage	3-4
Cucumbers	3-4
Eggplant	6-7
Leeks	8
Lettuce	3-4
Melons	3-4
Peppers	7-8
Pumpkins	3
Squash	3
Tomatoes	4-5
Basil	4-6
Chives	6-8
Dill	4-6
Lavender	8-10
Rosemary	8-10
Sage	6-8
Thyme	8-10

14.  Thin Your Seedlings.  If you have sown more than one seed in your seed starting container (this is likely if you have sown older seeds and would like to have greater assurance of successful seed germination), you may very well end up with more than one seedling growing from the same spot.  While it is great that you actually had successful germination of your seeds, only one seedling should be kept.  This is because if more than one seedling grows in the same spot, they will compete with one another for resources like light, space, nutrients, and water as they grow.  

If you end up with more than one seedling in a spot, you should choose to keep the seedling that is growing the most vigorously, because that is the one that is the most likely to survive from that point forward.  Cut off the extra seedlings at the soil level with a pair of small scissors at the ground level.  Do not pull out the extra seedlings, or you risk damaging the fragile developing roots of the seedling that you do want to keep.      

15.  When It’s Time for your Seedlings to Play Outside.  Plants started indoors will not be used to outdoor conditions (such as full wind, sun, and fluctuating temperatures), so they need a period of “hardening off” before they will do well outside all of the time.  If your plants aren’t given an opportunity to get used to being outside, they could get scorched by the wind or sun, and can die.

About two weeks prior to planting, move them outside for longer and longer periods every day.

           1.)  Put them outside for a few hours in the shade during the warmest part of the day that is protected from the wind.

            2.)  Leave the plants out a little longer each day, and expose them to increasing amounts of direct sunshine.

            3.)  At the end of two weeks, the seedlings can be planted outside in a sunny area unless there is the possibility of freezing temperatures in the forecast.

            4.)  Set out the seedlings in your garden once they have been hardened off. Transplant your plants during a cloudy day or late afternoon after the peak of the sun to avoid having your plants get sunburned.  Row covers or other types of plant protectors can help plants by reducing wind and temperature fluctuations.

If you do plant your seedlings in compostable pots, make sure that you trim the pots so that no part of the pot remains above the soil surface.   Any part of the pot remaining above the soil surface could wick water away from the root zone once exposed to drying air. 

Cut or tear holes in the bottom of the pots to allow the plant’s roots to spread out into the surrounding garden soil. 

16.  Do not fertilize your seeds during germination.  During the germination period, seedlings have access to all of the nutrients that they need from inside the seed itself.  By giving fertilizer to germinating seedlings, you will essentially be providing them with something that they aren’t likely to use, and you run the risk of developing algae growth.  Algae can thrive in the warm and moist conditions present within your seed-starting medium.  

Once your seeds have sprouted, the extra nutrients present in fertilizers are very helpful to your seedlings as they develop.  However, do not add any fertilizer until you have transplanted your seedlings from the seed-starting container into larger containers for further growth.

A calendula blossom, grown in my herb spiral last year.  Behind the flower are 

brown seed pods from my Sweet Basil plants.

Man, that was a very long post!  If you are still reading this, you are rockin' awesome!  In all seriousness, I wanted to provide you a good amount of information that will hopefully help you as you get your seeds started this year.  I wish you the very best in your seed starting endeavors this season!

Need Some Inspiration for Your Garden, Homestead or Farm?

Happy March to you!

I am dreaming of Spring, Dear Readers, despite the cold weather that is still abundant right now where I live. There is even a snow storm on its way here within the next 24 hours.

I am not letting the chilly weather get me down, though, and I am planning and scheming for the upcoming gardening season that will arrive before I know it.  I have purchased a few seed packets, added to my existing seed collection, and I am dreaming of my hugelkultur garden bed that I plan to build once we start having consistent warm weather again.

In the spirit of dreaming of Spring's arrival here in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought that I'd share two inspiring videos.  The first one, Homegrown Revolution, is about The Urban Homestead, literally an urban homestead in Pasadena, California.  I love this example of how it is possible to live sustainably and resiliently within an urban area and with a small amount of land.  While those of us living in a more northern climate would not be able to grow food in our gardens all year round and would need to employ other techniques to grow food in the winter, we can still learn a lot from what the Dervaes are doing.  I love the examples that the film shows of the vertical growing systems that they are using on their property!

The second video is about a farmer who switched from industrial production to organic and ecological production.  This is a great example of how change in our agricultural system is possible.  All is not lost and there is hope out there for our food system!  Check out the video at this link.

Can’t Wait Until Gardening Season? Here are 10 Great Resources to Get You Started!

I admit that even though it is still bitterly cold where I live, I have been dreaming of gardening again.  Maybe it’s the longer days with more sunlight.  Maybe it’s the garden supplies and the seeds that I am starting to see in stores, or my seed catalogs calling my name on my desk.  Maybe it’s the microgreens that I started growing about a week ago in front of my living room window.  Or perhaps it’s merely due to the fact that I am just getting tired of the cold and dreary weather of winter.

Whatever the reason, I am quite ready for Spring to arrive.  It will still be awhile before I can actually get things growing in my garden, probably about 2½-3 months from now (I envy you, Warm-Climate-Dwellers!), but I can start planning and preparing for the coming garden season now. 

As I was thinking about springtime and gardening, I thought that I would share with you some great resources to help you start planning for your garden too.  I advocate organic and ecological gardening methods here at Day by Day Homesteading, so the following resources have that focus.

1.  Best Tips for Starting Seeds Indoors from Mother Earth News- This is a great article to learn the basics of seed starting, and I even learned a few new tips myself from reading it.  To learn more about seed starting, you can also read my post on seed starting that I wrote last February.

2.  Healthy Soil- I cannot stress enough that healthy soil is so much more than just a place to hold your plants.   Healthy soil is an entire complex ecosystem!  If you don’t have healthy living soil, you won’t have very healthy plants.  Healthy soil is good for the plants themselves and for you when you eat those healthy plants.  Restoring Your Soil: Tips to Make Your Garden Greener from Gaiam Life gives many good tips on how to improve your soil for a healthy and more productive garden.

3.  Sheet Mulching (also known as “Lasagna Gardening”)- Sheet mulching is a great way to build healthy soil quickly using layers of different organic materials.   To see great examples of how easy it is to use this method, watch these videos.   A tip:  If you have a choice to use hay or straw as one of your layers, I recommend using straw instead of hay.  The difference between these is that hay contains seeds, which you don’t want in whatever mulch you will be growing in.

4.  No Dig Gardening- A good gardening method to dramatically reduce weeding, and increase soil fertility and productivity.

5.  Straw Bale Gardening- This gardening method can be used to grow plants just about anywhere- even on rooftops!  I personally used this innovative gardening technique to grow my very first garden, and it worked beautifully!  I highly recommend that if you would like to explore this gardening technique that you buy the book Straw Bale Gardens by author Joel Karsten to use as a reference.

6.  Herb Spiral- permaculture (video)- I really love my herb spiral!  With an herb spiral, you can grow many plants in a small space, and it allows you to take advantage of microclimates that exist within the spiral to grow a variety of plants that have different growing requirements. 

I especially enjoy growing herbs in mine, but you can certainly grow a variety of plants in an herb spiral, including lettuce and strawberries!  One of the many great things about an herb spiral is that it can be constructed in less than a day.

7.  Making a keyhole garden bed- Keyhole beds are nice because the design allows you to reach everything from either the center of your garden or from the outside, as well as reducing the amount of space that you would otherwise devote to paths.  Many folks are even creating raised versions of these garden beds so that they don't need to bend over when they work in their garden or harvest.  

In Lesotho, they are building the raised bed versions to help families grow their own food despite the  drought conditions that often occur there and to prevent soil erosion as they grow crops.  

Check out the keyhole bed that I created last year.

8.  Hugelkultur-  An interesting name, but a very cool concept for building a raised garden bed!  The concept involves burying a pile of wood logs and then growing your plants on the sides and the top of that “mound.”  The result is a raised garden bed that holds moisture extremely well, and creates a very productive growing space.

This is something that I haven’t tried yet, but I have a tree in my backyard that was trimmed last fall (with all of the logs just sitting back by my garage right now), so I am thinking that this would be a perfect way to use at least some of that wood!

9.  Small-Space Gardening-  I am a firm believer that everyone can grow something, no matter how much space you have.  Even growing microgreens, sprouts indoors or herbs in pots on your windowsill is still something that you don’t have to buy from the store and that you will know how it was grown.  And, it will actually be fresh when you eat it, unlike most of the produce in grocery stores that was harvested days ago (if it’s even that fresh).  I have a lot of interest in growing things in smaller spaces, since I don’t have the largest yard, but I am also interested in how we all can make our lives more sustainable wherever we live, including in urban areas.

10.  Permaculture- Ah permaculture, how do I love thee?  Permaculture is what helped bring me from a doom and gloom outlook to one where there is hope and empowerment to help change the world (although I still do have my moments of frustration with the status quo from time to time).  Yes, it involves gardening techniques, such as many of those that I have described above, but it is also an entire design approach for living more in harmony with nature.

Our world today is wrapped up in a lot of fear mongering, and many times, we are tempted to feel powerless to stop the horrible things that are happening.  Permaculture offers many practical solutions to help us meet many of our challenges that we face in today’s world.   To learn more, I highly encourage you to check out the permaculture link above, as well as the post that I wrote about Why Permaculture is Truly Awesome.

Are you inspired yet?  I can’t wait to start planting, can you?

Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread: My Journey Toward Finding Deliciousness (and Lessons for My Gluten-Eating Comrades)

Ah, bread!  It was my favorite food group before I had to go gluten-free.  However, for a long time, I found that in order to simplify my diet, I needed to avoid eating bread when I was in the beginning stages of my gluten-free diet and early on in my journey to regain my health.  I’m happy to say that I am now far enough along in my health journey that I can enjoy bread again, the gluten-free way.

The topic of eating grains in our world today is filled with controversy.  Many are now asking if we should all be eating a Paleo diet and avoiding all grains as well as many other starches.  Are grains inherently indigestible and harmful to our health? 

It is true that everyone has unique health and dietary needs, and I would urge you to listen to your own body (and, in many cases, health practitioners) concerning what is best for you to eat.  It may be that for some, avoiding all grains at least for a time may be extremely beneficial to help you to heal.  I do believe, however, that the story about grains may not be as simple as we are generally being told, and there may still be a way for us to enjoy grains in a healthier way.  Let your body be your guide.  If you feel horrible after eating something, by all means, you probably should avoid it (or at least for awhile).

The issue of gluten vs. gluten-free grains is an important issue for many people today, and many have resolved that a great deal of our dietary ills today have to do with the consumption of gluten-based grains.  Having been on a gluten-free diet for the last nine years or so, I have learned quite a lot about many of the negative effects of gluten, but it turns out that the issue of the inability to digest gluten is likely more complicated than the simple question of “Do you want gluten with that?”

Those Grains Today…

I am by no means an expert on the topic of grains and nutrition, but I have learned a few things about modern wheat and other grains over the last few years:

1.)  The wheat of today that is used to make a great deal of the foods in the Standard American Diet is not the same wheat of yesteryear that our ancestors once ate.  Through traditional plant breeding techniques (i.e., non-genetic modification) that have occurred over the last several decades, certain varieties of wheat were bred to be resistant to various types of diseases that historically plagued wheat (a problem exacerbated by the practice of huge swaths of mononculture wheat farming, of course). 

Efforts were also made to make wheat more “nutritious” by increasing the protein content of wheat, and this has inherently changed the wheat that most people are consuming so dramatically that it barely resembles the original varieties of wheat, such as Einkorn.  In fact, the ancient varieties of wheat such as Einkorn contain many fewer chromosomes in their DNA than the modern varieties of wheat that are present in most grain-based foods today.   

These changes in the wheat that humans are currently cultivating have made it pretty difficult for many people to digest, and in fact, it has been said that the modern wheat varieties may even have a drug-like effect on the human brain and may cause problems with our thinking and digestion (there’s that gut-brain connection that many of us keep hearing about).  For many folks like myself, these effects can even lead to autoimmune problems and other immune-related issues.  Some experts even say that modern wheat isn’t really fit for any human consumption, period.  All I know is that there sure have been a lot of changes made to the staple grain that has historically been referred to as “the staff of life.”

2.)  There is also a major issue with how we typically prepare (or rather, don’t prepare) our grains today.  Traditionally, most grains (as well as nuts and seeds) went through a process of soaking, sprouting, or fermenting (such as what occurs during the process of preparing traditional sourdough bread).  The advantage of these traditional preparation processes of grain preparation is that the indigestible, enzyme-inhibiting components of grains, known as protease inhibitors, get broken down, as well as the anti-nutrient component called phytic acid that reduces the absorption of minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc.    Our bodies have to work much harder to digest these foods when the proper preparation of grains does not occur, and for many folks, this can even trigger bad digestive issues and or immune problems (it is now known that half of our immune system is located in our digestive tract.). 

The “pre-digestion” processes of soaking, sprouting, and fermenting make grains, nuts, and seeds much more digestible and easier to assimilate the nutrition that these foods contain.  Since very few of us have ever eaten properly soaked, sprouted, or fermented grains (beer excluded), this lack of proper grain preparation likely presents a big problem for many people. 

So, the issue of consuming grains is likely not simply a matter of gluten vs. gluten-free, or even whether the grains are organic or non-GMO, but we must also consider whether the grain, bread, etc., has been properly prepared so that your body can digest it and utilize the food in the first place.  The latter issue is much more difficult to address through commercially available bread and other grain-based products, although I am starting to notice a few sprouted grain products here or there when I visit grocery stores. 

Very few of us have eaten true sourdough bread before.  I’m not talking about most of the so called breads that are labeled as “sourdough” that can be purchased in a typical grocery store.  The majority of these “sourdough” breads will actually have some bakers yeast added to them in addition to the sourdough culture.  Adding the bakers yeast speeds up the baking process, but you end up missing out on many of the critical health benefits that true sourdough bread offers.

True sourdough bread takes time.  From start to finish, the process can take a number of days to get a viable starter culture going and to allow it to become active enough to bake with.  Then, it takes a good portion of a day (or longer) for the bread dough to rise prior to baking.   To me, one of the best parts of sourdough bread, besides the delicious flavor that is imparted to the bread, is that it is created through a culture that contains both wild yeasts and bacteria in a symbiotic relationship, similar to that which is present in other lacto-fermented foods and beverages like kombucha.    

While there is debate concerning whether any of the living cultures remain in the bread after it is baked, you will still end up with a bread that is much more easily digested and nutritious, since the cultures have “pre-digested” the flour during the fermentation and rising processes.  Since the bread dough is fermented, much of the phytic acid and the protease inhibitors are dramatically reduced or eliminated. Some folks even claim that this process can break down difficult to digest proteins like gluten if the dough is given enough time to ferment.  I cannot personally verify that claim, so I choose to stick to using all gluten-free flour when I make my sourdough bread, but long-fermented sourdough bread might be an option if you are willing to explore that process.  If you are very sensitive to wheat and/or gluten, I would strongly recommend doing a lot of research on the subject before experimenting with that technique in an attempt to break down the gluten and other proteins in wheat flour.

All bread used to be made using the sourdough technique until the advent of bakers yeast in the 1800s.  Due to all of the nuances involved with the process of sourdough bread baking, bakers yeast quickly became the favored method of baking by bread makers.  It made the industrial process of baking bread speedier and more “efficient” for the bread baking business.  However, in the process of making this industrialized bread, you no longer get the pre-digestion of the grains and the anti-nutrient components never get reduced or neutralized.  This is a recipe for digestive problems of all sorts.  Not only that, but the bread produced in this industrial fashion simply does not contain the depth of flavor that you get in real sourdough bread.  That can only come through fermentation of the dough, and the longer that you can ferment it, the better.   Just don’t let your bread dough become an episode of I Love Lucy and let it take over your oven and your kitchen! 

My Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Baking Adventure

I was determined to find a way to make my own gluten-free sourdough bread for several reasons.  Most of all, I wanted to start baking my own gluten-free bread at home.  If any of you reading this eats a gluten-free diet and routinely buys commercial gluten-free breads, then you know that not only are such breads fairly expensive, but it can be difficult to find gluten-free bread that actually tastes good.  Bread that is not just okay and utilitarian, but something that you really enjoy eating.  In my viewpoint, that is how food should be, especially if we happen to have food sensitivities.  I say, “Away with you, bland foods!”  The foods that we can have should rock our taste buds and leave even non-food-sensitive folks loving it! 

The truth is that although there are now more gluten-free bread options on the market than ever before, and they are certainly getting better and more flavorful, it can still be difficult to find a brand that you like.  Many are very bland tasting, and some even easily crumble apart.  Even when you finally find a flavorful and soft gluten-free commercial bread, it can be difficult to find gluten-free bread that doesn’t contain some sort of ingredient that you would prefer to avoid.  Some even contain GMO ingredients, which makes having food limitations even more of a challenge!

At first, I was intimidated by the idea of baking my own gluten-free yeast bread.  It sounded too difficult to do.  For a long time, the only type of bread that I made myself were quick breads that required no yeast.  Then, I tried baking some gluten-free yeast bread but I didn’t really like the results.  That bread was flat- literally flat.  It didn’t really rise much at all.  This might possibly have been due to the fact that I was using older yeast that could have been past its prime and may not have been too viable anymore.   The finished product was also kind of bland tasting.  After that mediocre attempt, I put my bread baking aspirations aside for awhile.

Then one day, I decided to investigate the possibility of baking gluten-free sourdough bread to see if I could do it successfully.  I had tried my hand a number of years ago at making sourdough bread using whole wheat flour before starting on a gluten-free diet, and I somehow ended up with something that resembled bread.  Therefore, I concluded that it might be possible to bake a gluten-free version. 

As many of you who regularly read this blog know, I like to experiment with wild fermentation.  I really enjoy making and consuming these foods for their health benefits, such as the probiotic cultures and digestive support, and I really like the flavor of these foods and beverages.  Sourdough bread has been one of my favorite cultured food projects thus far.   

The gluten-free sourdough bread that I make using this recipe is healthy, hearty, and tastes absolutely awesome when it is warm and toasted with melted grassfed butter on it.  It is now one of my favorite breakfast foods, and I actually prefer it to all of the commercial gluten-free breads that I have tried so far.  The flavor is just superior to all of the commercial breads that I have tried (my gluten-eating husband even likes it).  And, because it is produced through the process of wild fermentation, containing a veritable ecosystem of beneficial yeasts and bacteria, the storage life is much longer than breads made with bakers yeast, by many days.  

For more information on the many benefits of sourdough bread, I recommend these two articles from Cookus Interruptus and Cheeseslave.com

An active gluten-free sourdough starter.  You can see the bubbles 

around the edges of the jar, indicating the viable action of the 

yeasts and bacteria in the culture.

The Process

The concept of creating a sourdough starter really isn’t that much different from other types of wild fermentation: you mix together the ingredients to create an optimal environment for your selected culture to thrive in, give it the right environment for it to ferment in (such as a warm, but not hot, place), add some time and patience, and you should end up with a viable culture.  To make sourdough starters, you basically need some good quality water (non-chlorinated/filtered is best for cultures- chemicals can kill your culture, and they aren’t really good for you either), and some flour. 

For my gluten-free comrades reading this, you will, of course, be using gluten-free varieties of flour to make your starter, with one caveat: when making your sourdough starter, avoid using the flour mixes that contain xanthan gum or guar gum already added.  It doesn’t give reliable results.  I have personally had a lot of success using straight sorghum flour for this purpose, but you could also try another gluten-free single type of flour. The recipe that I have been using gives some good tips for this.  

Then, when your starter is ready and you mix it in with the rest of your flour to make your bread dough, you can then add your pre-mixed flour blends with the typical gluten-free thickeners like xanthan gum or guar gum.   I personally have had good success using the Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend from Namaste Foods (no product affiliations here- I just have had success using it), but feel free to experiment and see which flour blends you like.

The sorghum flour that I used to make the gluten-free sourdough starter

with, and the gluten-free flour blends that I add when I make the bread dough.

A few more tips that should make your gluten-free sourdough bread baking easier:

1.)  Your gluten-free starter will be likely be thinner and more fluid in consistency than the typical wheat-based flour that you may be used to if you have made a wheat flour based sourdough starter in the past.  This is likely due to the fact that gluten-free flours on their own without the additional thickeners simply do not contain the elasticity that gluten lends to wheat flour.    Accept it, roll with it, and carry on. 

Gluten-free baking is in a class all of its own.  Don’t let it intimidate you.  Just accept that it is a different process than gluten/wheat flour baking and move forward with your gluten-free baking adventures. 

If you are on a gluten-free diet, I want to encourage you to not feel sorry for yourself that you must eat differently than “everybody else.”  Enjoy the healthy alternative of using flours that won’t make you ill, and that you can actually make some really tasty food with.  You can do this, and it is very possible to have delicious food that contains no gluten in it.  Repeat that last sentence to yourself over and over if you must. 

Yes, eating a gluten-free diet is an adjustment, but it can still be very tasty if you are willing to learn and try new things.  Learn to love and embrace all of the tasty foods that you can eat instead of focusing on all of the foods that you can no longer eat.  There is literally an entire planet of food out there that contains no gluten.  You never know what tasty foods you might discover if you decide to step outside of the Standard American Diet food box!

2.)  The recipe that I have been using to successfully make gluten-free sourdough bread can be found here.  I will not repeat that recipe here at Day by Day Homesteading, since the author of that article does an excellent job of walking readers through this process.  However, one thing that I noticed is that I have needed to bake the bread for an hour to an hour and 20 or 30 minutes or so.  Check and monitor the internal temperature of the bread with a food thermometer to determine when it is at least 200 degrees F and the crust is browned to your liking. 

I’m not sure if the need for extra baking time is just due to the quirks of my own oven, but I recommend baking it for the amount of time given in the recipe, and then check it every 5-10 minutes or so to see if it is done to your liking.  It takes much longer than regular yeast added breads to burn this bread, so you have a lot of room to play around with.

3.  In general, I eat this bread as toast with butter on it for breakfast.  I have not tried it yet as sandwich bread, but you certainly could if you can get it to rise and bake to the texture of your liking.  Try it and see what you think.  You may find that you just like to eat it as toast as I do, but everyone is different.  Either way, it makes a very delicious bread!

4.  If you have extra starter after baking your bread, you can continue to feed it with flour and water and keep it going continually if you like, similar to the process of making continuous brew style kombucha.  This is useful if you would like to have a continuous starter to always make bread with.  However, since a sourdough starter needs continual care and needs to be fed everyday (I feed mine with equal portions of sorghum flour and filtered water, with ¼ to 1/3 cup of each), you may wish to take a break from this process from time to time.  In that case, just feed it with the flour and water, stir, and keep it in an enclosed container such as a mason jar with a lid in your refrigerator.  

It is ideal to feed your starter every few days when it is in the refrigerator, but I have left mine “alone” to fend for itself in the fridge when I have gone on vacation for a week or so, and I have been able to revive it after several days once I have taken it out of the fridge and started feeding it again daily.   Reviving your starter after a period in the refrigerator can be tricky, and you’ll have to experiment to see under which conditions your starter does best in.  A sourdough starter can potentially be a little finicky, just like a pet.

I hope that you will give sourdough bread baking a try, especially if you need to stick to eating a gluten-free diet.  It may just change your relationship with bread, forever!

Got Dry Skin? Calendula Lavender Lotion Could Be the Answer!

Back in December, I wrote a post about how to make a healing salve using calendula and and lavender infused olive oil. Both calendula and lavender are great for the skin, and if you happen to have any herbal infused oil left over from making a salve, you can make some lotion with it too.  Two projects for the price of one!  Score! 

When I made this lotion, I wanted to make something myself by which I could recognize all of the ingredients.  I have decided that I am done buying commercial lotions that contain who knows what chemicals, or buying products that don’t really work that well anyway.  My skin is also pretty sensitive to a lot of synthetic ingredients, and I really don’t want to add any unnecessary toxins to my body if I can help it.

This was my first experiment with making my own lotion, and I’m really glad that I tried it.  I also made some lotion bars awhile back, but this time I wanted to make something that was actually more, you know, lotion-like.

For the ingredients, I used calendula and lavender infused olive oil as the oil base for this process, and then I also added shea butter, coconut oil, vitamin E oil, beeswax, and lavender essential oil.  Simple, recognizable ingredients.  Just the way I like it.  If you would like more information on how to make an herbal infused oil, please check out these two posts.

This lotion does have a somewhat oily texture to it, resembling a little like an ointment.  However, once it absorbs, your skin is left very soft and moisturized.  And, you don’t need very much of this lotion to get the job done.  A little bit goes a very long way!

Where I live, we have had a number of days lately when temperatures have dipped below zero degrees (F).  Thank goodness that I’ve had my trusty homemade lotion to keep my skin in excellent shape!  My hands usually have a tendency to get very chapped during the cold winters here, but thanks to this lotion, they are staying very soft and well moisturized.

The one thing that I would caution with this lotion is the container that you store it in.  I made the unfortunate mistake of putting my first batch of lotion into plastic bottles (after everything had cooled).  Not only does this lotion not flow out of the plastic bottle cap like a typical commercial lotion does, it is somewhat difficult to get out of the bottle in general.  I did make a second batch of the same lotion, and used small glass mason jelly jars to give the lotion as gifts at Christmastime.  Success!  Just make sure that whatever sort of container that you store your homemade lotion in has a wide mouth so that you can easily reach in and get some out. 

You could certainly make this lotion with any number of herbal infused oils, but I still think that calendula and lavender are two of the very best herbs for skin.  The bottom line here is that you will know the ingredients that your lotion contains and what you or your loved ones are putting on your skin.  Just be aware that if you make this with infused olive oil, your lotion will likely have a green color.

The people that received the lotion as gifts have just loved it.  I bet that you will too!

Calendula Lavender Lotion

Ingredients:

• ½ cup calendula and lavender infused olive oil (or olive oil infused with other herb(s) of your choice)
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• ¼ cup beeswax
• 1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
• 2 tablespoons Shea Butter or Cocoa Butter
• Essential oils of your choice (I used lavender)

Instructions:

1.  Place all ingredients except the essential oils and vitamin E oil into a glass jar.  Pint sized mason jars are ideal, but you could also reuse any other type of glass jar that you have on hand (such as from spaghetti sauce).

2.  Place your glass jar into a medium sized saucepan that is filled with a few inches of water, turn on the heat to medium, and loosely put a lid on your jar to cover.

3.  After heating for a little while, the ingredients in your jar will slowly begin to melt.  Stir or shake to mix the ingredients together as everything melts.  Typically, the beeswax will take a lot longer to melt than the rest of the ingredients.

4.  Once everything is melted and mixed, turn off the heat but leave the jar in the water so that everything stays warm.  Add the Vitamin E oil, as well as the essential oil(s) drop by drop according to your scent preference.  Mix again. 

5.  Pour the liquid into whatever containers you will be using, and let it cool.  Small glass mason jelly jars work well for this, as well as small metal tins.  Remember that this lotion does not dispense well from plastic bottles!  

6.  Use like regular lotion.  

 

 

This post is shared at Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Party Hop

Getting Fresh with My Pumpkin Pie (It’s Gluten-Free and Milk-Free Too!)

Due to holiday season craziness (you can relate, can’t you?), it has been about a month since I wrote my last Day by Day Homesteading post.  During that time, I found myself frantically preparing for Christmas, traveling to visit family in two different states, working a full-time job, baking and fermenting, and making homemade herbal remedies to give as gifts. 

While I really do enjoy the holiday season, I admit that I probably overdid it on the activities, and I likely did not get as much sleep as I needed.   I eventually found myself to be ill, likely with the flu, not once, but twice within the two weeks right before Christmas.  Fortunately, I was feeling better by the time Christmas Eve rolled around, and things were looking much brighter and much more festive for my health by then.  

Ever since the holidays have ended, I have been laying low and have continued to take a short break from writing posts.  I am now finally feeling like things are starting to get back to a fairly normal (and not so insane) schedule.  I have started fermenting things again (I took a break due to all of the holiday busyness and traveling) and I will really enjoy my finished kombucha and gluten-free sourdough bread when they are ready.  I promise that I will write all about making gluten-free sourdough bread in a future post, so never fear, Dear Reader, if that is a subject that you are interested in.

Amongst the busyness of the 2014 holiday season, I made a huge discovery for my gluten-free and mostly milk-free (except for butter, which I can tolerate) world: homemade gluten-free pumpkin pie made with coconut milk instead of sweetened condensed milk, and pumpkin puree made from fresh sugar pie pumpkins that I grew in my own garden. 

Mind you, I made this same yummy dessert before using canned pumpkin, and it was pretty tasty.  However, upon making two pies using a pumpkin from my garden, I have to tell you that this pumpkin pie is in a class all of its own!  I can say that it was probably the best pumpkin pie that I have ever eaten in my entire life. 

My husband, the non-food-allergy-guy, even loves this pie, so you know it has to be tasty.  He has made me promise that I will continue to grow the pie pumpkins in our garden from now on just to make this pumpkin pie.  I have to agree that once you “think outside the can” and have pumpkin pie made from fresh pie pumpkins, you’ll never want to go back to using canned pumpkin again!

Granted, making pumpkin pie this way does require some extra work, and perhaps this method is primarily for the hardy and the determined, but believe me when I say that the extra work required will be well worth it when you take your first bite of some of the most delicious pumpkin pie on the face of the earth!

The Basics

First things first.  You need to use a pie pumpkin variety or another type of sweet variety of pumpkin in order to make pie.   The variety that I grew was an heirloom variety called “Sugar Pie Pumpkin.” They are much smaller (generally growing to a size of 6-7” in diameter), and I believe, much sweeter than your typical Jack-o-Lantern type of pumpkin varieties. 

During the 2014 gardening season, I grew a total of nine sugar pie pumpkins from two pumpkin plants in my modest sized garden.  The plants took a little while to get growing, but once they got started, they really did well and darned near almost took over my entire garden.  I had to secure the vines to the outside of my garden fence just to keep them from being the “Pumpkins that Ate my Garden and My Backyard Too.”  

The pie pumpkins were probably one of the most fun plants that I have grown so far in my short two-season gardening career.  The bees really loved the pumpkin flowers too!

My homegrown pumpkins are still keeping pretty well in the cooler temperatures of my basement, having harvested them around September.  That’s a good thing, since I’m dreaming of eating more of this pie once I have some time to make it.  I was able to make two pumpkin pies from one fairly large pie pumpkin, but depending upon the size of the pumpkin that you are using, you may need to add a little bit of canned pumpkin as a backup if you don’t have quite enough fresh pumpkin.

Another thing that I noticed when making pumpkin pies using this method is that it took longer than usual for the pumpkin pie filling to bake all of the way through, perhaps due to a higher moisture content in the puree made from fresh pumpkin.  Either way, I would try baking your pie(s) for the suggested length of time in whatever recipe that you happen to be using, and then continue to check your pie as it bakes about every five minutes or so to see if it is done.

Making the Pumpkin Puree from a Fresh Pumpkin

This may indeed seem quite intimidating at first.  After all, it is likely that the majority of folks reading this post have never made pumpkin puree in their lives.  This was certainly the case for me, but if I can make puree from a fresh pumpkin, I know that you can too!

After doing a little bit of internet research on this process, the basic idea seemed relatively simple:  cut up and peel your pumpkin into chunks, boil the pumpkin chunks in water on your stovetop, drain, and then puree the pumpkin.  Sounds simple, right?

In practice, the process for me turned out to be a little more involved, however:

1.  Cut up your pumpkin into larger sections. 

2.  Scoop out all of stringy pulp in the middle, along with the seeds (which I later separated, saved and dried to be planted next year, shared with fellow gardener friends, and hopefully some to be roasted and salted for a tasty treat).

3.  Peel off the outside skin of the pumpkin using a knife (a vegetable peeler would work well too), and cut the remaining pumpkin flesh into smaller cubes.  Good sized cubes for this purpose are probably about 4-5 inches wide.

4.  Place pumpkin chunks into a large pot, fill the pot with enough water to cover the pumpkin by a couple of inches, and bring the water to a boil. 

5.  Once the water is boiling, cook the pumpkin until the chunks are soft when pricked with a fork.

6.  Strain the water from the cooked pumpkin and place them into a large bowl.

7.  Using an electric hand mixer (or a high tech blender), or a hand held potato masher, mix until the pumpkin turns into a smooth puree.

8.  Add all of your ingredients and spices to make your pumpkin pie filling and proceed to using your favorite pumpkin pie recipe from there.   My preferred sweetener to use for baking is sucanat, as it still contains all of the minerals that natural sugarcane has, and it gives whatever I am baking a depth of flavor without being overly sweet. 

I personally choose to avoid using white sugar in my baking, as it has been stripped of all of its minerals and exerts a very imbalancing effect on the body.  If you have blood sugar difficulties such as with Diabetes, you may wish to do some research to determine whether or not sucanat is right for you, and perhaps choose a different sweetener that will best meet your personal needs.

How to Make Your Pie (Lactose-Free and Gluten-Free!)

If you have to avoid most milk products like I do, or if you would like to explore a healthy, and extremely tasty alternative, then you will love this pumpkin pie recipe from PieChef.com, which calls for using full-fat canned coconut milk in place of the typical sweetened condensed milk.  You would never know that it contains coconut milk, and even your more traditional non-food-allergy pie eaters will still probably love it.   

And, what is my favorite way to enjoy this pie?  With creamy, dreamy, and dairy-free vanilla coconut milk ice cream, of course!

Thus far, my gluten-free pumpkin pie baking experience has consisted of using a mix to make the gluten-free crust, but I am hoping to try my hand at making my own from scratch in the future.  This would probably make a good "night or day before" type of project so that you’re not overwhelmed and have one less thing to do when you make the rest of the pie from scratch.

I would encourage you to give this process a try, especially if you grow your own pumpkins in your garden.  Your taste buds and your family and friends will thank you! 

And for those of you who haven’t seen what my pumpkins looked like growing in their natural habitat in my garden, here is a peek at what they looked like:

One of my pumpkins growing on the vine, almost fully orange.

Seven of my nine sugar pie pumpkins after harvest.  They are now being stored down in my basement during the winter months.  Tasty goodness, here I come!