Category Archives: Homesteading

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Make a Dryer Lint Seedling Quilt

January 28, 2019 wendylee

How to Make a Germination Mat Out of Dryer Lint

I have collected dryer lint for many years. For 8 years I worked at a USDA plant disease research facility where we had to shower out of the containment greenhouses. I washed loads and loads of white fluffy towels every day and a lot of lint gets trapped on the screen. I figured I might as well save it to make paper out of someday. That day has arrived.

I initially thought to make fancy craft paper but that project has never made it to the top of my list. Then I began setting up my grow bench in the garage to grow fresh spinach during the winter. I am also starting other salad greens and assorted veggies and flowers for spring planting. I already grow wheat fodder in the basement for the chickens and it seemed a natural progression to grow microgreens for us under my lighted, heated set up in the garage.

I researched microgreen growing on the internet, wading painfully through some way-too-long You Tube videos and digging around on seed and supply sites. I decided, as with most projects, I would rather come up with my own cheaper version of what they are selling out there. I collect all kinds of useful junk, horticultural and otherwise, and a look around my sheds, closet and garage can usually provide the goods I need.

I grow wheat fodder, which is sprouts allowed to grow into small lawns, in plastic kitchen dish pans with drain holes drilled in the bottoms. Wheat is a big seed and only a few sometimes get stuck in the holes.

Kale, radish, amaranth, lettuce and broccoli are much smaller seeds and need a way to stay moist while not falling through their drainage tray.

Seed quilts, absorbent cellulose mats, can be purchased, but they are expensive and the seeds already cost plenty. I decided to make my own seed quilts using the dryer lint stockpile.

Making paper seed quilts is easy and you can use just about anything that is compost-able, which is where it will finally end up. Newspaper, leaves, dried chopped grass, dryer lint, etc. can all be used to make and these absorbent paper mats, which are much thicker than papertowels. I am thinking that using some dried horse manure might work and it would add some built-in fertilizer. This would require a dedicated blender, and not my kitchen tools.

How to Make Seed Quilts

You will need: One wooden frame to staple window screen onto and an optional second frame to keep edges cleaner, and a plastic washtub big enough to immerse the screen with a little spare room for jiggling. I found some cheap picture frames that worked. Ideally, the frame size will match up with the tray size you will plant in.

Screen Frame and Edge Frame and Wet Paper

Soak about a cubic foot of dryer lint in a bucket and soak an hour
Scoop 3-4 handfuls of soggy lint into a blender and add water to fill line
Blend on medium for 1-2 minutes
Blender Full of Lint
Dump into the washtub and repeat until it has all been blended
Stir the soggy mess
Hold the edge frame on top of the screen frame
Slide the screen down under the surface of the mush and lift, keeping screen level
Pressing Water Out Through Screen
Clean up edges with your fingers and press palm down on screen to expel water
Turn upside down onto fabric covered towel
Seed Quilt On Drying Towel/Fabric
Refill screen and repeat
For thick, absorbent paper, lay flat and air dry
For thinner paper, cover with fabric and towel and press with rolling pin
To speed drying, lay flat on racks near heat source. I laid them in open grid type seedling flats on a heat mat to dry
Drying Seed Quilts on Open Grid Flats Set on Bottom Heat

When ready to plant, lay the quilt on an elevated grid in the seed tray. The store bought kits use a plastic grid about a half inch tall. Maybe a paint roller grid would work. I will use the open grid tray inside of a 1020 hole less plant tray. You want to lift the quilt above the water in the tray and be able to water the bottom, not the greens.

Saturate the quilt and sow seeds evenly on top. I will be measuring to see what the right amount is and will be planting Kale for my first crop. Too thick and they will grow mold. Cover loosely with a dome or plastic sheet until you see sprouting.

Set trays on planting heat pad set at 68F. Heat depends on particular seeds needs, as does light. Once they germinate, turn the lights on with a timer for 12 -16 hours per day. I use T-12 fluorescent fixtures that I have recycled. Hang them about 8 inches above the tiny plants. You can use LED lights but you will need the blue and red spectrum, which my eyes cannot stand to be around.

-Wendy lee, writing at

Edgewise Woods, Garden And Critters

Homesteading

In Bed With the Dog

January 5, 2019 wendylee 2 Comments

In Bed with the Dog
Sofie is a misfit designer dog, a cross between a Bassett Hound and some kind of wire haired terrier. She has the short legs and big feet, the knock kneed Plie (ballet) stance and can howl and bay if she really feels the need, which is thankfully, not very often. She got shortchanged in the ear department though. Her ears are the only smooth haired part of her and they droop but they are not very long. We chose her at the local shelter to keep Raster, our now deceased, border collie mix company while I was away at work all day. The pair of them were supposed to guard the chickens and keep the deer out of the yard but they tended to wait patiently on the porch when we were here waiting for us to yell,
“Get ‘em! Get the deer. “ or
“Chickens! Get the fox!”
It is possible they chased critters away while we were gone but I kind of doubt it. Still, they were good dogs. They spent good weather days wandering around outside on about 4 fenced acres and were always glad to see us. That is the best thing about dogs. They love you no matter what you might say to them. Our dogs always come inside with us and they’ve claimed their space on the floor near the woodstove or right up on the couch. Never on the human bed though. Well, only when the grandkids sleep over. We banned them from our room long ago because they snored worse than we did.
Sofie is lonely now that Raster is gone and gets way too excited when we have company. She loves kids and never gives up hope that everyone she sees will love her back. Being so short makes her have to jump up to get attention though and no one likes that.
This weekend we are hosting a couple of musicians from Canada with their year old son and a friend to help with babysitting. They are teaching at the 14th annual Fiddlers Retreat, put on by Shepherdstown Music and Dance, and last night they helped kick it off with a great concert. The baby slept through their act bundled on his mama’s back while she stood tall and fiddled numerous tunes for us. It was pretty impressive. They all stayed late jamming and did not arrive at our house until about midnight.
I stayed up reading so I could greet them and as soon as Sofie heard their car doors, she was wide awake. So was the baby. Sofie has a terrible habit of jumping on people for attention and it was difficult to calm her down. She loves kids, or anyone who will pet her. No one really wanted to deal with her though so I locked her upstairs in our bedroom in an attempt to restore calm. We really needed to get some sleep but it took about an hour and a half for everyone to settle in for the night.
Meanwhile, Sofie had persuaded Jeff to allow her on the bed- just to keep her from whining. She spent the whole night with us and will be doing the same tonight. She obviously does not mind at all and the only snoring I heard was from Jeff, who is fighting a cold and keeping himself away from our guests.
Once winter finally decides to arrive, and the woodstove is cranking again, the living room will be a much warmer place to sleep and she will have the whole couch to herself and probably won’t even want to sleep with us. Having a dog in my bed is not a long term thing for me. It is only for 2 nights. I would have to give her way more baths, for one thing, and it is crowded enough with two of us in there.

Critters, Homesteading

Too Many Eggs

June 11, 2018 wendylee

At Least 2 Dozen a Day

My 30 hens are laying 24-27 eggs every day. My little egg fridge out on the porch is full, there are eggs on the counter waiting to be cleaned up and put into cartons, and now the kitchen fridge is filling up with eggs. Obviously I need more customers or fewer chickens (knock on wood).

A guy I sold 8 hens to this spring brought me 4 half grown Rhode Island Red hens today because his big hens would not let the smaller ones be part of the flock. The last thing I need is more hens. I told him I would take them and pass them on to a neighbor and then I insisted he take three of my layers home, along with 5 dozen eggs- so there.

Got Eggs? Get Cooking!

What to make with all these eggs? There are strawberries and broccoli ready to pick out in the garden, so I start with Custard Sauce, and Angel Cake, with strawberries. My custard recipe takes 18 yolks and the cake takes 18 whites. I decide to make two half gallon batches, which means I can make an egg white frittata for dinner too. Three dozen eggs!

Strawberries with Biscuit Shortcake smothered in Custard Sauce is my all time favorite desert. I like the drop biscuits better than Angel cake but since I need to use lots of eggs, Angel it is. These recipes come from vintage Good Housekeeping Cookbook, handed down from my mother, who got it at her wedding shower in 1949.

It no longer has a cover and is missing some of the first pages but I love that it includes things like how to shave ice from the block, and how to use your icebox properly (or your brand new, modern refrigerator!) and includes substitutions for things that were hard to get during the depression. Plus it has all the wonderful dishes my mother used to make for us.

Of course, sticking to a recipe is almost impossible for me. I tend to improvise according to what I have on hand. So, while making the custard, I threw in some extra whole eggs, along with the yolks, to make the custard a little thicker, and I used coconut milk instead of cows milk. In the second batch, I ran out of coconut milk and added 2 cups of half and half instead. When making the Angel Cake I added a Tablespoon of cornstarch to each cup of unbleached flour to make cake flour and did not do the requisite 4 siftings of the dry cake ingredients, but shook it through a wire mesh sieve twice instead. Cooking is all about being creative once you get the hang of it.

The cake and custard both turned out fine. The frittata is a little different each time I make it, depending on what veggies and sausage I have on hand. It is all good and a fine way to spend a (yet another) rainy day inside. Below are the recipes so you too can eat more eggs.

Custard Sauce

6 cups milk (any kind)

18 egg yolks (or 9 whole eggs)

1 Cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 tsp Vanilla (can be omitted)

Use Double Boiler I use a 3 liter enameled iron pot that happens to fit perfectly into my 4 quart Mirror Pressure Cooker pot.

Pour milk into upper pot and heat over not quite boiling water until tiny bubbles appear along edges of milk.

Break eggs and separate into two bowls, beating yolks slightly with a fork and stirring in sugar and salt.

Temper the egg yolk mixture by slowly adding and stirring the hot milk in, a ladle full at a time. Then pour back into double boiler and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. When it starts to thicken and coats a metal spoon, remove from heat and set into a sink full of cold water, stirring to help cool it quickly.

Stir in the Vanilla and transfer into a half gallon canning jar, screw a lid on and cool in the fridge.

The main thing is to not overcook it, especially if you use whole eggs. It can curdle if it gets too hot, in which case, bring it back together by beating it with a mixer.

Pour over strawberries and biscuits (or Angel cake) and enjoy.

Angel Cake

1 1/4 Cups egg whites (10-12)

1 Cup sifted Cake Flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

Let whites come to room temperature. Heat oven to 375 degrees F

sift flour and 1/2 C sugar ingredients together

Beat egg whites and salt at high speed until foamy

Sprinkle in Cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form, but still moist and glossy

Add 1 cup sugar in four additions while beating. Add flavorings and beat a little more.

Sift in flour mixture 1/4 at a time, folding in with wooden spoon or spatula 15 folds each addition. fold another 10 strokes at the end.

Pour batter into ungreased 10 inch tube pan and bake 35 minutes.

Test for doneness by pressing finger on top lightly. If it springs back it is done.

Remove from oven and turn upside down to cool for one hour (or until cold) before loosening with a knife along edges and turning out onto plate.

To serve, cut gently with a serrated knife, top with berries and pour custard sauce over. Ice cream is also good.

Note: I doubled this recipe, and still used the same size pan without a problem. It took longer to cook by about 15 minutes. I kept doing the finger check but did not pay very good attention to the time.

Shortcake Biscuits

2 cups flour (unbleached with wheat germ added)

3 teaspoons Rumford Baking Powder (or homemade)

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup milk

Heat oven to 450 degrees F

Mix dry ingredients in bowl

Cut in shortening with pastry cutter to the texture of coarse cornmeal. Make a well in center and add half the milk and mix quick and light with a fork, then the other half.

Drop by large spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet and cook 12-15 minutes.

Serve still warm, broken into bowls, with strawberries and custard sauce poured over. Yum!

Egg White Frittata

3/4 – 1 pound sausage (ground or sliced)

1 lg onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

Saute meat, onions, and garlic till done

Butter a 9x 13 baking dish and add the meat and:

2 cups plus, chopped broccoli, spinach or kale

Lightly Beat 18-22 egg whites, adding dried basil, salt, pepper, Creole spice mix, etc and pour into the casserole

1 Cup grated cheddar cheese, sprinkled on top

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F

That takes care of one days worth of eggs…Back to the cookbooks for more recipes. Anybody need some eggs?

-Wendy lee, writing at Edgewise Woods, Gardens and Critters

Homesteading

Rainy Days in May

May 17, 2018 wendylee

What a rainy week. It is too wet to garden, too grey, and damp and soggy to do anything outside but take pictures. The creeks and rivers are flooding from all the rain we have had the last few days.

We have been lucky here. Folks nearby have had 6 inches all at once while we have only been getting about an inch and a half a day. We lucked out on the hail and high winds too. Thank goodness.

The veggie garden is growing like mad and I am really glad I mulched the potatoes, peas, spinach and broccoli at the same time I planted them this season.

Otherwise the weeds would have taken them already. The asparagus is on it’s third year and we have been eating it every other night for dinner, along with the kale that wintered over. I picked a nice basket full of broccoli tonight too.

We got the strawberries weeded and cleaned up just before all this rain and there are lots of green berries and plenty more blossoms opening up. I am glad they are not ripe yet or they would be rotting out there. We have had 5.9 inches of rain this week and it is not done yet. Hopefully the newer strawberry flowers will still get pollinated. Bees don’t forage well in the rain. Last year, when I still had my bees, the black locust tree blooms got frozen so the bees lost out on a major nectar source.

Now they are in full bloom but it keeps on raining. Maybe the bees are out there dodging raindrops. I hope so. The air smells incredibly sweet and clean.

Lush does not begin to describe the greenery outside right now.

When the sun finally comes out we will be smothered with rampaging plants, humidity and all the insects (gnats!…) that will explode with growth all at once.

Spring Optimism

I am afraid this long, rainy week marks the end of my annual spring optimism, that time every year when I think I might just be able to keep up with the garden chores. The gorgeous flowers and lush greenery have been so delightful and are so much better than a dry spring though. I can live with some nice healthy weeds, especially since all the edibles are also doing so well.

My problem is that I tend to feel just like the weather looks. A beautiful sunrise never fails to lift my spirits, but days of rain can send me down into dark places. Today, to combat the rainy day doldrums, I drove down to the river to watch the power of the water rushing by. It tends to put things in perspective for me.

The Potomac River at the Shepherdstown Boat Ramp

After watching the muddy water roll by awhile I drove along some back roads that had obviously received a humongous amount of rain. Bridges and culverts and blacktop sections were washed out and guys with heavy equipment were in major clean up and repair mode. Water was pouring down hillsides where there were not even any streams normally. I stopped and talked to one guy who had lost all his driveway gravel and whose neighbor was pumping five feet of water from his basement. That worked to snap me out of it. I am counting my blessings.

Wendy lee, writing at ,Edgewisewoods Gardens and Critters

EdgewiseWoods, Gardens and Critters