I've written before about my desire to turn my backyard into a food forest using edible landscaping. I've always imagined a lush, thriving garden that requires minimal effort yet provides a bounty of products—all while resembling a natural forest ecosystem. My process of building a backyard food forest started after encountering the concept of permaculture. Rooted in ecological principles, permaculture is a holistic approach to creating sustainable systems that mimic nature’s patter...

Hügelkultur in Pennsylvania: Nature's Raised BedYears ago, hurricane Sandy turned my forested property into an open meadow with massive rotting tree stumps everywhere. The trees on my property that used to provide shade and beauty, now produced a steady supply of fallen branches, logs, and leaves. Since I had already been slowly 'rewilding' my lawn area, it seemed only natural to consider a gardening technique that turned this "debris" into a gold mine of fertility: Hügelkultur...

Every home that I've ever lived in has had hard water. There are pros to having hard water, but there are also many cons. The cons have led me to investigate ways of mitigating hard water, but this also has additional drawbacks. I recently purchased and installed a ScaleBlaster. Read on for my ScaleBlaster review.Why Care About Hard Water? Hard water tends to be high in calcium and magnesium. Even though these usually make water taste better, they pose many problems when used in a home w...

Are these sprouts? Are these microgreens? Is their a difference between the two? The answer is: Yes there is a difference. I grow both and if you keep reading, I'll describe how they differ and which one in my opinion is the overall winner in the Sprouts vs. Microgreens battle.Growing Sprouts vs. Microgreens So why would anyone want to grow sprouts or microgreens, especially instead of a full grown plant of the same variety? There are some easy answers here and some others that are more ...

In the last issue of Fermenting Solutions, I mentioned that trying to keep my mycology grow room warm was becoming an issue. Each month, the arrival of my electric bills was starting to induce sticker shock. When I decided to have a year round mushroom growing setup it was only natural to put it in the warmest room in my house. My indoor gardening setup was already there. So why not add mushrooms? The increase in costs to maintain the temperature was making it obvious that this wasn't go...

When I stopped working a corporate job, one of the first things I started regularly doing in my 'new found' time was to go backpacking. Why can't I get enough of Backpacking? Why do others find it so frightening? Let me show you some potential ways to loving the many joys of backpacking. Initially, my main goal for experiencing the joys of backpacking was to spend time in deep nature. Most of the hiking trails around me are very crowded (even more so since the pandemic). Many of the people th...

If there's one thing that 2020 has taught me, it's that most people are terrible small business customers. Sure, people like to claim that they are small business supporters, until you actually look at their behavior as consumers. These behaviors make them very far away from being the ideal small business customer. It's likely a culmination of many things... many people are experiencing financial hardship and looking for ways to save money. Many of my biggest complaints stem from the support ...