September/October 2022

Grit

Rural American Know-How

Grit1 min read
Grit
ALLISON SARKESIAN, Lead Editor OSCAR H. WILL III, Editor at Large INGRID BUTLER REBECCA MARTIN JESSICA MITCHELL ILENE REID AMANDA SORELL JEAN TELLER CARLA TILGHMAN BRENDA ESCALANTE; BEscalante@OgdenPubs.com SHELLY BRYANT, Art Director TONYA OLSON, Di
Grit2 min read
Farewell To Summer
Summer has always been my favorite season. I know, it’s hot and there are bugs galore. But I can’t help it; I’m a summer lover through and through. And now, this September/October time marks the transition from summer to fall, which is always a bit s
Grit5 min read
Bring The Community Together With Bonfire Cookouts
Fall is a wonderful time of year in Ohio. The oppressive heat of summer has been replaced by mild days and cool, crisp nights. More than 100 kinds of deciduous trees put on a fantastic show with the brightest oranges, reds, and yellows imaginable. Fo
Grit2 min read
Catching Up With Our Social Circle
The “Mother Earth News and Friends” podcast is produced by our sister publication Mother Earth News. Explore these episodes and more at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. By John Marshall If you’ve ever seen the red f
Grit5 min read
Childhood Memories
I enjoyed reading Our View in the January/February 2022 issue. It was my first GRIT magazine! One of my brothers used to walk up and down the Ripley-Butler county line road to deliver the GRIT newspaper to our neighbors. It sold for 10 cents at that
Grit2 min read
Reader Tips From Rural America
I enjoyed your article on container herb gardens in the May/June 2022 issue (“Small-Space Container Herb Gardens”). We built a sturdy decorative fence outside our kitchen door and planted herbs in 21 ⁄2-gallon calf feeder pails. They had built-in bra
Grit5 min readRegional & Ethnic
Pie Fri
I’ve long associated weekends with pizza — buying a slice from a walkup window while I’m out on the town, or ordering a pie to pair with a movie and wind down from the workweek. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, these pizzas were almost always made by so
Grit7 min read
Saving Biennial Seeds
If I’ve read it once, I’ve read it a dozen times: “Saving biennial seeds is a challenge.” It seems many of my gardening books take the position that it’s too hard for the novice and that we’d be better off buying more seed packets every year instead.
Grit9 min readDiet & Nutrition
Make Vinegar FROM SCRATCH
For thousands of years, vinegar happened in the same way—whether on purpose or by accident—slowly, over time. The history of the word in the West would lead one to believe vinegar is the result of an oversight: The French term vin aigre (“sour wine”)
Grit7 min read
ADD GARLIC to Your Garden Lineup
Although I grew up helping my family care for a large garden on our farm, and I’ve grown vegetables most of my adult life, I never thought to grow my own garlic. It was easy to buy at the grocery store, and I’d never tasted homegrown garlic, so I did
Grit7 min read
Seek Out Small Farms
I remember seeing local farms and farmstands everywhere when I was growing up. My mom and I often visited local farms to pick up produce that we didn’t or couldn’t grow ourselves. We did so to help support the farmers, to get the freshest seasonal pr
Grit7 min read
Farmsteading Profits Beyond Meat, Eggs, and Vegetables
You’ve probably heard the joke about how to make $1 million in farming: You have to start with $2 million. Farming is a notoriously tough profession to earn a profit in, and those margins are particularly tight if you operate a small farm or are tryi
Grit6 min readDiet & Nutrition
How to Can Venison
Venison a is one of my favorite foods. After developing taste for home-canned deer meat, I don’t much care for meat from other animals. While I continue to love venison steaks, roasts, and ground meat, one of my hands-down favorite ways to eat deer m
Grit6 min read
Radiant Radishes: A FABULOUS FALL CROP
Juicy, spicy radishes are a quintessential spring crop, and a perfect addition to crisp, fresh salads of choice baby greens straight from soil. Most radishes don’t tolerate heat and require soil temperatures cooler than 75 degrees Fahrenheit for good
Grit9 min read
CRAFT A Better Leather Apron
In this article, I want to share how to turn a deer hide into an apron you can use around your garden, in your workshop, or at your grill. (To learn how to tan a deer hide, check out one of my earlier articles online at www.MotherEarthNews.com/DIY-De
Grit6 min read
CONSTRUCT A Sturdy Clothesline
Laundry is like the mail, in the sense that you can expect some every day. In the warmer months, rural folks often take advantage of the sun’s drying power by hanging their laundry on a clothesline. With minimal investment, you can create an easy and
Grit8 min read
Grit Recommended Products
In The Home-Scale Forest Garden, Dani Baker shares what she learned as she became a forest gardener, providing a practical, in-depth guide to creating a beautiful, bountiful edible landscape at any scale. Baker provides information on planning, plant
Grit7 min read
Getting Started with a Livestock Guardian Dog
“I just brought home a livestock guardian dog. Now what?” I read this question almost every day on various online livestock guardian dog forums. First, congratulations! Second, here are some tips on how to welcome your working dog to your farm. Hopef
Grit5 min read
Bovine Leukemia Virus A Call to Action
Bovine leukemia virus currently infects almost half of all dairy cows and about a third of beef cattle in the United States. It reduces milk production, shortens the infected animals’ life spans, and disrupts their immune systems. The virus is so wid
Grit1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Roodoodle
“Want s’more?” “You bet — ‘s’more’ longer skewers than what Charlie’s got. He’s already roasted more than his marshmallow.” “Smells like Sunday dinner out here.” ■

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