Wilderstead

This video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUSgm... shows our method of growing and processing luffas for sponges. Luffas (loofahs) have been grown for centuries as both a food item and a scrubby sponge like item that can be used just like any other sponge or dish scrubby. The best part, these home grown sponges are completely biodegradable and put zero micro-plastics into the environment. It's also really cool telling folks that in a northern climate like us, gardening zone 3, we grow and produce our own sponges from luffa gourds!

#Wilderstead #canadianhomesteaders #luffa #loofah #growyourown

1 year ago | [YT] | 43

Wilderstead

Are you growing luffas this year? Have you started your luffa seeds yet? If you haven't, you should. Our biggest and best quality luffas take 11 months from seed to sponge. We start these in February and harvest them in December.

#luffas #loofah #loofahsponge #growyourown

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1 year ago | [YT] | 59

Wilderstead

If you're in a cold climate like we are, February is when your gardening season should be starting. These are the four vegetable seeds that we start in February to ensure we get HUGE harvests of each one. For the most part, we grow a full years worth of each of these vegetables. It might seem too early to start, but our annual bounty of each of these vegetables says otherwise. Most seed packs say to start seeds 6-8 weeks before your last spring frost. We've found that is simply not the case. 12-16 weeks are needed for some of these vegetables in order to see good results in colder climates. Watch this video for the whole story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGVJg...

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1 year ago | [YT] | 122

Wilderstead

This evening I learned that preparing 28 loofahs for drying while also making a video about how we grew and processed all of them takes a lot of time and energy to do! Now Dave gets to edit 4 hrs of video from two cameras to create a wonderful learning experience so that you too can grow and create your own sponges 🧽 😂

The house might be entirely covered in loofah guts and seeds….

#loofah #grow #growstuff #homegrown

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2 years ago | [YT] | 90

Wilderstead

TONIGHT! There is a VERY strong chance we'll see a similar Aurora Borealis event to what occurred over the night of Sept 18 - 19, last week.

A strong solar storm is currently happening. The KP index is currently at 6 which would allow the lights to be seen throughout much of Ontario as well as many other regions in Canada.

The show should start shortly after sunset, so expect the first visible lights to appear once the sky has darkened.

As is always the case with the Aurora - the event may not manifest. BUT - you won't see it if you don't look for it.

*(Photo from last weeks event)

2 years ago | [YT] | 81

Wilderstead

NEW VIDEO! A while back we built this really nifty solar food dehydrator. After using it to dry a number of different food items, we felt it was finally time to share the video about how we built it and how it works. This giant unit has allowed us to really ramp up our dehydrating capacity here. During the growing season, we are running 2 smaller electric units pretty much full time. This has made a BIG difference for us.

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2 years ago | [YT] | 136

Wilderstead

It’s gonna be blistering hot for the next several days so we’re taking advantage of the sunshine and heat to make a whole bunch of sun dried tomatoes. These tasty tidbits - especially the cherry tomatoes - are like candy once they’ve dried out. And chewy like liquorice or taffy. Yum!

We built this solar dehydrator a while back and it works amazing. Complete with a solar powered fan to remove moisture from the unit as the contents dehydrate. Should have a video out soon about building it and how it works.

Tomato varieties are: Arla, Champion, Bibi and Sweet Yellow Cherry.

#wilderstead #gardeninghomesteadingskills #canadianhomesteaders

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2 years ago | [YT] | 103

Wilderstead

We have finally managed to tally up and edit together our SPRING weigh in totals for the Global Gardening & Homesteading Community Challenge. We're on team ‪@homesteadaquarius‬ and we're up agains team ‪@WILLITGROW‬ and team Wilson's Misfits. Check out our latest video for the full weigh in.

#gardeninghomesteadingskills #growyourownfood #wilderstead

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 42

Wilderstead

Here's a neat method to use all of your tomato 'waste' from processing: https://youtu.be/lQ4HuN4NnPQ
It's getting to the point in the season that a lot of folks are processing their home grown tomatoes. This is a great recipe to use up your skins, seeds and cores to make a lovely tomato paste with tomato parts that you might otherwise throw away.

#realfood #tomatoes #gardeninghomesteadingskills #canning #preserving

2 years ago | [YT] | 48

Wilderstead

It's time to BROC 'N' ROLL! I know - that was broc-ward....sorry. It was finally time to harvest most of our broccoli heads though. With any luck we'll get a few more little shoots that produce some smaller heads for us. 20 plants did great for us this year. And a couple we'll leave to go to seed. This is mainly another freezer crop for us. You can only eat some much of it fresh before you realize it'll be another entire year before you can grow more of it.

I feel like a broc star 😜🤘🥦

‪@WILLITGROW‬ ‪@homesteadaquarius‬

#canadianhomesteaders #gardeninghomesteadingskills #realfood

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2 years ago | [YT] | 85