“In the long view, no nation is any healthier than its children or more prosperous than its farmers.” -President Harry Truman Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Children and adolescents who are obese are more likely to be obese as adults and are therefore …Read More about Why Changing the Conversation About Food Matters
About Dave Creech
Crop Rotation Log
Keeping track of your crop rotation plan is a good practice to get into. At Modern Steader we started tracking our crop rotation schedule with a simple Crop Rotation Log to allow us to plan ahead and work efficiently. You can download the PDF of the Crop Rotation Log and fill in the blanks or …Read More about Crop Rotation Log
Building the Raised Planters
Building the Raised Planters for the Edible Learning Lab Our raised planters in the Edible Learning Lab are custom designed for our specific needs. We use short legs so our younger students have good access to the planters. We recommend between 24″ and 30″ for the leg height. We also use shallow planters using 2×8 …Read More about Building the Raised Planters
How Compost Works
To understand how compost works, we must first understand what compost is… Compost – noun 1. The product resulting from the controlled biological decomposition of organic material that has been sanitized through the generation of heat and stabilized to the point that it is beneficial to plant growth. And how is compost produced? (From the US …Read More about How Compost Works
Why Compost Heats Up
There are two primary types of composting: Cold composting and hot composting. The most common form of composting most of us will see at the household or small community level will be a cold composting process that resembles what we find in nature. It is a passive system of composting where organic matter is simply …Read More about Why Compost Heats Up
The Value of Compost
Composting, especially in this day and age, just makes good sense. The practice represents a responsible way to handle waste and reduce our burden on landfills and the environment. Of course, it has a host of benefits for the garden as well. In the Lab, we focus our discussion on several of the core benefits …Read More about The Value of Compost
How to Identify Peak Ripeness
Produce generally available to us at the local big-box grocery store is anything but “peak ripeness”. Most fruits and vegetables are picked early so that they ripen while in transit from another country or at best the other side of the US. Others are picked early and forced to ripen by artificial means, greatly impacting the flavor …Read More about How to Identify Peak Ripeness
Pruning for Optimal Yield
Pruning can be tricky and for the beginning gardener, a bit scary. Proper pruning of your plants, however, will ultimately lead to stronger, healthier more productive plants. The trick to this is having some initial understanding of why we are pruning, what we’re trying to achieve and how best to go about it. In our vegetable …Read More about Pruning for Optimal Yield
Pollination Methods
It’s time to have The Talk. You know, about the birds and the bees… That’s right, it’s time to talk about pollination in the garden. Without successful transfer of pollen between the male and female parts of the flower we won’t have any fruits or veggies to eat, and we also won’t have any new …Read More about Pollination Methods
How to Transplant Starts
You started a whole gaggle of seeds indoors, happily sprouting under the warm glow of electric grow lights, and now it’s time to move your babies into the garden. But what can you do to insure that these sensitive, fragile little guys are successful out in the big, bad world? It can be a little …Read More about How to Transplant Starts