Straw As Mulch Around Newly Planted Blueberry "Bushes" Back in early winter when things were dreary, we got a fruit plant catalog in the mail. Looking through it, I got carried away and made a pretty significant and somewhat crazy order. I ordered blueberry bushes (we really don't have the right soil and will need to stay on top of amendments), gooseberries, elderberries (we have wild elderberry bushes but I wanted more...), a rhubarb variety that I wanted to add to our "col

We took another step in our cheesemaking adventure this weekend, as Maggie's Amish friend gave us another couple of gallons of fresh milk. So far we have made mozzarella and paneer, which are sort of free form, soft cheeses made by adding acid such as vinegar or citric acid to curdle the milk. We bought some starter culture, rennet, and a small cheese press to make a hard cheese that can be grated or sliced. We are starting with a simple farmhouse cheddar. This cheese does no