Some of My Favorite Recipes

Last Monday and Tuesday it was raining slugs. That's where they come from you know, they come in the rain. With the lush foliage and the ponds in every part of the Farm I have no shortage of slugs, so I will be very wealthy when they finally discover that slug slime cures seventy-six point four percent of the known diseases and forty-eight percent of the diseases we have yet to discover.

Until then what money the birds haven't eaten, the slugs are mouin down on, so I went out with a cardboard sign and gathered some spare change to make myself up some beer substitute. Not for Phil but to trap the slugs.

Slightly cheaper than beer, just as effective (maybe better, I've never gotten a cup crammed full of slugs) and Dirt isn't freakin' out because I know longer crack open one of his cold ones and pour it in a cup for the slugs to slurp on.

I plunked the cup back down into the hole after I dumped the pile up above and there were still some fellas clinging to the sides, they must have been on their way in.

Mix 1 teaspoon of Brewer's yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar into 1 cup water.

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For a larger batch just multiply it out. I save big juice jugs and put a big batch in the jug to use through out my garden. One of my morning duties while out with my slug scissors is to empty the dead out and refill with more Slug Juice.

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I cut a hole in the ground with my skinny trowel but I make sure it isn't too flush with the ground so the beetles don't fall in. Slugs can climb well enough to get their treat.

Somebody else that needs a little treat but their treat feeds them instead of trapping them are the hummers. And man are they hummin' around here, it is life threatening (to people) sometimes with how crazy they get. I found that the little bottles are better as the syrup doesn't stay in them as long decreasing the potential for uck to grow.

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These came in the house for a quick scrub but most days one of us just totes the water can around the farm and fill the little bottles with this:

One cup sugar in four cups of water bring to a boil and then cool.

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But my best recipe today is my rose and bloomer fertilizer made from five gallons of alfalfa pellets (sold in fifty or twenty-five pound sacks at your local feed stores), half a gallon of fish liquid and half gallon carton of Epsom salt (drug store).

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Put all of this in a big plastic garbage can and fill up eh sorta half way, let it soak over night so the pellets fall apart and you get a sludgy mix like the one below.

This can be used as a side dressing for roses and other bloomers. Or not so much water for a denser mix and use it in the planting hole before setting a plant.

Wine recipes are Dirt's job. So when he finishes up the hatching box and a couple of sheep shearing jobs I'll have him share some of his deep dark secrets.

Have a great night Dear Reader, I am late for bed, nighty night. Off to sleep with the bullfrogs.