Organic Garden Solution for Bugs

I was organic gardening before it was popular, but I had no idea.  Growing up, my mom was constantly tending to her multiple compost piles and elaborate garden.  I'll never forget the one day we got a panicked call from the neighbors saying the compost pile was smoking and appeared to be about to catch fire!  It wasn't, but it was working so well that smoke was coming up from it!

Needless to say with my my mother's constant supply of fresh compost and tender loving care - the garden flourished.  I learned at a very early age that a healthy garden was not one full of pesticides.  Turning to pesticides was a last resort.  Setting up a garden (veggie or fruit in particular) needs to have the right balance. 

My mom and I had planted an elaborate rose garden one year and I remember there was an infestation of bugs.  My mom didn't make a made dash for pesticides, instead we stocked up on lady bugs!  Lady bugs eat smaller bugs and are an inexpensive and non toxic way to eliminate bugs FAST. 

So when my newly planted lime tree was infested with black bugs I made a mad dash to the local nursery to buy a canister of live lady bugs!  At a cost of about $8 (for 1500 live lady bugs!) it was a great solution and talk about an organic approach!  And not to mention the endless fun my boys had as lady bugs filled the yard and needed rescuing from puddles, etc.

Within 24 hours (literally) the massively infested lime tree was completely clean of the black bugs!

What tips and tricks do you have for finding the natural balance in your garden without turning to chemicals?

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Winner of the Organic Meat!

And the winner of the Rocky Mountain Organic Ground Beef Pack is:

~Kristen~ The DVC Mom,  October 7, 2010 6:16 AM  

My last tweet for meat! @DVCMom
http://twitter.com/#!/DVCMom/status/26647204436

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Organic meats delivered to your door?

We recently watched the movie Food, inc.  If you haven't seen it, you've most likely at least heard about it.  You've probably also heard that it will forever affect the way you look at our food supply, some people I know have even become vegetarians after watching it.  One thing I took away from the movie is the need to be more aware of where my food was coming from.  I've always had a love for gardening so I personally made a commitment to cultivating more of our fruits and vegetables whenever possible.  That wasn't a tough choice for me, have you ever tasted the difference between a vine ripened tomato and a standard store bought tomato?  It's like night and day.

I admit I've always had vegetarian tendencies, but I do love the occasional delicious hamburger, hot dog or steak.  So my struggle was to find a way to feel better about the beef I fed my family.  In the movie Food inc., they profiled an Organic sustainable cattle farmer who is going back to the way cattle ranching used to be.  I've had the privilege of connecting with another rancher who believes in 100% grass fed cows, no steroids, no antibiotics and good old fashioned fresh air!  What's even better is that you can order the meats directly from him and they arrive at your door, perfectly frozen (no worries about freezer burn because of the way they are sealed, packed and shipped).  For the record, this is who Jamie Oliver's people called when they were in town and needed a supply of meat!   Rocky Mountain Organic Meats sent me a package to sample the products and I was floored to see how fresh the meat was, but it also arrived still completely frozen and perfect.

This is the actual package that arrived!

I decided to test the burgers out on my husband.  His reaction was priceless... he immediately commented that it was the best, freshest meat he had ever tasted!  (He's brutally honest when it comes to things like this too!)  The steaks were amazing, as well as the hot dogs and ground meat.  We also got the chance to sample the beef sticks.  Well, ok... I got to sample one and my husband snagged the rest, promising me they were delicious but that they were all his.  They just didn't have the normal preservative filled taste that beef sticks tend to have.

I was sold.  So it's going to take a little more logistic planning on my part, but I plan on purchasing as much of my beef that I cook for my family from Rocky Mountain Organic Meats as I can.  The prices are very reasonable and the far superior taste of the meat makes the extra planning steps worth it in my opinion. 

So enough about MY opinion of how much better the meat tastes from Rocky Mountain Organic Meats... let's have a giveaway!!!  Rocky Mountain Organic Meats is generously offering the 10 pounds organic burger patty package to one lucky reader! 

The giveaway will go until October 8th, 2010 at 11:59pm and is only open to residents of the contiguous U.S.  When leaving comments, be sure I have a way to contact you, I reserve the right to pick another winner if I am not able to contact the winner in a reasonable amount of time.  The winner will be picked using Random.org.

Mandatory first entry: Head over to the Rocky Mountain Organic Meats website and tell us what product you'd like to try most. (this is allowed once per day until the giveaway closes)

How to enter:

• Subscribe to email feed or other feed subscription for OCMomActivities.com (or if you already are, just say that) 
• Become a Fan of Rocky Mountain Organic Meats or OCMomActivities on Facebook (say so if you already are)
• Follow Rocky Mountain Organic Meats or OCMomActivities on Twitter (1 extra entry)
• Mention/link this giveaway in a blog post or tweet about it (1 extra entry each allowed once per day until the giveaway ends) 
• Go comment on another post on OCMomActivities.com then come back and comment on this one saying you did it (this is an unlimited number of extra entries as long as you do the extra commenting!)

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