Should you Switch to Cast Iron Cookware Lodge Consumer Review

Isnt cast iron hard to clean? Wont it rust? Doesnt everything stick to the pans when you cook? Why should I spend more money on cast iron when I can get these awesome non-stick pans for so cheap? These are some of the questions that rolled around in my head when I first started thinking about cast iron. I hope to shed some light on these questions as well as share my experience with the Lodge brand of cast iron in this discussion.

My wife and I like to take a day or two a month and have some TV learning time. Outside of researching things online, in eBooks, and in print sitting down with a cup of coffee and a good documentary is our favorite source of inspiration. If you are going to sit in front of a TV why not learn something, right? The more and more we watching the most recent documentaries about plastic the more we knew we needed to make a household change. The SSLFamilyMom has already done a couple of articles on plastic so I wont be a broken record but the bottom line is that we purged our home of all the plastic we could find. This purge presented several challenges with one being what do we cook with? Having almost all plastic utensils as to not scrap or damage our gentle non-stick pots and pans we needed to think about a better option. Welcome to the Cast Iron world....

We started researching cast iron months before the plastic purge and had some ideas of what we needed in mind. After some careful reviews and research we decided to go with a package to start from a company called Lodge. This set came with one griddle, two different sized frying pans, and a Dutch oven. I also ordered a separate bread loaf pan later on. These five items have suited our needs thus far as we start on our non-stick free, plastic free, and kitchen junkware free life.

The pans we have came pre-seasoned (process of allowing the iron to soak in oils) from the factory so not much was needed to get started. They are beautiful deep black and just looking at them makes you want to fry up some bacon and eggs for a farm style breakfast. The Dutch oven is perfect for soup, stew, broth, whole chickens, or breads and will also serve as a great camping items as well. The griddle is excellent for making homemade tortillas, frying eggs, pancakes, etc. The two sized frying pans are our go to for most of our cooking from eggs, bacon, ground beef, whole meals, and anything else you can fit in a frying pan.

The surface is not perfectly non-stick like the cheap Teflon coated pans however it is not hard to cook on at all and with the aid of a real stainless steel spatula you will have no trouble cooking with ease. The longer and better you season the iron the better the finish becomes. They will not rust if properly cared for and even if you let them sit out in the rain you can clean them up with steel wool and re-season them back to new. These pans are indestructible, run them over, leave them out, drop them, scrap them, burn them, bash them, and do whatever you want and they will not break. These are the things that will last a lifetime and provide years and years of cooking for you, your children, and probably your grandchildren. So why buy plastic, Teflon, and non-stick garbage?

Below are some of the items that we have and have found to be of high quality and American made

The fiver piece set - http://amzn.to/1N7mEvY
Dutch Oven - http://amzn.to/1CKD0cN
Griddle - http://amzn.to/1CKD10C
Lodge scrub brush - http://amzn.to/1IldX0m
10" frying pan - http://amzn.to/1Ile24a
5" Frying pan - http://amzn.to/1LP1U0E








All of these products and more recommended items from the SSL Family are available at the Simple Suburban Living General Store



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Iron in Aquaponics Nutrient Deficiency Guide and Supplementation

Leaves turning yellow? In any aquaponics or hydroponics system there are bound to be some nutrient deficiencies from time to time. In this video I will be talking about how I have been identifying Iron deficiencies specifically and also how to supplement iron.

Iron can be one of the more difficult nutrients to supplement naturally and also sometimes hard to tell when it is deficient. Last year I did a video on how nutrients are taken up by plants given different pH ranges. You can find that video here - https://youtu.be/9_yT0w3HmAo. Iron is only required nutrient that is really only available to plants at a very low pH. This can effect your growth in different ways whether you are doing hydroponics, aquaponics, or traditional gardening. Unfortunately you cannot just add some rust nails to the system and provide iron for your plants (although that would be nice). Iron comes in many different ionic combinations and it is certain types that are readily available as a nutrient to be taken up by most plants at pH levels above 6.5.

I have been using an iron chelate derived from DTPA which is available to plants at pH levels of almost 8. This can be especially important for newer systems that are running higher pH levels. Using a chelated iron means that the iron power is in a state that will allow the plants direct access to the nutrient without them having to change its state or using any other chemical trickery at the roots to allow the iron to be accepted. The kind of chelated iron I am using can be found below.

Chelated Iron (DTPA) - 1LB - http://amzn.to/1SjqEMA (This is a different brand than I have but the same product

So now that we know what to add to our system how do we know when? Generally iron deficiencies can be identified by yellowing of the leaves. Although there are other deficiencies that also share this symptom iron deficiencies are a yellowing of mainly the leaf and not the veins of the leaf. There are some great deficiency guides out there to help you visually identify which nutrient or nutrients are deficient in your garden or advances growing systems. Here are a few links to some guide others have shared with me -


Nutrient Deficiency guide used in the video - http://ammanutri.com/images/Symptoms%20of%20Micronutrient%20Deficiency%20in%20Plants.jpg


Thanks Grotlek for the nutrient deficiency guide - http://www.atlantishydroponics.com/images/manuals/plantnutrients.pdf

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Music - "On Brevity" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/OnBrevity

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