Healthy and cheap ways to clean house

I tried to think of a way to make this post sound more interesting. Cleaning isn't exactly exciting to me, but it is neccessary, and since we have three kids and two dogs, I spend a decent chunk of time each week cleaning up. Most household cleaning supplies are not really eco friendly. They are also mostly toxic, and pollute not only the water system they're dumped into, but also the air in our homes. I don't particularly like the idea of keeping a bunch of toxic chemicals around when I have curious children and less than intelligent animals roaming around. To top it all off, cleaning products are expensive! I can't imagine how much money I have spent on various cleansers to do a variety of different jobs, and their eco-friendly counterparts are almost double and sometimes triple the cost of conventional supplies. For years I have used white vinegar and water to clean most things, and baking soda as an abrasive. We recently switched to Dr. Bronners liquid castille soaps for our dish soap, shampoo, and we also use it for our reusable wipes. I was still spending too much money (in my opinion) on laundry soap and dishwasher detergent. My sister-in-law, and a close friend both make their own laundry detergent using borax, washing soda, and one form or other of grated bar soap. I got the recipe, gave it a try, and have been very happy with the results! It's pretty easy to make, safe for the environment, and saves tons of money! After a bit of research I also found a recipe online also using borax and washing soda with the addition of citric acid and kosher salt to make dishwasher detergent. I used this with some success for a few days, but we have very hard water, and no amount of tinkering with the recipe has helped. I'm back to seventh generation stuff for now, but I hope to one day find a recipe that works! Without further rambling, here are the recipes for laundry soap and dishwasher detergent.
Laundry Soap:
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap, or 1 bar Ivory soap, OR 1/2 bar Dr. Bronners soap (I use lavender scent) grated.
Mix the grated soap, washing soda and borax in a bowl with a spoon for about five minutes, or until it's thoroughly mixed. You could use the food processor too if you like. Use about a tablespoon per load. Easy as pie, and super cheap.

Dishwasher detergent:
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup citric acid (I used Ball Fruit Fresh in the canning section. Some people use a packet of Kool-aid, and some use a product called Lemmi shine)
1/4-1/2 cup kosher salt.
Mix it up. Fill the rinse agent compartment with white vinegar (works as well as Jet Dry).

A New Chapter

Earlier this week we found out that our offer on a farmette was accepted! We are extremely happy to start this new chapter in our lives. Right now the possibilities are endless. I look forward to a summer filled with back breaking but rewarding labor and a lot of learning. Some of our long term plans involve goats, chickens, growing as much of our own veggies as possible, berry bushes, art studios, patios, and even a private vineyard...I'm getting carried away. I do know that this is an amazing opportunity for our family and if it weren't for the love and support of extended family it would be much harder to make this a reality right now. That is also one of the main things I look forward to in this venture. A multi-generational household. What an awesome way to strengthen family bonds and teach children a wonderful sense of community within their own family! We have so much to learn from one another. This year will be busy for sure, but also filled with positive change. With all of the adventure in store, I hope to be able to improve on my blogging and hopefully inspire folks to embrace a more earth and family nurturing lifestyle. It has been nothing but good for my family, and continues to foster emotional and intellectual growth. I look forward to posting pictures of our work in progress, and sharing this beautiful experience with all of you!

Strawberry Bourbon time....almost.

Today I planted peas. I think sugar snaps are probably one of  my all time favorite things to grow. I remember eating them right out of my parents garden when I was young. They taste like spring time! Any way, I planted the peas, and this weekend or next I will start my potatoes, which I am growing in trash cans this year. So, while I was out there planting, and digging, and cursing my asshole dog for digging a huge hole next to the garden fence so he could eat old eggshells out of the compost, I started thinking about summer, and food....again. And after I thought about how I would trade my dog for just one summertime tomato, I started thinking about strawberry season, and more specifically, the strawberry bourbon I "made" last spring. We picked a ton of strawberries last year. So much that I have just this week used the last of the frozen berries! Any way, that bourbon was amazing, and there was pretty much nothing to it. I just cut up some fresh ripe berries and put them in a quart sized mason jar, which I then filled with Maker's Mark bourbon. I think I managed to let them sit a full twenty-four hours before I had some. I will do this again soon, and it will make me happy. Hopefully, I will be able to sip on my bourbon while eating some super fresh sugar snaps!

Anticipating Asparagus

Our garden from 2010

This year of local eating has been pretty lucky for us. We've met some wonderful farmers who share our goal of preserving the environment, we have read many labels at the grocery store, and learned a whole lot about where our food comes from. We were also lucky that here in Virginia, we have had a mild winter, and have been able to buy many vegetables from a farmer who is just fifteen minutes from us! Pretty amazing. While I'm grateful for the dark green collards, kale, and broccoli, and beautiful cabbages and sweet potatoes of winter, I am so ready for asparagus! I saw it at the grocery store the other day. All bundled up with it's friends in a nice tidy row with water droplets shining on it's sleek and slender green surface. It was beautiful, and I was oh so tempted, but I reminded myself that April is just around the corner, and promptly wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth as I set off to get the milk that I came for. Longing for asparagus reminded me that it is time I started my own vegetable seeds for the season. I ordered them this year from a company called "Vegan Seeds" who advertise their seeds as a sort of post apocalypse repopulating the food source type of deal (weirdos...ahem) anyway, they were cheap, and organic and non-GMO, so I bought them. They came in a nice Mylar bag (for long term storage) and were simply labeled with printed instructions for planting and saving seeds. As long as they actually grow, I'm a happy customer. Any way, tonight, I got out the little seed starting pots, grabbed a bag of potting soil, and fired up the grow lights. So far, I started several varieties of tomato, cucumber, and zucchini. If the rain would just let up for a couple of days, I would put the peas in the ground, and in a couple of weeks, the potatoes! Then the beans, and herbs, and lettuces!

The girls first lemonade stand

I am for the first time in a long time, ready for summer. Normally I'm not a huge fan of mosquitoes, 100 plus degree days, long periods of drought, and high electric bills, but eating seasonally has given summer an appeal that it lacked before. I plan to look at it through rose...or tomato colored glasses this year. I also plan to take more photos since my sweet husband bought me a new camera for Christmas this year. Yes, lots of muddy hands holding earth worms, budding vegetable plants, harvest baskets over flowing with the bounty of the season, and probably some beach and pool photos mixed in as well. And maybe, just maybe, I'll look back on those pictures when it's cold and harsh in the winter, and we aren't so lucky to have lovely dark greens, and beautiful cabbages, and I will once again look forward to summer!

Peaceful Home

My home is many things to me. Obviously it's where I live with my family, and where all my stuff goes. It's also my place of work, which sometimes makes it hard for me to relax here. Think about being at your job day and night. It would be hard to wind down, or stop thinking about work when it's staring you in the face until you pass out in a drunken wine stupor each night. One of my goals going forward this year, is to create a more relaxing vibe in my home...for me. I think if I can just keep chores out of the living room, and kitchen area visible from the living room (yeah right) that should do it. Since taking on some of the day to day tasks of self sufficiency, keeping a neat and tidy house is not my top priority. As long as it's clean, I'll live. But I still want it to feel warm and cozy and have that feeling of family and love. I've been inspired by a few different blogs lately. Mainly "Soule Mama", which is my super fav right now, and just as soon as this sometimes computer illiterate mama here figures out how to post a link, I'll do that. The idea is turn of the century farm house. Very fitting, don't you think? Rustic wood, vintage fabric patterns, and gentle, clean and natural looking paint colors accented by as many old lady afghans as I can get my hands on at the Goodwill! I think having the right aesthetics will make all the difference in my relaxing. That, and plenty of family snuggles and pinot noir.

Sunday, fun day!

About a month ago I started making yogurt. I had read about people making their own yogurt for a while, but was a little bit afraid to try. I was surprised that it was relatively easy. It's definitely cheaper, and keeps that many more plastic containers from ending up in a landfill somewhere. It does require some time, and patience. Since Sunday is usually our day to just hang around the house, it's the perfect day for yogurt making. It's a process with just a couple of steps. You heat the milk up, cool it back down, add the cultures and then six to ten hours of waiting. Obviously perfect for making before bed, and culturing overnight, but I like to hover over my kitchen experiments. As a result of my need to micromanage bacterial growth, I end up spending Sunday in the kitchen. It's actually nice. I get a lot of my more time consuming food preparation done, and I feel a sense of accomplishment when it's done. Sometimes I make various cold salads for the weeks lunches, dinners for the busy nights when the kids have violin and swimming, condiments, and any thing else that would be impractical to make during the week. There's something deeply satisfying to me about providing healthy food for my family, and doing it in a way that saves money. I always just assumed that certain things were just too complicated to make at home, and that's why they are bought at the grocery store. It turns out that most things are pretty easy to make at home if you have some basic cooking skills, and the will to learn, of course. I realize many people don't enjoy cooking, so the thought of spending a day doing that is not appealing, but I love it and it works for our family.
To make yogurt, you need a starter culture. You can use yogurt from the grocery store for this as long as it is plain and has active live cultures. I made my first batch that way. After that you save a little bit of the yogurt you have made to use as a starter for a new batch. Unfortunately this method is not sustainable for more than two or three batches. The cultures weaken and die off, and you have to buy more yogurt. I really wanted something that could be used indefinitely, so I did some research and found a site that sells heirloom cultures. They didn't cost too much, and should last as long as I make a new batch every seven days or so. If I don't need or want yogurt one week, I can just make a small amount to save the culture. Pretty neat stuff. As far as equipment, you can buy expensive yogurt makers or you can use your crock-pot, like I do. There are other methods that I have read about, but the crock-pot seemed easiest to me.
Here is the method I used:
You'll need a crock-pot, regular cooking pot, spoon, and a thermometer (I use an instant read meat thermometer, but I suspect a candy thermometer would work better).
Turn your crock-pot on low to heat it up.
In a pot on the stove, slowly heat the milk to 185 degrees. The amount of milk you use is the amount of yogurt you make, so if you use a half gallon of milk (like I do) that makes a half gallon of yogurt. You need about two teaspoons of starter for each cup of milk. I must admit that I sort of wing it here, and add around a quarter cup of starter for a half gallon of milk.
Once the milk reaches 185, remove it from heat and cool it down to 110 degrees. You can just let it cool slowly, or set the pot in a pan or sink with cold water to cool it quickly.
Once the milk reaches 110 degrees, remove a small amount and mix it with your culture in a bowl.
Pour the remaining milk, and the culture/milk mixture into the crock-pot and stir thoroughly.
Put the lid on the crock-pot. Then turn the crock-pot off, and unplug it. Wrap it in a heavy towel (like a big beach towel), and let it sit for six to ten hours. Usually takes about ten for me. DO NOT check it before six hours. DO NOT stir it! When you check it, you can gently tilt the crock-pot slightly to one side. You should be able to see if it's thickened. It will also smell like yogurt.
Once your yogurt has thickened, put the crock-pot in the fridge for a few hours. This allows the yogurt to set and reach it's proper thickness. Otherwise, it may be thin and runny. After it sets up, you can ladle it into whatever containers you will store it in. I usually strain about half of mine using cheese cloth and a seive in the fridge for a couple of hours. It makes a thicker "Greek style" yogurt.
I know the instructions may seem complicated, but I promise it's really not. It's so worth it if you have yogurt lovers in your family.

No knead bread

When beginning our adventure in self-sufficiency, one of the first things I was determined to do was make my own bread. I love cooking and always have, but baking always scared the crap out of me for some reason. I think it's all of the science involved. You can't just throw things together until it tastes just right; you have to be methodical. My first successful loaf of french bread changed my view on baking entirely! I tried several different recipes, and was spending at least three afternoons a week baking bread for a while. Once the novelty of my new found skill wore off, and the other chores began to pile up, abandoned for my love of fresh bread, the routine tapered off. I still love the process of kneading the dough and forming the loaf, but sometimes (often really) I need something that requires less effort.

Enter: "No Knead Bread."

I stumbled across the recipe online and gave it a try. Man, it's amazing. It's a time investment for sure, but very little effort. What you end up with is a beautiful rustic loaf of fresh bread that is crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. Perfect to have with soup, or any meal really, or just with butter. Sweet-sweet delicious butter. This is the recipe, so try it. You won't regret it!

 No Knead Bread
1 and 1/2 cups warm water
1 packet of active dry yeast
3 cups bread flour
3/4 tablespoon kosher salt

Add yeast to warm water. Leave for five minutes. Add flour and salt. Mix until everything comes together. Cover and let sit for up to 20 hours. I have made it after 12 and up to 20. The longer it sits, the more flavor it will have. After 20 hours, turn dough out onto floured surface. Fold all the edges toward the center. Place on a floured towel, and put in a bowl to rise for another hour. Preheat oven to 450 degrees for thirty minutes. Put a pot (cast iron enamel is recommended, but I use a regular cast iron dutch oven) in the oven to preheat. The pot should have a lid that is also oven safe. After the bread has risen, and the pot is preheated plop the dough into the pot. Don't worry about how it looks. It's rustic. Put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. After that, remove the lid and bake for additional 15-20 minutes.

Then, take it out and eat it. I promise you'll be happy!  Seriously.  I'm not drunk. :o)