Living in the suburbs has its benefits. We can ride our bikes or walk to the library and the cute little coffee shop across the street. My husband, who is a volunteer firefighter, can get to the fire hall within seconds of a call coming through on his pager (having been on the needing end of one of those calls recently makes me appreciate a quick response time during those scary moments when minutes and seconds make all the difference). I don’t completely hate the ‘burbs, and I imagine I’ll miss those advantages when we move out to the country (2 years from this month!). There are some drawbacks, though. The lack of privacy being one. How I pine for privacy. Freedom, also. Here in New York, we pay astronomical property taxes for our half acre. Yet, we have very little freedom to do what I like on the property that *WE* pay for, that *WE* pay taxes on. I know I’m likely preaching to the choir. One of our goals as a family to become as self-sufficient as possible. And with 7 mouths to feed, a huge part of self-sufficiency is putting food in those bellies. Unfortunately here, we have to have 3 acres in order to have anything “other than traditional household pets” as per the town ordinances. ::sigh:: No chickens. No goats (even though some of them would be smaller than my 95 lbs lab). And then the light-bulb moment. Rabbits. Rabbits are household pets (for some people). But….I’ve never tasted rabbit. And….I’ve never butchered an animal. And….truth be told, as much as I love this idea of self-sufficiency, I’m feeling […]
Treating a Ear Pain Naturally
It’s the worst feeling in the world when your kids are sick and you’re limited in what you can do to help them. This winter has been a doozy for us. We’ve been sick almost nonstop, regardless of any preventative and natural remedies we’ve put into place. I’m not one to run to the pediatrician’s office at the first sign of illness. Two of my 4 kids have never been on antibiotics before. Not because I’m staunchly anti-antibiotic or anything. It’s just that we haven’t needed them. We don’t get sick often, and when we do get sick, it’s usually something that I can treat at home. But in this case, my 2 year old’s fever was getting pretty high, and he was in a lot of discomfort and had been getting progressively worse despite all of my mama-made efforts and prayers. So, we went to the pediatrician, who confirmed my suspicion. We had a viral respiratory bug (aka: a nasty cold), which had caused bacterial infection in little man’s ear and eyes. He wrote us a prescription for “the pink stuff” to help with the ear infection, and antibiotic eye drops for the eye goop. However, he also told me that a lot of the pink eye and ear infections he’s treated this season have been very antibiotic resistant. In some cases it has taken 3 rounds of antibiotics to kick them. So if we didn’t see any improvement in 48 or so hours, to call him and we’d try something else. Great. So we went home and gave him his first dose and then settled in for the night. Around 2am, I heard […]
Easy DIY Vapor Shower Discs
A couple of weeks ago I was clicking around on the web and stumbled upon this article over at Duxbury Farm girl for Homemade Shower Discs. I’d never heard of such a thing, and commented that I loved the idea and would give it a try next time we had a cold run through the house. Fast forward about 9 days. I woke up feeling a little stuffy, but nothing major. That night we took the kids out trick-or-treating. And true to New York State tradition…it was cold and rainy. This exacerbated the cold, and I woke up on November 1st with a full on chest cold. So it didn’t take long for me to have the opportunity to try out some shower discs of my own. Ask and you shall receive. 😉 So I made up some of these, and am taking some of the elderberry syrup that I made a few weeks ago when my youngest had a cold. Those things combined with running a humidifier at night have made it so that we haven’t needed any store bought cough syrups or pharmaceutical treatments (so far) this cold season. Our colds aren’t lasting as long, and when we do get sick, the symptoms just aren’t as bad as they usually would be. (happy mama!) The base of these little discs is just water and baking soda. Then you can add whatever essential oils you’d like into it, in whatever strength you prefer. For children, the standard recommendation is to cut the dose of essential oils in half, so I’d probably just break one of these discs in half for them. Recipe: – 3 […]
The Easiest Crockpot Applesauce. Ever. (Can it)
I live in New York… the apple state. There are a lot of things I love about this state, most of which have to do with its natural resources. Apples are one of those. Vineyards are another. Mountains…lakes….lush nature. We have a lot of God’s beauty here, and I try to enjoy it and take advantage of it as much as possible. Sure, there are times when I drool at the thought of states with lower property taxes, less strict building codes, looser hunting laws. All the things that make a homesteading lifestyle a bit easier. But ya know…that’s when I come back to that whole “Bloom Where You’re Planted” concept. So this month we headed out on two different occasions to pick apples. We have two apple trees on our property, but the apples were just not good this year. We found U-Pick apples for .80/pound, and picked a little less than 80 lbs. I probably canned about half of those into applesauce, which yielded about 10 quarts. The rest will be saved to eat fresh. We may get out one more time to pick a few more. I’d like to have some more applesauce and also make some apple butter, but we’ll see. We have a busy month ahead and I’m not sure we’ll have time. So. Back to that easiest applesauce EVER recipe. I have two crockpots … a 6 quart and a 3 quart. When I load BOTH of those with chopped apples, it was enough for 5 quarts of applesauce. Just to give you an idea of the amount of apples I used. Crockpot Applesauce: Ingredients: -Apples (we used […]
How to Make Elderberry Syrup
One of the things I’m doing along with our winter preps, is to prepare ourselves for “ick” season, as I like to call it. This includes replenishing my stash of essential oils known to help with cold and flu, such as eucalyptus oil for a natural vapor rub, rosemary, lavender, tea tree, etc. I also made up a batch of Elderberry and Rosehip syrup. Elderberries are high in vitamins which help boost your immune system. It can help your body fight off the “ick”, and also shorten the length and severity of symptoms if you do end up getting sick. It has the added benefit of being safe for men, women (pregnant and nursing…or not), and even children. I purchased my elderberries and rose hips from Bulk Herb Store (affiliate link). They had the best price I could find, and the best shipping costs for me as well. Search around, though. You may live closer to another supplier, allowing for cheaper shipping costs. (Note: Elderberries grow rampantly across many parts of the United States. Ditto for rose hips, actually. You may be able to forage for your own. I tried and was unsuccessful, but will try again next year! Just be sure not to confuse the elderberries with pokeberry.) Ingredients: 1 c. Dried Elderberries (high in Vitamins A, B, and C, and also contains tannins and flavonoids) 1 c. Dried Rose Hips (Added Vitamin C boost, can also be used alone as a delicious tea) 3 1/2 cups water 1/2-1 cup raw honey depending on how sweet you’d like your syrup to be. Optionally, you may had a cinnamon stick, a 1 inch chunk of fresh ginger, […]
Family Updates, Gaden Notes, and Preparing for Winter
It’s been almost two months since my last post. I have good reason…promise. I mentioned in my last post that I’d been feeling ill and exhausted…leaving me feeling slightly burnt out on the ways of simple livin’. You may have guessed … Yep! Baby #5 will arrive in the Spring. I’m well into my second trimester at this point and feeling much, much better. Being able to eat again is such a gloriously glorious thing. Food. My BFF these days. I have pretty rough first trimesters. With the last two babies, I ended up in the hospital dehydrated because of the severe morning sickness. Thank goodness it wasn’t as bad this time around, but I was still feeling very lousy. Tired, moody, tired, sick, tired, moody, sick, sick, sick. You know the drill. Adding to this the fact that my husband was out of town for 3 weeks for work, and we really brought it down to survival mode in our household for the end of Summer. I did eventually start feeling well enough to can the tomatoes when they came rolling in. Our harvest wasn’t as good as it was last year, but we still got enough for lots of salsa, stewed tomatoes, and tomato sauce. I tried this recipe for my tomato sauce. It requires no boiling/peeling of the tomatoes, which I really appreciated. Being efficient with my time is essential, especially when trying to can with 4 little ones running around. There’s nothing fast about canning. Anything I can do to make it faster or more efficient, I’ll try. I know that’s a slightly controversial thing…not peeling the tomatoes. I’m […]
A Simple Life (and the Burn-Out)
What is homesteading? Why would you bother with such a thing when we live in an age with so many modern conveniences? Aren’t there better things to do with your time? Homesteading sounds romantic, but most of us don’t live on acres of land with tons of free time to put these skills to use. Not to mention the money. It costs a lot of money. So why bother doing all this stuff? The gardening, the preserving, the foraging, the constant research (because these are skills that aren’t passed down to us by our parents and grandparents anymore. It’s not second nature anymore. We have to relearn)? Why bother when it’s not the cheapest, easiest, nor the simplest way to go about things? Plus … isn’t it exhausting? Do you ever get burnt out and just want to throw in the towel and join the rest of the 21st century who can accept and appreciate modern day convenience? Sure. Sometimes I get burnt out. Sometimes I wonder why we bother trying to do this stuff. Living simply, cooking from scratch, living on a very humble income, gardening, canning, preserving, and hopefully someday raising livestock. This week, for example. I’ve been feeling rather ill and just plain exhausted. I’m feeling uninspired and once or twice, I’ve looked out at my thriving garden wondering why I put all that energy into it when I’ve been feeling too sick to even be able to enjoy what it’s producing. I wonder if I’ll be feeling well enough to preserve any of it when the tomatoes really start rolling in. Here’s the thing: the alternative kind of stinks. We’ve […]
Plantain Tincture
What’s Plantain?: Plantain is an herb that grows just about everywhere and it’s easy to recognize. For this reason, it’s a great starter for the novice herbalist. It’s been used for hundreds and probably even thousands of years to treat a number of different ailments from dandruff to upper respiratory infections (source). Of course, you should always consult your physician before using any herbal/natural remedy! How Do You Recognize It?: There are a few different varieties of plantain. The one that grows most in my yard, and with which I’m most familiar, is the broadleaf plantain (Plantago Major). It has very distinct Broad Leaves. The veins on the leaves start at the base and extend outward. Plantain also has very distinct flowers (pictured below) and the leaves will usually grow around the base of the flowers (as seen in the middle picture). How Do You Use It?: The leaves and juice from the leaves can be used to treat sunburns, bug bites, and minor scrapes and burns. Plantain contains antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, think of it as a natural Neosporin. It can be made into a tea or tincture to help tummy troubles (diarrhea, indigestion, ulcers). The same tea can be used as a hair rinse to treat dandruff. Plantain is rich in tannins, which can be an aid in stopping bleeding. A tea or tincture applied externally can reduce the itching that comes from poison ivy, poison oak, bug bites, or rashes. What’s a Tincture?: Tinctures are basically extracts of a particular herb. This is usually done with alcohol. It can also be done with vegetable glycerin or apple cider vinegar, but alcohol (vodka or grain alcohol no […]
Simple Tips for Growing Awesome Tomatoes
(Some of my posts may contain referral links. That means that if you clink through one of my links and then purchase something, I get a small commission. Thank you so much!) “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to garden, and the whole neighborhood gets tomatoes.” True story. By now, most of us already have our tomato plants growing in the ground. Up here in the north, I’m starting to see some beautiful little green tomatoes replacing the blossoms. Once a few of them get large enough, I’ll harvest some for fried green tomatoes. Mmmmm. Here are some of my favorite tomato growing tips. I keep it as simple as possible. Like most of you, I don’t have the time to research fancy solutions, nor the money to spend on them. So if I can find a solution using what I already have on hand, that’s the route I take. If I can’t, then it honestly probably won’t get done. I hope these tips help your maters grow and yield generously. 1. Prune the suckers: These are the small shoots that grow in the crotch between a stem and a branch. These growths will never produce fruit, so many gardeners will pinch them off. No sense in letting them use up valuable nutrients! This is especially true for indeterminate varieties of tomatoes. 2. Coffee Grounds and Egg Shells: I keep a bowl on my kitchen counter collect the used coffee grounds and egg shells from the day. At the end of each day, I carry them out to the garden and lay them at the feet of my tomato […]
A June Garden Update
Sometimes as a northern gardener, it can be really frustrating to see blog posts of southern gardeners harvesting zucchini as mine is only just getting its first set of true leaves. Or seeing green tomatoes being harvested, when I’m only just seeing my first tomato blossom! Ah well. Could be worse, right? I watch the show Alaska: The Last Frontier and can only imagine how difficult gardening must be up there … but they still do it, and they do it well! So here’s a picture update of what’s going on in our garden these days. I had some root maggots attack my radishes. I purchased some beneficial nematodes, diatomaceous earth, and some of this stuff and applied all three. Maybe it was overkill, but I kinda panicked. I ended up just pulling up all of the radishes. I have some beets and other veggies planted nearby that root maggots would just love. So I decided to err on the side of caution. So far I haven’t seen any evidence of them since pulling up the radishes and applying the nematodes. We’ll have to wait and see! Here we have rhubarb in a pot, peas almost ready for harvest, beets, and one of the 4 types of peppers plants I have growing: Here we have butternut squash, apples, and a little tomato blossom! And here some purple cabbage, cauliflower, and zucchini: This isn’t everything. We also have blackberries, strawberries, pumpkins, kale, broccoli, green cabbage, asparagus, cukes, cow peas, blueberries (still too young to produce at 2 years old, but growing well!), a total of 3 varieties of tomatoes (san marzano, black cherry, and brandywine), and 4 […]
