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The Easiest Crockpot Applesauce. Ever. (Can it)

on October 17, 2014
Applesauce 1e

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 a few varieties... mostly Cortlands) -Cinnamon Sticks (optional) -Brown Sugar (optional) Tools: - Food mill (optional)** - Crockpot - Canning Jars, Lids, and Rings -Waterbath Canner - A potato masher Directions: -If you have a food mill, then you don't need to worry about peeling and coring the apples. Just chop them up and throw them in the crockpot. Set it to low and walk away for a few hours. Optional: Toss in a cinnamon stick or two while the apples cook. -If you do … [Read more...]

Filed Under: canning, food storage, Frugal, healthy, homesteading, recipes, simple living, snacks

How to Make Elderberry Syrup

on October 15, 2014
Elderberry 1e

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 found the recipe that I used here, and I purchased my bulk herbs from Bulk Herb Store. 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: A pint sized mason jar will be large enough to hold your syrup.) Ingredients: 1/2 c. Dried Elderberries (high in Vitamins A, B, and C, and also contains tannins and flavonoids) 1/2 c. Dried Rose Hips (Added Vitamin C boost, can also be used alone as a delicious tea) 1 Cinnamon Stick (has a warming effects and antimicrobial properties) 6 dried whole cloves (antiviral, antiseptic, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties) 1 inch chunk of ginger, peeled and minced (helps fight nausea) 2 1/2 cups filtered water 1/2 cup raw honey (local honey with also help with allergies as it will contain your local pollens) Directions: In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients except the raw honey. Bring to a boil and then simmer 45 minutes. Remove from saucepan and mash through a sieve/fine mesh strainer into a bowl to get all liquids out. Allow to cool. Poor the honey into the container you'll be storing your syrup in. ONLY once the elderberry syrup is cooled, pour it into the container with your honey. Shake to combine the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: herbalism, recipes, simple living, Uncategorized

Preparing for Winter

on October 10, 2014
Winter

  Preparing for winter isn't for just for the paranoid and old fashioned. It's not just for those with an earthen root cellar, or acres of gardens, or massive pantries with fancy Pinterest-worthy shelves ready to hold your fancy-pants apothecary style jars with chalkboard labels of organic wheat berries....and the $500 grain mill with which to grind them. It's also for your regular, everyday, practical family. Apartment dwellers, small families, large families, wealthy families, and anyone in between. That will look different for each family depending on your financial situation, how harsh or mild your winters are, how much storage space you have, and the size of your family. But I firmly believe that everyone should do something to prepare for winter, especially if you tend you have harsh winters. A little something, if nothing else. But something. Around here, we're doing some winter preps. Why? Hauling 4 kids through sleet, snow, slush, and freezing temperatures in a big ole van to grocery shop for 2-3 hours while very pregnant sounds like nothing short of torture, and I'd like to spare myself as much as possible. It's not abnormal for the men working in my husband's line of work to fall or get hurt during winter. They work outside on ladders, and do a lot of driving...even in the bad weather. If this were to happen and he had to be out of work for a time to heal, we'd lose our only source of income. Having food stocked up would be one less thing to worry about. It's also not abnormal for us to lose power during a bad blizzard. Or for the roads to just be too bad to go to the store. Again, having food already stored in the house would be one less thing to worry about. Also not unheard of? Going off the road, into a ditch, during a storm, and having to wait a while for someone to come tow you out. Having extra food, blankets, and diapers in the van? Not a bad idea.   Now, those are just a few of the reasons why we're personally … [Read more...]

Filed Under: food storage, simple living, tips

A Simple Life (and the Burn-Out)

on August 2, 2014
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 all seen the grocery story prices creeping up, while the quality of the products continues to sink lower and lower. And that goes for more than just groceries. It's pretty much a widespread trend over all industries. Prices go up, quality goes down. The consumerism hype takes a stronger hold on our lives , while the landfills grow larger and larger, filled with last year's "next best thing." Social media abounds, distracting us … [Read more...]

Filed Under: homesteading, simple living, suburban homesteading, tips