Quick tip-make dried garlic into garlic powder

Homemade garlic powder

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Some of the garlic that you put up for the winter will inevitably dry to rock hard pellets.  Don’t throw them away!

Make sure they are completely dry.  I use a coffee grinder and drop a handful in at a time to grind them into a powder.  I store them in a jar and have homegrown garlic powder any time we want it.  Tastes great on burgers or wings or in sauces.

Just put into a glass jar and store in a cool, dry place.  

All natural, and cheap, homemade house cleaners

Sunday, November 22, 2015

It is easy to clean your entire house with a few simple basics from your pantry: vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and washing soda.  Simply add your favorite essential oils, herbs, flowers or fruits to infuse fragrance in your healthy cleaners and home with every use.

Vinegar

Vinegar is a natural odor remover.  Just leave in a bowl and it will neutralize any odors.

For mildew, apply full strength, let set 30 minutes or more, scrub, and rinse.

To clean the toilet bowl, put 1 cup in the bowl, allow to sit several hours, and scrub the rings away.

For grease removal from the microwave, mix 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of vinegar, place in microwave, and bring to a boil.  Then, wipe out.

Remove hard water buildup from shower heads by filling a plastic bag with vinegar and attaching to the shower head and let sit submerged several hours.

Baking soda

Make a paste with water and scrub away!  Great for cleaning sinks or treating grease stains on clothes.  If you need some abrasion, add salt to the paste.  

For scrubbing bubbles, add castile soap for more cleaning power.

Washing soda, a natural salt, is stronger than baking soda.  It is effective for grease, oil, and wine stains.

Lemons

Use lemon juice for whitening.  Can give hair highlights or whiten your linens.

Use a cut lemon for cutting grease, freshening your cutting board, removing hard water stains, cleaning fingernails, removing tarnish from copper, and age spot remover.

Throw your used lemon peel down the garbage disposal to freshen it.

Lemons can also be used to keep apples from turning brown, just squeeze some juice over the slices.  The juice from a lemon into a glass of water helps with the day after as well; it stimulates the liver to accelerate detoxing of the body.

Add essential oils for antibacterial properties and scent-lemon, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, peppermint, or pine.  For antifungal, eucalyptus, tea tree, lavender, peppermint or pine.  Or if add any essential oil that you love for beautiful fragrance every time you clean.

These basic cleaners should cover all your home needs.  You can use your current cleansers containers and fill with these healthy, fragrant options.

Slow growing in winter months

Potted lettuce

Saturday, November 14, 2015

If you have noticed that plants stop growing in the winter, whether indoors or out, you would be right.  It is not just the temperatures that affect this slow down.  It is the amount of sunlight.

Basically, plants go dormant when receiving less than 10 hours of daylight.  For my latitude, this is from November 17-January 24.  You can look on the weather channel to see when your daylight hits 10 hours.

When planting in the fall for winter crops, you need to plan that they are at full, harvestable size by November 17th.  They will remain basically this size until the end of January, when they begin regrowing.

Growth starts back up at the end of January, for indoor and outdoor plants.  The lettuce, chard, sorrel, cabbage, kale, celery, and herbs that have overwintered will start growing with vigor again after this time with clear days and warmer temperatures.

Covering plants with row covers or portable greenhouses can help your plants grow; warmth does make a difference.  Just don’t expect significant growth until we get back to at least 10 hours of sunlight.