Clean nesting boxes = clean eggs

I'll take the egg on the left, please!

Look, chickens are dirty animals. They poop everywhere and on everything. That said, it doesn't take a whole lot to minimize interaction with the copious amounts of poop (aka Amazing Garden Fertilizer). For one thing, I use a deep litter method in the coop, I rake and add clean straw to the run weekly, and the overall smell is pleasantly barnlike. 

Occasionally, I'll get an egg laid on the floor of the coop, or even outside in the run, but it's rare, and if the eggs are dirty (like on the right, above), I just feed them to the dog. Yes, you can wash them, but it happens so rarely, I figure "what's the point?"

For the last few weeks, though, I've noticed more dirty eggs in the nesting boxes, and I realized it's been about a year since I completely replaced the bedding! I use these nifty nesting pads, which I like because (1) the hens can scratch up a nice nest without kicking the material out of the box, (2) they stay dry even if my boxes get a bit damp in heavy rain, (3) I can shake them out/re-fluff them, (4) they're fully biodegradable/compostable, and (5) they last a long time....like I said, it's been a year!

I've been playing around a little with some video tutorials (easier to share/watch), so let me know what you think!


Clean nesting boxes on Biteable.

Better Homemade: Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate milk is one of life's most wonderfully extravagant pleasures. 

If you are already convinced, and want to skip straight to the recipe, click here.

My mom never bought chocolate syrup. "It's full of nothing but junk!" she said. We did make hot cocoa on snow days, mixing cocoa and sugar and milk and vanilla in a saucepan on the stove. As we got older, she started buying the cocoa packets, and they were nice (and a lot faster, especially because we now had a microwave), but the flavor didn't compare.

My kids also prefer stovetop cocoa to anything out of a packet. On a really cold day, I'll add a tiny dash of cayenne...so pleasantly warming with the chocolate. Cinnamon is nice too!

Chocolate milk made a regular appearance in our lives when my kids started school five years ago. My son remarked early on that he generally preferred the "regular" milk, but the chocolate and strawberry-flavored milks had all the fun cartoon characters on the containers, which he thought wasn't right (and I agreed). He bought his lunch occasionally, and my daughter did the same when she started school, but she made an argument that a weekly chocolate milk was a good "sometimes treat." I thought this was a fair argument, and my son by this time had developed an appreciation for it, so we agreed they could do it once a week, whether they brought or bought their lunch.

Shortly after this, I went to school and bought my own school lunch with the kids, and I looked at the carton of chocolate milk. High fructose corn syrup was the second ingredient in a long list of unpronounceable items, and it had 26 grams of sugar! What?? That's almost as much as a bowl of chocolate ice cream!

"I can do better than this," I said, and the tinkering commenced.

First, most recipes called for a mix of granulated white and brown sugars. I quit storing brown sugar a few years ago, since I already stock both molasses and sugar, and it's easy to mix up brown sugar on the few occasions I need it. 

Interestingly, a teaspoon of molasses contains more sugar than a teaspoon of granulated sugar (4 g to about 4.6 g). However, the molasses has a little magnesium, iron, calcium, and potassium, and its rich, deep flavor really complements the cocoa. I mixed up brown sugar once for this, then decided to just substitute straight molasses for it, which is easier and tastier!

My recipe makes the most deliciously-rich, intensely-chocolaty hot cocoa, chocolate milk (and occasional an iced mocha) I've ever had. It uses only six common pantry ingredients, though I could make a good case for adding a dash of cinnamon!  

My "Deliciously Rich Chocolate Syrup" has about 4 grams of sugar per Tablespoon versus Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, which has 10 grams of sugar per Tablespoon. Cocoa is the fourth ingredient on the Hershey's label (the first is HFCS, then corn syrup, then water...finally some cocoa). Besides water, my recipe has more cocoa than anything else (and some of that water disappears when you reduce it, so we could argue it comes out as the top ingredient).

A printable recipe is below.

Better Homemade: Bloody Mary Mix

A few years ago, I discovered that "The Best Bloody Mary Grows in the Garden," and I think you should give it a try! I still don't have an exact recipe, but what you see above should give you an idea of proportions. I did end up adding another hot pepper because my flaming-hot serrano lost almost all of its heat when I seeded it.

If you can make a smoothie, you can make the most delicious tomato juice and/or Bloody Mary mix you've ever tasted. You can blanch and peel the tomatoes, but I put everything in a blender and strain it through a sieve, which I think is superior because (1) it requires no heat, (2) less mess, and (3) it's actually faster overall.

You can click the link above for the recipe, or just look at the picture. I use tomatoes, sweet onion, cucumber, hot pepper, juice from 1-2 limes, fresh horseradish, worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Throw it all in the blender and let it rip, then strain through a sieve. Fresh and delicious!

#MakeYourOwn

Inside My Fridge

Inside my fridge: two kinds of fresh cucumber salad, two kinds of water kefir (peach and ginger), and homemade fermented pickles....so many probiotics! The watermelon and cabbage are wrapped in wax paper and freezer paper vs. plastic wrap -- both are wonderful alternatives!

Sunrise Sink

Glory of the June Garden

Instead of watering daily, I've switched over to watering only every 2-3 days, but watering very deeply, which encourages deeper root growth, requiring overall less time and less water!

This morning as I watered and observed, I was overwhelmed by the amazing beauty and life in my garden. My hard work of the last few years is beginning to pay off in food, and knowledge, and a wonderful appreciation for the interconnected web of life.

Narrowleaf Plantain

Bean Blooms

Magnolia

Lovely Gladiolas

Serrano and Thai Chile

Super Sioux

I netted the berries this year! 

Zucchini

Beet Harvest

Morning Shot: Sláinte!

To Good Health!

Fire Cider is an herbal tincture. You can find any number of recipes online that will yield a pleasantly fiery vinegar with a well-balanced blend of spicy, pungent, and citrus flavors infused into raw apple cider vinegar, and finished with a little sweet local honey.

Fire Cider is warmly delicious, whether as a shot or in a salad dressing. It's also a wonderful blend of medicinal herbs! The Fire Cider recipe was developed in early 1980s by Rosemary Gladstar "as part of her effort to bring medicinal herbalism back into people’s kitchens, as part of their food and as a way of being, not just for medicinal purposes." Her original recipe contained garlic, onions, horseradish root, ginger root, hot peppers, sometimes turmeric, and often echinacea; all powerful immune enhancers that help ward off infections, colds, flus, and bronchial congestion.

I have been using Fire Cider this winter, a shot a day (when I remember), to help keep the immune system healthy and to ward off infections, and all told, I've suffered significantly less illness thus far (knock on wood).

This recipe is very close to my own, though I used fresh (chopped) turmeric, and I added a whole chopped orange and some fresh oregano. Use what you have!

I Am Become Spring

Last year's poinsettia is blooming now.

I like to say that there is magic in a seed. Plant it, and it will yield any combination of flowers, fruit, root, leaf, and seed that we can enjoy and consume, and it will nourish us. But also, we can save just one seed from that magical plant, and grow another. One plant can make hundreds, or even thousands of itself.

And this is why I grow: it's an act of faith. One gift I've received from growing is a real appreciation for the bleakness of winter. Under cold and snow and mud and stark winter skies, seeds and plants take nourishment from the earth. Dormant is still active; it's just a different pace, a different exchange of energy and nutrients.

Today, it is spring.

Winter is all about growth. 
Having finally connected with this truth, I find myself growing now all year long. Outside, winter vegetables grow (albeit slowly) in their low tunnels. Little carrots, radishes, and beets are all nestling under earth and straw, and the cold does not scare them. Inside, I watch hundreds of tiny seedlings start their journey. They will become nourish us, literally becoming part of me, part of my children, part of my friends. Talk about a Holy Communion.

I am a priestess of husbandry. I hold a seed from last summer's tomato in my hand, and I conjure July.

That ain't jaundice: Turmeric Facial Mask

The skin on our faces is exposed to more of the harsh winter weather than everything that gets covered with mittens and scarves, so I decided to give mine a little extra nourishment this January.

Your skin is your largest organ, so know what you put on it....just like what you eat becomes part of you (literally), what you put on your skin is absorbed by your body. My mask is actually edible, so you could actually have a healthy snack if you make enough (I did not actually try this yet).

Turmeric is a powerful antioxidant, and also has anti-inflammatory properties. Yogurt provides zinc, B vitamins, lactic acid, and calcium. Honey is full of antioxidants, and is natural moisturizer for skin. I added a little oil because my skin tends to be dry. If you don't have yogurt, whole milk is a good substitute.

TURMERIC FACIAL MASK

Mix 1 tsp ground turmeric with +1 tsp plain yogurt + 1 tsp raw honey + 1 tsp nourishing oil. I used avocado oil, but coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and olive oil are all good options. Apply to face and let dry (about 15-20 minutes). Rinse well with warm water and a *washcloth.

*Remember that, while turmeric is a powerful antioxidant, it is sometimes used as a natural food-coloring agent (I sometimes add it to mac&cheese, for example, just for color). I recommend a dark or orange washcloth.

Let the glazing commence!

Glazed Carrots

Peel carrots and slice about 1/4-inch thick. Place in large, shallow skillet with enough to water just to cover. Add a generous pinch of salt and a good amount of butter. Bring to a simmer, and cook until carrots are easily pierced with a sharp knife. 

Remove carrots from pan with a slotted spoon, and continue to cook until liquid is reduced to a glaze. 

Remove from heat, return carrots to pan, mix to coat, and check seasoning. Serve immediately, or at room temperature (and this batch of leftovers was delicious in some shrimp/sausage fried wontons).

Reality Sink

Reality Sink: Last night's spaghetti supper. Good times.

Maximizing water on slopes: berms, swales, and countour

My Master Plan to plant my full-sun real estate (aka "the front yard") continues this fall....I learn by doing, so I tend to go do something and then revise it based on what I've learned. Several years ago, I build a sheet-mulch bed on the side of the house, which has done well, especially after I added a few berms to control water. I've been reading up on permaculture design over the last year or so, and plan to change that layout of that bed this fall to dig some swales/paths "on contour" for the permanent design.

In the front part of the yard, I built a circle bed two years ago, which is a nice feature. The first year, I planted it with Scarlet Runner Beans (growing up a "tepee"), which the kids loved. The second year, I put all my tomatoes there, and this summer, I had beans, chives, flowers, and an artichoke that grows well but hasn't bloomed.

Last winter, I saw this great idea in Mother Earth News to use straw bales and old windows to make some cold frames, so I plunked some down on my hillside to see if it would work. It did!

Cold frames with straw bales and old windows protected plants from several days of single-digit temps (Middle TN).

Once spring arrived, I put the windows away, added some compost, and planted the area with tomatoes, herbs, peppers, eggplants, and flowers. I was very pleased with this new "bed" area. It runs right next to a natural (and well-traveled) path, but I wanted to expand it for the next growing season.

Enter the simple A-frame, which is a great tool for figuring out where the natural contours of your hillside fall. I used a level with mine, but this video uses a plumb bob...it's short and explains how to do it if you're interested.

The "well-traveled natural path" is not  on contour, but I'm hoping to build/move my beds to intersect it. Today I dug out a swale, and I'm posing this to share my process and to get feedback!

Here is a longer view from the same angle as the "cold frame" picture above.

Envisioning the future....

The green lines on the left show one side of the natural path -- I planted the border with some liriope (monkey grass) that I got from a friend this spring. I'll mulch the area to the side of it well, and plan to add creeping phlox and possible some perennials, though the Magnolia tree does offer quite a bit of shade. The orange area shows one side of my "cold frame" hay bales, and I plan to make this my path border....I have plenty of large limestone rocks I can use to set the path border.

Intersecting with the path, you can see the swale I've dug, which is on contour. I have some hay bales out right now to kill the grass and hold the berm. The plan is to build a small wall in spring (purple lines), using stone pavers that match my circle bed. I can build another berm/swale bed (lower purple line) next spring or fall, depending on my time.

Here is the swale (so far) from the opposite side:

The swale is about one foot deep right now, and about 1.5 feet across (maybe slightly less). I plan to make it a little wider/deeper, and fill it in with small rocks/mulch to make a permanent path. The top "triangle" portion of the bed will be planted with perennials/herbs.


And here's one more view, from the perspective of the middle circle garden. Next spring, instead of hay bales, we'll have a low wall of matching pavers. (Also, you can seem my awesome hugulkultur bed in the background.)

I'm planning to plant the berm in some kind of cover crop this fall, and will use some low row covers for winter planting in the old "cold frame" beds. I had great luck with all my herbs/veggies there this summer, so I have high hopes for winter gardening!

What do you think?

Breaking News: Waxed Paper Covers Watermelon!!

Waxed paper "sticks" as well or better than plastic wrap.

Yup, another loss for plastic wrap!

I moved the plastic wrap to the back of the pantry to make it less convenient. This morning, I cut a watermelon for breakfast, so I thought I'd try the waxed paper. Total win!

Also, in other "breaking news", a plate makes a great cover for a bowl in the fridge. Go figure.

What is crazy? Going to all the trouble and expense of harvesting resources, converting them to raw materials, using them to manufacture a consumer product (and all the steps inbetween), and then using that product once, and tossing it to the side and grabbing another product.

Those things don't "disappear" when we put them in the trash. It's not so convenient long-term.

Garnish

Garlic chives with garlic flowers, to top potatoes

"Yours is way better mom!" - School Lunch is elementary

Last year, my daughter asked if I would be willing to buy her some Lunchables. We talked a little about the ingredients, and nutrition, and packaging, and I offered to make her a homemade lunchable instead, and it turned into one of her favorite lunches. This summer, I decided to buy the kids some lunchables as a treat for the beach...and they were fairly underwhelmed. For one thing, my 4th grader doesn't care for marinara, and you can't get pesto in a lunchable. "Yours is way better mom!" he said. Is there anything better to hear from your pickiest eater?

When I pack lunches for my kids, my goal is (1) to make sure they have enough to eat so they're not hungry, and (2) make them healthy and appealing. When my (now) 4th grader was in kindergarten, I found a wonderful blog, 100 Days of Real Food, focused on cutting out processed foods that included wonderful pictures of ideas for lunches. He looked through them, picked a few things to try, and we went from there.

It's definitely a stretch to say that I "enjoy" packing lunches, but I love knowing that my kids are well-nourished with plenty of fresh food each day. I know parents are always looking for lunch ideas, so last year I snapped a few pictures of lunches to share.

PB sandwiches on homemade chia seed bread, cheddar cheese, grapes, carrot sticks

Turkey sandwich on homemade bread with salami, apples, lettuce/cucumber/pepper salad, homemade chocolate milk

Wraps (one turkey/pepperoni/cream cheese w/ lettuce on side, one turkey/cheese/lettuce), grapes, carrots, weird kid-made chocolate cookie

Leftover chicken drummie, triscuts, mozz/salami rollups, peppers, grapes

Mac&Chz with peas, tomatoes, apples, Trader Joe's gingersnaps

Leftover pasta w/chicken sausage+broccoli, peppers/cucumber, cheese stick, ~1tsp mini-m&m candies

Wraps (one with lettuce "on the side"), apples, orange slices

Salami/mozz rollups, PB/berry smoothies, lettuce/pepper/apple salad, cucumber

"Camping leftovers" lunch: storebought rolls w turkey/provolone, oreos (!), grapes, cucumber, boiled/deviled egg

Four years later, we still visit the Real Food blog for inspiration, and I still buy/pack more processed items than she does. Easy lunches revolve around staples: grapes, apples and cherry tomatoes all keep well, and can be packed for snacks in reusable fabric zipper bags. Spinach wraps are a weekly item here, crackers/pretzels are used often, boiled eggs are popular, and I do pack a dessert of some kind at least once a week (thought the day varies). The Trader Joe's gingersnaps are hands-down my favorite dessert -- few ingredients, low in sugar, they keep a long time, and are delicious!

Our daily goal is "half of what we eat is fruit/veggies" and we get pretty close. I believe in baby steps, and I know we all like some oreos once in a while! (Though I also have to recommend the Trader Joe's dark chocolate version.) This year promises to offer even more health and variety, with the kids expanding their "likes" to soups and herbs over the summer. Oh, the possibilities!

"Yours is way better mom!" I just had to type that one again.

Healthy Hair & Scalp

No hair product here!

Way back in 2008 after my daughter was born, I was dismayed to see my hair gradually losing all of its body. It's pretty fine, and I'd always used a good bit of product to give it curl/body, but nothing seemed to be working. Around that time, I started hearing from people who ditched shampoo for baking soda/apple cider vinegar and found that they had better results with less/no hair products. 

I was getting desperate, with my hair getting flatter and limper by the day, so I decided to try it. I found that I loved this new method, and it was better for the environment to boot! It's EASY: take about 1 TBSP of baking soda and dissolve it in a cup of water to wash your hair, rinse well, then follow with a rinse of 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar to a cup of water (and rinse well again). Hair is naturally mildly acidic, so the vinegar rinse restores pH and smooths the hair follicle.

The only downside I found was that my scalp would occasionally get dry/itchy. I'd do a coconut oil scalp treatment (also good for ends), and that worked really well for almost six years....until I decided to let my hair grow longer. Suddenly, my hair seemed dry, and my scalp turned flaky, itchy and generally unhappy, so I headed back to the internet and found other people with the same issues.

After so many years, there was no way I was going back to commercial shampoo, so I tried several alternative recipes, and found a wonderful hair care regimen based on the aloe/glycerine recipe here.  Aloe and glycerine are both moisturizing, and left my hair looking/feeling a little greasy, but combining that with the baking soda was perfect. I haven't tested the pH or anything, but my hair looks/feels amazing! 

Old spice bottles with a shaker top open easily in the shower!

Above you can see what I have in my shower: 1 sport bottle for mixing, one bottle of apple cider vinegar, one bottle baking soda, one bottle of Aloe/glycerine hair wash (all re-used, of course!).

Healthy Hair/Scalp Wash

1 part pure aloe gel

1 part vegetable glycerine

2 parts filtered water

Essential oils -- I use tea tree, rosemary and lavender

Combine ingredients well. Add 1-2 tsp to 1 cup water + 1 TBSP baking soda or 1 TBSP Castille soap (I find I typically prefer the soap, though I will sometimes use baking soda for a second wash) , and apply to hair. Rinse, and repeat if necessary. Follow with an apple cider vinegar rinse if you like (rinse again with plain water to finish).

One note about this recipe: the "pure aloe gel" is NOT the green stuff in the bottle, it's actually what is inside the aloe plant. I can buy large leaves of aloe at my grocery store, but I prefer purchasing a bottle (needs to be refrigerated after opening).

I really dislike defining anything by what it isn't, and I think "no poo" sounds horrid, but I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't mention it if you want to google for other testimonials. There are also some really great-looking recipes here, including another version of the aloe/glycerine recipe that I might try this winter.

Save money, reduce waste (re-use bottles instead of buying more), put fewer chemicals you can't pronounce on your skin....make your own healthy hair wash today! 

Reality Sink

1:30 p.m., "Lunch after morning market" sink (and kitchen). The sink is also full of herb clippings.

Inside My Fridge - Easter Salad

You don't "knead" that much flour

Really, you don't. Like me (until recently), you're probably using too much flour in your bread.

I've been playing with breadmaking the last few years, beginning with the no-knead Artisan bread and including the abysmal crockpot bread. Until this autumn, I'd made bread maybe once a week or so, to accompany dinner  -- this was mainly for my toddlers who were certainly just as strangely and inconsistently picky as every other toddler I've ever met (but they'd always eat bread/butter and vegetables or fruit).

So how did I work my way up to the mouthwatering French-style loaves I positioned proudly at the top of this post? Well, this past autumn, a friend gave me a bread machine, and it is so easy to use that my spouse and I started making all of our sandwich bread from scratch. He has a wonderful light wheat with chia seed recipe, and I have been experimenting with sourdough.

Along the way, I've been seeking out instructional videos and advice from other sources about breadmaking and kneading, and I found out something really, really useful for anyone who is making anything that requires both flour and kneading: most of us use way too much flour when we first start baking.

When your recipe calls for 8 cups of flour, that generally means all of the flour, including what is kneaded into the bread. So mix 7 cups into the bread, and hold out the last cup for kneading. Then flour your board very lightly with flour, not a whole huge mound of it.

I don't have a marble countertop, so I usually knead on a silpat. It works well!

Here's how much flour was left after kneading my French loaves. Bread with too much flour will be much heavier and denser -- it really makes an amazing difference!

Now, I have baked plenty of tasty loaves before learning this tidbit. In general, I find baking bread to be surprisingly forgiving for an experiential learner (like myself). But what a revelation! Next time you plan to knead, save our some of the recipe flour; you'll be glad you did.

Reality Sink

10 a.m. been-working-on-other-stuff sink.