Managing Onion Storage
March is the month we review how are vegetables in storage are doing and if needed, make alterations in that storage. Right now the onions are in need of some attention.
The onions we grow are what are called “multipliers”. These are very small onions that produce bunches. Early in the growing season they are provide greens which we pinch from the tops and then a little later, green onions. We no longer grow large yellow, white or red onions because they don’t keep for us and generally start rotting almost even before they are dug up.
Our small onions have been grown on this plot of land for about 50 years and before that on a different plot for many years. I now refer to them as a “landrace”, because they are perfectly adapted to our location. These onions have a much stronger flavor than large onions and you can’t really eat them raw because of that. If they are chopped up very fine and use in small amounts they can be eaten along with other raw plants, but they will quickly over power most dishes and palates.
STORING
We stored our multiplier onions in old orange bags hung from the ceiling in our shop. The temp doesn’t get lower than 1 C/34 F all winter. We do keep a small heater running in there when it’s super cold but that’s only on a few days out of the season. In other years we kept them in the cellar which is mostly dirt/cracked up concrete, but we decided to store in the shop this year because it was more accessible. At this time of year, we have to check our stored vegetables (carrots, beets, onions, potatoes) to make sure none are rotten or frozen. I also take the dry outer skins off to prevent any possible rot and make it easier for use when they are needed. After I do this, they sit in a bowl on the counter until they are used up. In the photo below, I’m taking the skins off and cutting up a few to dry in the drying room (our unheated porch with a drying rack).
I dry onions either on the drying racks or in the dehydrator. Both work well, but I don’t want to become reliant on electricity in order to store and use food – however that’s another blog post.
At this time of year, we don’t really have that many left for eating. The smaller onions (on the right in the photo) are put aside for planting when the ground is thawed. This is where we’re at right now for snow, so it will be a while before planting time. We will likely have to move snow in order to plant as you can see in the second photo.
When choosing onions it’s important to consider storage quality. Even onions we’ve bought from the store in years past have not lasted long, so I imagine poor storage quality is part of most types of onions likely because of the high water content. In our area, many people have stopped planting large onions altogether because of this reason. We prefer to have our own seed and not rely on having to purchase it from some unknown place.
We Didn’t Change The Clocks – and it didn’t matter, at all.
This year is our second time not changing our clocks. The first time was a few years ago when we didn’t change into daylight savings time. That was a bit difficult because the period of time was so long and over the summer when there were lots of things going on and meetings happening. We had to keep one clock on the “correct” time in order to remember when events were. That became quite burdensome because we were always checking and re-checking the time. Again in November 2020, we stayed on daylight savings and I wrote about that experience.
This year, we stayed on Daylight savings time but for different reasons.
Our reasons are threefold:
We’re tired of doing something that doesn’t make any sense to us and actually causes stress.
It’s only for four months.
We’re ultimately removing ourselves from the system.
The first reason is actually something that I have heard many people talk about, that changing the clocks is silly, doesn’t make sense or doesn’t mean what it used to mean. Some people like having more light in the evening and I can understand that. That’s why we chose to stay on daylight savings and not the alternative.
Since four months is only a short amount of time it also assists in completing this challenge. It’s literally only four months. Why change the time?
Some of you will wonder about our second reason – leaving the system. This is something that most homesteaders consider and want to do to a degree, just by being homesteaders. It essentially means that ultimately we want complete self reliance and are no longer willing to participate in what is solidified in our minds as a negative way of living. Not changing the clocks is only one small part of the program. I have recently eliminated my credit card, which was our only one, since my husband never had one. Actually, he did get one many many years ago, but never used it, and then got a bill for a large sum. He promptly called the company, got the charge removed and cancelled the card.
Other things we are doing to leave the system are providing all our own food and water, and at some point in the future clothing as well. Anything that is connected to large businesses is being eliminated. maybe slowly but surely. We patronize local businesses only and if we can’t get it there we do without. Even this blog is part of what we don’t need. But I won’t address that topic further in this post since it would take up too much space to make clear what we’re doing.
For now, not changing our clocks has not caused any upheaval and we will continue to do this on our own. It actually looks like in the future, there will not be many events or meetings we will be needing to attend. Keeping track of the time to accommodate an outdated and frankly somewhat abusive system is not in our interest.
Happy self sufficiency!
Growing Your Own Seasonings
I have always thought that self-sufficiency is extremely important. Even more than that – it’s the most important thing you can do especially if you are one who likes to prepare for emergencies or in today’s world, eventualities.
What I have realized is that we are all WAAAAYY to reliant on big business for just about everything. We have become complacent and lazy. There is no reason anyone should be buying seasonings from companies that are simply creating a second rate product to sell to us just to make money.
On our homestead, we have been able to replace all store bought seasonings for cooking with what we grow ourselves on our gardens. This has always been my goal and I have had to do some creative adjustments to recipes to accomplish what we have. Even so, it is very rewarding to have grown and saved what flavours our food. Sometimes we can substitute and other times we do without what is called for in the recipe. Either way, it has been working well in flavouring the foods we eat.
Below are the ways I procure our culinary seasonings.
Seeds
Some herbs or seasonings are made by crushing seeds. The main one we use is Coriander (Cilantro). Also useful are dill seed, fennel and caraway. The latter two I have not always had success growing here in our climate, but dill and coriander always work out. I often use coriander to flavour cookies. The crushed seed gives a lemony flavour to sugar and shortbread cookies. You definitely don’t need lemon peel if you have coriander seed.
Drying
This is the way I save most of our seasonings. This year I have added Dill to the drying rack. Drying is easier than freezing in that there is less work and fewer containers needed. Drying does alter the taste for some things a bit but not enough to prevent me from using it as a way to preserve food. We used to freeze our dill, but this year we’re going to try to get down to one freezer only. This will make it easier if we have to use the generator in the warmer seasons as our meat supply is kept there. We are also not planting broccoli, kale, or spinach for three reasons. We don’t really eat them, they are not that prolific in our garden and storing them, which is done in the freezer, takes up too much room.
This will be the second year that we are drying our multiplier onions. I did a small amount of them a few years ago and the result was excellent. Multipliers are small and very strong that grow in a bunch from one seed onion. Our multipliers are adapted to our area and have been growing here for decades in the family. We don’t grow or buy any other kind. They also store in bags all year long so drying is not critical for preservation but I’m doing it anyway because it creates a slightly different flavour in the onion than one not dehydrated. It also takes up less room.
Freezing
It’s easy to freeze many herbs, but not all. Parsley is the first one that comes to mind and we use it a lot. We use dill even more than parsley and it’s easy to chop and freeze. The only thing about parsley is that you have to harvest it early or it will have loads of aphids. Cilantro does not freeze well although some people make cilantro ice cubes for use in chili and possibly other dishes. Other herbs are frozen this way as well, but you could likely do it any way you find that works for you.
Substitutions
I have found that I am able to substitute herbs for most of the meals or recipes I make, or I do without them completely. An example of this is chili. To replace the normal chili seasoning (cumin, cayenne, paprika) I use garlic powder, oregano, dried onions (which could be powdered) and crushed hot peppers in place of cayenne. If you have those, you don’t need cayenne. I also add our own ground coriander seed, which I actually think is the most important herb for flavouring chili. I don’t use paprika or cumin because I can’t make or grow those myself. Some might not like chili without paprika and that is fine. My goal is, as I said, to be completely self sufficient with food, so this method of food preservation fits in well with that goal.
We don’t miss the other herbs and spices because we haven’t had them for years and it is more important to us to use our own. I want to be able to rely on what we have rather than running to the store for every little thing. The other reason is that we know where the herbs are grown and what is done to them before they get to our plates. Nothing is added or put on them for any reason.
Growing Your Own
In growing our own plants, we have been able to save seed for the following herbs: Summer Savoury, Thyme, Green Basil, Lime Basil, Mint, Chive, Winter Onion, Cilantro/Coriander, Oregano, Marjoram.
I often use Savoury as a substitute for Oregano and actually I prefer Savoury. Oregano does overwinter here but the flavour is not consistently strong, so I used the savoury instead.
Other herbs that we have not reached our self-sufficiency goal with are: Sage, Lemon Balm, and Parsley. The only one of these that we use in any amount is sage with parsley a close second. I have two parsley plant in large pots that over-wintered well here in the house. These will be the trial plants to see if we can get seed.
The majority of our herbs are grown in containers with the exception of basil and parsley. When they are not transplanted out there is no transplant shock and you will have an earlier and more substantial harvest. Basil and Parsley are large plants with parsley hating to be restricted in it’s roots. I put most of the basil and all the parsley in the garden. There is at least a two week set back in growth because of that.
DIY
It’s no secret that I’m close to obsessed with self-sufficiency. In my opinion, which doesn’t matter but I’m going to say it anyway, more people should be concerned with being more self-sufficient. There is too much of a reliance on big companies for our food. I can’t really imagine what a good point for that would be other than it puts our food supply at risk. I have been saying that for many years. Since it’s so easy to grow herbs in containers, I encourage everyone to do it, and don’t waste any more money on store bought, irradiated seasonings grown who knows where. It’s crucial that people take more control of their own food right now.
We’re Not Changing The Clocks Back This Time – Nov. 2020
I grew up in Central time, so I didn’t experience changing the clocks twice a year. When I moved to a location where there was a twice yearly time change, I accepted it and did it without complaint.
At some point while working away from home, I started feeling more effects from the time changes. But mostly I accepted these things especially since everyone else was, and what could we do about it anyway?
Since I started working from home, which has been 10 years now, I found the effects of the time changes were worse than when I worked away. The main reason for this is that it disrupted schedules. Working from home and running a house for me depends on a fairly tight schedule in order to get things done. This is likely because there are so many more distractions at home and I have to really focus to get the important stuff done. At a job away from home, most people are motivated by the thought of getting in trouble with the boss or losing their job if they don’t stick to the schedule, make a mistake or get their work done.
When the time changed, everything got messed up. When I was out at work, it was only less sleep that would really be an issue.
So, this time change – November 1 2020, we have decided NOT to change our clocks back one hour.
Why We’re Not Changing the Clocks
When I really thought about it, I realized that the change was only for a little over four months. There really didn’t seem to be any point. Why go through the mental and physical stress of a time change when the time period is so short. It doesn’t make any sense. Likely the four months left that are not day light savings time are just stragglers. It already looks like the world is moving towards getting rid of the time change.
Also, I personally feel that there need to be more of a move towards letting our bodies guide us in how we use our time, when we get up and go to bed. This can only be done when we are in tune with the natural light cycle, not dictated to by time, which is not actually natural.
Don’t mistake me for some one who doesn’t like being told what to do by authorities or a super independent thinker. This is purely to become more in tune with mother nature so that I can – hopefully – be as healthy as possible.
How It Will Work For Us
We have the ability to stay on one time without much trouble. We both work at home and have no outside obligations because of the closures of places and cancelling of events. So we don’t have to worry about being somewhere at a certain time.
Only one clock in the house will be on the altered time. The rest will be left as is, including Ernie’s wrist watch. We did this type of experiment once before about two years ago, but that was when we would have moved forward an hour. Ernie changed his watch then as well because he had volunteer commitments, but that made it difficult for him because he was really watching two different times.
This time since there is nothing pressing we have to do and nowhere to go, and it’s for such a short time, we’re going to try it.
I realize that this is not something that everyone can do and I’m not writing about this to brag that we can. The point of this post is to inform those who are interested in following a similar path how it worked for us, and perhaps to influence a permanent country-wide move to NOT changing clocks anymore. We have to attempt to see if it will make any difference to us and others. Every time there is a clock change, we hear on the news or elsewhere that changing the time results in issues for people – lack of sleep, increase in health issues and other things.
Maybe there is a reason now for the world to eliminate the time changes – I don’t know – but we’re going to find out for us anyway.
How We Feed Our Dogs In An Emergency
Disclaimer: I am not a vet or canine nutritionist. I do have years of experience feeding my own dogs and wish to write about that experience. I have also taken canine nutrition and health courses to assist me in writing about dog health and help my own dogs. If you choose to use information I am writing about that is your choice and there is nothing wrong with that.
Taking Care Of Our Pets
Everyone wants to take care of their dogs the best they can. I believe this is true. There are as many different ways to do this as there are dogs and people and not one way is the best. You know your dog best and how he reacts to different things, including food.
In the situation that the world is in now, it will likely become more difficult to give our dogs the optimal care with the assistance of other people. Dog food is usually purchased from a store, or online and delivered. Supplements or special diets can be purchased from companies for dogs and some just rely on whatever they can get or maybe don’t really think about it much from day to day. No matter what you are feeding your dog(s), you most likely have to rely on others to get it.
What I’ve Been Feeding My Dogs
For several years now, I have been feeding my dogs real food – raw meat/organs, eggs, fish, bone broth, oysters etc. This is real food – not all raw, but real. I don’t feed anything processed or with additives.
When we realized that we will most likely be isolating ourselves to try and prevent sickness for the next few months, we were not worried about how to feed ourselves and our dogs because we have been prepared for months and even years for something like this. It is just part of being a homesteader – to be prepared – especially if we have animals that we need to look after.
We are currently feeding three dogs: Ira – 86lbs, Emmett – 55lbs and JoJo – 43lbs
It’s important to know how much your dog weighs and SHOULD weigh when thinking about how to feed him in an emergency. The truth is, eating less is more healthy for both humans and dogs. Many dogs are overweight as is and this is not good for their health or longevity.
IRA the Kuvasz
My dogs normally get two meals a day:
9 am Breakfast – raw meaty bones, mostly chicken, sometimes duck or rabbit with amounts according to each dog’s weight.
4 pm Supper – meat, organs, occasionally meat with bone depending on the dog and what he/she needs that day, supplement food ( eggs, oysters, bone broth, greens and other vegetables, some fruits that we grow ourselves – raspberries, apples, Saskatoon berries and herbs etc.)
Extras
In the evening before bed, all the dogs get a small treat, usually cooked meat or fruit. I brush their teeth 5 night out of the week with coconut oil.
Farm eggs
As an aside, the reason we have dogs is for livelihood. Ira is a guard dog. He protects me and my husband and makes sure wild animals don’t encroach on our property and garden. He is here for a reason. The other two dogs also have jobs. They and I (along with Ira), work together to make a living online as teachers of working dog training to help others. Both my Australian Shepherds do many activities including herding and watchdogging. We don’t just have dogs for fun. We feed them the best we can in order to keep them the healthiest we can so they can do their jobs. We work together. By feeding them as much real and species appropriate food as possible, I feel I can achieve this.
Pureed greens – zucchini, kale, parsley
What Will Change In An Emergency
So now that we’ve gone over that, things will change in the next few months. Currently we ourselves have to limit going out to get meat for the dogs, as in we don’t go out at all anywhere there are people. I have always had a good supply of food for both ourselves and the dogs on hand. I try to keep each food item at a certain level and not take from that unless we can replace it immediately.
Because we don’t actually know how bad things will get, we may not be able to replace what we had. We need to be prepared for anything – even the most serious situation that we can think of. When you prepare for these things, you will have peace of mind because you don’t have to worry about where the next meal will come from. This means being able to grow or produce some of your own food and your dog’s food, as well as have enough on hand before things get worse, for whatever the issue is.
It is unfortunate that in today’s world many people don’t even know how to cook their own food anymore. Going out to eat is the norm and makes people feel rich and decadent. The beauty of living rurally or in small towns as we do, is that you are most likely able to access space for a garden and more easily in contact with local farmers/ranchers. Also, there is easier access to local butchers. We in fact, live right net door to a butcher business.
There should not be a longterm shortage of dry or canned dog food during this crisis (but we really don’t know for sure). There may be a bit of difficulty finding food locally for a short time on occasion.
One of the grocery store brand foods we purchased to supplement when we runout of real food.
Our Plan
What we plan on doing is supplement dry dog food, which we had picked up weeks ago from the grocery store, with as much local food and our own produce as possible. I had a feeling a few months ago that we would possibly need some extra food, so we made the decision to by dry dog food. Since all the types of food that were available to us were pretty much the same – grocery store brands – it didn’t really matter what we picked. We weren’t going to be able to make a trip to the city to get better quality dry food ( if you can say there is such a thing), so this would have to do.
If we run out of real food for the dogs, I will start feeding dry food with supplements.
My plan is to feed the dogs dry food for each of the two meals and alternately add in mixed blended greens and herbs from our garden, sardines, canned salmon, raspberries and Saskatoon berries from our garden, oysters and eggs.
Any green plant fed to a dog MUST be either cooked or pureed, otherwise the nutrients will not be absorbed by the dog’s system. There is some good research showing that adding some vegetables to a dog’s daily meals decreases the risk of cancer. For more info on this please refer to planetpaws.ca
or check out this video from that website on vegetables in a dog’s diet:
If things get really bad, we have a reserve of meat. We have livestock for our own emergency meat. I won’t discuss this here as it won’t pertain to any of you who do not have the capability to raise your own livestock. But this is something that could be looked at for the future if and when things settle down and the opportunity to do so becomes available.
The Most Important Thing
It is crucial to be prepared in advance. Most people are not and live from pay check to pay check. I have seen so many posts and comments about how people cannot prepare for emergencies because they can’t afford it. This is either an avoidance tactic or complete ignorance. There are so many things that money is spent on that are not important. Even buying just one item each pay check over a year will add up to peace of mind.
Panicking and hoarding means you are NOT prepared. We are not talking about that. Being prepared means getting to that point over a long period of time in an organized and calm fashion. It also means getting the best information you can and doing the best you can in a crazy situation.
Being prepared for the dogs is important, in order to give them the best care possible.
Taste Testing Garlic Cultivars
I have expressed it before – garlic is our most important and possibly most valuable garden plant. The reason for this are the health benefits and the flavour it provides to meals and the ability to sell our excess at decent good return.
Over the years of garlic production we have become proficient at growing it, using it and in making garlic powder. We have had almost complete harvest failures some years as well as amazing production in others.
We even have our own DIY Dehydrator which works amazing well and we have used it for several years.
The Taste Test
This year we planted four different cultivars – Tibetan, Siberian, Marino, and Russian Red. The first three were adapted to our area (prairie adapted) and the Russian garlic was obtained from a different province that is normally much warmer than ours. Guess what the growing results were.
The three prairie adapted cultivars were fabulous producers. Not super large bulbs but consistent in the number of cloves and in size and colour. Most of the Russian garlic ended up wormy and rotting. This then, was the first type we made into powder since they would not last much longer.
We kept a few cloves of the Russian cultivar and did a raw garlic taste test to determine hotness and other flavour qualities.
To evaluate flavour we had to use something to act as what I call a hotness “disperser” – bread and butter – to prevent the garlic from burning the mouth and throat too much. Toast could also be used here.
I repeated the taste test twice, trying one cultivar (one whole clove) per day, twice. I used the same kind of bread and butter and ate the whole clove on one side of the bread so that I had the rest of the bread to absorb the hotness if needed.
Siberian Marino Tibetan
RESULTS
We had interesting results.
The cultivars we naturally thought would be hotter were the Tibetan and Siberian, and naturally the Marino should be less hot, simply based on the names. The Russian garlic turned out to have a decent amount of hotness and residual burning after finishing, likely due to its larger size and higher moisture content (I really have no idea, I’m just guessing here)
The hottest and best tasting garlic for me was THE MARINO! I had read somewhere on the internet that if you can grow only one garlic, grow Marino. Maybe this had influenced my taste buds and therefore my decision? I really have no idea.
The Marino was hottest on the first bite and had lingering hotness throughout the tasting. The Siberian and Tibetan both were not super hot at first taste, then got a bit hotter and then decreased in temp right after that. By the end of all the taste tests, no cultivar had residual burning that I have experienced with the Russian garlic in other years.
I am going to attribute the garlic hotness or lack of it to growing conditions. We had a very dry year, but all the garlic seemed less hot to me. I guess it could also be me used to eating raw garlic?
So the hotness was the main concern in this taste test. If there are other ways to test garlic flavour I do not know them. So for now, the differences in hotness is what we have determined about the garlic we grow, and can relate that information to customers.
If you can stand it, try a garlic taste test yourself. I would like to compare to grocery store garlic sometime!
How To Help Protect Our Planet
Loving Nature
Ever since I was small, I loved nature. I don’t know why particularly, I just did. Growing up, I loved spending time in the country, around plants and animals and anything from the natural world. I took biology and ended up taking Agriculture in university.
Looking at career options, I was not pleased. A good paying job was most likely to be found in a region that I was not willing to live in (for several reasons), so I got sidetracked into a job that kept me in this location, but not really contributing to anything on the nature side of things. I had access to nature, but not a viable way to contribute to it’s health in the form of a career.
The main thing I didn’t want was a commute, which I had done previously for 2 years and which was draining and annoying and can take the life right out of you if done too long. Finally I was able to create a self-sustaining business right here where I lived.
So, now there was the time and energy for nature. I suspect this might have something to do with many people’s lack of interest or ability to contribute to the health of the planet – being tired and stressed from work. Change takes effort and when your effort is going into a job that is energy draining (as most are), you have little left after work for anything but the basics.
Anyway, this year we, Ernie and I, have decided to make a serious effort to live differently. We have been moving towards this for several years and refining our thinking and actions and have come up with many things that we feel will help move us and others towards living more kindly towards the planet. We are also now actively promoting this lifestyle to people (tactfully), hoping that they will make a few changes to their lifestyles to help out and make a difference. We do not lecture anyone, but simply mention things we and others can do in our daily conversations with people in our area.
The following are the things we ourselves are doing to feel that we are working towards the goal of protecting the health of our planet.
- Working towards growing all our own vegetables and fruits. We grow 80% of our veggies but only about 25% of our fruit. Producing our own fruit is more difficult but not impossible. We buy oranges, blueberries in season, cherries in season, and macintosh apples which we can’t grow here. We have our own apples, Saskatoons (Service berry), and raspberries. For veggies we buy cauliflower and radishes, both of which we can’t grow here successfully, and hothouse cucumbers from a different province and mushrooms grown locally. Everything else we grow ourselves and process for winter or do without.
- Reducing the amount we drive dramatically and walk as much as possible. This is easy to do especially in cities where you have public transit and can cycle most times of the year. In the country it is more difficult especially if you choose to live away from a larger centre where things need to be trucked in or you have to drive longer distances to get somewhere or buy something. As society moves towards more digital based commerce, it is likely that most things will be delivered which will save on individual car driving.
- Feed our pets as naturally and with as little waste as possible. Our dogs eat mostly raw meat, with some cooked foods such as sardines and tripe. Meat and eggs are obtained as much as possible from local ranchers/farmers. Sometimes we have to buy meat from the store, but if we do that, we save the plastic and styrofoam meat trays and reuse them for many things. There is almost no waste, where as if we fed dry dog food we would be throwing away big dog food bags, about three larges one a month. These are lined with aluminum and plastic for freshness and are not recyclable.
- Attempting to eliminate new purchases of plastic items and reduce the use of disposable plastics. This is a non-negotiable. I feel this is the most serious environmental issue that needs to be addressed currently. If we have some re-usable plastic, we won’t get rid of it just because we don’t want plastic around, but use it until it is not in good condition anymore. We don’t use shampoo anymore (water wash only) and very few store bought personal products so there is much less plastic waste. This is an area I’d like to reduce even more.
- We RE-USE EVERYTHING at least once. If it can’t be re-used, we will try not to buy it or find an alternative to it that is re-usable.
- Find new uses for most, if not all things that would normally be thrown out. This includes clothing, furniture, wood or any building material etc.
- Composting our waste. There is much that can be composted that people are not aware of, that would reduce the amount of garbage, maybe not useable for food plants, but compostable nevertheless. Cardboard is compostable by worms for instance.
- Support ethical and low-intensity animal farming for meat. In order to support this statement I won’t be including information here, but I encourage you to do your own research about red meat, farming etc. We will never be vegan as veganism is not a diet but an ethical position that rejects using animals for food, clothing, entertainment and other reasons, like having pets. Yes, if you have a pet you cannot be vegan by definition. In fact I would question whether there is even anything truly vegan at all, but that is for another article. I would resort to calling yourself a “strict plant-based eater” instead. I consider myself a plant-based” eater because my diet is based on plants, but I also eat meat and eggs and a very small amount of artisan cheese. I will also not give up my connection with other species on this planet especially dogs. I feel it is a natural way for humans to live, interacting with animals and it is pleasurable. That said, I do not agree with factory or large scale animal farming. People can eat less meat and we can raise and slaughter food animals better and more humanely. We can live in harmony with animals in our lives and in domesticity. If I can’t have animals in my life because of the beliefs of a few radical people, I don’t want to be here on earth at all.
- We save things from the garbage. There are so many things being thrown out in dumps and landfills that shouldn’t or don’t need to be thrown out. Ernie and other people we know have salvaged many, many things from being burned at the dump, and we have found ways to reuse these things.
- When we buy food, we make a great effort to buy products that are produced in this country, and even better, from within our community. All our meat and eggs come from local farmers and ranchers. It is not more expensive when you eat less. We also eat wild meat, specifically deer, which is low in fat as all wild meats are. For those of you who are opposed to hunting but still eat meat, unless you only purchase meat from animals that are dispatched on the farm and under no stress from transporting, then the meat is not at the highest quality. Wild deer are not terrorized by hunting anymore than they would be if they were being hunted by wolves or coyotes, whereas transporting animals to a slaughterhouse is very stressful on the animals.
- We don’t follow fashion trends. If something is not “trendy” or current in style we don’t get rid of it. Fashion is not really important. That being said, for some people it is important, but it is a throw-away culture. Furniture, knick-knacks, clothing, etc can be kept, saved, reused. Humans do need re-adjustment on the way we think about consuming things. We choose to buy good quality, and yes, more expensive items that last longer and do not give these things an expiry date based on what the current fashion or trends are. If something is in bad shape we simply find other uses for it until it is no more. I like the idea of finding one’s own style without the influence of consumerism. There are some amazing products in the marketplace that are high quality and unique and thoughtfully made. This is what I look for when thinking about a purchase (which isn’t often).
- Houseplants. Or how about just plants in general. Need I say more? OK, I will. I’m obsessed with plants. It’s what I studied in university. I love them. Tree, shrubs, flowers, food plants, houseplants. They are useful (in all kinds of ways) and houseplants bring nature into the home. The more I have the better I feel mentally. Having a few or several in your home is beneficial for you and your surroundings, reminding us even in snowy and cold winters (if you have them) that the plant, and planet, needs assistance to live.
- Writing about what we’re doing. This is a great way to spread information and ideas to assist others in changing perceptions about how we live. Ernie and I don’t presume to know what you do or can do in your own area, but where we live, since the community is small, we can come in contact easily with others to communicate information. Writing and posting on the internet is the same thing. Easy and convenient, and it works. If you think about it, I’ll bet there are several things you could do where you live now to spread the word.
I’m sure there are more things that you and I can and will come up with to contribute to this planet project, which MUST be done now. There is now more fooling around and we cannot go back. We must do this together.
Now that I have said all this, I want to emphasize, that this post is NOT a criticism list, to make people feel crappy about how little they are doing. This is a SUGGESTION list, describing mostly what we do ourselves and what CAN be done, and how important I feel this is. We want to encourage you (I know most of you who read this are already doing this stuff) and show how easy it is to do some of these things, give ideas and to impress upon people how important it is to do these things. That’s it. We’re not saying how great we are, or that you’re a bad person for not doing what we are. Instead, I’m simply giving information.
If you feel defensive or angry at some of these suggestions, that is not my fault. It is something for you to examine within yourself, on why you feel that way.
Then, once you have done that, take action and do something great for your city/town, province/state, community, and most importantly for yourself and your family!
Simple Skin and Hair Care For The Homestead
Up until about seven or eight years ago, I felt that I needed to be externally acceptable to others, especially those in my age group. Probably most if not all of you have felt the same way at some point. For me, this came through in the form of wearing trendy clothes, having to keep my hair a certain way and wearing makeup. If I didn’t, I would feel stressed that I was not socially acceptable.
The whole trying to fit in thing started when I was in elementary school and continued on through high school. In university, I held back a bit more with the makeup, but still obsessed about hair and clothes. When I reached my over 40 years, I realized that the thing that was most important to me about fashion and style is that I need to be able to be relaxed at all times in my clothes. This means that I need my clothes and hair to be clean and comfortable and that’s pretty much it.
Personal style is not normally influenced by fashion, but it can be. By today’s standards, you should be able to wear pretty much whatever you want, no matter what the trend is at the time. Trends are there simply for big clothes companies to make money. They change the styles randomly so that you have to buy new stuff whether you need it or not.
For myself now, I wear pretty much what I want when I want. Hair and skin care for this homesteader has also had a transformation to the frugal and basic kind. I don’t have time to waste on trying to make other think I’m acceptable.
Almost a year ago, I decided I want to live in an even more “eco-friendly” or sustainable way. This means I want to use as few personal care products as possible and the ones I do use are basically things I can make myself.
I started a while back by committing to only buying products that are made in North America. I actually used this rule for buying things for the home to start and continued it over into the beauty product area as well.
Homestead Skin Care
My first discovery of frugal, eco-friendly skin care was done by accident. I was trying to get to the point of having cold showers in the morning. I started by using a hot and then cold cloth on my face and neck to get used to the idea of shockingly cold water. This routine had the result of eliminating any pimples I had been getting on my chin and forehead. If I stopped the face cloth routine for more than a week, I would start getting pimples again. This was something I had not anticipated but was pleased about because it solved an issue that was somewhat annoying.
This became my skin care routine and I didn’t have to buy anything new. When I was in high school I went through the buying of skin care products because it seemed like the thing to do. Some girls and women are certain they can’t get along without numerous facial products. I wonder whether putting all kinds of chemicals on one’s skin is not part of the problem.
Hair Care
Shortly after I started this routine, I decided to try the “no shampoo” thing again. I had attempted it a year and a half ago but quit when I saw that it was not working as fast as I had read it should.
This time around, I didn’t stop. The initial result were the same – my hair stayed oily for months and still has periods of being heavily greasy, but there are fewer of those times now than before. When I think about it now, it makes sense that some people will have trouble with this method, especially if you have spent decades washing your hair every day with shampoo. In my case it was well over 40 years of stripping the natural oils from my scalp. That can’t be a good thing.
In order to make this work, you need to find the right combination of water temperature, brushing and combing that works for your hair. What was described on informational websites about hair did not work for me. I was not going to buy the recommended “boar” brush due to the fact the I could not find one that was made in North America. Instead I use a vintage wooden handled plastic bristled brush I found here in the house made in France.
The brush does need to be washed regularly as you can see in the picture above to remove the oil that is removed from your hair by brushing.
My hair has now started to slow down on the oil production and I have also become better at caring for it in its natural state. It is not shiny (fake) and “flyaway” like it was when I removed the oil from it, but it is also not as greasy at the end of the day as when I was washing with shampoo daily. It was definitely over-producing oil then. Sometimes I felt I needed to wash it twice, morning and evening, to get rid of the oil.
Other benefits of this hair care method are that I don’t have to use conditioner now, I never get “statiky” hair anymore or knotted hair from the wind, AND my split ends are gone.
I do have to be a bit more creative at times about how I wear my hair because it is thicker and still shows a bit of oil in certain styles. But I never have bad hair days anymore which is amazing to me. It used to drive me nuts because my hair was so flyaway when shampooed that it would mostly just be impossible to keep in one place. Now it stays where I put it. Surprisingly, there is no odour in hair washed well with water, or at least with mine anyway. Oh, and my scalp is not itchy all the time either like it used to be when I used shampoo – another benefit.
So, my homestead “beauty” routine is as natural as I can make it. As for traditional beauty products, I can’t stand the smell of nail polish anymore so I don’t wear it and I still have a few dozen unfinished bottles of it. With regards to makeup, a few years ago I started getting watery eyes from anything I put on or near them or any scent that was in foundations. This makes it easy not to wear any makeup at all.
No makeup, no perfume, no purchased hair or skin products. That is my homestead skin and hair care routine.
Happy Homesteading (and not wasting money and time on beauty products)!
How We Reduced Our Food Spending
Last month I told you about how we are attempting to spend less money on food. The result of our February experiment was that we spent $280 for the month which ended up being $109 less than February last year (2017). It’s also consistent with the $10 a day spending experiment that I have been doing to see if it is possible to eat well for $10 per day for two people. It IS possible.
The main things that made this possible were the following:
Eating in season. We bought blueberries when they were in season in the summer at a great price and then froze them for use now. We also froze most of our own fruit, including currants, raspberries and apples.
Not buying convenience foods. This is an obvious one. Convenience foods may look cheaper to start with but they are used up faster because the quality is poor. You end up spending more because you have to repurchase more often.
Eating a bit less. There is nothing wrong with eating less. I found this quite liberating. We were eating better quality food, and therefore not needing to eat as much because there were no cravings.
Cooking everything for ourselves. This is a must. I have found that eating at restaurants is actually not that fun for me. It’s really for convenience. I prefer the food that we make for ourselves, for the taste, the control of the quality, and time spent together. I know where the food is coming from and what goes in it.
Having a garden. Naturally, growing your own food is going to save you a bundle. It is more work for sure, but the quality of the food, at least in our case, is superior to anything we’d buy from the store.
The Coming Months
We are continuing our spending freeze on food for the next two months at least to see if it can be kept up. We are definitely going to run out of potatoes this year but that should be about it and not sure if we’ll buy from the store when we do. We’d only buy if they are locally grown potatoes so we can’t predict if there will be many or any to buy in the spring.
Our source for meat is local, which provides us with grass fed beef, humanely slaughtered on farm, so we don’t need to buy meat at the store. This also saves us money. Even though we don’t eat much meat, I eat it for the energy it provides me. Not every one needs to do this but by the same token, not everyone can be healthy by eating only plants.
As an aside, but following the nutritional topic, our dogs eat a raw meat and whole food diet (no kibble or canned dog food). We are able to keep their meal costs to $100 per dog per month (more or less, as the dogs are different sizes and eat accordingly) which is extremely good.
So, all in all, our experiment is providing us with an interesting and useful pastime with a very good result so far.
How To Make Vinegar At Home
This fall we had an abundance of apples. So after we used up and froze as many as we could I decided it was a go on the vinegar.
I used chunks of apple, not fruit scraps, just because we had that many apples and we didn’t need to process any more whole ones. You can use just the cores and peels for this if you use the main part of the apple for something else. If I were to use cores, I would remove the seeds before I used them, just to be sure that they don’t break down in the vinegar and leach anything into it.
I cored and chopped enough to fill the jar put in a honey/water brine. I weighed down the apples with a regular drinking glass with a shooter glass inside that. Use anything that fits in the mouth of the jar you use. Make sure you use a glass or ceramic weight and not metal or wood.
It bubbled away for a little more than a week and started to smell like alcohol – the desired result of the first part of making vinegar.
I think I left it a little too long because the apples started to brown and some of the liquid evaporated from the jar. Below is the result of the this first part of the process. Here I am getting ready to filter the liquid through a linen cloth. This removes any pulp and residue from the liquid.
I thought it should be a bit clearer than it turned out, but the smell was right so I continued on with it. The picture below is the final liquid after the filtering.
I am storing it on a shelf in the corner of the kitchen out of the light in a glass casserole dish.
The mother of vinegar will settle out from the liquid. The “mother” is the substance that you would use to create new vinegar from just juice. It is slimy looking stuff, kind of like a jelly that will settle in the bottom of the bowl of vinegar.
To store in the fridge, it is necessary to put a cover on it I also re-strained it because there was more “mother” in the vinegar. I then covered the mother with some of the vinegar and put it back in the fridge.
There is a definite change in colour of the liquid. It has darkened quite a bit. Also, it seems that all of the vinegar is continually producing mother of vinegar if left long enough, which is OK from what I have learned.
I ended up with two cups of usable vinegar. Right now I am giving it to the dogs by the teaspoon with their meals, as it has benefits for them as well.
The Village Homesteader 
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