Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: What You Can Do To Help

Everyone has heard the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" some time in their lives, usually fairly early on as the primer schools try to make their kids aware of various recycling programs (at least, that's how it started for me). We've all seen, heard, or read something about the rise of litter all over public parks and beaches, landfills filling up, birds choking on debris, turtles, dolphins and other animals getting caught up in discarded trash in the seas, and of course, the raft of refuse floating in the middle of the ocean somewhere.

The fact of the matter is, everyone needs to start thinking about this, or we are going to be over run by our own leavings in the not-so-far-away future (we're well on our way now). There has been an explosion in packaged goods and exports that has resulted in- you guessed it- an explosion of trash.

Reduce

You may think to yourself "How can I possibly reduce my output into this world?" Well, it takes some time and clever thinking. First, you must think about what are you creating. I'll give you a hint: look in your trash bin. Are you using a lot of processed foods that come with brightly colored cardboard boxes and plastic inserts? Are you throwing away glass mayo and jam jars that could be recycling or reused? Are there plastic tubs, plastic baggies, newspapers, empty tins, plastic or Styrofoam meat trays, an excess of food scraps? Are you filling your bin so quickly that you have to take it out more than once a week?

Did you say yes to any of those things? If you did, then you need to think about reducing your output. If you are buying a lot of packaged, processed foods, look at how you can replace them with options that aren't so plastic wrapped. Buy fresh foods and veggies, and store them in reusable containers instead of plastic wrap or coated paper. Ask that your meats, fish, and cheeses be weighed in a reusable container to avoid unnecessary plastic and Styrofoam use. Carry your groceries in cloth totes. Grow a garden for your fruit and veggies, and use your edible food scraps for compost. Learn to make things from scratch (like condiments such as mayo, sauces, etc) so that you are not constantly buying the containers of such at the store and creating more waste.

I'm only here to get you started in the right direction. For other ideas, it is best if you Google "zero waste household". There are plenty of people out there with many great ideas on how to reduce your output. This blog, Zero Waste Home, is an excellent place to start.

Reuse

Those of you living in Australia (or at least, Tasmania) know that the beginning of November means the end of plastic shopping bags and the beginning of an era where everyone takes their groceries home in reusable cloth bags (despite the fact that Coles supermarkets are a little "unclear on the concept", as instead of using free thin plastic bags, they now sell $0.15 cent heavy plastic bags... which makes no sense). While that may partially solve the plastic bag issue (only not really), what about all the other stuff?

Glass
Glass is easily recycled, but you can also use it for a number of uses around your home, especially jars that have lids intact.

-Use for rinsing kids paintbrushes
-Use with lids to sort and store odds and ends such as buttons, paperclips, or other small objects
-Cut a slot in a mayo jar lid and have your kids decorate the jar to create their very own coin banks
-Use small jars to make candle holders; just decorate and place a tea light inside
-Use baby food jars as hardware storage in your shed: screw the lids to a shelf and then just twist the jars onto the lids
-Create solar light projects with canning jars that have been chipped and can't be used for canning
-Store dried herbs, jerky, or roasted nuts in large jars with lids, or, even better, those Moccona coffee jars
-Store your homemade laundry detergent in a large lidded jar
-Use jars to make pickled onions, refrigerator pickles, or pickled eggs
-Use jam jars to create snail traps for your garden
-Use empty glass condiment bottles for your own homemade condiments, and empty glass drinks bottles to make your own kombucha or ginger beer

Paper and Cardboard
-Use newspapers and broken down cardboard boxes as a layer of mulch in your garden beds
-Use shredded paper in your worm farm or compost
-Use light cardboard as a base for creating templates for sewing projects or stencils
-Use shredded newspaper to make papier-mâché
-Use egg cartons as seed starting trays; just fill with soil and plant (or, give them to your chicken raising friends)
-Toilet paper tubes make great seed starters! Just fill with soil, plant the seed, and when the seedling is big enough, plant the whole thing in the ground, tube and all 

Cans
Due to the problem of BPA in the lining of the steel cans our food comes in, I wouldn't suggest reusing them for any cooking, storage or other food related purpose. I am personally on a mission to limit our need for tinned foods, so that we can ensure a safer, less toxic lifestyle. However, there are still some of those cans banging around, so lets see if we can't find some uses for them. I know from experience that cans can be used for a variety of DIY projects, if you are crafty and clever. If not, just toss them in your recycle bin.

-Decorate clean cans to make pencil holders for the kids
-Clean and reuse to store bolts, paperclips or other small items
-Make a Tin Can Rocket Stove
-Make a Tin Can Camping Stove
-Make a Tin Can Tin Man
-Use aluminum drinks cans to build a Soda Can Solar Heater

Plastic Containers
Plastic tubs are things I prefer to avoid as much as possible, but they do come in handy sometimes. Yogurt containers (both large and small), margarine/butter tubs, cream cheese or other "party dip" containers all have a use in the home:

-Use the liter size yogurt tubs as a container for freezing soups or broths
-Use single size yogurt cups with lids as paint cups for kids projects
-Use the small containers from your margarine or cream cheese to store your left overs, or to create single sized servings of frozen foods
-Use plastic ice cream tubs to store dried pasta, beans, or popcorn kernels
-Use larger containers for the kitchen compost
-Use plastic meat trays as water dishes for seed starting trays
-Cut plastic milk jugs in half (at the bottom of the handle), poke holes in the lid, invert the top into the bottom, and use as a self watering seed starting pot; add soil, seed, and water
-Use two liter clear plastic juice bottles as cloches; just cut the bottom off, remove the lid, and place over the plant; or, cut in half and use as a larger self watering plant

Food Scraps
I highly suggest get your household a compost bin, worm bin, or Bokashi bin. There are several advantages to this: You get rid of the smelly component of your trash bin by removing the decomposing items, reduce the likelihood of pests visiting your bins, and it helps to create a better garden for your home. There are many ways you can go about it:

Hot composting
To build a hot compost pile, you need an area that will allow for a roughly one meter square pile: anything larger compacts too much and interferes with decomposition, and anything smaller doesn't heat up. When assembling your materials, you need to consider the ratios. For a good pile you want about 25 parts brown (carbon-rich) material such as straw, dry leaves, or prunings off your trees, and 1 part green (nitrogen-rich) materials, such as lawn clippings, weeds, kitchen scraps, etc. Layer these materials and dampen each if they are dry; moisture is important to the process as well. You want your pile to be roughly one meter tall. Finish off with a layer of brown material, and leave it be. it should heat up within hours and be cooking along properly in a couple days. In two weeks, turn the pile, and in 6 weeks it should be ready to use. The advantage of using a hot composting method is that it kills off any pathogens that might have hitched a ride with your plant material.

Cold composting
The average household bin is a cold composter, in essence, a bin with an open bottom (giving worms from the soil free access to the scraps) and a lid to keep larger pests out. This is where all your veggie peelings go, as well as lawn clippings, old plants, etc. Because it is a cold method, and being added to continuously, it is in different stages of decomposition, which results in a slower breakdown of the materials and a less nutrient dense compost. It also means that you should not add diseased plants, as it will not kill the pathogens off, and that any seeds you add (such as the pumpkin pulp) will sprout later on.

Vermicomposting
Vermicomposting, or vermiculture, is the business of composting with worms. This method is good because you can have a bin inside your home where you have easy access to it, and you can provide pretty much all the materials (expect maybe the bin, depending on what style you want to go for). Worms can be fed all kinds of fruit and vegetable waste (but may have issues with onion and garlic skins), coffee grounds with the their filters, and tea bags. There is some debate about whether or not to add fatty material, meat or bones. Some say the worms need a protein source, so if you do go that route, make sure it's a very small amount, otherwise you could end up with a very smelly mess, and that would be bad. Worms also need a form of grit, which you can supply in the form of cornmeal, coffee grounds, or finely crushed eggshells. They also need bedding, which can be provided in the form of shredded paper or cardboard, peat moss or commercial worm bedding. You also want the right kind of worms: Eisenia foetida, otherwise known as tiger worms.

Bokashi Bins
Bokashi bins are the ultimate small space composting option. A Japanese invention, bokashi literally means "fermentation": it basically pickles your food waste. With the help of friendly bacteria laced through a bran mixture, it ferments all edible waste (cooked and uncooked, including dairy and meat) into a liquid compost. You layer food waste and the inoculated bran until the bin is full (it's advised you have two bins). When one bin is full you let it sit to finish it's job while you fill the second one. It is, however, more of an involved investment, as you need to order more of the inoculated bran to keep it going.

TIP: Got lots of eggshells? Dry them out and crush them into small fragments and use in your garden as a slug and snail repellent. Just sprinkle them around plants prone to gastropds, and the sharp fragments will make approaching the plant very uncomfortable for the invaders.

There are other composting methods, but these are the most basic concepts. You can research lasagne beds, sheet mulching, and other methods on your own. Remember: Google is your friend. :)

Recycle

If you cannot find a use for things around your home, or you just don't have the time or space for a tin can tin man, then please try to put all your recyclables in the recycle bin your city council provides. If you have the option you might think about taking them to the recycling centers to get some pocket money from your collection (my brother does this with all the soda cans he collects). If you have a lot of jars, cardboard, newspaper etc, things that other people might find useful, then consider joining your local freecycle, Craigs List, Gumtree, or other classifieds advertiser to alert others that these supplies are in their local area. 

Here are some other things you should consider when discarding wisely:

-If you buy six pack drinks cans, then cut up the rings of the plastic loops to avoid birds or other animals getting caught in them; any milk bottle rings should be cut as well
-All batteries, car tires, motor oils, paints, paint strippers, pesticides and other toxic substances must be disposed of safely and properly. Please ask your city council how, when and where you need to dispose of these items
-When washing your car, use only biodegradable soaps, or no soap at all to avoid contamination of storm drain water... and please do not dispose of anything other than pure water down those drains!
-Mercury vapor and halogen type light bulbs must also be disposed of carefully to avoid contaminating the environment
-Televisions, laptops, phones and other electronics should be delivered to a business or organization that dismantles them for their components. Your local council should know who to call.
-Old vehicles, boats, motors and other objects can be sold for parts, projects or for scrap

Never think that you can't help the world and it's problems. If you start off being more conscious of your recycling and disposal habits, then your spouse will follow suit, and so will your kids. Talk to your relatives and neighbors about this subject, get your community involved in a local recycling program or litter pick up day. If we all go home and do this today, maybe together we can all make a difference.

Resources
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s3301097.htm
http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/vermicompost107.shtml
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/27/bokashi-bin-compost-alys-fowler

Make Your Own Seasonings

Ever since I became interested in this whole self sufficiency thing, I've been wanting to try growing and making my own seasoning mixes and spice blends. Something about the glory of growing your own onions, garlic, herbs, spices and vegetables, drying them, and grinding them with the mortar and pestle into flakes or powders, blending them to a perfect mix to enhance your cooking, storing them in a perfect line up of jewel-like spice jars...

Seriously though. Why make your own seasoning mixes? Because it's awesome. And fun. And you can avoid things like over priced packets from the stores with anti-caking agents, and who knows what else in them. And it's the perfect use for the mortar and pestle your husband bought you when you got married, and then sat collecting dust for a long time because you didn't have anything to grind in it... okay, that might have just been me.

It almost means you control what goes into the mix. Fresh herbs and spices pack the most flavor punch but to be honest, if you don't want to grow the onions and garlic, you are perfectly justified in using store bought varieties (shop the sales baby). Same with bulk spices, or with hard to grow things (because who can grow black pepper or cumin in their yard? Actually... *cough* I'm going to try growing cumin... *cough*)

Where do you even begin though? Well, it helps to have a kitchen with some useful gadgets and tools.

A dehydrator is a biggie. I have the deluxe Fowlers-Vacola machine, but any machine would do fine. Or, alternatively, you can dehydrate things in your oven or in a solar dehydrator if you don't have humidity issues. Things like good knives, a garlic press, a mortar and pestle or a food processor, are all useful tools. Those little glass spice jars, washed and saved from store bought spices, are extremely helpful, but not strictly necessary. Patience, however, is a biggie. it takes time to dry things.

And, last but never least, some recipes you can try!

Garlic Powder/Flakes

Crush as much garlic as you want. I prefer doing at least two whole bulbs. Make sure they are fresh and mold free. Just peel and push through the garlic press, or grind to a paste in the food processor. Smear the garlic paste onto a fruit roll up sheet and dry on the "Fruit/Vegetable" setting of your dehydrator (generally about 135F/58C), for several hours, until you can flake the garlic off the sheet. It should be crispy, not tough.

If you want garlic flakes, break them up into flakes and leave as is. If you want powder, place the garlic flakes in the mortar or food processor and grind until you have a powder. Place in a jar, label and seal.

Onion Powder

Similar story to the garlic. Chop three or four onions into small pieces, then puree in the food processor (like making an onion smoothie). When it's very finely textured, smear it on a fruit roll up sheet and dry until crispy (it will take a little longer; onion has way more water than garlic does). Then you just flake the dried onion off, grind into a powder, label and store.

Onion Flakes

Slightly different procedure. Top, tail, peel and halve one kilo of onions, and slice each half into narrow slices. Break apart the layers and place in a large microwave safe bowl. Try not to hurt yourself with the knife while you're blinded with onion tears. Place a bit of water in the bottom and cover loosely with a spatter guard, and nuke those evil *expletive deleted* for three minutes on high. Wash your hands thoroughly. And your face. And your cutting board. Try not to cry some more.

When the time is up, toss them quickly with tongs and nuke again for another three minutes. They should be limp by this time. You definitely showed them who's boss. Drain the water off and place the onion slices on the dehydrator trays. Don't let them fall through, and dry until they are crispy and golden.

Finally, we can make our onion flakes: take however many of the dried slices you want, and crush them carefully to get more flakes and less powder. This is where a mortar and pestle come in handy: it's easier to control the processing time.

Store the flakes in a spice jar, and the onion slices in a larger jar.

Garlic/Onion Salt

Easy stuff. Garlic or Onion Salt can be made with 3 parts salt and 1 part garlic or onion powder. Just mix the two together and store in a clean jar.

Chili Powder/Paprika

Chilies and paprika are all peppers. If you are lucky enough to be able to grow either, you can dry them both and grind them to a powder for use in your cooking. (Paprika can be smoked as well, to give it a nice flavor). Try doing something fun, and making green chili powder for use in salsa verde type dishes.

Mexican Seasoning

Slightly more involved now, as we're using bulk spices from the spice section at the supermarket.

1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder (or 2 tsp onion flakes)
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp crushed black pepper

Mix well and store in an airtight jar.

Italian Seasoning

All your favorite herbs can be grown and used for Italian cooking. Make sure you include rosemary, basil, oregano, marjoram and thyme in your garden if you wish to make your own from scratch. If not, you can purchase them from the supermarket and make your own blend.

2T Rosemary
2T Basil
2T Thyme
2T Marjoram
2T Oregano

Optional:
1T Chili Flakes
1T Onion Flakes
1T Garlic Flakes

Mix and store in a jar.

Seasoning Salt

I made this yesterday and had it on a roast chicken and it was fantastic. I think it would work great for any meat.

3 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp crushed black pepper

Store in a jar and enjoy.

I hope these have given you ideas on how to use both store bought and home grown herbs and spices in your seasoning mixes. May your cooking always be interesting and flavorful!

Make Your Own Soap

I swear, my favorite blogs are the ones where I can share with others "MYO" ideas (that's "Make Your Own" for the uninitiated).

My favorite subject recently has been soap making. There's a lot of trepidation about soap making, especially to those who have heard horror stories regarding lye, or accidents with overheating the fats, or whatever. I know, because I was one of those people. I wasn't exactly scared of the whole process, but I was certainly leery of what seemed like complicated instructions and concerned about making mistakes.

I put it off for weeks. For real! I was taking my procrastination skills to a whole new level in regards to making my own soap. Believe it or not though, I have to thank my husband for giving me that little push I needed to get started. What did this wonder man do?

He bought me some plastic containers and utensils to use for mixing and molding the soap. He also bought me an emulsion blender.

I was stoked. Shiploads (love that place) had all the plastic things (molds, bowl, whisk, etc) for a little less than $10. Coles supermarket had the stick blender (brilliant ones too, with the removable shaft for ease of washing) for $10 as well. It was an unforgettable score, because for twenty bucks, I was suddenly in business.

Well... maybe not quite yet. I still needed to get my fats. One step at a time though!

A fairly tidy workspace: Everything in reach.

The Basics

Don't be scared. The equipment is pretty straight forward. To prepare for making your own soap, you need a few things:


-Some old clothes (in case you get some on you) And that includes shoes, in case of major spills
-An old towel, in case you either A) need to wipe up spills, or B) In case you choose to wrap the mold once you've poured the soap
-Gloves (a pair of latex or vinyl gloves are fine; you can use the rubber dish-washing gloves too. My advice: use the latex. They are thinner, fit more closely, and give you a surer grip on objects- hence, you're less likely to have accidents)
-Eye protection (I just wear my glasses, and make sure I'm extra careful with my mixing; otherwise, get some goggles)
-Mixing bowl (glass or plastic, large enough to contain your batch without being too full)
-A mold (be it a plastic container, or a hand-made mold, or whatever)
-A stirrer (I have a silicone dipped metal whisk, but stirring by hand is hard and takes a long time; the stick blender does the job much better)
-A silicone scraper or spatula (to scrape all the soapy goodness out of the bowl into the mold)
-Old newspapers (to protect your work area)
-A work area, be it an old table, the top of your washing machine, or somewhere outside. Make sure you can provide good ventilation
-A digital scale. You need an accurate way to measure the ingredients
-Measuring jugs for fats and water
-Measuring spoons or instruments dedicated to soap making only

Once you've got that lot sorted out, you're prepared to check out what you need for ingredients.

A simple lunchbox with a lid makes a great mold for soap.

The Chemistry

There's nothing magic about soap making, really. It's basically chemistry.

Soap is created by the reaction of a strong alkaline solution (usually sodium hydroxide) breaking down fat molecules. Soap is a kind of salt compound; when the chemical reaction occurs, the bonds of the two solutions are broken, and the sodium attaches to the fatty acids, whilst the hydrogen and oxygen attach to the glycerol.

Even if you don't really understand the molecular chemistry of it all though, just know this: water + lye + fat = soap. In fact, the only thing you really need to know about making soap is the proportions of water and lye to the fats you are using, as that will determine how your soap turns out. That in itself is a very involved subject.

The rest of soap making is mechanical. You must have a means to mix the soap to the right consistency. For small batches of soap, elbow grease would work fine, but for bigger batches, or those with arm or shoulder problems, it's advised you purchase the handy dandy stick blender for this project. Most can be found very cheaply nowadays, and I highly recommend the ones that have the detachable shaft; clean up is much easier.

Why do I need to stir so much? you ask. Well, for one, to incorporate the ingredients thoroughly so that you can avoid pockets of lye water in your soap, but also to get the soap to turn out properly, you have to "bring it to trace". When you hit trace, your soap goes from being a liquid mess to a thicker batter, similar to cake batter or pudding. To tell if you have reached trace, lift your stirring instrument out of the batter and if you can see the raised impressions of the mixer, you've got trace. It's just like beating egg whites or cream, but be careful: over mixing can cause you soap to seize in your bowl, and then you have a mess on your hands.

Once you have reached trace, you can pour into your mold.

Lye

Lye in soap is typically sodium hydroxide, although liquid soaps use potassium hydroxide because it results in a softer end product. Most lye is available under the name "caustic soda", and usually comes in granules.

Fun Fact: When our ancestors made their own lye from wood ashes, it was actually potassium hydroxide!

It is extremely alkaline, and very dangerous if you get it on you. It reacts very quickly to the moisture and oils on your skin, causing severe burns, so if there's one thing you take away from this blog, it's that you really need to be careful when working with lye. You must ensure your work area is well ventilated, as the fumes can cause lung and eye irritation, and it's best if you mark all utensils, measuring jugs, bowls and containers as "for soap making only", to ensure that no cross contamination can occur with your regular kitchen utensils. Wear gloves and long sleeves to avoid splashes, and always, always, ALWAYS add the lye to the water, never the other way around, to avoid any possible "volcanic" reactions.

As a safety precaution, I will even take the jug of water and the lye outside to mix it there, to avoid any accidents inside.

For those of you still thinking the goggles and gloves and clothes are a little bit overkill, remember: Better safe than sorry.

Water

There is a bit of a debate over what kind of water to use. Many will say distilled water is best, as it's very pure, with nothing that can react and cause discoloration in the soap. That may be true, but I find it much simpler to use tap water. Occasionally I might filter it through the Brita filter, but whether that makes a difference, I don't know. However, if you have water that is high in minerals or other dissolved agents (due to type of city water or well water), it might be best if you used the distilled anyway, especially if you are trying to make "selling soaps" that you want to keep pretty. If you are feeling clever enough, you might even make your own distilled water.

Water is the usual solution the lye is dissolved in. Because the reaction between the lye and water is very volatile, the water will get very hot (hence my doing it outside). Water must also be weighed via solid measure methods (with your digital scale), just like your fats and lye.

Other liquids can be used in soap making, such as milk, coconut milk, or teas, but I've kept it simple so far by just using water.

Fats

There is an almost endless variety of fats you can use for your soap. In my supermarket alone I can find olive oil, coconut oil, rice bran oil, avocado oil, macadamia oil, sesame oil, lard, butter/ghee and tallow, as well as all the usual sunflower, canola, corn and blended "crap" oils (as I call them). Never mind all the oil varieties available at the health food store or from online merchants. There are also "butters" you can use, such as shea, aloe and cocoa.

Not all fats are created equal. Each fat has a different property it offers to your soap. They also vary greatly in price and quality. Generally, cheap oils produce cheap soaps. But I don't think spending hundreds of dollars on oils to create soaps is a very sustainable or wise plan either. You can make your own lard and tallow in your kitchen if you feel like being industrious and frugal, but it's not a requirement. if you are interested in rendering lard or tallow for this purpose, check out this other blog I wrote on the subject: Living High On The Hog: Rendering And Using Lard

Lard in it's finest form.

For the sake of simplicity, and to keep this a "beginners" lesson, I'll stick to the easy to find ingredients. No use confusing matters just yet!

When I started making soap, I thought "How can I make this affordable and easy?" I decided that I would stick to plain fats that I could get locally, in the supermarket. I chose lard (I live in Australia, so it's found in the refrigerated section) and a coconut oil product called Copha, which is a hydrogenated oil blended with soya lecithin to improve its hardness (also an Australian product). I was too nervous to try my hand at olive oil soaps at the time.

Seeing as Copha can't be found everywhere, (and because for my very first batch of soap I wasn't sure how the altered coconut oil product would affect the soap) I opted for a single batch of lard soap, and so my chosen recipe for you to try is lard only. My goal was to create a batch of unscented soap for washing powder, and I read that the lard soap would be excellent for that.

Other Ingredients

You can choose to add other ingredients to your soap. No one is stopping you from experimenting with oatmeal, honey, dried herbs, essential oils or fragrances, fine sand, salt, coffee grounds, beer or colorants. There are countless companies online selling these products that you are free to look up. I suggest you do plenty of research to figure out which ones you might like to try. There are many groups on Facebook, online forums and websites with recipes and advice. If you are looking for inspiration, this website has a great list: soap-body-and-spa.com

Curing

Most soaps benefit from curing, which means you leave them to sit in a cool dry place for a few weeks to help evaporate the extra water. It results in a harder, longer lasting bar of soap. Cold processed soap (as the method below is) isn't heated other than the initial melting of the fats to make them liquid, so the extra water is not cooked out of them as it would be in hot process soap. It is suggested you leave them two to four weeks to cure into a nice hard bar, but if you are excited (like I was) to give it a try, you can use them after a couple of days (they don't last very long that way, but it's long enough to give the others time to cure while you're happily using the one in the dish).

Simple Lard Soap

Simple Lard Soap

This soap is a good cleaning soap. Use it for scrubbing stains, for cleaning household messes, grate it into laundry powder, or just keep it by the tap to wash your hands with.

Ingredients

450g of lard
171g water 
60g lye

1. Melt the lard in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

2. While the fat melts, weigh the water in a pitcher (make sure you zero the scale with the empty pitcher first!) Sprinkle in the lye, and gently swirl to dissolve. (Don't breathe the fumes.)

3. Allow the melted fat and lye water to cool for a while, until you can touch the sides of the containers without burning yourself.

4. Pour the lye water into the saucepan. Place an immersion blender in the pan until it touches the bottom. (This first batch of mine was actually mixed by hand, with a silicone dipped whisk. The stick blender is much better.) Turn on the blender on the lowest speed, and beware of splashing (do this in the sink or put down several layers of newspaper). Blend until you see a "trace," which means until it's thick enough that you can kind of see where you've been and drips stay visible on the surface for a second or two. Think of the consistency of cake batter, or perhaps pudding.

5. Pour into a mold of your choice (in my case, the plastic lunchbox with a lid).

6. Let it sit for at least 8 hours, or over night. Then you may carefully loosen the block of soap with a thin knife, and pop it out onto a cutting surface. Cut into bars, and store in a cool, dry place to cure for a couple weeks before use.

Enjoy your soap and your new found skill!

Saving Seeds

I will openly admit that I am addicted to seeds. Not just growing things from them, but collecting, saving them from the plants I grow, buying them, etc. I am not quite so bad yet that I have to use whole rooms to store them, but I do know that I have more varieties than I have the room to grow them in.

If there was a Seed Addicts Anonymous group, I'd be the president.

That said, I'll tell you another thing: Seeds are expensive! Especially if you are buying the organic, heirloom, non-GMO types. Depending on where you buy them from, they are everything between $2.50 and $4.50 to buy from retailers (no joke; I bought seeds at one nursery for $3.50, and the same brand of seeds at another nursery were priced at $4.50!) I even bought a two year membership at Digger's Seeds so I could get the members price on all their goodies, which was cheaper than the retail (plus it had some other perks too). In fact, in the time that I've been sitting here thinking about what next to write, I chose four free packets of seeds for them to send to me (they are such filthy enablers, aren't they?)

I decided finally (after the initial sticker shock wore off) that I couldn't keep buying packets of seed, because that would be the opposite of being self sufficient and sustainable, right?

Right.

So my only choice then was to learn how to collect and save seeds. It's been my project baby for a while now.

These are the swelling seed pods of an Angelica plant.

Now, in my head, seeds are more than the little objects produced by flowers after pollination. In my non-technical, non-scientific definition, a seed is something you can grow a plant from. It's a very simplistic look at things, but it's a start for those who don't have degrees in botany and horticulture, and doesn't even begin to touch on the differences between bulbs, rhizomes and seeds. But because I'm not here to be non-specific, I'll give you the real definition.

Wiki says:

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant.

It's a remarkably boring and wordy way of saying seeds are plant babies! (Or future plant babies...or something.)

Like reproduction in animals (the male sperm fertilizing the female egg to create off spring), seeds are the result of plant reproduction. The male pollen "sperm" fertilizes the "egg" of the female plant, and creates a seed (an "embryo") that carries the combined genetic material to create a whole other new plant.

Seeds come in as many shapes, sizes, colors and designs as there are plants making them. By themselves, they are eye candy, but put into the ground, they create a plant that will make even more seeds that you can collect. In fact, from two plants (two seeds) you can grow maybe a hundred times the amount of seed you started with (probably more, depending on the plant and how many seeds it produces in a good growing season). Even among related species the seeds can vary greatly, especially among the legumes.

Seeds Are Cost Effective

Demonstrating the wide variety of seed details

I know a lot of people like to buy their vegetables as seedlings, because it means they don't have to do all the waiting around part that growing from seed means you do. It's can be a good thing for busy people, I suppose, but part of the great pleasure of gardening is the ability to watch it grow from a tiny seed in a big thriving plant, and knowing that you, of all people, nurtured it into life. There is an advantage to growing from seed (and saving the result) though, which is especially relevant in these times of economic tension, when gardeners might be looking at those $2, $3, $4, or even $5 plants and thinking they might not be worth it this year.

Let's take beans, for instance. Beans are legumes (this works for peas too) that come generally in a climbing or a dwarf variety. But that doesn't matter so much when you think about what they produce. Many of you might have memories of mum or grandma growing greens beans, and how many they were picking every day. If you were like me, you might even have gotten a little tired of eating them, and if your mum or other relatives were thrifty enough, they'd be freezing, drying or canning all those green beans. And if they were growing peas, gods forbid you accidentally let slip you were bored, because you'd be shelling peas before you quite realized what had happened!

When you buy a packet of beans or peas, you might get anywhere from 25-50 seeds in the packet. At an average of, oh, say $3.50 per packet (small packets here, not the bulk bags), it's an average of $0.7- $0.14 cents per seed. Of course, you plant the seed, grow the plant, and the plant grows the pods which you eat and preserve.

Each of those pods we eat from the bean or pea plant are the plant ovaries, and inside each are the seeds. One pod contains four, maybe six seeds, sometimes more, often less, depending on how well they were pollinated. Several seeds per pod, many pods per plant (gotta love my reckoning skills here!) and generally people tend to plant more than one plant, so you might have a row of twelve plants, or twenty plants, or a one hundred foot row of plants. 

If, at the end of every season, you saved twenty-five pods, and those pods averaged at five seeds per pod, you end up with 125 seeds, which is already two and half to five times the number of seeds you got in the original packet. If you packaged them up and sold them for the asking price of the original packet, you'd have earned $8.75-$17.50! And those are just beans! Imagine what that's like with a plant that puts off thousands of seeds, such as angelica or kale. 

My point? Why wouldn't you save the seeds?

Clockwise from the black seeds at the top: Cherokee Yellow Wax beans, Scarlet Runner beans, Dwarf Green beans, Borlotti beans, Purple King Climbing beans, Stringless Pioneer beans, Yin Yang beans, and Dragons Tongue beans.

This reasoning can be applied to nearly all vegetables and fruit you would would normally plant in your garden. Squashes, tomatoes, beans, peas, even carrots, beets and spinach, if you have the patience to wait out their slow seed maturation periods.

However, as I want to provide you something easy to start off with, I'll give you some easy to save seeds you can gather right in your own kitchen.

Beans and Peas
Easy as, really. You'll know the seeds are viable if the pods are plump and bumpy. It means the seeds have been fertilized, and are swelling within their protective case. Leave the ones that look extra fat on the vines, and wait until they are browned and dry. Gather the pods, and break open to release the seeds. Leave the seeds in a dry, cool place to finish drying, and store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.

Tomatoes
Somewhere in the tomatoes past, it's ancestor plants primed their seeds by over ripening the fruit, fermenting the juices and pulp, and then bursting upon contact with the ground when the fruit dropped. If you don't feel like leaving your tomatoes on the vine that long (I do, actually) let your tomatoes ripen until they're a bit too soft for eating, then gather the fruit and let them sit about in the kitchen. You'll know when they're fermented; they'll start to smell vinegary. Then, squash the fruit, sieve the worst of the muck through a fine mesh strainer, rinse with some cool water, and lay out to dry. If you don't feel like letting it "do it's thing", you can squash the tomatoes and smear them across some paper toweling and let dry, but I find this leaves a lot of extra muck attached.

Cucumbers, Zucchini, Melons and Other Squash
These are almost as easy as the beans and peas. When the fruit is very ripe, pick it and harvest the seeds by scooping out the pulp. You can rinse the seeds, dry for a few days, and store. Melons and cucumbers should be done fairly promptly, zucchinis and other marrows can be done within a couple months, and pumpkins can be done anytime, as they store very well.

Herbs and Flowers
There are some garden herbs and plenty of flowers that you can easily collect seed from. Basil, sage, angelica, nasturtium, marigold, calendula, love-in-a-mist and sunflowers are all seeds you can collect yourself. Most involve waiting until the seed head or pod is very dry, and then the use of a brown paper bag and a good shake or three to dislodge the seeds.

Brassicas
Brassicas are not actually a single plant, but a family of such including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts and a variety of Chinese cabbages, as well as mustards, swedes, turnips and kohlrabi. Most will readily go to seed in one year, since they are usually annuals. With a bit of patience, you can watch them go through their flowering stage (I do like their cheery yellow flowers) and finally their seed pods (usually long, thin, pointy green things when they start growing) will turn dry and brittle, and you can then gather the whole plant, place in a large bag, give it a good crushing, and collect the seeds from the bottom. The seeds are usually black or brown, and very small, similar to poppy seeds.

So there you have it folks. All of the easiest seeds you can save, on your own, and use year to year, without ever having to pay for another seed packet again. You'll have hundreds of seeds to contend with, so you might even take advantage of  the opportunity presented to sell a few seeds yourself. At the very least, you can give the excess away to your friends and family, grow seedlings for sale, or store it for years to come.

If you want to know more about saving seeds from things like carrots, beets, chard, or spinach, or how to propagate fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, currants or tree fruit, then I encourage you to hit Google, or your local library, and take advantage of all the free knowledge they can provide you.

Happy growing!

Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed
http://livefreelivenatural.com/save-seeds-huge-list/

Living High On The Hog: Rendering And Using Lard

I can remember, as a kid, Dad telling me about his father slaughtering pigs for their meat, and of his mother taking the fat from those animals and rendering it, in her own kitchen, to make lard. He described the big jars of pure white fat which, when poured into the clean jars hot, sealed the lids naturally and which, if stored in a cool, dark place, kept very well without processing or refrigeration.

My Dad taught me many things (and still does) but one of the best lessons was when he showed me how to make a traditional lard pie crust. Flour, lard and bit of water. It was so good, total strangers were asking me how I made the crust. Even though it was store bought lard, and not home rendered, it was excellent.

Now, I wasn't very enthused by the idea of rendering lard at the time, but when I started my self-sufficiency journey in 2010, I decided that the rendering of lard would be the simplest, easiest task I could manage in my little kitchen at home, and it was as easy as buying the fat from the grocery store (and later on the butcher shop) and using a small pan on the stove top.

So, as the Aussies say: I had a go. The result was a soft, richly flavored product that added a little something extra to my cooking. Now you can have a go, too, because I did a lot of the fancy footwork for you, and gathered all the basic need-to-know points about lard and fat in general here into this blog, just for you.

Types of "Lard"

As is usual for me learning about something new, I hit the internet and Googled "rendering lard". It came up with a few methods that looked easy enough, but it also went into fats in general. I didn't know, for instance, that tallow differed slightly from lard, and that you could render fats from other animals too, such as bear, deer, duck, goose and even chicken (assuming you had them available, of course; there are plenty of other fats that might be available regionally too).

Pork Fat

Lard
Lard is a soft fat, rendered from the fatty tissues of the pig. The quality depends on what part of the hog it was taken from, and how it was rendered (which will be discussed later).

The best lard is the "leaf lard"; it is the visceral fat that grows around the kidneys and under the loin. It has little flavor if rendered properly, and is usually used in baked goods.

"Fatback" is the thick layer of subcutaneous fat that lies between the skin and muscle. It's a softer, "B" grade of lard, and has a stronger flavor. It is, however, a perfectly fine fat for frying, or savory pastries.

The lowest grade is the "caul fat", the membrane that surrounds the digestive organs, such as the small intestines. It's often used directly as a wrapping for roast meat, or in the making of pate.

Beef Suet

Tallow
Tallow is the stable fat left over from rendering suet. To get the tallow from the suet, you must first remove the blood vessels, membranes and other non-suet bits, then grate it for rendering. Suet must be refrigerated, just like meat. Tallow is slightly different from lard in composition, resulting in a hard, white fat when chilled. It can be rendered from beef, mutton (sheep), bear, or deer, and is rendered the same way lard is. It's generally taken from the fat growing around the kidneys or under the loins and has many uses, from making suet puddings, to the creation of bio-diesel. It has a high smoke point and is ideal for deep frying and pastry.

Chicken Fat

Schmaltz
Schmaltz is fat rendered from chicken, goose or duck. It has a strong flavor, and is rendered much like tallow and lard or, even more simply, through the making of chicken soup. Like lard, it is a very soft fat. Duck fat is famous for its use in confit, and goose fat has it's uses for roasting meats and vegetables, and even making ointments.

Rendering

There are two methods you can use to render lard (or other fats): Wet or Dry. Each has a slightly different result.

Wet
The fat is boiled or steamed, and skimmed off the top or (industrially) spun off in a centrifuge. Seeing as the average person doesn't have a centrifuge hanging around in the cupboard, you can heat the fat in a pot with some water and cook it until you can skim no more fat off the top. If there are little bits in the fat, I'd suggest straining through a couple layers of fine meshed cheesecloth before allowing it to set up. Wet rendered lard has a more neutral flavor (which is good if you are making sweet pastries), a lighter color, and a high smoke point, which makes it better for frying and baking.

Dry
Another way to render the large is to dry render. Cut the fat into small pieces, and place in a medium sized pot. Heat on medium or medium high until you start to get liquid fat leaching from the pieces. Stir often to keep them from sticking and burning. Soon you will have the pieces frying in a pool of liquid fat. It will spit a bit, so do be careful not to get burned. When the chunks of fat have been reduced to crispy brown bits, remove from heat and strain through a layer or two of fine meshed cheesecloth to result in a smooth, golden oil, which will set into a soft white jar of fat. Dry rendered lard has more color and flavor, but a lower smoke point, so it's a little better for sauteing things, rather than frying or baking.

Those leftover browned bits are called "crackling", and make excellent snacks!

Dry rendered lard is also known as "dripping", or "schmalz", which is a general German term for any fat that have been rendered.

Storage

Industrially produced lard is usually hydrogenated to make it shelf stable. That's not a good thing, in my opinion, no matter how low in trans-fats they might claim it to be (ideally, you don't want trans-fats at all). There's also the matter that it's treated with bleaches, deodorizers, emulsifiers, and antioxidants, in order to produce a product that can sit on a shelf at room temperature almost indefinitely, and appeal to the public, while also neatly severing them from the origin of their food.

If you are looking for a good quality lard, you must leave the "manteca" on the shelf, and look in the refrigerated section. This might be difficult in America, but I do know that Australian stores have a few brands you can look for, such as Allowries Pure Lard,or Supa-Fry, which is animal dripping, probably a mixture of beef and pork. Or, as I've suggested, you can make your own.

My grandmother used to just pour the hot, rendered lard into clean jars and screwed the lids in place, no water bath or pressure canner required. She kept the jars stored in the pantry where it was cool and dark and used the lard whenever she needed it. I have rendered lard and kept it refrigerated in small plastic tubs or glass jars, or even just sitting a jar next to the stove, a simple "can" of dripping drained off from whatever I had been cooking at the time.You can portion it up and freeze it. The folks at Preparedness Pro suggest:

"To preserve, you’ll use the pressure canning method of 100-120 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. (Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for high altitude.)"

(Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for high altitude.)
Read more at http://www.preparednesspro.com/rendering-and-preserving-lard#iQUx45DWezhbG8He.99

(Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for high altitude.)
Read more at http://www.preparednesspro.com/rendering-and-preserving-lard#iQUx45DWezhbG8He.99

Whatever method you choose to store your rendered lard, always make sure that the fresh fat is store chilled or frozen until you can process it, and the rendered fat kept cool to avoid rancidity.

Uses

Lard and it's by-product (crackling), have many excellent culinary uses. The crackling alone can be frozen and used in home made dog food and cat food or added to hearty soups and stews, spaghetti sauce, chili, cornbread, or just eaten on their own as a fresh snack.

The rendered lard can be used for sauteing, frying, roasting meats and vegetables, pie crusts and other pastries. In Britain, it is a traditional ingredient in mince pies, Christmas puddings, for frying fish and chips, and in "lardy cakes". It is used in Scandinavian pates, and in Spain a popular breakfast menu is a variety of flavored lards spread on toasted bread. The Chinese mix lard with soy sauce and rice, the Japanese use fatback lard in their ramen dishes to create a rich flavor and in Poland, they mix it with chopped apple or other fruit and spread it on thick slices of bread as a starter.

Salt cured pork fat being sliced into lardons.

In the Depression era, lard was spread on bread to provide a source of much needed calories in those hard times, and the Native Americans used soft fats, dried fish or meat, and dried fruits to create pemmican. Salt cured pork fat is sliced into lardons for addition to certain French dishes.

Lard is also used in making soap, bio-diesel, and even in certain kinds of machining. Need lubricant for a task? Lard has been used as an effective greasing agent for centuries.

Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suet
http://www.preparednesspro.com/rendering-and-preserving-lard

I would like to thank my friend Debbie for suggesting this topic. Your curiosity has led to me expanding my knowledge, and hopefully the knowledge of those who read this blog.

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo

For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It occurs in November, when aspiring authors everywhere  spend 30 days trying to bang out a 50,000 word novel (the average 180 page paperback book), with varying degrees of success.

I've been participating in this event for the last six or seven years (with varying degrees of success). I've decided that I'm going to attempt to do it again, but instead of flogging my brain for a sci-fi/fantasy, I'm going to join the "rebels" in some non-traditional types of NaNo writing, namely a collection of educational/informational blogs, one for each day of November. I put this out there for everyone:

If there is a subject you would like to learn about related to homesteading, gardening, cooking or baking, the making of wine or mead, cheese, DIY or other such projects, feel free to make a suggestion. Note that it needs to be simple enough that it can be researched and written in a day (each article needs to be about 1667 words). It can be a question you'd like answered, or just a subject in general that you are curious about.

I will probably do a few on gardening, cooking, sustainability and domestic-related subjects, but could use a few more ideas. There are 30 slots to fill.  You can write your question/subject of choice in the comments section, and I'll add your contribution to my list. (Some subjects, if they are similar, might be combined; if I don't get to you in November for whatever reason, I'll do my best to do another blog for your subject afterwards.)

Here's to you, and may you all have an excellent day!

DIY Laundry Soap

Why would you want to make your own washing powder? It's not like it's a rare commodity; any grocery store carries it. No one, I assure you, is selling washing powder on the black market, and I'm pretty damn sure that people are not being taken hostage for a ransom of powdered washing soap. 

What I have noticed about the average commercial laundry detergent is that they can be quite expensive, quite questionable regarding their ingredients, and quite overpowering in smell.

Having a few relatives who find fragrances overpowering, being aware of the fact that there are many people allergic to washing powders, and personally finding most chemical scents an assault on the nose and sinuses, I decided that it would be worth trying to make my own, and see if I couldn't remedy the situation.

There are lots of different ways to DIY laundry soap. Like all things, there are as many recipes as there are people making them, so if one doesn't work for you, another might. That's part of the fun in the process, right?

There are a couple ways you can make it, as a powder or as a liquid gel, but as I have limited space to store things, having big buckets or jugs of liquid is a bit cumbersome, so I prefer the powder version. 

It's easy! Check it out, I'll give you a list of the ingredients I use, and what they do for the washing powder.

Washing Soda

Washing soda is also known as "sodium carbonate". It's a water softener, which means it keeps the minerals in hard water from interfering with the effectiveness of the detergent, unlike baking soda, which is mostly a deodorizer and a fabric softener. It can also be used to remove grease, oil and wine stains, which is good news for my hubby's work shirts! (Why he wears white shirts in a dirty warehouse, I'll never know...)

I'm not saying you can't use baking soda; you're free to throw some in there if you feel like you need it. I'm just telling you the difference.

Fun fact: you can make washing soda (sodium carbonate) at home! All you need is a baking soda, a pan, and your oven. Holly Homemaker has some good instructions: http://hollythehomemaker.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/how-to-make-washing-soda-redux.html

Borax

Borax is a somewhat debated ingredient. Some people swear to it safety, others will shout that it's terrible for you and the environment and everything. It took some looking around on the net, but I think that it's a common sense matter. Sure, it's safe enough... just don't eat it, and in case you have kids or pets that might get into it, put it someplace where they can't get to it. Also, I wouldn't use it wholesale in my garden... but I might use a small amount to cure an ant problem (I have never actually had an ant problem bad enough to warrant the use of borax; I'm just sayin'.) If you don't want to use Borax, there are plenty of recipes out there that don't require it, and you can make those instead.

Borax has a mild bleaching effect (more effective in hotter water, according to About.com) but also helps to increase cleaning power, disinfects, inhibits and kills unwanted pests. 

Soap

Soap, for those familiar with making it, is a fat or oil that has been broken down by a strong alkaline solution (in most cases, sodium hydroxide, which is lye). It is used as a surfactant, which means that it takes some insoluble materials, interacts with them, and makes them soluble (water washable, basically). The simplest way of explaining it is adding a bit of dish soap to wash water with oil floating on top. The detergent works to break up the oil, making it "disappear". Which is why you can washing dishes by hand and still end up with clean, non-greasy plates.

Soap comes in many forms, but I suggest the use of the simplest types. I made my own lard soap to use for the laundry powder, but I have used the store brand laundry soap bars at the store. You can also use Fels-Naptha or Zote soaps, or just plain Ivory soap. I prefer unscented soaps myself, so my plain lard soap worked well for this. Use a microplane grater to get a nice fine shred to the bars.

Alternatively (although I haven't tried it) you can use soap flakes. The average bar of soap is 1 to 1 1/2 cups of grated soap.

Essential Oils

This is the first batch I've made that used essential oils. To be honest, I didn't consider it until I saw the latest episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, where the woman who later turned out to be a murderer used eucalyptus oil in her washing powder because it "killed the germs". So I thought "Ah! Brilliant! I'll add some to this next batch."

Eucalyptus oil is a deodorant, antibacterial, antiseptic, and antimicrobial agent. Pretty cool, eh? And it smells great! (I love the smell of eucalyptus personally.) As a side note, I also use it in my cleaning spray, but that's another blog post (maybe).

I also used Tea Tree oil. Now, this is also personal opinion, but I don't like the smell of Tea Tree oil as much, but it doesn't mean it's not effective against bacteria, fungi, and viruses, according to several sources I found. It's also claimed to stimulate the immune system. I just hope it acts to keep the mildew down.

Now, for the recipe! It's easy peasy.

For a single batch, you need:

1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borax
1 bar of soap, grated (approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oils (other oils can be used if you so desire)

Mix all the ingredients together, breaking up the lumps as needed. Add as much of the essential oils you feel the batch needs to smell the way you like. Mix in well to incorporate the scent throughout the dry mix. Store in an air tight container (in my case, a wonderfully re-purposed Moccona instant coffee jar). I keep it in the wash house, on the shelve above the washing machine with a Tablespoon measure scoop in it.

To use, use 1T for a lightly soiled load, and 2T for heavily soiled clothes. It seems to work well with cold water, and leaves the clothes smelling fresh without an overpowering fragrance. Overall, it's easier to measure out, so you have less waste, and your batch lasts much longer, thus making your overall cost quite cheap.

If you want to know what you're using in your life, I think the best thing to do is to make your own. So go make your soap, enjoy the lightly pleasant smell of clean washing, and keep living, learning and loving!