Homemade Tea

Non-organic tea can be really dangerous.  Most of the popular non-organic teas that we drink here in America were treated with a number of chemical pesticides and fungicides prior to being harvested.  The leaves are rarely washed before they are dried, so essentially we are steeping a flavored toxin tea when all we wanted was a hot, healthy beverage.

On top of the chemicals, many brands, like Celestial Seasonings, add "natural flavorings" to their tea blends.  These flavorings, created in a laboratory, could mean just about anything and are far from natural.

Organic tea can be expensive, so one option is to grow and make your own tea.  It's actually very simple.

Here are some instructions for making mint tea.  I love mint tea and use to help with a stomach ache, because mint is nature's anti-nausea medicine.

Step One:  Cut your mint.  With mint it is best to harvest your leaves between 9 AM and 12 PM, because this is before the heat from the sun has had a chance to dissipate all of the oils in the leaves.

Step Two:  Remove the leaves from the stems and give them a really good rinsing.  Make sure to compost your stems.

Step Three:  Dry your leaves.  You can do this many different ways.  Some people like to hang their herbs upside down (stems and all) to dry outside, but this takes 2-3 weeks.  If you live in a warmer climate where the temperature will stay over 100 degrees for as long as it takes the leaves to dry, you can do this outside by placing your leaves on something like a window screen to dry.  I prefer to use a food dehydrator.  It takes very little time, uses little energy, and ensures that my leaves get completely dry and will not end up molding.

Step Four:  Once your leaves are dry and crispy, you can crush them.  Just make sure you don't make the flakes too small or you will have a lot of floaties in your tea.

Step Five:  Steep your tea.

Step Six:  Enjoy!

Make sure you store your dried herbs in an air-tight container.  Your herbs also retain better flavor if you wait to crush them before storing, so only crush what you need for one cup of tea at a time.  Always check your leaves for signs of molding before using them, and discard them if they are turning brown.  If you keep them in a dry, cool place away from sunlight, they should last for up to a year in storage.

If you aren't harvesting a large amount of herbs and you just want enough tea for one cup, you can skip the drying and just pull a few leaves from your plant.  Boil the leaves in some water and you will have delicious, healthy, organic tea.

-Jessica

How To Make Your Own Compost Bin

First, you may be wondering why I am talking about composting on my wellness blog.  Well, gardening is the easiest and cheapest way to ensure you are getting local, in-season, organic produce.  I'm a novice gardener and am learning as I go, so I thought I would share my journey with you guys. 

Composting is something I have always wanted to do, but have never really known where to start.  You can find a ton of information on the Internet about the topic, and everyone seems to have their own method for doing it.  After doing a little research, I decided that you can't really mess it up too badly, so I'd just do whatever seemed right for us.

Adam and I are currently planning our garden for the year and as we were seed shopping we saw some nice compost bins for sale (for over $100).  But as I looked at them I told Adam that we could make something similar out of a Rubbermaid bin for free at home.

My first idea was to use a regular Rubbermaid bin, but then I realized that we had some of the larger ones on wheels that would be easier to drag around the yard once the compost is finished.

Here is what I used.

I had Adam drill some holes in the bottom that would be big enough to let worms and other creepy-crawlies in, and also drain the excess water out.

A compost bin needs to allow air to escape, because methane can build up and cause an explosion inside the bin.  Luckily, the handles of this bin have some air holes (you can see them on the above picture on the left side), but I also had Adam drill some small holes on the lid.

Now my container was ready to fill.

I filled it 2/3 of the way full with dry, "brown" materials - shredded paper, leaves, wood chips, dried stuff from my landscaping, etc.  You can also include sawdust, straw, cardboard, newspaper and other similar items in this layer. 

Unfortunately, the only tree we have on our property (besides evergreens) is an oak tree, and their leaves aren't supposed to be the best for composting.  They will work, but are pretty acidic and will take longer to compost.  But, I went ahead and tried it with them.

Once I filled the bin, I covered it with water until everything was saturated well, but not swimming.

I created a "wet" container that will live at the edge of my back patio.  At the end of every day, I will dump the contents of the glass container in my kitchen where I will keep my "green" materials into this bin.

Items that are considered "green" materials include - food scraps (anything but animal-byproducts and processed foods), coffee grinds/filters, tea bags, hair (animal and human), egg shells, grass clippings, etc.

A few months ago, I found a box of cabbage in my garage that I had forgotten about.  It was obviously rotten, but I knew I was going to compost this year, so I kept it in a sealed container in the garage (gross, I know).  This rotten cabbage, along with some coffee grinds, food scraps, and a generous helping of Max the dog's hair, became our first wet contribution to the compost bin.

I put it in the compost bin and watered it down again.

Yum, right?!

Finally, I added a thin layer of garden soil to top it off and watered again.

It has been covered and now has a home in the back of the house, right next to a water source.

See the pitch fork in the corner?  That is the only tool I'll need from now on.  Once a week I will open my bin and "turn" the contents by basically stirring them with the pitch fork.  Every 5-6 weeks, I will add another layer of "brown" materials from the yard, "green" materials from my wet bin, and soil from the garden to keep it going.

Hopefully, in 2-6 months we'll have some lovely compost.  The microbes and other fun things that live in the soil will feast on my "stew" and increase the temperature of my bin.  This will cause everything to decay and create a lovely product for my garden beds.  The more often I "turn" my compost, the faster this should happen.

Not only does this save me money and decrease the amount of waste I am sending to the dump, but it guarantees me organic compost and will help me provide healthy, nutritious produce for my family this year!

-Jess

Q&A: 10 Steps To Save Money On Organic Food

I was curious about buying organic. I'm assuming you do. If so, could you write a post about it? I looked but didn't find one. I do want to eat organically, but it's so expensive, and where I live it's about a 30 minute drive to find organic foods.

I love this question! I get asked this quite often. Here is a list I created to help answer it:

Ten Steps To Save Money On Organic Food

Step One: Analyze Your Budget

Take a month and track everything you spend money on - I mean EVERYTHING down to the soda from the vending machine to the bottled water at the gas station. At the end of the month, take a look at your expenditures and categorize them into the following areas: bills, groceries, gas, entertainment, other food, and miscellaneous.

Doing this is eye-opening for the average American. If you are anything like I was when I did this last year, you will notice that you spend way more than you thought you did on random food outside of the home (my biggest expenses were drinks from the vending machine at work and tea at the local coffee shop).

Take an honest look at your budget and ask yourself, "Is eating organic food really important to me?" If it is, then ask yourself what you are willing to do without in order to afford the added expense. Our family does without cable and expensive cell phone plans. We haven't gone out to eat at a restaurant in almost two years and we do not go on expensive vacations. These are things that we do in order to eat the way we do. Our health is just a huge priority for us.

Step Two: Prioritize

Now that you have squeezed some extra room into your budget for organic foods, you need to decide what is most important for you.

For many people it is produce - most people try to avoid the Dirty Dozen (peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes) and only buy them when they are organic. This is because these foods tend to have the highest levels of contamination from pesticides.

The Clean Fifteen (onion, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomato, and sweet potato) have the lowest levels of contamination, so you can get away with not buying organic.

Here is a full list of contamination levels of common fruits and veggies.

Other people prefer to spend their limited budget on pastured meat or eggs, or dairy products that do not contain antibiotics or hormones. You have to decide what is most important for you and focus on trying to find the best deals on those foods.

Our family tries to avoid the dirty dozen and will only eat pastured meat and eggs. We prefer raw milk, but when I run out and have to buy at the grocery store, I refuse to spend $5 on a carton of ultra-pasteurized, organic milk. I prefer to buy the non-organic milk that says it is free of hormones and antibiotics, and isn't ultra-pasteurized. It costs half as much and tastes much better to me.

Step Three: Try To Grow Your Own

Obviously, not everyone lives on a farm and is able to raise their own animals or milk their own cows, but we can take the foods that are most expensive in the store or that we like to eat the most and try to cut costs by growing them ourselves.

I posted last year about a family who lives in the middle of Los Angeles and created their own urban homestead. If they are able to love almost entirely off of 1/4 acre in the middle of the city, just imagine what some of us could do who have even more land!

If you live in a neighborhood that has strict laws about growing gardens or having animals, you may want to look into edible landscaping. You could remove all of your decorative flowerbeds and instead plant fresh herbs, edible flowers, fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. in place of them. You could also plant vegetables in pots and place them on your back deck or near a window inside of your home.

Some neighborhoods will even allow you to have backyard chickens as pets, so long as you don't have any roosters (they are a bit too loud).

The more you grow yourself, the more money you save.

Step Four: Stop Buying Processed Foods

Processed organic foods are a joke. Do we really need organic brownies? Organic cookies? Organic frozen burritos? Just because they say "organic" it doesn't make them healthy.

I will admit that if given a choice between a regular frozen burrito or an organic one, I would probably choose the organic one because I can usually pronounce all of the ingredients. But when you buy processed foods you are paying for convenience.

If you are going to buy processed organics, you can find some coupons here.

These organic processed foods cost nearly twice as much, sometimes more, than their non-organic equivalents. For example, there are some very popular brands of organic salad dressings that you can buy at major grocery chains for around $5 per bottle. Their non-organic equivalents are less than half that. But even the non-organic brand is too expensive when you consider how little it would cost to make it yourself, which brings me to...

Step Five: Start making food from scratch

I used to be obsessed with Amy's brand organic soups until one day I realized that for the amount of money I spent on one $4 can of lentil soup I could buy enough bulk lentils to make soup for our entire family.

Now I pretty much make everything from scratch - soups, noodles, burritos, breads - you name it. It saves so much money - of course, you have to factor in the amount of time spent cooking and decide whether or not it is worth the money saved.

But this goes hand-in-hand with step two - what are your priorities? Take a look at how you spend your free time and see if there are ways you could squeeze out an extra half an hour a day to make some homemade crackers or to juice your own apples. You'd be amazed at how much free time you have in a day - you just have to decide how you want to spend it.

You could also ask for some labor-saving appliances as gifts on your next holiday. A bread-maker will do everything for you - mix, knead, bake - and it will only take you five minutes to throw your fresh, organic ingredients into it each morning. Other items like juicers, dehydrators, canning supplies, food processors, gardening tools, etc. will help you save time.

Step Six: Start going directly to the source

The closest Whole Foods or Trader Joe's to where I live is almost an hour away. Not only would I spend a fortune in gas driving there to shop every week, but the food there is ridiculously overpriced.

But my other option where I live (in the middle of nowhere) is a small health food store that also has very high prices. I used to go to that store to buy my meat and then one day I noticed that the name on the package was local. Why not just drive to the farm and save some money?

So that's what I started doing. We now get our raw milk, eggs, meat and a majority of our produce from farmers in our area. There are so many benefits to doing this - you save money, you get to see the health of the animals, you get to learn about how the farm operates and whether or not it truly is organic, you get to keep your money in your community, etc.

Many people feel lost and don't know where to start looking for local sources of organic foods. Here is what I suggest - first, start going to your local farmer's market. If you're not sure when and where it is, contact your city (township, village, etc.) officials and ask who you need to speak with. The person in charge of the farmer's market may even be able to give you the names of some of the vendors to start your search.

Next, ask around at your local health food store (or other places that healthy people seem to be). Ask the owners where they get their meat, eggs, or milk from. My local store even has bulletin boards with information available about local sources for many foods.

You can also get involved in community supported agriculture and find a co-op near you. This way you can get cheap, fresh, organic produce practically delivered to your front door every week.

Finally, start attending your local chapter meetings of the Weston A. Price foundation. This organization has so much information to give to you and many times they hold mini-farmer's markets at the meetings so you can purchase organic foods at a good price. This is an excellent source for raw milk products.

Step Seven: Buy In-Season

I posted about the benefits of eating in-season produce last year. If I need to buy a food that is out of season and I have a choice between frozen and fresh, I generally buy frozen, because I know it was probably picked when it was riper (and it costs much less).

There is a reason why those organic mangoes cost so much in Ohio in the middle of February - they don't grow anywhere near here in this climate. When you buy out of season not only are you sacrificing the nutrient content of your produce, but you are basically paying extra to have the food shipped to the store. Instead, start purchasing only the foods that are in-season (do a google search to find out which seasonal foods grow near you).

Buy as much produce as you can when it is in season and then learn how to preserve it for the winter months, which brings me to...

Step Eight: Learn how to preserve your food

When something is on sale, buy a bunch and either can it, freeze it, or dehydrate it. This will cut down on your winter grocery bills and is also the only way you can guarantee that the produce you are eating in the winter was picked fresh and is local.

Frozen fruits don't taste very good once they are thawed if you are going to eat them plain, but they are wonderful in smoothies, desserts, and as purees/sauces.

We like to use a dehydrator to dry out all of our fresh herbs and save them for later use. You can also make your own homemade fruit leather with the dehydrator.

Step Nine: Buy in bulk

It's always cheaper when you buy more. At my farmer's market, many vendors offer deals when you buy in bulk (buy your apples by the bushel and they cost less than by the pound, etc.).

I have found that buying my meat in "bulk" makes it much cheaper. We purchase a half-beef every 9 months or so and we have calculated that it works out to be around $18/week for our pastured, all organic-meat (2 adults/2 children eating beef 3 times per week). That is comparable to what we would spend on non-organic beef in the grocery store if we bought on a weekly basis.

There are also farms out there, like this one, that offer organic foods in bulk at very reasonable prices. I used to order from this company, with a group of people, and get all of my dry goods for very cheap. We did it in a group because there are minimum amounts required for delivery. Once a month our group would place orders and one of the group members would pick up our orders and be responsible for separating them out. It was work for the person in charge, but it saved a lot of money.

Step Ten: Eat less/Waste less

According to this source, Americans throw out an average of 1400 calories per person every single day. Think about how many times you let that bag of lettuce go bad before you toss it, or let the milk spoil before anyone drinks it. If you factor the amount of money you spend on food that gets thrown away every month, I bet you could put a small dent in your organic grocery bill.

Instead of throwing things away, learn to preserve your produce before it gets a chance to go bad. If you buy more apples than you plan on using in a week, try making some applesauce with the rest. If your milk is spoiled, learn to make cheeses and other dairy products from it. If you make too much food and have leftovers, instead of letting them sit in the fridge for a few days and go bad, try freezing them for later use.

Learn to use everything so that you don't have to waste it. For example, when you buy a large broiler chicken, don't discard the carcass and drippings after you cut away the meat. The drippings can be frozen and used for gravies at a later date. Place the carcass in a crock pot or oven with some water and make your own homemade broth that can be used for a soup. I've seen organic, free-range chicken broth for $4 in the grocery store. Why would you pay that when you could get it for free from one dinner's worth of "waste"?

So there you have it. If you learn to do these things, you can significantly reduce your organic grocery bill. I'm not going to lie, eating organic for cheap is A LOT more work, but remember, buying processed foods is expensive because it is convenient. I have found that once I moved into an organic "mindset" I started taking pleasure in the work - the preserving, the cooking, and now the gardening. What used to be a chore has now become a hobby in which I can even involve my children.

It is also important to remember that every little bit counts. It would be nearly impossible to eliminate every single but of exposure to pesticides and toxins in your environment. We all try to do the best we can. Find what foods are most important for you and start with those. Eventually you will find ways to cut back your bills so you can afford other foods.

When my family started eating this way we were spending over a thousand dollars EACH MONTH on our grocery bills. I am happy to say that I now spend an average of $600 per month (we eat every meal at home) on a family of four on a diet that is almost completely organic and the extra work has become such a part of my routine that I don't feel like I am missing out on anything by putting forth the extra energy.

Good luck on your organic adventure!

-Jessica

Vinegar

I have always said that if I was stuck on a deserted island and could only pack one item to bring with me, I would probably pick vinegar. Not only is it edible, and would be a wonderful addition to the vegetable diet I would probably be eating on the island, but it can be used for a variety of medicinal, cleaning and grooming purposes.

What is vinegar?

Vinegar is made from the fermentation of ethanol (sources are usually wine, cider, beer or other fermented liquids), which produces acetic acid.

What is the difference between the different types of vinegar?

-Balsamic vinegar comes from fermented white grapes and is the most expensive and usually the best quality vinegar. This is because it is aged longer than other types of vinegars. It has a sweeter taste and thicker texture, and is usually used in salad dressings or as a dipping sauce for breads.

-Red and white wine vinegars come from wine or champagne and are usually used for salad dressings and marinades.

-Apple cider vinegar obviously comes from cider and has a mild taste. It is also good for salad dressings.

-Rice vinegar comes from rice and has less acidity than other forms of vinegar. It is used in many Asian foods.

-Malt vinegar comes from barley and is commonly used on potatoes and fried fish.

-Distilled white vinegar comes from grain alcohol and has a very unpleasant taste, making it more popular as a cleaning agent. It is rarely used in food.

In what ways does our family use vinegar?

Cooking

• I make many homemade salad dressings using mostly balsamic and apple cider vinegars.
• We always have malt vinegar on our potatoes.
• Adam loves to make homemade sushi with rice vinegar in his rice (it makes it stickier).
• Vinegar is also used in our kitchen for fermenting and pickling.
• Whenever I have non-organic fruit that has a visible residue (especially with apples), I make sure to soak them in a vinegar wash.
  

Cleaning - I gave up on commercial cleaners when I was pregnant with Gabriel. I had read somewhere that pregnant women shouldn't use harsh cleaners, especially bleach, while pregnant and figured that if it wasn't good for my unborn child it probably wasn't good for anyone. We replaced all of our household cleaners with either vinegar, baking soda, or a combination of the two. Not only does the vinegar disinfect (kills 99% of bacteria, 82% of mold, and 80% of germs/virsuses), but it also neutralizes odors and removes mineral deposits. We use it to:

• clean carpet messes by covering the area with baking soda, letting it dry, vacuuming the dry soda and then spraying the area with straight vinegar.
• shine windows.
• sanitize toys and other surfaces the children touch, like high chairs and changing tables.
• remove residue from kitchen appliances.
• clean tubs and countertops. I like to use straight distilled white vinegar for these chores, but some people prefer to dilute it with water. Using it with baking soda (to scrub the surface) is really effective.
  

Laundry

• I add a cup of distilled white vinegar to my load of cloth diapers to help disinfect.
• Vinegar also can replace liquid fabric softener in your laundry, because it reduces static cling. Don't worry, you can't smell the vinegar afterwards.

Grooming

• Spraying your hair with vinegar before you get out of the shower will help get rid of some of the build-up in your hair (the same way it removes build-up in household appliances) and make it shinier.
• Some people use vinegar as a deodorant, but I have not had luck with it.

Medicine

• Whenever I have a mystery rash, I cover it with a little vinegar. This helps dry out the rash.
• It can also take the sting out of big bites.
• Although I have never used it in this way, I have read that vinegar can also be useful in treating jellyfish stings.
• Adam swears by his apple cider drink. Whenever he feels like he needs a quick detoxification, he will add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to a glass of water and drink it.
• Vinegar has been proven to lower cholesterol.
• It removes warts.
• You can clear up ear infections by rinsing the ear with a vinegar solution.
  

Gardening - Vinegar can be used as a weed killer. Just be careful - after cleaning out my son's kiddie pool with vinegar in my front yard last summer, I noticed that it killed all the grass in the area.

I don't know what I would do without these products in my home. They are a natural alternative to many harmful chemicals and I feel safer knowing that my cleaning closet contains items that will not poison my children if they were to come in contact with them.

-Jessica

Sources:

"All About Vinegars - Vinegar Types - Using Vinegar in Cooking and Baking." Busy Cooks Quick and Easy Cooking and Recipes. Web. 30 Dec. 2009. http://busycooks.about.com/od/quicktips/qt/vinegartips.htm.

"Vinegar -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 30 Dec. 2009. ..

"Vinegar Kills Bacteria, Mold and Germs Healthy and Green Living." Care2 - largest online community for healthy and green living, human rights and animal welfare. Web. 30 Dec. 2009. .

Urban Homesteading

My aunt recently sent me this link to this wonderful video about an urban homestead, showing how one family was able to create their own little family farm in the middle of a concrete jungle.