Homemade lip balm

 On one of our many snowed in days, Small and I found ourselves itching to do something. We decided to make chapstick.

 

Using the chamomile and goldenrod we dried in late summer, bees wax (brought with us from Kansas) and sunflower oil, Small and I created a healing, very soothing lip protectant. Medium used it on his cracked lips, and within a few days it was healed up. Small is very proud of himself.  



 

 

 

6 cups dried flowers (goldenrod and chamomile)

2 cups sunflower oil

a scant 2 cups of grated bees wax

 

I don't have a double boiler, so I use a metal bowl over a pot filled less than half way with water. Place your dried flowers and oil into the bowl, and bring it to a simmer. Allow it to simmer for 1 hour.

 

Strain through a colander lined with cheese cloth, into a clean bowl. Once it cools down enough to handle, squeeze the cheesecloth, removing as much oil as possible.

 

If using the same double boiler or bowl, make sure it is clean and dry before pouring your oil into it. Bring to a simmer and slowly add the beeswax, stirring it until all is dissolved. 

 

Carefully pour the hot liquid into your containers. Allow to fully cool before using.

Homemade wallpaper paste

My goodness, there are a lot of recipes for this out there. Some are simple and cheap and easy, but really don't do humidity very well. Some are too expensive and time consuming to even attempt. Rather just go buy the stuff.

After several attempts and failures, using others recipes, I gave in, and modified a tradition paper mâché paste. Works beautifully.

1 cup con starch
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp pickling salt
4 quarts water

Sift the dry ingredients together. Slowly stir in water, using a whisk. Make sure to get all the lumps out. Grab a book and a chair. Sit in front of your stove. In a large pot, over a medium heat, constantly stir the liquid until it becomes translucent and thickens. This can take 40-60 mins. Be sure it's a good book. Cool slightly, pour into a storage container. Be sure to wash out your pot.

Can be used as soon as it gets to room temperature. Stores for several weeks, however if it dries up, slowly add a bit of hot water, whisking, until it is usable once again.

Smell goods for the house

I am a urinal cake gal.

Thought I would throw that out there. Urinal cakes are great when you have a house full of boys and men. But making one that doesn't dissolve on contact is not an easy matter. However I was on a mission. Did I mention I have a house full of boys?

I have been going rounds with most of the recipes I have found. Some don't seem to realize that what they created is just as caustic as the store bought, others have ingredients that cost way too much to even be worth the attempt, and I don't make essential oils. They are not hard to make, I have made them before, but found that I really don't use them all that much. Now extracts, I make a plethora of extracts. And I use them often. Vodka is an amazing "air purifier". Drink enough and you don't smell a thing.

So let's get to it. The first is simple, and you don't feel like you are pickling your house.

1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup white vinegar
1tsp lemon juice
Top off the bottle with warm water.

Wait until the fizzing goes down, then shake in a spray bottle and spray your toilet or any porcelain surface to clean and smell citrusy.

Nothing is in bloom here for me to make satchels or wands. Most of the ones I have seen take too much time to create. And honestly, besides being pretty and giving off a faint smell designated to that one area, they do little for any pet or boy smells that waft through the house. Now come herb drying season, the sheer volume of drying leaves all over the house will cover any and all smells, eventually burning the smell receptors in your nose and deadening your senses to any foul smells. Win win. Cleaning your bathroom with the above recipe helps in that area, but not really in the rest of the house, although these are the main ingredients in other smell goods.

My personal favorite is
1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup water
1 tsp mint extract
1/2 tsp lemon juice.

Shake to blend, and use a mister to disperse. If you want no smell, just do the 1:1 ratio of vodka and water. Don't worry, you won't smell like a lush.

Homemade laundry smell-em-goods. I did mention the amount of boys, right?

1 quart mason jar
16 ounces distilled white vinegar
Fresh sprig of favorite herb or flower petals
Favorite extract

Pour vinegar into jar and add 3 tsp of extract. Then add sprig, or flowers into the jar. Tighten lid and shake. Add 1/4 cup to laundry as a softener.

Now that you know that, time to make some homemade "Fabreeze". It took me several trial and errors to get this one down. I found numerous homemade Fabreeze recipes, however the majority of them use ingredients that most of you would not be comfortable using. I know you.

2 cups homemade fabric softener. (Above)
2 cups baking soda
4 cups warm water

Mix together and place in a spray bottle.

Now we do need to do something more solid. Something that can sit around the house in pretty jars, sucking the yucky smells from the air. Still no urinal cake, but these half eggs work beautifully in trash cans, laundry baskets or sitting in a jar.

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup boiled water
Zest from a whole orange or lemon (1/4 cups shredded flower petals work)

Add the zest or petals to the water. Mix in baking soda, mix well. It should form a thick paste. Pour into your egg cartons. Set aside and allow to dry for at least 24 hours, depending on how dry your house is. Pop out and place where needed.

The ones pictured below where not quite finished drying. They should be chalky and not flaky when finished.

Because of my gimpy status, you will be getting homemaking tips far more often

Simplifying the Simple Life isn't that Simple

And Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

When more than one person is attempting to streamline a household you run into a lot of

"We don't need this"
"Um. . . Yes we do."
"But we haven't used it in over a year."
"Doesnt matter, I might have a use for it someday"

Sigh. We will need a nice large shed for those things that we may need someday. Like sheep shears. I never ever plan to ever ever hand shear another goat or sheep for as long as I live. I discovered that I don't care for doing such things. But. . . However. . . Just in case. . . So we have to keep it.

And here, dear readers, is where our upbringings and youthful living situations come into play. Yes, I was homeless as a teen, but as a child I was never left to want. Husband however grew up in various stages of homelessness, and never had much. I think he may have a bit of Great Deppression area hoarding tendencies. He has more clothing than I do, yet doesn't wear most of them. Hence the head butting over certain items.

What I have been doing is separating items. Farm, house, garage. He can then go through those and decide what he wants to keep. And then he gets to build outbuildings to store said items in. I no longer want them cluttering my life.

We have come to another decision though. We will wait on a house. So you will be all treated to a complete makeover of a single wide mobile home, white trash with a purpose style. This should be fun! The plan is, to use the money that we were setting aside to build a large garage. Then. . . Well the plan of what we will be doing inside of that garage will be told to you at a latter date. Let's just say, it makes us happy and should make life a bit more easy. No, that is not part of my lofty goal, stop trying to suss it it of me!

FYI, I licked the hot fence to prove to Small that it wasn't on. But then I touched it and got shocked. Yep, that's how hot my licking is, turns a hot fence on. Yep, I'm so proud of that moment.

I have started on my rag rug. Wow! How tedious is that? And you guys have me making three of them.

Someone tried to poison the puppy. She's ok now. But it was getting scary. I have a feeling they wanted to poison Buckets, our Staffy, becuase everyone is scared of her and they can't come on our property. Yes, I believe it was intentional. They can no longer get out of the yard, so someone would have to dump it over the fence.

On the Blogathon front. You have so far pledged $505! Thank you! It starts in 9 days, so there is still plenty of time to pledge. Yes, I am losing readers because of my charity blogathon. I do every year. But this is the only time of year that I am a good girl, so I will continue to do this. You still have time to pledge. Remember for every $10 you get a chance to win two sets of books from Fox Chapel publishing!

Braaaaaaainnnsssssssssssss

The alternative title would be; Homemade (how to make) turkey bologna. But it was lacking any type of pizazz. And as you know, I am so into the glitz and glam. . . . No wait, it freaking looks like brains.

I do have recipes for cooking brains if any one is interested. I, myself ain't too keen on the flavor, nor the texture, but if you wish to be prepared, and perhaps a posh zombie, I will gladly hand it over to you. For now though, let's make do with a bit of bologna.

I did a ton of research on nitrates. I know a lot of you don't want to eat it. Too bad, we eat it all the time in green veggies. And this thing about meats proclaiming no nitrates, they use celery juice or salt, which is chalk full of nitrates. Problem with it however, is that the levels aren't reliable and end up not working as it should. Nitrate is dormant until the bad bacteria decided to throw a party. Nitrate acts as the unscrupoulous bouncer throwing every one out that isn't dressed to the bouncer sexual desires. There are even studies out there that are showing that a tad bit of nitrates are actually good for humans. As long as you aren't eating a bowl of over heated pinksalt day after day, it isn't toxic. But just about anything in over abundance will toxify in your system.

But in my great search for the no nitrate lunch meat recipe, I continued to run into writers that would say "I don't want nitrates in my diet so I make my own lunch meat" then proceeded to give me recipes calling for tender quick or pink salt. So there is a huge lack of understanding in what nitrates are. And I do hope those writers went unpaid for those articles. Sorry, but research and fact checking falls on both writer and editor.

Now turkey bologna is a difficult mistress. No one has a good recipe out there. And I don't like liquid smoke. It reminds me of the hamburgers in hospitals. Gag. So I remove it from all recipes from the get go. I found a total of two recipes for it. One called for an entire turkey, everything but the bones and feathers. And a 50 lbs turkey to boot! Honestly, how many of you butcher out and receive 50 lbs of bird. And here I thought I hit the worlds record at 42 lbs. I digress. The second read more like summer sausage than bologna. So I have had to make a trial run, so lay off the pictures. The loaf will eventually start to look more gourmet as I play with it. ( you are older than 12. Though mentally I just giggled as well)

Homemade turkey Bologna ( any one else sing the song as they write out that word?)

3 lbs ground turkey (I used dark meat and whatever fat was on it)
3 tablespoons sugar based curing mix ( here's the make your own version I do)
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 cup water
Semolina flour for dusting

The texture of ground turkey is way off base for bologna ( I sung that again) it comes out more like a meatloaf, edible, but lacking in what one desires in a ( ready? Sing it with me) B O L O G N A. So, let's participate in some attempted murder of your food processor. Purée the turkey. You will want to add a handful of crushed ice as you purée as you might end up cooking the turkey meat as the blades heat up.

In a bowl, hand mix, that would be literal, all ingredents together. Dust wax paper with the semolina, wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours.



After the 24 hours, preheat oven to 300f. The flour will have congealed, well it will have the look of congeal-ment. You are going to have to get your hands all dirty and work it in. It will be super sticky and slimy. If you have large enough casings, you can stuff them with this now. I didn't, all I have is lamb intestine and that would only produce those tiny cracker size bologna. Instead I used a loaf pan. Do not add oil to the pan. And I highly suggest that you fill the pan to the brim, and have a catch pan under it, as the meat will shrink up on you, considerably.

Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove and cool in pan. Remove from pan and chill in the fridge. Slice and eat.



Now remember, we are working with a sexist bouncer here that has the potential to turn violent on you or not have enough muscle to stop them from over running the joint. So do not double or reduce the recipe. I search long and hard to come up with the correct proportions.

Now I have thinking that this could be canned like spam. Will need to try. However I need to warn you that the FDA considers canning your own meat evil and suicidal.

Extracts and canned oranges

Extracts are super simple and don't need more than a paragraph to explain. Mainly it is a side item I do with leftover or food waste.

Place peels, seeds or leaves (tear the leaves) in to jar. If you don't have enough to stuff the jar full, it can be added to over time.  Pour vodka, moonshine or rum over them. The stronger the alcohol the better. Tightly screw on the lid, then set out of your way and out of your mind for a week, vigorously shake. Do this for four weeks. Strain and place into a separate jar. Do not open near a flame.






Canning Oranges
You will need oranges, peeled and segmented
Water or orange juice or a light syrup of your making ( basically a sugar water mix, the more sugar the heavier the syrup). I prefer a lite sugar water to a syrup as it helps the oranges taste fresher.

Place your orange segments in your sterile jars, leaving an inch of head space, as they tend to float. Bring your liquid to a boil, then pour over the tops, leaving a half inch of space. Lids on tightly, and water bath.

Lower altitudes, 5 mins. Middle of the road 10 minutes. Higher altitudes, 15 mins.

This is usually finished before you are done candying the orange peels.

Candied orange peels

I was going to write, Four Things You Can Do To One Orange. But thought that might overwhelm some of you. because it did me. Plus it would make this post three hours long. So let's tackle things one at a time. Just keep in mind, that this project takes a good amount of time, and you will be doing other things as we move through it.



You will need
1 horror movie (DeadTime Stories 2 times out well)
6 oranges
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water

Wash your oranges. No soap. Cut the ends off.



 Next you are going to score the orange in quarters. Only the skin, don't cut into the meat. If you do, juice will spit out at you while you peel the peels off, and mangle the fruit. Peel the skin and the pith off the orange. The easiest way is to follow your cuts, then peel off the middle. If that makes sense.



Cut the peels into 1/4 inch strips. Don't worry about the uniformity of them, because it just won't turn out that way. Place the peels into a pot and cover with cool water. Bring to a boil over a high heat, then dump the water. Repeat this step a total of three times. This will mellow the bitterness of the pith. Remove the peels from the pot.

Whisk together the water and sugar in said pot. It will be a milky color. But it will dissolve on its own later. Bring this to a simmer, and keep it there for 9 minutes, until you reach the thread candy stage. Those not familiar with that term, candy thermometer should read 230f.

Add the peels, push them under, but do not stir the concoction. If you feel this overwhelming need to do so, resist and swirl the pot. Stirring will cause these unsightly crystals to form. Adjust heat to maintain the simmer, and cook 45 minutes or longer. Depending when the edges of the peel become translucent.

Drain peels, reserving the syrup for another project ( it is now simple syrup infused with orange) roll the peels in sugar and set on a rack to dry. 4-5 hours.



To store them, place sugar in a plastic bag, coat bag, place peels in and close airtight.

They are close to those gummy oranges you get at the store made with the evil to end all evils corn syrup and no actual fruit. And these are really good dipped in chocolate.

Blog Listings confusion

Someone, pointed out that I am listed under gardening, and here I am talking about violence.

I am actually listed in all sorts of places, gardening, construction management, cooking, do-it-yourself, frugal, farming, alternative, survival, crafts etc. . .

Here's the rub, I didn't list myself in them. I listed myself in only two places, under homesteading and personal journal, and I have only received a couple of hits from those places. Wonderful readers list me in other places, like stumbleupon, pintrest,  and blog rank are the most popular. Many of these places do not list homesteading or farming as a general listing, so many blogs like mine end up under gardening. Some times when a person asks to list a blog, the listing employees look at that blog, and if you have been talking about gardening for that week, the employees label the blog as such. (and I have looked at the blog rank listings, they have my numbers way lower then they truly are)

The most hits I see in a day are about butchering, as several e-how posts link to them.

So, now you know.

This is a personal journal that talks about everything. If you want gardening come back in mid march.

Very last minute present that even the teen boys enjoy (albeit secretly)

Flubber, Gak, slime or silly putty

You can't make real Flubber, as only Fred MacMurray and Robin Williams have that recipe. And you can't make real silly putty because that is a closely guarded secret, but you can make a slime type variation of the products. And not only is this an enjoyable gift, but a science project that if fun to create. (something you can do with the kids while they are on break)


2 1/2 cups warm water
2 cups white glue
3 teaspoons Borax
food coloring

Combine 1 1/2 cups water with the glue. Mix in the food coloring.  In a different bowl, combine the borax and 1 cup water. Mix well. Poor the borax mix into the glue mix, then get your hand dirty. Squeeze until thoroughly combine until only a tablespoon of liquid remains.. It will be sticky. Allow to sit for a few minutes. Once ready it can be stored in an air tight container for about 3 weeks.

And it bounces too!

Depression gift: Paddle Ball

Not just paddle ball but ULTIMATE PADDLE BALL

ARE YOU READY?


you will need
composite laminate flooring 3/8" thick
braided stretchy cord 1/8" thick
bouncy ball

(This project took 40 minutes doing it all by hand. So a good last minute gift idea)

Draw out your paddle onto the flooring



cut it out

Sand it down

Drill a hole in the center no larger than 1/8" diameter

Then drill a hole in the bouncy ball. We tried heating a nail and shoving it through, but it damages the ball too much.

Thread the stretchy cord through the ball.
You will need something to stop the knot from stretching through.
We used an old shoe lace.
Measure out the length of cord you want, remember it doubles in length when stretched.

Repeat with the paddle

Trim up the excess

PLAY!

If the cord breaks, it is easily repaired.

These work really well. You can easily nail your Husband in the head from 4 feet away,  hard enough for it to sting.

Depression Gift: Homemade watercolors

What you mean they have 4 kids now?!?

Homemade watercolors are simple.

You will need

1 tablespoon clear vinegar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon corn syrup
food coloring
plastic egg carton 
(paper ones will bleed through)
this makes 2 egg cups full

Mix the vinegar and baking soda in a old coffee cup. Once the fizzing goes down add the corn starch and syrup. mix well. It will make a thick paste, that seems like a solid melting.



Mix in your food coloring, whatever colors you or your kids want. Pour into the cups.

Repeat until you have all your cups filled.

Or leave an empty spot for the water.

Allow the cakes to completely dry before closing and decorating the egg carton. Make a pouch for the brushes.

Dip brush in the water and smear over the top of the egg cakes to use.

Depression Gift; Green Army Man Jewelry

First I want to give credit where credit is due. I got this idea from Knight & Hammer, a small jeweler. Right now they are having a sale on their gold army men jewelry, portions of the proceeds benefit the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

As much as I love their army men, there is no feasible way I could ever afford it, until the prize patrol arrives. So I will make my generic version using real green (brown) army men.

First, a bag o' army men.

Of course you need to play with them a bit. MAN DOWN!

Now we need to remove their pedestals.  Don't be tempted to just snap them off, you will take their poor little toes with it. I used a pair of wire cutters, then filed down any points.

Next heat up a needle and stab him in the head with it. 

Not only are you making something cool but you get to relive your tortured toy youth.  Ah memories. . . Fun!!

Don't allow the needle to cool off in there too much, you will have a hard time getting it out. Next you will need a piece of wire, folding it to create a hook to hang the army man from. This too will need to be heated up before torturing your toy. Shove the wire into his head and allow it to cool.

You can stop here and add leather or chain. But I just happened to have a can of Aluminum  spray enamel 

 *insert evil laugh here* 

Spray one side of your army man, dry, flip and repeat. Be sure to get his crotch and the top of his head.

my attempt at a close-up

These make great Christmas ornaments as well.

Pack of army men $1. aluminum enamel paint can be found at the hardware store for $2-$5.  You can find wire there as well. But since I go to auctions and buy wire in bulk, not sure how much that would cost you.

Gifts from the Kids: Soap on a Rope

For soap on a rope you will need

2 cups soap flakes
1/2 cup tap hot water
yarn or a cord (we use baling twine)


Looks like cheese

You need to grate your soap. When I was in town,I checked and I didn't see any bath soap flakes, and you don't want to use the laundry soap.

Cut you twine or yarn to fit loosely around the neck. Lower to mid chest, and tie a knot at the ends.

Pour your hot water into the bowl with your soap. You can add food coloring to it if you want. Squeeze like meatloaf until it forms a ball. It will be sudsy.

Break the ball up into however many you may need. (we did two, then combined the excess of these to form a third)

Wrap around your twine. Squeeze it firmly to adhere to the twine, right above the knot. Squish into cookie cutter or free hand sculpt.

(These are the boys prototypes. They forbid me to show you the finished product in case the recipients of the gift happens to see this blog. Medium made the Christmas tree, Small the dog, and Large made Mr. Hanky)

Allow to dry for several days. Once dry, tie a knot above the soap.

And a warning. Even after scrubbing your hands, soap still seems to cling under your fingernails. Be careful not to wash your mouth out with soap. It really doesn't taste that good.

Depression Gift; Molas

Molas are a product of the Kuna women of Panama. I have several that my father brought with him when he came to the US.

 I am leaning towards getting a tattoo of the above mola, it's a fox and chickens.

Making your own is simple, you quilters should like this. Molas are traditionally 2-7 layers of fabric.

The fabric doesn't need to be a solid color.  And can be any size you want your panel to be.

First decide on your design, and map it out. Next put down your first layer of cloth, do not cut into this one, it's your base.  Add your second layer and cut your design so the the first cloth is seen through the second.

Repeat each layer, making sure that you cut over the previous colors holes so that the first/second and so on colors can be seen at the finish.

Pin your fabric together so that it can be sewn. Make sure that it is all flat as possible, and sew outlines into the design, then sew all the way around it.

For those of us that can barely sew, use this to wrap presents, like books in. Or mount them as art work as the real ones above.

Those of you that are more talented, molas are made to be used. Traditionally skirts and blouses. You can use the panels you make for blankets, window dressings, purses, and so forth.

Kids can make them with construction paper and glue if you don't trust them with your needles.

Homemade gift for the teen boy ~Devil Sticks~

Luckily for me Large is a dork. No worries, he knows he is a dork and is very proud of his oddness. The Devil Sticks are not going to be for any boy (girls like them too). A kid that likes Hackey Sacks or juggling, medieval reenactments or RPG's (not video games). If you don't want to deal with the negative side of teen angst, be aware of what your kid is into, could make for a miserable Christmas morning.

These Devil Sticks are for the beginner.

You will need:

2 wooden dowels 
4 feet of 5/16" diameter
2 feet of 1/2" diameter

Athletic tape any color(s)

A hand saw

What to do:

Cut the dowels to 2 feet in length. You will need 1 of the thick dowel and 2 of the same length of the thinner dowels.

Take one of the tapes and pull down a long piece, keeping it attached to the roll. Spin the tape so that it spiral on itself, lazily. Wrap this around your thick dowel, sticky side out. Lattice the dowel with the tape, like this:

Reverse the direction, doubling up but creating the lattice look. Make sure you overlap the previous tape.

You can use the same color tape here, sticky side down, cover the lattice work thoroughly. On each end of your thick stick, you will need to make counter weights. Use the tape to do this. Wrap the tape around each end, testing out the balance as you add to it.

Wrap tape around your 2 hand sticks (thinner dowels) just the same as the exterior part of your middle stick (thicker dowel) but not the lattice work. However you will need to vary the direction in which you wrap and create small bumps as you go. You can do this in multiple colors.

This is your finished product. You can add tassels to the end of the middle stick with the tape if you want.

And when they get really good at it, you can add fire

If you don't know what Devil sticks are or how to use them, here is a video.

How to Use a Devil Stick in Juggling

Look for possible savings for supplies for devil sticks at Home Depot.

(in case you missed it in comments) Canning Dry Goods

I thought I had talked about this before. But I cover so many subjects that there are times I just don't know. So thank you for calling me out on it.

My friend TexasWren sent me some books a few years ago books she used when she was homesteading. And that's how I found out about canning dried goods. It extends the shelf life of them and kills of any possible bug invasion.

Flour,oatmeal,corn meal, etc., but not sugar, can be "canned" in the oven. Heat your oven to 250F, place your dry goods in a canning jar, finger tight lids,  place on a cookie sheet and heat for 1 hour. This will kill the bugs (if any). Turn oven off and allow to cool completely before removing.

If you want to can sugar, make a simple syrup.

Of course there are different ways of doing it, some people don't put the lids on until after the jars (still hot) are removed from the oven. Canning jars can break in the oven while heating, just like they do in the water bath or pressure canners.

EO(S) Ravioli stuffed with dandelion greens, and a pesto

Per my rules


Nachinat my malenky droogs, your humble narrator made a mistake. In an attempt to make weedy pishcha I neglected to see what I got free and how much it would kupet most of you. Appypolly loggy. Tis why I neglected to post my Eating Out(side) challenge last week. The moloko and maslo kupet more than last raz I bought it. I had to redo it all to keep it frugal for those that need to buy the ingredients.

I present to you Ravioli stuffed with dandelion greens, served with a dandelion greens pesto sauce. Real horrorshow.

Viddy well my droogs, viddy well.

(if you have no idea what I said, you are not alone. If you did understand it, you are as big of a dork as I am. Nadsat dictionary)

Dandelion ravioli
If you do not have a noodle/pasta recipe, here is mine

Making the pasta part 1

Part 2

For the filling
1 lb young dandelion leaves, washed, chopped

olive oil

1 pck cream cheese

salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet saute the greens in a bit of olive oil until tender. Transfer to a bowl. Mix the cream cheese, salt and pepper in with the greens. Bend very well. Spoon into your prepared pasta.

In a large pot, bring water, slightly salted, to a boil. Add the ravioli and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

Drain and serve with a little butter and Parmesan cheese, an Alfredo sauce or a pesto.

Dandelion greens pesto sauce

12 ounces washed and cleaned young dandelion leaves
1 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled
6 tablespoons pine nuts, lightly toasted1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated

Place one-third of the dandelion greens in the food processor or a blender with olive oil and chop for 1 minute, scrape down the sides. Add the remaining dandelion greens in two batches, until finely chopped up.

Add garlic cloves, pine nuts, salt, and Parmesan, process until everything is a smooth puree.

Taste, add salt if necessary. If too thick, you can thin it with olive oil or water.

Making your own small scale silage

Now is a good time to start making and storing your own silage. It is rather easy on small scale.

The simplest is for those that mow their grass. Simply mow, allow to wilt, bag in a large zip type plastic baggy, or trash bag, and press out as much air as possible. If mold grows on it, the silage is ruined and should never be fed to your animals.

Depending on the animals that you are making silage for, you will need different plant materials. Crops suitable for silage are non-leguminous fodder crops rich in soluble carbohydrates, such as maize, oats, sorghum, pearl millet, and cultivated grasses are most suitable for ensiling. Materials can be grasses, legumes, fodder crops (sorghum, maize), crop residues or by-products. These items need to be harvested in the young age, before flowering, to help ensure that you have enough sugars for proper fermentation.

And don't forget your tree and shrub fodder. Just restrict the amount of tannins. And be cautious of the type of plants you are harvesting for your animals. Tannins has been shown to help with worm problems in sheep and goats, still restrict the amounts though.

If you are growing legumes, harvest leaves before your dry season, allow them to dry in the shade, then mix in with your silage.

If you wish to do it on a slightly larger scale, a pit works good for storage as well (cover with black plastic and weight it down with tires), as does a buried deep freezer. Place your silage in it in layers, then walk on it, pressing the silage down removing as much air as possible. Keep it cool and dry (plastic and weights work here as well).

Come winter, you can feed a nice nutritional "fresh" meal to all your lovely critters.

Rainy Day? Good time to prep for preserving

Spring in the Heartland means storms, lots and lots of storms. You can use these days to catch up on your neglected housekeeping as the garden has kept you a bit too preoccupied for such mundane things, or you can forgo all of that and begin some preparation for your up coming fruit and berry harvest.

Simple Syrup is a staple to making just about anything out of your berries. You can find my directions on how to make it here>>> The Secret to Simple Living? Simple Syrup.

Strawberries shall be plucked soon, and simple syrup helps preserve them in various ways, you can make pop, pancake syrup, preserves and some very fancy dinner sauces.

It's good to keep on hand for real sweet tea.

I love using it for my pears, making lilac syrup, and for peaches. The uses are just about limitless. Canning is no biggy, as you will replace the simple syrup later with the flavorings you add to it.

Oh it just started raining here.

3 ways to preserve your broths

Before we start, does everyone here know how to make a basic broth?

There are 3 ways to preserve your homemade broths, be it beef, chicken or vegetable stock. (broth and stock are indeed different, however are interchangeable in your recipes). With all the following preservations, remove as much fat as possible. You can freeze the fat for use later in soap recipes.

The first is canning. Pour your hot broth into a pint canning jar and pressure can 20 minutes at 10 lbs (11lbs on dial gauges). Allow to cool for 24 hours and then stack up in your pantry.

Next is freezing.

Pour your broth evenly into an ice tray. I highly suggest you line your tray with parchment paper or foil. Allow to freeze, remove and store in a freezer bag. Each cube is 1/8 cup of stock. This is also considered a cold bouillon cube.

And finally, and my favorite, dehydration.

Pour 1 cup of stock onto a fruit rollup tray and place it into my dehydrator. Set it on the meat setting or 145F. It tends to withdraw from the center and pool along the edges. Let sit overnight.

Once dry, peel and crack off the tray onto foil.

Tightly fold up your foil and place into a zip-lock type bag. If you have a food saver I would use it, and remove as much air as possible.

You end up with a little packet of flavoring that equals 1 cup broth. Kind of like those Ramen packets. You can do more than 1 cup at a time, just be sure you keep track of how much you use. You will need to add the same amount of water to rehydrate it.

This packet makes 3 cups of broth.