February 2015 Homegrown Collective: DIY Shampoo

It has been quite a long week....in fact, I received my Homegrown Collective GREENBOX several days ago and only got it opened today.  I was happy to see that the collection is all about natural alternatives to commercial shampoo and hair care.  

In my quest to make more of my own personal care products, shampoo was one item I wasn't quite sure how to handle but I learned so much from this month's products! 

I learned that an easy alternative to shampoo is to mix one part baking soda with 3 parts water and use that instead of shampoo.  It does not lather up like you are used to but I tried it this morning and am quite happy with the result.  If you are going to clean your hair with baking soda, you must follow up with the vinegar rinse to balance the pH of your hair.  The vinegar rinse is 1 part apple cider vinegar to 4 parts water.  Saturate your hair with the rinse after the baking soda wash and then rinse out.  You can add essential oils too if you like.  My hair is soft and shiny and easy to manage without the static that I can get this time of year.  So far, so good!  

I remember that my mother always rinsed our hair with vinegar when we were children.  In fact, she credits it with helping us avoid head lice during a particularly difficult outbreak at our school.  It was so widespread that the school closed for several days to break the cycle.  Even though all four of us (myself and my sisters) had very long hair, none of us ever did get lice.  I'm not sure if it was the vinegar or my mother's diligence that helped us avoid it but it worked!  

Here is the question I know you will ask:  Won't my hair smell like salad dressing?  LOL....when your hair dries, the vinegar smell does not linger...I promise!  In fact, my hair doesn't smell like anything except for clean.  

Other items in this month's box include coconut oil as a deep hair conditioner and also supplies to make dry shampoo.  I've never really been a fan of dry shampoo but it has been many years since I tried it so I may give it another whirl.  The recipe included in the GREENBOX uses corn starch, essential oils and cocoa for dark hair or cinnamon for red.  

Another recipe included is a Rosemary, Lavender, Lemon Rinse with Apple Cider Vinegar.  I'm really looking forward to using this one too.  The box is really wonderful...it includes the jars for mixing and a pump bottle that makes it easy to keep in the shower.  

Commercial shampoo and conditioners are full of chemicals that aren't really very good for your hair or your scalp and yet we lay down quite a bit of cash for the head full of suds that we think we need to get clear hair.  I was absolutely surprised with how clean my hair feels after the baking soda wash and vinegar rinse.  I'll definitely continue to use it and cross that shampoo off my shopping list in favor of the natural and less expensive alternatives.  I hope you consider it too.  

Thanks so much for joining me today.  Life certainly got busy this week but I should be back on track now and will be back tomorrow to Make Monday Matter...hope to see you then! 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

DIY Hand Sanitizer with Essential Oils

The main ingredient in hand sanitizer is paranoia.  

short-jokes-quotes.com

I am making a bold statement here that I'm sure won't surprise anyone:  I’m not a fan of hand sanitizer.  

I know that many people carry it around with them and even reflexively use it throughout the day.  Schools include it on the list of required supplies but it just seems like a bad idea to me. 

I used to use it.  In fact, when I managed a nursing unit in a hospital, I had hand sanitizer stations installed in the patient rooms, hallways, nursing station and break room.  I knew that when I used it, my hands didn't react well – dry, cracked skin and then it would sting like fire but wasn't that a sign that it was killing all the nasty germs? 

And then one of the containers leaked on the floor.  That hand sanitizer dissolved the finish on the laminate floor covering….no wonder my hands were hurting so much! 

Hand washing is the preferred method for decreasing exposure to pathogens but sometimes it just is not available as quickly as you might want.  The commercially available hand sanitizers are not the answer at least for me. 

There are studies that show that those sanitizers do kill germs – bad ones and good ones too.  Those same studies suggest that alcohol based hand sanitizers allow more severe forms of germs to grow on your hands and those germs are more disease causing and antibiotic resistant. 

There are many essential oils that have antibacterial properties and could be used in homemade versions.  Some of those oils are:  

Cinnamon       Clove      Eucalyptus     Lemon      Lime    Melaleuca (Tea Tree)

Oregano     Peppermint     Thyme     Rosemary   Lavender

My favorite to use is a blend available from Young Living Essential Oils called Thieves. Thieves is a blend of therapeutic grade essential oils and includes clove, lemon, cinnamon bark, eucalyptus and rosemary. I encourage you to consider which oils you like best and to create your own blend to use in your own version of hand sanitizer.  Here are two versions I like: 

Thieves Hand Sanitizer with Aloe Vera Gel

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons aloe vera gel

1 teaspoon distilled water

Contents of 2 vitamin E oil gel capsules (poke with a pin and squeeze out the oil)

20 drops Thieves essential oil

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a 2 oz. squeeze bottle.  Use as you would any other hand sanitizer.  

Tea Tree, Lavender, Peppermint Hand Sanitizer

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons aloe vera gel

1 teaspoon distilled water

Contents of   2 vitamin E oil gel capsules (poke with a pin and squeeze out the oil)

20 drops Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca) essential oil

5 drops lavender essential oil

5 drops peppermint essential oil

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a 2 oz. squeeze bottle.  Use as you would any other hand sanitizer.

Which oils will you choose for your own blend? Leave a comment and let us all know :) 

Thanks so much for visiting today and considering the switch to hand sanitizers with essential oils.  Tomorrow, I’ll share with you some of the farmgirl fun I've had in the past few weeks.  I hope to see you then!

Peace be with you,

Star Schipp

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Benefits of Kefir Milk and How to Make It At Home!

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. 

~Hippocrates 

Have you seen bottles of kefir yet in your local grocery store?  They are popping up everywhere and they are EXPENSIVE.  Today, I'll review why you should pass those right by and culture your own kefir at home - your wallet will thank you and so will your digestive system!

Kefir is a fermented milk product that is a bit like yogurt but even better for you.  This drink is full of B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, enzymes and most importantly, probiotics - I mean A LOT of probiotics. Store bought kefir contains about twelve different active bacteria and probiotics which are good for your body.  This is compared to yogurt which has only two or three.  Home cultured kefir made with kefir grains includes thirty different beneficial bacteria, probiotics and beneficial yeasts to help your body thrive.

You might ask why would I want to put more bacteria in my body?  That is a good question!  The bacteria in kefir (and yogurt too) are the good ones that your body needs to fight off the bad ones that can make you sick.  Your digestive system is a key player in the health of your immune system.  Regular drinking of kefir is a great way to boost your immunity.  

How does it taste?  Tart like yogurt when you drink it plain but you can mix it in your smoothies or use it in recipes when you might otherwise use yogurt - but don't heat it if you want to preserve all of its live bacteria goodness.  

Kefir is grown as a culture from Kefir Grains.  These grains are not grains like wheat but actually look a like a piece of cauliflower.  The grains are a little community of bacteria and yeasts that grow together and fight off harmful microbes that can cause disease.   When added to milk, the grains grow and multiply to turn the milk into kefir.  Just like when we made buttermilk, it is easy to add the kefir grains to milk and let sit on the counter to culture into one very beneficial dairy food.  

Once you obtain kefir grains, you can continue to use them to culture new batches of kefir.  You don't have to buy new ones. Grains are available in many places online (like here) or you can ask a friend who is already making kefir to give you a few grains to get started.  I purchased mine from Pasture's Delights which is a dairy in my area and where I own a herd-share to get really wonderful milk. I've kept them going and growing for over a year now and they are flourishing. Here is how to make it: 

Milk Kefir

Ingredients:  

1 to 1 1/2 Tablespoons Milk Kefir Grains 

1 quart whole milk 

Instructions: 

• Put grains in a clean glass jar.  Cover with milk. 
• Cover the jar with a cloth or paper towel and secure with a rubber band.  
• Let culture at room temperature for 24-48 hours.  Shorter time will result in a thinner consistency and less tartness and longer will be more. 
• When culturing is done, strain out grains and refrigerate the finished kefir.  Start a new batch with the grains or cover with milk and refrigerate until ready to culture again.

I hope you try this process.  The resulting product has billions of healthy probiotics to help your body.  At the very least, have some available to let food be your medicine when tummy troubles find their way to your system.  You can have your own little germ-fighting army living in a jar right on your counter!  

Thank you so much for joining today, I'm so glad you stopped by.  Tomorrow, I'll post how to make your own hand sanitizer which uses essential oils and won't dry out your skin.  I hope to see you then :) 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Saturday Skill: Making Cultured Buttermilk

I can still memory-taste 

the fresh buttermilk pancakes and hot buttermilk biscuits - both made with lard - that were cooked on the top, or in the oven, of that ancient iron stove. 

~Vernon L. Smith

Buttermilk has always seemed like a really old-fashioned ingredient to me and anytime a recipe called for it, I did the substitute thing of putting vinegar or lemon juice in milk and letting it sour.  I didn't see any reason to buy a little buttermilk from the grocery for just a certain recipe when I knew I wouldn't use the rest of it.  In fact, I grew up thinking I didn't like buttermilk at all - thanks to a little switch-a-roo my grandfather played on me.  I was thirsty and asked for a glass of milk.  He asked me if I wanted "Pappaw's Milk" and of course I said yes.  The resulting big drink that followed was an enormous surprise to say the least.  

Did you know that there are different kinds of buttermilk? Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter from cream.  This is called traditional buttermilk or old-fashioned buttermilk and is good to use as the liquid in pancakes or waffles. It is a thin liquid flecked with tiny butter pieces.

And then there is the tart, delicious creation of cultured buttermilk which is nothing like the traditional one.  This one is thick and tart in a good kind of way.  If you like yogurt or kefir, you will probably like cultured buttermilk too.  In my hobby farm quest to make more things myself, I have already been making other cultured dairy products (thanks to the great milk I get from Pasture's Delights).  Cultured buttermilk was next on the list. 

What a wonderful thing to know how to make!  No more using the substitute version, this is the real deal.  It is unbelievably easy to do too. You need a culture to get started:  this can be from buttermilk you buy at the grocery as long as the label says:

Active, Cultured Buttermilk 

or purchase cultures (Cultures For Health  or New England Cheesemaking Supply Company are two good resources).  

How to Make Cultured Buttermilk

Ingredients: 

1 quart milk (can be whole, 2% or skim)

1/2 cup cultured buttermilk OR 1 packet of purchased culture

Instructions: 

• Heat milk slightly to 72 degrees Farenheit
• Whisk in whichever buttermilk culture you are using
• Transfer liquid to a 1 quart canning jar 
• Cover with cheesecloth or other breathable cloth (I use a dishcloth)
• Let sit to culture for 24 hours, remove cloth and switch to regular lid.  Refrigerate and use within 7 days.
• Save some of this batch to get your next batch going! 

Making real, cultured buttermilk is one of those skills that takes very little active working time and gives you very useful results.  There are many recipes that use buttermilk and I know your recipe repertoire will expand when you have buttermilk readily available in your refrigerator - I know it has happened like that for me. 

You can use cultured buttermilk is so many ways:  how about real buttermilk salad dressing (not the one from that hidden place where children always eat their vegetables), pancakes and waffles, buttermilk fried chicken, baked goods of all kinds and of course, as a refreshing drink that is a good source of vitamins, calcium and probiotics.  If you start right now, you can have this staple in your kitchen in just 24 hours.  I hope you try it :) 

I'm so glad you came by to visit today.  Tomorrow, I'll share a couple of my favorite recipes that use cultured buttermilk.  I hope to see you then! 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

Farmgirl Friday: Time to Conquer My Fear of Making Soap!

Anyone's life truly lived consists of work, sunshine, exercise, soap, plenty of fresh air, and a happy contented spirit. 

~Lillie Langtry

Hello!  Welcome, I'm so glad you stopped by today.  I have a confession to make:  I am afraid to make soap.  

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?  I drink raw milk; I've killed a chicken; I empty mouse traps;  I've even once punched a bull in the nose for knocking me down - in short, I've done many things that this city girl turned hobby farmer never thought I would do but one thing eludes me...the courage to make soap. I'm talking about real soap - not that melt and pour stuff. 

My sister makes soap and some pretty good soap at that.  I could go ahead and get soap from her since I want to avoid some of the ingredients in commercial soaps but now it has become a personal hurdle that I need to overcome.  Go ahead and look at the label on the bars of soap you have in your cabinet...do you know what all those things are?  

I'm looking at a label right now...petrolatum, polyquaternium-6, pentasodium pentetate, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl....absolutely frightening when you consider that you are putting these chemicals all over your body day after day. 

I've been on a quest to get our foods in as natural state as possible.  I've done the same with the household cleaners.  The time has come to make soap.  

I've done an inventory of what I am most afraid of and here is the list and the counter statement I am using to overcome my fear: 

• Making soap is hard ~ Is it really any harder than pressure canning foods?  I used to be afraid of that too! 
• Making soap costs a lot ~ Getting the chicken coop up and running cost more than I thought it would, but the fresh eggs are absolutely worth it...and honestly, once I have the equipment to make soap, I can use it over and over. 
• Homemade soap is hard on your skin ~ From what I've been reading, old-time soap was harsh because the ingredients were inconsistent from batch to batch.  I have a better source of ingredients now. 
• Working with lye is dangerous ~ okay - this is probably the real reason I haven't made soap.  Working with lye IS dangerous but, with the right precautions, it can be managed safely. 
• There are a lot of soap recipes on the internet.  I can't figure out which one is best. ~ yep, there are many recipes out there just like there are for baking bread, making vegetable soup or even meatloaf...just pick a basic one and do it! 

Do you have any fears like mine?  Do you want to learn to make soap with me?  I'm making the commitment to do it and I hope you will too.  

Here is the list of equipment I think I need to get started.  I'll spend the week gathering it all together and will make the leap to make my first soap and, yes,  I'll probably call my sister for help ;)

Soap-making Equipment

• Digital Scale (+I have a postal scale)
• one or two food thermometers (+I have a digital one and one for candy)
• Stick blender (+I have one)
• gloves (-I need these)
• goggles (-I need these)
• stainless steel soup pot (+I have one)
• stainless steel 2 quart saucepan (+I have one)
• large roasting pan - 2 quart pan needs to fit in it with room to be surrounded by ice (+I have one)
• large glass bowl or 2L pitcher (+I have one)
• glass, quart size bowls or cups for weighing lye and fats (+I have some)
• two long handled slotted spoons-steel or stainless steel (-I need these - all my stirring spoons are wooden)
• molds - can be milk cartons (+I'm sure I can find something around here for this)
• pH strips (-I need these)

I am really looking forward to adding Soap-maker to my list of hobby farm skills and happy that I can share the journey with you. Plus I want to earn that Intermediate level Going Green merit badge.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.  

Tomorrow is Skills Saturday and I will teach you how to make buttermilk.  I hope to see you then!  

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

5 Reasons to Use Milk Paint

A fresh outlook is like a fresh coat of paint.  It doesn't cost much, but sometimes it makes a huge difference.  ~ Susan Gale 

I'm remodeling a little house on our property to be a farm school where I can offer classes on all these things I have been blogging about - and I am absolutely thrilled about it.  Right now, of course, it is in the planning stages...what to do with the items that are stored there now, will the furnace work, will the plumbing still work...lots to figure out.  But, I'm gathering photos and dreaming.  

One decision to make is going to be what kind of materials to use in the remodeling process.  I'm going to use as many low VOC, green, sustainable products as I can.  One of those products is going to be Milk Paint.  

Milk paint is one of the oldest forms of paint there is.  According to RealMilkPaint.com, artwork on cave walls from thousands of years ago were made with paint made with milk.  It is a testimony to the durability of milk paint that those cave wall paintings are still around for us to see. 

Milk paint is made with skim milk, hydrated lime and pigments.  Hydrated lime is made from limestone.  It is a bonding agent and what will make the paint work as paint.  You can make this paint yourself with milk(there is a recipe in Milk Cow Kitchen by MaryJane Butters) or buy it in powder form from www.RealMilkPaint.com and mix it with water.  The colors are stunning! 

So, that is where you can buy it or where you can find instructions to make it.  But, why would you use Milk Paint instead of regular paint?  

Here are the 5 Reasons I Choose Milk Paint

• The protein in milk (casein) dries to a durable finish
• Milk paint does not have fumes like regular paint does 
• Milk paint can be discarded into your compost pile!  You cannot do that with regular paint.
• The colors are beautiful. See some here  
• I love the idea of making it myself 

Have you ever used milk paint?  I would love to hear your experiences.  Now just to decide which colors I want for our farm school.....

I appreciate your visit today and look forward to our Saturday Skills post on bread baking when I'll share how I keep fresh dough in my refrigerator all the time so I can bake more bread easily.  I hope to see you then.  

Peace by with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!   

I Dedicate This Year to CREATE (Plus a couple of essential oil projects)

Creativity is intelligence having fun. 

 ~Albert Einstein 

Hello, thank you so much for joining today!   I have a couple of recipes to share using essential oils that were in the Homegrown Collective box I received this week.  But first I want to share why I choose to make things like these myself.  There are many reasons: I want to control ingredients or I want to save money but the real reason is that it feeds my need to CREATE! 

As a child, I was always drawing or writing or reading or creating something - in fact, I taught myself to crochet before I was a teenager and knitting followed pretty closely behind that. I learned to sew at 4-H and I spent the whole summer between my junior and senior year of high school working on a huge embroidery piece. 

Then life happened:  parenting, working, schooling, and various other "have to's" took up more and more of my time.  I drifted away from my need to create and missed it so.  I even pretty regularly added to my craft "stash" for *someday* when I have time.  For years, that time rarely happened.  

So this year, I'm pledging to do something CREATIVE every day. It might be as small as knitting a dish cloth or as big as starting to paint again but I will do something every single day.  Writing this blog is one of my projects to keep me in the CREATIVE spirit.  

Has it made a difference?  It truly has.  I am hopeful for the future and not completely overwhelmed with work projects because I know that, at sometime during the day, I will put my hands, my heart and my brain to something solely for the act of creating. When was the last time you spent some time nurturing your CREATIVE spirit?  

 I received a wonderful gift from a Farmgirl friend in the mail today:  a magazine called Daphne's Diary.  It is an exquisitely beautiful publication and I'm putting it on my gift wish list (that's a hint my dear husband, daughters and sons!)  Every page is a delight for the eyes and sparks the creative fires even more.  I hope you get a chance to see it for yourself sometime.  

Anyway, back to what I made today. These are two useful items to keep in your cabinet for days when you have a cold, body aches or sore muscles.  

DIY Vapor Rub

(inspired by Homegrown Collective)

Ingredients:  

1/4 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

2 heaping tablespoons of beeswax pastilles or  soy wax

20 drops of mint or menthol essential oil

10 drops of star anise essential oil 

1/4 of a cinnamon stick, finely grated 

Instructions:  

• place olive oil and wax in a double boiler and heat just until the wax melts
• add essential oils and cinnamon and stir to combine
• pour into a small jar and let cool 

The salve is helpful for congestion when rubbed on the chest and some people like to use it on the soles of the feet too.  

DIY Sore Muscle Oil

(inspired by Homegrown Collective) 

Ingredients:  

1/8  cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil 30 drops of mint or menthol essential oil 

20 drops of star anise essential oil 

20 drops of lavender essential oil 

Instructions: 

• add all ingredients to a tinted glass jar with a dropper, close lid tightly.  Do not overfill.   
• Percuss vigorously on your palm about 40 times to emulsify the mixture.   

Use as a massage oil for sore muscles. 

That's about all I have for today.  I'm so glad you were able to visit!  Thank you so much.  

Tomorrow is our day with MaryJanesFarm and the merit badges. My post will be on milk paint - how to make it and how to use it.  It is the paint I will be using when I remodel the little house on our property which will become our Farm School.  I'm so excited about this project and the classes I will be offering. 

I hope to see you tomorrow! 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!  

A Recipe for Rosemary Garlic Salt - A Wonderful Gift!

Salt is born of the purest of parents:  the sun and the sea.

-Pythagoras- 

What a gift we have been given to have salt, herbs and spices to enhance our food.  Without them soup would be bland, pasta rather tasteless, meats unappetizing and popcorn would stay in the bowl.  

Learning to use these gifts the world has to offer makes your cooking rise to the level of artistic expression--even more so when you have grown the herbs in your own garden.  These days, you can seek out some wonderful crystals of sea salt that are so popular now - Himalayan Pink, Black Lava, white crystals that shine like diamonds or even Bolivian which is orange.  We have come a long way from Morton's "When It Rains, It Pours" table salt.  

If you are looking to add some excitement to your dishes, check into some of those different salts.  But also, grow some herbs right outside your kitchen window.  There is absolutely nothing fresher or more enjoyable than stepping outside with a pair of scissors and snipping what you need.  You can have all those wonderful flavors in your cooking pot within only a couple of minutes.  

Fresh herbs really cannot compare to the tins you probably have in your cupboard right now.  Fess up, some of those have been in there are very long time haven't they?  Throw them away.  They have lost their usefulness.  

In my garden, I grow basil, rosemary, sage, chives, dill, mint, cilantro, parsley, marjoram, savory, oregano and thyme for cooking.  At the end of the season, you can dry them yourself to use all winter or better yet, start some plants to grow indoors too.  

There are many recipes on the internet to create your own herb or spice blends and I hope you get out there and do that both for the satisfaction of doing it yourself but also because they make wonderful gifts.  Here are two of my very favorites:  

Italian Blend

Gather equal parts of fresh herbs and chop together on your cutting board or combine if herbs are already dried. 

I use these: 

Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Marjoram, Parsley and Thyme   

  If using fresh herbs and you want to dry to use later, place the herbs on a cookie sheet in as thin a layer as possible and leave in an area where air will circulate but not in direct sunlight.  It usually takes a couple of days in my kitchen.  When herbs crumble easily, you can package in a pretty jar and give as a gift if you like. 

This recipe below is my very favorite blend of all time.  I hope you make it yourself and see what a difference it makes in pretty much anything you cook - except maybe not desserts.  ;)

Rosemary Garlic Salt 

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup kosher salt

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

1 cup of fresh rosemary leaves - no stems 

zest from one lemon

Mound all the ingredients together on your cutting board.  With your knife, chop and blend until the mixture is fairly fine - like coarse sand.  Spread the mixture thinly on a cookie sheet and leave on the counter where air will circulate but not in direct sunlight.  This mixture usually takes a couple of days to dry thoroughly.  When completely dry, store in a pretty jar and use liberally in everything from chicken to potatoes to even your popcorn.  I so hope you like it. 

That's all I have for you today.  I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Tomorrow, I'll post on useful essential oils to help you through the cold and flu season which sounds like is going to be a rough one.  Certainly, the sub-zero temperatures in my part of the country are keeping people indoors and exposed to more contagions.  So, keep up the handwashing!  I hope to see you tomorrow.  

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!