Farmgirl Friday: Merit Badge Fun

The capacity to learn is a gift

 The ability to learn is a skill

 The willingness to learn is a choice

~Brian Herbert

We made it to Friday!  I hope you have a relaxing weekend ahead.  I'll be taking some time to sew up a couple of Valentine potholders for a Farmgirl project. Remember the times I've posted about MaryJanesFarm?  In the chat room, the farmgirls sometimes participate in swaps - this week I've traded valentines, handmade Christmas ornaments with wooden spools, and handmade dishcloths.  It gives me a reason to work my creative spirit and to get some really fun mail for a change. ;) 

I also finally made time to complete the embroidery on some of the merit badges I have earned.  The merit badge program has really helped me learn some new skills and have some fun along the way.  

For example, I have reached the expert level in the category of Garden Gate:  Herbs.  Here are the requirements:  

•  Beginner:  Identify 5 herbs and uses for them and try one. 

• Intermediate:  Grow 2 herbs and use them. 

• Expert:  Grow 3 more herbs and use them and create gift packs of your own herb blends.  

Another badge I earned at the expert level is in the category of Cleaning Up:  Recycling. The requirements for this one are: 

• Beginner:  Research recycling in your area both what can be recycled and where. 

• Intermediate:  Set up a recycling system for yourself and use it for a week. 

• Expert:  Recycle for one month and teach someone else to do it too.   

I have earned one more expert level badge and it is the one I am most proud of - at least so far....The category is Each Other:  Blogging.  Yes, my friends, it was a merit badge that encouraged me to start this blog and I have enjoyed it immensely.  

•  Beginner: Read a book titled Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey and choose a topic you love.

• Intermediate:  Pick a blogging host, pick a name and post your first post. 

• Expert:  Learn to add pictures to your blog, publish 10 posts and network with other bloggers.  

There are so many badges you can earn but, more importantly, each one allows you to add a new skill set to your repertoire.  There are over 100 badges and each one has three levels to help you build skills.  You can learn to insulate your home, help your community, make bread or cheese, learn how to go "glamping" or any number of stitching and crafting skills.  

I have several projects in progress and I'll keep you posted.  I hope you consider joining the Farmgirl Sisterhood and earn some merits badges of your own. 

What Farmgirl skill would you most like to learn?  

Tomorrow is Skills Saturday and I'll review the skill of stocking up on non-perishable foods and how to store them.  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!   

25 Ways to Use Peppermint

O'peppermint tea --

two delights per sip

as steamy hot as passion

cool as a wintry lake dip

~Terri Guillemets 

Come sit with me and share a pot of peppermint tea - I'm so happy you are here!  Peppermint is one of the gifts of the plant world that is extremely versatile.  It can seem both warming and cooling at the same time.  The plant grows easily and spreads quickly so make it one of the first plants you choose for your herb garden - just be sure to set it some boundaries or you will have it EVERYWHERE! 

It is a good thing that it grows so easily because there are many uses for it fresh, dried and as an essential oil.  If you harvest right before the plant blooms, you will get it at its most intense, peppermint-y goodness.  As promised here are my favorite ways to use this herb. 

Ways to Use Peppermint

Fresh: 

• Use leaves to flavor lamb, fish and poultry
• Use leaves to flavor vegetables like peas, new potatoes and carrots
• Use leaves to flavor green salads and fruit salads
• Use leaves in beverages such as punch, lemonade and tea 
• Freeze leaves in ice cubes for your iced tea

 Dried: 

• Makes a caffeine free tea that is invigorating and also helps settle upset stomachs 
• The tea helps some with headache relief 
• The tea is also a source of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. 
• Sprinkled in the back of cabinets helps deter ants and mice
• As a hair rinse, it can help with dandruff
• Steeped in a warm bath relaxes tense muscles
• Simmer some in a large pot of water to make your home smell great - especially good to do when someone in the house is ill as an air cleanser 

Essential Oil

• For motion sickness, inhale the peppermint scent
• Add to a humidifier to help with congestion
• Mix with a carrier oil and rub on temples and neck to help with headache relief
• Mix with a carrier oil and apply to abdomen to help ease cramps
• Use in your diffuser to increase alertness and relieve stress
• Use some in an epsom salt foot bath for tired feet
• Add a few drops in some water and drink to aid with digestion
• Add a few drops to scent your bath water 
• Add a few drops to your shampoo to help with dandruff  
• Inhale the scent before a test or difficult task to increase alertness
• Place a few drops in a spray bottle of cold water and spritz yourself to help with hot flashes
• Put a few drops on a cotton ball and place in the bottom of the trash can to dispel odors
• Put a few drops on a cotton ball and place where you have seen spiders.  They do not like it! 

That's the top 25 ways I use peppermint.  How do you use it?  I would love to hear in the comments.  

Tomorrow is Farmgirl Friday and the intermediate level of the Going Green badge has tasks to make laundry soap (I'm still experimenting and looking for a liquid one that won't separate); make all purpose, window and floor cleaners (done); and.....making soap.  I have to admit that making real soap - not the melt and pour stuff - is something I have always wanted to do but have hesitated.  

Let's learn together and support each other to get this task done. Tomorrow, I'll investigate the equipment needed, the supplies and the safety precautions to take to help boost my confidence. We can spend the week gathering both supplies and courage... 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!   

Raw Honey versus Processed Honey Plus a Recipe for Homemade Cough Syrup

I believe the best labs can create synthetic liquids that look and taste like real honey and even have the same glucose-fructose molecular structure, but NEVER can they fake something that works the same as real honey for our health and well-being.  Because the bees have added a MYSTERIOUS GOODNESS of their own that can never be comprehended by the most ingenious mind or counterfeited by the most advanced technology ~ Ruth Tan 

If you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that I love honey and we had our own adventures in beekeeping last season - if you missed the post you can see it here.  Did you know that not all honey that is available to you is the same?  There is raw honey and processed honey and they are as different from each other as night and day.  

Honey, raw honey that is, is full of phytonutrients, vitamins and enzymes that have health benefits.  It is a life-giving food source that also happens to contain pollen and even propolysis which has anti-microbial properties.  There is an abundance of friendly bacteria which add to the health benefits and it can even help with wound healing.    

On the other hand, processed honey has been heated, watered down and forced through filters at high pressure to remove all the pollen.  The heating kills the nutrients, vitamins and enzymes too.  The difference between processed honey and raw honey can be compared nutritionally to the difference between eating extra soft, squishy white bread versus a dense loaf of bread made with whole wheat.  The processed honey is devoid of nutrients and the raw honey is full of nutrients. 

Unfortunately, much of the honey that is readily available at your local grocer is of the processed kind.  So avoid it and seek out a friendly beekeeper in your area to get raw honey or have a hive or two yourself!

There are some ways to tell if the honey you have in the cupboard right now is processed.  Here are some tips from The Permaculture Research Institute: 

• The Thumb Test:  Put a drop of honey on your thumb 
• Does it spread around?  If yes, processed
• Does it stay intact?  If yes, raw
• The Water Test:  Fill a glass with water and add a tablespoon of your honey
• Does it dissolve?  If yes, processed
• Does it settle in the bottom of the glass?  If yes, raw
• The Shelf Life Test: 
• Did it crystallize?  If yes, processed
• Did it stay more like syrup?  If yes, raw
• Light a Fire:  Dip the tip of a match in the honey and then try to light it
• If it won't light - processed
• If it lights and burns - raw 

Everyone should make your own dietary choices and I hope you will do some research of your own.  It is my opinion that raw honey in its natural state is worthy of the effort and cost to provide it to your family.  As a reminder, no honey - not raw or processed should ever be given to any child under the age of one year.  The risk of illness is too great.  

As promised, I wanted to share a recipe for cough syrup made with honey and herbs that is an adaptation of the recipe that came in my Homegrown Collective January Greenbox.  

Remember that coughing does serve a purpose to clear mucus but when the cough is disruptive of sleep, for example, assistance to suppress coughing may be useful.  Always seek medical attention for coughs accompanied by shortness of breath or high fever.  Also seek medical attention for coughs that persist.  I am not a physician and do not intend this recipe  to replace medical treatments.  Please use the same discretion you would use in any other over-the-counter cough products.   

Homemade Cough Syrup 

Ingredients:

1 quart of water 

1/4 cup dried echinacea root

1/4 cup dried St. John's wort

2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger

1 crushed cinnamon stick

juice from one lemon

1 cup of raw honey 

Instructions: 

• Combine the water, echinacea, St. John's wort, ginger and cinnamon stick in a saucepan.  Simmer over low heat until liquid is reduced by half.  
• Strain the liquid through a strainer to remove the herbs.  Compost the herbs.  
• Return the liquid to the saucepan and add the lemon juice and honey.  Warm the liquid over very low heat until the mixture blends together.  Do not heat too much or you will destroy the benefit of the honey.  
• Transfer to jar, label and refrigerate.   

Why are each of these ingredients included in this recipe?  

• Honey: according to the Mayo Clinic, honey may be as effective as over-the-counter cough suppressants
• Lemon:  helps with congestion
• Cinnamon:  has anti-bacterial properties
• Ginger: is an anti-inflammatory and can help body aches; also boosts the immune system
• St. John's Wort: has anti-viral properties  
• Echinacea: boosts the immune system

What are some ways you use the "MYSTERIOUS GOODNESS" of real, raw honey?  I would love to hear your comments.  Thank you so much for visiting today.  

Tomorrow is our visit to the Garden Gate and I share my favorite herbal teas to make as well as how to make your own tea bags.  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!   

  

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!         

10 Plants to Grow to Help the Bees

Thank you The Graphics Fairy for the vintage bee image.

If you need something from

 somebody, 

always give that person a way to hand it to  you. 

-Sue Monk Kidd-

The Secret Life of Bees 

Thank you, so much, for coming by to visit today.  This is my 50th post and I am thrilled that you are here. I can hardly believe that we have come this far! The blog has had over 4000 views and I am quite humbled by it all.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

There has been another milestone too!  The first book from the little free library was sent out and it was one of my very favorites:  The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  It is a coming of age story but much more than that.  The unconditional love of others, the power of forgiveness and the way that life and love intertwine with the way that bees work together makes a powerful statement.  If you have not read it yet, I hope you put it on your reading list. 

I'm sure you have heard in the news about the difficulty honeybees are having these days.  We will be expanding our hives this year to do our part to help.  One of the things you can do is to plant bee friendly plants in your garden or flower beds this spring.  If you are like me, you are already looking forward to it.  

10 Plants that Help Bees    

• Bee Balm - This is a favorite of bees and hummingbirds and makes a nice tea for the gardener too. 

• Borage - This plant has a perfect blue flower that is beautiful in a salad and tastes like cucumber.  The plant blooms over a very long season and provides a lot of nectar for the bees and butterflies too. 

• Catnip - The plant adored by cats, bees and butterflies but not by deer makes a pretty good tea for you too. 

• Cilantro - Homemade salsa is just one reason to grow this herb that also provides abundant nectar for bees and butterflies.

• Fennel - This is a truly versatile plant for your garden so plant more than one. You can use the seeds for seasoning, the leaves for tea, the bulb for a vegetable and it is good for the bees too. 

• Lavender - Bees adore this plant.  Plus you can use it in your homemade body care products or to provide a lovely scent in your home.  

• All the mints - With more than 7000 different species in this family, you can plant several and have a constant succession of blooming mints for your own use and to feed your bees. 

• Rosemary - This plant is another great love of pollinators of all kinds plus it flavors your Sunday Roast Chicken perfectly! 

• Sage - Next time you want to use sage, go pick some fresh from your garden.  You will be amazed at the difference from the dried sage you get in a tin at the grocery.  The bees know it is better too. :) 

• Thyme - Bees adore the tiny pink flowers of this plant and you will adore it  too in a marinade for those items you will grill this summer.   

Grow the herbs for your own use and let them also flower to provide the nectar that bees needs for nourishment.  Bees also need water so include a bird bath, fountain or other water source to help. 

Try to group the bee-friendly plants together with different blooming periods to extend the usefulness to your bees.  Bees need to eat all throughout spring, summer and autumn and then will get nourishment from the stores in the hive all winter. 

Which herbs interest you most to grow for your own use but also for the use of the bees and other pollinators that choose to visit your garden?  Remember, it doesn't have to be a whole garden!  It can be a flower bed or even one potted plant on your porch, patio or deck. 

 If each one of us would plant just one, we all would be healthier for it.  Let me know in the comments what you  plan to plant this year.  

As Sue Monk Kidd said, "Every little thing wants to be loved." Let's show our love this year and plant just one thing more for the bees.  

Tomorrow will be another day in the garden and I'll review even more herbs to consider growing this year. I'll also include a couple of dried seasoning mixes I like to make which also make nice gifts.  

If you have not grown herbs before, you will be so surprised how easy they are to grow and better yet, how much better they make your simple recipes taste.  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!