Despite the snow we’ve received here in the mountains, it’s been a busy May. We’re still working our way through the pre-season farm tours and last minute paperwork for our farmers market. It’s a 100% local, organic grower’s market that positively booms with business from June to October.
the highlights of my May
- LOVE this real food delivery service idea (from the same folks that bring you sustainable seafood – I Love Blue Sea!)
- Ordering about 20 lbs more einkorn berries and einkorn flour (and you can still get free shipping!).
- Putting together this HUGE sale on cooking classes, real food guides and eBooks for real foodies.
- Visiting our favorite farm (pictured) to pick up our CSA.
- Getting more lovage for my favorite Lovage Soup.
- As the weather warms, I’ll be looking forward to making this Hibiscus Tea.
- Oh and this lemon coconut fudge, too.
- I loved Monica’s take on commercial popsicles (why does SOY protein isolate need to be in a popsicle?!?!)
- Which is why I make my own creamsicles, tricolored kefir berry pops and fruit juice popsicles.
- Hoping to whip up some zucchini lasagna
- And since we’re a serious back-to-basics, DIY family – I’m hoping to make my own sunscreen and homemade insect repellent for when we need it.
- Loving this Hawaiian Lip Balm (I like Cacao Rose) which is loaded with stuff that actually nourishes you like cocoa butter, shea butter and coconut oil. No weird synthetic stuff.
- Picking up more and more liver capsules, fermented cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil.
- Reading up on the Art of Fermentation and Artisan Cheesemaking at Home.
- Working on my own beautiful cookbook – due out in spring of 2014.
What were the highlights of your May?
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And to bring it all full circle, the hibiscus tea makes fun and easy popsicles. Happy summer!
highlights for May include celebrating my son’s fifth birthday, getting a few extra hours for the next week since he can stay in school longer – allowing me to get out and exercise, AND completely giving up all sugar, bread, carb-foods. all whole foods for me now…and I’m feeling really, really good!! Oh yea, I also left Facebook!
Beautiful hoop house! Looks strangely like a Zimmerman made in Versailles MO.
Thanks for the sunscreen & insect repellant recipe links. Since I know you’re a fan of Susun Weed, I thought I’d mention that she recommends St. John’s Wort infused oil as sunscreen. http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/March08/wisewoman.htm. And yarrow tincture as insect repellant. http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/April08/wisewoman.htm. I wish I lived closer to you, I would love to be friends! (I’m in Massachusetts tho’!!)
A Quick hibiscus drink is to simply add it to kefir water with a little lime and ginger. After a couple of hours it is great, after a couple days it is amazing.
I just started taking the ‘Artisan Cheese Making’ online class offered by Mary Karlin. I just started the class so can’t comment too much but I like it so far. It’s on the Craftsy website. (Not promoting anything – just sayin’)
I thought I would share my homemade bug spray recipe. I’ve been making it for about 5 years now and sell it on a very small scale to some local friends who don’t wish to make their own. Everyone loves it, it smells wonderful and it works really really well. I spent time researching all the the different EO’s that work for different bugs, and this combo seems to work well (even while we’re camping at the river where there are bugs galore) and smells very pleasant.
In a 4 oz spray bottle (I use the ones from Frontier Co-op)
fill almost full with witch hazel, and add 10 drops each of the following EO’s:
cedarwood
tea tree
rosemary
lemon-eucalyptus
citronella
lemongrass
then add 20 drops each of
lavender
peppermint
add 3-4 drops of pure vitamin E oil (this helps preserve it, as well as adding a little staying power to the spray).
shake well before each application.
To Pixiepunk:
How much does it cost to make up a batch of your recipe? It seems to me it would be alot — a bottle of each of nine items! Let me know, please.
to be honest, i’ve never broken it down per-batch. if you store them properly, essential oils last a looooong time, and witch hazel never goes bad. i also buy them from Frontier, which is a discounted price from retail, and i try to stock up when they go on sale… so while the initial outlay is an investment, over time it’s going to be cheaper than buying natural bug spray from someone else. and we spend a *lot* of time outdoors, so we do go through quite a lot of it with 2 adults and 3 kids using it on a regular basis (especially when we go camping at the river!) i also give it as gifts to friends and family, or use it for barters/trades (last year i traded some for several jars of fresh, local, raw honey, and last week i traded for some handmade body cream, bath salts and homemade herbal tea). but that is also why i started selling it to some friends of mine, they didn’t want to deal with paying for all the EO’s, didn’t have anything to trade, and just asked if they could pay me for a bottle instead.
not all EO’s are effective for all bugs, so i chose all of those to make it super-effective (and i wanted it to smell good, so everyone in the family would want to use it). but if you’re mostly bothered by just mosquitos, or just ticks, or whatever, you can certainly get away with using fewer. there is lots of info out there on the web, which is why i like to share my recipe. it is just based on information i gathered a lot of places online and tweaked to suit me. since i benefited from others’ generosity, i like to share what i have found works for me.