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  • Honey-Infused Garlic

    Honey-Infused Garlic

    There are so many great natural cold and flu remedies we’ve covered lately, but this is another great one that is very simple to make, and includes only two ingredients that you probably already have on hand: garlic and raw honey. And maybe I’m weird, but I think this combination is totally delicious!

    Both garlic and honey boast incredible health and immune-boosting benefits, and taken individually are great to add to your healthcare regimen.

    Garlic, especially when consumed raw, can help maintain healthy blood pressure and circulation, heart health, and kill fungus and bacteria.

    Raw honey is honey that has not been cooked, maintaining the original metabolic structure and nutrient content of the honey. It can help maintain balanced gut flora, has loads of healthy enzymes, nutrients, and pre-biotics, and also kills fungus and germs.

    So both these great natural remedies, when they combine forces, make for a powerful, germ-busting and immune-boosting cold and flu remedy! Not to mention, possibly the most appealing thing about this remedy, that while raw garlic is great for your health it is also very difficult to consume raw, so the honey adds sweetness to the flavor, making it far more bearable!

    Here’s how you make it:

    Ingredients: 

    raw honey

    1 head of garlic

    a small jar (about 4-5 oz)

    Recipe: 

    1. Break apart the individual cloves of garlic and crush each one with the flat side of a large knife. Completely peel each clove, then let sit for about 15 minutes.
    2. Place the cloves in your jar.
    3. Cover the garlic cloves with raw honey. As honey moves slowly, be patient and make sure every gap is filled between the cloves, you might have some air pockets, so just stir gently and pour more honey in until you have it full.
    4. Cover with the jar’s lid, and let sit on your counter for 3-5 days
    5. Refrigerate.

    And that’s it! Keep the jar in your refrigerator and, whenever you feel a cold or sickness coming on, simply eat one of the cloves. Enjoy!

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  • Vertical Gardening

    Vertical Gardening

    You don’t need a lot of space to grow an abundant variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Vertical gardens have become a popular patio, deck or small lawn project for everyone wanting to enjoy the benefits of having fresh vegetables right outside their door. Vertical gardens can be a family project or a solitary hobby that functions as a form of stress relief while supplying you with delicious food for your table.
    There are numerous benefits to growing a vertical garden. One of the main benefits is the small amount of space that it requires. Another benefit is that vertical gardens are easy to care for. You can easily and quickly see if you have a pest problem. Addressing these situations promptly is imperative if you plan to enjoy a bountiful harvest. In a traditional garden, some vegetables end up falling to ground and rotting because you can’t see them through all of the vines and leaves. In a vertical garden, it’s easy to see vegetables as they ripen or reach maturity so no food is wasted. Harvesting from a vertical garden is much easier than bending and picking from a traditional style garden. Their ease of accessibility is one of the reasons a vertical garden is an ideal option for anyone with a physical disability, arthritis or other mobility problems. A vertical garden can also function as a living privacy wall for your patio.

    Vertical gardening systems that range from budget-friendly to budget-breaking are readily available. There are also an extensive number of DIY vertical gardening projects and ideas available that range from beginner level to the most experienced DIY level. You can grow a fantastic and bountiful garden on something as simple as a few trellises on a patio, a graduated planter system, containers attached to a wall or in containers placed at the base of a sturdy fence. It’s simply a matter of personal preference as to what type of vertical garden system you purchase or construct.

    To be the most successful with your vertical garden, you need to select plants that can thrive in the area where you are located. Be sure you choose plants that are compatible with the amount of sunlight your garden space receives. For the greatest success, you need to use a good quality potting soil. Proper drainage is essential. As with container gardening, you will need to be attentive to the moisture conditions. You may need to water your vertical garden often during hot, dry summer months. You can incorporate flowers and herbs such as marigolds, zinnias, basil, dill, sage and summer savory into your garden both for beauty and as natural insect repellants.

    Vertical gardening is an easy, efficient way to grow a bountiful supply of vegetables in a compact space. Stepping out of your door and picking fresh vegetables gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment. Currently, there’s a lot of focus on healthy eating habits. Growing your own vegetables is an affordable way to obtain fresh, pesticide-free vegetables.

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  • Horizontal Pumpkin Trellis

    Horizontal Pumpkin Trellis

    Pumpkins are not the first crop most people think of when they think of trellising, and horizontal is not the orientation most think of when they think of trellising. But having a successful garden on the cheap requires thinking outside the box. Using a trellis to grow crops like pumpkins that would sprawl and crawl all over if left to themselves will save tons of space. Likewise, orientating your trellis horizontally can also save space. That might seem counterintuitive, but if your trellis is vertical it will shade out the area behind it. Depending on your space and garden design that could make a big difference. With this design you can grow a pumpkin vine in an area as small as 4”x4”.

    • First, determine which side of your garden the sun is primarily on. For most of us in the northern hemisphere this will be on the southern side.
    • Next, determine which bed you will plant your pumpkins in. If all of your beds are uniform in dimension this won’t be a big deal.
    • Make a wooden frame that is just large enough to be placed over the bed easily.
    • Attach vertical posts to the frame at the corners. Make the two posts that are on the sunny side shorter than the posts that are on the other side. The shorter post should be about 12” above the level of the bed, and the taller post can be about 12” taller than the short posts. This doesn’t need to be exact. It can be adjusted to accommodate your available material, and if shading out is an issue you can make the taller posts even longer, but the longer they get the closer to vertical the trellis will get and the more shade it will cast.
    • Reinforce the posts with angled braces or attach them to the bed if they are close enough to add strength.
    • Connect the top of the posts with a frame as well.
    • Lay hog wire across the top frame and attach it to the frame with zip ties, or nails driven half way and then bent over. Don’t use wire that has small openings.
    • Attach hemp or cotton lines to the short side, about 6” apart and long enough to touch the soil.
    • Plant the pumpkin seeds or starts where they can climb the lines. Keep only the strongest vine. You may need to use garden tape to keep the vine on the line since pumpkins don’t climb as well as other vines.
    • When it reaches the top, train it back and forth starting at the lowest portion and going up one section at a time only after the lowest section is full.
    • Hang fruit beneath the wire, suspended from the wire with an old t-shirt. If the fruit is large the section of wire it is on may need to be vertically reinforced with a stick or two.
    This design is meant to act like a solar panel. It should maximize the amount of sun available, while taking up the least amount of space. It also helps reduce pests and rot on the fruit by keeping it off the ground.

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  • A 1870s Root Cellar (Video)

    A 1870s Root Cellar (Video)

    I absolutely love seeing how people back in the day lived, before modern conveniences and when people still worked with their hands, tended their animals, and used traditional technology to produce and preserve food. You know, like homesteading!

    I got such a kick out of this video. The channel, Appalachia’s Homestead, is great, and I highly recommend following YouTube channels like theirs if you’d like to get an inside peek into how established homesteads function on a day-to-day basis.

    It was really clever of them to share a video of their root cellar, which they estimate to have been built in the 1870’s. Root cellars are a great, low-energy way to store food on a homestead, and if you’re considering building one, take a note from the architects of yesteryear. Enjoy!

     

     

  • How to Find Deals on Gardening Supplies

    How to Find Deals on Gardening Supplies

    Whether you garden on a large-scale or simply have a patio garden, you’re probably always looking for good deals on gardening tools and supplies. The following suggestions will provide you with some of the best places to find those money-saving deals.

    Garage sales and estate sales

    As soon as the weather begins to get warm, people tend to get a case of spring fever and begin cleaning out their basement, garage, and storage building. They typically have a garage sale in hopes of making a little money on items they no longer want.  Garden tools and equipment often end up at these sales. You can usually get a good deal on whatever they have to sell. Don’t think that you have to pay the price that’s on the item. Most likely, whoever is having the sale will reduce the price of an item because they don’t want anything left at the end of the day.

    Estates sales are sometimes even better than garage sales for finding a good deal on gardening supplies. Many times, when someone passes away, the family is left with an overwhelming assortment of stuff to dispose of. Generally, whoever is having an estate sale will easily negotiate prices. This type of situation is advantageous to you.

    Craigslist

    Spending some time browsing Craigslist can be an excellent way to find garden-related items at a good price. Chances are, you are more likely to find the best bargains in the spring and early fall. However, you never know what amazing deals you’ll find on any given day, so it pays to check often.

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    Online shopping

    You can find deals on gardening supplies at various online sites.  These sites typically put items on sale at the end of the season. However, even during peak gardening season, you may be able to find a good deal using promo codes and gift cards that are offered online.

    End of season bargains

    Garden centers and any store that carries garden tools and supplies begin marking down prices before summer ends. The price reductions continue until early or mid-autumn. By implementing some frugal shopping skills and a little patience, you can replace your worn-out garden tools, gloves, knee pads or other gardening items without spending much money.  This is also a good time to get larger pieces of garden equipment, garden carts, wheelbarrows, and other items at a greatly reduced price.

    Holiday shopping

    Sometimes it pays to think out of the box when looking for deals on gardening items. Because gardening has become such a popular hobby, many stores offer gift sets during the holidays that include garden tools, gardening accessories, bulbs, seeds, and various other garden-related items. Not all those sets will sell during the holidays. That means you will have a chance to buy them at 50% or more off of the original price at post-holiday sales. That’s usually a deal that’s too good to pass up.

    It’s been said that gardeners are always looking ahead. When it comes to purchasing gardening supplies, forward thinking can result in money-saving deals.

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  • DIY Flow Through Worm Bin

    DIY Flow Through Worm Bin

     

    Worm castings are a great natural fertilizer that not only add plant-available nutrients, but also increase long-term soil structure and health.  But at over $20 a cubic foot, worm castings can be expensive to add to your garden.  So don’t buy them, make your own flow through worm bin and easily harvest your own worm castings.  This video shows the materials and tools necessary and gives simple-to-follow instructions on how to go about building your own flow through worm bin.  It even shows some examples of bins of different sizes made from different materials to give you an idea of what else you can do to better suit your needs and use what you have available to you to cut cost while still getting great results from your garden.

     

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  • Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin (How to Cook a Rooster)

    Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin (How to Cook a Rooster)

    When it comes time to butcher some roosters to reduce their numbers in your flock, you might find them quite tough and difficult to butcher. Roosters make for particularly tough meat, and need to be cooked properly in order to enjoy them, but when you do, they can provide a delicious and rich flavor that will make you glad you ever had roosters.

    This recipe is loosely based on Julia Child’s Coq au Vin recipe, which you can check out and follow more closely if you like, but of course most Coq au Vin recipes you will find use store-bought chicken parts, as the majority of city dwellers don’t have access to country roosters!

    You can easily adjust and adapt this as you like, but the trick is the slow cooking process and the wine, which will soften and bring out the best flavor of the rooster.

    Ingredients: 

    1-2 roosters, plucked and butchered

    1-2 bottles of red wine

    3-4 cups chicken stock or broth

    1-2 onions or shallots

    thyme

    Recipe: 

    1. As soon as your rooster is slaughtered and butchered, place the pieces in a bowl or tupperware, pour half the wine over it, enough to thoroughly soak the rooster (and ideally immerse it, but of course wine is expensive). Let soak overnight, up to 24 hours.
    2. Once you are ready to cook, caramelize your onions or shallots in a skillet and place in your slow cooker. Set aside .
    3. In the same skillet, using more butter or oil, gently brown your rooster pieces on all sides.
    4. Place the rooster pieces in the slow cooker on top of the onions and sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper
    5. Cover the rooster pieces with the remaining wine and chicken stock.
    6. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, checking regularly to see how tender the rooster meat has become. Once it is tender to your liking, it’s done.

    This is a great way to prepare several roosters at once, if you’ve got small roosters and would like to use the meat in other dishes, but it can be served as is as well, with a side of roasted potatoes and a simple salad perhaps. Enjoy!

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  • Simple Shortcuts to Living Off-Grid

    Simple Shortcuts to Living Off-Grid

    The ideal situation for living off grid would be to own your own land with acerage, good soil, a well or spring, and the resources to raise animals and grow and process lots of food. This is obviously something that most people will have to work up to, homesteading definitely takes time, patience and resources.

    If you’d like to start living off-grid in your daily life now, however, whether you’re beginning to homestead or still living “on-grid”, there are some simple steps you can take to remove yourself from the grid.

    “Off-grid” technically means off the municipal electric grid, but it’s come to have a broader meaning of self-reliance and separation from the mainstream. If you’d like your lifestyle to be a little more self-sustainable and independent, here are some simple steps to take:

    1. Try to actually get off-grid: if you are in the position to change your living arrangements, try to buy land! Consider going partially off-grid at first, for example being on the electric grid but with well or catchment water, or using county water but a simple solar set-up or no electricity at all. It’s amazing how much less we really need electricity in this day and age than we think!
    2. Ditch your cell: OK, OK, so pretty much everyone considers a cell phone a necessity of life these days, but you don’t really need it anywhere near as much as you think. For example, if you have internet at home, do you really need a data plan? Do you really need it on all the time, or can you turn it on airplane when you’re not using it? It wasn’t too long ago that everyone got on just fine without cell phones, and we never know when the grid will crash, so don’t lose sight of functioning in life without a cell.
    3. Look into solar: you might be able to get solar power at your home now, and not only save some money but use a renewable source of energy to power your home.
    4. Raise animals: you can raise chickens in even a small yard, and they provide fresh manure for your garden and eggs for your table! It’s a very small step towards a self-sufficient lifestyle, but it will give you a sense of what raising animals is like
    5. Get off social media: much like #2, how much do you really need social media? We get so plugged in to the internet these days we are forgetting how to form real relationships and connections. Yes, there are valuable networking opportunities for homesteaders that can’t be overlooked, but like your cell phone, are you really using social media as much as you need to?
    6. Collect books: the internet might not be around forever! If you want to really rough it and get off-grid, invest in some physical books on homesteading, gardening, construction, home improvement, etc.

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