Homestead Happenings #3: Plans & Yeast

This week was dominated by planning for the spring ahead. The groundhog may have seen a shadow, but sunny, longer days mean that garden work will come very soon. The weather was warm enough for me to spend a little time digging roots and washing seedling pots yesterday!

What's happened this week:

• We watched BBC's Great British Baking Show on WOSU. Airing Monday nights at 10, this is our new show not-to-be-missed. The hosts are very British - quirky, kind, and quick-witted, and the spirit is more of learning and comradeship than dramatic American food competition shows.
• Inspired by one challenge to bake a cake without chemical leavening, we've experimented with yeast-risen quick breads this week. Alex made yeast-risen biscuits twice (so good we're sharing the recipe soon) and he also did a batch of yeasted pancakes which tasted like a mesmerizing cross between a soft pretzel and a griddle cake.

• On Saturday night, I made a Savarin, a yeast-risen cake from the Great British Baking Show recipe. Not a big fan of cakes, I enjoyed the flavors of the Savarin. The yeast made the texture airy and lightly crumbed but as a whole, the Savarin is not as dense and rich as most modern cakes.
• I helped seed, harvest, deliver, and sell microgreens with Swainway Urban Farm as usual. We're at the Worthington Indoor Farmers' Market this time of year every Saturday morning.
• I considered the NPR story 'Are Farmers Market Sales Peaking?' with great interest. While I love working and shopping at the farmers' market, I know how valuable diversified sales routes become to small farms like Swainway. I don't think we're quite at peak in central Ohio, but smaller markets are declining and bigger markets are refining and improving.
• Based on the previous weeks' seed orders, I wrote out a generalized map of where I want to plant everything. Then I remembered that deer might ruin my sweet corn trials so I started moving things around. I tend to keep adjusting my map up to and even after planting time...
• My mother treated me to dinner at Angry Bear Kitchen and the show Anything Goes presented by Broadway Columbus. Both exceeded my expectations. I ate a creative and delicious carrot wellington at Angry Bear. Emma Stratton, the female lead of Anything Goes, was spectacular.
• I worked on my presentation for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association annual conference this coming weekend. I'm discussing 'Building Self-Sufficiency Through Community' and will share a version of that presentation here for those who can't come to the conference.

• I just started salt-cured egg yolks for my next class at The Commissary. On February 18 I'll share how I put up excess eggs while we make egg noodles and other treats. Register online now to reserve your spot.
• I am planning class proposals for the spring. What would you like to learn?

How was your week?

Gardening on the Wild Side

If you've seen me in person recently, you've probably heard me mention Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health. This book, a science-based review of how to select and prepare food for maximum nutritional benefit, has transformed my cooking more than any other writing ever. I even taught a class based upon it for The Seasoned Farmhouse.

The basic premise is that wild foods like foraged berries, greens, and grains are far higher in nutrients than human-influenced hybrids chosen for sweetness, carbohydrate efficient production, and ease of growth and harvest. Basically, we bred the nutrition out of many wild foods and have the related health problems to show for it. But Robinson is not preachy or focused on the past - she offers forward-thinking ideas to consume more healthy nutrients by choosing foods wisely.

Some of the research-supported advice is surprising: did you know that carrots cooked whole have the most betacarotene, even more than raw? Some tips are simple: choose the most colorful foods because they most often contain the most vitamins and phytonutrients. Some techniques are habit-changing: the cancer-fighting antioxidant allicin in garlic is maximized by chopping the garlic and then letting it rest for 5 minutes before cooking.

For gardeners, Eating on the Wild Side author Jo Robinson goes a step further to offer suggested seed varieties. I already know that backyard-fresh produce contains more nutrients than truck-ripened, grocery store versions. This year I plan to move one step further and plant varietals based on Wild Side recommendations that will feed my family even more vitamins and phytonutrients.

Gardening on the Wild Side Selections

1. Atomic Red Carrots - Joseph and I have grown these carrots for Swainway Urban Farm. They're less productive than traditional orange versions but are richer in flavor and higher in anthocyanins.

2. Garlic Chives - Of all the alliums (onion, garlic, shallots, scallions, and chives), garlic chives are the most densely nutritious. Chives happen to be a green Lil likes to eat, so we'll add garlic chives to our perennial herb bed this year.

3. Cherry Tomatoes - I was shocked to learn that cherry tomatoes have up to 8 times more lycopene than beefsteak sizes. The darkest red and purple varieties contain more nutrients than lighter colors. Tomato nutrients are more bioavailable when canned, so we'll enjoy them fresh in the summer and continue to put up tomato sauce, salsa, and paste for the winter and spring.

4. Colorful Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes - This isn't a change for us - I love purple potatoes - but we will be dropping the standard white varieties and growing more rich orange sweet potatoes, red fingerling potatoes and even a purple sweet potato.

5. Bull's Blood & Detroit Beets - I've grown these solid red varieties and the pretty bullseye chioggia ones. Both produce equally well for me but the dark reds have more betalin antioxidant so I'll focus on those this year. And I'll try to eat more of the greens because Robinson points out that they're among the healthiest greens you can buy.

6. All The Berries - I feel like a new berry is classified as a 'super food' every other week. But there's good reason for the hype - berries are full of fiber, phytonutrients, and flavor. Most are easy to grow, especially perennial shrubby berries like raspberries, june berries, and currants. Like the vegetables discussed above, deeper color equals greater nutrient punch, so we're adding black and red currants, black raspberries, and red gooseberries to our gardens this year.  If you are local and looking to start or expand your collection of perennial fruits, my friend Kate is selling a limited number of bareroot berry stalks by pre-order.

If you're a conscientious eater or gardener, I highly recommend Eating on the Wild Side. Read it, eat well, and grow more Wild Side varieties.

Homestead Happenings #2: Late & Great

Who is surprised that in the second week of what was supposed to be a weekly list, I'm already a day late? Not I. Last week was full in so many ways. Here's what was going on in our world:

• Alex spent the week in Arizona and Mexico on business. It was a long trip that included a number of life birds for Alex, a visit by javelinas to the hotel parking lot, and a few great lunches of steak and leek tacos.
• Meanwhile at home it snowed, rained, iced, snowed, and rained some more.

• Lil and I trekked to Wayne county, Ohio to check out an Amish farming supply store. Spring is coming and our cell trays will be ready!
• I ordered sweet potato slips from Southern Exposure and New Sprout Farms.

• I collected and delivered a little more than two dozen fertilized eggs to 4th Street Farms. They're going to hatch them to add to their flock. I can't wait to see the chicks!
• I attended Michael Pollan's talk in New Albany, thanks to a generous friend who invited me to go with her. I might share my own food rules someday, but I generally like the cut of this man's jib. I agree with CMH Gourmand's review that the talk included "just enough facts with humor without being preachy, just pragmatic information that hopefully will make a difference."

• We hosted a Sunday snack fest, I mean Super Bowl party. We fried chicken wings and Blue Jacket Dairy cheese curds and served these alongside chips and dips. The kids were impressed with Lil's Minecraft-inspired fruit salad. I was impressed with this buffalo cauliflower recipe, a spicy and satisfying alternative to the meat.

The Luxury of Boiled Eggs {Recipe}

Before raising chickens, I would never have imagined myself longing for a boiled egg. I rarely made them, and when I did, they were often over cooked because I tend to wander and forget about timers. But now I give them my full attention from choosing the right egg to measuring the cooking time to peeling and savoring the final egg. Backyard chicken boiled eggs are a rarely enjoyed luxury item around here, one we're just returning to now that our replacement flock is laying eggs after the fox attack. You see, fresh chicken egg shells are stuffed full of albumin and yolk. The semi-permeable shells allow in the tiniest bit of air which forms a bigger pocket of air over the weeks of the eggs' shelf life. This air pocket is why you can tell if an egg is still good by soaking it in water - too much air and you can assume the egg is very old and potentially spoiled - and it's also what allows you to peel a boiled egg.

A plucked-from-the-nest-box-this-morning egg has a negligible air pocket and if you boil it, you have a 1 in a million chance of peeling it easily. Most likely you'll spend ten minutes picking away minuscule bits of egg shell. After a couple trips down that road, I started trying old wives tales like adding salt or vinegar to the water. No dice.

I didn't find boiling egg nirvana until I considered the brilliance of the shell. The shell is meant to keep the yolk fresh until the hen has laid a dozen or so eggs over a dozen or so days for a clutch. The container then has to handle high heat and movement while a hen incubates the egg for another twenty one days. In nature, egg shells are designed to keep their contents safely held for at least four weeks! No wonder they don't want to give up easily in the kitchen.

My process for boiling eggs now takes over a week of preparation and consideration.

Hard Boiled Backyard Eggs

1. Wash fresh eggs. This removes the "bloom", a coating that seals in the egg's moisture. Allow them to drip dry.

2. Place eggs in the fridge for about a week, uncovered. Refrigerators dry their contents due to the lower temperature and humidity. Commerical egg producers often use syrofoam, plastic, or coated cardboard egg cartons to keep a little bit of moisture around their eggs. We want the eggs to dry out a bit, so I skip the cartons and use the egg tray that came with my fridge.

3. Boil minimally. I like room temperature eggs in room temperature water, brought to a boil quickly. Then I cover the pot for 10 minutes. Alex prefers 11 or 12 minutes.

4. Chill instantly. When the timer goes off, uncover the lid and run cold water over the eggs and/or fill the pot with ice. This stops the eggs from continuing to cook.

5. Peel and eat happily. Eggs will peel without much effort. I enjoy boiled eggs as is, made into egg salad or deviled eggs, or the most extravagant preparation, Scotch Eggs.

File this under "Things You Don't Know Until You Raise Chickens". What else would you add to that list?

Homestead Happenings #1: Seeds, Trees, & Braces

I advise homesteaders to keep a journal. It's a great practice because a record of daily homesteading activities is fun and useful to look back on. But I find myself not in the routine of writing daily now. "Do as I say, not as I do," I suppose.

I thought I'd try something different instead, for you and for me. I plan to share a weekly wrap-up of our major homesteading activities. Then I'll have something to refer to in the future and perhaps you'll be inspired to take on similiar chores, projects, and events.

I'm not going to share regular activities like cooking meals, taking care of animals, and general gardening. I want to list the big things - canning days, gardening projects, irregular chores, and links - with pictures taken this week. If I can keep this up, it should build a good library of resources for fellow homesteaders and an online journal for me.

Here's what I was up to this week:

• Placed seed order with Bountiful Gardens for culinary flowers and grains.
• Taught at The Seasoned Farmhouse and The Commissary. It's good to be back in the teaching game - I haven't led any major classes since before Thanksgiving.
• Ordered (more) fruit trees and sweet sap maples from St. Lawrence Nursery.
• Comforted Lil as she adjusts to her new palate expander and braces. She's not very excited about this but in a few months she'll finally be able to share a smile with two front teeth.
• Meanwhile, I rid the house of sticky sweets that aren't good for her diet or orthodontia. Real Mom Nutrition has a great post up about "fruit snacks" a.k.a. sticky sweets in disguise.
• Posted about our hair care routine.
• Shared my recipe for ginger miso salad dressing on the Swainway Urban Farm website.
• Oogled the newly-released Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District Fish & Tree Sale offerings.
• Met with Kate about her new farm Foraged & Sown and the little farms project. Yes! You can still order a bundle of highly productive perennial fruit & nut trees with us!
• Appreciated the wonder of being alive while sympathizing with friends and family affected by ill health and death this week. I am hopeful that the week ahead contains far less bad news.

How was your week? Do you think a weekly list of happenings on Harmonious Homestead is useful or over-sharing?

Homesteading Hair Care - Baking Soda & Vinegar Hair Rinses

Over the last couple years, we've slowly simplified our bath and body routines and made the switch from "all-natural" manufactured toiletries to homemade concoctions from food ingredients. I discovered that making our own is cheaper, requires very little effort, and works better than what I can buy. Plus there's no wasted packaging or unnecessary chemicals! The first beauty product I made was hair "conditioner" pictured on the right. This started when Lillian insisted on keeping her hair very long but hated brushing out the tangles. We tried commercial spray detanglers, conditioning shampoo, extra rinses of conditioner and nothing lessened the time we spent fighting with a hair brush. Finally, based on a tip by Chef's Widow, I tried spraying some vinegar on her long locks at the end of a shower.

Instant success. Not perfection without a single tangle, but brushing is MUCH easier. And the ingredients give me no pause - vinegar and water is truly edible. I began using the vinegar hair rinse myself and ditched the bottled conditioner too.

Vinegar Hair Rinse Recipe

12 ounces water 3 ounces apple cider or white vinegar 2-4 drops essential oil (optional) 16 ounce spray bottle

1. Mix three ingredients in spray bottle. Screw on sprayer and shake to combine. 2. Cover hair with vinegar spray at the end of a shower or bath, paying special attention to ends. Allow to sit for one minute and rinse, or leave on without rinsing.

Using Baking Soda "Shampoo"

Next I moved on to baking soda shampoo, the basis of the "no-poo" routine. Commercial shampoos include strong detergents that strip hair of natural oils. The no-poo idea is to allow your hair to carry oils for better hair health and body.  To clean hair, no-poo calls for applying a dilute baking soda solution.

I experimented with different ratios and timing and settled on a very dilute solution poured over my hair like a rinse in my every-other-day showers. There's no lather, so I just smooth it around to make sure most of my hair is covered. Some people advocate scrubbing the scalp, but that seemed to make my hair more oily.

Many people experience a transition period where their hair is extra oily and itchy. I anticipated this and started shampooing less frequently and then using baking soda solution last winter when I more often wear hats. I experienced a week or so of funky hair before mine settled into a comfortable, predictable condition.

Whereas I used to have overly dry hair for 12-24 hrs and then overly oily hair after that, my hair can now go several days without washing with decent body and no itchiness. If I really want to push my time between showers, I use Lush No Drought Dry Shampoo when my hair is oily. It brushes through cleanly and corrects oily scalp. You could make something similiar at home, but I haven't tried because I've barely made a dent in the bottle I bought two years ago.

Baking Soda Shampoo Recipe

1 teaspoon baking soda 6 ounces warm water 2-4 drops essential oil (optional)

1. Shake baking soda and warm water together in a squeeze bottle. Add essential oils as you wish. 2. Pour 2-4 squirts over hair in the shower, shaking to combine before using. Smooth over hair and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes. 3. Rinse with warm water. Follow with vinegar rinse.

 Tips on Using Baking Soda and Vinegar Rinses

• Essential oils can address tricky hair issues. The Chagrin Valley Soap Company has a great list of essential oils used in hair care.
• Spray bottles vary in their quality. If I want something cute, I go for the ones in the Target travel toiletries section. For better quality, I buy from the hardware store.
• The vinegar smell dissipates very quickly, as soon as hair is dry. If it bothers you, use essential oil.
• A spray bottle of vinegar conditioner lasts us over a month and costs about $0.50. I mix up a new batch of baking soda rinse every week for mere pennies.
• The 'mother' of active bacterial cultures in raw apple cider vinegar may plug the sprayer mechanism. If you shake well before each spray, this shouldn't happen, but soaking the end of the sprayer in hot water and then spraying that through will usually clear the mechanism.
• Chlorine from swimming pools disrupts natural hair oil production. I try to avoid chlorine pools but when I can't, I rinse with clean water as soon as possible after swimming and expect a few days of overly dry and then overly oily hair.
• When we travel, I pack a smaller container with some dry baking soda but ditch the vinegar spray bottle. We add water to a drinking cup to the baking soda and pour over our hair. For conditioner, we either bring or buy a small bottle of vinegar, add water in a cup, and pour over. I've used individual packs of lemon juice or malt vinegar snitched from cafeterias in place of my preferred apple cider vinegar in a pinch.

Will you try making hair care products at home? Or are you already no-pooing? Share your story in the comments.

Homesteading Bath & Body - Handmade, Low Impact Routines

One area of homesteading I rarely write about is personal care. It's a bit of a taboo subject and I'm a little shy about body talk. But what you put on your body has such a huge impact on personal and environmental health, not to mention a homestead budget, that it's time to address the ring around the tub, so to speak.

Once, we were traditional Americans who showered once a day with body wash, shampoo, and conditioner, and followed up bathing with lotions, deodorants, and the like. We needed the conditioner to soothe the dry hair, lotion to cure dry skin, and lots of time to clean the bathroom. Now our routines are much more minimal, our skin is happier, and we spend a lot less time dirtying and cleaning the shower.

I didn't realize until taking pictures for this and upcoming posts that removing manufactured bath products has another advantage: there's no marketing. My daughter isn't reading the back of a shampoo that promises 'perfect' locks or 'happiness' or any other values that realistically don't come from a bottle. I inadvertently removed messaging that is often anything but supportive.

Simple Bathing Routines

• Shower every other day....ish... A few days ago I asked Alex "When did I last take a shower? Was it Tuesday or Monday?" It's a good sign if I have to ask that the answer is go bathe. But in all seriousness, unless it's the height of summer and we're muddy up to our knees, there's not much reason to shower daily. Showering less frequently saves water, lowers our gas water heater bill, and prevents over-dry skin.
• Ditch the bathing soap Soap for hand washing before meals and after chicken chores? Yes. Soap from head to toe every shower? Nope. I only lather up when there's visible dirt on my Chaco-clad feet in the summer or if I'm feeling particularly sweaty. Otherwise, I let the warm water wash away debris and let my microbiota keep me clean.
• Go No-poo I'll detail this in another post soon but basically, we don't use shampoo anymore. Lil and I use a baking soda solution and vinegar rinse instead which have resulted in less hair loss, better hair body, and no more expensive bottles. Alex soaps his scalp because he has no hair.
• Make your own I now make our soap from animal fats and craft my own deodorant. Both are fairly easily made from ingredients I usually have on hand and I can customize them to our family's preference for low to no scent. Again, I'll share recipes soon.
• Use edible oil moisturizers Take a look at the ingredients in your favorite lotion. Likely it contains alcohol (which helps the moisturizer feel less greasy but dries at the same time) and/or petroleum. Thanks to not showering and using so much soap, I don't need as much moisturization as I used to, but when I do want lotion, I use straight food-quality oils. I like sesame seed and almond oil for all-over body lotion (not make your own - I'm working through a bottle of Weleda Baby Lotion I bought over a year ago) and coconut oil for problem spots like hands in winter. I like the simplicity and toxin-free nature of single ingredient lotions.

I can picture some people reading this and wrinkling their nose. Skipping shampoo and showers sounds like we must smell and look quite dirty. But I don't think that's the case, or at least no one has said anything to that effect in person.

There might be some scientific basis to the idea that our bodies regulate germs and sweat better without the 'help' of soaps. Much like we're understanding more every day about the importance of gut bacteria, researchers are also beginning to study the microbiome of human skin. They're finding that the bacteria on our skin surface may be critical to preventing infections and healing wounds.

I wouldn't recommend transitioning from standard bath and body products to minimal all at once. We worked in changes over the past few years, allowing our bodies to adjust slowly. Over the next few posts, I'll detail our DIY recipes and tips for use. In the meantime, anyone want to confess: what's your bathing routine?

5 Places To Find Last Minute Gifts AT HOME

We're giving entirely handmade gifts this year, with the exception of a couple things on Lil's list that can't be made from scratch. (Pokemon cards don't trade well if mom makes them.) Some of our gifts have been in the making for several months and they'll be accessorized with items we will make from things we already have. Here are some of the places we've shopped in our own home for gifts and gift making supplies this year:

1) The Pantry - This is an obvious one. If you put up jam, sauce, or stock, chances are there are people on your list who would love them. I decorate my jars with paper or cloth tops and package up sets of jams or sauces. I like to group jars with a baked accessory like a loaf of crusty bread with marinara or homemade tortillas with homemade salsa.

2) The Garage - We're savaging the garage for wood scraps to make a few gifts this year. We've made gift crates from fence boards and Alex pieced together a wooden step stool for Lil from scrap lumber when she was younger. I can't share what we're making from scrap lumber this year but I will soon!

3) The Kitchen - Another obvious one. Your kitchen likely has the ingredients for flavored sugar and salt, cranberry liqueur, and homemade bitters. With a special trip to the grocery, you can get ingredients to make edible gifts for anyone on your list - there are lots of good recipes in this list of 40 homemade gifts from The Kitchn.

4) The Craft Room - Maybe your craft room is different, but mine is chock-full of fabric, roving, yarn, embroidery floss and more. Craft a simple pair of earrings, scarf, fabric scrap table runner or coasters, or set of magnets for a quick handmade gift.

5) Outside - We use natural materials for all sorts of crafts. Lil and I collected perfectly large and stemmed acorn caps earlier in the fall which we filled with felted faces for ornaments to include in wrapping. Earlier this season we made candle holders from scrap lumber and crafted a cat-and-puppy-proof twig tree to display our collection of miniature ornaments.

Here's to a happy holiday season for you and yours! What are you making by hand this year?