EARTH & SKY MORNING TEA

Earth and Sky chilled tea, a mid-summer hit.

Tea. It’s something wistful. It takes me back to distant childhood memories of how my Mom, sister and I, who had few luxuries, would sit down – feeling oh! so pampered – to our almost daily, afternoon tea break. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always felt that there is something extraordinary about a hot cup of tea in cold weather and iced tea in hot weather … the thirst-quenching liquid in the mouth, the flowery odor and, of course, the bittersweet taste. So, here I am, decades later, writing this post about tea making.

In all these years of drinking tea, I’ve tried out all kinds of teas, from the bags and loose tea purchased at the store and, more recently, my own blends, mixed from dried teas available commercially along with flowers, herbs and (yes) veggies – some of these from my garden. I find it highly satisfying to mix up several of these ingredients in particular ratios to get a custom blend for my own table and to share as a gift for others.

In my mind, tea making is a way of taking time for yourself - - on a regular basis. It’s also sometimes a way to combat brain-freeze or general negativity. Next time you need to have your perspective turned around, think about filling up your tea cup. It's an effective and common solution for replacing fluids, brushing off sleepiness and cheering up from most any kind of bring-down. As a bonus you get some antioxidants that help fight DNA-damaging, free radicals and give a boost to the immune system.

Just this past week I brewed up a new kind of tea that my husband and I shared in the mid-morning. We enjoyed seeing the bright fuchsia color along with the floating green lime slices and savoring the cool, thirst-curbing goodness of this tangy tea. I called it **My Earth and Sky** tea because of its ingredients - beets dug up from the earth, peppermint from an expansive, creeping vine hugging the earth and the bright flowers of the high branches of the hibiscus shrub, as well as the citrus of the lime tree.

For this blend I used a combination of already boiled and cooled beet juice, added to hibiscus tea with a final hit of the juice of limes and peppermint. The first two ingredients – hibiscus and beets – were purchased at the market. But, as a believer in family gardening, I was fortunate enough to be able to pick the last two ingredients from my own front yard. With all that thrown in together, the tea turned out to be a tasty cooler with the added benefits of being a stomach and nerve soother.

Here’s what I mixed up to achieve my blend.

Quart of hibiscus tea boiled with a bit of mint (or peppermint), cooled
2 cups of boiled beet juice, already chilled
juice of two limes with a few extra lime slices.
2/3 cup of light brown/natural cane sugar

Put all the liquids and sugar in a 2-quart glass pitcher, stir and chill.

As you can see, it’s easy enough to make up this Earth and Sky tea and, in my opinion, well worth the time. So get up and make some tea – this mix or some other that suits your mood - and, then, sit down to a comforting cup of warm or chilled tea. You will thank yourself for the positive mood-lifting and other health benefits that accompany that glass (or cup) of tea.

MAKE PICKLED GINGER IN JUST A FEW MINUTES

My husband did a fast julienne cut - worked just as well as super thin-sliced.

Do you like pickled ginger - that sweet and sour garnish served alongside sushi at Japanese restaurants? Most of it is made with mature ginger covered by tan, dry skin. The skin is cut off and “pickle cooked”.

Pickled ginger is called gari in Japanese. This kind of garnish punches up many foods and warms our bodies. You can find prepared pickled ginger in pink or white at most Asian markets. It costs more than two dollars for just an ounce or two. I think that's too much and prefer to make my own.

My husband loves ginger and eats as much of it as he can.  He likes it in many forms – as tea, glazed sugar candy, and in all sorts of sweets. But most of all, he likes it pickled it, Japanese style, as sushi ginger. He swears that his good health is a direct result of eating a lot of ginger - along with green tea and garlic.

Did you know that an all-natural version of gari is easy to make  at home?

Since today we're having at-home sushi Sunday, I’m making some right now. My husband is the official veggie cutter  - for ginger and for the sushi veggies. So, I think it’s a good time to share my gari  recipe.  When you see how quick and easy it is to make and how fresh and clean it tastes, you may never go back to the store-bought stuff.

Instructions

Preparation Time: 10 to 15 minutes. Wait another couple of hours before eating.

- 1/3 pound fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced very thin against the fiber (The best pickles are made from the firmest ginger.)
- 1 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar, depending on how sweet you like it
- 1/4 cup distilled rice vinegar (If you like, you can use cider vinegar or white wine vinegar instead.)

1) Use an inverted spoon or small paring knife to scrape off the brown skin on the ginger. Then take a very sharp knife to cut the ginger across the grain into super thin pieces.

2) Sprinkle the ginger with the salt and toss thoroughly. Let the ginger sit for 15 minutes. This helps the ginger absorb salt flavor and retain its texture.

3) While the ginger's sitting, combine the sugar and vinegar in a sauce pan. Boil it just briefly and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

4) After 15 minutes, add the vinegar solution to the ginger and stir it well.

5) Put the ginger and vinegar solution in a small glass jar.

6) Let the ginger sit in the jar for an additional two hours before eating. You'll have a zippy and crunchy pickled ginger. Get ready to enjoy it with sushi. (My husband eats it with just about any kind of food.)

Leftovers can keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. And don’t throw away the pickling brine. It can be eaten as a spicy dressing for rice or veggies.

CRISPY, NO-BAKE RICE PUFF TREATS

As my readers know very well, I'm part of a line of self-reliant and anti-consumerism people who stubbornly turn to do-it-yourself gifts. So, I’m always looking for some quick and inexpensive gift ideas. These things have to be - potentially - useful for the gift receiver and something that can be made by my own two hands - and also, if you like, by yours. The results of which, I hope, show my dear ones just how much I care. 

This Valentine’s Day, I wanted to take a break from the same-old candies and flowers routine. So, I geared up by putting on my **no-need-to-bake** kitchen mitts.

The answer was an easily put together recipe of a blend of three of my favorite, from childhood flavors: crispy rice puffs, peanut butter and chocolate. Mom made something like this for us, decades ago and it was delicious. But this updated, twenty-first century version is a bit healthier, I imagine, and also absolutely yummy. Thankfully, it’s just as easy to make today as it was years ago.

The peanut butter treats I'm writing about remind me of my Mom’s variation, but they have a cleaner ingredient list. Back then, people used corn syrup, but that was before all the worry about GMO corn. The new version uses brown rice syrup. It gives these cereal bars their chewy texture and natural sweetness and pairs well with organic peanut butter. And you can even use brown rice cereal, if you want. You can also substitute cashew, or almond butter in for the peanut butter. and it will be just as good.

Here’s the recipe. (Makes nine square treats in a 9-inch square pan)

4 cups crispy rice puffs or any puffed grain cereal
1/2 cup brown rice syrup - could also be honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter – organic is best
1/3 teaspoon vanilla – real, not imitation

¼ teaspoon powdered ginger

chocolate chips – maybe, three little chips for each square or just one chocolate drop for each, like I did.

Directions

Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, gently bring the syrup to a boil and allow it to boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and, then, stir in the peanut butter and other flavors until smooth.

Place the cereal in a large bowl, then pour in the peanut butter and syrup mixture. Stir until all of the cereal is thoroughly coated. Don’t over stir. It takes only a minute or two.

Spoon the mixture into the pan, and press – with the back of a large wooden spoon - to pack the cereal tightly. Stick the chips or large chocolate drops on top, arranging them with care for each square. Put the pan in the fridge for about an hour to cool off before slicing.

Store in a sealed container in the fridge and serve chilled or at room temperature.For gift giving, place the squares in a tissue-lined decorative can or box and put the individual squares in cupcake baking papers. You can also make a gift label with the recipe on top.

I made similar treats for Christmas goodies this past year. And my husband really liked them. So, I had promised him to make more. Valentine’s Day was my opportunity. He’s already eaten some of his treats and says they won’t last more than a few days. And, hey, I made a double batch. I want to eat some, too.

 

Notes: For more fun, treats can be cut into heart shapes using a cookie cutter. Or you could drizzle melted chocolate on top of the treats instead of using the chocolate chips.

TIME OF YEAR TO PLANT A SALAD GARDEN

It’s the end of February and for many of us in the Deep South and Southwest, the heart turns to love - lovely visions - of beautiful veggies growing right outside our doors. That’s just where I am right now. My house doesn't have a lot of space around it but that doesn’t keep me from dreaming about a garden and pursuing those dreams – on a small scale, of course. Also, I’ll be taking care of the garden myself. So, I want to plant just a few kinds of veggies and those that are hardy enough to have a high probability of success. That’s why, at this time, I’m contenting myself with a salad garden.

As of today, I’ve chosen six veggie items for my salad and salsa garden along with marigolds to go on the perimeter to chase away unwanted insects. This is going to be a four-foot, square garden design. Come May, it’s going to be packed – Hopeful Hazel that I am - with loads of fresh salad goodies. And, when I think of a delicious fresh salad, there are some vegetables that I definitely want on my summer table. Small as it is, the size of this garden is large enough to provide a good amount of ingredients for many green, summer salads and salsas.

Here’s what I’m planting in my garden.

Seeds now but a promise of salad bounty all summer long.

Jalapeno pepper plants
Tomato plants
Mixed lettuce plants
Red radishes
Green onions
Cilantro
Marigold plants

As you can see in the photo, all the seeds are of USDA organic and I’ve bought a huge bag of organic soil to plant them in. I found it all at a BIG-BOX Hardware Store. Is it all I could want in a salad garden? Well, of course, not. I’d love to also have green peppers, squash, cucumbers and more herbs. But for space and time reasons, I’ll settle on what I believe is enough - for now.

The area for my garden is very limited, just a strip of yard on the side of the house. So, it will be only one bed about four feet square. And that’s small enough that I won’t have to lean or crawl very far to work the garden. I’m also being very selective about the kinds of veggies I’ve chosen. These veggies require little space so when they produce, they’ll fit in a compact area. The garden will be beside a high wooden fence that will help shade the plants for part of the day, a plus for our usual high temperatures beginning in May. There won’t be any need of industrial fertilizers either. I’ve purchased plenty of organic soil and I’ve started my compost pile at the end of the back yard.

Don’t just dream. Plant that garden.
I hope the plans for my new salad garden start you daydreaming about the possibility of planting  your own veggies this spring. You don’t have to have so much space in your yard – a small salad garden like mine is a good way to begin. Even if you are an apartment dweller, you can have pots of veggie plants on your patio or in window boxes that get a lot of afternoon sun. Also, for some, it may be possible to go together with family or neighbors and plant a community garden on a larger plot of land.

The research and money for planting and maintaining a small garden are minimal. A bigger challenge will be the hours needed to take care of it. When you have your own garden, you need to take good care of the plants, watering, weeding, and looking out for pests. But, if you start out small, you shouldn’t have any overwhelming problems. The rewards are many. You’ll save a lot of money on food costs and the veggies you harvest will be healthier for your family than what you buy at the store. You’ll feel even prouder of yourself, when you use organic gardening methods, compost for fertilizer, and flowers in the same beds to repel unwanted insects. And there are important social benefits of gardening, too – you’ll be able to share your bounty.

Update March 1, 2015
Seeds are now planted in pots. The wait begins for the little seedlings to appear. I've planted a lot more than I can use - if all come up. so. I'll probably have little seedlings to share with friends and neighbors.

Related posts http://grandmasusansalmanac.blogspot.com/2012/08/bound-to-get-raves-summer-vegetable.html
http://grandmasusansalmanac.blogspot.com/2011/04/collect-rain-water-for-garden-use-and.html
http://grandmasusansalmanac.blogspot.com/2011/05/pickling-treasured-way-to-process.html

MY (ALMOST ALL) HOMEMADE LIQUID DISH SOAP

Making your own household cleaning products isn't really such a big deal – but it may seem that way at first. The truth is that it’s actually easier than you may think. It’s all a matter of routines. That’s what I told myself when I began this adventure with homemade laundry detergent. And on my very first try, happily, it that turned out to be an excellent product - far superior and much cheaper than anything I could buy at the big box store.  .

After that, I felt that I could also make my own homemade liquid dish soap - something that I use a lot of  because I totally lack a dish wash machine. (And that's a condition that I've had most of my adult life, making me a more-than-experienced dishwasher by hand.) It turned out that all my early tries at making a homemade dish soap failed – for months. And all those trials were in contrast to my homemade laundry detergent that was a success from the very first.

The recipes for homemade dish soap – and there are many of them online - kept falling short of my needs. Most weren’t soap-like at all. Some were slippery and thin and others just didn’t suit me at all because they left a nasty oily scum on the dishes. After many tries, I finally came up with something that works for me.  The recipe that I’m following now leaves squeaky-clean dishes and glassware and rinses off without any residue. And I don’t hesitate to share with others.  It takes only a few minutes to make – in my case, that’s 5 minutes about twice a week. That's pretty good return for my time considering that I've lowered my dish soap bill to about 15% of what it was just a few months ago.

The best part of it is that this homemade dish soap is earth-friendly. We all know that most commercial dish soaps are loaded with toxins, and even some of the "green" cleaners contain harsh chemicals. Beyond that, the second ingredient in many popular store brands is sodium lauryl sulfate, something that is considered to be a health-hazard and a carcinogen. So, why continue using products that we know are bad for us and for the environment? And that, especially, when we come across a recipe for an eco-friendly liquid dish soap that is non-toxic and does a great job.

This dish soap is non-toxic, cheap and works! 

Ingredients
-1 and 1/2 cups of boiling hot water (with some lemon, orange and/or grapefruit peels thrown in, if you like a bit of pleasant odor).

- 3 heaping tablespoons of grated laundry soap

-1 teaspoons of super washing soda

- 1 teaspoons of borax

Using your homemade dish soap
I use a funnel to put all the dry ingredients in a glass 2-quart, recycled fruit juice bottle. Next, I dump in the almost boiling water - having removed the fruit peels - in the bottle and stir vigorously with a chopstick. Then, I add a quart of plain cool water and shake it all up.

So, as you  see, this recipe is super easy. You just make up the batch right in the bottle. It’s initially somewhat liquid but it thickens up after it cools. If it’s too thick later on, just shake it up,  add a little warm water, and give it a good shake. It'll do fine.

As to the dishwashing method, this may take a bit of a variation over what you usually do with commercial products. I transfer a quarter cup or so of the liquid to a plastic bowl and wash my dishes with the dish rag, separately – meaning that I don’t let the dishes soak together and rinse them, one-by-one. The soap suds up only the slightest bit on the rag and it's better not to add more water to the rag while washing a dish (or a few dishes at a time, depending on the amount of grease to be eliminated).

NOTES: The amount of thickeners needed - washing soda and borax - may vary some, depending on your water supply, so adjust accordingly. Although I wouldn’t want everyone to quote me on this, you may still have to throw in a couple of squirts of a commercial dish soap (the most natural one you can find) to be sure that you get great results. Sure, that’s an added expense but it may be the best way to go with very hard water - like I have.  I only have to buy one small bottle of commercial soap every three months. For me, it's well worth the extra few cents.

The homemade dish soap that I make doesn't hurt my hands. But, it may bother yours - washing soda and borax are fairly strong chemicals. So, be prepared to use gloves for dish washing if you notice any skin redness or itching.

Related post
HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT IS A NO-BRAINER

COOKING OIL SPRAYS: ANOTHER THING TO THROW AWAY - FOR GOOD.

A lot of foodie-consumer-products are touted to be natural-like and more convenient for you. And some of them are supposed to help you cut calories. The reality is that most of that is just BIG-FOOD manufacturers' hype. Less costly natural ingredients are almost always more healthy and don't have to seriously add to food preparation time. The case in point, here, concerns commercial cooking sprays in aerosol cans. They contain oils, an emulsifier and a propellant to create a fine mist of oil onto a surface making it nonstick for cooking. The sprays are expensive relative to regular cooking oils. They also use many more natural resources - particularly, the aluminum cans.

This post urges you to toss out the oil spray can and get cooking in a healthier way. And, if you still need convincing, here is some more bad news about aerosol cooking sprays.

Unhealthy additives.
The aerosols in use in these sprays tend to be toxic chemicals and, even in tiny amounts, can't be good for your health. Just one glance at the ingredients and you'll know that it isn't pure or natural. Yeah. Ugly things like soy lecithin, mono and diglycerides, dimethylpolysiloxane, dimethyl silicone, and artificial flavors. The long-term effects of eating these chemicals on a regular basis are not well known but can't be good. As to lawful half-truths in advertising, some have simply listed a "propellant" as ingredient. Needless to say, they don't want to have to spell out what substances are in there. But word has it that the usual propellants are petroleum gas, propane, and butane. (Anyone in their right mind would want to avoid propellants.)

Genetically modified foods (GMO’s)
Most of the soy, corn, or rapeseed/canola commercialized in the US is GMO. (And that's as much as 90 percent according to some sources.) For years, scientific studies have shown that GMOs create health risks such as infertility, auto-immune disorders, diabetes, and changes in the gastrointestinal system. GMO foods also contain higher levels of pesticides than conventional crops.

Damage to the lungs
Because the aerosol particles are so tiny, you just can't stand back far enough to get away from them when you spray. So the cook - and any one else nearby in the kitchen - is always breathing in some part of the spray when they are in use. Over time, that kind of chemical exposure is a serious risk for respiratory disease.

Bad for the environment
Most cooking sprays contain propellants, all of which are greenhouse gases. That can't be good for the earth.  And the nitrous oxide, used in some, is particularly bad in that it doesn’t break down easily. That means they create environmental damage for many decades.

Unnecessary packaging
The manufacture of aluminum cans represents huge amounts of resources. Then, after use, most of the spray cans end up in landfills. Only a small fraction get recycled. But those also require a recycling, a process that involves a great deal of heat and electricity.

Help solve the oil spray can problem by not participating in it.
Don’t look to BIG-FOOD manufacturers to do you favors. Now that you know more about them, do you actually want to use cooking sprays? And the same can be said for many other foodie-consumer-products. Real food, in the form of fruits and veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, and good grade oils, bought as fresh as possible and prepared in the kitchen is what's best for you.

You can always do just what has been done for centuries by carefully using the right amount of oil for each type of food preparation. I remember that as a young girl, we used measuring spoons to add the oil. We also spread out the oil with our fingers onto the baking sheets. But, now-a-days, we tend to do our best to avoid such direct contact with the gooey oils. Fortunately, there are at least a couple of good ways to do spread out the oil without skin contact.

Solutions to the cooking spray can dilemma.
If you think you can't live without cooking sprays, there are some really good options to the commercial ones. And these alternative are less costly in the long run, more earth-friendly, and healthier.

First, you can always buy a hand-pump mister bottle at a big box store and fill it with your favorite cooking oil. But these misters tend to clog up and need a lot of unstopping. (I tried them a while back and decided it just wasn't worth all the fuss.) 

 

Second, you can do what I do now to avoid the use of commercial sprays. I dispense my regular cooking oils - sunflower, coconut and olive oil - with a drip pour spout. I drizzle a few drops of oil into the pan or skillet. If I need a more uniform way of spreading it out - like for baking tins - I use a small silicon spatula to baste the oil onto the cooking surface. I use two bottles - one for regular cooking oil and another for olive oil. The color-coded caps keep me from grabbing the wrong one in a rush.

The little bottles with drip spouts are recycled soy sauce containers. I bought the spatula at a big box store. They work well and clean up perfectly with warm water and regular dish washing suds.
 

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT IS A NO-BRAINER

Making homemade laundry products seems to be easy enough and a lot of blogs talk about ways to go about it. But, like me, you probably wondered if any of that really works? Will the clothes actually be as clean or cleaner than what we buy in those big, colorful boxes on the laundry product isle? 

I decided to find out.

For a while, I’d been collecting recipes for homemade laundry detergent but kept it on the “back-burner” until now. I liked the idea of knowing – for a fact – that what is in my detergent is 100% non-toxic and biodegradable. I was also impressed by the need to save some money on wash days, whenever possible. So, making my own detergent has been on list of things-to-do for a while. And this week, I put it to the test. And, here I am, reporting back from my experiment. 

With just 3 ingredients, you'll have a great wash day product.

What I made was the simplest recipe for laundry detergent I found. It has only 3 ingredients: Borax, Washing Soda, and Laundry bar soap flakes. This mixture washes well with cold or warm water and doesn't tend to form suds or bubbles. It can be used in any kind of automatic washer.

Here are the ingredients and how they work to create a super effective laundry detergent.

Borax, a natural mineral compound cleans and disinfects by converting some water molecules into hydrogen peroxide.

Washing Soda, a high alkaline powder that acts as a solvent to remove stains without causing loss of color.

Laundry Soap, that's the kind of soap that is used to hand wash clothes. When you grate up this soap, it helps eliminate tough, including oil-based, stains.

With the combination of all three ingredients working together, this detergent has great cleaning power. I've tried it, now, on both colored and white clothes and love the results. Best of all, there are no phosphates in this detergent to go down the drain and poison our water supplies. And you can bet that I’m not going back to commercial products.

Want to make some? Here’s what you need.

Box of Borax

Box of  Super Washing Soda

Big bar of laundry soap, grated or flaked (Can use a cheese grater or, easier yet, look for the flakes version at the store.) 

All of these ingredients were found in the detergent isle of our local Big Box store. And good news, the cost for all three products, together, for about 8 dollars. (I estimate that there is a savings of at least 50% when compared to commercial products.

For the 2 quart plastic bucket that I had on hand, I used 3 cups of borax and soda, each, and 3/4-cup of soap flakes.

Mix the ingredients well and store the detergent in a container with a top.

When using the detergent, start up the washing machine and fill it with a some water. Then, add 1/3 cup of detergent for regular wash. It’s a concentrated product so just a little does a fine job of getting clothes clean.

Really, this homemade product is a no-brainer, and I recommend it wholeheartedly  for all eco-friendly people who also don't mind saving some dollars.

DITCH YOUR FLUORIDE TOOTHPASTE, TODAY.

You've probably heard it somewhere (but may have overlooked it - thinking that it couldn't be so). Bad news. Yes, it's true. Fluoride is a poison. As a matter of fact it’s a highly toxic waste from certain industrial processes, and it’s first use was as a rat poison. But since it was cheap and huge amounts were sitting around in vats, someone had to come up with some novel use for it. And some genius said: “Let’s sell it as a mouth hygiene product”. After WWII, having run a few dubiously “scientific” experiments, there was the highly publicized news that fluoride treatments decreased cavities.  At first it was just a suggestion, and many people continued with their usual tooth care methods. But shortly thereafter, came the "last word" in tooth care: “Fluoride must be in your toothpaste. Otherwise, you'll lose our teeth”. Today, we even see toothpaste for children with fluoride – despite overwhelming evidence that little ones can poison themselves with it. (Of course, many people continue to have cavities and lose their teeth. They are told that they didn't follow the rules right - poor brushing technique, too few trips to the dentist, too much sugar, etc. )

So, how bad is the situation? Well, toothpaste with fluoride contains 1,000 parts per million of fluoride - or even more. That amount of fluoride will kill a small child if he/she decides to eat most of an entire tube. More shocking is the fact that no reputable laboratory study has ever shown that fluoride helps to prevent tooth decay. It’s not particularly good for your gums, either.

So, why have we been regularly buying and bringing this poison home for so long? Because, now, 99% of the toothpaste sold in the US has fluoride in it. And publicity about its merits has been pounded in at us through a non-stop publicity campaign - that along with the total complicity of the American Dental Association. It appears that US dentists want customers who return for all kinds of procedures (big profits) much more  than they want dental disease prevention.

(Oh, and by the way, over the years, fluoride treatments have also gotten into the municipal water systems in most of the country, too. And that great public health debacle has only been addressed and stopped by a minority of US communities. (Worldwide, the word about how harmful fluoridated water is out. Today, 11 countries - China, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands, Japan, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Hungary - have outlawed it.)

So what to do for cavity prevention?

OK. That stuff is really bad for you and worse for children. But you may not be sure of your options for good mouth hygiene. Well, the first thing is to brush the teeth at least twice a day – with an adequate technique - with whatever product you choose and to floss as needed. And while you might not find it in the BIG BOX stores, there are several brands of effective non-fluoride tooth paste in health food stores and available online.

Other non-fluoride teeth cleaning options that have been around for hundreds of years. Tooth paste was only popularized after WWI. Before that. people used tooth power. The principal ingredient in most tooth powder was/is baking soda. It’s a popular natural ingredient that helps deodorize the mouth and whitens teeth. You can just stick your toothbrush in the baking soda if you like. (I don’t like it to use it because the taste is too strong for me.)

Hydrogen peroxide is another option that’s used in some natural dental products. You can make your own mouthwash by mixing hydrogen peroxide and water.

Essential oils, such as tea tree oil, mint, and cinnamon, are good tasting flavorings in natural commercial and homemade toothpaste.  You can find some recipes for homemade toothpaste by searching online.

Now, I hope you're convinced that fluoride is both dangerous and ineffective at preventing tooth decay. And that you have options. Just say: “NO” to it and find the non-fluoride teeth cleaning routine that best suits you. And let other people know about your decision and why. Everyone should learn about how bad fluoride is, so that they can demand that it be removed from all toothpaste (and from water supplies, too, of course).

Note: I simply brush with a little salt water  (1/2 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt) swishing it around in my mouth before and after brushing - and dipping my brush in the mixture as needed.  I rinse my mouth out with simple water when I finish. That seems to clean my teeth pretty well and my entire mouth feels fresh. Of course, I've yet to convince my husband to do the same, so I'll soon be buying some non-fluoride toothpaste for him. I'll probably use it once a day and continue doing the salt water routine for the second brushing.

INDOOR PLANTS CAN HELP YOU HAVE THE ABUNDANCE GLOW.

The feeling that we live with shortages is a lie. Abundance is already here - starting today - when we are open to infinite creativity and refuse to compete for resources.

Plants are a marvelous creation - the very essence of our Earth. They were here long before us and we need them for survival. And remember they don’t need us. In fact, we have been their great destroyers, causing the extinction of millions of plants with our not-so-civilized ways of living. But plants are eternally forgiving and want to help us obtain the abundance that we long for. We just have to give them a chance. Having indoor plants is a good idea for everyone and especially necessary for those who live in cities where asphalt and concrete are most everywhere and green plants and trees are in short supply. This post outlines how to capture some plant-related abundance in our homes.

Unfortunately, for both our mental and physical health, the average US person spends about 90 percent of his/her time indoors. That means that we aren’t seeing much natural green except from out our windows at home or as we drive by. But when we bring some plants into our home, they give back to us some of the green-goodness that we are lacking. They not only lend beauty to our spaces, but also make us feel at ease and can even be a source of healing and food.

Plants can give your home the glow of abundance.

In fact, feng shui, a Chinese philosophy that spans thousand of years, points out how green plants not only improve the energy of indoor spaces but also are a remedy for other kinds of problems arising from being behind walls. And feng shui is not merely concerned with interior decoration or plant placement, but primarily with the flow of chi energy in man made and natural settings. This ancient philosophy also indicates that the healthier your plants, the more abundance they bring into the home. Fresh flowers bring luck and fortune into your home. For the same reason, dying and dried flowers are believed to bring bad luck.

Science today has proved what feng shui suggested centuries ago. Houseplants bring in beneficial oxygen and even lower electromagnetic pollution. Air conditioning, improved insulation, and other energy-saving innovations all reduce air exchange in buildings. We end up breathing the same polluted air again and again. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) created by man-made materials are also a major cause of illness. All these air-borne contaminants add up to a loss of concentration, depression and other diseases in what’s known as "sick building" syndrome. The good news is that indoor plants stimulate both the senses and the mind and help remove air-borne pollutants, making for healthier homes.

Two things to do improve your indoor air quality
First and foremost, if you want to feel better in your home, ventilate your rooms by opening windows. This should be done daily even if it can only be done for just a few minutes at a time.

Second, place some common household plants in the rooms of your home to increase air humidity and help your family to breathe easier. That's a real plus when it comes to fighting viral infections. And you don’t have to have a house full of greenery. NASA studies indicate that just one good-sized houseplant (6 to 8-inch diameter container) is enough to help clean up 100 square feet of your home. Of course, you need to keep the foliage dust free so that the leaves can do their job and keep the top of the soil free from debris.

Some useful houseplants for better air include three common household plants - areca palm, mother-in-law's tongue, and the money plant - all are effective in improving indoor air quality. Besides those mentioned, other research has shown that waffle plant, English ivy, variegated wax plant, asparagus fern and the purple heart plant are also good air purifiers. Some more great houseplants to consider are bamboo, palms, dracaena, peace lilies, jade plants, small ficus trees, rubber plants, and  weeping fig.

House plants can be food, too
Indoor-grown plants can also be a source of healthy food. A good way to grow these edibles is making a window or tabletop “farm.” Sprouts, cherry tomatoes, small citrus trees, and herbs - such as basil, mint, rosemary, dill, parsley, cilantro, and chives – all can be indoor-grown. In other posts, Grandma Susan wrote about growing sprouts and herbs in the home. (See related posts, below.) Today, homegrown microgreens - small garden veggies - have been added to indoor window and tabletop farms. Chia, cress, mustard greens, radish and arugula are some of the most common microgreens.

Larger than sprouts and smaller than baby salad greens, microgreens are harvested from two to five inches tall (about 2 weeks after sowing). At that time, they have a high quality taste and are most nutritious. And they add texture, flavor and healthy nutrients to all kinds of salads and sandwiches. They are also used as garnishes for a variety of dishes.

To grow microgreens, all you need are shallow, lightweight containers, soil, seeds and water and some sunlight. Seeds are soaked overnight, then sowed. Microgreens have short roots so the soil or mats that hold their roots have to be watered often but should not become soggy. Good sunlight and drainage are important to prevent rot and mold.

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EGGS FROM HEALTHY HENS – WHAT DOES IT MATTER?

Most of us eggs eaters, like to think that eggs are “lifeless” – sort of like eating cheese, or potatoes or spinach. Of course, our conscious minds know the difference. When we eat eggs we are eating what was once a living being - in the fetal stage. The main difference of the egg from other meat-protein sources is that it never was a living, breathing bird. Still, the hen that produced that egg definitely is or was, and her conditions might mean something to you. And, if you have any heart at all, you don’t want to think that you’re eating something that’s a product of endless suffering, injury and disease.

Several huge salmonella outbreaks at egg production factories seemed to capture public attention on the safety of eggs and the conditions that surround the poultry living there. A New York Times article focused on how the U.S. egg industry treats the over 300 million chickens in phases of annual production and marketing. 97 percent of all US eggs live their entire lives with tens of thousands of other birds, crammed  in filthy and inhumane production units. Certainly no compassionate person could watch the videos taken in these places without being physically ill.


Make a chicken's life a little better and eat healthier eggs, too.

Among the horrors of the conventional battery-cages are total darkness – that means blindness and barely able to move in indoor pens as long as football fields. Birds can’t even stretch their wings and routinely injure and kill others just looking for enough space to stand up. They are routinely de-beaked. The waste that's generated on these gigantic farms causes terrible odors for miles around and pollutes local water supplies.

Any male chicks born in the commercial egg  industry get thrown onto conveyor belts where they are suffocated or pushed alive into chicken meal grinding machines. Any hens that survive their egg-laying life – up to about 2 years, are then near death from stress and nutrient starvation. Then, they suffer “forced molting", a grotesque operation that deprives them of food and water for up to 2 weeks, a final stressing that tends to increase their waning egg-laying frequency.At this point they are thrown together one over another in truck cages where they go to the chicken slaughterhouses where further nightmare conditions lead them to a painful death. There they end up on people’s table, unlabeled as to their ordeal, and sold as “regular” farm-raised poultry.

While it seems logical that the battery cages and other abuses of the egg industry should be outlawed, there is no major push to end these conditions by US consumers. News from the European Union shows that there is a grass-roots move to ban this means of production throughout the region, and some countries have already signed on.

Commercial choices aren’t all that good
Given this situation, some people now regularly buy cage-free or free-range eggs. According to the same Times article, 2% of our commercial eggs are from cage-free hens and 1% is from free-range birds. Of course, just being caged-free or free range, by label, does not mean that the birds are actually living out happy, healthy lives. Many of them don't have access to the outdoors, and aren’t fed optimum food and may be medicated on antibiotics. Also the majority of even the so-called “free-range” birds don’t get much time free from their cages because the doors to the outside pens are too small, relative to the total number of birds. Sadly, the same Times article reported that many "cage-free" and "free-range" eggs come from the very same farms that produce battery-cage eggs. It’s simply an industry ploy to capture well-meaning consumers who will pay more money for eggs that come from somewhat better poultry production conditions.

While the real conditions vary considerable, clearly these 3% are better off than their battery-caged cousins. They are, at least, able to scratch and spread their wings and, sometimes, according to their individual luck, be involved in healthy chicken pastimes. And the eggs they produce taste better and are healthier for you from a nutritional standpoint - with more vitamin E and more total omega-3 fatty acids.

For my choice, I'm trying to be a vegetarian. I eat mostly vegetables and grains. Now, I’m not so strict at that, and I also eat a small amount of  fish during any given week. Also, away from home, when served it, I will eat poultry. But, to get some animal protein on a regular basis,  I eat cheese and eggs. I'm just anxious to find the best eggs I can from chickens that haven’t been brutally abused. The options, unfortunately, aren’t so clear. My personal decision has been to buy only cage-free eggs, even though I pay up to 2 dollars more per dozen. I’d rather eat fewer eggs per week than accept the conditions of battery-caged hens. But, I’m poised to take further action….

Raising chickens may be the solution
Unless you’re ready to accept the high price of eggs from (hopefully) more humanely raised hens, you might consider having a few chickens in your yard. Anyone who has ever been around chickens knows they exhibit many complex and entertaining behaviors. They appear to be sensitive and intelligent animals, and it’s a crying shame that so many of them are forced to lead such terrible lives.

The answer may be easier than you think. Hens, it turns out, are easy to care for and, when treated right, each will provide 4-5 good quality eggs per week. That means that, with an investment of a few cents and a little care, as few as 3 hens can give you at least 12-15 eggs a week. That’s quite a savings over commercial prices. Home-raised eggs are indisputably better in flavor, texture and nutritional value. Your hens also keep down the weeds and eat harmful insects. Their needs are simple - a shelter at night, a watering can and a feed trough. They can get sunlight, insects (their favorite meal) and exercise on their own.

If you’re in a place where you could possibly keep some chickens, you should seriously consider this option. While local residential zoning may differ, most cities allow hens to be kept for eggs  for home consumption.

CANNED COLESLAW, ANOTHER PICKLED WONDER.

Just a month or so ago, I posted a story and a recipe for Boston steamed bread. At the time I said that, with just three items on your survival menu, you could be substantially healthy and full. Those items were: steamed bread, coleslaw, and baked beans. And what made this a survival no-brainer was that all three could be stocked on your pantry shelf. Sure, you would need to do some foot (and hand) work, by either buying these as "regular", manufactured products or canning the foods yourself. This post talks about canned coleslaw, something that you may not have heard of or suspected wasn't even possible. But, of course, it is - more than possible, and it's easy to make.

Cabbage is healthy food.

Now, some of you may either like or dislike sauerkraut. Well, that's a close cousin to the canned coleslaw. The ingredients are just about the same. The difference is that sauerkraut is a fermented food, and canned coleslaw is a lot more like the freshly made side dish that fried chicken, fried fish, and hot dog lovers crave. Beyond that, cabbage, whatever form it's served up in, is cheap, healthy, and available almost any time during the year. In my book, that easily makes it a miracle food. And, for people who really like coleslaw, like I do, having canned coleslaw on the shelf is a tempting idea.

Here's a tip. One way, I've heard of, to get into the canning mode is to make it a social event by organizing a canning group. You get with a few friends to plan, buy, and process some food item together. That helps you overcome some of the inertia involved in trying out a different canning experience. And there may be several reasons that you haven't yet tried out a new canned item, including relatively ignorance of canning procedures, the need to buy a quantity of ingredients that might surpass your canning desires or capacity to store, or just the need for some company in order to undertake what seems to be a huge task. A canning group can help.

I’m including a recipe, and almost all the recipes for canned coleslaw are simple and have the same ingredients. . After all, it is regular coleslaw - minus the mayonnaise. And most everyone agrees that the canned coleslaw turns out every bit as crisp as the freshly made kind. It's pickled on the sweet side, and that's a traditional way - adding acidified syrup to low acid veggies. The result is really pickled cabbage, and it makes great coleslaw. It maintains its crunch, and you could eat it straight from the jar. But that's a lot of pickling syrup. So, you'll probably prefer to drain it well and mix it with mayo. And it can be thrown together in just a minute for a picnic or a potluck dinner.

Coleslaw Recipe for Canning (or Freezing)
1 medium head cabbage
1 large carrot
1 green or red sweet pepper (optional)
1/2 medium onion (optional)
1 tablespoon salt

For the brine syrup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, celery seeds, or dill weed (optional)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Cut finely or shred the vegetables into a big pot. Add the salt. Let stand 1 hour. Drain
water and rinse twice. Then drain again.
Boil syrup ingredients together for a couple of minutes. Make sure you completely melt the sugar and the syrup is clear.

Add the syrup to the vegetables and pack into pint jars. Remove any bubbles that form using a spatula. Process jars in boiling water for 20 minutes. If you're not sure about the canning process, you can pack the slaw into freezer containers and put it in the freezer where it's good for up to a year.

This food is good tasting as is (as pickled cabbage). Or, for the traditional coleslaw taste, it should be drained and mayonnaise added just before serving. That’s what makes canned coleslaw an entirely portable food for a picnic, despite the heat. You carry the unopened can with you and do the final touches to your coleslaw just before meal time.

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Steamed brown bread, a recipe for your survival kitchen

Are you prepared as you can be for a calamity? Natural and man-made disasters often take us by surprise. So, it's a good idea to think about disaster survival preparation long before there are signs of major problems. Here are things that you’ll need for your survival kitchen along with recommendations for some simple foods that will keep your family full and healthy.

Power supply
Usually in emergency situations, the lights go out and your refrigerator, freezer, and electric oven become useless. Now, some of you have a gas oven, and that’s good because you’ll still be able to cook. Just be sure to have some matches in a waterproof container. And, if you have some fuel, an outdoor grill also can help you out – to be used outside the house, of course.

Staples
If there is no food left in the supermarkets or the conditions in the street are so bad that no one in the right mind would make a grocery run, then you’ll need to have a well stocked emergency pantry. Most vegetables, fruits and eggs are edible for a week or so when stored in a cool and dark place. Salt, spices, soda, baking powder, and dried egg substitutes will add a lot of other choices to your rather limited food selection.

Canned and dried foods are lifesavers in these situations. You’ll want to have cans of veggies, soups, canned or dried milk, stews, juices, dried fruits, cooking oil, Parmesan cheese, and a variety of crackers. Your pantry should have at least a 2-week supply of food items that can be stored without refrigeration. Purchase  foods for your survival pantry in multiples whenever you see them on sale, and store them in a cool, dry place.  Be sure to write down the dates that you bought the cans and boxes and rotate the older foods to the front so that can be used along with items in your regular grocery list.

Water
Water is necessary, not only for drinking but also for cooking and cleanup. So you’ll need a good supply of safe bottled water for drinking, cooking, and brushing your teeth. That means you’ll need a gallon of water per day per person in your household. A large garbage can of water or two can be kept in a bathroom for pets and hand and body cleanup. Surprisingly enough, you can wash your entire body and rinse with just a gallon of water, bar soap, and a washcloth. Not so much fun as showering but workable when it’s necessary.

Other items
Besides food and water, your emergency pantry should include hand soap, dish washing liquid, batteries, a radio, pet food, flashlights, candles, matches, and extras for prescription medicines. It’s also good to have a first aid kit and extra clothes and blankets in waterproof bags. You’ll want to have tanks of propane gas, a wood supply or carbon bricks for cooking although you do better to store these items outside the house or in the garage. Start charging your cell phone completely every day, and that way you’ll be sure to have well charged batteries in the event of an emergency. It’s also useful to fill up your car’s gas tank whenever it gets to half full rather than when it’s running on empty.

Recipes for the survival kitchen
For your emergency kitchen, you’ll need recipes based on foods that you have stored on your shelves. Since the power may be out and non-electric fuel will have to be conserved, you’ll want to make meals as quickly as possible. Oven-baked recipes take too long on a barbecue grill, unless you have a surplus of fuel and a tight-fitting cover on your grill. You should choose quick cooking/fuel saving recipes. Look for easy recipes that can be adapted for use with whatever canned or dried foods you have in your emergency pantry.

Now, with that rather extended introduction, we come to today’s topic: foods for the survival kitchen. Three foods, eaten together as a meal, will keep you healthy and full. All three or their ingredients can be part of your survival kitchen pantry, and I recommend them because they provide a good amount of calories, proteins and vitamins. They are:

Bread can be steam cooked in coffee cans

Boston brown bread, also known as steamed brown bread
Canned coleslaw
Baked beans (with or without meat).

I'm writing about the steamed bread today and saving the canned coleslaw for another post. The third recipe I wrote about some months ago but didn't comment on it possibly being a canned item. I’ll tell you how to do that at a later date.

Yes, (some) brown bread comes in a can
Boston-brown bread is a type of dark, somewhat sweet bread that was (and, in some areas, still is) popular in New England and other parts of the East. Traditionally, it is cooked by steam in a can - or any cylindrical pan - and contains a mixture of flours: cornmeal, whole wheat, and rye, and molasses or maple syrup. Most often it’s a quick bread leavened with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Raisins or other dried fruits may be added. The resulting bread is slightly moist like muffins or banana bread. It’s also known as 'hobo bread”, since it can be baked in a coffee can in a few hours over the coals of a fire.

While some people may be turned off by this rather usual looking and cake-like bread, my childhood memories elevate it to the status of comfort food. My Mom, rest her soul, lived through the Great Depression and WW II when fresh bread supplies and fuel often were hard to find. Given that shortages were common, many people kept a few cans of brown bread on the shelf. It was a commercial product that was found at almost any of the larger grocery stores.

Growing up in the late forties and early fifties, I remember that Mom would occasionally buy the canned brown bread and put it in our pantry. At that time, we didn’t have a car, and the nearest grocery store was some five blocks away. While Dad worked, Mom walked with my sister and me the five blocks and pulled a little red wagon to carry the food back home. Sometimes, my sister towed the wagon for a bit, but in general, it was Mom who had to keep the two of us in line while she piloted the red wagon back home with one or two bags of groceries. Needless to say, Mom couldn’t venture a trip to the store when it was raining hard or snowing. Thus, she knew to keep a certain amount of canned foods on hand. Those foods included, among many other things, Boston brown bread.

Now, as I remember, when we ate the canned bread with a meal, it accompanied a plate of corn beef hash or spam and a bowl of soup beans or baked beans. But, sometimes we just opened the can for a snack and ate it with cream cheese or jelly. My sister and I were delighted by the novelty of eating little round pieces of bread. It was usually eaten straight from the can but also could be pan warmed or toasted.

While, today, eating bread from a can may not be so common, the product itself (B&M canned bread) still can be found or ordered on line. It’s a product made up of only natural ingredients, and it’s certainly more wholesome than regular store-bought bread that contains several different chemicals additives. On the other hand, given its sweetness, you probably won’t want to use this kind of bread for sandwiches.

So, now you know that you can buy canned bread as a commercial product with just a little searching. But, maybe, you would like to make it yourself as I learned to do. It’s a fun and easy recipe to make, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. It can even be home-canned and stored for up to a year on your shelves as one of your survival kitchen staples.

Recipe for steamed brown bread
Ingredients
2 cups buttermilk or sour milk
3/4 cup molasses or corn syrup - None of the high-fructose stuff, please.
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole-wheat or rye flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of butter or shortening - Not hydrogenated, please.
Raisins, other dried fruit or nuts (optional)

Preparation
Take out 3 or 4 clean, empty cans. The cans can be coffee tins or large veggie or juice cans. Grease the cans heavily, so the baked bread will slide out.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the milk and molasses. Stir in the flours, cornmeal, baking soda and salt. Mix it well by hand for about a minute. Stir in the dried fruit and nuts, if desired. Pour the dough into the cans, leaving space at the top - the dough rises considerably.

Place the filled cans on a rack in a large canning pot, filled with boiling water up to the rack. Cover the pot with a lid and keep the water boiling. Add water as necessary and steam the bread for 2 to 3 hours. It’s done when a knife stuck deep into the bread comes out clean.

When the bread is done, lift the cans out of the pot and let the bread cool. Then invert the cans and strike the bottom sharply with your hand. The loaves should fall out easily. Slice and serve the bread warm with butter or cream cheese. The fresh bread should be eaten the same day or the day after. It can also be kept for up to 10 days in the refrigerator. It makes a great gift for family and friends. Just tell them to keep it refrigerated and to eat it right away.

Storage
Freshly prepared, this kind of bread can safely be sealed in sterilized pint-sized jars and stored in a cool, dry place in the same way as other home canned foods. All home canned goods stored on pantry shelves should be checked every month or so to make sure the jar seals are unbroken. If you worry about the safety of your canned bread, the jars can be stored in the freezer.

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Take steps to use less water

UNRAVEL OLD SWEATERS AND KNIT NEW THINGS

If you’ve been to the fabric or craft stores lately, you know that good yarn is not cheap. A hundred yards of fine yarn may cost as much as 7 or 8 dollars. That's one hour or more of the official hourly minimum wage. So, even home production using store-bought yarn doesn't really qualify as an inexpensive craft. Nevertheless, most of us would rather have hand knitted garments and home accessories than manufactured ones. And while there may be fewer items in our closets, handmade items can be real treasures to keep for many years. So, it’s smart to save money and unravel the yarn from old knits to create new things.

Well, you may be asking yourself: “Just who wants to sit down and tear out old sweaters, afghans, etc for the yarn?” Well, Grandma Susan often recycles yarn by tearing out knitted items, and a lot of other people do, too. Yes, it often takes two, three or more hours of work, depending on the kind of knits you're taking apart. So, why even do it?  The answer:  it’s cheap yarn - free if it’s from your own sweater or one given to you or at a cost of only $1-3 at a thrift store. Besides, sometimes it turns out to be more interesting yarn than what we find at the regular fabric and craft stores.  It also points to a philosophical position. Why spend money to obtain what is already available to us at a fraction of the price and at a no-carbon cost to the planet?

Fifty years ago, a lot of women made their own clothes. It was considered a virtue. Why was that? We made our clothing because wages were low and US manufactured goods were expensive, relative to our income. At that time, imported goods were almost prohibitively expensive. Even for those of us who weren’t so handy with a sewing machine, there was almost always a good seamstress in the neighborhood who made us things at a reasonable price. So, what happened? In the 80’s and 90’s a lot of cheap imports began to flood our stores with clothing. R Reagan told us we were going global. We weren’t too sure what that meant, but among our many surprises, it meant that cheap imports would take away almost all our motivation to produce things for our homes, our families and ourselves.

Over time, we came to know more about globalization as we discovered and devoured cheap things from abroad. Unfortunately, in a few decades, that same process led to the closing of much manufacturing in the US. We were told that was also something good. US people were not meant to work in fields and sweat shops, like those poor people in other countries. Instead almost all US people could aspire to office and service jobs. So, every young person should gear up to get the new skilled jobs by going to college or technical schools. Education was to be the key to mobility in the new global order.

But then came the global recession, and now there aren’t very many skilled jobs to be found. Worse still, a good fraction of the population faces unemployment and underemployment. And the few jobs that replace those we lost aren’t paying much more than minimum wage. We are also being made aware that what was cheap overseas labor is getting more expensive. Apparently, those people, too, are hoping (some are fighting) for better wages. Also, the cheap oil that carried imported goods thousands of miles to our stores is getting costlier by the month.

So, once again, the cost of manufactured goods may end up being expensive relative to the average income. And what goes around comes around. We may again be producing food and goods in our homes and locally.  And people who have the time can use it to create worthwhile things. That’s the case in point, and many of us are pleased to produce a part of what we need for our families and ourselves.

My inspiration
Just a month ago, I visited an old friend who is a fine jewelry maker who combines natural and recycled elements in her creations. She told me about how she sells her jewelry in craft fairs all over the South West, and how she'd like to have some hand knit scarves to “show-off” her jewelry at the booths. She believed that a collection of colorful scarves would attract more customers to her booth. Also, she had had some losses from theft in past events and felt that the pieces would be more secure if they were firmly attached to knitted items. Knowing that I’m a knitter, she asked me to make her some scarves. I told her that I would.

And this past month, I sat down and knitted two scarves from yarn that I had on hand from previous projects. Later she told me about a really big craft fair coming up in the fall that features beautiful things made from recycled materials. So, that, too, became part of my challenge. I decide to make some scarves from recycled sweaters that I found at the thrift store. I’ve already unraveled one such sweater and knitted the first scarf. Now, I’m currently unraveling the second sweater and ready to work on the second one. And this is the inspiration for this post - making new things from unraveled sweaters.

Instructions for recycling yarn from old sweaters.
The process is relatively simple, although it will take some time. Be prepared to spend all of one morning or afternoon just unraveling and making yarn balls. The important thing is to choose the items that you wish to tear apart with care. Look for old sweaters that are in good shape and are made from fairly thick yarn. If the yarn is too thin, you'll need to knit together three or more strands at a time. That's not such a simple task. Also, you’ll be much better off, choosing a sweater sewn by hand, not by machine. Look at the inside seams of the sweater. If the seams are made with visible stitches using yarn, it’s got to be a hand-sewn garment. Hand seamed garments unravel in long, continuous pieces, and that  makes them fairly easy to take apart. You’ll lose a lot of time with a machine-sewn sweater making a lot of cuts, row by row and end up with many tie-ends. To make a nice garment, you need long strands of usable yarn not a series of tie-ends.

So, after you’ve located a great - preferably hand-sewn - sweater, get ready to unravel.

1. Locate the seams. Start with the collar. You can usually see the threads on the collar quite well. On one side of the collar seam, you’ll find a thread line. When you look closely, you’ll see that the threads form little V's along the seam. You have to cut and/or pull out the threads on the side opposite the V's to separate the pieces.  If you don't locate any  V's or can't pull out the seams in one piece, procede by cutting the seam threads as carefully as you can - just a fraction of an inch at a time - so as not to break the yarn in the sweater pieces. Use fingers, pointy scissors and a seam ripper as needed. You’ll also have need of a good light. The unraveling process is tiring on the eyes (and really quite boring), so if you become jittery, take a break. Continue finding seams and separating the pieces.

2. After the pieces are sorted out, you're ready to start the unraveling process. Most sweaters are knitted from the bottom up so you will need to start unraveling at the shoulders/neck and work your way down. You’ll probably want to cut off and throw away a few rows that are incomplete or hard to deal with at the tops of the sleeves and at the shoulders and neckline. If the collar is just a few rows long, it may also be a throwaway while the yarn from a larger collar may be usable. Examine each piece and try to find where the piece was finished. This is the starting point for unraveling. Be sure to ball up the yarn as you unravel.

3. The yarn will be kinky, but the process of balling up and reknitting should help straighten out the yarn. If you're still worried about the waviness of the yarn, you can stretch it out, soak it in warm water and set it out in an airy place to dry. You'll also need to ball it up again.

Notes
After writing this post, I remembered some important details about unraveling sweaters.  First, for hygiene sake, it's always best to wash any old knitted item in warm water and detergent before handling it. That way you can be fairly sure to have eliminated any harmful bacteria. Second, seam ripping and unraveling will produce a lot of fabric lint. Be prepared for the lint by doing the unraveling outside, on a porch, or in any room other than where you sleep. If you are in a closed room, you may need to wear a dust mask and be ready to sweep up and dust surfaces one or more times.


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PICKLING, A TREASURED WAY TO PROCESS VEGGIE ABUNDANCE

Some pickled dishes - What they are and why you should make them.
It's getting close to summer, officially. That means that a lot of us will soon have bumper crops of certain vegetables, and the question often comes up: "Is there something that I can do with all these cucumbers, beans, peppers, etc.? Even, for those of us without a super-garden production, we sometimes have too many vegetables left in the fridge at the end of week. No one wants to throw them out, of course.

Jonathan Bloom in his book, “American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food” (2010), estimates that a quarter of the food that’s brought into U.S. kitchens is scraped off plates, uneaten after meals or never even served up and sent directly to the trash. The idea of wasting so much food really troubles me, especially when current headlines are predicting a world of increasing food costs and shortages. So, this post is about something that you can do - when you don't know what to do - with all those extra veggies. In the spirit of: ‘When you have too many lemons, make lemonade”, there is this variation:” When you have too many vegetables, make pickles.”

Pickles and relishes are briny and vinegary, seasoned vegetables. Vinegar is the miracle ingredient that acts as a preservative. Olive oil does the same thing. Pickling has been a means of preserving and flavoring vegetables, surely dating back to prehistoric times. Archeological evidence indicates the ancient Mesopotamians pickled, and pickles are mentioned in the Old Testament. And history books tell that European explorers to America carried pickles with them on the ships. Pickled vegetables were the means by which 15th-century sailors saved themselves from scurvy and, in the early colonies, they were among the first food items to be produced commercially.

In some other countries, they’re known as giardiniera, ensalada de legumbres en escabeche, chutneys, misodzuke, etc. While there may be variation and even disagreement over procedures, all of these dishes are about the same - a mix of marinated vegetables.  Served traditionally as embellishments for roast meats and beans, nowadays, pickled vegetables  are considered to be great combined with salad greens, side dishes in themselves, or healthy snacks when served up with a few crackers. When pickled as as colorful vegetable medleys, they are decorative, too, and are well accepted on buffet tables along with more “elegant” foods.

So, now we come to two topics that are worthy of note: piccalilli and chow-chow. These are regional names, at least in Appalachia, for vinegary vegetables with spices.  Both chow chow and piccalilli are vegetable mixtures that can include a mix of cauliflower, peppers, onion, cabbage, green beans, etc., along with spices, all depending on the cook’s preference or veggie surplus at the moment. WV, my home state, has long had its own regional food variety – Appalachian or Southern Mountain style. To the best of my memory, the WV choice among garnishes was piccalilli. It's made with several different coarsely chopped veggies and almost always has cauliflower or cabbage. On the other hand, what we called chow-chow was certainly known, but seems, at least in my experience, to have been more popular in the Deep South. Chow chow is a relish with a base of chopped green tomatoes. It may also include onions, bell peppers, and other vegetables, and is usually more finely chopped than piccalilli. While not exactly similar, the terms, piccalilli and chow-chow, are sometimes used interchangeably.

My early memories of eating pickled veggies
Now, my close family was all city folk, and the veggies to make our pickled dishes – and a lot of our prepared garnishes, too - were “imported" from farms where my great uncles and aunts continued to live on. And we sometimes had pickled veggies, usually piccalilli, on the table. It was served on the side of a plate. But as a small child, I found pickled foods to be too vinegary for me. Some years later, entering preadolescence, I developed a taste for piccalilli. Actually, I liked it a lot and could have eaten it with every meal, but that didn't happen, at least not for more than a day or so, because my family also liked and ate quantities of it. (For whatever reasons, I never really liked the versions of chow-chow that I was served, with all due apologies to chow-chow fans.)

Also back then, when I was growing up, we usually had the Sunday family dinner at my Dad’s mother’s house. We called her Mawmaw. As often as not, at these meals, Mawmaw served the family - with 10 or more "regulars" in attendance - two or more different meats and four or more side dishes, including pickled dishes, besides rolls, cornbread, several desserts, etc. (It was an eating marathon, and most of the adults, at least, had the expanded waistlines to show for it.) I believe she made most of the pickled dishes herself, but maybe she also had a supply of jars from our “still on the farm” relatives. Piccalilli, chow-chow, pickled beets and pickled eggs were all highly praised traditions at her house.

We sometimes had these same garnishes at our house, too, but other than pickled beets, I don't remember Mom making them. It was Dad who brought them in. I guess Mawmaw shared with us occasionally.  At home, sometimes pickled vegetables were served at breakfast time with biscuits and sausage or bacon gravy – what our family called “poor man’s” gravy.  At lunch or dinner, too, they were sometimes served with pinto beans and cornbread. While few of our home-served meals could be described as elegant, the presence of piccalilli or chow chow gave the meals a certain spirit of abundance - at least that’s what it seemed to me as a child.

Other early memories of eating pickled veggies were at large gatherings and picnics in the summer time. At least once a year, we traveled 20 or more miles, "up the river" to a park or church grounds where we met with 40 or more family members – most of whom I hardly knew. Also, back then, the best cooks were known for their “secret” recipes for piccalilli and chow-chow, and there were even competitions for these foods at county fairs. They also sold quart bottles of them at the fairgrounds and gave away samples to anyone who came by. I often reminisce about the large-scale picnics and county fairs of my childhood and, of course, the foods that we enjoyed at these events. It brings back some wonderful memories!

Would you like to make some piccalilli?
Now, maybe you remember those old-fashioned pickled vegetables from traditional recipes, and some of you probably still prepare them. But other people never really liked eating them because they were too vinegary - also, sometimes too salty. But here’s good news. There are other ways of making piccalilli, at least, that taste great and aren’t so acid or briny. So, if you still haven’t already learned to love pickled veggies, try out this recipe. I bet that you and your family will love this side dish as much as my husband and I do.

The pickled veggies recipe I’m talking about here is a “quickie” one that can be eaten after two days. Some people might argue that these aren't technically pickles because they aren’t particularly salty and don’t have a shelf life of an entire year. But, they are a version of the same that doesn’t call for the fuss of standard canning procedures. And this piccalilli is a nice balance of crunchy, sour and a touch of sweetness. And when salad greens would long be eaten up  - or heaven forbid, thrown out - these pickled vegetables are still at their best – lasting in the fridge for up to a month. These pickled veggies along with a slab of good bread, a bowl of beans (and maybe some farmers' cheese) make for a complete meal. 

Piccalilli, A Lighter Version
Veggies, chopped coarsely
2 carrots, peeled
1 celery stalk
3 c. cauliflower
1 sweet pepper, red or green
2 c. zucchini or yellow squashes
1 red onion (better sliced than chopped)

Pickling liquid
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 c. apple cider vinegar
1 c. dry white wine
¼ c. olive oil
1/2 c. water
3 tps brown sugar
2 tsp salt
4 peppercorns
1 tsp dry dill weed
½ tsp mustard seed
2 jalapenos (seeds removed) or 2 banana peppers

Place the pickling ingredients in a 1-gallon stainless steel or enameled pot and bring the pot to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes. Strain the liquid and return to pot. Keep the liquid boiling and add successively: carrots and celery, cauliflower, peppers, onion slices and squash, leaving 2-3 minutes between additions of each vegetable. When you consider all the veggies to be lightly cooked, - still crisp and crunchy, rather than limp and rubbery - remove them from liquid and let them cool at room temperature. Once cooled, put the vegetables in a sterilized, 1-gallon glass pickle or olive jar. Fill the jar with the - now also cooled - pickling liquid. Cover with a sterilized lid and refrigerate for 2 days before eating. Keep it refrigerated for up to a month -  I’m fairly sure that your prized piccalilli will disappear a lot faster than that.

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