Outside the Maple Syrup Box

Originally published at Women Not Dabbling by Gina       According to Slow Food USA, Shagbark Hickory Nuts are endangered enough to be listed in their Ark of Taste catalog. This means that the nuts were once deemed a valuable food resource here in the U.S., but have since fallen out of favor in [...]

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Sweet potatoes—make mine purple please

This past summer I heard about some sweet potatoes that are purple. Neat I thought—I really like “funny” colored foods since it makes great dinner conversations. You know like purple, white and red carrots, blue Irish potatoes, green cauliflower etc. It didn’t take much research to find out that the actual name of this particular [...]

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Natural Home Cleaning

Later this week, I have some guests arriving and am spending some time making sure the house is in tip-top shape as they are our first overnight guests in the new house.  Cleaning at our house is anything but the toxic mess found in so many modern cleaners.  If you’re new to cleaning with all [...]

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Long Term Survival Prep

Originally published at Women Not Dabbling by emphelan This week in the survival series, we will be talking about long term preparations. Tansy wrote a wonderful post on short term. Many of these items should has be included in your long term. The goal is to make it harvest to harvest, not just for self-sufficiency, [...]

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Reader’s Question :: Growing Luffas

Jenny’s Question:I was wondering if any of you grow your own luffas?  This is the second year I have tried (I live in NY zone 5) & I only have 2 that look big enough to make it.  I planted on the sunniest side of my house this year & the plants have almost reached [...]

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family medicine chest: oil making

the family medicine chest is an ongoing series on the fourth thursday of each month. making herbal oils is just as easy as making herbal tinctures. the only difference is, they can be made faster if time is of essence. there are two main ways to make an oil: the sun method and the stove [...]

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Growing Traditional Medicinals

Sambung Nyawa!    (sounds a little bit like the Malaysian for “Open Sesame”…) Also known as Mollucan Spinach, and several other names I cannot pronounce, Sambung Nyawa is one of our recently-acquired plants-in-residence. In snooping around seed catalogs, websites, and unusual-to-me plant lists, this one never came up. A lot of Malaysian-and-that-area-of-the-world plants unfortunately are completely [...]

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The Sound of Crickets

Originally published at Women Not Dabbling by Gina   Autumn is my absolute favorite season. I like most of the others (even winter!), but fall in the Midwest ranks the highest in my heart. Years ago, I turned in my area’s distinct season changes for the sameness of the American desert southwest. Though I truly [...]

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“Making Do” (but without the payment)

Deciding which car to replace my 2001 diesel vw bug with was difficult —I loved that car. I mean, it was a really cute car, got fabulous gas mileage at 40 to 45 mpg, and made all the little kids smile when they saw it. But like that old saying of all good things must [...]

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Unnecessary, Important Preparations

Perhaps its the falling leaves, predictions of a long winter, or the financial news, but making sure we’re ready for the winter ahead is in the forefront of my mind these days.  We’ve got wood split and stacked, we have blankets, and warm clothing, we’re stocking a pantry, we’re taking care of the many practical [...]

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