What to do in May (annual repost)

Hard upon the (late) April repost of monthly planning from Jen at Unearthing This Life, here’s what to do in May (a day early)! My May will be taken up with continuing rehabbing (ish) of my house, and of course, getting the garden up and running.

Gardening:

• Skip trimming shrubbery if you notice any nesting. Let those birds have some solitude!
• Plant annuals if you’re safe from frosts and trim back perennials if needed in warmer zones.
• Zone 4 and lower transplant tomatoes, peppers, cucurbits and other warm weather crops. Zone 5 and up– not til the end of the month!
• Tidy up bulb foliage if it begins to die back.
• Allow columbine and foxgloves to go to seed and collect some for next year.
• Trim back blooms on roses and day lilies to promote re-blooming.
• Keep shears and trimmers clean and available for deadheading and pruning.

Outdoors/Yard:

• Set up and clean bird baths.
• Clean Patio Furniture.
• Clean grill.
• Repair/purchase water hoses and fixtures. If appropriate, make sure water barrel systems are in good repair and have no algae buildup.
• Make sure gutters are draining properly by watching them during a heavy rain. If there’s any overflow or tipping, you may need to have them cleaned or repaired.
• If needed, have your air conditioner checked. Clean any debris and trim back plants to allow maximum airflow.
• Start clearing paths to wild berries and keep them accessable until harvests are done.

Animals:

• Consider weaning goats and sheep if necessary.
• It may not be to late to purchase chicks and other fowl from your local farmers co-op.
• Watch for hummingbirds to return. Be prepared with clean feeders and simple syrup (four parts water to one part sugar).
• Bees – make sure you can locate queens and that they are laying. Check for foul brood, varroa mites, and hive beetles. Is your honey coming in yet? Do you need to feed your bees? Watch for swarming.
• Look into stocking your ponds with fish now that the cold weather is gone.

Indoors:

• Change air filters and adjust thermostat a few degrees to save on electricity.
• Clean ceiling fan blades and shades.
• Invest in a good window/box fan.
• Get your furnace and water heater serviced
• If you don’t already have one, prepare an emergency kit with 3 days worth of supplies and locate your safe place for severe weather.
• Locate and organize your picnic gear – get out there and enjoy the beautiful Spring weather at a moment’s notice!

*****

What projects do you have lined up for this month?

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April planner, annual repost!

Our wonderful Jen at Unearthing This Life has been posting these great month-by-month planners for a few years. Just because she’s not writing here anymore doesn’t mean we stop the reposts!

I’ve been pretty productive this April– completely reconfigured the usage of my house to reflect the new reality of being in it alone. Lots of painting, moving and patching. The garden’s been a bit neglected through all this, but I’m hoping to get back on track. You can follow my garden progress at MyFolia.com/gardeners/Xan.

Here’s Jen’s April planner:

Gardening:

• Tilling garden beds where necessary to work in compost and get rid of weed seedlings
• Edging beds or digging the last of the new beds
• Add supports to garden beds for plants like tomatoes, peas, gourds, roses, peonies, and beans.
• Sowing outdoor hardy annuals
• Sow last of the peas, potatoes, and onions. Continue starting beets, lettuces, cabbages, radishes, and carrots.
• Planting rooted raspberry canes and strawberries
• Hardening off and planting of vegetable seedlings
• Plant any remaining saplings and transplants
• Rake around fruit trees to help with invasive bugs and/or treat for them. Use treatments only after flowers are gone.
• Questions about what to plant when? Go to Mother Earth News!

Outdoor house and yard Chores:

• Clean up fallen branches and sticks, nuts, and leaves.
• Hang bird/butterfly/bat-houses. If you’re not a beekeeper consider hanging a mason bee box. Set up bird baths and drinking holes for beneficial critters like bees.
• Tidy up gutters and look for winter damage.
• Bring out water hoses and setting up water barrels.
• Repair screens check caulking/insulation around windows and repair if necessary.
• MORELS!

Animals:

• Purchase/raise chicks
• Consider any expansions and rotations for this seasons’ critters.
• Repair fencing.
• Add supers to beehives. Check brood.

Indoors:

• Wash windows and curtains.
• Organize and collect glass canning jars.
• Clean out freezers and storage for this year’s crops.
• Plan simple, yet filling meals for lots of energy.

What will you be working on this month?

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What to do in February

This is the second in our repostings of Jen’s wonderful posts on monthly planning. Originally posted in 2011, here’s what to do in the traditional dead of winter.

February can be one of the last chances to get indoor projects completed before the spring thaw arrives. Gardeners are getting excited and it won’t be long before the first of this year’s farm babies are here! Spring is really just around the corner, so start wrapping things up inside and get ready to head back outdoors.

Indoors:

• Check basement or crawl space for leakage during thaws.
• Check bathroom caulking for re-sealing needs. While you’re in there, check your pipes for leaks.
• Freshen your kitchen sinks by pouring a mixture of 3 cups hot water and 1/4 cup vinegar (or the juice of one lemon) down each drain.
• Keep an eye out for cracks in your drywall caused by settling during thaws and freezes. There are expandable putties and spackles available for problem areas. While you’re at it, you may want to mark outdoor masonry to be repaired. Plan to complete this project after the last hard freeze and once your biggest worries of the house settling are past.
• If you don’t have a cold frame or greenhouse, set up an area to start seeds for your garden. Few seeds need light to germinate (be sure to read the directions) so you may be able to get by without any lights other than a window for the first few weeks. (Check out chiotsrun seedstarting 101 guide).
• Research and prepare for any animal purchases for the year.
• Keep a tray of water and spray bottle near indoor plants to adjust humidity levels, especially if you have central air. Running the heater can dry them out quickly and cover leaves with dust.

Outdoors/Garden/Wildlife:

• Keep fresh water available and free of ice for birds and wildlife.
• It’s National Bird Feeding Month. Keep feeding those birdies! Seed, dried berries, and suet are great meals for our feathered pals.
• If you live in a climate with mild winters, this month may be a good time to dig new beds. You may also want to repair or build new composting bins to be prepared for this year’s cleanup.
• Southerners could get away with planting bare root trees on warm days.
• Keep driveways and walks free of snow and ice. Have shovels, plows, and salt/brine accessible and stocked.
• Watch gutters and roofs for ice dams.
• XAN EDIT: if you’re in a short-season zone (5 and up) start long season seeds like onions and leeks indoors
• If you didn’t get to it during fall, now would be a great time to oil and sharpen garden tools.

Animal Husbandry

• Be prepared for early birthing. Have any equipment you’ll need ready and accessible.
• Nights are still very cold in most parts of the country. Keep your critters warm with fresh hay, heat lamps, or blankets, but be sure to avoid fire hazards.
• If you’ve been leaving a light on for your chickens you can begin weaning them off of it. The sun is setting noticeably later and your gals should begin laying more regularly soon.

You can also find Jennifer in archive at Unearthing This Life where she used to blog (or as she called it “blarg”) a bit about good food, home schooling, raising chickens, and being a suburban Yankee transplant in a rural southern town. She’s not writing right now, but her wonderful posts are well worth scrolling through.

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What to do in January

I’ll be reposting Jen’s wonderful series on monthly chores and tasks throughout the year. Here’s January, originally posted on January 7, 2011 by Unearthing This Life.

So many of us are working our way toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind we here at NDiN wanted to share some general guidelines of what to plan for on a monthly basis. Whether you’re a gardener, a beekeeper, a forager, or you keep animals, hopefully our monthly guides will help you plan ahead for the month. Depending on your exact climate you may find you need to adjust your schedule depending on your region.

Now that Winter is officially here most of us will be spending a lot more time indoors. For those in the more Southern regions, outdoor work is manageable on warmer days. It’s a good time to focus on the indoors, keeping warm, and getting a jump on this year’s activities.

Indoors:

• Take down and store holiday ornaments and decorations.
• Update your address book from holiday cards and gift envelopes if you’ve saved them.
• Clean out your files in preparation for tax time. Rid yourself of out-of-date warranty cards (update if necessary) and manuals. Schedule service appointments for extended warranties.
• Clean out dryer vents with a wire hanger and vacuum cleaner. Wash mesh filters with soap and a scrub brush to allow for better air flow.
• When finding new homes for holiday gifts, clean out unused items and donate those in great shape to your favorite charity.
• It’s also a great time to photograph your belongings, room by room, for insurance purposes.
• Start planning your spring garden. Look at gardening catalogs, websites, and blogs (like us!) to get ideas for what to do this year and when. Purchase seeds by March to guarantee delivery and stock.
• Research and prepare for any animal purchases for the year.
• Keep a tray of water and spray bottle near indoor plants to adjust humidity levels, especially if you have central air. Running the heater can dry them out quickly and cover leaves with dust.

Outdoors/Garden/Wildlife:

• Keep fresh water available and free of ice for birds and wildlife.
• If you’ve already begun to put out birdseed continue to do so. They’re now relying on you as a food source.
• If you live in a climate with mild winters, this month may be a good time to dig new beds. You may also want to repair or build new composting bins to be prepared for this year’s cleanup.
• Keep driveways and walks free of snow and ice. Have shovels, plows, and salt/brine accessible and stocked.

Animal Husbandry:

• Early birthing will begin late next month for some of you. Make any preparations necessary to help mammas and babies along.
• Keep barns and other animal shelters clean to help prevent illness and discourage wild critters from nesting. Change hay often, keep tools cleaned up, and be sure to keep water free of ice.
• Put a light out for an extra two hours in the evening for your chickens. It will help keep their coop warm on colder evenings and promote more egg laying.

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Frugal

I spent the afternoon altering pants for my “foster mother” Lynn, who is battling cancer and finds herself with fingers so tender she can’t hold a needle.

Lynn found these pants at her favorite thrift store. Two pairs of corduroys, brand new from all appearances. Total cost: $6.

Not that I needed much teaching, but Lynn taught me a lot about stretching a dollar. She’s how I learned to appear well off on a poor to middling salary. How we sent our kids to private schools and small liberal arts colleges with next to no loans.  It isn’t hard. It’s just a matter of stuff, or really of understanding how little stuff you need, and how much stuff that you do need can be gleaned from other people’s discards. So we do a lot of thrift store shopping, home-making of food and clothes, dumpster diving and other staples of a frugal lifestyle.

I’ve never been one of those people that hunts down bargains. (Talk to my brother in law, who once drove 30 miles to buy milk at $1.59 a gallon. In his defense he bought enough for everyone, and I mean everyone.) I don’t clip coupons, mostly because they tend to be for name-brand extras that I don’t use anyway.

We make a decent living. Yes, we’re trying to put two kids through college with cash (one down, one to go), so that takes every dime of discretionary money, but the point is, we have discretionary money. If I buy an extra skirt, it’s not going to put our mortgage in arrears.

Here at the start of the holiday season, it’s important to remember how your consumption affects the planet. Think about every plastic toy, every extra tchotchkie, every brand new candy dish that you buy for your mother-in-law because you have never had the slightest idea what to get her. Every single thing you buy that you don’t need ends up in a land fill, depletes the precious resource of fossil fuels, and adds pollution to the air, not to mention that you’re running out of storage space. Give your loved ones things they’ll use, not just piles of empty promises. Resist the pressure to buy more and more and more.

It isn’t hard to be frugal. In fact, it takes more effort to spend money. Go to the store, go to the mall, stop off on the way home. Even entering all that initial info for “one click shopping” on line is often more effort than I’m willing to put in for something that I don’t need.

Which gives hope for everyone. If you’re not naturally frugal, and you’ve got money to spend, you can still avoid the beast just by remembering that shopping is a pain in the ass.

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Division of labor

It’s not so much “having it all” as it is “how’s it all going to get done.”

Because this is the problem. It all needs to get done– the child care, the cooking, the shopping, the sex, the yard and the garden. The commute and the job; the vacation and the “me time.”

Just because I’m a liberated woman, married to a liberated man, and raising liberated children doesn’t mean the world has somehow liberated itself from the need to eat and clean.

Hiring a cleaning lady and eating at restaurants doesn’t count. For one thing, it just reassigns the work; it doesn’t make it go away. For another, those options come with significant cost in both money and time.

What we have done as a society is to reassign, not just the work, but the value. We have decided that activities comprising housewifery are not valuable. And I’m not talking about the trope that we deeply honor traditional “choices.” I’m talking we literally place no value on it, as in “not included in the GDP” unless you pay cash money for it (i.e. cleaning ladies and restaurants, not that anyone who isn’t seeking a high level political appointment is actually declaring their cleaning lady’s income on their tax returns).

Labor is no longer, can no longer, be divided in industrial societies by gender. That horse has left the barn. So now it’s divided either socio-economically (there’s that cleaning lady again), or inefficiently, household by household. At my house I do all the cooking, and he does all the dish washing. At your house he does all the car pooling, and you do all the teacher conferences. Across the street, she mows the lawn, and he does the laundry.

Of course, if there is no “he” to go with the “she” (or vice versa), the division becomes more challenging still. If the head of that household is your cleaning lady it’s more complicated still, with a nice political guilt trip thrown in.

Well off women can catch a little break, as can families willing to sacrifice prosperity (i.e. double income) to living traditional gender divisions. Families whose income derives from a source other than wage labor–farmers, craftspeople, shopkeepers (the old fashioned kind, that own their shops), can find it easier to make sensible labor divisions, although I think in these families you’re still more likely than in the past to see him cooking and her feeding the livestock, or driving the tractor, or stocking the shelves.

Perhaps the culprit is not the loss of God in industrial lives, or the greed and hubris of feminists, or the lure of the double income or the need to do something with that PhD. Perhaps the culprit is time, specifically time that we spend in cars. Get rid of the commute, and the car pool, and the after school activities, and the remote far flung grocery stores, and it will be easier to divide our time among the labors that we need to live.

The labor will be divided, because the work has to be done. Maybe, if we did it a little closer to home, it would be easier.

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On Moving

In my adult life I’ve moved seven times; two of those as a family with a child. Averaged out, that’s once every three years! Ugh. No wonder I despise the process so much. Each time I move, I dislike it more and more. (I say as I’m breaking from unpacking.) It seems as though we’ve got this thing figured out, though, and perhaps I can offer some advice to those of you that are planning on a move any time soon.

I’ve learned that it will always take longer than you plan, or want it to take to get everything moved and unpacked and in working order unless you downsize your belongings. We Americans like our Stuff, even those of us that don’t consider ourselves “Normal”. As soon as you plan to move, begin ridding yourself of excess. Reduce, recycle, or give it to someone to reuse (or if you’re a glutton for punishment, hold a yard sale). E-bay, Craig’s List, or Freecycle are some excellent alternatives to a yard sale or Goodwill – and I like them because it is a lot less stress than spending an entire week to set up and clean up a yard sale.

Avoid purchasing items for your new place until you’re moved in. Yes, you’ll want your new joint to be happening and functional the day you walk in. First of all, that’s a completely unacceptable expectation to put on anyone, even your own self. Second of all, why bother getting more stuff you’ll have to pack and transport when you probably have too much as it is?

Start gathering boxes, newspapers, and other packing material as soon as possible. These are items it seems you can never have enough of. Liquor stores, grocery stores, and farmer’s markets are all great places to look for boxes. Also, look for sales on packing tape and big permanent markers. Find a home for them and put them away every time you’re done with them so that you know where to find them the next time you start packing.

Do a little research of the area you’ll be moving to beforehand. Get contact information for utilities, locate grocery and hardware stores, arrange internet/cable/telephone start dates, and find a convenient restaurant or two to make things easy on yourself.

Keep tape, markers, scissors, box cutters, garbage bags, and newspaper available even when you’re UN-packing. Surely you’ll have second thoughts on a few items and need to repack them for storage.

Label. Label. LABEL! You will never remember what is in each box unless you only have five of them or have a photographic memory. Write clearly on the top and two adjacent sides of the box what is inside and a general idea of where they belong. You may also want to come up with a color code for especially fragile items. We used bits of blue painters tape on fragile boxes so that we knew at a glance which weren’t good boxes to play basketball, soccer, or football with.

Don’t stress about dusting or making things spotless before packing them. Dishes and glasses will inevitably get fingerprints on them when unwrapping, and you’ll want to wash any newspaper/box germs off your dishes, silverware, and cooking tools anyway. You never know what’s crawled on those boxes or papers.

A quick rinse through the hot cycle of the dishwasher may be good enough to get some of those prints off. If you’re worried about germs, you can use some mild detergent in the machine, or quickly wash them in the sink.

Put your toiletries in a carry-on bag so you don’t have to search for them when you’re bedding down for the first night. It’s an awful pain to have to dig through boxes to find saline solution so you can take out your contacts. Even worse, fumbling around for your glasses once you’ve taken your contacts out!

Make sure that you have enough clean clothes to get you through the move and a day beyond. A washer and dryer will probably be one of the first things you hook up if you own them, and keeping a load or two running while you’re unpacking and cleaning is almost painless.

…however it’s a good idea to wash all your towels, bedclothes, and curtains to have them ready to hang or put away as soon as they’re unpacked. I put mine in large garbage bags for easy transport, then reuse the garbage bags for clean up in the new place.

Prepare food in a crockpot, cook a roast in the oven, or even (gasp) order out if it helps you stay sane. There’s no reason to cook big meals, bake breads, or go over the top if it’s going to add to your workload. Think of simple meals that you can make at home to save money, perhaps eggs with mushrooms and kale in tortillas topped with hot sauce and sour cream; an easy salad with sliced leftover roasted chicken; or even a bowl of oatmeal with nuts, fruit, and cream. And keep healthy snacks available! You’ll most likely be using up more calories than normal, so keep your energy levels in check. (Don’t fail like me and fill up on junk and completely crash when everyone is counting on you….)

Use up all of those disposable plates and cutlery you’ve been hording because you’d otherwise feel guilty having thrown them away.

Arrange tools like screwdrivers, wrenches, drills, and hammers in a small carry-on bag so that you don’t have to dig for them when you need them. Don’t forget any hardware you may need.

Keep cleaning supplies nearby all the time! You will drop something. Something will spill. Food will spoil. Your child will dump her drink in the backseat of the car during a poorly-timed trek through rush hour traffic in a major city. The Gods of Moving say it must be so. Keep rags, towels, a broom and dustpan, mop and bucket, trash bags, and some simple cleaners around for basic cleanup.

Don’t forget to spend time with those kids when you can so that they’re feelings don’t get completely crushed when you scold them for dumping said drink in the car during your poorly-timed trek. Remember that time spent with your loved ones is also supposed to be relaxing for you.

Ask, pay, or bribe friends and family to help you early on. Remind them (although not obsessively) when they’re expected. It’s considered excellent manners to feed people and even provide cold beverages!

Take time out to celebrate, relax, and just be with the people you’ll be leaving behind. Goodbyes are difficult, especially in these times of email, Twitter, and Facebook when short statements are the norm. Say what you feel, and keep in touch.

Finally, remember that you’re not perfect. Be realistic with your expectations concerning your time, finances, and energy, and do the same for those that are along with you for this crazy ride.

Jennifer can be found blarging at Unearthing This Life and on Twitter as @unearthingthis1.

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One day a week

Originally posted on Sconeday in 2010

Last year, I lost weight by eating.

You heard that right.

I lost weight by eating. I never set out to lose weight, and didn’t care that much, as I wasn’t terribly overweight for someone of my age (BMI 29, now down to 26). But in March of last year, because of this very blog (before I joined the team!), I started eating SLOW- seasonal, local, organic, whole. I actually increased the percentage of animal fat in my diet, without increasing the amount of animal products I eat. So- whole milk and whole milk products, grass-fed beef, sustainably farmed chicken, with !gasp! the skin on, and free range, organic eggs. I stopped buying food with ingredients, and started making my own everything: crackers, salad dressing, bread, jam, mayonnaise, you name it. I have not been eating any less.

By eating SLOW and other efforts (walking a lot more, expanding my garden) I reduced my family’s carbon footprint by an entire planet.

When I tell people this story, the responses are predictable– too expensive, don’t have time, don’t know how to cook, my kids won’t eat like that (why, do they have an independent income for their own food?) and on and on. So here is MY challenge– change your eating one day a week. Just one day.

Do you eat out all the time? Start cooking from scratch one day. I’ll let you buy pasta, but make your own tomato sauce, and buy your lettuce in a head instead of a bag. Use oil and vinegar instead of additive-rich purchased dressing. Just for one day a week.

Do you already cook from scratch? Pick another day, and eat only seasonal, whole foods that day. I’ll let you go to Whole Foods (if you must) or another aware market, and buy strawberry preserves in March, as long as they’re organic. I’ll let you buy pasta, but read the label and make sure it says “semolina flour, water” and nothing else.

Already doing that too? Make bread. Or jam. Or crackers (they’re ridiculously easy, look for my recipes over on the Mahlzeit blog).  Go to a U-Pick-It and get enough fruit to make preserves. Don’t worry how it turns out the first couple of times, you’re only doing this once a week, remember?

Do you bake a lot? One day, don’t use the mixer-save the electricity and do it by hand. How often do you go to the grocery store? One day a week, right? Go to the local, organic market instead, or the nearest farmers’ market. Too expensive? It’s only one day a week!

Or are you like me, and way into this already? You can change yourself, and your family, and your planet one day a week as well. Eat vegetarian one day a week. Already doing that? Eat vegan one day a week (that’s where I’ve gotten). Already doing that? Eat raw one day a week.

If you’ve taken your food as far as you’re comfortable, then take your one day a week and walk everywhere. Use your day to donate time to a community or school garden, or a political action group. Plant a tomato- that’s way less effort than one day a week, and then use your day at harvest time to preserve the bounty. Use your day to write your elected officials and demand recycling, the end of Big Ag subsidies and work arounds, and fair rules for small family farms. If I can lose 25 pounds with literally no effort toward that goal, then we can save the planet.

After all, it only takes one day a week.

What will you do one day a week?

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Real clean round up: end of the month

Last week we spent several days cleaning my (Xan) mother-in-law’s apartment.

Before you get all sad on me, this was not because she passed, but because she invited friends from the Old Country, whom she has not seen in nearly 60 years, to stay with her.

Mom’s apartment is the subject of rueful, affectionate…,well, I have to say, disgust in the family. She never throws anything away (we’re talking thousands and thousands of those plastic bags you bring your veggies home in from the market), and  she likes to be able to “get at her things” meaning nothing goes into cabinets, it’s all out on counters. She fries everything. Rather than cleaning, everything is covered in little bits of saved plastic and old newspapers, which she changes, oh, once a decade. She’s 87 and frail.

When my daughter was 6, she ran barefoot into that kitchen and had to be carried back out, crying. The level of grease is not to be described.

We had to clean this needless to say. We cannot let people from the Old Country see how she lives. They’ll blame us! We started with her stock of cleaners– 409, Comet, Palmolive, that soap-treated steel wool, sponges. A couple of hours into it I realized these products were not going to work. I was feeling ill from the fumes, and things weren’t getting clean.

So I brought in my REAL clean stock–vinegar, washing soda, rags, brushes. Forgot the castille soap, so I stuck with the Palmolive as a surfactant. Halfway through I knew I would be writing this post, and was wishing I had brought my camera to document the difference.

And the difference was amazing. Easier, cleaner, and I felt like I could breathe. If these things can clean the Superfund site that was Mom’s kitchen, they can clean anything.

So, I’m making the transition. I have my borax. I have castile soap, washing soda, salts and vinegar at both the kitchen and the laundry stations. I have my Ligget’s bar shampoo (everyone’s been complimenting my hair) and I’m going to take Susy’s challenge and find a natural deodorant. I just took out towels washed in Peppermint castille soap, borax and vinegar; they’re hanging on my line in the basement and making the whole room smell wonderful.

Most of the difficulty of relearning the old cleaning skills is in, as I said in an earlier post, establishing a new routine. Instead of pouring out a capful of chemical cleaner, I need to measure, dissolve, and mix. Instead of just grabbing the product off the grocery store shelf, I have to hunt it down a bit. But routines can be changed, and old dogs like me can learn new tricks. Little by little I’ll start removing the old items from the household so that my husband will have no choice but to learn these new old ways as well.

And I think that together, we’ll save the world, one bar of soap at a time.

***

For me, Jennifer, things haven’t changed too much this past month. I have had loads of fun mixing and experimenting with some new products. Researching has been a blast and I’m thrilled to see so much available on the internet for so many people to access. As for my cleaning supply list, I really didn’t purchase anything new, which I absolutely love! Of course we hope that most of you will purchase a whole lot LESS, but having already kept a basic group of items including Borax, cleaning soda, old boxes of baking soda, vinegar, and castile soap, well, purchasing was easy on me this month.

The few things I did pick up were nice oils for my skin which were absolutely lovely. I adore the rosewater hand oil that I created (which I lovingly coined “hand salad dressing” here at home), but regret not having time to play more with concocting new recipes. I’m hoping we get to do this again in a few months so I can experiment some more ::hint hint::. But my absolute favorite was the Milk & Honey with Coconut scrub I started using! My face feels amazing and the smell is just YUM.

So what does the future hold for me and Real Clean “products” and “not-products”? I am definitely going to take up Emily on the hair washing experiment; I’ve given up for the time-being on finding a recipe that I like for dishwasher detergent; and I will get back to brewing and concocting some more yummy hand lotions and balms.

***

We hope you’ve enjoyed our “Real Clean” month!

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Buying through a Food Co-Op

I buy most of my dry goods…flours, grains, sugars, beans etc. through a food co-op.  What soaps I don’t make I purchase through them, as well as a small amount of frozen and canned goods. This is not your typical way of purchasing food but I have done it for years and it works wonderfully for me.

The way my co-op works is that there are designated drop points along a delivery route, sometimes at a person’s home, a parking lot, or in my case a wide spot in the road off a highway exit.  There has to be a minimum order of $550 at each drop point to warrant a delivery.  Any number of buyers can make up this total with the minimum per buyer being $50.  The monthly the coordinator of that particular drop point will find out approximately when the truck will be there and call all of the buyers.  We meet and unload our orders from the back of a refrigerated semi-truck.  Sometimes we have to split things into individual orders if we have all purchased the same thing.  We visit a short time, say good-bye till next month then go home and unload our items.

Why do I bother with this?  Well for two reasons, cost savings and selection.  You see I live in a small town with just the bare bones selection of organic grains.  Organic white flour and organic whole wheat flour…that is it.  Through my co-op I purchase organic oats, rye, spelt, barley, amaranth, millet, white whole wheat, quinoa…all in grain form ready for me to grind or use whole.  They have a huge selection or organic rice, popcorn, and other interesting grains.  You can choose traditional, organic, or eco-farmed. You can also purchase flour, frozen fruits and veggies, canned goods, personal items, cookware, books, canning supplies, and more!

I get 50# of organic hard red wheat berries for $18.40.  This will make #50 pounds of whole wheat flour at about $.37 a pound.  When was the last time you bought a 5 pound bag of organic WW flour for $1.84?  I cannot even touch these prices in my local supermarket let alone an expensive health food store.

I try to eat as locally as I can but living on the edge of the country in the rain belt there are many things, like most grains and beans, that we just can’t or don’t grow anywhere remotely close to here.  So I must either purchase at the local market with their dismal selection and high prices or order monthly, meet the truck, unload it, and bring my purchases home from there.  Well with a big family to feed it is an easy decision for me…food co-op it is!

I use Azure Standard as my food co-op, it is nation wide.  How can you find a co-op?  I originally found out about mine at a homeschool group, the mother’s with large families were discussing the money savings and I was intrigued.  Our local feed store owner uses a co-op as does my neighbor, just ask around to see what the locals use.  There of course is google!  When I searched food co-op with my zip code there were many options listed.

Finding a co-op that works for you, where you live, and how you eat may take a little bit of researching and learning but the saving and selection will make the effort worth while.

So do any of  you use a food co-op or any other non-traditional ways of getting your groceries?

Kim can also be found at the inadvertent farmer where she raises organic fruits, veggies, critters, kids and…a camel!

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