It's Easy Being Green

A lineup showing just a couple jars of what we've been able to put up over the last two weeks here at the half-acre homestead. Our shelves in the garage are now over-flowing with food to last into the winter season.

As I enter the fifth week of unemployment, I’ve started purging my magazine racks scattered throughout the house.  It’s been a welcome sight for my Homestead Hottie, seeing a few magazines trickle out the garage door and into the recycling bin destined for bigger and better things than collecting dust and taking up valuable space.

I got a bit ticked though thumbing through the November 2009 issue of Organic Gardening though.  A brief article flipped my lid, informing me for the first time that canning jar lids produced by Jarden (brand names include Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest and Bernandin) contain BPA.  Bisphenol-A is the very industrial chemical that we have diligently tried to purge from our home and food supply, tossing storage containers, water bottles and even commercially canned food.  Now I come to find out my freshly preserved organic goods from the garden might be tainted with a chemical linked to reproductive and developmental problems, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

The news disgusts me since Homestead Hottie, Darling Daughter and I just wrapped up two very busy weeks preserving this Summer’s harvest.  So far we’ve proudly home canned and shelved:

4 jars of cinnamon apple slices
4 jars of pickles
12 jars of strawberry jam
4 jars of halved tomatoes
8 jars of apple sauce
3 jars of apple butter
8 jars of tomato sauce
3 jars of whole tomatoes
5 jars of chicken stock

Some websites claim the only lids containing  BPA are those with a white coating on the inside.  One or two mention that Jarden quit using BPA in their products.  Still others yet warn of chemicals used in the competitors lids (Tattler) called POM which apparently contains formaldehyde.  Now I’m so confused I don’t know what to think.  I’m trying to put a call into Jarden to see what info they can give me about the situation.  Stay tuned for updates!

In the meantime, I’ll keep looking at the alternative to avoid BPA in our home canning.  What have you done to keep the chemical out of your food supply?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Over the last few years we’ve become increasingly better at storing and saving produce we grew at home and even stuff we bought while it was in season.  Surprisingly we ended up with about a dozen lemon cucumber plants this year that in a flurry of growth, took over much of the backyard.  We’ve had lemon cucumber vines trailing across the back fence, climbing a prickly pyracantha bush as it reached toward the sky and meandering throughout three different flowerbeds.

We never anticipated we’d have this many lemon cucumber plants.  Last year’s lone vine didn’t fair too well, setting a couple small cucumbers before withering to unrecognizable remnants.  With only a scant amount of seeds left in our seed box, I ended up planting them in seed trays but forgot what they were.  We’ve had a lot of unknown plants this year and another round of John Does didn’t concern us at all.  My wife set them about knowing we’d soon figure out what they were.

Two months later we’ve picked several baskets of delightful lemon cucumber.  My Homestead Hottie wife has loved the lemon cucumber ever since we were first introduced to them at the Farmer’s Market in our old hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona.  We slice them and eat them raw or mix them in with salad when we need a nourishing cool-down from Summer’s oppressive heat.  But with the amount we’ve harvested, there was simply no way we’d be able to eat them all before they went bad.

I wasn’t convinced they were able to be pickled but Homestead Hottie quickly found a canning recipe online that proved they were in fact a candidate for pickling.  Jill over at Jillicious Discoveries has a great recipe that we put to use this last week.  Our four quart jars of lemon cucumber pickles are now resting quietly beside their cousins, four jars of freshly preserved tomatoes, on the shelves in the garage.  I can’t wait to try them out.  Winnie Abramson over at the Healthy Green Kitchen also has a recipe for lacto-fermented lemon cucumber pickles that I’d be interested in trying as well.

Do you have a favorite recipe for lemon cucumbers or a favorite pickling recipe to use them in?  Let me know, I’d love to try more!

Popularity: 12% [?]

A lot of people I know have horses but have found it to be a financial strain lately to keep them well fed and happy.  Everyone is cutting corners with their budgets and just like humans, treats and snacks should be one of the first things to go but have you ever thought about making your own horse treats?

Here’s a little recipe that will keep your four-hoofed friend happy but won’t break the bank.  Don’t forget to get creative based on your horse’s specific likes.  Add those ingredients into the recipe listed below and if you have a recipe you’d like to share, for any homemade animal treat, don’t hesitate to post it!

Ingredients:

- 2 to 4 cups commercial horse feed

- 2 eggs

- 3 Tbsp. molasses

- 1 to 1.5 cups hot water

Directions:

1)  Place the feed in a large bowl.

2)  In a separate bowl, beat eggs well, add them to the feed and mix well.

3)  Dissolve the molasses in hot water and add a little at a time to the feed mixture until it’s sticky and firm.

4)  Pour it in gradually as you may not need it all.  You should be able to mold and shape the mix to dry or to leave as a “pudding” for your horse to slurp out of a bowl.  Add more liquid or more feed to reach the desired consistency.

You can make some creative additions to this basic mix based on your horse’s likes.  Grain, carrots and peppermints are popular additives horses seem to love.

Popularity: 3% [?]

It seems like one of the many products consumers are bombarded with on TV commercials every day are the copious amounts of chemicals and cleaning products to sanitize and freshen your home.  So many of those products contain dangerous chemicals or volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that may actually be doing us more harm than good.

That’s why green cleaning products like vinegar are so much more beneficial to your house and home.  Not only is it cheap, especially when you buy it in bulk like we do, but you can find it just about anywhere and it’s safe.  White vinegar has so many uses, I was surprised to find out all that it can do.

1)  Have ants?  Vinegar will actually repel ants and eliminate their scent trails so more can’t come looking for their lost friends.

2)  Have lime-scale or hard water spots in your bathroom or sinks?  Simply spray vinegar on the scale or stains and let it sit.  After a few minutes wipe clean and scale be gone!

3)  Coffee pot running a little sluggish?  Run a batch of vinegar through your coffee pot cycle to clean those hard water deposits inside.  Rinse with water when done.

4)  Stinky pit stains or smelly clothes?  Spray vinegar on your clothes before you put them into the wash.  Vinegar works as a fabric softener and deodorizer.

5)  Got pet stains on your carpet or furniture?   Douse the spot with a healthy dose of vinegar.  Not only will it eliminate the odor but it will also deter your animal from coming back.

6)  Chopping onions or cooking them?  Some people have said a bowl of vinegar set out in their kitchen will scrub the onion odor right out the air.

7)  Looking for a scrubby bubbles cleaner alternative?  Mix vinegar with baking soda and dump into your toilet for a clean scrub or pour down your drains to clear and freshen them.

Do you have more ideas for how to use vinegar around the house?  If so, leave a comment about how you put it to use in your green home.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It’s that time of year when the skunks start coming out of the woodwork and interacting with the friendly wildlife we call pets living in our yards.  T had a near heart attack the other night when she heard our dog going crazy outback and opened the door to the most pungent skunk spray smell ever.  We’re pretty used to the odor coming from Flagstaff, AZ.  We practically had a skunk wander by our bedroom window just about every night regardless of what house we were living in there.

T remarked that the odor was so bad her eyes were watering and she was almost certain the dog had been sprayed because of the way she was acting.  Co-workers told me to pickup lots of cans of tomato juice on the way home, with extra to make a Bloody Mary to enjoy during the bathing process.  While I’ve heard good things about the tomato juice, I’ve heard it takes several washes and wondered if there was anything better and not chemically based for getting rid of the smell.

That’s when I sent a good friend of mine back in Flagstaff a message to see what he’s used.  He had the unfortunate experience of having both his dogs sprayed and then they ran into the house, fumigating his two story abode with the smell of woodpussy.  He got back to me with his favorite and effective green skunk deodorizer recipe and here it is:

Green Skunk Wash Deodorizer Recipe

-  1 bottle of hydrogen peroxide

-  1/4 cup of baking soda

-  A few drops of liquid dish soap

Mix all ingredients together and get to washing!

As it turns out, I got home and the dog did not get sprayed, thankfully.  It seemed as if the creature simply wandered through the yard and was quite smelly but never deposited it’s fragrance on my four-legged beast outback.  Do you have a good home remedy or green recipe for getting rid of a skunky smell?  Leave a comment with your recipe or email me and we’ll post it in a future article!

Popularity: 6% [?]

As the nights get cooler and the days get shorter, apples that ripen in the Fall are finally ready to come off the tree.  We have several U-Pick apple orchards in the area and enjoy going to fill up a bag or two as we wander down the rows of apple trees.  Inevitably we come home with more than we can simply eat so naturally, we look for ways to preserve a piece of Fall.

Last year I dug out the apple slicer and corer.  It took about an hour or two to make my way through the entire harvest and get them ready for preserving.  We left several of the jars of apples plain and packed them in sugar water.  I used another batch of apples to make jars of apples packed in cinnamon red hot syrup.

Both have proven to be a winner and have their own special uses.  The regular apples I use for baked goods, pancakes or waffles and main dish recipes like Pork Chops with Apples.  The cinnamon red hot apples are good for desert toppings and breakfast treats like waffles.

Yearning to celebrate the changing of the seasons this weekend, I cooked up Baked Pork Chops with Apples and a side of Baked Sweet Dumpling Squash.  Both were delicious and I will put them in our seasonal recipe collection.  I’ll share those recipes later this week.  In the meantime, if you’re looking to can some apples, here are the two recipes I use.

Apples In Syrup

courtesy: Ball Complete Book of Preserving

Ingredients:

-  10 to 12 lbs. apples, stemmed, peeled, cored and quartered (to prevent browning submerge apple slices in 1/4 cup lemon juice and 4 cups water)

-  1 batch of hot syrup (I used a light syrup recipe because I wanted to preserve as much of the nautral apple flavor & sweetness as possible.  Make by combining 2 & 1/4 cups of granulated sugar in a large pot with 5 & 1/4 cups water.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Reduce heat to low and keep warm until needed, making sure you don’t boil the mixture down)

Directions:

1)  Prepare canner, jars and lids.

2)  In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine apples and syrup.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium-low and boil gently for 5 minutes, until heated through.

3)  Using a slotted spoon, pack hot apples into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 inch of top of jar.  Ladle hot syrup into jar to cover apples, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbled and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot syrup.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

4)  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process both pint and quart jars for 20 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Apples in Cinnamon Red Hot Syrup

courtesy:  Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Ingredients to make 8 pint jars:

1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup cinnamon red hot candies

2 cinnamon sticks

2 tsp. whole cloves

1 tsp. ground ginger

2 cups water

1 & 1/2 cups vinegar

2/3 cup light-corn syrup

2 tbsp. red food coloring (optional)

24 medium apples, peeled, cored, sliced and treated according to directions above

Directions:

1)  Prepare canner, jars and lids.

2)  In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine sugar, cinnamon candies, cinnamon sticks, cloves, giner, water, vinegar, corn syrup and red food coloring, if using.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.  Add apples and stir gently over medium-high heat until apples are heated through, about 6 minutes.  Discard cinnamon sticks.  Turn heat off, but leave saucepan on heating element while filling jars.

3)  Using a slotted spoon, pack hot apples into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 inch of top of jar.  Ladle hot syrup into jar to cover apples, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot syrup.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

4)  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 10 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Now let the fruits of your labor cool for a couple of days and coming up later in the week, I’ll share the delicious recipe I used for Baked Pork Chops and Apples and Sweet Dumpling Squash.