It's Easy Being Green

Looking battered and beaten, the nasty winter weather certainly took its toll on our doormat this past year. At the time we bought it we were pleased, almost smitten with ourselves. We sprung for a bright, contemporary “designer” coir fiber doormat we found on clearance at Pier One Imports. We got it for a song but little did we know we’d only get half a year out of the darn thing.

Since my layoff last year and the landing of my new job, we’ve done little to support the economy. Homestead Hottie and I have an ever expanding list of wants but have come to the realization that most of it doesn’t even matter. We let products absolutely wear themselves out before replacing them. Some might say we’re cheap. We like to think we’re smart and frugal, so something as unimportant as a doormat will often get forgotten about.

It was forgotten until last month when we had to breeze through our local Menards to pickup some hardware to repair our gate (something we did decide to spring for). Not only do we often “save big money” at Menards but we love their product rebate system on select items. While we were buying our hardware both Homestead Hottie and I groaned to each other that we wanted to replace the doormat. If we’re both in agreement then we know it’s time to pull the trigger and part with the cash.

Taking a gander at their doormat aisle resulted in a pleasant surprise for us new age, non-stinky hippies. Stocked from floor to top shelf were a dozen or so styles of doormats all made from recycled tires and made in the grand ‘ol U.S.A

The first thing we noticed about the door mats made by Multy Home was their look. It’s a classy door mat you can be proud of and nothing like that $1.99 faux grass plastic wonder. Second was the weight and tough construction of the rubber and coconut fiber mats. It feels and looks heavy duty enough to stand the heaving traffic of kids, pets, four season weather and anyone else who might come knocking at your door. While more expensive than the “cheap” door mats, we didn’t think the pricing was too out of line.

We opted for a cobblestone pattern on our recycled tire door mat and I’m anxious to see how well it holds up over the next several months. I’m hoping the old treads that used to propel a vehicle will hold up to a year or more worth of foot traffic treading across the threshold of my Half-Acre Homestead.

*NOTE: I did not receive any compensation for this product review. This is my opinion of a product we recently purchased.

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*NOTE – I did not receive any products or services for this blog post*

No question about it, my excitement was far more noticeable as Homestead Hottie opened up a gift box mailed to her. Packed inside, nearly a half-dozen bottles of Martha Stewart’s clean products, everything from glass cleaner, toilet bowl scrub, laundry detergent and dish detergent.

Martha claims her product line if “effective, responsible and safe” with most being 99% plant and mineral based cleaning products. All ingredients in the cleaning products are said to be biodegradable with no artificial ingredients. Even the bottles are fully recyclable. These are all great features and just the type of products we’re always on the lookout to use here at the Half-Acre Homestead.

Using this batch of green cleaning products left me thinking Martha should stick to other things, mainly baking that 12 hour cake or hot gluing the most fantabulous wedding decorations you’ve ever seen this side of the Mississippi. If fact, I found her green cleaning products less than effective at their labeled task.

I like the pump spout on this bottle of laundry detergent but that was about the only thing I liked.

Martha Stewart’s clean Laundry Detergent smelled pleasant enough and had a thick, detergent like cream to it. We used the whole bottle of detergent and as long as your clothes weren’t soiled, they came out smelling and looking clean. Light to moderately soiled clothes often came out with stains and dirt still in place. Heavily soiled clothes didn’t stand a chance of coming clean with Martha’s detergent. Any level of soiling required the clothes be washed with our homemade natural laundry detergent.

Steer clear of Martha's Dish Detergent if you're looking for clean dishes.

Much of the same is to be said for the Martha Stewart clean Dishwasher Detergent. This detergent is fragrance free but I noticed right off the bat that it is extremely runny. While most liquid dish detergents are gels, Martha’s is watery and not very viscous at all. We used most of this bottle and found each and every wash with the detergent to leave our dishes covered in a scummy film. Dried or baked on food debris was never removed by the Martha Stewart clean Dishwasher Detergent and most truly dirty dishes had to be washed by hand following a run through the dishwasher. The results were so bad I quit using the detergent and it has since taken me several washes and hard hand-scrubbing to remove the film that Martha Stewart’s detergent left coating my dishes.

Martha's All-Purpose Cleaner has been effective in quickly cleaning lightly soiled areas of the house.

I have used the other cleaning products off and on, mainly just for convenience factors so I don’t have to sprint to another area of the Half-Acre Homestead when I need to clean. For the most part I’ve found the Toilet Bowl cleaner and the All-Purpose cleaner to be pleasant smelling and effective at cleaning. The Carpet Stain Remover had a “spotty” track record on our carpets, cleaning half of the stains with a bleaching effect noticeable while the other half of the stains were left untouched.

As for now, we will continue buying green cleaning supplies from the likes of Seventh Generation and Dr. Bronner’s. The rest of the cleaners we will make on our own. It was wonderful to receive a box full of green cleaners as a gift but I would recommend not buying them for lack of effectiveness.

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Most of us know and understand that our society is a “throw-away society”. People just discard things instead of trying to figure out ways to use them completely. This is one of the many ideas I’ve studied a lot as I learn to live a more sustainable life. One way you can be especially resourceful is around food. No, I’m not talking about just freezing your leftovers for use in future meals. I’m talking about appreciating a harvest to its fullest extent.

We recently started buying whole fryer chickens at Sam’s Club to cook up for dinner. My girlfriend stumbled upon an amazing recipe called Salt Crust Roasted Chicken. It’s awesome and we’ve probably enjoyed the meal three times in the last few weeks. If you’re interested in the recipe head to her blog, Harvest of Daily Life. Once you pick the roasted chicken of the drumsticks, thighs and breasts many people would just consider throwing the rest out. But that chicken carcass still has at least two cups of perfectly good meat left on the bones! Think about all the possibilities for that meat: chicken soup, chicken stock, chicken quesadillas, enchiladas or chicken salad. Anything that would use shredded chicken is perfect.

Here’s the process:

1) Take your chicken carcass and place in a stock pot. Fill the pot with water so most of your chicken carcass is covered and start boiling away. Throughout the process add a couple cut carrots, stalks of celery, onion and some garlic. Just let the mixture boil away on your stove while you do other things. The longer you let it boil, the more rich and intense your chicken stock is going to get. Once it’s boiled for a couple hours, you’re done with the first step.

2) Next, pour your stock out of the pot and into a bowl fitted with a strainer. It will catch all the loose meat and bones. Put your strained stock off to the side. Now take a couple minutes to work your way through the bones, picking off the bits of meat. Discard all the bones, skin and pieces of gristly fat leaving you with a nice helping of chicken meat. At this point, you could recombine your fresh stock and chicken meat to make soup (chicken & rice or chicken noodle) or chicken & dumplings. You can also freeze the chicken stock in small containers for use in other recipes and freeze the chicken meat in small Ziplock baggies for use later too.

Last night, we boiled down the leftover chicken carcass and turned it into fresh chicken noodle soup. It made a huge pot of soup though, more than the two of us could eat in a couple nights! But, that’s ok. Yesterday we spent the day canning our leftover soup so it can be stored in the cupboard just fine. If you don’t want to go through the process of canning, you could also freeze the soup in containers and reheat them in the microwave. While we were at it, we also processed some butternut squash soup that we had stored in the freezer. In the end we came out with 4 quart jars of chicken noodle soup and 2 quarts of butternut squash soup! That will make a lot of meals and save us a lot of money. Plus, the feeling I have from keeping that food from going to waste is so good.

If you’re looking for a great recipe book with complete instructions on home preserving, I recommend the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I’ve been using this book for more than a year now and I have discovered several recipes to use up extra fruit or other food items before they spoil. One of my favorites is the strawberry lemonade concentrate mix that you make from frozen or fresh berries and bottled lemon juice. Simple and refreshing. I’ll post the recipe below.  I had to buy mine piece by piece at the local hardware store. That kit would have saved me a lot of time!

Do you have a favorite way to make the most out of the food you buy and cook? Tell us about it and share your recipes!

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

Courtesy: Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

You will need 6 cups hulled strawberries (I use the cheap bags of frozen berries), 4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice and 6 cups of granulated sugar.

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids for water bath canning.

2. In a blender or food processsor fitted with a metal blade, working in batches, puree strawberries until smooth. Transfer to a large stainless steel saucepan as completed. Add lemon juice and sugar and stir to combine. Heat to 190 degrees F (88 C) over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Do not boil. Remove from heat and skim off foam.

3. Ladle hot concentrate into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) headspace. 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 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

5. To reconstitute, mix one part concentrate with one part water, tonic water or ginger ale. Adjust concentrate to taste.