Citrus and Herb Soap Recipe

A simple soap recipe for adding to melt and pour soap bases; I added the following herbs to this company’s olive oil base. 

INGREDIENTS:

Lime peels, grated

Carrot, grated

Rosemary, finely chopped

Stinging Nettle Leaves, finely chopped

Orange essential oil

4 Leaf Clovers, dried (for decoration)

Melt the soap in a double broiler

Add herbs, oils, etc.

Pour into mold

Then I pressed 4 leaf clovers into the soap

Allow to cool and harden completely

Beautiful!

Saving Tomato Seeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saving tomatoes seeds is easy.  In the past I have just scooped out seed and let them dry and had no major problems.  However the seeds stick together and can easily mold.  So this method below involves fermenting and guarantees that your seeds will be clean and disease free.

 

I like to start saving seeds right after I pick the tomatoes and I’m about to cook with them.  Cut the tomato in half and simply scoop out the seeds into a cup labeled with the tomato variety. 

 

Fill the seed cup half way full of water and wrap plastic over the top. I reused a plastic bag from plastic plates or cups. Poke holes in the plastic for air flow and sit the cup on a windowsill.

 

 

 

Stir the seeds a couple times over the next 3 days. You will see a layer of scum on top of the water and your seed will be on the bottom. Scrape the scum off and strain your seeds out. I used my plastic wrap to strain the seeds then let them air dry on top.

 

 

 

 

 

Once they are completely dried put them in a paper packet and don’t forget to label with the tomato variety and date (we’ve made a few mistakes not labeling correctly!).

Cotton

Growing Cotton

While looking through seed catalogs last winter I stumbled upon a cotton section in the Southern Exposure catalog.  I had never thought about growing cotton before, but as a hard core crafter I really wanted to try it out.  I bought a pack Red Foliated White Cotton; I got 18 plants out of the 20 seeds!  I started the seeds in small trays.  They quickly sprouted up and outgrew the trays. 

This is the size they were when I transplanted them outside in early May. I read that may people plant cotton in groups of 3. As a sort of experiment I put 3 plants in a pot and left them in the hoop house for the spring and summer. This proved to not be so great, because the cotton did not flower and produce as well. I moved the pot outside several weeks ago though and they started to look better.

 

The other 15 plants were planted in the ground at a neighbor’s house. One thing I never realized about cotton is that the flowers are beautiful! Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture early enough, but soon after they reach this height, large white flowers open up, and then they turned a dark red.

 

 

After the flowers finish blooming, this big alien looking bulbs grows. At this stage the plants started drooping a bit from the weight of the bulbs. I tied the groups of 3 plants together with a stake in one side to give them some support. I didn’t want a single precious branch to break!

 

 

Towards the end of the summer the bulb dries up, and opens to reveal puffs of cotton! With my tiny plot of cotton, I am able to collect pods here and there once they open to this level.

 

 

 

Now for the harvest

There were 5 puffs of cotton in each pod, and 5 to 6 seeds in each puff. So I pulled the cotton out and separated all the seeds with my fingers.

 

 

 

This how much cotton I got from only 2 pods, plus I now have about 50 seeds, and 2 really cool looking pod husks (not sure what I will do with them yet!). And there are many more pods that should open up in the next few weeks.

 

I still haven’t decided what I will do with my cotton either. I can’t think of much use for cotton balls, I thought maybe q-tips. I’d like to try spinning it into thread, better yet fabric, but thread seems a bit more doable this year. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make a spinner, so check back soon for more information on that!

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

It’s been a couple weeks since my first try at making pickles and we had 2 more monster cucumbers ready to go.  So I decided to try a slightly more complex pickle recipe from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. 

First I rinsed and rubbed the little spikes off the cucumbers, then sliced and quartered them.   I threw a few Mini Red Bell Peppers and Thai Hot Peppers in too.  I cut the peppers in half, mainly just so I could save those precious seeds! I put all the veggies in a big plastic bowl and set it aside.

I added 2 cups of water, 2 cups white vinegar, 3 tbsp pickling salt, ¼ cup sugar and 2 tbsp pickling mix in a stainless steel pot.  I bought a traditional old world pickling spice from a spice shop, but here is a recipe that's pretty standard.  I brought this mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar and salt dissolved.  Then cover the pot and boil for an additional 10 minutes.

 

I poured this liquid over my veggies, covered it with a plastic bag (the recipe recommended wax paper, but I was out of it) and let it sit until it cooled to room temperature.

 

 

 

While cooling I sterilized 4 pint size mason jars and lids by washing them with soap and then boiling in water for a few minutes.  I added about a tbsp of vinegar to the water, because I read somewhere along the way that this helps keep the jars from getting cloudy.  I think it worked!  In each jar I added: 1 ½ tsp dill seeds plus a few dried dill flower heads from the garden, 1 tsp mustard seed, ¼ tsp pepper corns and a large garlic clove chopped in big chunks. 

Once the veggies cooled, I stuffed them into the jars and filled with the pickling mixture leaving ½ inch of space at the top of the jar.  I put the lids on and put them in the refrigerator.  Now we have to wait 3 weeks and the pickles should be good for at least 3 months.  I love pickles!  And my house smells amazing right now form all those spices!

Tabasco Sauce Recipe

While at our neighborhood farmer’s market I noticed a friend selling a bag of tabasco peppers.  I really wanted to make tabasco sauce this year, but my plants are still about 5 inches tall so sadly I don’t expect to get any peppers from them.  But since the market was almost over and no one else showed any interest in the peppers, my friend gave them to me and in return I would make us some hot sauce.

While looking around for recipes I stumbled upon this site that has several different tabasco pepper recipes.  Apparently the real Tabasco sauce is still made by taking tabasco peppers and salt and letting the mixture ferment for 3 years in oak barrels.  It’s pretty cool they still use this technique, and don’t have to add anything else except some vinegar, so you can really taste the pepper.

I didn’t want to wait 3 years for our sauce so I went with the 1947 Tabasco Sauce Recipe.  I can’t remember what tabasco sauce tastes like exactly, but mine turned out sweet and spicy.  I’ve been putting it on all kinds of food; veggie burgers, eggs, soups, etc.  I would definitely use this recipe again.  Here is what I did…

To start, I had way more peppers than the recipe called for so I adjusted the recipe accordingly.  I ended up with about 150 peppers.  I pulled the little green caps off them, and I saved the seeds from the largest peppers by slicing them down the middle and scooping the seeds into a bowl.

 

 

 

Then I peeled 4 big garlic cloves and put them in a pot with my peppers and 4 cups of water.  I let the peppers and garlic simmer until they were tender.  Maybe there is a better way to do this, but this stage was pretty intense.  The hot pepper fumes filled the house and made our eyes water.  Once I put a lid on the pot and got all the fans going it became bearable, so I would recommend doing this from the beginning.

 

Once everything was nice and tender I put the mixture in a blender.  Then I dumped the pepper mash through a strainer over a bowl in order to keep the seeds and skins out of my sauce.  I put the liquid back into the pot and added: 4 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp salt, 4 tsp wasabi powder, and 4 cups of white vinegar.  The recipe calls for horseradish and hot vinegar, I didn’t have either so I substituted these ingredients for wasabi (since it’s similar to horseradish) and white distilled vinegar.  I let this mixture simmer for a while until all the ingredients were blended together.  Then I poured the sauce into mason jars and immediately through some on a sandwich!  Adds great flavor, I just don’t know how long it’s going to last because we can’t stop eating it!

Drying Herbs

Many of our herbs are starting to flower. I wanted to start drying bunches so we can use them all winter long.  Today I harvested a few different types: spicy globe basil, purple shisho, greek oregano, summer savory and some of our hopi red dye amaranth that was knocked over by our gourds!  First I washed all the leaves as best as I could (except for the amaranth, it’s too fragile) and let them dry off.

For hardier herbs like oregano, savory, rosemary, etc you can simply air dry them out of direct sunlight.  Just gather them in bunches from the stems, tie together and hang.  I always have lots of dust, dirt and animal hair in my house so I prefer to be safe and put a brown paper bag around the herb bunches.  I took some scrap fabric strips and tied the herb bunches tightly together. 

 

Then I placed the herbs in brown paper bags, cut a small hole in the bag and inserted the fabric strips through the hole. 

I tied the strips tightly around the outside of the bag, and tied an additional loop with the excess fabric so I could hang the bag. 

Worked out pretty well!  I hung them under a shelf that doesn’t get much sun.

For herbs with delicate, soft leaves like basils or mints you have to dry them quickly.  So you can use a dehydrator, which I do not have, or your oven.  I just spread my basil and shisho out on a cookie sheet, turned my oven to the lowest setting, and checked on the herbs frequently, flipping them over here and there.  It took about 3 hours until they were completely dried.  Then I pulled the leaves off the stems and stored them in air tight containers out of sunlight.

Turkey Feather Hair Weave

My sister gave me these wonderful turkey feathers months ago.  I haven’t been able to figure out anything to do with them other than hanging them around the house.  I wanted to put one in my hair, but they are so stiff and bulky I wasn’t quite sure how to do it.  I finally just went for it and this is what I came up with.  Still a little stiff but worked out ok.  And even though I bent it sleeping the first night it still holds its shape nicely.  I’m hoping my hair will just dread up around the feather, but it looks good either way (and it’s been about a week since I did this)!

MATERIALS:  Feather, wire, clear drying craft glue, thread

First I cut away as much of the center stem as I could using a razor blade (be careful!) and some heavy duty kitchen scissors.   And I cut some of the top off so the feather was a little shorter than the length of my hair.

Then I poked a couple holes in the top of the feather with a sewing pin (any needle-like tool will work, I’ve even used pin backs for this).  I threaded a piece of wire through the holes and then wrapped the wire around a small section of my hair near the roots.  Wrap as tightly as possible and cut off any excess wire.

I divided my hair in 2 and braided my hair around the feather using the feather as the third braiding piece.  I continued braiding past the feather, and then wrapped the excess hair around the base of the feather.

I took a little bit of sewing thread and stitched the braid end in place, knotting it a couple times for added security.  Then I dipped the tip of my hair in glue, let it dry and I was good to go!

Amazing Huckleberry & Plum Pie

Some friends planted a few Huckleberry bushes in the garden this past spring and they are covered in berries.  We had to start making something with them and what better than Huckleberry pie!  We also picked up some awesome little plums from our friends at Allways Farm Collective in Indiana.  We wanted a super simple pie recipe, after a bit of searching I found this perfect one on Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake.  We adjusted it a little since we didn’t have all the ingredients, and about half as much fruit, but it turned out great.  A perfect little pie for 2 and now we know how to make simple fruit pies for any season!

First we harvested our huckleberries and removed the stems.

Then cut up and deseeded our plums (we had about 1.5 – 2 cups total fruit). And we saved those pits of course!

Squeezed half a lemon over the fruit and mixed together.

Then we mixed in ½ tbsp corn starch, ⅛ cup brown sugar and a few dashes of salt.

We used half a box of one of those store bought pie crusts where you just add water.  Then rolled the dough out onto a floured pizza stone and scooped the fruit mix into the center.  Then added a few slivers of margarine.

Then we folded in the sides of the dough, sprayed it with a little oil and dusted it with chunky sugar.

Baked it for about 40 minutes at 375° until it was golden brown

Amazing!  We made this pie 2 days ago and there are already plenty more huckleberries ready to go!  We are thinking about trying huckleberry, goji berry tarts next.

Harvesting Radish Seeds

Yesterday my boyfriends and I spent the day making art and harvesting radish seeds.  We let about a quarter of our radishes go to seed, but I had no idea how many seeds would come off of one little radish!  I also didn’t realize you can eat the little pods that are produced, at least when they are younger and tenderer.  So I will have to try that with the next planting! 

We ended up mixing the seeds from our 2 varieties of radishes, but oh well, they are both small radishes.  Easter Egg Radish, which look like little round eggs, and Cincinnati Market Radish, which we had to try being from Cincinnati and all!  Plus they are long carrot shaped, which was pretty interesting looking and great for pickling. 

Here is what the pods looked like still on the branches.  Basically we just pulled all the pods off and then started breaking them open.  They have a strange foamy texture and break apart really easy with little mess.  So saving radish seeds is super easy!  And now we have enough seed to plant a whole radish forest!  Hopefully we can get a good fall crop in once the weather cools down a little.

Making Mustard from Seed

We had mustard greens popping up all over the garden earlier in the year.  We let one of them go to seed just to see what happened and try to save some seeds.  The plant looked like some amazing alien thing, just this tall spindly little tree with pods all over it.  For some reason it didn’t occur to me at first that this is where mustard comes from!  And I love mustard, so I had to try making it from scratch!  I used this recipe as my base, but had to cut it in half because we had nowhere near ½ cup of seeds.  You can also just buy seeds at a grocery store if you don't want to wait for plants to mature.

We harvested the mustard by cutting all the branches with pods and shoving them into a brown paper bag.  Then let it sit out of direct sunlight for a couple weeks till the pods were completely dry.

Next came the incredibly time consuming task of deseeding the pods.  My boyfriend and I sat for hours cracking open pod after pod.  When we finally had our measly amount of seeds extracted (about ¼ cup), we added them to ⅟6 cup of water and let them soak for 10 minutes.  Then added ⅜ cup of apple cider vinegar and let it sit for 2 days in the refrigerator.  This site tells you everything you would ever want to know about mustard, which is where I learned to let the seeds soak in water for 10 minutes before adding the vinegar.  I also discovered here that using cold liquid helps preserve that bite that mustard has, which I definitely wanted.  But for more mellow mustard, warm liquids can be used.

Then we added ¾ tsp sugar and mashed the mixture up until it was somewhat creamy.  We put the mustard in a mason jar and then again had to wait a day or 2.  The mustard is really spicy at first, but mellows out after a couple days. 

Now I want to plant a whole bed up with mustard.  If only we had the space.  One day though!