Green Is Groovy

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2012-01-23T13:37:00.002-05:00

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Growing Garlic in Containers

2012-01-15T06:55:00.000-05:00

With much thanks to: zteve t evans

Growing Garlic in Containers

Garlic is an important ingredient in a great variety of foods and recipes. As well as its flavour and taste garlic has antiviral, anti-fungal and antibiotic properties and is believed to be beneficial for a number of ailments.

Container gardening is a growing trend making it possible for people who have small gardens, or even none at all, to enjoy growing their own, home grown vegetables, fruits and herbs. There are special varieties of many different plants that are suitable for container growing.

The first thing that is required is a deep container. Chose one that is at least 8 inches deep and it needs preferably to be placed where it gets plenty of sun. Some shade is acceptable but there does need to be times of good sun exposure.

Buying Garlic Cloves

There are many varieties of garlic readily available from supermarkets, garden centres and even local corner shops. If you want organic garlic ensure that it is certified as such before buying.

If you buy a bulb of garlic then peel the outer layer you will find that inside it is divided up into cloves. Do not plant the bulb but separate the cloves as each clove will grow into a bulb.

Planting the Cloves

Each clove will have a pointed end which needs to be place point upwards in about 2 inches of soil and be planted about 1 foot away from each other. This will give each plant enough space to grow and provide adequate nutrition from the soil. Containers sometimes dry out quite quickly and they will need regular watering.

Planting garlic outside generally takes place after the first frost, in the autumn, or winter. Indoors, garlic can be planted at any time of year as long as it receives adequate sunlight.

Garlic usually soon sprouts sending up a long green shoot called a scape. It is best to cut this off to prevent the plant going to seed. When cut the scape can be used in food like a mild onion. It is important not to let the plant flower as this produces smaller and less flavoursome cloves.

Harvesting

When the garlic is ready for harvesting the leaves will turn to a yellowish or brownish colour and the bulb can be uprooted and used as required.

You may notice that your bulbs are not as large as those found in shops and stores but this is normal and because it is difficult to reproduce the perfect conditions for growth at home that commercial growers can provide. Do not let this put you off because yours will be home grown and you will know what if anything that has been put on it.

Your home grown garlic can be stored in a refrigerator, or dried and stored on a shelf, or it can be used fresh when it is picked.

Learn more about this author, zteve t evan

Plant Companions: List for Ten Common Vegetables

2011-12-30T11:47:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of friends and foes for ten common vegetables. We'd suggest separating foes and friends on opposite sides of the garden or at least 4 feet away. Read our full article about plant companions.

With Thanks to: http://www.almanac.com/content/plant-companions-list-ten-common-vegetables

BEANS		CORN		ONIONS
FRIEND	FOE	FRIEND	FOE	FRIEND	FOE
Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Corn Cucumbers Eggplant Peas Potatoes Radishes Squash Strawberries Summer savory Tomatoes	Garlic Onions Peppers Sunflowers	Beans Cucumbers Lettuce Melons Peas Potatoes Squash Sunflowers	Tomatoes	Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Lettuce Peppers Potatoes Spinach Tomatoes	Beans Peas Sage
		CUCUMBERS		PEPPERS
		Beans Cabbage Cauliflower Corn Lettuce Peas Radishes Sunflowers	Aromatic herbs Melons Potatoes	Basil Coriander Onions Spinach Tomatoes	Beans Kohlrabi
CABBAGE		LETTUCE		RADISHES
Beans Celery Cucumbers Dill Kale Lettuce Onions Potatoes Sage Spinach Thyme	Broccoli Cauliflower Strawberries Tomatoes	Asparagus Beets Brussels sprouts Cabbage Carrots Corn Cucumbers Eggplant Onions Peas Potatoes Radishes Spinach Strawberries Sunflowers Tomatoes	Broccoli	Basil Coriander Onions Spinach Tomatoes	Beans Kohlrabi
CARROTS				TOMATOES
Beans Lettuce Onions Peas Radishes Rosemary Sage Tomatoes	Anise Dill Parsley			Asparagus Basil Beans Borage Carrots Celery Dill Lettuce Melons Onions Parsley Peppers Radishes Spinach Thyme	Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Corn Kale Potatoes

Related Products:
The beautifully photographed 2012 Recipe Calendar features seasonal recipes that are both easy to cook and delicious, along with helpful hints and advice, and much more.

Companion Planting: The Three Sisters

2011-12-30T11:44:00.000-05:00

With Thanks To: http://www.almanac.com/content/companion-planting-three-sisters

The classic example of happy companion plants is the legendary"three sisters"—corn, pole beans, and either pumpkins or squash. This trio is one of the easiest and most satisfying to grow.

Tips for growing the three sisters:

To try them in your garden, in spring, prepare the soil by adding fish scraps or wood ash to increase fertility, if desired.
Make a mound of soil about a foot high and four feet wide.
When the danger of frost has passed, plant the corn in the mound. Sow six kernels of corn an inch deep and about ten inches apart in a circle of about 2 feet in diameter.
When the corn is about 5 inches tall, plant four bean seeds, evenly spaced, around each stalk. About a week later, plant six squash seeds, evenly spaced, around the perimeter of the mound.

Each of the sisters contributes something to the planting. Together, the sisters provide a balanced diet from a single planting.

As older sisters often do, the corn offers the beans needed support.
The beans, the giving sister, pull nitrogen from the air and bring it to the soil for the benefit of all three.
As the beans grow through the tangle of squash vines and wind their way up the cornstalks into the sunlight, they hold the sisters close together.
The large leaves of the sprawling squash protect the threesome by creating living mulch that shades the soil, keeping it cool and moist and preventing weeds.
The prickly squash leaves also keep away raccoons, which don't like to step on them.

By the time European settlers arrived in America in the early 1600s, the Iroquois had been growing the "three sisters" for over three centuries. The vegetable trio sustained the Native Americans both physically and spiritually. In legend, the plants were a gift from the gods, always to be grown together, eaten together, and celebrated together.

Read our article on Companion Gardening to learn more about which plants are friends—or foes!

My Kind of Town!

2011-12-12T09:15:00.001-05:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2072383/Eccentric-town-Todmorden-growing-ALL-veg.html

Carrots in the car park. Radishes on the roundabout. The deliciously eccentric story of the town growing ALL its own veg

By VINCENT GRAFF

Last updated at 4:31 PM on 10th December 2011

Admittedly, it sounds like the most foolhardy of criminal capers, and one of the cheekiest, too.

Outside the police station in the small Victorian mill town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, there are three large raised flower beds.

If you’d visited a few months ago, you’d have found them overflowing with curly kale, carrot plants, lettuces, spring onions — all manner of vegetables and salad leaves.

Today the beds are bare. Why? Because people have been wandering up to the police station forecourt in broad daylight and digging up the vegetables. And what are the cops doing about this brazen theft from right under their noses? Nothing.

Food for thought: Todmorden resident Estelle Brown, a former interior designer, with a basket of home-grown veg

Well, that’s not quite correct.

‘I watch ’em on camera as they come up and pick them,’ says desk officer Janet Scott, with a huge grin. It’s the smile that explains everything.

For the vegetable-swipers are not thieves. The police station carrots — and thousands of vegetables in 70 large beds around the town — are there for the taking. Locals are encouraged to help themselves. A few tomatoes here, a handful of broccoli there. If they’re in season, they’re yours. Free.

So there are (or were) raspberries, apricots and apples on the canal towpath; blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries beside the doctor’s surgery; beans and peas outside the college; cherries in the supermarket car park; and mint, rosemary, thyme and fennel by the health centre.

The vegetable plots are the most visible sign of an amazing plan: to make Todmorden the first town in the country that is self-sufficient in food.

‘And we want to do it by 2018,’ says Mary Clear, 56, a grandmother of ten and co-founder of Incredible Edible, as the scheme is called.

‘It’s a very ambitious aim. But if you don’t aim high, you might as well stay in bed, mightn’t you?’

More...

So what’s to stop me turning up with a huge carrier bag and grabbing all the rosemary in the town?

‘Nothing,’ says Mary.

What’s to stop me nabbing all the apples?

‘Nothing.’

All your raspberries?

‘Nothing.’

It just doesn’t happen like that, she says. ‘We trust people. We truly believe — we are witness to it — that people are decent.’

When she sees the Big Issue seller gathering fruit for his lunch, she feels only pleasure. What does it matter, argues Mary, if once in a while she turns up with her margarine tub to find that all the strawberries are gone?

‘This is a revolution,’ she says. ‘But we are gentle revolutionaries. Everything we do is underpinned by kindness.’

The idea came about after she and co-founder Pam Warhurst, the former owner of the town’s Bear Cafe, began fretting about the state of the world and wondered what they could do.

They reasoned that all they could do is start locally, so they got a group of people, mostly women, together in the cafe.

Incredible Edible is about more than plots of veg. It's about educating people about food, and stimulating the local economy (pictured Vincent Graff and Estelle)

‘Wars come about by men having drinks in bars, good things come about when women drink coffee together,’ says Mary.

‘Our thinking was: there’s so much blame in the world — blame local government, blame politicians, blame bankers, blame technology — we thought, let’s just do something positive instead.’

We’re standing by a car park in the town centre. Mary points to a housing estate up the hill. Her face lights up.

‘The children walk past here on the way to school. We’ve filled the flower beds with fennel and they’ve all been taught that if you bite fennel, it tastes like a liquorice gobstopper. When I see the children popping little bits of herb into their mouths, I just think it’s brilliant.’

She takes me over to the front garden of her own house, a few yards away.

Three years ago, when Incredible Edible was launched, she did a very unusual thing: she lowered her front wall, in order to encourage passers-by to walk into her garden and help themselves to whatever vegetables took their fancy.

There were signs asking people to take something but it took six months for folk to ‘get it’, she says.

They get it now. Obviously a few town-centre vegetable plants — even thousands of them — are not going to feed a community of 15,000 by themselves.

But the police station potatoes act as a recruiting sergeant — to encourage residents to grow their own food at home.

Today, hundreds of townspeople who began by helping themselves to the communal veg are now well on the way to self-sufficiency.

But out on the street, what gets planted where? There’s kindness even in that.

‘The ticket man at the railway station, who was very much loved, was unwell. Before he died, we asked him: “What’s your favourite vegetable, Reg?” It was broccoli. So we planted memorial beds with broccoli at the station. One stop up the line, at Hebden Bridge, they loved Reg, too — and they’ve also planted broccoli in his memory.’

Not that all the plots are — how does one put this delicately? — ‘official’.

Take the herb bushes by the canal. Owners British Waterways had no idea locals had been sowing plants there until an official inspected the area ahead of a visit by the Prince of Wales last year (Charles is a huge Incredible Edible fan).

Estelle Brown, a 67-year-old former interior designer who tended the plot, received an email from British Waterways.

‘I was a bit worried to open it,’ she says. ‘But it said: “How do you build a raised bed? Because my boss wants one outside his office window.”’

Incredible Edible is also about much more than plots of veg. It’s about educating people about food, and stimulating the local economy.

There are lessons in pickling and preserving fruits, courses on bread-making, and the local college is to offer a BTEC in horticulture. The thinking is that young people who have grown up among the street veg may make a career in food.

Crucially, the scheme is also about helping local businesses. The Bear, a wonderful shop and cafe with a magnificent original Victorian frontage, sources all its ingredients from farmers within a 30-mile radius.

There’s a brilliant daily market. People here can eat well on local produce, and thousands now do.

Meanwhile, the local school was recently awarded a £500,000 Lottery grant to set up a fish farm in order to provide food for the locals and to teach useful skills to young people.

Jenny Coleman, 62, who retired here from London, explains: ‘We need something for our young people to do. If you’re an 18-year-old, there’s got to be a good answer to the question: why would I want to stay in Todmorden?’

The day I visit, the town is battered by a bitterly-cold rain storm. Yet the place radiates warmth. People speak to each other in the street, wave as neighbours drive past, smile.

If the phrase hadn’t been hijacked, the words ‘we’re all in this together’ would spring to mind.

So what sort of place is Todmorden (known locally, without exception, as ‘Tod’)? If you’re assuming it’s largely peopled by middle-class grandmothers, think again. Nor is this place a mecca for the gin-and-Jag golf club set.

Set in a Pennine valley — once, the road through the town served as the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire — it is a vibrant mix of age, class and ethnicity.

A third of households do not own a car; a fifth do not have central heating.

You can snap up a terrace house for £50,000 — or spend close to £1 million on a handsome stone villa with seven bedrooms.

And the scheme has brought this varied community closer together, according to Pam Warhurst.

Take one example. ‘The police have told us that, year on year, there has been a reduction in vandalism since we started,’ she says. ‘We weren’t expecting this.’

So why has it happened?

Pam says: ‘If you take a grass verge that was used as a litter bin and a dog toilet and turn it into a place full of herbs and fruit trees, people won’t vandalise it. I think we are hard-wired not to damage food.’

Pam reckons a project like Incredible Edible could thrive in all sorts of places. ‘If the population is very transient, it’s difficult. But if you’ve got schools, shops, back gardens and verges, you can do it.’

Similar schemes are being piloted in 21 other towns in the UK, and there’s been interest shown from as far afield as Spain, Germany, Hong Kong and Canada. And, this week, Mary Clear gave a talk to an all-party group of MPs at Westminster.

Todmorden was visited by a planner from New Zealand, working on the rebuilding of his country after February’s earthquake.

Mary says: ‘He went back saying: “Why wouldn’t we rebuild the railway station with pick-your-own herbs? Why wouldn’t we rebuild the health centre with apple trees?”

‘What we’ve done is not clever. It just wasn’t being done.’

The final word goes to an outsider. Joe Strachan is a wealthy U.S. former sales director who decided to settle in Tod with his Scottish wife, after many years in California.

He is 61 but looks 41. He became active with Incredible Edible six months ago, and couldn’t be happier digging, sowing and juicing fruit.

I find myself next to him, sheltering from the driving rain. Why, I ask, would someone forsake the sunshine of California for all this?

His answer sums up what the people around here have achieved.

‘There’s a nobility to growing food and allowing people to share it. There’s a feeling we’re doing something significant rather than just moaning that the state can’t take care of us.

‘Maybe we all need to learn to take care of ourselves.’

The Truth About Canned Soup

2011-12-08T12:46:00.001-05:00

ORIGINAL SOURCE: http://www.rodale.com/canned-soup-0?page=0,0&cm_mmc=Twitter-_-Rodale-_-Content-RecentNews-_-homemadealtstocannedsoup

The Truth About Canned Soup
Your soup could be canned up in a chemical stew.
By Leah Zerbe

Your soup could be canned up in a chemical stew.
By Leah Zerbe

Topics: food packaging

Don't know what's in your canned soup? You're not alone.

Soup is a must-have for chilly winter days and to battle anything that ails you, be it a nasty cold or a case of the winter blues. Plus, now that it comes in cans, cups, and drinkable bottles, it's easy to grab on the go. But what are you getting when you slurp down that tomato soup, beefy stew, or other canned favorite? Often sold under a healthy halo, processed soups are full of a lot of ingredients that won't be listed on the label—such as industrial chemicals, pesticides, and weird food additives.

BPA
BPA is a chemical used in cash-register receipts and some plastics, but also in the epoxy resin liner of most metal food cans. The bummer? It's most likely leaching into your favorite soup, exposing you to the synthetic, estrogen-like substance that has been linked to obesity, breast and prostate cancers, and aggression and other behavioral problems in young girls. The amounts of BPA used in the cans varies drastically, but an alarming new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests we're ingesting dangerous levels of the hormone-mimicking chemical when we eat soup even once a day. The study's authors asked some participants to eat Progresso soup for lunch five days a week, while others ate homemade soup. All of the canned soup eaters had detectable levels of BPA in their urine at the end of the experiment. What's even more striking is the amount of the chemical detected after downing a can of soup once a day for five days. Compared to those eating fresh soup, the group eating canned soup saw BPA levels jumped more than 1,000 percent.

The huge spike in BPA seen after eating canned soup is "unlike anything we've ever seen," says Laura Vandenberg, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow of biology at the Center for Developmental and Regenerative Biology at Tufts University in Massachusetts. "The levels are shocking."

Sodium
Americans are seriously bingeing in the sodium department, a dangerous practice considering excess sodium doesn't just leave us looking bloated, but also can lead to life-threatening heart attack and stroke. A big reason sodium is such a problem has to do with deceptive labeling practices, explains Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director at Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). "On most canned soup labels, you'll see numbers in the 800- to 900-milligram (mg) range," she explains "That's already about half a day's worth for most Americans, and that assumes you're only consuming an eight-ounce serving."

Seriously, when have you eaten just half a can of soup? Probably never. And a recent survey showed that most people consider a full can of soup to be one serving, when most labels say the can contents serve two or more. Even when you eat a low-sodium soup that contains 400 mg of sodium per serving, you wind up with twice that amount if you actually eat the entire can in one sitting. If you're still going to go for canned soup, be aware of the serving sizes, and don't fall for claims like, "25 percent less sodium!" The sodium content still could be dangerously high.Read More:
9 Everyday Chemicals That Could Be Screwing with Your Fertility
Does This Chemical Make Me Look Fat? Obesogens Lurk All Around Us
11 Natural Cereals That Aren't

Flavor Enhancers
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) brings out wonderful flavors in canned soup, but if you're one of the many people sensitive to this flavor enhancer, the food additive could lead to a crushing headache. Animal studies have found that MSG is toxic to the brain, and researchers believe it causes migraines in people because it dilates blood vessels and impacts nerve cells in the brain. Along with headaches, people sensitive to MSG often experience pressure in the neck and face, sweating, abdominal cramps, and tingling in the fingers.

If MSG makes you sick, you should also look out for ingredients like "natural flavoring" and "hydrolyzed vegetable protein," two other additives that also contain glutamate, according to CSPI's Food Additives database.

Topics: food packaging

Don't know what's in your canned soup? You're not alone.

Pesticides and GMOs
As our food system becomes more industrialized, more and more farm chemicals are winding up not just on our food, but also in the food we eat. Within the last 20 years, chemical farmers have overwhelmingly adopted genetically modified seeds, or GMOs, for crops like corn and soy, two common ingredients in canned soup. (There are more than a dozen different ingredients derived from corn and soy.) These seeds have been genetically engineered to withstand heavy sprayings of Roundup, and when that happens, the pesticide is absorbed by the plant and winds up in your food. Roundup is used so heavily, in fact, thatscientists recently detected it in rain. Constant low-level exposure to the pesticide can cause obesity, heart problems, circulation problems, and diabetes, says Warren Porter, PhD, professor of environmental toxicity and zoology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As if that's not bad enough, the process of genetic modification, when a plant's DNA is changed in a lab, not by nature, is known to cause spontaneous abortion and infertility in animals and has been linked to the skyrocketing rates of food allergies in people over the past decade.

Healthy Soup Tips:

Making homemade soup may be a little more time consuming than popping open a can, but it comes without the chemicals, and you can freeze it for those days and nights when cooking a full meal isn't feasible. Try one of these healthy soup recipes or just wing it. "Clean Out the Refrigerator" Soup is a great way to use up about-to-go-bad vegetables or small bits of pasta or dried beans you have lying around.

When you do make homemade soups, start with homemade stock. Like soup, it's a lot easier to make than you realize. "Use a pressure cooker," advises Joy Manning, nutrition editor ofPrevention magazine. "Many stores sell chicken backs and necks for pennies a pound and, if not, a few pounds of whole chicken wings makes for a particularly rich stock." Or, save the bones, skin, and leftovers from the last chicken or turkey you carved up and use those. Cook everything at high pressure for 1 hour—"throw in a halved onion, a carrot, and a stalk of celery or two if you have them," Manning suggests—strain with a fine sieve, and you have several quarts of amazing stock ready for your next soup-making session.

Alternatively, you can buy commercial stocks and soups packaged in glass or cartons, which are BPA free, or dry soup mixes that need nothing more than some water and an hour or two on your stove. Always opt for organic brands.

A Farm Grows in Brooklyn - Video

2011-12-08T10:10:00.002-05:00

Using Human Urine In Composting

2011-10-09T09:47:00.000-04:00

I find this fascinating!

How To Make Coconut Butter

2011-09-27T10:00:00.001-04:00

I love this idea. I was looking on amazon.com for Coconut Butter...oh I found it alright -but- THE PRICE TAG!!!!!! -So- I did what any frugal minded person would do... did a web search on: 'How to make coconut butter'

..and here you have it...

How To Make Coconut Milk

2011-09-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

Being a Vegetarian (and poor) I am always looking for a frugal, environmentally responsible method of getting what I need. I like this!!!

More on Composting ~ Video

2011-09-06T11:10:00.000-04:00

Ways To Use Old Prescription Bottles

2011-09-02T19:27:00.000-04:00

Before reusing any empty prescription bottle in anyway take off the labels, so no one has access to your personal information and then clean and sanitize the bottles thoroughly.

I am on several different medications and was looking for ways to use reuse empty bottles rather than toss them in the recycle bin....here are a few ideas I found from creative people who were kind enough to take their time to post and share...o them I say: Thank You!

STORAGE

1. Store seeds inside the bottles and then label the bottles according to the seeds they hold. Seeds that need to be kept cold can easily be placed inside the fridge in these bottles.

2. Glue several bottles next to each other and use the glued collection on your desk as a storage system for all your tiny things: rubber bands, paper clips, hair pins, needles, nails, bolts, screws, matches, etc. Or just place some fresh flowers inside to brighten up your office.

3. If you need a coin holder to place in your purse or your car, place your loose change in the prescription bottles. No more looking everywhere for change especially if you need to pay the toll.

DONATION
4. Donate your empty prescription bottles to your local vet, animal shelters, Some places will take prescription bottles and reuse them to fill prescriptions for the animals.

5. Personally I use them to store loose beads for jewelry making

6. Homeless shelters sometimes take empty prescription bottles. Call your local homeless shelter to find out if they do.

PETS
7. Makes a nice rattle/toy for cats (not babies). Put some dried beans inside and close it tight. Then let them play.

ART
8. If you like to paint decorative pieces and buy paint in large sizes to save money you can transfer some paint to these small containers to work on one or two projects at a time without using up all the paint or letting it dry up.

Note: I have read in several places that it is not wise to use prescription bottles for any kind of food storage due to the residue that some prescriptions leave behind so please use caution if you decide to use any of the food storage tips below.

9. Here is an early valentine gift idea that involves reusing brown prescription bottles. Susan from Houston, TX fills hers up with chocolate kisses, relabels them “Rx for a Happy Valentine’s Day, lots of hugs and kisses!” and then gives them to the people she loves.
Caution: Putting candy in a prescription bottle can confuse a child. Please be careful about where you place these reused prescription bottles and your real ones. Children can’t tell the difference between one and the other.

10.WARNING: First clean & soak with hot soapy water very, very well !!!! Turn prescription bottles into saltshakers. Paint the bottles or leave as is. Poke tiny holes in the caps then fill them with salt or pepper and use them as saltshakers. 11. If you pack salad for lunch a prescription bottle is a tiny storage place to store some salad dressing. <--- First clean & soak with hot soapy water very, very well !!!!

EMERGENCY
12. You never know when your clothes will rip or you’ll loose a button. A Mini Sewing kits would come in handy in a case like this. Some prescription bottles are big enough to store some needles and thread and maybe more.

13. A tiny emergency kit for a cut or scrape can fit in a prescription bottle: band-aids, cotton balls, q-tips and some tiny alcohol wipes.

14. Use to neatly store plastic bags in your purse in case you suddenly need a plastic bag, say during a car ride with someone that tends to get motion sickness

CRAFTS
15. Store thread spools in prescription bottles to prevent it from tangling. See how here.

16. Melt them and make them into jewelry. This is supposed to be a fun kids craft. For instructions on how to melt certain types of prescriptions bottles go here.

Note: I do not know what kind of pollution this release in the air. For less air pollution maybe they can just be cut into pieces.

17. Store buttons, beads and other small craft items in these bottles.

18. Make a Snowman Christmas Ornament out of a prescription bottle. For directions go here. <---Really cute.

***REMEMBER***
Wash well AND SOAK WITH HOT SOAPY WATER your empty ALL Prescription bottles before they are reused.

Homemade Furniture Polish

2011-06-12T13:31:00.000-04:00

Click on the link below to go to the orignal site:

Homemade Furniture Polish

This is made of all green ingredients. No chemicals to spread throughout your home, inexpensive, and it has a wonderful lemony fragrance.
Homemade Furniture Polish
Mix together the following ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon whiskey or brandy
1 teaspoon water
Rub onto furniture with a soft cloth or sponge, then buff with chamois for a deep shine.
If you are doing a full day of housecleaning, you will probably need to double or triple the recipe.

An Eye Opening Post From One of The Yahoo Web Rings I Belong To

2011-05-13T17:03:00.000-04:00

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GREEN THING

In the line at the store, the young cashier told the older woman that she should
bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the
environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained,
"We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today.
The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, they returned their milk bottles,
soda bottles and beer bottles to the store.
The store sent them back to the plant to be washed
and sterilized and refilled,
so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs,
because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and
didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine
every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers
because they didn't have the throw-away kind.
They dried clothes on a line,
not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -
wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters,
not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house -
not a TV in every room.
And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief,
not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because
they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you.
When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail,
they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it,
not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline
just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.
They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club
to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty
instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time
they had a drink of water.
They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen,
and they replaced the razor blades in a razor
instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus
and kids rode their bikes to school or walked
instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.
They had one electrical outlet in a room,
not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And they didn't need a computerized gadget
to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space
in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks
were just because they didn't have the green thing back then? WOW!!

How to Turn a Pallet into a Garden

2011-05-01T11:40:00.001-04:00

How to Turn a Pallet into a Garden

How to Turn a Pallet into a Garden

by Fern on March 25, 2011

Good news and bad news. I had planned to film a short video showing you how to make a pallet garden, but the weather didn’t cooperate. I was stapling the landscape fabric onto the pallet when it started drizzling and got really windy. That’s the bad news. But I know I promised a tutorial today, so I took photos and have kept my word to share how to make the pallet garden. I tried to be as detailed as possible. That’s the good news.

So keep reading my pallet loving friends, instructions on how to make your own pallet garden are just a few lines away…

Find a Pallet

The first thing you need to do is–obviously–find a pallet. I’ve had good luck finding them in dumpsters behind supermarkets. No need to be squeamish. It doesn’t smell. At least, it doesn’t smell that bad. Don’t just take the first pallet you find. You’re looking for one with all the boards in good condition, no nails sticking out, no rotting, etc. If you intend to put edibles in your pallet, be sure to find one that was heat treated as opposed to fumigated with pesticides.

Collect Your Supplies

For this project, you’ll need the pallet you found, 2 large bags of potting soil, 16 six packs of annual flowers (one six pack per opening on the face of the pallet, and two six packs per opening on the top of the completed pallet garden), a small roll of landscape fabric, a staple gun, staples, and sand paper.

Get Your Pallet into Shape

Once you’ve dragged your pallet home, give it a once over. Are any of the boards a little loose? Is the wood chipping in places? Nail down any loose boards, and use sand paper to smooth down any rough spots.

Let the Stapling Begin!

Decide which side of the pallet will be the bottom when the pallet garden is completed and leaning against the wall. You are going to be covering the bottom, back, and sides with landscape fabric, leaving the spaces between the slats and the top uncovered (you’ll be planting flowers in the uncovered spaces).

Lay the pallet face down. Roll the landscape fabric over the back. Cut two identically sized pieces that are long enough to go from the top edge of the back of the pallet and wrap all the way around the bottom, plus a few extra inches.

Hold the two pieces of landscape fabric together as if they were one piece of fabric. Fold over the top edge by one inch and center it on the top board of the back of the pallet. Staple the fabric into place near the top edge of the top board. Smooth the fabric out to the left and right and pull it taut. Staple the fabric down on the top, right edge of the top board. Repeat on the left side. Fill in between those three staples with one staple every two inches along the top edge of the top board.

When the top of the landscape fabric is securely attached to the top, back board, smooth the fabric down, and repeat the process along the bottom edge of the bottom board, except don’t fold the fabric under, leave a long flap on the bottom.

Pulling the fabric tautly along the bottom, fold the cut edge under, and staple the fabric down along the front edge of the bottom. Smooth the fabric out to the left and right and staple every two inches along the front edge of the bottom.

Now for the sides. Start near the bottom and fold the excess fabric inwards as if you were wrapping a present. Fold the cut edge of the fabric under and staple it down near the front, bottom edge of the side facade. Smooth the fabric out and place a staple every two inches along the front edge of the side of the pallet. The fabric should be taut but not in danger of tearing. Repeat on the other side of the pallet.

You should now have a pallet with landscape fabric wrapped around the sides, back, and bottom. Place more staples along the spine of the back side of the pallet, and anywhere else you think the fabric needs to be held down so that soil can’t creep into places you don’t want it to go.

Now for the Fun Part–Planting!

Bring the pallet close to wherever it’s final spot will be and lay it down face up. You’re going to plant it while it’s laying flat on the ground.

First slide the plants into what will be the top. Plant everything very tightly, you should have to practically shoe horn the last plant into place. Now that you have capped the top, pour the entire first bag of potting soil on top of the pallet. Push the soil into the pallet between the slats and smooth it out so that the soil is level. Repeat with the second bag of potting soil.

Push potting soil into the bottom cavity, so that there is a trench directly below one of the bottom openings. Plant six plants in the trench, so that they are very tightly fitted into the opening. Repeat with the other bottom opening. Now push the potting soil up against those flowers you just planted, making a trench beneath one of the openings in the second row. Plant your flowers tightly in that opening. Repeat for all the remaining openings.

When you’re done planting, you should have plants that are completely covering every opening (i.e. there shouldn’t be any place for soil to fall out). There should also be soil firmly pushed into every part of the pallet where there aren’t plants.

Caring For your Pallet

Now, I’m going to tell you what you should do, and I what I always end up doing (which is what you should not do). You should leave the pallet flat on the ground for a couple of weeks (watering when needed), so that the roots can start to grow in and hold all the plants in place. I can never wait though, so I always tip the pallet upright a few days after planting. Some soil does fall out, but it seems to be okay. But I think it would be better if you left it to settle and only tipped it upright after a few weeks. Do as I say, not as I do.

Water your pallet regularly, they dry out quickly. Pay special attention to the bottom two openings, they seem to be the driest. Fertilize with water soluble fertilizer added to your watering can (follow package instructions for amount and frequency).

Did I leave anything out? I’ll try to answer all questions left in the comments.

Don't Throw Away Those Egg Shells

2011-04-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

Compost for Naturally Fertilized Soil

Eggshells quickly decompose in the compost pile and add valuable calcium and other minerals to the soil in the process.

Nontoxic Pest Control in the Garden

Scatter crushed eggshell around your plants and flowers to help deter plant-eating slugs, snails and cutworms without using eco-unfriendly pesticides. Also, deer hate the smell of eggs.

Less Bitter Coffee

Add an eggshell to the coffee in the filter, and your morning coffee will be less bitter. The spent coffee grounds, eggshell and bio-degradable filter are then conveniently ready for the compost pile.

Seedling Starters

Fill biodegradable eggshell halves with potting soil instead of using peat pots to start seedlings for the garden. And an egg carton on the windowsill is the perfect way to start a dozen tomato seedlings in shells before transplanting to the garden in the spring.

Eco-friendly Household Abrasive

Shake crushed eggshells and a little soapy water to scour hard-to-clean items like thermoses and vases. Crushed eggshells can also be used as a nontoxic abrasive on pots and pans.

Natural Drain Cleaner

Keep a couple of crushed eggshells in your kitchen sink strainer at all times. They trap additional solids and they gradually break up and help to naturally clean your pipes on their way down the drain.

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Pale Blue Dot ~ Beautiful

2011-04-24T13:37:00.000-04:00

10 Tips for Recycling Coffee Grounds

2011-04-19T18:48:00.001-04:00

By Green Living Tips

Here's 10 quick tips for reusing coffee grounds:

If you have a worm farm, dump the grounds in - I swear the caffeine jolt makes the worms chomp through more. But seriously, it doesn't seem to do them any harm; but I'd recommend mixing them through the pile so the worms don't overdose on any residual caffeine.

Use coffee grounds as a plant fertilizer. Sprinkle the grounds around the base of the plant then dig them in a little. They can also be sprinkled directly on your lawn.

Add the grounds to compost piles to enrich nutrient content - the grounds contain Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium and Sulfur. Phosphorous is becoming scarce, so we need to conserve it as much as possible.

Add water to the grounds and allow to stand for a day or two. Drain off and then use as a liquid plant fertilizer - cold coffee that you'd usually toss down the sink can also be used in this way.

After drying the grounds thoroughly, add them to an old stocking. Tie off the ends and then use in cupboards and your refrigerator as an odor absorber. Alternatively, you can just place the dried grounds in a container of some sort.

Rubbing your hands with used coffee grounds will remove strong smells such as onion or fish.

Grounds can be used as a scourer for greasy pots and pans

A ring of coffee grounds around sensitive plants can discourage ants and some other pests.

Use as a wood stain. Allow them to soak in a small amount of water overnight (or hot water for a shorter period), then drain off. The amount of water you use will determine how dark the stain is. Also good for touch-ups to mahogany furniture.

This one's interesting and I can't say I've tried it. Dry out the coffee grounds in a warm (not hot) oven; then add equal weight of fresh coffee grounds and then use that mix to create another brew. After that brew, try one of the tips above - I wouldn't recommend repeating the cycle :).

By the way, a good tip for how *not* to use coffee grounds. Don't try to get rid of them via your kitchen sink. They'll stick to grease in the drain and form the basis for further build-up. Over a period of time this will totally clog the drain.

With all these wonderful re-use options for coffee grounds; perhaps hit your local coffee house and ask them if you can collect theirs on a regular basis. They'll reduce waste and you'll have a useful product - everyone wins! You might want to get in quick; since the time this article was originally published it seems many people have been doing just that, so used coffee grounds are becoming quite sought after.

30 Uses For Cereal Box Linings

2011-04-10T10:27:00.001-04:00

The humble cereal lining bag

A great planet saving recycling tip from a member of the 'Living Frugally' web group I belong to:

1. Snip off the bottom corner of a liner and you have a funnel for filling
those little containers like salt shakers or soap dispensers without the mess.

2. As a sandwich baggie. Slip your sandwich into the liner and wrap it up
to take it with you.

3. Prevent your shoes from getting crushed when packing or storing them
away. Bunch up the liner and stuff the shoe.

4. Packing material: Either use the liner bunched up as padding in a
shipping box or make your own air pillow by blowing air into the liner using a
straw and taping the liner closed.

5. Keep your fresh herbs fresher longer by storing them inside the liner
before putting them in the fridge.

6. Keep your wet pool clothes from touching your dry clothes in your gym
bag by slipping them into a liner first.

7. Snip off a small corner of the liner and add an icing tip (with or
without a coupler) then add the icicing and decorate.

8. A prep surface for foods, fresh fruit, you name it!

9. Use as a tray liner when making candies, dipping chocolates or making
chocolate covered pretzels. Lining a cookie sheet or tray first, the sweets can
cool on the tray or easily be transferred to the freezer for hardening, then
easily be peeled from the liner.

10. Use as an excellent zero-cost alternative to the store-bought kind of wax
paper.

11. Storing portions of frozen meat.

12. Rolling out cookie dough. (wet counter before putting liner down, this
will prevent slipping)

13. As pooper-scoopers for your pooch.

14. Lay the liner out on a surface to protect your table/furniture when
painting.

15. Reuse it as freezer strorage bag.

16. Use them as a disposal bag for dirty diapers.

17. Instead of using a Ziploc bag when youâ€™re making a shake and bake type
item, shake your food in a cereal box liner.

18. Crush crackers or nuts in them.

19. Use, instead of Ziploc bags, to pound/tenderize meat.

20.Use a cereal liner over your hand to pat down and spread warm rice crispy
treats in the pan when making them.

21.Cut into a circle to line a cake plate before placing cake on the plate.

22.As tracing paper to trace patterns.

23. Use to store fresh baked cookies or fresh treats, simply fold and clip the
top in place.

24. Sit in bowl near sink when peeling vegetables or preparing foods â€“ use to
carry cuttings to compost pile, or transfer messy items like meat trimming to
trash can.

25. Cut to size for a shelf liner under such things as honey or syrup,
refrigerator bin liner, or drawer liner for kitchen, bathroom, office or vanity.

26. Separate layers of meat, hamburgers, cheese, pancakes or other foods when
freezing.

27. Use to cover pies. Open the bag halfway, slip the cover over the pies with
the opening on the bottom and fold it over. Then label with a marker.

28. Reuse with vacuum food bag sealer. Saves on buying new rolls.

29. Put them at the bottom of the kitchen garbage can, saves time cleaning the
can as it catches drips.

30. Place the large ones at the bottom of the drawers of the refrigerator to
catch spills.

Do Not allow them to come in contact with food you are reheating in the
microwave, because the plastic can emit chemicals.

Cereal box liners are usually made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), the #2
plastic when comes to recycling. That means that most curbside recycling
programs that take #2 plastics will take cereal box liners. Double check with
your community's recycling rules before adding them to your recyclables.

Thrift Store Treasure: Three Royal China Jeannette Pie Plates

2011-04-10T10:15:00.000-04:00

Friday, on my way home from doing errands ( my son & nephew's Banking, a little grocery shopping, Pharmacy for me) I stopped at our Community Thrift Shop and found exactly one of the items I needed. This was an exciting find. a At $2.99 a piece I thought that they were just a wee bit pricy for a thrift shop -but- even so they were still priced considerably less that if I were to buy them new. I knew I was getting a huge bargin but little did I know how much of a bargin!! I did a little research online discovering that Royal China Jeannette are Collectables. Should I sell them or keep them? Decisions, Decisions......

priced at $45.00

Priced at $35.00

My Groovy Kitchen Composter

2011-04-06T15:07:00.001-04:00

I think I've finally mastered it. Last year and the year before that all I got was a stinking (and I do mean 'stinking') mess. This year, thanks to this video: http://denbeath1.blogspot.com/2011/02/easy-indoor-composting-video.html I have compost that smells like dirt and not rotting garbage!!! I am so impressed that I feel the need to brag...I mean ...'share'.

This is my compost just after I've mixed it for this week. I was shocked that it smelled like dirt, fresh dirt. I dump my used coffee grinds in here every morning so I never need to add any water.

I know this might sound odd but I use scissors to cut veggie scraps up into tiny pieces, I also tear up paper scraps into strips then cut them strips up as well. They incorporate easier and degrade faster.

My onion that went bad is going to be beautiful compost

All mixed. I think I might need to start another bucket.

Covered with a dish towel to discourage bugs

My groovy, handy-dandy compost mixing spoon stands ready for the next mixing

Easy Indoor Composting (video)

2011-02-14T09:23:00.000-05:00

I find it so disturbing to throw away my used coffee grounds, apple peelings, carrot heads, etc. etc because it's the stuff rich, fertile veggie garden soil is made of....okay, so I'm weird.... but that's another story......anyway I found this video and thought I'd share it with my fellow Old Hippies.

Plastic Milk Carton Mini Green Houses ~Fabulous Idea

2011-02-12T12:13:00.002-05:00

NOTE: You might want to mute the video.....LOL

Groovy Baby

Solar Heat For Plants~Clever Way To Recycle Plastic Soda Bottles

2011-02-12T12:01:00.000-05:00

How To Make Garden 'Grow-Bags'

2011-02-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to start planing my veggie garden. This is year three of my 'learning-via-mistakes' experiment and heaven knows, I've made some real doozies but I've also learned quit a bit too...plus, it's been fun, fascinating and interesting.

Last year I discovered 'grow-bags' at one of those chain hardware stores. Because of my limited physical abilities (back surgeries, spinal fusions) I can not dig a traditional garden nor lift more than 5 Lbs. so if I want to grew veggies, which I do I need to look for a less physically demanding method. Grow Bags look to be the answer but they are pretty darn pricey. A great idea but for me they are cost prohibitive -so- I did what I always do, surf the web looking for ideas on how to get what I need for next to nothing. Not because I'm cheap, to be perfectly frank, I am dirt poor: Here's what I've found:

For a wealth of info & advice visit: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/