Nothing warms body and soul in January more than a simmering pot of soup. No wonder it has been dubbed National Soup Month.

Making a pot of soup involves more than haphazardly throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pot of water and hoping for the best. I carefully choose each ingredient. Texture and color matter. Taste and smell matter. Everything matters. My soup is art.

The Stock

Soup begins with a quality stock—never out of a jar, can, or box; and certainly not water with bouillon cubes added. To get healthy stock, you must simmer bones, with a little apple cider vinegar added, for several hours. The vinegar extracts precious minerals from the bones. I suggest you make your stock in big batches and freeze or can for future use.

The Meat

Most Americans eat soup with a chicken or beef base. I have made soup with venison and pork with great success. Whatever meat you choose, make certain you have a stock on hand that will complement the flavor. You wouldn’t want to put venison in turkey broth, for example. Start with meat from organically raised, grass-fed animals. Cut into bite-sized pieces and brown in a little butter or olive oil. Once seared on the outside, add your onions and garlic and continue until the onion turns clear. Then add your stock and vegetables.

The Veggies

The choice of vegetables for your soup depends on several factors: what you have on hand, what you are in the mood for, and what sounds good together. Soup is intuitive. Trust your feelings on this. But here are a few pointers to get the most health value out of your soup:

• Don’t put in more than one brassica plant (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower). It makes it too gassy.
• Don’t mix beans with brassicas. Again, too much gas.
• Add greens or cabbage just before taking the soup off the stove so they don’t turn to mush.
• Mix the colors—eat the rainbow.
• Add grains sparingly. They will swell and take over the pot.

Creamed Soups

If you are making creamed soups, like my favorite potato soup recipe below, do not boil after adding the milk. You could curdle it or risk scorching. Add the milk, heat to hot, and serve. If you want a thick base, rather than a watery soup, I used to add potato flakes. A healthier alternative is to scoop out some of the soup, blend in the blender, and return to the pot. Do this until your soup is the right consistency.

Fixing Mistakes

One last point—no one is perfect and mistakes with soup can happen.

• If you add too much salt, peel and quarter a potato and add to the pot. The potato will absorb some of the salt. When the potato softens, remove and taste. If it is still too salty, add another potato.
• If your tomato base is too acidic, add a whole carrot. The carrot will cut the acid. As with the potato, cook until the carrot is soft, remove and taste. If needed, add another carrot.

Now, for my favorite and famous (at least with my family)

Creamy Cheesy Potato Soup:

 Ingredients:

• 5 pounds of potatoes, peeled and diced (This will feed a large family.)
• 1-2 onions, diced
• 1-2 carrots, diced (Sometimes I use broccoli, too.)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Lots of grated cheddar cheese (If you use Extra Sharp Cheddar, less will be required to get the same flavor and therefore reduce the fat content of your soup.)

Directions:

1. Prepare vegetables and put into stock pot with a thick bottom. Add enough water (or ham broth is good) to just cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are soft.
2. In batches, remove a few cups of the soup and carefully blend in blender until smooth. Return to pot. Continue doing this until soup is desired consistency. We like a few potato chunks left.
3. After blending, add enough milk to give soup a creamy look and taste. Return to heat until hot.
4. Once hot, add cheese and stir until melted.
5. Serve immediately with a fresh loaf of homemade bread.

Photo by 3liz4

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Arsenic in apple juice—the breaking news of the past week. Started by Dr. Mehmet Oz, on his popular television program, this controversy has either raised fear and doubt in the minds of parents that regularly give apple juice to their children, or fueled the fire of scoffers who do not really care. When I was asked to look into this matter and write a post on it, I have to admit that I was leaning toward the scoffer camp. But after serious investigation, I find myself taking a totally different stance—that of, “take it seriously, but don’t let it be your burden.” Let me explain.

I first thought it silly. I thought I knew that apple seeds naturally contain arsenic. My oldest son has eaten his apples, core and all, his entire life and he’s still kicking. “What’s the big deal?” I asked. Then after a little reading, I discovered that apples do not have arsenic in them, they have cyanide—an entirely different chemical. So, I kept digging; and here are the facts as I discovered them.

• Arsenic is a semi-metal element that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust.  You can neither taste nor smell it. It is used as a wood preservative, and in the manufacture of paints, dyes, certain drugs, soaps, and some electronic parts. In these manufacturing processes, and in the mining industry, it is released into the environment. Also, as pertinent to this discussion, it has been used extensively as a pesticide from the 1860s. Found to be effective against the codling moth on apple trees, orchards continued its use in the United States until 1988.
• The EPA limit for concentrations of arsenic in drinking water is 10 parts per billion.
• In September, The Dr. Oz Show reported test results of 36 samples from 5 different brands of apple juice purchased in 3 different locations across the country. The independent lab testing these samples found that 10 had higher arsenic levels than allowed in drinking water—up to 23 parts per billion. Dr. Oz also disclosed that 60% of the apple concentrate used in the production of apple juice comes from China—a country that has not yet banned the use of lead-arsenic insecticides.
• The FDA currently allows 23 parts per billion of arsenic in apple juice. However, the agency has never seized apple juice that exceeded that level.
• The FDA criticized Dr. Oz’s lab results because they only report the total arsenic levels, not inorganic arsenic versus organic arsenic. Most scientists agree that inorganic arsenic is toxic and a known carcinogen while organic arsenic is “less toxic.” However, in an appearance on Good Morning America Dr. Oz stated, “(There is) a lot of debate over the safety of organic arsenic; and the body converts organic to some types of inorganic that are very toxic. It is misleading to claim that all organic arsenic is safe.”
• This past Wednesday National Public Radio reported that Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, tested 88 samples of popular juice brands purchased in grocery stores. Ten percent of the samples contained more than 10 ppb (the legal limit for drinking water). As a result of these tests, Consumers Union asks the FDA to adjust their current standard of 23 ppb to 3 ppb.

And that is where we, the consumers, are left. Waiting, wondering, “What is our government going to decide is best for us?” However, as I reported after watching the movie Food, Inc., our government is not the one I want making these decisions for my family. What does Dr. Oz recommend? He said that he would not quit giving his 4 children apple juice. He said that drinking a box of apple juice is not going to cause irreparable damage to a child. He is concerned with long-term effects. He is concerned for the children that drink large quantities of apple juice. He said, bottom line, “The FDA should not allow more arsenic in our apple juice than they allow in our drinking water.”

That leads me to my “totally different stance.” Even if apple juice had no harmful arsenic, should children be drinking large quantities of it? One mom commented on Dr. Oz’s website that her child drinks “vast amounts of the stuff.” But nutritionists recommend that babies under the age of 6 months have nothing but breast milk, and that older children have no more than 6 ounces of fruit juice a day. Why limit something that seems to be healthy? Fruit juices are high in sugar. In fact, both apple juice and Mountain Dew are 13% sugar. And in a country that predicts that one-third of the next generation will suffer with Type-2 diabetes, why would we want our children drinking 13% sugar all day long?

The decision is up to you. Trust the FDA, continue to allow your children to drink fruit juice all day long and not worry about cancer in their future. Or, as Dr. Oz and most nutritionists recommend, everything in moderation.

References:

• http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/arsenic-apple-juice
• http://soils.tfrec.wsu.edu/leadhistory.htm
• http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/09/15/dr-besser-vs-dr-oz-apple-juice-showdown-on-gma/
• http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/30/142961997/tainted-nectar-consumer-group-warns-of-arsenic-in-fruit-juice
• http://fight4yourhealth.com/answers/organic-vs-inorganic-arsenic

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I haven’t always eaten a healthy, organic, fanatically local diet. In fact, I don’t now. I do what I can, when I can; and I try not to feel guilty about the rest. But the one obstacle I hear regularly when I counsel someone to make dietary changes is that they cannot afford it. I empathize; really I do. But I disagree.

Last week I reviewed the movie Food, Inc. It was a great movie and I believe everyone should watch it. However, I have issue with the portrayal of the family that does not have time to cook because they leave their house at 6 a.m. and do not return until 9-10 p.m. They also said that they could not afford fresh vegetables, so opt for drive-through dollar menu food at Burger King. Sure, on the surface, junk food looks cheap. But they also shared their struggle with diabetes (a disease directly related to diet) and having to afford medications to treat it. This is what I would advise them to do.

Change Your Lifestyle

Why are you gone from home for 14 hours a day? That is not healthy. Families need rest and play time together. Please don’t tell me you’re running your kids to sports, drama, debate, etc. Please don’t tell me you work 14 hours a day and still cannot afford to eat properly. Something has to give, and at this point, it is your health.

Eating healthy is a lifestyle choice. To make whole wheat bread from freshly ground flour, one must be home to grind the wheat and make the bread. Healthy food requires preparation time. If eating healthy and changing your diet is important to you, you will change your habits to include the time.

Change Your Vision

The mistake a lot of folks make is to compare the price of “bad” manufactured foods with that of organic manufactured foods. You need to get past that. Become a shopper of ingredients and learn to cook. Purchasing raw ingredients (like grains, salt, sugar, and oil) in bulk and making your food from scratch is much cheaper than buying manufactured food. Give up the factory foods—even the organic ones.

Change Your Choices

Can you not afford locally grown produce because you spend $10 a week on Mountain Dew? Do you stop on your way to the office every day for a $3 cup of coffee, or join the guys for unhealthy $10 lunches several days a week? Perhaps your 120-pound Rottweiler eats $50 worth of dog food a month? These are all things you are free to do; but are these choices helping you in your goal to change your diet?

Grow Your Food

I realize that everyone doesn’t have a couple of acres to work with. But many, many people have urban homesteads. Gardens can be grown in back yards and even on patios. Do what you can; rather than complaining and doing nothing.

Check with your city. Many municipalities now allow a couple backyard chickens. Some even allow goats.  Subscribe to a helpful magazine like Urban Farm to learn all you can. Read All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew for more helpful advice.

However, if you do live in a rural area, what are you waiting for? Find a farmer friend and learn all you can about gardening and keeping animals for eggs, milk, and meat. Do what you can.

Buy Locally

If you cannot produce enough for your family, or if you are physically unable to garden, visit your local farmers’ market. Purchase what you can from local organic farms. If you still cannot afford it, barter something. Many Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms accept work hours in exchange for food.

Start Slow and Small

Whatever you do, do it slowly. For one thing, this transition takes time. For another, you will need to adjust your budget to allow for monthly shopping of bulk products. I started 25 years ago with baking my own bread. It was several years later before I was introduced to a produce co-op that provided all the produce my family needed. Rather than cutting out boxed foods entirely, start reading labels. First, quit buying anything with MSG and replace them with what you make from scratch. Second, eliminate high fructose corn syrup. Third, axe the artificial coloring. By this time I’m betting there’s nothing in a box left that you can purchase.

One step at a time, and over 25 years, we’ve gone from eating manufactured food for every meal to eating it only on occasion. And I still spend less than $400 a month to feed a family of six. If I can do it, you can too.

 Photo by Downing Street

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I know Food, Inc. has been out for a while. However, our family is so slow at getting to movies that I just watched Food, Inc. while we were on Staycation. This movie made such an impact on our thinking that I wanted to share it with you here.

Prior to viewing, I did already know that our food supply is controlled by only a handful of major corporations. But I had no idea how that control came about, or to what extent these corporations go to keep it that way.

Narrators Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, take the viewer behind the scenes of commercial chicken farms, slaughterhouses, poultry and pork processing facilities, and Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFO). A few of the chapters include:

• “Fast Food to All Food”—how the fast food industry started the industrial revolution for food.
• “A Cornucopia of Choices”—the role corn plays in most manufactured food.
• “Unintended Consequences”—highlights one mother’s battle for legislation after the death of her son due to an infection with E coli.
• “The Dollar Menu”—discusses the choices parents make between fresh vegetables and cheap, fast food.
• “Power of the Consumer”—discusses what choices consumers can make to change the system.

Manufactured Food

According to the movie, manufacturing food began to fulfill the fast food industry’s need for uniformity. McDonald’s, for instance, wants to know that a hamburger in one of their stores in Ohio looks, weighs, and tastes the same as a hamburger in Florida. This drive for uniformity not only led to manufacturing the food, but growing it as well.

In 1950, it took 70 days to grow a meat chicken. Today, a chicken twice the size grows in 48 days. Since people like to eat white meat, chickens have been redesigned to have large breasts. This disfigurement causes other issues. On my own place, I’ve seen our Cornish Rock Cross broilers get so heavy they could barely walk. We routinely lost chickens to broken legs. Feeling this unnatural and unhealthy, this year we purchased Freedom Ranger chicks and were much happier with the outcome. But in an interview for the movie, Richard Lobb of the National Chicken Council said, “We’re not producing chickens, we’re producing food.”

Conversely, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms shares, “The industrial food is not honest food. It’s not priced honestly; it’s not produced honestly; it’s not processed honestly. There’s nothing honest about that food.”

Corn Facts

Following are a few random facts about corn that I gleaned from this movie:

• “So much of our industrial food turns out to be clever rearrangements of corn.” Michael Pollan
• A hundred years ago a farmer could grow 20 bushels of corn to the acre. Today, 200 bushels is normal.
• Thirty percent of the land in the US is planted in corn.

My own brother, a physician, told me that the number one concern that Americans face with their diet is that we are overdosing on corn. It is in practically everything we eat. If you want to avoid genetically modified corn products in your foods, look to avoid  the following ingredients on your labels:

• cellulose
• calcium stearate
• xantham gum
• saccharin
• maltodextrin
• sorbital
• sucrose
• gluten
• high fructose corn syrup
• ethel acetate
• citrus cloud emulsion
• ascorbic acid
• di-glycerides
• baking powder
• vanilla extract
• fructose
• sorbic acid
• starch
• semolina
• margarine

You probably want to avoid all commercially raised meat as well because corn is the main ingredient in all animal feeds. Even farm-raised tilapia and salmon are fed corn—something they would never eat in nature.

While on the subject of corn, the chapter “From Seed to the Supermarket” plays like a suspense thriller describing the lengths that Monsanto goes through to protect the patents that they have on corn. Yes, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of this corporation patenting what, initially, God created, and now they have genetically modified.

What We Can Do About It

Watching Food, Inc. is almost despairing. But there are things that you can do. That is where “Power of the Consumer” comes in. Grow as much of your own food as possible and what you can’t, buy from local, organic farms. Taking this transition one step at a time, you can change the way your family eats and make a difference in the food manufacturing process.

The Washington Post said of this movie, “Everyone should see Food, Inc.”

Oprah Winfrey said, “It might change your life.”

I say, “Watch Food, Inc. and it will change your life.”

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This summer I wrote about the safe use of pesticides in the yard and garden. But with Fall here, I though I’d share my tips for natural pest control inside your home!

House Flies

Living in a rural area, we have more than our share of house flies. Since they usually fail to wipe their feet before coming inside and crawling all over my counter tops, I would prefer that they not come in at all. Two ways to keep the flies outside include the trap and the baggie of water.

Available at your local hardware or feed store is the disposable fly trap. It is a plastic bag with a funnel-like top. You put an attractant in the bottom of the bag and hang it up out in the yard. If you have animals, it is a good idea to hang it somewhere close to the barnyard. The flies, attracted by the liquid inside, go into the funnel but cannot fly out. When the bag is full, you throw it away and hang a new one.

In our neck of the woods, you often see zip-shut bags full of water hanging on folk’s doorways. These baggies of water repel flies from coming into the house by refracting the light that shines through them—confusing the fly and causing it to go in another direction.

Despite our best efforts, though, flies do end up inside. Then how do you get rid of them? We use fly strips. These strips are covered with a very sticky attractant. Once the fly lands on it, it is stuck. You hang them in areas where flies congregate, like in the kitchen or mud room. When the strip is full, you throw it away and hang a new one.

Fruit Flies

During the canning season, we often have trouble with fruit flies. The tiny pests hover around the compost bucket or the bushel of apples waiting to be turned into applesauce. A few hovering about is not too annoying, but when you put up bushels of food each week, with scraps and peelings collecting, the fruit flies can get out of hand. You can buy a fruit fly trap for around $8 at the hardware store. It works similar to the house fly trap but on a smaller scale. I found a way to save myself $8, though, and designed my own fruit fly trap.

Place some apple or tomato peels in the bottom of a canning jar. Whatever attracts the fruit flies will work. Next, roll a piece of copy paper into a funnel with a tiny hole at the bottom. Tape it to keep it rolled and insert into the jar so that the mouth of the jar is sealed and that the funnel tip does not touch the scraps. Just keep it on the counter. By the next morning it will be full of fruit flies. You can read detailed instructions for making your own trap here.

Roaches

When we lived in Florida we had a palmetto tree right at the corner of the garage. These trees are the favorite habitat of the palmetto bug, also known as the American cockroach. Invariably, we would have these pests coming into our garage. One season the rubber seal at the bottom of the door had torn and given the bugs easier access. Not having the money to replace the strip, we had to devise a way to keep the bugs out of our belongings. Using just a few household items, my husband made a fool-proof roach trap.

Taking a wide-mouthed jar, he wiped the inside with vegetable oil. Then he put a blob of peanut butter in the bottom of the jar. He made several of these jars and set them inside the garage door. The bugs would go into the jar to get to the peanut butter but couldn’t get out because the sides were slicked with oil. The next morning he would go outside, cap the jars, and throw them into our dumpster.

Ants

Nothing is more annoying than a trail of ants running through the kitchen or bath. But there are several ways to destroy or repel those unwanted armies.

Keep a spray bottle of half white vinegar/half water in the kitchen. Several times a day spray the counter tops and wipe with this solution. Ants do not like the smell and it will eliminate the scent trails that they leave, thereby confusing those to follow.

Mix borax with something sweet like jelly or honey and put in a bottle cap in a corner where the ants travel. They will eat the borax and die. Do not use this method, however, if you have small children or pets that would find the bottle cap.

Sprinkle baby powder or cinnamon along the trail. Both substances are natural ant repellents and will discourage the ants from coming that way.

Do you have any other non-toxic ways to deal with bugs in the house? Please share in the comments.

 Photo by MorrowLess

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If I could grow only one thing in my garden, I’d have to choose greens. Now, if I had to narrow that down to a specific variety, I’d be in trouble. But if I could grow just greens, I would have an endless variety—spinach, kale, collards, Swiss chard, beet tops, cabbage, lettuce, and more. And they would all have a place of honor in that 25×75 plot of ground out back.

I know that greens get a bad rap. We all have bad memories of our parents coaxing us to “eat your greens, Honey.” We can remember those slimy, army-green piles of mush on our plates staring back and mom encouraging us to “try a little vinegar” to help get them down. I know that fresh, stir-fried greens are so much more appealing. But in the dead of winter, throwing a cup of Swiss chard into the soup pot brings such an aroma to the kitchen, those memories just fade away forever.

Canning greens

Canning anything is my method of choice because I tend to forget to take supper out of the freezer before 5 p.m. However, if you want your greens to taste “fresh from the garden,” canning is not the way to go. I’m still going to include instructions here, though, because if you want to add them to soups or casseroles, having a few jars on hand is great. We have a mid-size family so I can greens in pints. Use quarts for large families and half-pints for couples.

• Sort leaves, remove any you would not want to eat, and wash. Cut off tough stems and midribs and chop.
• Steam the leaves, stirring, until thoroughly wilted.
• Pack into hot jars, leaving ½ inch headroom. Add ¼ teaspoon salt for pints and ½ teaspoon for quarts. Pour boiling water up to ½ inch from the top.
• Pressure-process at 10 pounds of pressure—70 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts.

Freezing greens

Frozen greens can be cooked to eat as they are. We like to cook them in ham broth with some diced onions. We also add them to stir fries, casseroles, and pasta dishes. I freeze them in plastic freezer boxes or my canning jars. You can also use zipper-shut, plastic bags.

• Sort leaves, remove any you would not want to eat, and wash. Cut off tough stems and midribs and chop.
• Blanch the greens in boiling water. Most varieties blanch for 2 minutes. Collards blanch for 3 minutes. If you live 5,000 feet or more above sea level, add 1 minute to these times. A pasta pot with the colander inside is the best tool for this job. That way, when your two minutes are up, you simply lift the colander, drain, and dump the greens.
• Immediately immerse them in icy cold water. I use a colander in this bowl, too. I dump the greens from the “hot” colander to the “cold” one. Stir. Chill for as long as you blanched them.
• Remove greens from the ice water to a thick towel. This allows excess water to drain from the greens before packing them into containers. I recommend that you use an old towel, or a dark colored one. Otherwise it will be stained that army-green color.
• Seal and freeze.

Keep in mind when preserving or cooking greens that what may look like an overwhelming amount raw will cook down to a small bowlful. Typically, you will need 2-6 pounds of greens to fill one quart jar.

I keep two books in my kitchen all summer long. They are must haves for food preservation instructions. The first, Putting Food By by Hertzberg, Vaughan, and Greene, not only gives instructions for canning and freezing; but also drying, root cellaring, and curing. Ball Blue Book by the Ball Brothers Company gives explicit instructions for canning and freezing and some of the greatest recipes you will ever find.

So, forget those slimy, army-green mounds on that childhood plate and “eat your greens, Honey.” You will be glad you did.

Photo by jbachman01

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So, you purchased your hens and they are starting to lay. But the eggs are a little messy when you bring them in. Should you scrub them with antibacterial soap? What about the eggs that you found in a pile behind the hen house—how do you know they are okay to eat? You cracked an egg and it had a little spot of blood in it—what does that mean? These are all questions that every new chicken owner asks and hopefully we can answer them here.

The right start

The key to clean eggs is in the nesting boxes. Keeping clean litter in the boxes will assure that your eggs will not be messy. If they are covered in droppings, you need to change the litter in the box. If they are covered in dried yolk, you have an egg eater and you need to deal with her.

Cleaning eggs

But let’s say a few messy ones come in. How do you clean the eggs? As little as possible. Eggs naturally have a coating on them to keep the insides fresh. If you scrub them with soap, you will remove the coating and your eggs will not stay fresh as long. Generally wiping them off with a damp cloth is all that is needed. Sometimes a dry nylon scrubber, or old toothbrush, will do the trick. You can get them clean enough to put into the refrigerator and then clean them again, more vigorously, right before using them.

Testing for freshness

And what about that pile behind the hen house? If you want to know if they are fresh without opening them, which I recommend, you can check them for freshness with the float test. According to the The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery, simply drop the eggs, one by one, into a bowl of water. If the egg lays flat on the bottom, it is fresh. If it stands up on end, it is a little less fresh. And if it floats, throw it as far away as possible. How does this work? The inside of the egg shell is lined with a thin membrane. As the egg ages, the membrane pulls away from the shell creating a pocket of air. The larger the pocket of air, the older the egg, and the higher the egg floats in the water.

But it looks funny

Farm fresh eggs will not look like the ones from the grocer. The yolk will be darker and firmer and it will stick to the fork when you try to scramble it. That is because your free-ranged hens have access to more nutrition (grass and bugs) than those kept in dark houses confined to a cage. Sometimes you will see a spot of blood in the egg. “That’s a hereditary characteristic in some chicken lines and doesn’t affect the edibility in the least,” said Emery. If you see a white spot that means the egg is fertile. If the shell is shaped funny, or has bumps on it, the egg inside is still good to eat. In fact, eggs with all these characteristics are perfectly good eating.

Don’t believe what you read

If you cannot raise chickens where you live, try to buy free-ranged eggs from someone who can. A healthy egg requires that the chicken has access to the outdoors all day. The chlorophyll from the grass and weeds, protein from the bugs, and vitamin D from the sun, all go into making that egg the true nutrition you seek. Eggs labeled “free-range” from the grocer guarantee none of that. The chickens on those farms may only have “access” to the outdoors for as little as a few minutes a day. And that doesn’t mean they have grass and bugs at their disposal. Also, an “organic” label only means that those chickens are fed organic feed. It does not mean that those chickens run around outside, living the healthy life that you desire. If you buy your eggs from a market farmer, ask how he houses his hens, how much time they have outside, if he has a rooster, and what type of feed he gives them.

Hens are at peak production in the summertime, so with the abundance of eggs you can enjoy omelettes, deviled eggs, and quiche to your heart’s content. And now you know if the egg is safe to eat.

Photo by TranceMist

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Beeswax is a natural ingredient that has several therapeutic properties. You can find it in skincare products such as lip balms, butters and lotions; centuries ago, before the development of paraffin candles, beeswax candles were commonplace too. Today, churches still use beeswax candles. If you are making your own natural skincare products, you might want to first understand a little bit about beeswax – and why it is added to cosmetic products.

Source of Beeswax

Beeswax is not extracted from a plant, unlike many other natural skincare ingredients; it is actually a natural product of the honey bee (genus Apis). Worker honeybees secrete a waxy substance to build the walls of the honeycomb. The beehive has to be at just the right temperature (91 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit) for the worker bees to be able to secrete the wax; the bees maintain the temperature within the hive by using water and flapping their wings in order to circulate air (source: The Chemistry of Bees).

The honeycomb is the home and workplace of the honeybee where both baby honeybees are raised and honey and pollen are stored. Beeswax is collected from the honeycomb by heating the honeycomb in water so that the wax separates from the water when it cools down (a similar process to the distillation of essential oils). It takes a lot of honey to produce a small quantity of beeswax; 10 pounds of honey yields just one pound of beeswax (source: Alabama Bee and Honey Producers).

Chemistry of Beeswax

Secreted beeswax is a white to colorless substance in liquid form; this turns into a yellow, tough, waxy solid substance on contact with the air. The color of solid beeswax may vary due to resins and plant material in the geographical area where the beeswax is produced. Beeswax can be softened by heat to work with for cosmetic product making. Beeswax is chemically composed of fatty acids, hydrocarbons and other minor components (source: What is Beeswax?).

Therapeutic Properties

Beeswax contains Vitamin A and has anti-bacterial properties; centuries ago it was used as an antiseptic. It is excellent for use in skin care because it is an emollient, skin softener and skin soother. It also helps the skin to retain moisture (source: Cosmetic Properties of Beeswax). Beeswax has the aroma of honey and flower pollen.

Why Beeswax is Added to Cosmetic Products

Beeswax has several roles in cosmetic making; it can be used as a binding agent, skin-conditioning agent, thickening agent and can help to absorb water in a product. It is a common ingredient in lip balms, body butters, lipsticks, lotions, soaps and facial creams. It is solid at room temperature, so you need to heat it up first in order to be able to combine it with other cosmetic ingredients when making your own cosmetic products. Once it has cooled down, it will become solid again. Beeswax is sometimes available as beeswax granules or pastilles for cosmetic making.

Using Beeswax for Cosmetics

Beeswax should not be confused with other types of waxes that some plants produce; for example, Candelilla wax which is extracted from Euphorbia cerifera or Carnauba wax which is extracted from Copernicia cerifera. These types of waxes are not the same product as beeswax, although both are also used in cosmetic making. However, beeswax is one of the most popular waxes used in cosmetic making.

Photo by Barabeke

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I rarely buy meat at the grocery store. For years now our family has raised our own chickens or pigs for butchering, or hunted deer in the forest. There are many benefits to raising your own meat, for your health and otherwise. But I’d like to share just five of them with you here.

1. You Know What They’ve Been Fed

Whatever goes into an animal is passed on to the consumer in the meat or dairy products. Commercially raised animals are fed GMO grains, immunized, and given routine antibiotics and chemical wormers. When you raise your own animals for meat, you feed them. You can opt out of vaccinations, antibiotics, or chemical wormers. You can also purchase organic feed, or mix your own feed. Commercially raised animals, especially chickens, are not raised on grass. Nor do they see the sun. By ranging your own chickens they have ready access to bugs, which boost their protein intake; and grass and weeds, which gives them added chlorophyll. Also, the sun produces vitamin D.

2. You Get to Keep all the Parts

When butchering your own animals, or even if you take them to a processor, you can keep all the animal parts you want. When we butcher our hogs, the organ meats go into the scrapple. We render the fat for lard. We keep our chicken livers. You can use the bones and feet for healthy stock. You can cook down the carcasses and pick off all the tidbits of meat to add to soups and stews. Nothing needs to be wasted. Whatever I feel is too gristly or tough for the family, I can use for our dogs.

3. You Get Exercise and Joy in Caring for the Animals

Getting up with the sun is a healthy practice—whether you have animals to care for or not. But having that responsibility is a good motivation. Moving portable chicken pens, rotating electric fencing, or mucking out animal stalls provides exercise you would not normally get. During the winter months, you might never get out for fresh air if you didn’t have to break the ice on the animal water troughs, or throw them another armload of hay.

4. Your Children Learn Many Things

We started raising animals for the sole purpose of providing work for our boys. Nothing teaches them responsibility like caring for another life. But, as a homeschooling parent, I’m constantly looking for ways for my children to learn lessons on the homestead. Nutrition is learned when researching the proper food for goats. Math is learned when measuring out that food. Karen Beachy, a homesteading mother in Virginia, shares, “Raising our own meat, and through butchering it here, our girls have seen many aspects of anatomy and with that we have taught some physiology.”

5. You Produce Your Own Garden Fertilizer

If someone contemplates raising their own meat animals, chances are they already garden and raise their own produce. If you add animals to the mix, you have a ready supply of manure for your garden. No more hauling by the truckload from someone else’s farm or heaving those sacks of manure from the greenhouse. When you have your own animals you simply add their manure to your compost bin and let it all compost together.

Even if you live in the suburbs, I encourage you to investigate your options. Many municipalities are changing their ordinances under the pressure of homeowners wanting to provide more of their own food. Even if you are not allowed chickens in your back yard, chances are you can have rabbits. One thing is for sure, however, once you taste home-grown, you will never want to go back to the meat department again. But as you can see here, flavor is not the only benefit of raising your own meat.

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You may dream of growing all of your own food, but your personal reality might not be as romantic as a rural retreat with an acre of ground in the south of France (my as yet unfulfilled vision for living my good life). You may be an urban eco-warrior, or like me a suburban greenie.

I tend to do most of my farming in the kitchen! I am lucky enough to be the owner of a small back yard in which we produce potatoes, onions, carrots and such but the truth is that this part of Scotland is certainly not renowned as the bread-basket of Europe. The climate is too cold and damp, for starters and even our title deeds for the house stipulate that we can’t keep chickens (another of my personal “good life” dreams). So it is most certainly the case that this veggie household is not self-sufficient.

Hence my dream of being a farmer’s wife is played out mainly in my kitchen. Harvesting indoor crops allows me to contribute to our healthy diet without being concerned about the weather, and I get just as big a sense of achievement harvesting alfalfa sprouts from the windowsill as when I pull a carrot out of the ground outside – and I’m usually drier…

Your indoor crop can be as big or as small as the space available to you. The principle works for villas, cottages and apartments just the same. Experimentation is good and you will quickly find out which crops work best for you. This indoor kitchen farming also has the great advantage of being relatively cheap, so you don’t have to fork out lots of cash to participate. Just remember to buy organic seeds – you don’t want to start farming with built-in toxins.

Windowsill Herbs

Herbs are probably the most common plants to be grown inside the house. They can be treated in much the same way as houseplants, look just as pretty – and smell a hundred times better. They are the magic dust in any recipe and can transform the simplest of ingredients into a taste-fest! The saviour of many a boring root-vegetable roast in the winter, fresh herbs are a godsend and can be easily grown all year round.

Basil

Basil is my favourite windowsill herb and it grows well from seed, although you can also commonly buy living plants from your supermarket or greengrocer. It behaves best if you keep it quite dry, watering only when the leaves start to wilt. Be sure to avoid splashing the leaves with water or they will get damaged, and don’t leave the pot standing in water. If you leave in a cold, damp climate like Scotland, then basil really is best grown indoors as it is quite a tender plant. Basil tea can also be used to prevent travel sickness.

Coriander / Cilantro

I’ve had absolutely no luck cultivating coriander outdoors and am still perfecting growing it from seed inside. It is a beautifully fragrant herb that lends itself beautifully to a windowsill as long as you harvest regularly to stop it flowering. If you do let it run to seed, you can also harvest the seeds to use as a spice to add to curries and other asian style meals.

Sprouting Seeds

There’s a saying goes “It isn’t the food in your life that counts, it’s the life in your food” and I’m pretty convinced that sprouting seeds are some of the most vibrant living foods you’ll ever come across. Tiny capsules containing the pure potential of life within, the seed of a plant contains all the essential nutrients the plant needs in its first few days of life, and to build itself into a flourishing specimen. When we eat the sprout, we can benefit from all of that goodness as it is released.

Alfalfa Sprouts

If I were to be cast away on a desert island, then alfalfa would be the seed I’d take with me to ensure good health, and possibly even survival! A true gift of nature, these remarkable seeds can grow roots down to the water table – their tenacity in life almost equals their life promoting properties. Probably the most significant of the Alfalfa’s magic nutrients is vitamin B12, making it an almost vital food for vegetarians who have very few other sources.

Growing alfalfa sprouts is absolute child’s-play! I use a specially designed sprouting tray but you can use any old jar or a muslin bag to grow your sprouts after soaking them overnight. Rinsing them regularly is a must as if you allow them to dry out they will die, however if you leave them standing in water they will rot, and this really is the most difficult thing about this particular indoor crop.

Served after about four days worth of growth, when the sprout is about 2inches long, they can be used in sandwich fillings or salads and when served on their own with a splash of lemon juice, they are equally delicious. If you save the water that drips into the bottom tray, your other houseplants will benefit for its nutrient rich properties.

Snow Peas

My second favourite sprouting seed, snow peas are a great success with children due to their super sweet shot of green goodness and are very high in iron and vitamins C and A. Grown on sprouting trays after an overnight soak, these large round peas may take a couple of days longer than the alfalfa, but they’re likely to be gone well before! Eaten straight from the tray, they make a great mid-day snack and are an especially healthy alternative to children’s candies. Because the peas are much bigger than the alfalfa seeds they are easier to dry out, so do water regularly.

Some other crops you may consider growing indoors are;

• Chilli peppers and cherry tomatoes. A sunny windowsill is ideal to bring on these plants you’d most likely otherwise need to invest in a greenhouse for.
• Wheatgrass is regularly touted as a superfood and is another crop you can grow indoors to contribute to your family’s healthy diet.
• Salad leaves, especially the Oriental selections are also eaily grown indoors in any old container you have lying about. During the summer months, I usually sow a few empty aluminium cans with some salad seeds and harvest them when young and tender.

If all of that isn’t enough to be getting on with, you might like to consider signing up to become a farmer on a real life organic farm – all from the comfort of your own home – even the kitchen! MyFarm is a project run by the National Trust in England, where they are hoping for up to 10,000 people to join up for the £30 annual subscription to help run the farm on the Wimpole Estate. Think Farmville, for real!

Photo by ccharmon

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