Natural Easter Egg Dye

Easter is fast approaching...as in 2 days away! Every year my parents bought dozens of eggs and the each of us would go to town, dipping, dotting, and swirling our beloved white eggs in the vast ranges of brilliant colors. If you cant tell with all of the adjectives, this is one of my fondest memories as a child! However, this year I wanted to switch it up! Instead of buying fake dyes, I though, "I'll make my own!" That way I can use the veggies and fruits I use to get my dyes from, can go straight into my compost pile. So here is the recipe, the process, and bits here and there I learned from my first time of making natural dyes!

Take 3-4 cups of water, 3-4 cups of preferred veggie or fruit, add 2 tablespoons white vinegar, and boil it down for about 30 minutes. I sort of added and subtracted as I went along, so do what works for you! After you make the dyes, take out the veggies and fruits, and start dipping your eggs!

What I Used:

Pink/Red- Blackberries (Other options: red onion peel or raspberries)

Blue/Indigo- Cabbage (Cabbage makes a dye less blue and more indigo, beautiful nonetheless!)

Yellow- Tumeric (instead of 4 cups of veggies, use 4 tablespoons of your preferred spice)

Orange- Cayenne and Chili Powder (I mixed the two)

Brown- Coffee (I did one in a brown, realized it was like my farm fresh eggs and decided to dip it in purple!)

Note: Spinach is supposed to make green, however for me....it did not. Give it a try, though!

A piece of advice, these dyes are organic so they aren't as bright as the store bought dyes. To make my dyes more potent, I put the eggs in the pot, and reheated the dye, and let them sit till they reached the color I wanted.

Empty or Hard boiled?

I put a hole at the top and the bottom of my eggs, and blew out the yoke. This way I have empty egg shells that will last as long as I keep them safe and dont drop them!

But if you want to hard boil them, put your eggs in a pot of boiling water and boil them for about 15 minutes.

Take a look at the pictures below to see the process from start to finish!

Egg, meet nail.

Softly blow on the top of the egg, and the insides of the egg should come out of the bottom, where the second hole is. 

And do that till your cheeks hurt, and your dozen eggs should be empty! Now let them dry for about 30 minutes!

After you've boiled down your veggies, fruits, and spices, start dipping (and dip as many times as you'd like)! I put mine back in the egg carton, to dry, for about 30 minutes. 

The beautiful array of colors...mind you, I dipped these each about 10 times!

Put them in plants, in a bowl, wherever! 

My favorite. It looks like an egg from outer space, and to think that color and marbling is all natural! 

Happy Easter and happy dipping! 

Have questions? Feel free to ask or comment! 

Sneak Peak Of What's To Come

This week, my husband and I are going to make our own Easter egg dye!

 Wanna know how?!

Well, check back tonight for an easy recipe that takes no time at all!

Make Your Own Compost

Compost is a critical addition to your garden. And believe it or not, it's really easy to make! Just make sure you have a large bin to start it in! 

The key to great compost is a balance between the green nitrogens and the brown carbons! The ratio of nitrogen to carbon is 30:1.

Take a look at this awesome guide sheet, provided by Urban Farm! Not only does it tell you whats acceptable to put in your compost, but it also has a table to write down the date of when you last turned your compost pile!

I love it!

Click here for the actual downloadable sheet.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Happy Wednesday!

The Varieties of Life

The varieties of vegetables is, well, endless.

There's purple broccoli, strawberry spinach, etc.

Varieties are a great way to explore plants, and which ones most prefer your zone and which are most preferred by your family.

This year, I am really excited to grow Strawberry Spinach, which is a type of spinach that grows red little berries. Meaning this entire plant can be used in a summer salad!

I'm also excited to try purple sprouting broccoli.

I think that's what I love most about my plants...the possibilities and differences.

God is good for creating more than just one kind of vegetable, he gives us choices

Here is a chart I use to not only learn, but explore different vegetable varieties and then go to my local nursery to see if they have that type of variety, if not, I go to Baker Creek Seeds, for heirloom and non-GMO seeds.

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Click here and view this chart with the option to zoom!

Take a look and enjoy!

Must Have Mulch

mulch

  [muhlch]

noun

1.

a covering, as of straw, compost, or plastic sheeting, spread on the ground around plants to preventexcessive evaporation or erosion, enrich the soil, inhibit weed growth, etc.

verb (used with object)

2.

to cover with mulch.

Origin: 
1650–60;  noun use of obsolete mulch  (adj.), Middle English molsh  soft, Old English myl ( i ) sc  mellow;cognate with dialectal German molsch  soft, overripe

                                                                                                                                           

I never understood the point or possibilities of adding mulch to my garden, when I first started out. As the years passed, and my gardens continued to grow in square footage, and a small hobby became a passion, I immersed myself in research and found out just how important mulch really is, to your garden. 

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Why you need mulch:

1) Mulch retains water and keeps the moisture in, making it easier on you when it comes to watering, and it keeps your plants much happier. 

2) Mulch retains the sun light, and keep your plants warm. Warmth and moisture is a beautiful things when it comes to a prolific garden.

3) Mulch can be an attractive addition to your garden (As if the beautiful fruits of your labor aren't enough!)

4) Mulch, such as grass clippings and brown leaves, break down quickly supplying your plants with plenty of organic carbon.

5) Mulch is a lovely reason to reuse your grass clippings, old leaves, old bark, compost, etc. 

Reuse, reduce, recycle my friends!

Different types of mulch:

1) Shredded bark, this type of mulch breaks down relatively slow and takes nitrogen from the soil as it decomposes, so make sure to use an organic fertilizer to replace the nitrogen. Other than that, this type of mulch is relatively inexpensive and can really add beauty to the ground of your garden!

2) Grass clippings, this type of mulch is great! As it breaks down it adds nitrogen to the soil, which as you may or may not know, nitrogen is very important to any vegetable garden. One thing with grass clippings, make sure its relatively dry before spreading a thin layer on your garden floor, or it will rot as it decomposes. 

3) Compost, this type of mulch is my personal favorite. I love an excuse to reuse my kitchen waste.   Compost has the most nutrients in it, and gives more to the plants than any other type of mulch, and that's why this remains my preferred type of mulch.

There are other types of mulch, but these 3 are the most common and most efficient!

Click here for more information on the useful and efficient mulch!

See the importance of mulch? Start a compost bin this Spring and use it for your garden or buy some at your local garden center!

If you have questions about mulch, or comments, feel free to leave them and I will respond as soon as I can! 

Happy Thursday, friends!

Highly Recommended

If you're looking for a company that purely boasts heirloom seeds, I have just the company for you!

Bakers Creek Seeds

Their packaging is adorable, their seeds are the purest of quality, and their prices are so decent for heirloom seeds!

This company has seed vaults, designed to specifically keep their heirloom seeds safe and preserved. 

Bottom line, I love this company!

Check them out!

Spring's To-Do's

If you're in zone 5, this post relates to you!

It's officially Spring, and if you have a green thumb, like myself, you're absolutely itching to start priming and preparing your garden for the Summer season to come, and even if you aren't, and this is your first year at giving a garden a go, then this information should be really helpful!

Here is a list of the things you should start working on within the next few weeks!

1) Start your crops that love the warmth, such as: tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers, inside in seed starting cups. You can use egg cartons, store-bought biodegradable seed pots, or styrofoam cups. Use a light and nutrient rich soil for your seed starter containers. Some put grow lights on seedling starts, I never have and they've always been just fine! But you bet when the sun peaks it's head from the clouds, I put my seed starts outside for a bit. 

Note: Make sure you keep your seed starts fairly moist. They need the moisture to properly germinate.

Thus far I've started: all types of beans, peas, tomatoes, strawberries, cabbage, kohlrabi, eggplant, peppers, broccoli, all herbs, and corn. As some of these are cold weather crops, they love the spring water and cooler temperatures, so they can be prematurely started.

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2) You can start annual flowers such as marigolds and zinnias, inside if you'd rather start them by seed and save a lot, rather than buy a pack that's already been started for you, at almost triple the price. Trust me, it's totally worth growing your veggies and flowers from seed! It's the best waking up to new sprouts or extended heights of your itty bitty plants!

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3) Tie up any ornamental grasses and cut them with a sharp knife, a ways back, this stimulates growth!

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4) After you've worked your soil, start planting the following, straight into your garden: potatoes, radishes, carrots, lettuce, and peas. 

Note: Make sure you've planned out your garden before you randomly plant these first vegetables. The placement of plants are very important to the well being of your garden. For example, dill should never be placed next to corn or tomatoes, actually most vegetable plants because they attract predator wasps and several crawlers that will destroy and infect your garden. Another example, a great way to save room in your vege garden is to plant a row of corn and in between each plant, plant squash which will take up the floor space, and then beans which will crawl up trellis's which should be placed behind corn. This fits 3 veggies into 1 row(known as the Three Sisters Garden, a technique used by the Native Americans).

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5) Towards the end of the month, you can usually start transplanting big enough seeds starts of squash beans and tomatoes, out into your garden. Make sure you put covers over them at night, in case the temperature drops. Also, make sure to fill the hole with warm water before you transfer your plant from the seed start pot, to the ground. 

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Well, that's about it! Feel free to message me or comment with more questions!

Happy gardening, friends!

Grind It.

I love herbs and I love to cook. I love garlic and I love salt and pepper. So, I combine those and make my own seasoning salts. Here's how!

* Dry your favorite herbs or used store bought
* Take a glass salt grinder (I usually reuse the ones I've bought with salt or pepper already in them) and clean it own.
* Take your dried herbs and chop. The pieces should not be too fine, but left in 2-3 centimeter pieces. This allows the grinder to actually have something to grind.
* Put herb pieces in glass bottle, add pink rock salt, peppercorns, dried garlic pieces, and whatever else you fancy in a seasoning salt!

This is an easy way to customize your seasoning salts, and a great use of your dried herbs!

What's Your Zone?

Zones are important. Zones help you. Zones are certainly, your friend.

The National Gardening Association is only a click away, and the information they provide will help any gardener heaps and heaps this gardening season! 

Go here, for help finding your zone! 

And if you share my zip code of 83814, your zone is 5b.

Click here, for what plants grow best in your zone. This has been so helpful!

Green Reading Material

It's Tuesday and the sun is giving all it has to peak out from behind the clouds. The air is fresh and the temperature is a perfect long sleeve shirt kind of day. This happens to be one of my favorite types of days. These are the sort of days where I enjoy sitting outside, with a hot cup of tea and my gardening reading material. So below, I'm going to provide a few reading sources and references that wont only add to your understanding and knowledge of gardening and maintaining a homestead, but will also provide plenty of colorful and bountiful inspiration. Get ready!


Magazines: 

> Organic Gardening

> Horticulture

> Fine Gardening

> Urban Farm

> Sunset

My personal favorite is Urban Farm. This magazine not only touches gardening but also caring for livestock, and so on. It's that type of magazine that you can read over and over and it never gets old. 



Books: 

> The Backyard Homestead

> Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs

> All New Square Foot Gardening

> The Joy of Keeping Chickens

> Urban Homesteading

> The Backyard Homestead: Guide to Raising Farm Animals

> The Joy of Keeping Farm Animals



I treasure my Urban Homesteading book. It has become a sort of "go-to" book. All of these books are helpful, and somewhat of a necessity if you really want to increase your sustainability.

Let me know if you have any of these and what you think! 

Welcome!

My husband has been encouraging me to start a blog containing all of my efforts to make our own bath & body products, raise livestock, grow our own food, compost our food waste, and so on. I always sort of just nodded my head, thinking, "No one wants to read about my struggles and hopes of becoming completely hands on and green" but heck, I decided there might be a few of you out there who have questions or experience the same desire to give to our earth rather than take!

Just a little bit of history on us; I was always that kid on the block that was constantly outside, trying to catch the ducks and fish in our neighborhood pond, or hoping I'd see the bugs in our house before anyone else so I could release them back outside, coming in covered in mud and boasting of all the mud pies I had "baked" and my husband was also one of those lucky kids that was encouraged to play outside, rather than in. We both have the same outdoor hobbies and hopes for a more green lifestyle.

 Basically, we are perfect for each other.

I had my first garden when I was 16, with over 32 veges. And from that point on, I was completely hooked. I tilled the ground on my own, spent nearly 3-6 hours a day working in the dirt, and enjoyed watching my skin turn golden brown. For the first time, I felt healthy and inspired. That air of happiness quickly crashed once I realized the neighborhood dear also prized my hard work. I suppose we learn as we go.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this blog, come to it often to read, and ask me questions! I'd love to write blog posts based on what my readers want to read about an urban homestead!

So, here goes nothing!