Tuesday, March 19, 2013

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!


Wednesday, March 13, 2013

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!