Posts Tagged: organic

Crafts-Hobbies — Comments Off
1
Oct 10

Homemade Soap Products – The Benefits of Using Natural Ingredients

You can make your own lye soap at home; it抯 not hard to do! All you have to do is combine fat with some sort of caustic agent, using water as your catalyst, and you have soap. 慡aponification?is the technical name for the chemical process between lye and fat.

And you won抰 need anything exotic to make your own soap; most of the ingredients you need may be as close as your grocery store. What will you need? For a basic soap, you only need water, lye, and some kind of fat and oil. For a more luxurious soap, you might want to add coloring dyes and scented fragrance oils.

You probably have water as close as your kitchen tap; some people prefer to use rainwater or distilled water in their soap. And what抯 lye, anyhow? It抯 chemical name is sodium hydroxide; it抯 a very strong base, so when you handle it. Make sure that you read the directions on the package of lye carefully, and following them scrupulously.

The first step is to dissolve the lye. Never pour the water into the lye; instead, pour the lye into the water. If half the water is ice, that抯 even better. Stir; as you stir, watch for the reaction. The lye can even boil the water; if this happens, stop stirring until the bubbling stops, and let the lye water cool down to room temperature.

So what about the oil? Just about any fat or oil can make soap, from plant oils to animal fats. Coconut oils will give a rich lather. Olive oil will yield fine, silky bubbles. If you use animal fat, make sure it?is clean, not rancid, has no salt, and is free of solid particles. You抣l find tallow or lard will give you a denser soap.

When you batch starts to thicken, that抯 the time to add coloring and perfume oils. Pour the 憈raced?soap into shape molds, and let it harden. It will have to 慶ure?for one to three days, and then dry a bit longer before you can enjoy it.

Homemade, natural and specialty soaps are perfect truths for bath and body treatments. So if you are looking for a way to relieve your tension, forget about your bad day and just feel good, well treat yourself with some homemade soap products. They抣l make your skin soft improve any skin conditions you have and help you connect with yourself.

Parenting — Comments Off
15
Sep 10

Fast Packed Kids Lunches

I have to admit, packing lunches is not one of my favorite tasks in the morning. My daughters go to a small school and there is no lunch program, which actually I am thankful for, so I will be packing lunches for a very long time. Even when the girls start making their own lunches, I’m going to have to make sure the good choices are available to take-and-go.

The good news is that I’ve gotten this down to a science that I can get two lunches done in under 10 minutes and the girls are totally satisfied. Here’s what was packed yesterday:

Daughter 1 (Kindergarten):

  • Organic sandwich, including nitrate free lunch meat and cheese
  • Organic pudding (she was so excited I had this in the house for a treat)
  • Organic 1/2 juice 1/2 water pouch from Honesty.

Daughter 2 (Pre-K):

  • Organic sandwich, including sunflower seed butter and preserves
  • N0n-gelatin, All Natural “Jell-O” (one of her favorite special treats)
  • Same drink as Daughter 1

No worries about missing the veggies in their lunch because they had fresh pressed juice with both fruit and veggies for breakfast. Dinner ended up being a mess since we spent over 2 hours at the dentist, but dessert was clementines and organic cereal with organic milk at Grammie’s house. Yep, I let them have cow’s milk at Grammie’s for a treat. In our house it’s rice or almond milk 90% of the time.

So just remember when your making the lunches for school or making lunch during the summer, take your time in the store to filter out the unwanted foods and you’ll be able to throw together a chemical free lunch in 5 minutes flat!

Gardening — Comments Off
6
Aug 10

Instant Organic Gardening With Organic Seedlings

Providing yourself and your family with safe and healthy food from your own organic garden is very popular these days. Some people however, don’t start with this activity because they find it very time consuming. But by using these seedlings straight from the garden center you make it much easier. Without spending extravagant amounts of money and time. The drawback of normal gardening as a hobby is that the whole process has been a slow and time consuming process. But as in all things in this modern world, time is becoming a major factor in every form of activity and so the instant organic garden was born. The term instant organic gardening is still relatively new but we do know some of the techniques for years in the form of using seedlings and plants that are organic. This type of vegetable growing is also very suitable for children.

The downside to organic food

The last decade has seen a huge upswing in the demand for organic fruits and vegetables and all organic food stores and most supermarkets stock them. Unfortunately, these items are often brought in from vast distances and the transportation adds to the already huge problem of vehicular pollution. Besides this, these foods are often frozen for transport and this, besides consuming lots of electricity, has a detrimental effect on the foods nutritional value.

The solution is in organic seedlings

The best option is to grow your own fruits and vegetables; they will not only be completely fresh and healthy but will have had a zero environmental impact. But the main reasons people have to not become involved in organic gardening is the time and effort that is needed to both start and maintain a garden. This is why the instant organic garden came into being. You can start an instant organic garden with seedlings bought from a gardening store. The (large) pot may be either a permanent one suitable for indoor use or a bio-degradable one that can be planted directly in the ground. The soil you need for the these seedlings is chemical free and it is usually supplied along with organic soil nutrients and plant supplements to keep the organic seedlings healthy without the use of any strong and harmful chemicals.

The advantages of using seedlings

When you use seedlings or even plants that are organic you will create an immediately present garden, it its almost instantly ready to harvest. You do not need to seed and wait before anything is visible. You just buy healthy organic seedlings and plants and you are ready to go. This quick and easy type of gardening is also suitable for children.

Whether the seedlings remain in the pot or are planted outside, the plant is immediately present and no waiting for it to germinate and bloom is required. Because you have no gestation period, your organic garden exists instantly and is there for you to see and use from day one. Using them is safe and healthy and you will start producing delicious vegetables instantly.

Gardening — Comments Off
29
Mar 10

Compost Crock

Have you recently started a compost bin but find that it’s an annoying chore to constantly bring your kitchen scraps out to it??What good is a compost bin outside when most of the stuff that you want to put into it is in your kitchen??If you want to collect kitchen scraps for your compost bin you should really own a compost crock.?/p>

A compost crock looks like a cookie jar but instead of storing cookies in it, you store garbage.?Put your used coffee grinds, eggshells, vegetable peelings or fruit rinds in there for safekeeping.?When it’s filled up, then you bring it out to your compost bin.?What could be easier??Now there’s no need to walk outside every time you make a cup of coffee or peel a carrot.?Just pop the waste into your kitchen compost crock and you can take it outside another time.?/p>

Now you may be thinking that it sounds pretty gross to store this waste in your kitchen.?Well don’t worry about smells because you can get a compost crock with a filter built right into the lid.?With a carbon filter eliminating the odors, you won’t even know it’s in your kitchen.?/p>

Kitchen composters come in either stainless steel or ceramic versions so choose one that best fits the d飯r of your kitchen.?Now just because you can save your organic waste in a kitchen crock doesn’t mean that it’s okay to get lazy and never empty the contents into your compost bin.?Now that would be gross.?Depending on the size of your family you will probably have to empty it at least once a week.?I suggest owning two compost crocks.?/p>

After you empty your indoor composter, it’s a good idea to rinse it out.?A quick blast from the hose while you’re outside is fine or you can clean it back in your kitchen sink.?Every once in a while you may want to give it a thorough cleaning in the dishwasher.?/p>

Stop throwing away those banana peels, tea bags and anything else that could be used in your compost bin to make an terrific organic fertilizer.?It’s almost like throwing out money.?A compost crock will make saving these items more convenient and that will make composting more convenient too.

You can learn more about kitchen composting and other great ways to reduce your waste by making organic, chemical-free compost at TheCompostBin.com

Gardening — Comments Off
17
Mar 10

Organic Gardening – Planting Your Heirloom Tomatoes

Planting them deep will allow them to form and send out roots from there stem, as well as anchor them in to the soil. By forming more roots deeper in the ground mean they can feed themselves better and find moisture that would normally evaporate near the surface faster.

The Staking and supporting of tomatoes can be a little tricky with heirloom varieties that can grow well over 6 feet tall. Don’t be surprised if you need a ladder to reach the top of your tomato plants. When staking use good strong stakes or a trellis that can support the weight. Most commercial made cages that can be purchased a local garden centers are way too small for these variety of tomatoes. The best way to support this type of tomato is by making your own cages out of sturdy wire fencing and anchor the cages securely to the ground to prevent them blowing over in the wind or from the weight of the plant with fruit on it.

Watering should be done deep and slow, this allows the water to penetrate deep down where the roots of the plant are. It is very important to keep the leaves dry, this will help to prevent disease problems. Tomato plants will naturally droop a little in very hot weather, don’t water them unless the soil is dry. When organic gardening, take care of the soil and the soil will take care of the plant. The use of soaker hoses will provide a slow trickle of water down deep into the soil, left on for about an hour at a time and once a week if it doesn’t rain should supply them with all the water they need.

Don’t let the fruit over ripen or fully mature, picking the fruit should be done before they are fully ripe. Harvest fruits as soon as they turn color and they will continue the ripening process in your kitchen. Once the ripening process has started, they don’t need a lot of sunshine to finish and picking them early will prevent them being eaten by pests before you can.

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment. http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com/gardentoolsandsupplies.html

John Yazo

http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com

Gardening — Comments Off
16
Mar 10

Organic Gardening – Microorganisms and Composting

To have a successful composting system you need some key ingredients, carbon rich material, nitrogen rich material and microorganisms to decompose the organic matter. Bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes are the three main microorganisms that account for the majority of the decomposition process in a compost pile. They are what is known as chemical decomposers, they change the chemistry of organic matter. There are also larger organisms that work just as hard in the process of decomposition, these are called macroorganisms. Earthworms are the most commonly known of these organisms to the home gardener, others include beetles, centipedes, slugs, spiders and flatworms. They all aid in the decomposition process by chewing, grinding and tearing organic material into smaller pieces.

The most important all these organisms in your compost pile is the aerobic bacteria and there population can be incredible. In one gram of soil there can be millions. They are the most diverse of all organisms and can devour just about anything.

Bacteria, although it can eat it’s way through a variety of organic material, it is not indestructible. The environment can be it’s worst enemy. The change of temperature, moisture and oxygen can harm and kill off bacteria as well as help it. The proper percentage of these three elements are very critical in composting to have a successful ending product.

Compost piles have more than one type of bacteria and there population will vary depending on the temperature of the compost pile. Psychrophilic bacteria is one that works in a pile with low temperature, Mesophilic bacteria for mid temperatures and the heat loving Thermophilic bacteria for high temperatures.

Along with the various types of bacteria that is needed to work the compost pile, there are other higher forms like Actinomycetes. It is a bacteria that is similar to a fungi or mold,

Composting is a basic process that can easily be preformed by the home gardener, but when you get into the compost pile you will find out the large amount of complexity that makes it work.

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.

John Yazo

http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com

Gardening — Comments Off
16
Mar 10

Organic Gardening – How to Create a Garden by Sheet Composting Your Organic Waste

Sheet composting is a method that you add layer upon layer of organic materials on top of each other and let them cook down or decompose over a period of time. It is also an eco- friendly way to garden. As the organic material decomposes it turns into a rich humus loose soil that is ideal for growing your crops directly in. It is also a great way to create a garden in an area that is hard to dig or can’t be dug at all.

This method of composting is a method that is regularly used in a no-dig garden. It is a way to create a natural environment for all the beneficial organisms in the soil to work the garden soil for you. Building a healthy organic soil structure is what you want when organic gardening. This organic matter is what is needed to supply the soil food web and help create a healthy environment.

The materials that can be sheet composted are the same materials that you would put into your compost pile or bin. All your organic yard waste as well as organic household waste can be included and there is no labor involved but to carry it out to the area you are composting and spread it out.

Start you on sheet composting operation in your own yard and create a healthy environment that your crops will benefit from. They will have a steady supply of all the natural nutrients needed for them to thrive and produce a healthy and high yielding crop.

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.

John Yazo

http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com

Babies-Toddler — Comments Off
14
Feb 10

Organic Baby Food – The Natural Choice

It is only natural for a mother to want the best for her baby, and when it comes to baby food organic is clearly the best. Many people give little credence when it comes to the difference between organic and non-organic foods. However, that is a mistake, especially where baby food is concerned. A child’s body is far more vulnerable to the toxins in non-organic baby food than an adult’s is.

From their developing immune system to their central-nervous and hormonal systems, the toxins in non-organic baby food can be extremely detrimental to a child’s development. What’s more is that many studies have now revealed that babies receive more nourishment from organic baby food than they do non-organic. Experts believe that this is a direct result of the chemicals and pesticides used to grow non-organic produce. You see, it is speculated that the very chemicals that protect the fruit from insects may actually alter it’s nutritional composition.

The variety of organic baby food available in markets now rivals that of the non-organic varieties. That said, many parents find that the organic offerings for their children are a bit pricey. So, what does one do when they can’t afford to buy organic baby food for their little one? Simple, they make homemade baby food instead. It is far easier than most would think to make food for your child at home and it is less expensive by a considerable amount.

To make your own baby food at home you do not have to be a gourmet chef. All you need is a blender or food processor and a little kitchen know how. For instance, you can wash, peel and steam carrots and puree them for your little one. No recipe is required. A simple look at a jar of baby food will tell you that making baby food isn’t rocket science.

Many people buy organic baby food because it is easier than making it at home. However, the process of making your babies food at home can be made easier in a few simple steps. All you need is some extra ice cube trays and storage bags. Spend one day each month making your babies food at home and freezing it. Fill the ice cube trays with food, when the food is frozen each cube can go in small storage bag and be labeled with it’s contents and date. Food can be frozen for up to eight weeks and should be used within 48 hours of defrosting.

Organic Baby Apples

4 Apples Peeled and Cored
1/2 cup Water

Cube and steam the apples on the stove top in a vegetable steaming basket. When the apples are soft puree them in a blender or food processor with the half cup of water. When the puree is smooth freeze it in cubes and store.

There are many different methods for making and storing organic baby food. The point is, in this day and age feeding your baby a healthy diet doesn’t have to be as complex as it once was. The advantage to homemade food is that you know exactly what you are feeding your little one.

Jessica Fuqua is the owner and creator of MomFuse.com an online resource for moms. http://www.momfuse.com MomFuse.com offers articles and information on parenting, pregnancy, honest product reviews, contests, giveaways, and much more.

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