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Blackberry Syrup and Soda

Mar 9th, 2010 by lyndah

We are lucky in that we are blessed with blackberries. Even after eating a lot of them fresh and giving them to friends, we freeze quite a few 2-cup bags. Throughout the year we have many blackberry cobblers and also add these gems to our morning yogurt.

Now that the season will soon be upon us I need to move some blackberries out of that prime real estate known as the freezer. Last year I found a way to use up some of those blackberries by making Blackberry Syrup which we enjoyed all summer long. I’m writing about this now since the mixture needs to sit in the refrigerator for three weeks before drinking.

It’s an easy recipe and also tastes so refreshing on those hot summer days after working out in the garden.

Blackberry Syrup and Blackberry Soda

Blackberry Syrup Print This Post Print This Post

8 cups blackberries

3 cups sugar

4 teaspoons of stevia (You can also use an additional 4 cups of sugar instead of the stevia)

2 cups water

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons of tartaric acid (purchase through beer and wine brewing supply stores or websites)

Mix all of the ingredients in a large glass jar and cover. Let stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Strain through cheesecloth and discard berries. Place syrup in sterilized jars and cover with cheesecloth secured with a rubber band or the canning jar ring. Store in a cool, dark place for 3 weeks. After the 3 weeks, store the syrup in refrigerator.

Now once the syrup is done, add 2 ounces or more to taste, to a glass of seltzer water. I guess the syrup could be used over pancakes or ice cream, but never tried that.

I substituted one teaspoon of stevia for each of the four cups of sugar. I was hesitant to substitute stevia for all of the sugar since I wasn’t sure how that would work. However, this year I may substitute stevia for another cup or so, cutting down the calories even more.

It is a great summer beverage, a drink popular in the south before colas. I’ll be making it in the next couple of weeks so we’ll have our supply for the summer heat – whenever that gets here!

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Posted in Cooking, Recipes, gardening | 1 Comment »

Third Soap – Citrus Coffee Hand Soap

Mar 7th, 2010 by lyndah

If you follow hubby’s blog you know that we finally tested the very first soap we made four weeks ago. It was so bubbly. Check out his picture here.

A week ago Dave and I went to a local craft fair that had all homemade/handmade crafts. There were at least five soap vendors, which was our main reason for venturing out. You know – research. We had fun talking and buying from several of the vendors who were willing to share their soaping experiences with us.

One specific bar we bought was a hand soap with coffee grounds. Wow! What an idea. We bought it and cut it up so we could try it in the kitchen and bathroom. We both agreed it was the best hand soap for getting grease and grime and all of that other stuff off of our hands.

So then back the books and specifically to the lye calculator. The best one I’ve found is here. However, there are several online. (I also checked this recipe with the other calculators just to make sure.) With this calculator you enter your total oil weight, the superfat discount (I use 8%)  and then the percentages of the oils you want to use. From this information, you get a formula of the exact amounts of each oil, water, and lye necessary to make this soap. But what is even neater (sorry, couldn’t think of a better word) is it lists seven different qualities of this recipe including hardness, cleansing, conditioning, creamy, bubbly and more. It gives an INS number which should be between 136-165 with 160 being the best number for the physical qualities of the soap. This soap came in at 161. The recipe can be printed and put in the soap binder with any notes for future additions or deletions.

Our soap binder with recipes

The soap we purchased included the oils that I have listed. However, I decided to add some Shea Butter to the mix due to it’s skin softening and healing properties. But as with any good stuff, a little goes a long way. We also substituted double strong coffee made with distilled water for the water in this recipe. The coffee gives this bar a dark color. To this soap I also added castor oil, not used in our previous two soaps. Castor oil, when used at 3% to 5%, gives a fluffy and long lasting lather and is a healing oil. (Used in larger quantities will take a long time to cure.) There are soapers who won’t make soap without it. So I thought I’d add it to this soap.

We also went with a blend of Essential Oils: orange and tangerine, which I also used in the Cocoa Butter Creamy Lotion.  A note about the grounds, when adding to the soap, make sure they are dry. (Dave spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven.) Do not use wet coffee grounds because it could cause the soap to mold. Not a good thing!

Below you will find our recipe. I’ve included the percentages so if you want to make a bigger batch, you can enter these numbers into the calculator.

A note with dealing with lye. Caution needs to be taken when using this. We open our kitchen window to give the room ventilation during the soap making, even on those cold days. Also, keep gloves on until finished with cleanup. I took my gloves off early and touched the soap mixture while cleaning. I didn’t burn them, but they are real dry and uncomfortable. If you want to make your own lye from wood ash, Lynn has a great tutorial here.

Happy Acres Citrus Coffee Hand Soap

Happy Acres Citrus Coffee Hand Soap Print This Post Print This Post

Shea Butter (10%) 90 grams

Coconut Oil (30%) 269 grams

Olive Oil (30%) 269 grams

Palm Oil (24%) 216 grams

Castor Oil (5%) 45 grams

Lanolin (1%) 9 grams

Double strength coffee (made with distilled water) – 341 grams

Lye – 124 grams

1.5 teaspoon Grapefruit Extract (added to oils)

We added the following at trace:

6 Tablespoons of coffee grounds (dry)

1 Teaspoon Orange Essential Oil

1 Teaspoon Tangerine Essential Oil

This makes 4 lbs of soap or 10 bars.

For cold process directions, print out instructions here.

The only problem we had with this soap is we did a pouring no-no. When pouring into the mold, we scraped the soap mixture off the sides of the pan. Because of that, we had a thin layer on the top that was different than the rest. Layers are nice but we didn’t want one.  That small layer doesn’t hurt the soap, it just doesn’t look very pleasing. But again, this is hand soap!

We are excited with our soaps and plan to make more including herbs from our garden. We’d like to try clary sage, calendula, peppermint, and lavender to name a few. I’d also like to include avocado and mango butters and goats milk to the next batch. What is great about soap making is that once you have a basic understanding of the process and are accurate in your measurements, you can be as creative as you want. If you’ve always wanted to make soap like we did, try it. We’ll be making another batch in a couple weeks. Can’t wait!

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Posted in Recipes, crafts, gardening, soap making | 3 Comments »

On Coffee Grounds

Mar 5th, 2010 by lyndah

Nothing makes me happier than a bargain. The other day on my way out of the local grocery store, there sat a bag of used coffee grounds next to the bag recycling bin.  Above the bag was a sign: FREE for your compost, worm garden, or roses. Well, of course I can’t pass up a bargain, especially if it’s free. I brought them home to the compost, but I wondered what else I could do with them.

Free Coffee Grounds

As a crafter, I know coffee and coffee grounds can antique paper and dye clothing. Easter eggs with a coffee stain are pretty among the other colored eggs.

But back to gardening, these used grounds are great for compost bins, as long as they don’t make up more than 25% of the total volume. According to Rosie Lerner, Purdue University Extension Consumer Horticulturist, grounds are a low-level source of nitrogen, having a fertilizer value of around 2.0-0.3-0.2, and a minor source of calcium and magnesium. Since the used grounds are slightly to highly acidic, they could be applied to those acid-loving plants. But she also warns that the grounds could pack down, decreasing the aeration and increasing the possibility of fungal growth. Check out her information here.

Supposedly the coffee grounds repel ants and slugs. We sure could use that as the spring approaches.

In Haley’s Cleaning Hints, they suggested when sweeping ashes from the fireplace, spread used, wet grounds on the ashes first. This will help keep ash dust from spreading. We don’t have a fireplace, but sounds like it would work.

An interesting use I found was to fill old nylons (I’ve got lot of those around from the old days) with dry grounds, tie the ends, and hang in closets and refrigerators to absorb odors.

But the best way we are going to use our grounds (besides our daily addition to the compost bin) is add them as exfoliants in our next soap batch. We will be soaping this afternoon and I can’t wait to try some used sots in our soap. Stay tuned and thanks for dropping by.

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Posted in Cleaning, crafts, gardening, soap making | 1 Comment »

Apron Memories

Mar 3rd, 2010 by lyndah

With another Writing Your Story class completed, I am still thinking about all of our life stories that need to be told, if not for ourselves, for those we leave behind.

Every day I seem to run into something that tells my story. Just like the other day while cleaning a closet I found these five aprons – all made and worn by my mom.

Mom's aprons

The red and gold one is my favorite, but I mainly remember her wearing the purple one on the left. These aprons bring back such great memories of mom’s cooking and our time together in the kitchen. Every time I pick one of these up I remember her smile and especially her baking, since she loved to bake for her family and the neighborhood kids who congregated at our house.

But I look again and I see the wonderful workmanship of these garments that were only made to protect the “good” clothing. The selection of the fabric,  matching rick rack, and snap enclosures scream to me about my mom’s attention to detail. She was not only a great cook and baker, she was an even better seamstress. Of course, she told me, that she wasn’t always that talented. According to her, by the time she got to her fourth child (me), she had perfected her sewing skills. “You should have seen Martha’s (the first born) clothes,” she told me.

When I was in high school we would go “shopping” for a new dress for me. I would find a lovely dress or outfit and she’d say ok. We’d leave empty handed. But a few days later, after she’s spent time at her Kenmore, she’d present me with my new piece of attire that matched the one we had seen in the store. Whether it was a sleeveless summer dress or a velvet prom gown, she could copy the item. Although she made clothing from memory, she often bought patterns. From those patterns she would make me not just one dress, but at least four or five in different materials. She sure got her mileage out of those designs.  I always had lots of clothes and even purses! I remember longing for store-bought clothes. What was I thinking?

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Posted in Ramblings | 1 Comment »

Rosemary Softening Rinse

Mar 2nd, 2010 by lyndah

In my continuing quest to make our own body care products, I recently made this hair rinse from a recipe in Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles. I used one of my favorite plants – rosemary, specifically lynda rosemary for this rinse. If you are wondering where we found lynda rosemary, well, that’s another story.

the original lynda rosemary still going strong

When hubby and I met five years ago I had two rosemary plants: one planted and one potted. I have no idea how long I had the rosemary, where I purchased it, or what type of rosemary it was, but the the pot rosemary moved with me to our present home three years ago. Since that move, this plant has grown and grown. When I first saw all of the new rosemary plants Dave had made from cuttings, I asked him what variety where these babies – maybe Arp or Tuscan Blue? No,  he had named them lynda since they came from my old plant. Whatever rosemary it really is, it is a hardy plant. If you would like to know how to grow rosemary from cuttings, check out his blog entry Rosemary Babies.

The rinse is pretty simple and according to the book it gives any hair type body.

Rosemary Softening Rinse

Rosemary Softening Rinse Print This Post Print This Post

(from Organic Body Care Recipes)

4 cups distilled water

1/2 cup rosemary

1 teaspoon borax

In saucepan, bring water to a boil and then remove from heat. Add the rosemary and borax, stir, cover, and steep for 2 hours. Strain and pour into storage bottles. Refrigerate for 7 days, then discard.

Use this as a final rinse after shampooing. Do not rinse out. Use 1/2 to 1 cup per application.

This is a nice rinse, smelled good, and seemed to give my hair a little bit more body. However, having to keep it refrigerated and used up in a week makes it a pretty high maintenance goodie. I’m off to continue my search.

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Posted in Recipes, gardening | No Comments »

Whole Wheat & Olive Oil Rolls

Feb 28th, 2010 by lyndah

I’ve not been keeping up with the Healthy Breads in Five group. It seems like I just haven’t taken the time to make the dough which is so easy to do. Anyway, today  I finally completed one of the breads for March. This is the 100% Whole Wheat Bread with Olive Oil. For the recipe check out this blog.

Instead of making a loaf of bread, which we rarely eat, I made rolls.  I made a couple changes to the recipe including using half whole wheat and half white whole wheat, adding a tablespoon of agave nectar, and topping the rolls with sesame seeds.

Whole Wheat Buns

I am really happy with these rolls and plan to make them again in the future. Hubby says we should try making pizza crust with this dough. Yum! If you are interested in joining the group click here. To see all of the great bakers and their blogs for the March 1st bake, click here.

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Posted in Baking | 18 Comments »

10 Things I Love About Winter

Feb 23rd, 2010 by lyndah

In an attempt to suck up a few more weeks (months?) of winter,  I made a list of ten things I LOVE about winter. Well, here it is, not exactly in order but how they came to me this morning:

  1. Able to wear my Smart Wool socks
  2. Going to bed early and not feeling guilty
  3. Sleeping late and not feeling guilty
  4. Lack of sore muscles
  5. Soup, especially Dave’s Hot and Sour
  6. Hot cocoa in the evening
  7. More time to spend on artsy indoor activities
  8. Watching TV in the evening under the blankie with our fur kids
  9. Hot tubbing
  10. More time to catch up on my reading

So now, does that make me look forward to the remaining winter days? No, but at least I did come up with 10 good things. What’s on your list? Meanwhile, I need to return to my “Come on Spring” chant.

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Posted in Photography, Ramblings | 4 Comments »

Looking for spring

Feb 21st, 2010 by lyndah

I decided yesterday, when the air temp had elevated to 56 degrees and the sun was shining, I’d grab my jacket and head on outside to see if I could find spring.

I am happy to report that I did find some signs of spring. I also found some work that was not taken care of in the fall. Among the dead vines was one lonely gourd waiting to be rescued from the swampy soil.

Lonely gourd waiting for me

After grabbing him and taking him to the workshop to dry with the others, I was back out to find some green – at least something to let me know spring was near. With the snow almost gone it wasn’t too hard.

Daffodils

One of my irises

Sedums

Cherry tree buds

Surprise find under the snow!

I’m excited. I did find some spring! It won’t be long now.

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Posted in Photography, gardening | 2 Comments »

Another Day, Another Soap

Feb 20th, 2010 by lyndah

While our basic soap is still curing, Dave and I decided to make another batch of cold process soap. With one success under our belt, we ventured away from the basic bar to add some of our favorite ingredients. This is our new soap.

Peppermint Oatmeal Honey Soap

Peppermint Oatmeal HoneyPrint This Post Print This Post

(Adapted from soap-making essentials.com)

Shea Butter – 90 grams

Coconut Oil – 270 grams

Olive Oil – 360 grams

Palm Oil – 180 grams

Distilled Water – 326 grams

Lye – 124 grams

1 tablespoon of honey (warmed and added to a small amount of the distilled water, then added to the lye water once the lye water has cooled so both liquids are about the same temperature.)

1/4 cup of ground oats (added at trace)

1 teaspoon of peppermint essential oil (added at trace)

1 1/2 teaspoons grapefruit extract for preservative (add to base oils)

Makes 4 lbs – 10 bars

Please go HERE for the actual cold process tutorial. I would recommend printing it out so you can work from it as you are making soap. As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of great soap-making resources online, but this site is my favorite. Since I changed her basic recipe, I also consulted our two books: Soap Naturally and The Natural Soap Book to make sure I didn’t use too much honey for this recipe.

After we poured the soap in the mold, we sprinkled on whole oats. This gives the soap a neat look and is also good for exfoliation. However, I’m not sure I like the way the sides of the bars look. These bars were softer and easier to cut than the basic bars, but due to the whole oats on top we didn’t get a clean cut.  I think we’d leave them off the top next time. The honey gives the bars a warm color and the oatmeal adds a nice speckled effect.

We added the honey, as noted above, by warming it and mixing it with a little of the distilled water, then after the lye water and honey water cooled down to about the same temperature we added them together. The site I recommend adds her honey at trace. In the Soap Naturally she recommends adding it with the lye water. She warns that added to trace or with the oils, the honey may not get completely integrated into the soap. While curing it will sweat dark brown droplets of watery honey. This doesn’t affect the quality of the soap, but might make it prone to rancidity.

The total time to make the soap is an hour. I spend about an hour setting up, getting everything ready so once we start we don’t have to stop. Then it takes about a half hour for cleanup of the kitchen.

These bars smell so good!  Now to wait 4-6 weeks!

Dave has requested our next bars involve chocolate. Stay tuned!

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Posted in Recipes, crafts, soap making | 5 Comments »

Cocoa Butter Creamy Lotion

Feb 16th, 2010 by lyndah

A couple years ago for Christmas I renewed an old interest in making beauty supplies. Several friends received peppermint lip balm, lavender eye pillows, and body cream. I notice just this past couple of weeks that I was running out of my face lotion and remembered the book I had purchased that year – Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles. Looking through the book I found this great recipe for Cocoa Butter Creamy Lotion. Not only is it good for the face, but also can be used as a body lotion.

Cocoa Butter Creamy Lotion

The trick in making this lotion’s creamy consistency is to make sure the oil and water solutions are about the same temperature. If not, they will separate or not even blend together. I had that problem two years ago ending up with body cream that was hard. Checking the temperatures, instead of guessing, is also really important in soap making since those liquids also need to be about the same temperature before mixing.  So I got out my trusty thermometer and checked on both solutions.

Some of the ingredients in this lotion are almond oil, coconut oil, and cocoa butter. It’s scented with sweet orange and tangerine essential oils making it smell oh, so yummy!

If you are interested in organic body care recipes, this is a great book.  Also, there are some great websites that have formulas for face and body lotions. Here are just a few: Glenbrook Farms, Natural Beauty Workshop,  Soap Queen and my favorite Soap Making Essentials.

I’m all set for awhile with face and body lotion. Now it’s on to the hair!

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Posted in Recipes, crafts | 2 Comments »

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