The Paleo Mama

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Homemade Echinacea Tea

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Soon after we moved onto our farm and began investigating all the bountiful plants and vegetables already growing there I started observing how the cycle of life evolves in both our plants and insects’ lives. I already know one big secret—our honey bees are really attracted to our Echinacea plants, more so probably than to any other plant in our gardens. Now I’ll let you in on another little “Ritz farm” secret—I am really attracted to the wonderful homemade Echinacea tea that I can brew from my perennially blooming Echinacea plants! 

Echinacea is one of the best-known herbal remedies, and Echinacea tincture was the first “snake oil” sold by old-time peddlers as a cure-all for everything from cancer to snake bites. There has been such a high demand for the plant, that two of the nine species are now listed on the endangered plant list.

Echinacea is a lovely perennial flower that can brighten up your garden and goes by the alternate name purple coneflower. Although some species may be other colors, purple is most common. Today, more than fifty hybrids have been developed from the nine distinct species.

Let’s look at five important things about this beautiful and beneficial garden plant.

  1. The medicinal benefits of Echinacea
  2. How to grow the Echinacea plant
  3. Harvesting Echinacea
  4. Making Echinacea tincture
  5. Brewing Echinacea tea

1. The medicinal benefits of Echinacea

The benefits of consuming Echinacea (known also as the purple coneflower) have been known for hundred of years, but only studied recently by science. Historically it has been used as a antimicrobial to help fight infections, and to treat snake bites, and relieve pain. Native Americans used it to soothe coughs and sore throats. Some modern science studies have shown it to be effective in shortening or preventing colds, and that it boosts the immune system. Today you can find on WebMD that “Echinacea is also used against many other infections including the flu, urinary tract infections, vaginal yeast infections, genital herpes, bloodstream infections (septicemia), gum disease, tonsillitis, streptococcus infections, syphilis, typhoid, malaria, and diphtheria.” (Here) 

2. How to grow the Echinacea plant

It isn’t difficult to grow and cultivate Echinacea. You can purchase plants from a gardening center, or take cuttings or root divisions from a friend’s garden, or grow it from seeds, which will germinate in ten to twenty days. Hopefully you are interested in preserving these at-risk plants, and will make sure you are getting organically cultivated plants instead of wildcrafted ones.

Echinacea is an herbaceous perennial that tolerates droughts fairly well. The plants grow up to three or four feet tall, and have straight stems that do not branch. A light fertilizing when you plant is all that is needed, and you will rarely need to water well established plants. Weeds will not destroy your plants, but they will compete heavily for soil with Echinacea, so you need to pull out the weeds as they begin to grow around your plants.

The plant takes two years to flower and become large and potent enough to harvest when grown from seed, but may flower the first year if you plant indoors first or have an exceptionally long growing season. Pick a moist, sunny spot with room to grow. Your plants will self-seed and spread where you let it.

3. Harvesting Echinacea

You will have several options for benefiting from the medicinal properties of your plants. Tincturing the fresh plant is highly recommended for getting the most out of the herb. The amazing thing about the echinacea plant is that the entire plant  plant can be dried (roots, stems, leafs, flowers) and used as tea, but you lose some of the benefits by drying. I’ve included some instructions for making Echinacea tincture in the next section. The flowers or leaves should be harvested right after the flowers begin to bloom. Cut each stem right where the first set of leaves is growing. Rinse the flowers, and hang them to dry or lay them flat on a screen. If hanging, tie a paper bag around the flower as the petals will drop. When the leaves and petals are completely dry, store them in a sealed glass jar, and keep them in a cool, dark, and dry location.

You can use your dehydrator if you like, and I’ve even heard of people using their car to dry herbs because, let’s face it, if your car is outside in the summer, it gets to be an oven in there.

4. Making Echinacea tincture

Making a concentrated liquid form of an herb (a tincture) is a great way to take advantage of the health benefits of that herb. Echinacea tincture is easy to make and easy to take. The tincture has a very long shelf life, and is ready to use when needed. Tinctures preserve and concentrate the properties of the herb, making them more effective and longer lasting.

All you will need to make your Echinacea tincture is:

  • A clean glass jar (pint size) and lid
  • A consumable alcohol (80 proof vodka, apple cider vinegar, or food grade vegetable glycerine)
  • Your Echinacea herb (use the root, flower, and leaf)

Be sure you rinse all the dirt off your plant roots, and make sure no bugs are hiding under the petals or leaves. You can find the specific instructions of making your tincture here.  The Wellness Mama website can also recommend three distinct kinds of tinctures (find here):

  • Chamomile Tincture
  • Digestion Tincture
  • Sweet Dreams Tincture

5. Brewing Echinacea tea

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 11.27.30 AM

You can use either fresh Echinacea herb parts or dried parts to make Echinacea tea. Echinacea tea is excellent for strengthening the immune system and fighting off infections, colds and flu.

There are many different kinds of Echinacea tea that you can make. They all start with a basic recipe, and then add additional items or essential oils to create healthy and beneficial flavors. I want to share with you my favorite recipe for making Echinacea tea. I’m sure I will be developing new and fresh recipes for Echinacea tea for as long as my wonderful perennial Echinacea plants continue growing. (Believe me, I plan to keep them growing!)

 

Homemade Echinacea Tea: 

Ingredients: 

  1. 1/2 cup Fresh or dried leaves, roots, flower (1/4 cup if using dried)
  2. 8 oz of water 
  3. 1-2 teaspoons of raw honey 

Directions: 

  1. Simmer 8 oz of water in a small pot over medium heat. 
  2. Add the fresh or dried Echinacea
  3. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. 
  4. Strain tea into a mug and add honey! 

Homemade Echinacea Tea 1

Sources

  1. https://www.offthegridnews.com/alternative-health/growing-and-using-echinacea/
  2. https://homegrownandhealthy.com/grow-your-own-echinacea/
  3. https://wellnessmama.com/25999/echinacea-benefits-uses/
  4. https://loveplantlife.com/2012/02/echinacea-how-to-grow-and-use-this-powerful-antibiotic-and-immune-stimulant/
  5. https://www.terranovanurseries.com/gardeners/echinacea-c-82_22.html

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

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I know you’ve heard me telling you about our dream farm we just moved to, with its ready-made flower and vegetable gardens. What a blessing for us! The former owner was a master gardener, and it’s going to take me some time to just get a grip on how to manage what has already been planted. But I’m determined to grow into a mini-master gardener as soon as possible so here is a few tips I am learning and wanted to share with all of my wonderful readers! 

One thing you also already know about me is that I like to live life from a laid-back, take-it-as-it comes point of view. That is, until I become really passionate about something I like doing—such as living a Paleo lifestyle, and proclaiming the virtues of using essential oils to maintain health instead of the chemicals most drugs shove into you.

So I know I’ll become just as passionate about gardening—but for now I want to share a few secrets I’ve found from my beginning research into gardening. Let’s just say this is a first installment on “Vegetable Gardening for Beginners.”

Let me start by saying I am aware that not everyone reading this will have ten wonderful acres of farmland on which to raise their fruits and vegetables. But hopefully you will find in this post some easy and potentially workable ways to start your garden no matter how much land you have—or don’t have.

I want to take a look at four starting points for any gardener:

  1. Where can you plant your garden?
  2. What are you going to plant in your garden?
  3. When are you going to plant your garden?
  4. When will you be able to enjoy the harvest from your garden?
  5. Where can you plant your garden?

1. Where can you plant your garden?

To get from wanting to have a garden to planting a garden you have to first of all determine where you will plant the garden. Are you stuck in an urban area where you see more concrete that dirt when you look out your window? Then you may want to bone up on Container Gardening. You can use just about any container— Smart Pots, wood, terra cotta, clay, an old sink, wheelbarrow, rubber boot, watering trough, and even cardboard boxes or bags or dirt. If you don’t even have a small balcony or patio to place your containers on, you can consider windowsill gardening from inside your home.

If you are fortunate to have some dirt—even a small area—where you can plant your vegetable garden outside, there are a few blunders you could make that would keep you from ever reaching the harvest stage. Avoid these five blunders:

  • Don’t bite off more than you can chew by planting your garden without considering the time and effort needed to maintain it. Do the necessary research to learn all you can, and then draw up a weekly checklist of maintenance tasks and stick to it.
  • Don’t ignore the light requirements for your plants. Full sun means six or more hours of direct sunlight, and some shade means that those plants don’t want to be wilting in the sun all day long.
  • Don’t forget to amend your soil. This is your most important starting task. Good soil means the right combination of silt, clay and organic material. Sandy soil requires working in a higher ratio of organic material to a depth of at least 4-6 inches. Clay soil needs to have compost material added to it.  Take a sample of your soil to your local university extension office for testing to determine what nutrients you need to add, or do it yourself using a store-bought soil sample test.
  • Don’t overdose your soil on added nutrients. Even the fertilizer made for organic gardening comes with specific instructions, which must be followed to the letter for best results. I like to use natural methods to eliminate garden pests.
  • Don’t overwater or underwater your garden. It is recommended that you stick your finger about an inch in the soil, and if it feels dry, water thoroughly. If the soil is still moist, wait a day and check again. Avoid watering above the plants, it can cause leaf spot and blight problems. Water directly over the plant’s roots.

2. What are you going to plant in your garden?

At first, when deciding what to plant in a garden with vegetables, it’s best to start small. Many gardeners get a little too excited at the beginning of the season and plant more than they need—and end up wasting food and feeling overwhelmed by their garden.

So first, take a look at how much your family will eat when you think about how to plan a vegetable garden. Keep in mind that vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and squash keep providing throughout the season — so you may not need many plants to serve your needs. Other vegetables, such as carrots, radishes, and corn, produce only once. You may need to plant more of these. You can find a list of 10 must-grow vegetables here. 

What you grow will be partially determined by how much space you have available. Remember that you don’t need a large space—you can have a good harvest from just a few container plants. Here are some great ideas for growing veggies in containers. 

3. When are you going to plant your garden?

Starting seeds indoors can help you get a jump-start on spring! Learn what you need and get tips for successful seed starting here. 

Knowing the right time to plant your seedlings outside in your garden depends on where you live. For example, I know that summertime gardening can be a challenge with hot, humid summers and mild winters in the South. Heat-tolerant plants will do best. You can get some ideas for when and how to garden for your area here. 

Vegetable gardening is divided into climate groups: cool season and warm season. Here are some tips to get it right for your area:

  • Plant for your zone. See this zone map. 
  • Cool season vegetables germinate best in cool soil. They are usually planted as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring.
  • Warm season crops can be started indoors, but wait until at least two weeks after the average frost date for your region to plant outdoors. Give them some shade while they adjust to outdoor temperatures.

4. When will you be able to enjoy the harvest from your garden?

During the time between planting and harvest you need to diligently care for your plants. Your veggies will grow faster and give better crops if you feed them. Choose natural products. Well-rotted animal manure from plant-eating critters (rabbits, goats, horses, sheep, chickens) is a great source. Look for prepackaged organic materials online or at your local garden center.

Build your own compost station. Adding good quality compost to your garden provides nutrients in a form plants can use, enriches soil health and enhances the soil food web, builds soil structure, improves drainage, and acts as a butter to toxins. You will find six ways to make great compost here. 

When harvest time comes, it comes big-time. For the gardener, the challenge now may be to keep ahead of a tsunami of vegetables. It’s best to take a basket out to the garden every day to see what has ripened. Picking vegetables as soon as they are ripe often encourages the plant to produce more. Most vegetables are at their peak of tenderness and flavor when they are relatively small.  Zucchini, for example, are best when they are no more than six or seven inches long. Then they get tough and woody. You will find some great harvesting tips for various vegetables and fruits here.

It’s crucial to keep track of what you planted and keep the seed packet so you know what to expect. There are many cultivars of vegetables today, bred for different characteristics such as size. You can plant a watermelon variety that ripens at eight inches across or one that’s not ready until the fruit weighs 30 pounds.  And it would be a shame to pick yardlong beans (which actually are best when they are 15 to 18 inches long) at the five to six inches that would be normal for pole beans.

When you harvest, look out for signs of trouble, such as yellowing leaves or rotting fruit, and remove the problem parts. Even if it’s something you can do little about—such as blossom end rot or cracking from too much rain—there’s no point in letting the plant put energy into fruit you won’t be able to eat.

If you do the proper research, and learn the lessons mentioned here in my blog, who knows? You may become the master gardener you always dreamed of being. Now…I’ve got to get back out to my gardening maintenance!

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

Sources

  1. https://www.dummies.com/how-to/home-garden/gardening.html
  2. https://www.birdsandblooms.com/gardening/fruit-and-vegetable-gardening/5-common-mistakes-backyard-vegetable-garden/
  3. https://www.bhg.com/gardening/vegetable/vegetables/planning-your-first-vegetable-garden/
  4. https://www.bhg.com/gardening/vegetable/vegetables/when-to-plant-vegetables/

A Guide to Beginner Beekeeping

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How to Be a Honey Bee Guardian

As you know by now, Frank and I and our two little budding farmers just moved into our dream farm! We are just beginning to get acquainted with all the things waiting for us—comfrey, potatoes, asparagus, black raspberries, blueberries, and tons of fresh herbs—just to mention a few. But one of the farm perks we are most excited about are our five established honeybee hives. We have already tasted the sweet honey, and we know many of the flowers and vegetables in the gardens are so succulent and good because our honey bees have been busy pollinating them all spring. We are so excited to jump into this world of beginner beekeeping and hope to learn more in the months and years ahead. 

In this blog post I want to introduce you to the wonderful world of beekeeping. We are newbies at it, but our former owners have given us wonderful instructions for the care of honeybees, and we are doing our research to learn even more. Now you get to benefit from what we know, which I am sure will increase more and more as we begin the joyful task of being honey bee guardians. Let’s take a look at:

  1. Why are so many honey bee colonies disappearing?
  2. How do honey bees provide benefits to our farms and homes?
  3. What is life like in the bee colony?
  4. What makes a good beehive home?
  5. What do beekeepers need to have?
  6. What can you do to help protect America’s honeybees?

1. Why are so many honey bee colonies disappearing?

Honey bees have been domesticated by humans for thousands of years. A bee is the only creature besides us who manufactures food for humans. Every third bite of food that you eat has been pollinated by a bee. Natural diseases can cause populations of bees to die off, but most bee colonies were able to bounce back from adversity—until the winter/spring of 2006/2007. In that season, the die-off of domesticated bees was so bad bee researchers coined a new phrase: Colony Collapse Disorder. The normal loss of colonies was about 10 percent, but that year it was over 30 percent. Some beekeepers lost more than 80 percent of their bees.

Since then, in the US bees have been dying off at alarming rates, and beekeepers are continuing to report staggering annual losses. WHY? WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE BEES?

A new class of systemic, neurotoxic pesticides—neonicotinoids–was introduced in the 1990s, and quickly became in use pervasively, being used to treat food crop seeds, as well as in lawn care and flea products. These products persist for years in the soil, and permeate the plants to which they are applied, causing pollen and nectar gluttation droplets, which are deadly toxins to bees. Thousands of beehives have been killed off by colony collapse, while government regulators in America steadfastly fail to take action and create a policy that will be meaningful for bees and beekeepers.  

2. How do honey bees provide benefits to our farms and homes?

There are a lot of good reasons to have a few hives of honey bees around.  For garden and orchard crops, honey bees provide the necessary pollination so there’s something to harvest at the end of the season.  For a source of a natural sweetener—honey—there’s no rival, and if the other natural products of the hive—pollen or propolis—appeal to you, then a few hives are certainly useful.  Plus, there’s the added benefit of having all the light you want from fragrant and clean-burning beeswax candles.  Sweetness and light in the same package.

Remember that bees pollinate every third bite of food that you eat. Some of the specific plants and vegetables that require bee pollination include:

  • Apples
  • Almonds
  • Watermelon
  • Pumpkin
  • Squash
  • Cucumbers
  • Avocados
  • Mangos
  • Blueberries
  • Raspberries
  • Blackberries
  • Cranberries

Plants and food that benefit from bees include:

  • Tomatoes
  • Strawberries
  • Peppers
  • Eggplants
  • Soybeans
  • Lima beans (and other dry beans)
  • Sunflower seeds
  • Sesame seeds

3. What is life like in the bee colony?

The Bee Colony

Whether hidden in a hollow tree or kept in a beekeeper’s wooden hive, every colony of honeybees functions in the same way. A bee colony is made up of three types of bees: workers, drones, and a queen.

Worker Bees

Most of the bees in a hive are workers, sterile females that can number in the tens of thousands. Young worker bees are called house bees. They build and maintain the hive, feed the young, make honey and wax, and tend to the queen. Older workers fly from the hive to gather nectar and pollen for food and for use in making honey and wax.

As a worker bee buzzes from flower to flower, she gathers nectar and stores it in a specialized stomach called a honey sac. She also picks up pollen in her fine hairs and combs it into pollen baskets in her back legs. Heavily laden, she finds the shortest path home, making a “bee line” for the hive.

Interesting enough, female worker bees are the only honey bee that can sting you. 

Drones

There are hundreds of drones in a colony. They are males that develop from unfertilized eggs, and their only job is to mate with the queen. During the mating ritual, the queen flies high into the air, nearly 30 feet above the hive. Up to ten or more drones mate with the queen and then die. The queen returns with enough fertilization to lay eggs for years to come.

The Queen Bee

There is only one queen in a hive, and she can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day and may lay a million eggs in her lifetime. When a new queen is born, the old queen leaves the hive with about half of her workers to form a new colony.

When flowers are in bloom, bees work nonstop from sunrise to sunset, gathering pollen and nectar and pollinating flowers in the process. To be as busy as a bee is to be busy indeed.

4. What makes a good beehive home?

If you are thinking of starting beekeeping, the first thing you need to do is to decide where the bees are going to live. Where will the hives sit? If you live in tropical, or nearly so, locations, a bit of afternoon shade can be advantageous for both you and the bees.  But if you are further north, no shade at all is the best place to be.  Having the colony facing south or south east is ideal.

Getting started, like many new ventures, has a learning curve to be dealt with.  The most important part of that curve is assuming responsibility for the well being of a living being under your care… not unlike family pets, chickens, cattle or other friendly or productive animals.  A beehive may appear as only a box full of bugs, but a honey bee colony has a personality and lifestyle all its own, and as its keeper you must learn its ways and wiles so you do the best you can to protect it from the dangers of the bee world.  

Plan on how your bees will sit where you want them to sit.  Up off the ground is good, to keep the bottom off damp ground and to keep skunks, toads, ants and other nasties at bay.  Too, a beehive that sits up 18 inches or so off the ground (the recommended height) is easier to work because you won’t be putting heavy boxes full of honey all the way down and having to lift them all the way back up when you’re done.

5. What do beekeepers need to have?

Here are some very general recommendations.  A honey bee colony requires two deep brood boxes for the bees to live in, store some honey and pollen in, and raise their young.  A deep brood box (also called a hive-body) is one that holds eight or ten frames of comb and are 9-5/8” tall (or so… exact standards in beekeeping equipment are a bit fuzzy).  This can weigh as much as 90 pounds or so when full of bees, honey and pollen.  

Your beehive also needs additional boxes, called honey-supers (super = above), that are stacked above the brood boxes for the bees to store honey in.  These honey-supers can be the same size as a hive-body or, to confuse things, there are two sizes of smaller boxes—one is called a shallow honey-super because it is only 5 -11/16” tall.  This will weigh about 30 pounds or so when full of honey.  The other is a medium honey-super because it is 6-5/8” tall, and weighs about 50 or so pounds when full.  Which box to use will depend to some degree on your ability to heft.

A bee hive needs a floor, called a bottom board, that has a large, screened area so debris falls completely out of the boxes rather than accumulate inside.  The bee hive should also have an inner cover that sits directly on top of the top box (think of this like the ceiling in your house), and an outer cover that goes over the inner cover (much like the outside roof).  Together, these two covers keep the internal environment somewhat controlled and the elements out. 

You’ll need feeders... yes, you sometimes need to feed your bees. So what do bees eat?  Sugar syrup… a mix of half sugar and half water, fed in a container that the bees can get to inside, or sometimes outside the hive.  There are a variety of feeder styles available and each has advantages and disadvantages.  Find them in the catalogs you get from the advertisers in the journals you read, on the web (see references at the end) or from local suppliers you find out about at club meetings.  And don’t hesitate to ask other beekeepers what they use… and why they use what they do.

You will also need beekeeping attire—protective gear to wear when working bees.  A good veil to keep bees out of your hair, and a light-colored, light weight protective suit to keep your clothes clean when in the hives is a good start.  And beekeeping gloves.  Having bees walk on your hands the first few times in a hive can be very distracting, so use beekeeping gloves until you are comfortable with this aspect of the craft.

Along with the attire you get, you must have a smoker.  When you puff a little bit of smoke across the top of an open colony the bees inside retreat down to rapidly consume honey and they stay out of your way as you do your work.  Any communication between them inside is disrupted because the smoke masks all the chemical signals going on and they can’t talk…  the confusion goes on for several minutes while you work.  Then, when it begins to clear, they stop eating honey and start again to the top, a bit more smoke gives you a few more minutes to work undisturbed.  You have maybe 15 minutes though before all this smoke simply overloads the system and they quit eating and start checking out the problem.  That’s when it’s time to move to the next colony. 

6. What can you do to help protect America’s honeybees?

Gardeners who plant the right flowers and provide welcoming habitats can do their part in restoring the waning bee population.  We can nurture bees that will travel, pollinating fruit, vegetable and flowers around us, helping commercial growers to regain bees.  “Every single gardener can make a difference, even if you just plant one more container of flowers than you have previously, you can help!”, says the National Garden Bureau.

Small Steps

It doesn’t take much effort to help bees increase their population.  Here’s how to make a difference:

  • Plant flowers with open petals and upright stamens for easy access by our pollen-loving friends. Cosmos, zinnias and purple coneflowers are good examples.
  • Choose flowers that are heavy pollen producers like salvia, penstemon and goldenrod.  And pick colors that attract bees like blue salvia, yellow nasturtium, marigolds and sunflowers.
  • Herbs, oregano, mints, sage, lemon balm, rosemary, lavenders, thyme, cilantro and basil in particular, provide food for bees as well as humans.  So add them to your garden.   It’s simple to keep a potted herb garden on your back porch, close to the kitchen for cooking.  Bees will quickly discover it.  Pots keep invasives like mint in bounds, and they can be brought indoors for the winter to use.
  • Make sure your garden blooms from very early spring (crocus and early daffodils) to late fall asters to provide pollen as long as possible.
  • Limit or eliminate pesticides, which kill bees, and use compost instead of synthetic fertilizers that leave behind toxic chemicals.
Bees at hive entrance.
Bees at hive entrance.

Sources:

  1. https://earthjustice.org/features/the-case-of-the-vanishing-honey-bee?gclid=CjwKEAjwtYSsBRCDx6rM1v_uqmsSJAAZgf2qKVGPIYrPW3Lu2j8kEgYBvqMMeGsDSE-W9c9w0OM0IhoCYXzw_wcB#
  2. https://www.panna.org/issues/publication/bee-change-tips-tools-protecting-honey-bees
  3. https://www.almanac.com/content/honeybees-garden-busy-can-bee
  4. https://homestead.org/KimFlottum/BeginningBeekeeping/Bees.htm?gclid=Cj0KEQjwkv-rBRDwoMLav-2l9KIBEiQAUTkDU6oTNtv5_aKKAFY9n0xWQsiKhNdyrI1CEp_twv9SzMIaAqOG8P8HAQ
  5. https://www.almanac.com/blog/gardening-blog/bee-buzz-blue-berries

 

Root Cellars—5 Time-Tested Storage Ideas for Your Garden Bounty

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Food storage

Root cellars have been around for hundreds of years. They have one purpose—to enable long-term storage for your harvested fruits and vegetables. History tells us that native Australians were the first to preserved large amounts of yams and other produce deep in the cooling and insulation of earth. Underground storage facilities from the Iron Age have been discovered, and the early colonists in North America came prepared with the knowledge of how to preserve their crops. Our ancestors knew the benefit of keeping a root cellar and used these 5 time-tested storage ideas for their garden bounty. 

I have access to our family’s geneology going back to the 1400’s. Many of my ancestors were farmers, and each generation used a form of root cellar to store their bounty during the winter. Before refrigeration, the root cellar was an essential way to keep turnips, carrots, potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips and other root vegetables fresh through the winter months. My mother grew up in Michigan, and remembers vividly the root cellar in her basement, built by her father right next to the playhouse he built for my mother and her sister. It was her job to get potatoes out of the potato bin, and bring up various cans stored there by her mother who was an avid canner.

Root cellars are making a comeback, and are highly appreciated by homesteaders and natural living advocates who want to reduce expenses by growing and storing their self-grown harvests. I am so fortunate to have a root cellar waiting for me in our new “forever farm,” which we move in to at the end of this month. I’m doing my best to learn how to maximize its usage, and I want to share some of this information with you so you can consider doing the same thing.

1. What Is a Root Cellar?

Technically, a root cellar is any storage location that uses natural cooling, insulating, and humidifying properties of the earth. Today’s root cellars are often found in basements, or are dug down in the ground or horizontally into a hillside. You don’t need an elaborate root cellar to store vegetables, even for months at a time. You can easily extend the fresh life of root crops using whatever storage space you currently have. 

2. Twenty-two Foods You Can Store in a Root Cellar

Your root cellar will work for you as long as you pay close attention to the crop varieties you choose, on your timing for harvest, and learning the best storage conditions for each type of fruit or vegetable. Contact your cooperative extension office for advice on specific storage varieties for your region. Here is a list of 22 crop varieties you may choose to store.

Cold and Damp Storage

Store these at 32 to 40 degrees F, with 90-95 percent humidity. Research each of these to discover when to harvest and how to store.

  • Apples
  • Beets
  • Broccoli
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Leeks
  • Parsnips
  • Pears
  • Potatoes
  • Rutabagas
  • Turnips
  • Winter Radishes

Cool and Dry Storage

Store these varieties at 50-60 degrees F, with 60-70 percent humidity.

  • Beans (dried)
  • Garlic
  • Onions
  • Pumpkins
  • Squash
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Tomatilllos
  • Tomatoes

3. Root Cellar Basics

There are three basic conditions a root cellar should provide. The closer you come to matching these ideal conditions in your vegetable-storage area, the better your vegetables will keep.

  1. Humidity—High humidity is essential. Most root crops and leafy veggies keep best in humidity of 90-95 percent. There are three ways to assure this humidity: install a dirt floor, adding water when needed such as pans of water or damp burlap over the produce, pack the veggies in damp sawdust, sand, or moss.
  2. Ventilation—Air needs to be circulated through your root cellar. Because warm air rises and cool air falls, put an air intake down low, and the outlet up high.
  3. Temperature—This is the most important thing. You can borrow cold from the ground, or by letting cold night air into the cellar.

4. Root Cellar Design

Screen Shot 2015-05-02 at 10.07.38 AMRoot cellar designs run the gamut from rough and rugged to designer worthy. Some ideas that are inexpensive but useful include:

  • Simple shelving created from rough cut boards and cement blocks
  • Stackable trays that circulate air
  • Simple wood boxes with burlap covers to keep out the light.
  • Buckets, bins, or boxes with lightly dampened leaves.
  • Sawdust or sand

5. What Can My Root Cellar Do for Me?

What can root cellaring do for you? Simply this: make it possible for you to enjoy fresh endive in December; tender, savory Chinese cabbage in January; juicy apples in February; crisp carrots in March; and sturdy, unsprayed potatoes in April — all without boiling a jar, blanching a vegetable or filling a freezer bag. A root cellar can save you time, money and supplies. Your gas and electric bills will be lower because you are not heating 2-gallon kettles of water for canning. You won’t have to stuff so much into the freezer, and you won’t need to buy new jar lids or freezer bags.Growing your own food can be very rewarding, especially during the summer months when veggies can be washed, cooked and on the table the very same day they’re picked (nothing fresher than that!). If you plan ahead and plant more than your family and friends can consume during the growing season, you can still enjoy your bumper crop over the long, cold winter months through the wonderful benefits of root cellaring.

Food storage

Resources:

  • https://www.hobbyfarms.com/food-and-kitchen/root-cellars-14908.aspx
  • https://www.almanac.com/root-cellar-build
  • https://www.hobbyfarms.com/food-and-kitchen/how-to-store-food-in-root-cellars.aspx
  • https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/fundamentals-of-root-cellaring-zm0z91zsie.aspx
  • https://commonsensehome.com/root-cellars-101/
  • https://tipnut.com/cold-storage-projects/

Essential Oils for Labor

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Today I welcome Rachel from Healing in Our Homes to the blog! Rachel is a homeschooling mother of 5 wonderful children and a doula and birth photographer to many women. She is a wealth of information when it comes to supporting pregnant and I’m so blessed to have her share more about essential oils and labor. 

Labor, like pregnancy, can involve a lot of changing needs and feelings – first your hot then your cold, youʼre excited then youʼre crying, one minute you want someone to rub your shoulders, the next you want to hurt anyone that touches you. This is normal and essential oils are a wonderful tool to have to manage our changing moods and comfort levels during labor.

As a doula Iʼve been privileged to be a support to many women as theyʼve given birth. I love when my clients use oils already or are open to me using oils to support them. It doesnt matter if you are giving birth at home, at a birth center, or in a hospital there are still many ways for essential oils to bring comfort, both, emotionally and physically.

Where to buy high quality essential oils at a discount

Here are some of my favorite essential oils for labor:

1. Peppermint

This refreshing oils is so fabulous for when you are hot or tired. You can smell directly from the cap for some quick energy or dilute with a carrier oil and apply to the back of the neck for a cooling effect.

2. Wild Orange & Citrus Bliss Blend

Both of these oils make a wonderful compliment to peppermint for energy and stamina. They are also a great mood lifter if you feel discouraged. You can make a spray (see recipe below), diffuse them together in a diffuser or simply put them into your hands to inhale. Citrus oils can also help a laboring mama stay focused and help to calm nausea.

3. Clary Sage or Clary Calm Blend

Clary Sage is a powerful support for labor, especially when labor is stalled. Typically Clary Sage is avoided in pregnancy because of the possibility of this effect on the body. But once you are full term and your body is ready for delivery, it is a great support.

4. Balance Blend

The tree oils that make up this blend are wonderful for stabilizing mood. If you are feeling frustrated, defeated, out of balance or super emotional have someone rub a few drops into your foot and apply some to the back of your neck as well.

5. Lavender, Serenity blend, & Ylang Ylang

These are my top choices for calming during labor. I like to have my client smell the oils and make a choice by what is most attractive to her in that moment. I would offer one of these oils if mama was agitated or stressed. For mood issues, always go with whatever smells the best to you. Your body knows what it needs.

6. Marjoram

This oil is often underappreciated in the oil world. Marjoram is a great oil for soothing the discomforts of contractions. Dilute and apply to the lower abdomen. Its also great after birth for the cramps that can come while nursing so keep it around!

7. Deep Blue Blend & Black Pepper

I can verify, from my own multiple personal experiences, that back labor is the WORST. First, if you can, get on all fours to encourage that little stinker to turn the right way and relieve you of your misery. But if they insist on coming out looking up at the sky then these two oils are your friend. Get someone to rub them in thoroughly for you. Following with a heating pad or pack can help drive the oils in and give further relief.

Additional tips & recipes:

  1. Put 20 washcloths in a crockpot , fill with water, add 20 drops of lavender and set to “warm”. Apply a washcloth to lower abdomen or back at the beginning of each contraction.
  2. Cooling spray: Mix 25 drops of Wild Orange or “Invigorating” blend, 25 drops of Peppermint and water in a 4oz spray bottle. Spray on during transition or when feeling tired or discouraged.
  3. Perineum support: Mix 10 drops Helichrysm or Geranium in 1 tablespoon Fractionated Coconut Oil and massage into perineum at crowning. These oils support the skin tissue to help minimize puffiness and help the tissue stretch to avoid tearing.
  4. Use Lavender and Geranium over the uterus after birth for soothing all of those tired muscles.
  5. Peri Spray: (This is RAVED about amongst our team for soothing after a vaginal birth) Mix 5 drops of Lavender, Geranium and Helichrysm in 1oz of filtered water or fractionated coconut oil. Spray on after each time you use the bathroom or rinse. Donʼt leave this one out, you will be so glad you have it!
  6. Keep your Clary Sage and “Women’s Monthly” blend around because Clary Sage can help aid in milk production as well as support a balanced hormonal system postpartum. Dilute and apply to the lower abdomen daily.

So make sure to add your oils to your hospital bag or birth kit. Enjoy your oils during labor and delivery! To see how to use essential oils on newborns and babies, click here! 

How to purchase therapeutic-grade essential oils at a discount!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Rachel is a wife and homeschooling mom to 5 spunky kids. She serves as a doula and birth photographer, is an avid researcher and love to share what she learns on her blog, Healing in our Homes. Her passion is to support other women as they journey through childbirth, the challenges motherhood and creating healthy homes. DoTERRA has been the perfect way for her to practically empower women to care for themselves and their families naturally.

Where to Buy High Quality Essential Oils at a Discount: 

I recommend that when using essential oils to support your labor, that you use the highest and most therapeutic quality you can find. CLICK HERE to see my brand of choice and how you can purchase them at a discount. 

Essential Oils for Labor Support 

Baking Soda Free Deodorant

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Baking Soda Free Deodorant

A few years ago I made the switch to a natural deodorant. The switch was going great until I started to develop red marks and a light rash on my arm pits. I had no idea what was causing it until someone mention that I probably have an underarm sensitivity.

Apparently, many people have the same sensitivity to baking-soda so I tried to find a recipe online that didn’t use a lot of baking soda. And I found a GREAT one and I loved it for months and months.  I still love it…however, the underarm sensitivity returned even though this recipe uses a very small amount.

So, my quest continued and I found this recipe that uses magnesium oil and essential oils. I never knew magnesium oil could help with underarm stink! We had some magnesium oil laying around the house so I tried it and SURE ENOUGH it’s been working great! However, I love a “stick-based” deodorant and decided to formulate a recipe that is baking-soda free, yet uses magnesium oil.

Note: Magnesium oil isn’t technically an oil so it won’t leave your pits oily…yuck! It has a SUPER low PH which is very helpful at keeping stink at bay…plus you get a nice boost of magnesium which we all need!  Some people experience a tingling when they apply magnesium on their skin. No worries — many feel this during the first few applications, especially if you are a little low in magnesium.

A few more things:

  • I use raw shea butter which is yellow. You can use a lighter shea butter or cacao butter.
  • I find that giving my underarms a spray with magnesium oil while getting out of the shower helps a ton with odor! I then apply this Baking Soda Free Deodorant recipe. You can also make a apple cider vinegar spray to use before you apply your homemade deodorant! If you workout and sweat alot, I would highly recommend a pre-squirt of magnesium oil or apple cider vinegar.
  • TEXTURE – this is not like store-bought deodorant. The texture is more “wet” but will absorb quickly into your skin. Also, if you are using this deodorant recipe in a area with hot climate or in the summer, then you will want to put it in a small jar and scoop it out with your fingers.

Baking Soda Free Deodorant:

Makes one full bar if using a recycled deodorant stick! 

INGREDIENTS: 

  • 1 Tablespoons of Magnesium Oil (where to buy)
  • 2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil (where to buy)
  • 2 Tablespoons of Raw Shea Butter (where to buy) or Cacao Butter
  • 2 Tablespoons of Arrowroot Powder (where to buy)
  • 2 Tablespoons of Bentonite Clay (where to buy)
  • 5-8 Drops of Melaleuca Essential Oil (where to buy) 
  • 5-8 Drops of Geranium, Lavender, Lemon, Ylang Ylang, or Thyme (where to buy) – these essential oils pair well with Melaleuca and offer a nice fragrance

SUPPLIES NEEDED: 

  • Wide Mouth Mason Jar
  • Immersion Blender (where to buy)
  • Small Glass storage container or Recycled Deodorant Tube

DIRECTIONS: 

  1. Melt the coconut oil and shea butter in a double boiler. I stick the coconut oil and shea butter in a wide-mouth mason jar and put the mason jar in a pot of simmering water. Remove from heat when melted.
  2. Mix in the arrowroot and clay into the wet mixture with an immersion blender. I find the immersion blender necessary in properly mixing the oils and solids together and creating “emulsification”.
  3. Let cool for about 15 minutes. You may see some liquid rise to the top….that’s ok. We have one more mix!
  4. Ever so slowly pour in the magnesium oil while mixing with the immersion blender and mix until the mixture becomes creamy. This means you have properly emulsified the mixture.
  5. Add in your essential oils and mix and then blend again.
  6. Immediately pour into a small glass jar or a recycled deodorant tube.
  7. Allow to cool for a few hours before capping. If you are eager to use it, toss it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes!
  8. Slap on a pretty label and you got yourself a nourishing bar of deodorant that works great!

Baking Soda Free Deodorant The Paleo Mama