::tidbits of green:: from the RYD home front!

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Hello everyone!

How are ya? I know, I know…. long time no blog! What gives?!

With the end of Summer so near we’ve been sulking up a every last bit of the sunshine and I took a little impromptu bloggy break.  The weather has been extraordinarily HOT …today’s temp reached 110 degrees. Our clothesline was gettin’ all the action today.   Seriously, wish we had a solar oven, right about now.

It’s on our wish list and what’s funny is our town is known for having the most sun in the nation… 300 days of sunshine through out the year!

A little known fact we definitely need to take advantage of.

I’ve also been busy getting our outbuilding fit for homeschooling and so far so good… I will post separately on that subject soon. Definitely an amazing transformation going on and I’m beyond thrilled to begin our adventure.

Anyhoo… here are some tidbits  taking place at the RYD home front…

My grandma always told me… save your pickle juice and pickle hard boiled eggs!

Since we have green beans coming out of our ears so we put a few from some salvaged juice from 2 jars of Bubbies pickles!

Pickled green beans here we come.

can’t wait to fill up some reused glass jars with fresh dried herbs from our garden

:: parsley AND :: basil 2 kinds of each!

using the sunshine to dry our laundry… haven’t used our dryer much this summer!

Clean sheets and towels…ahhh!

Been busy makin’ all things homemade  (dry skin salve, deodorant, and toothpaste) including a few other things…

…deets to come!!!!

Mmm, lunch lately… easy peasy & perfect in this summer heat.

with apple slices + almond butter = Mmmm!

an Ani Phyo recipe!

a little love, a little laughter, a little a little … won’t you?

the fair is in town… a really big DEAL around here… we’ve already gone 2x!

Ah, the last of our beautiful Summer desert sunsets… feeling the autumnal shift lately at certain times of the day…

i heart autumn

<3

Change  is comin’ on for us and I feel it.

another fun highlight:  waiting on pickles that are wildly fermenting

( a NO vinegar recipe)… just a few more days!

& so you know the garden is fairing well and I hope to bring you an update on that soon too!

The last few days of August are going to be busy- busy.

I may be absent … but I’ll be back– promise! 

p.s. stomach yuck is just about gone! phew!

What have you been up to?!!

DIY Fruit Leather Recipe

remember these?

Hi there!

This is going to be short & SWEET (pun intended)

Were headed out of town tonight… going up to Northern California to see family. The circumstances aren’t the happiest but were planning to make the best of it. All I can say, is FUCK CANCER.

Okay,  moving on… glad that’s off my bloggy chest….ha, ha!

Since we will be traveling 9 hours away by car with two tots, I figured we should probably have some healthy and handy snacks available. I usually always try to make homemade snacks for our trips whether it’s cookies, granola, yummy meals, etc. Doing it this way helps save time and money. Little ole me has a hard time resisting the urge to be frugal so I’ve been busy in the kitchie whippin’ up some healthy treats to have on handy while were on vay k!

2 days of our trip we will be visiting with family and the remainder of our trip were going doing lots of side trippin’ to Lassen National Park and into Trinity. I’m so giddy about our adventure. We’ve been hoping to explore Lassen for sometime now. Can’t wait to do some hiking with the boys. yeehaw!

I’m also planning to bring you along on this trip… so stay tuned on that. * wink, wink *

One of our favorite snacks to bring with us on our traveling journey’s are fruit leathers, also known as, “fruit roll ups” growing up.

Who doesn’t love a fruit leather?

To me fruit leathers arepart of summer nostalgia. I totally remember gettin’ these from the store or making them with my mom.  With the abundance of fruit right now;  it’s an easy way to use up  fruit before it goes bad AND, if you play it smart go to the market for the already marked down fruit because it’s “overripe” and save a few pennies. Making them at home also prevents you from buying into all the packaged plastic. It’s a win- win all around. No extra litter and everyone including the planet is happy!

They’re SUPER SIMPLE  to make too… for real!

Fruit Leather Recipe:

Ingredients:

Choice of fruit or be wild and mix it up!

(approx 2 cups-)

2-3 tbsp’s of honey(raw & local whenever possible!)

a few drops of lemon juice

Parchment paper/Sheet pan

Directions:

Set your oven temperature to 200 degrees. Add fruit of choice into blender once it has been rinsed, drained, peeled and pitted (depending on fruit of choice).  Add in remaining ingredients, pop the lid on the blender and let it whirl away! You want to get it to puree consistency which doesn’t take long. Let the puree sit while you get the parchment paper over the sheet pan so that you can pour the mixture over the pan to prevent it from sticking. Pour puree mixture onto sheet pan and spread into an 1/8 inch layer. Place puree sheet into the oven and let firm up to a sticky texture for approximately 2 hrs. It will peel directly off the parchment paper when it’s done.

So far, we’ve done, peaches, plums, cherries, apricots and blueberries!  I leave the skins on a few of the stone fruits for extra nutrition. We used a VitaMix but any blender or hand immersion blender will work! You can also use a dehydrator for this recipe, if you own one. We have a Mr. Food’s- 80’s bad ass, dehydrator and it gets used quite a bit BUT for the most recent recipe we used the oven. Just a quick tidbit about the parchment paper… I like to buy the unbleached brands, since they do not contain any chlorine bleach and come in recycled packaging.  yay!

Here’s the peach and apricot mix!

Gorgeous color before it turns into leather!

all that was left of the fruit leathers…more in the oven for the road (blueberry & more peach plum)

AND these bad boys right here are candied pistachios…

we actually get to visit our cousins pistachio farm this weekend and I’m

SUPER stoked about harvesting some freshies!

Oh yeah, baby… these nut clusters are healthy fuel food for the road (no pun intended)

& for our tum’s!

I filled to of these nut packs up especially for hikes.

I’ll post recipes for these yum, yums when we return!

Hope you’re having a wonderful Thursday. 

Gotta run. We leave tonight!!!

Dry Skin Salve, Recipe: Treat Flare Up’s Naturally

Hi there, dear readers!

How are ya?

So far so good here. Thank goodness!

I know, I’ve mentioned it this on the blog before but our three year old, Tristan, (the eco tot) has dry skin. We aren’t sure if it’s related to food or whether it’s just dry skin – eczema. We’ve dealt with this since he was 3 months old.  Dry skin issues seem to run on both sides so it would make sense, he may have a sensitivity. Though, I’ve done lot’s of research and found out that excemza/dry skin can be food related. According to the Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child book  foods such as dairy, wheat, eggs, chocolate can all aggravate dry skin and cause flare ups.

Flare ups are when the skin becomes irritated, red and inflamed. We’ve noticed lately that when Tristan has these foods mentioned above he  get’s flare ups. We haven’t quite figured out the culprit…leaning more towards wheat/dairy. In any case, we’ve been TRYING to do an elimination test but other factors and such have prevented us from really going through with it. It can get pretty tricky, especially since wheat. dairy and eggs seem to be in everything.

Once we realized he had dry skin, we’ve done everything possible to help it. We try to go the natural route as much as possible rather than rub him down with creams that are filled with toxic substances. These products may help temporarily but in the long run I’m not comfortable using them knowing their effects.  Not cool and so, so, important to me since our skin is the largest organ!

I know, it’s been awhile since I’ve written about his dry skin issues but our we always try to make sure there’s ground oatmeal in his bath along with soaps that fragrance and JUNK FREE. The milled oatmeal helps the itch and soothes the skin. We religiously rub him down with a 50/50 mix of coconut oil and EVOO but have recently switched to the Calendula oil I made him, which seems to have it’s place but is not getting rid of the problem. Going the natural route can be a science experiment but I truly enjoy figuring out these processes and coming up with a safe and effective solution …an all natural one!

Before, I get to riled up about this subject on this beautiful EARLY Thursday AM.

I’ll leave you with the recipe I came up with.

Dry Skin Salve

What you’ll need:

Infused oil; I used a homemade oil, I made from the Calendula flowers in our garden

Grated beeswax; local if possible!

Calendula petals from 2 flowers

Milled oatmeal (put rolled oats into your blender and whirl away-simple!)

Measuring cups

Plate

A double boiler

(Or med. size pot filled a quarter of the way- set a fitted glass bowl )

Short wide mouth jar

Directions:

Gather your materials and assemble your equipment. Note ratio: four parts oil to one part beeswax! Next, pour oil into top of double boiler/glass bowl set over hot not simmering – water and heat just until warm. Slowly add most of the grated beeswax and stir until melted then add in additional two ingredients. When you’ve added most of the beeswax, drop a spoonful of the mixture onto a plate and let cool to room temperature. It should be soft enough to scoop from a jar but frim enough to hold together well.  It it’s too runny, continue to add beeswax until it reaches the desired consistency. Remove from the heat. If desired, add 5 to 20 drops of essential oil.

Now carefully pour the hot liquid into jars and cover with lids. Label the jars with the date and contents and store them in a cool, dark place away from all light. If carefully stored, the salve will keep for at least a year.

Is it working?

So far the salve seems to be helping the eco tot out a lot. It helps stop the itching and soothes the skin plus the beeswax provides a nice shield through out the day. It’s only been about 2 weeks, so, it’s still pretty early, I’d say. I’d show you pictures of a before and after of the flare up’s but the area that’s most affected are his poor little bunzola’s!! LOL!

The back of his neck bothers him the most but when the homemade salve is applied we notice the itching subsides as well as the redness. I really like the feel and smell of this salve and the first day we rubbed it on the the eco tot said “this stuff feels GOOD.” That made me super happy.

I thought about adding in an essential oil… an anti -fungal &  antibacterial one …like clove or tea-tree but decided I would leave it fragrance free the first go. Eczema is related to fungus like thrush and other yeast causing issues. So, if your little one, suffers from dry itchy skin; you may want to considering cutting out foods that feed yeast.

As far as, dairy, wheat and eggs go… we’ve been on and off the elimination test… mostly due to outside influences BUT we have been paying attention a lot  more, if nothing else. This past week, we’ve really buckled down and hope to get the rest of our family on board with this issue so that we can get to the core of the problem.

Anywho, the boys are up from the naps. If you make this, come back and let me know, how you did.

Would love to hear about your experience.

Oh, and I love putting some of the homemade salve on my lips too- (stay tuned for a beeswax lip balm recipe, next!!!)

What have you been up to? Do you have experience making your own homemade salves or oils?

Spill… enquiring minds want to know. haha!!  

the {upcycled & recycled} green ideas for summer!

Photo credit: Gingerbread Snowflakes

Howdy!

It’s Friday ….hip, hip, hooray!

How about a little Friday crafty, upcycled & recycled summer F-U-N…

Earthdiva’s Blog:  Recycle Your Flip Flops

Dollar Store Crafts: Recycle Canisters into an Adorable Mushroom Village

The Crafty Crow: Homemade Bubble Wands

Martha Stewart: Elephant Feet

re-nest: A Great Way To Reuse A Toilet Paper Roll

& check out Inhabitot’s 2010 Spring Greening Contest winners!

Have a marvy weekend, friends!

the {upcycled & recycled} Part 1: Handmade Birthday Banner

Tah Dah!

Here is the  birthday project, I was so busy trying to get finished these last couple of weeks…

and guess what?

It’s still not completely done.

The night before the eco tot’s birthday, all that had to be done was the sewing of ribbon across the top of “Happy” & “Birthday”.

BUT, noooooo!!! there was no sewing machine needle to be found…

and guess what?

I still don’t have that damn needle.

It’s the thought that counts, right?

Phew!

It hung in all it’s glory right here on our lovely brown couch the day of  T’s birthday.

pins and all…

I hand stitched and cut out the fabric letters (which, btw- was no fun because I did not have a letter template).

I may scallop the edges on the triangular pieces but first I need to invest in a pair of crafting scissors (and a needle, hoping this weekend!). lol!

This project has been on my sewing list for quite some time and when I was looking for more solid ideas, I came across this one!

I used 4 printed organic onesies, which the boys both wore (from my stash of saved onesies for future projects),  for the fabric pieces.

The blue striped ribbon is from T’s baby shower and the red ribbon is old X-mas stuff.

For the triangles, I rescued an old pair of my husbands jeans from the Goodwill pile.

I love the fact that each year this banner will hang proudly in our living room and carry so much sentimental value.

It was certainly handmade with lot’s of love and care (and will get extra kisses when I buy that damn needle to secure the ribbon on).

And… why is this birthday banner so eco rad?

because each year there will be…

No paper waste, no extra money spent, & trees saved in the process

it all

=’s earth friendly LOVE!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

Stay tuned for part 2!

What green projects are you working on?

See PART 2!

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