Prepped Living Blog

Here are some of the things we have been up to since the last update in February: Gardening Installed the AeroGarden Set-up a Greenhouse  Installed New Easy-up Fencing Planted Onions Food Preservation  Canned Blueberry Juice Canned Potatoes Canned Pineapple Juice Canned Apple-pear Sauce Dehydrated Onions Froze Onions Other Homestead Projects Finished the Lap Quilt Learned to Darn Socks Made Remineralizing Tooth Powder Made Homemade Deodorant Waterglassed Eggs Made Homemade Curry Powder Installed Pantry Shelving Organized the Pantry Made Draft Stoppers   New Website Articles DIY Tooth Powder DIY Draft Stoppers Energy Bites What projects have you been working on this spring? We would love to hear your updates as well!

Outdoor Garden We set up the last garden bed that we didn't get to last summer. We purchased our third two-pack of the 6x3 beds last year and only set one of them up. I prepped the bed with cardboard and threw in some limbs, leaves, and grass clippings. I then topped it off with soil. We also did a bit of planting. Our larger bed has mint and tarragon on one side. They are healthy plants and come back every year, so I like to leave them alone. We planted a few flower seeds in the bare spots on this side. We planted dry beans on the other side using beans I had saved from a previous garden. The seeds are a couple of years old, so if they do not come up within a reasonable time, I will re-plant with newer seed. We also planted two of the shorter beds. This gives us four beds that are ready to go for the season: one of strawberries, two we just planted, and one with tarragon and mint on one side and the beans we just planted on the other. We will plant the remaining beds when the weat...

Have you tried water-glassing eggs? We water-glassed eggs last year and have been experimenting with the different batches since. Water-glassed eggs Batch 1 -  The first time we used the water-glassed eggs, we opened a batch that was about six months old. The eggs looked good on the outside. As we used them over the course of several days, we discovered two of them were not good on the inside. We tossed those. The others were fine and we used them both for baking and for cooking. The flavor was good, even in scrambled eggs. You couldn't tell from the flavor that they had been water-glassed. The yolk does become more fragile, however, and is more likely to break. My husband didn't like cooking with them due to the fragility of the interior. They cook just fine in baked goods, however. Batch 2 -  The second batch we used was maybe seven months old. A couple of the eggs apparently had cracks that were not visible when we water-glassed them and some of the interior had seeped out....

Our indoor garden has been in for one month now and we are so pleased with the progress! If you would like to read about our experience in setting up our indoor garden, you find the information on our blog post " Starting an Indoor Garden ." Our AeroGarden one month after planting Below is a progress breakdown by pod: Lettuce/Mixed Greens (1st pod)   The first pod of mixed lettuce greens we planted is doing fabulous . I can't tell if two of the same kind of seeds sprouted or if it is just one large plant. We have harvested several leaves already. The plant continues to grow well so we should get a good harvest from this pod. Lettuce/Mixed Greens (2nd pod)   The greens didn't come up at first in the second pod, so I added a couple more seeds and moved some of the sponge over the seeds since it hadn't really closed over them. I had no idea if it would help, I was just experimenting. They eventually sprouted and two plants are growing. Due to the delay in sprouting, ...