Prepped Living Blog

 After making rose petal jelly a couple of weeks ago, our daughter let us come and pick some of her roses to make another batch. These roses were a mixture of dark pink and red, so we were anticipating a more colorful jelly for this batch. We followed the same instructions as we did while making the rose petal jelly, with the exception that we followed the recipe exactly (using 4 c. of water and 4 c. of sugar rather than 5 1/2 cups of each). We picked the roses and poured hot water over them for tea. It was so fascinating to watch, because the water turned blue first before eventually turning a beautiful dark pink. We put the jar in the refrigerator and left it sit...for a few days since we left it in town. When we brought it home, we strained out the petals and put the "tea" on the stove to heat. We added the pectin and brought it to a boil for 60 seconds. We added the sugar, brought it back to a rolling boil, and boiled it for another 60 seconds, following the recipe instru...

We have written about lilac jelly but never made a post about it. It is time to remedy that! The first time we made lilac jelly, we had beautiful medium and dark purple blossoms. The jelly turned out to be....surprise...a lovely lilac color! Well, at least it was purple until we canned it. Something about the canning process turned it from a lilac to a golden color. The taste was amazing, but I was a bit sad that the purple faded. We have a white lilac bush at our current house. The blossoms are beautiful, the scent is lovely, and they make a wonderful jelly with a pale golden color. To make our jelly, we first picked lilacs and pulled off just the blossoms. Once we had 4 cups of blossoms, we soaked them in water with a bit of baking soda to remove any bugs and dirt. After about 30 minutes of soaking, we put fresh water on to boil, then rinsed the blossoms well with cool water. We transferred the blossoms to a half gallon jar, poured 5 cups of hot water over the top, and stirred with a...

Floral jellies and syrups are a lovely addition to your pantry. If you are unable to grow fruits and berries for jams, syrups, or jellies, floral options can make it easy to "harvest what you have" since many people can at least grow flowers.  Roses are a common and much-loved flower to grow. They are particularly good to have in your flower garden, since both the petals and hips have many uses. We have foraged rose petals for several years now, but this is the first year we have actually made jelly from the petals. I have been so excited to try this recipe! Making the Syrup We used a rose petal jelly recipe we found online.  We  checked the online directions and quantities against the insert for the pectin to be sure that they instructions aligned. They did - in short, both said to boil one minute on the stove, add sugar, boil one minute, then can. I was a bit leery, because we have tried the "updated" instructions with the lesser boil time after adding sugar (the ...

We haven't posted an update on projects since last summer - 9 months! - so we thought it past time that we made a post. The list will not likely be complete since it has been so long, but here are a few highlights from the last nine months: Food Preservation Canning -  Condiments -  Mixed Berry Jam, BBQ Sauce, Hot Sauce, Cowboy Candy Fruits, etc. - Apple-Pear Juice, Apple Juice, Pears, Spiced Pear Sauce, Apple Sauce, Tomatoes, Cranberry Juice Meals - Turkey Pot Pie Filling, Kung Pao Chicken, Beef Bulgogi, Beef Cubes, Turkey, Meat Broth Freezing - Plums, Berries, Meat, Bone Broth, Onions, Hot Peppers, Green Peppers, Herbs, Celery Dehydrating  - Onions, Microgreens, Plums, Apples, Herbs for Tea, Culinary Herbs, Celery, Celery Leaves, Tomatoes Sewing/Knitting - Child's Cloak, Potholders, Baby Quilt, Knitted Stocking Cap, Modifying Clothing Extracts and Liqueurs  - Coffee Liqueur, Lemon Extract, Vanilla Extract (both vodka-based and bourbon-based), Maple Extract Fo...

We had a blog post a couple of weeks back about ways we have used pine. We knew there had to be more ways pine, so we did bit of research online.  We found several more uses: Pine needle infused cooking oil - Infuse chopped pine needles in cooking oil and try it in your favorite dishes. Pine resin salve - This website has instructions for making pine resin salve.  Pine soap - This was such a fun one to research! As it turns out, there are many soap recipes out there that include using different parts of the pine tree - pine needles, pine resin, and pine tar. Pine Needle Soap : We found this winter spice soap recipe that sounds amazing. I would venture to guess that it smells as wonderful as it sounds. We like that we can put pine needles Pine Resin Soap :  We also found a pine resin soap recipe. We like this link because it directs you to use the resin to make an infused oil rather than adding the resin directly to the soap mixture. We also love this link because it i...

At the beginning of the month, we put pine and fir needles in vinegar to soak as preparation for making our own cleaning solution. This reminded me one of our mottos: "Harvest what you have." We have a lot of pine and fir trees around (I love evergreens!) and we have used them for several projects. Here are some of the uses we have personally tried for pine tree products: 1) Pine needle infused vinegar for cleaning - Pine needles have anti-bacterial properties, and when combined with white vinegar can be used to create a cleaning solution for many household uses.  To make the vinegar cleaning infusion , simply cut up pine needles, place in a jar, cover with white vinegar, and infuse in a dark place for at least two weeks.  To use as a cleaning solution : Use a ratio of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water. Add to a spray bottle and use for general cleaning. For greasy areas, you can use a stronger solution of 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water.  2) White pine tincture . - White ...

It is always difficult to remember everything we do in between updates, but here is a decent representative list of the projects we have been working on since May: Gardening Harvested Parsley, Basil, Mustard Greens, and Tomatoes from the AeroGarden Harvested Strawberries, Jalapenos, and Anaheim Peppers Planted Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) Growing (or attempting to grow!) a Variety of Produce in the Regular Garden Growing Tomatoes and Garden Huckleberries in the Greenhouse Canning Serviceberry Syrup Hawthorn Jam Serviceberry/Hawthorn Berry Juice Freezing Eggs (raw, scrambled)  Serviceberries Oregon Grapes Cherries Pear Butter Dehydrator/Air Drying Herbs for Tea - Mint (orange, sweet, chocolate), Rose Petals, Lemon Balm, Plantain Culinary Herbs - Basil, Parsley, Oregano, Tarragon Medicinal Herbs - St. John's Wort, Comfrey, Plantain, Calendula, Yarrow, Feverfew Other - Day Lily, Mushrooms Other Homestead Projects Rendering Lard & Tallow Vanilla Extract Sewing - modifying the n...

Have you ever picked elderflower? Elderflower is not well-known as a flavor in the US, but it is a nice, light floral flavor that is sometimes used in ice cream, sparkling waters, and even in cakes. We frequently make elder berry syrup and have heard that you can use the flowers as well, but have never experimented with the flowers - that is, until now. This year, we finally picked some of the flowers to try. First, I couldn't believe how lovely they smell! These tiny, delicate flowers have the most beautiful, sweet fragrance. No wonder elderflower is a popular flavor in Europe! The flavor is as lovely and light as the fragrance. We only have one bush close to the house so we didn't have a lot of flowers with which to experiment. After deliberating, we opted to make elderflower syrup. We searched online for syrup recipes. Most called for citric acid (as a preservative), several called for lemon (which we didn't have), and nearly all of them called for more flowers than we ...

We had the opportunity to forage some local plants recently. While many things are not quite ready to pick, below are some of the items we harvested on our latest walk: Wild Rose Petals -  Wild rose petals are delightful in herbal tea blends. If you are careful to just pick the petals, it will still produce rose hips for fall foraging. There are several varieties of wild rose out there, many of which have very fragrant petals you can harvest in the spring and produce rose hips you can harvest in the fall. Plantain -  We have both narrow and broad leaf plantain in our area. I was able to find some very large narrow leaf on the hill where there is no foot or car traffic, so I opted to pick there. Plantain is a great plant for wound healing and a simple poultice can be made by chewing the leaves (saliva breaks down the cell walls to release the healing constituents) (1). You can also make a poultice from the dried leaves by adding warm water and creating a paste. We like to add ...

Hello! It has been a while since we have done an update on our various projects, so here is a brief overview of a few of our projects. First of all, let me say that we have been a bit slow in the project area due to a significant amount of uncharacteristic travelling this spring and summer. The travelling was fabulous, but the amount of foraging and gardening we typically do this time of year has suffered. Nevertheless, I remind myself that each person's journey, whether prepping, homesteading, or living healthy, is accomplished one step at a time. Do what you can when you can, even if is just one small thing at a time. Little steps do add up. So, without further ado, here are some of our "little steps": Note: This blog post contains affiliate links. As an affiliate, we may earn from qualifying purchases. We know you have many choices when you shop. Thank you for supporting our blog and website! In the Garden - Successes and Failures We had quite a time this year getting ...

We enjoy trying new recipes each year. This spring we tried a new flower jelly - peony jelly. We have made dandelion and lilac jelly in the past and enjoyed them immensely. We had peonies in our yard, so when I saw a recipe for peony jelly, I decided this would be one of our new recipes to try this year. It fits well with our "harvest what you have" mindset. We had peonies, so why not? I am notorious for finding a recipe online and forgetting to bookmark it. Sadly, that is exactly what I did with the peony recipe we used. However, the recipe we used was similar to this one from Daily Dish Recipes and this one from Practical Self Reliance. First, I picked four large blossoms. I picked out any leaves and rinsed them well to remove any potential bugs and dirt. Four blossoms gave me almost eight cups of petals. I then put the blossoms in a half-gallon jar and covered them with boiling water. I let it cool on the counter for a bit. After ten minutes or so, the water was already ...

Foraging is not just about collecting plants for herbal remedies. You can forage for fruits and berries that you can turn into delicious jams, jellies, or syrups. Huckleberries are hands down the most popular wild fruit to forage in our area. It is so popular here that each family's favorite foraging spot is a closely guarded secret. Our family likes huckleberry jam, but we enjoy having a variety of flavors to fill the pantry. A few of our favorites from foraged fruits are mixed berry (consisting of whatever blend of berries we happen to have on hand that year), serviceberry, and Oregon grape. Mixed berry jam and lilac jelly Fruits and Berries Here is a list of fruits & berries you might have growing wild in your area that you can forage to make jams, jellies, and syrups. There are many more possibilities, this is just a sampling! Huckleberry Blackberry Wild Raspberry Wild Strawberry Serviceberry Thimbleberry Currant Gooseberry Elderberry Oregon Grape Apples Wild Plum Rose Hi...

The idea behind Prepped Living does not equate with building a bunker and filling it with MREs. It is meant to be a way of life. It can incorporate aspects of homesteading, homemaking, preparedness, self-sufficiency, gardening, foraging, DIY, and yes, even survival skills. It means doing what you can when you can to develop essential skills and improve your health. It is meant to be woven into your everyday life, not to be an all-consuming burden to your time or resources. In reality, it is nearly impossible to be completely prepared for all potential emergencies. If you would like to read about why we developed an interest in living a bit more prepared, see our " About Us " page on our website. Each family's version of prepped living will look different. You may raise livestock on a large piece of land. You may have a container garden on your apartment balcony. You may have neither, but perhaps you make your meals from scratch and do a bit of sewing. All of these skills ...

Here are some updates on a few projects we started earlier this year: Canned Cranberry Juice We opened a jar of the cranberry juice I canned a few weeks ago. I was curious to see if we like it enough to can more. Everything I read about it was spot on. It is definitely not as strong as commercial cranberry juice, but it does have a lovely light cranberry flavor that is very pleasant. Our eldest son was eager to use it to make a cranberry cocktail for Christmas. When I asked him if the flavor was too light to make a good cocktail, he said that, on the contrary, it works well because you get the flavor of cranberry without it overpowering the other flavors in the drink. Here is a picture of the drink he made. Isn't it pretty? Cranberry Cocktail Photo by Connor Thomas The verdict: This is a project that I definitely want to repeat. I like the idea of having a supply of healthy cranberry juice on the shelf. Rum-Soaked Cherries We also tried our rum-soaked cherries. I thought the cherry...