Prepped Living Blog

Back in July we posted a review of the first two homemade dishwasher detergent recipes we made. This week, we are posting a review of the third recipe we tried. We found this recipe on wellnessmama.com. It is very similar to the second recipe we tried, only this one includes borax. Homemade Dishwasher Detergent #3 Ingredients 1 c. borax 1 c. washing soda ½ c. citric acid ½ c. sea salt 20 – 30 drops lemon essential oil (or other citrus oil, optional) Directions Stir all ingredients together. Store in a glass jar. Use 1 – 2 T. per load. You can add a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid to the powder before closing the soap dispenser if you want extra cleaning power. Note: Adding too many drops of liquid dish soap will cause problems with your dishwasher. What we liked The dishes were clean.  The recipe is simple. The ingredients are non-toxic. There was no detergent taste left on the dishes. What we didn't like Citric acid isn't something we typically kept on hand...

I love to garden. I don't always have the greatest success with it, but I do enjoy it. Here are the highlights (including both successes and failures) of our little garden. Plum Tree  After four years of wondering what the little thorny tree growing at the edge of the yard might be, we finally found out this year. It turns out it is some kind of plum, likely a cherry plum, but I am not sure. It finally produced fruit this year - tiny, yellow plums that have a sweet-tart flavor. Peppers  I planted peppers indoors this year from seed I saved from last year. Sadly, none of it germinated. We ended up ordering our peppers from Azure Standard this year. Their supplier offers heirloom varieties at better prices than the non-heirloom plants we found at Lowes. This year we put in three jalapeno and two Anaheim plants. They did not grow very tall (we have issues getting anything to grow big here), but they are producing very well!   White Beans  I saved seeds from our in-groun...

A couple of weeks ago we were given a bag of garlic scapes. We tried garlic scapes last year when we grew our own garlic. That first year, we cut them up into small rounds and used them in stir fry. They gave it a nice flavor. This year, we decided to try garlic scape salt. What are Garlic Scapes?  Garlic scapes are the long, curly central stalk that grows from the bulb of hardneck garlic plants. This stalk must be pulled or cut in order for the garlic bulb to grow larger. Garlic scapes have a mild garlic flavor and can be used to flavor dishes just like garlic. Garlic scapes Garlic scapes can be cut up and used in dishes such as stir fries, eggs, and casseroles. They can be used to make a pesto. They can also be used to make a garlic scape infused oil and garlic flavored salt. Because we love our food well seasoned, we opted to make a batch of garlic scape salt with the majority of the scapes and freeze the rest for later use. Making Garlic Scape Salt We followed the Homemade Garl...

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...

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!

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, ...

We have been trying different options for better oral health. We already make a mouthwash that we like really well, so it was time to try making something else. We chose to make our own tooth powder. While most recipes claim these ingredients make a "re-mineralizing" tooth powder, we found that whether or not it re-mineralizes, this recipe gets your teeth sparkling clean. After reading through several recipe options, we came up with our own based on the ingredients we had on hand. Here is the recipe we created: Note: This blog post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through these links helps support our website and blog at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support. Tooth Powder Recipe Ingredients 1/4 c. bentonite clay 3 T calcium carbonate 1 1/2 T baking soda 1 t. cloves 1 t. cinnamon 1 t. sea salt 1 T dried mint leaves, ground to a powder 5 drops peppermint oil (or more, to taste) Directions Mix all ingredients together. Store in a glass jar with a lid.  To use: Scoop a...

By Frances Thomas In our first blog post I wrote: "My hope is that this becomes a space where knowledge can be shared, successes celebrated, and failures viewed with humor." Well, here is a bit of humor...in one of our newsletters in early 2024, I stated the following two goals for the year: 1) Improve my sewing skills. I love making quilts and have made small items – bibs, aprons, simple skirts, and even a pair of lounge pants – but this has been the extent of my skill. I would like to learn to make some serious clothes – shirts, pants, dresses, etc. – and learn how to do zippers and button holes.    2) Make homemade soap. We have a couple of friends who have been gracious enough to let me watch them make soap, but I have not yet ventured to make it by myself. I have been searching for a recipe that uses ingredients to which I have easy access (I love tallow, but cannot always get it) and that I can store for a long time. I think I found a recipe to try. Now I just have ...

We had tallow in the freezer that we needed to use and decided to render it for cooking and soap making. We frequently render lard, but had rendered tallow only once before. The first tallow we rendered had a rather strong odor and taste, so after doing some reading, we opted to try both wet rendering and double rendering it to see if it made a difference.  Two Methods to Render Fat: For those of you, who like I was, are unaware of the different methods of rendering, here is a basic description of the difference: Dry Render - A method in which you put the fat directly into a pot and render it slowly over low heat. Wet Render - A method in which you put the fat into a pot with water (and optional salt) and render it slowly over low heat. The idea is that the the fat cooks in the water (indirect heat) rather than in the pot itself (direct heat). This method is said to make the fat less likely to burn and to minimize the flavor and odor of the tallow (or lard). Why Render Tallo...

It has been a while since we have done project updates. Here are some of the things we have been up to since the last update in early October. It is a bit of a long list since it has been so many months: Canning Turkey Beef Potatoes Pineapple Juice Cranberry Juice Beans Broth Pears Pear Sauce Apple Sauce Apple Pie Filling Hot Sauce Tomato Sauce Butternut Squash Mixed Berry Jam Dehydrating  Microgreens Green Peppers Calendula Blueberries Freezing Butternut Squash Spaghetti Squash Ham Broth Diced Ham Applesauce Other Homestead Projects Baby quilts Dinner Napkins Knit Baby Hats, Scarf, and Gloves Draft Stoppers Rendering Lard Rendering Tallow Vacuum Sealing Dry Goods Emergency Oil Lamps Candle Painting Homemade Christmas Ornaments   New Website Articles Your Go Bag Tom & Jerry Mix Homemade Chai Spice Mix Hot Cocoa Mix Emergency Lamps Canning Fruit Juices Our Experience Canning Cranberry Juice What projects have you been working on since last October? We would love to hear you...