Natural and homegrown

Great discussion topic!  I'm interested in hearing what kinds of changes others are making, and I definitely agree with you about not blindly trusting either "side."

For lots of reasons (health, financial reasons, "green" reasons, etc) we've made some changes in our family.  We've significantly reduced the number and types of cleaners we use.  One thing I've started doing recently that seems so obvious that I can't believe I didn't do it before- scraping instead of scrubbing with cleansers!  Duh - I used to use harsh cleaners for the water/soap deposits on the tile and shower doors - but now I use a paint scraper razor blade instead!  Same thing for cleaning spills on the cooktop, counters, and floors. 

Baking soda and vinegar work great for keeping drains open and fresh-smelling.  Baking soda-water paste works great for keeping the tile clean.  Vinegar cleans mineral deposits from coffee pots.  

Apple cider vinegar works for wart removal.

Reduce-reuse-recycle (my kids take this one to the extreme, wanting to save every container, bag, box, etc! LOL)

I'm trying to use more natural-state ingredients for cooking, minimizing prepackaged/processed foods, but admit that it's a hard one for us, just because of the time required. It's frustrating to see what most people buy in the grocery store, which is a LOT more "junk" than I buy, but I'm the one who got cancer -ugh.

We've become much more conscious of reading labels and making choices based on ingredients.  (LOL- my kids did science fair project last week examining the Girl Scout cookie claim that "cookies can be a part of a balanced healthy lifestyle").

I LOVE my "square-foot gardening" book and try to improve my garden each year.

I look forward to hearing what others do!

I'd love to garden more, but our altitude limits me. But, I do tend now to eat more organic. I buy local grass-fed beef and bison. And I'm eating tons more cruciferous veggies. I am trying to stay away from boxed and processed stuff. And making a loaf of bread every week or so.

It's a start. There's still a lot to do to clean up my act.

Anne

Like I said on another thread a while back, my husband and I are going "Little House on the Prairie"... we want to grow nearly all of the vegetables we eat and most of the fruit, and supplement the rest from a local organic farm (with a few exceptions... the occasional tropical fruit that don't grow here). 

My goal is to NEVER go into a grocery store again (so far I've gone into a grocery store once in 2010, and that was for something my husband needed at the last minute), and after this summer when my tomatoes are in, NEVER to buy any commercial canned items ever again. I also don't want to ever buy any packaged goods again, although I have no idea when I'll be able to make that goal 100% (for example, even if I buy whole-grain pasta in bulk, that's still technically a packaged item)... in any case, any packaged goods I buy are organic and don't have additives like MSG or HFCS. 

Here are some things we're doing specifically:

Fruit: I planted three blueberry shrubs in October and planted twelve more berry shrubs yesterday (various types of blueberry, raspberry and blackberry). We plan to plant cherry, fig, apple, pear, peach, pecan and walnut trees on our property, and maybe a few other kinds of berries (strawberry, elderberry, boysonberry). I can't WAIT till, in a couple of years, we can just walk out and eat fresh organic berries right in our own yard! We'll have more berries than we can eat fresh, so I will be freezing a lot... I eat berries every day but they get expensive to buy organic ones.

Vegetables:  We're finally starting a "real" garden this year. Hope to grow enough that we can freeze and can what we can't eat fresh, so we can eat our own organic produce year-round. Garden will be heavy on tomatoes (so that I can can tomato sauce), cruciferous veggies, leafy greens, and vegetables I just plain LOVE (eggplant, beets, Brussels sprouts -- good thing I love them since they're cruciferous!, etc.). 

This year I will to teach myself how to can... mainly so that I can can tomatoes, but it will probably come into handy for produce that doesn't freeze well. 

Herbs: Last summer I had a beautiful gigantic planter with five herbs (rosemary, basil, sage, oregano, and thyme). They all did great and I'm still cooking with the sage and rosemary! I plan to plant more herbs this year, incorporated into the landscaping and in the garden. 

Wild Foods: I want to learn to forage. This is more of a disaster preparedness kind of thing (e.g. if there's a storm that knocks out our power for an extended amount of time or whatever), but wild foods are also super-healthy. Although they haven't been studied much, I would bet there's some good cancer-fighting nutrients in a lot of them. I am going to go on a foraging hike this spring to learn to identify some new plants (especially telling good ones apart from poisonous ones). Also, would you believe, I bought a few packets of weed seeds!!! LOL - we have this huge field next to us that isn't technically our property, but it won't ever be developed. It's overgrown with weeds anyway, but I figure I may as well scatter some sorrel, lamb's quarters and purslane to grow there too... all of which make some flavorful and nutritious greens!

Water: We bought a Berkey water filter a couple of months ago so we can kick the bottled water habit. This was mostly an environmental decision (plus we go through so much water that it was a HUGE pain hauling huge bags of empty bottles to the recycling center all the time -- we don't have curb-side recycling pick-up). We also installed a shower filter so we don't have to bathe in chlorine. We're looking into having a well dug (not for drinking, but for watering the garden - although it would be good to have a handy water source in case of emergency).

Grains: Needless to say, we consume only organic whole grains now. I've started buying organic grains and brown rice in bulk so it's cheaper (and less packaging to go into a landfill). I want to buy a little grain mill so I can buy bulk wheatberries instead of flour, and grind my own flour as needed. We're eating a variety of grains... millet is a favorite, amaranth, quinoa, etc.

Legumes: I used to cook with a lot of canned beans. Then I switched to organic canned beans. Well, those darn cans of beans have gotten really expensive! Between that and the BPA in cans, I went to buying bulk beans. It was a pain to have to remember to soak them the night before, and they took forever to cook, so just a couple of weeks ago, I treated myself to a high-end pressure cooker. I LOVE THIS THING!!!! Instead of soaking chickpeas for 24 hours then cooking them, I can just throw the chickpeas and water into the pressure cooker and in 12 minutes of cooking at high pressure, they're done!!! They taste so much better than canned beans, too.

Butter, Milk, Eggs, Meat: In general we're eating less of these things, but what we do eat, we ABSOLUTELY will not eat conventionally-grown non-organic. One of the organic farms near us sells raw organic milk (in Georgia, they can't legally sell it without labeling it as "for animal consumption only"... so silly). I had read somewhere that raw milk can have a breast-cancer-causing substance if the cows have a certain disease, so I'm staying away from that for now, and just using organic pasteurized. 

We would love to someday have a dairy goat and a few hens! I'm in love with the idea of gathering fresh organic free-range eggs each morning. (Milking a goat every morning, mm, not in love with that idea yet, LOL, although it sure would be wonderful to have fresh organic milk on hand.)

The organic farm where I bought most of my produce last year also sells beef and poultry... all free-range of course. You can buy big quantities and freeze them. I plan to buy a stand-alone freezer and when we do, I'll be buying from them. This will also be a treat for our pups, who we give fresh organic meat when we can!

Cleaning: Definitely doing the all-natural cleaning stuff... baking soda and vinegar are my best friends! Costco sells an organic lavendar laundry detergent that I use for the laundry. 

Does anyone know of any safe alternatives to dry cleaning?? I still have some dry-clean-only clothes I really like but I won't have them dry-cleaned knowing all the chemicals in that stuff... but surely there must be a non-cancer-causing alternative??

Personal Care, Cosmetics: I'm trying to use either natural things (e.g. organic coconut oil as a moisturizer) or commercially-sold products that are organic and don't have parabens or other known harmful substances. Cosmetics, well, I don't wear make-up that much... I do have Bare Minerals make-up (on the assumption that it was more natural/less preserved) but I need to look into whether that's true or not.

I'm convinced more people would like more veggies if they could step outside and pick them fresh -- they taste SO good!

Lindasa, I totally agree!! They taste so completely different than the junk in the grocery store! When you can grow for TASTE, rather than for shelf life and "looks" (i.e. you don't use pesticides for picture-perfect produce), and when you can pick it and eat it right then, it makes a world of difference!

Would you believe, I used to think I hated tomatoes. Then one summer in college, the woman I was renting a room from told me excitedly that her organic cherry tomatoes were ready and I had to taste them. I was intrigued that she thought they tasted so good, so I tried one. HOLY COW, that was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted! I realized then what a difference organic makes. I could have eaten those things like grapes. 

Oh yes, compost and local "fertilizer" from the horses who make up the horsepower half of the local horse and carriage trade (this is a historical town we live in...) make things grow for us. 

I've got a great compost pile just from all the leaves on our property + a ton of organic kitchen scraps, but there are horses up the road from us, and I've thought about asking them for their "fertilizer" to compost (since we have way more leaves than kitchen scraps at this point)! Just another great way to recycle... hee hee!

BTW - a side effect of so much less processed stuff is that we hardly produce any garbage any more. Today was our weekly garbage pick-up and we only had one small wimpy bag... we didn't even bother putting it out. We used to have 4-5 bags stuffed full every week!!

Between composting, recycling, and just not having to buy so many packaged items, we just don't produce much waste. As a "conservative tree-hugger," that makes me happy!

Linda, what kind of tomato machine do you have? You probably haven't read my post yet but that's what I want to do too... make our own tomato sauce... that Italian machine sounds like it would be super for that!

Merilee, by "spindly," do you mean it stretches tall? They call that becoming "leggy" and it's caused by being too far from the light source. Are you using grow lights? Just a simple flourescent light hung a couple of inches above the top of the seedlings would make a big difference.

Thanks Crunchy I will l move my leggy parsley closer to the light.

Julia -- the machine we have is made by Bialetti.  If you have any stores near you that sell Italian kitchen/restaurant supplies such as Gaggia, they'll probably be able to order it for you.  We bought it in Toronto several years ago.  Bialetti makes all sorts of stuff -- a lot of coffee makers -- but I'm sure there are other manufacturers who make these machines too.

To describe it -- it's electric, has a large funnel leading down into an augur which is encased by a sieve.  The tomatoes go through the augur, the juice comes out through the sieve and the skins and core come out at the end of the augur.  It's fast and mucho labour-saving!

Merilee -- the other thing to try is to trim the tops of the parsley stalks which forces them to branch out.  As DH likes to say -- threaten their lives a little and they'll start to thrive (but he  suggests that method for plants only).

Linda

Great new topic!  I recently read Food Inc and I'm now inspired to try vegetable gardening.  I'm particularly fond of cucumbers -- would that be a good choice for a beginner?  I'm in zone 9b, very hot and little rain, unless a hurricane blows through. 

My focus of late has been avoiding plastics.  I started using a fabric grocery bag last year on earth day.  Somehow my supply of plastic bags didn't seem to dwindle much until the last month, and now I have hardly any.  

I replaced my plastic 'road mug' with a heavy duty ice tea glass.  I try to always have something to drink when I drive around, and the Tervis tumbler I used to love so much contained bpa (bisphenol A), a known endocrine disrupter.  Then last summer my tap water, which smells like a swimming pool on a good day, started tasting like a muddy swimming pool even after the brita filter.  Now I buy my water a kiosk and use a 1.5 liter glass jug that I got from friends who drink wine.  I have a collection of them so I can store my hurricane supply of water in glass.  

Julia -- the best variety for making tomato sauce is the Roma tomato -- it's longish instead of round, and has much more pulp and much less water  But, for taste, probably the best is any beefsteak-type tomato, or a variety of all types!

I went to the library and got the Square foot Gardening book. I love this as I already have some garden boxes I can use. Now I am inspired to to a veggie garden and went and bought seeds.

I have them stuck to the frig to remind me that spring will actually come LOL

runswithscissors (and everybody else): Do you all watch the VERIA channel on TV? They have lots and lots of recipes for making your own cosmetics, a countless number of recipes for healthful holiday and everyday meals, recipes for making your own cleaning products, etc...

......and, Oh.... recipes for making your own supplements (like this alcohol-free "elixir" I saw them making the other day, for healthy histamine levels in the body, thus allergy prevention).

VERIA is the place to go, I think, for anybody interested in this particular topic. 

Whatever anybody decides to try you will be amazed at how much better your homegrown stuff tastes.

That is SO true! Even when I've thrown together some kind of casserole, if it's with local organic stuff, it tastes absolutely delicious (so says my normally casserole-hating husband!) 

runswithscissors, I am so jealous that you raise sheep!! *sigh* I used yogurt cheese in my Budwig breakfast this morning but my yogurt didn't come from nearly as cute a source!

Yazmin, I've never heard of VERIA and don't think we get that one, but I need to check out their website! Thank you!

Does anyone have wild blackberries growing near you? I was thrilled to find one in a flower bed when we moved in, but, um, I now realize that thing is an invasive, evil, demonic WEED. The thorns hurt so much... even with puncture-resistant gloves on, they stab and it HURTS (it also stabbed my puppy ). I've spent the last two days yanking the evil things out and I still have more to go. 

I'm wondering if it would be stupid of me to transplant one into the woods near us. It'd be nice to have *access* to wild blackberries, but yikes, the thought of it taking over my entire neighborhood -- or possibly county -- doesn't sound appealing!!

LOL Lindasa! "Bramble bushes" sounds so pleasant. They should call them "Thorny Spawn of Satan that Happens to Have Tasty Berries a Few Weeks Out of the Year."

I've been having to cut them to the ground first before pulling the roots out, so transplanting should be a cakewalk. (I won't even compost these wicked things because I know they'd take over my compost pile, and I'd probably be forever battling thorns anywhere I use compost!)

PS, I haven't planted (or even bought) the trees yet (apple, fig, etc.), just a TON of berry bushes -- and you are welcome to come over for some delicious berries! (It may be a few years, because these "bushes" are more like one-foot-tall sticks in the ground right now!!)