Wild Food Foraging: How to Identify Four Common Edible Plants - Eat Healthy. Foraging for wild food has become more popular as people have become interested in eating fresh, local food—for free! You'd be surprised at the bounty of wild food you can find practically just outside your door: roots, edible weeds, wild fruits and nuts, mushrooms and even flowers and leaves. In this excerpt from Foraging: Self-Sufficiency, (Skyhorse Publishing, 2011) author David Squire offers information on finding, identifying, harvesting and using four common edible wild plants—chickweed, ground elder, meadowsweet and stinging nettle—helping you to preserve the art of wild food foraging in your kitchen. This excerpt is taken from the Chapter "Edible Wild Plants. " Chickweed (Stellaria media) Also known as: Chicken’s Meat, Chickenweed, Stitchwort Birds and chickens love to peck at the flowers and seeds of this widespread and abundant sprawling annual, which persists throughout winter in mild climates.
Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria) Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) (Urtica dioica) 5 Fun Winter Activities to Get Kids Excited About the Garden - Green Mom, Green Family. Sarah Lozanova is a mother of two, a holistic parenting coach, and a freelance environmental writer. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and has an MBA in sustainable development. View her natural parenting blog at RawMama.org.
"Children are born with a sense of wonder and an affinity for Nature. Properly cultivated, these values can mature into ecological literacy, and eventually into sustainable patterns of living. " - Zenobia Barlow, “Confluence of Streams” Most children are captivated by watching and helping things grow, making great little helpers in the garden. Here are five fun activities to get your little helper excited about the garden this year. 1.
Numerous books explore topics related to gardening. 2. Most children are visionaries and enjoy sharing their opinion. If space allows, themed gardens packed with the veggies for some of your favorite foods can be fun, such as a pizza garden or a salsa patch. 3. For young children, it can be helpful to give them a very small plot. 4. 5. Easy Salad Boxes: Growing Lettuce - Green Gardening. Based in Lake County, Illinois, Heidi Cardenas has been freelancing since 2000. She studied business administration at the College of Lake County and has a background in human resources administration. She has written for "Chicago Parent Magazine" and guest blogs for The Herb Companion, Natural Living and TribLocal. She enjoys writing on a wide range of topics, but especially gardening, natural living, and home and family eco topics, and she helps you get your green on at HCGreenery.blogspot.com.
It’s easy to prepare salad boxes to grow your own spring lettuce and other greens. Use plastic milk crates or wooden produce crates lined with 1/2-inch mesh hardware cloth, filled with rich, light potting soil mixed with aged compost. Milk and produce crates are easy to pick up and move. The great thing about planting in boxes, cold frames, hotbeds or greenhouses is that you can control the plants’ environment more than in the open garden. Photo By Pascal Willuhn/Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Growing Vegetables from Seed - Eat Healthy. Starting vegetables from seed is a simple way for both novice and experienced gardeners to save money and delve into the exciting (and delicious!) World of heritage plants. In this excerpt from Thrifty Gardening: From the Ground Up (House of Anansi Press, 2012), author Marjorie Harris gives some easy-to-follow advice on growing vegetables from seed. This excerpt is taken from Chapter 6, The Thrifty Propagator. Some people find growing vegetables from seed intimidating.
Buying plants is expensive. Sonia Day, author of Incredible Edibles, says the best vegetables and herbs to grow from seed are: • beets• carrots• dill• green beans• peas• lettuce• soybeans• summer savory• summer squash• tomato• basil Here are Sonia’s easy, step-by-step instructions on propagating vegetables by seed: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Everyone loves to have tomato plants and I’m no different. DIY Block Printing: Homemade Wedding Invitations - Green Living. While store-bought wedding invitations can be lovely, they lack a personal touch and sometimes cost a pretty penny.
Give your guests a special surprise by making your own homemade wedding invitations. This simple tutorial for linoleum block printing from The DIY Bride: An Affair to Remember (Taunton Press, 2012) will get you started. Excerpted from Chapter 7, “Into the Garden.” I’ve become something of a print nerd. If you’re a perfectionist who must have clean, perfect lines and precise placement or color, this may not be the technique for you.
With so much mechanized and homogenized perfection, it’s so refreshing to give and receive items that look and feel handcrafted, like real, living human beings created them with their own hands. Block printing is exactly like it sounds: A block is used to put ink to paper. Crafty Commitment3 hours for 25 invitations Supplies Directions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Tips & Hints • The best papers for linoleum prints are rag-based water-color papers. Meatless Monday! 3 Favorite Sites for Veggie Recipes. Whether we care more about the environment or animal rights, most conscientious consumers can agree that today's factory farming practices are unhealthy for humans, animals and the planet alike.
While animal rights activists often choose to forgo meat entirely, others, known by the term "flexitarians," eat meat, but only if it's produced on farms where animals have the chance to live outside the confines of a small pen. Flexitarians often opt to eat frequent vegetarian meals to free up their dietary budget to buy healthier, well-raised meat (read more about flexitarianism). Lucky for them (and anyone interested in joining their ranks), tons of vegetarian recipes are every bit as satisfying and delicious as meat-centric ones, and there are hundreds of resources available to find amazing vegetarian recipes. Among them are a number of veggie blogs where veg-enthusiasts share their most fabulous recipes. 1. What I want to eat RIGHT NOW: Maybe I am craving an island getaway. 2. 3. Five Resources to Plan a Great Garden.
Garden planning time is getting ever closer! As you prepare to grow food and herbs to improve your health and save some money (not to mention enjoy the most delicious garden goods!) This spring, take advantage of the many resources that can help you grow bigger, better fruits and vegetables. 1. Figure Out What to Plant When In the March/April 2012 issue (on newsstands now), we ran this great article to help you determine which veggies to plant when depending on where you live. 2. Heirloom seeds are those that have been passed down through generations of farmers, having been selected for their delicious taste and hardy nature. 3.
If you're in the market for an app that will actually allow you to plan your garden virtually, then email you reminders about when to plant and other garden tasks, check out the incredibly useful Garden Planning App from our sister publication Mother Earth News. 4. 5. Healthy soil is among the most crucial components of a healthy garden. The Health Benefits of Kale - Food Matters. How does energy conservation help save the environment. Energy use by humans has huge negative impacts on the environment: - When we burn fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil, we release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which means that it traps heat from the sun inside the earth's atmosphere. Ever increasing levels of greenhouse gases over the last two hundred years have resulted in a steady warming of the climate. This climate change is already wiping out species, and scientists predict that between 10% and 50% of animal species worldwide could be wiped out by climate change within 50 years.
Climate change is also causing massive melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, which could cause sea levels to rise by several meters, so places like Florida and New York City will be half under water. As well climate change is shifting rainfall patterns, which are already causing increased flooding in some areas, and increased drought in others. Some forms of energy are less harmful. The Environmental Impact of Protein Sources - Food Matters. We’ve all heard that eating less meat is a great way to reduce our environmental impact by cutting carbon emissions.
On average, it takes more than 11 times as much energy to produce one calorie of animal protein as it does to create one calorie of plant protein. The meat and dairy industries require large amounts of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, fuel, animal feed and water to operate, and in return they produce large amounts of greenhouse gases and toxic manure that pollutes our waterways.
Worldwide meat consumption has more than doubled in the past 60 years, with global meat production reaching 600 billion pounds in the last few years. Dairy and meat production take a heavy toll on the environment, but not all protein sources are created equally. Lamb, beef, cheese, pork and salmon topped the list for highest amounts of greenhouse gas emissions produced. Image Courtesy The Environmental Working Group. Growing a Lemon Tree at Home. Scarlet Faith has always grown gardens since she was a little girl and lived in a kind of garden suburbs. She really got into herbs when grocery prices started going through the roof. If you are going to grow something, why not grow something you will use. That is the way she thinks about it anyway. Read more from Scarlet by visiting her blog Beautiful Body By Faith. "Girls just want to have fuuu'un," (Go ahead and sing to Cyndi Lauper's old tune!) I love to read anything on herbs; I learn from what others have to say, then I kinda figure things out on my own.
So I read up on growing lemon trees, bought some lemons that had never been refrigerated, saved the seeds, let them dry out for about two and a half weeks, planted them in a little round seed sprouting disk, and wah-la! I now have a lemon tree that has been growing for nearly seven years. Now that it's winter time and I have the heater going. Put the dirt pod into the fruit cup. Ok little grasshopper. Skin Benefits of Comfrey. I’m always searching for great herbs to color our soap and skin care products with. Recently I’ve discovered a plant that not only provides a beautiful green color but also provides wonderful skin benefits.
Today, I’m going to tell you a little bit about comfrey. Comfrey is a plant that isn’t given much attention, most likely due to the potential for liver toxicity if ingested. It is frequently used as a fertilizer/compost tea and mulch because of its intense nitrogen content. As an herbal remedy, it has wonderful benefits for the skin. One of the main components in comfrey leaf is allantoin, a compound that is used to hasten skin regeneration. Comfrey leaf is also known for healing bruises and scrapes quite effectively. My newest creation containing comfrey is a gardener’s soap that has a gentle exfoliant and scented with a peppermint rosemary fragrance. Why Soap? Soap..one of the most frequently used products in our daily lives yet few stop to think what is in that soap we use on our skin. Frequently, commercial soaps are not as safe as they pretend to be. Many commercial soaps, though cheap and plentiful, also come with a wide variety of chemicals that can jeopardize both human skin and human health, deprive skin of moisture, and generally are unnecessarily harsh.
So why handmade soap? Real soap naturally and gently cleanses without stripping your skin of it's natural oils. Soap is also more soothing because of the addition of extra skin nurturing oils at the time it's made. When presented with the overwhelming amount of evidence as to what is really in commercial soap, it is easy to see that natural and handmade alternatives are a better choice. Thanks for stopping in and hope to see you soon! 5 Health Benefits of Pears - Natural Health. Soft and sweet, pears are a treat in themselves. Once called the “gift of the gods” by Homer, author of the Odyessy, pears are packed with nutrients, fiber and antioxidants, making them a delicious but healthful snacking choice. Check out these five health benefits of pears for more good reasons to indulge in this sweet fruit. Health Benefits of Pears Fight Free Radicals Pears are naturally high in vitamins C and K, as well as nutrients such as copper—all of which act as antioxidants to protect our cells from damage from free radicals.
One pear contains up to 11 percent of our daily recommended intake of vitamin C and 9.5 percent of our daily recommended intake of copper. Pears are also said to have more nutrients per calorie than calorie per nutrient. Protect Our Hearts Pears are an excellent source of dietary fiber, and fiber is good for the heart. Cancer Prevention Pears can also protect us from varying types of cancer. Hypoallergenic Fruit Control Diabetes Eating Pears Pear Recipes. Suitcase Crafts: 4 Ways to Repurpose Old Luggage - Green Decor and Design.
At Natural Home & Garden, we love the idea of repurposing old items to create new things. Repurposing might involve an investment of time (and creativity) on your part, but ultimately it can save not only resources but the energy it takes to make new products—not to mention money, too. Old luggage has a certain whimsy and worldly charm that can enhance any home’s décor—and the possibilities for using them are endless! Check out these four ideas for repurposing old luggage into fun, functional suitcase crafts. Suitcase Side Tables Who says furniture has to be expensive? Old luggage can make a great side table in a few easy steps, and all it costs is the price of a thrift store suitcase. For a unique bedside table, try stacking a trio of suitcases together. Photo By Thomas Gibson Just stack a trio of suitcases for a quick ‘n’ easy bedside table.
Photo By Stacie/Courtesy Flickr Pet Beds Photo By Susan Wasinger Suitcase Chair Photos By Susan Wasinger Medicine Cabinet Photos Courtesy Blake Sloane. Natural Cleaning Recipes with Essential Oils - Green Living. Related Content The Path to Herbalism The art of healing our bodies with herbs is a new fascination in Erin McIntosh's life. Learn more ab... Nearly everyone has heard about the virtues of common items such as baking soda and vinegar for scouring and absorbing grease. Adding herbal essential oils enhances a formula’s cleaning value and leaves behind a soothing, natural scent. Cleaning with Natural Ingredients Saves Time, Space and Money Making your own natural cleaning recipes is not time-consuming or expensive.
You will marvel at the amount of uncluttered space that becomes available in the area where you store cleaning supplies. Ingredients for Natural Cleaning Recipes: Baking soda: Otherwise known as bicarbonate of soda, you can find this ingredient in any supermarket, usually in the baking supplies aisle. Citrus seed extract: Usually made from grapefruit seed, this natural preservative is a powerful antimicrobial agent. Lemon juice: Lemon juice is readily available in supermarkets. Eco-Me. Natural Remedies for Ear Infections - Natural Health. Untitled. 7 Eco-Friendly and Recycled Garden Products - Green Homes. Eating with the Seasons - Eat Healthy. Beauty Ingredient: What Helps Chapped Lips? Making Quick Moulds for soap | Soapy Hollow. Make your own laundry detergent. 5 Reasons Why Natural Handmade Soaps are Better than Commercial - The Indie Beauty Business Community. Is Antibacterial Soap Really Necessary? Naturally Clean: Make Your Own Washable Swiffer.
Every Herb Has a Story: Treat Coronary Heart Disease with Hawthorn. Natural Remedies for Runny Noses: Herbal Steams. How to make an avocado hair mask | Videos. How to make a banana facial | Videos. Bees, bath and beyond | Videos. How to make compost tea | Videos. How to make seed paper | Videos. How to make sunburn soother | Videos. How to make hairspray | Videos. How to make carpet deodorizer | Videos. How to avoid spoilage | Videos. How to keep your garden wasp free | Videos. Oceans cannot digest plastic bags. What home cleaning products do you use? Don't be scared to green your Halloween. A regular family goes green. Make non-toxic candles. Dry cleaning dirties the planet--switch to wet cleaning. Does eco-friendly hair dye exist? FAQs about recycling | FAQs.
FAQs about composting | FAQs. Seasonal eats. Stop the spread of invasive plants. FAQs about green cleaning | FAQs. Green cleaning recipes | Resources | Publications. Companies won't disclose parfum ingredients. Can small steps add up to big change? Protect yourself against sun and bugs.
Holistically Haute: Got Pain? Here Are 7 Holistic Ways to Reduce it. {Green Living} Eco-Friendly Tips for Painting Your House. {Eco-inspirations}WHAT IS TIME BANKING ? {Green Living} 10 Surprising Uses For Baking Soda. Make your own recycled seed paper. Help wildlife babies stay wild. Plantable seed paper | Resources | Publications. How to ask your neighbours to stop spraying pesticides.