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Low-Cost Fuelless Cooker - No Power, No Worries, Hot Food. Cuiseur à foin. Cocinar sin fuego. Grow Your Own!PositiveMed. This is so amazing and exciting! I remember my mom starting avocados this way when I was a kid. It’s the ultimate reuse/recycle project! If you can grow some of your own food, you control what’s in it, you know there are no chemicals in there. I am accumulating several pots and small dishes for my own mini-garden, just because I no longer have a yard doesn’t mean I can’t eat things that I grow myself!

Apples- Coconut- How to Grow a Coconut Palm from a Dehusked Coconut: Tomatoes- Mango Tree: How to grow a mango tree from seeds: Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes- Green Onions- Leeks- Romaine Lettuce- Same technique as celery. Self-Reliance: Gardening. Gardening is the second most popular hobby in the United States. Home gardens can be found on acres of land, or in small 4×4 square foot garden boxes. Many people are discovering the joy and benefits of learning to plant, grow, and harvest their own foods. Gardening and Food Storage Gardening goes hand-in-hand with food preservation (canning, dehydrating, or freezing). If you can grow your own foods to preserve them you can save a lot of money and your preserved foods will be a lot cheaper than store-bought foods.

Many people who are interested in food storage have quite substantial home gardens to supplement their basic long term storage. Gardening is something that could be a critical skill in a long-term emergency situation (food shortage, transportation system shut-down, etc.). Benefits of Gardening More Information on Gardening. Organic Composting. Here's how it works: Eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Throw the leftovers in a compost bin or a worm composting bin. Stir. Water. Wait. When the compost is ready, it becomes food for your garden. Your garden grows and flourishes.

Starting the Cycle To begin with, figure out where you could put a composting bin (outside). After you've located a place for your bin and decided on which kind of bin you'll use, you can start making composting a habit. Occassionally add water, newspaper, grass clippings, etc. and stir it a bit. Do's and Dont's of Adding to the Compost Bin: Would you like to make a homemade compost bin that's both free and easy to put together? Here's a simple way to get rid of flies in your compost bin.

And ways to control odor in your compost bin. Have you ever thought about starting a worm compost bin? See this list of 163 things you can compost... there's sure to be things on the list that surprise you! Growing Celery Indoors: Never Buy Celery Again. Remember when we tested and shared how to grow onions indefinitely last week? Well, at the same time, we've been testing out another little indoor gardening project first gleaned from Pinterest that we're excited to share the successes of today — regrowing celery from it's base. We've figured out how to literally re-grow organic celery from the base of the bunch we bought from the store a couple weeks ago.

I swear, we must have been living under a rock all these years or just not be that resourceful when it comes to food, but we're having more fun learning all these new little tips and tricks as we dive deeper into trying to grow more of our own food. This project is almost as simple as the onion growing project — simply chop the celery stalks from the base of the celery you bought from the store and use as you normally would.

In our case, we had a particular homemade bean dip that needed sampling! Update 2: Here's how we are looking at almost 3-4 weeks of growth: Discover More: Ash in soap and soap making - what is ash. Beauty. Kickboard Compact. Cool Gadgets at the Right Price - Worldwide Free Shipping - DealExtreme. Account Confirmed. Soap. A collection of decorative soaps, often found in hotels Two equivalent images of the chemical structure of sodium stearate, a typical soap. Mechanism of cleansing soaps[edit] Structure of a micelle, a cell-like structure formed by the aggregation of soap subunits (such as sodium stearate): The exterior of the micelle is hydrophilic (attracted to water) and the interior is lipophilic (attracted to oils).

Action of soap[edit] When used for cleaning, soap allows otherwise insoluble particles to become soluble in water and then be rinsed away. Effect of the alkali[edit] Effects of fats[edit] Soaps are derivatives of fatty acids. History of cleansing soaps[edit] Early history[edit] The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in ancient Babylon.[5] A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali, and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC. Ancient Rome[edit] Ancient China[edit] Middle East[edit] Medieval Europe[edit] Butter and oil ingredients for making soap, bath, body, and spa products.

Vegetable and nut oils as well as some butters are used in soapmaking and spa products, they are also used as additives to hand-milled soaps to produce a superfatted soap, lastly they are used as bases for your soap or carrier oils for Essential and Fragrance oils. We use the oils and butters as they carry and dilute the concentrated essential and fragrance oils making them safe to use on the skin. They inhibit evaporation and act like a fixative, helping the essential Oils to be quickly absorbed into the skin, or holding the fragrance oils on the skin for lasting scent.

Most oils especially those that are liquid at room temperature should be kept in the refrigerator or well below room temperature for the longest shelf life, and refrigeration is always recommended for hemp seed and flax seed oils. If you keep your oils in the fridge and they start to look solid or milky that is fine just bring them to room temperature before you use them. Try our Soap Recipes for Making Homemade Soap and easy, no-fail Recipes.

HAND-MILLED SOAP MAKING RECIPES for SAGE SOAP Photo by Malene Thyssen Here is a soap that you can rebatch, call your own and here you are making soap without using lye or caustic soda. Therefore it is safe, fun and can be used for kids crafts too. Grate 2 cups of your chosen store-bought white soap, or your homemade Castile soap Place grated soap in a heat-resistant glass bowl Add 1/4 cup of water Take a pot of water simmer over a low heat. Remove from heat and add 1/4 cup rubbed sage. Take a suitable mold, such as an ice cream box, which as been pre-smeared in a thin coating of petroleum jelly to ensure that your soap will be released easily. Pour your soap into the mold and place in fridge to set. Once set remove from fridge and release from mold. Once your soap is dry, cut up your bars accordingly and wrap as desired.

This is a basic homemade soap recipe that you can then use to substitute sage for oatmeal, add a teaspoon of saffron or paprika for coloring etc. Grate the soap. 4 oz olive oil. Troubleshooting Help! 10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes. Here is a nice stack of different recipes for making homemade laundry detergent that I’ve collected over the years.

Do they work? Yes, I’ve had good luck with them. At the time I was using them, we had a relative who was in trade school living with us. Every day he was mechanic grease from head to toe–the clothes still cleaned up nice! Making your own is a discipline and it’s not for everyone, but it definitely saves money–sometimes just costing pennies a load! Before you get started, here are a few tips: For the bar soaps required in the recipes, you could try Fels-Naptha, Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, and Zote. Here are ten different recipes you can try, I’ve also added a very useful Frequently Asked Questions section at the bottom of the page. 1 quart Water (boiling) 2 cups Bar soap (grated) 2 cups Borax 2 cups Washing Soda Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted.

Hot water 1 cup Washing Soda 1/2 cup Borax 1 Soap bar #10 – (Powdered) Homemade Laundry Detergent. Making your own homemade laundry detergent can be a great way to save on an ongoing basis. Here’s recipe that a HBHW reader submitted. Be sure to also read through the comments section below. We have quite a bit of good discussion on the topic going on and there are many questions that came up and have been answered below. What you need: All ingredients can be found at your local grocery store in the laundry isle. 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap, shaved4 cups of hot water to melt the soap3 gallons of hot water1 cup of borax2 cups of washing soda1 cup of baking soda1 large Rubbermaid container about 4-5 gallons size Here’s what you do: Grate the soap into a saucepan.

Add 4 cups of hot water to the pan. Add borax, washing soda and baking soda to the hot water. Add 3 gallons of hot water to the large container. Further Reading – Keeping It Clean This is a 3 ebook series that will help you spend less time and money on your laundry. Grab your copy today at. Distilled Water and Soap Making. You're probably curious as to why I would recommend using distilled water. The soap making process works best with water that is soft and doesn't contain excess minerals or other impurities. If you have soft water or have access to some, use it! For years I used the soft well water from my Mother's house.

I just put it through a Britta filter and it worked great. Now I live too far away and must purchase the water from the pharmacy since our water is quite hard. You can tell that your water is soft if you feel like the soap doesn't rinse off when you wash. Want something a little bit different? Add the lye to the reduced amount of water and cool to about 90 degrees F. or 32 degrees C. Many other liquids can be used in place of water as well. How to Compost Food Scraps. Composting food scraps at home is one of the most important aspects of home composting. Why? Because food scrap items such as vegetable and fruit waste, meal leftovers, coffee grounds, tea bags, stale bread, grains, and general refrigerator spoilage are an everyday occurrence in most households. One of the "great waves" in municipal and home recycling is the concentration on what to do with the enormous amount of food waste generated in and out of the home, by businesses, or as a result of surplus farming.

On the grand scale, it is estimated that about one-half of all food that is produced or consumed in the U.S. is discarded. The main culprits are spoilage and overproduction/surplus. A typical household throws away an estimated 474 pounds of food waste each year. Up to 90 percent of waste thrown out by businesses like supermarkets and restaurants is food scraps.

Believe it or not, some cities have issues with the home composting of food scraps. Not all food waste is created equal. SoapCalc. Soap Making Oils - Oils for Making Soap - Qualities of Soapmaking Oils - Oils for Soap Recipes. Grapeseed Oil Grapeseed oil is a lightweight, moisturizing oil that is a good additive to soap in small quantities. It doesn't have a long shelf life, so unless you treat it with rosemary oleoresin extract, or have a very low superfat percentage, don't use it more than about 5% in your recipe. Grapeseed oil is lovely in lotions, shaving oils, bath oils, and especially massage oils as it absorbs well without a really greasy afterfeeling. Hazelnut Oil Hazelnut oil is an excellent moisturizer in lotions and creams, but has a short shelf life (3-4 months). Hemp Seed Oil Hemp seed oil is a deep, green color with a light, nutty smell.

Jojoba Oil Jojoba is actually a liquid wax that is very similar to sebum in its chemical composition. Kukui Nut Oil A rich, liquid nut oil that's native to Hawaii, kukui nut oil contributes to a nice, creamy stable lather in the soap, and is nicely moisturizing. Lard Macadamia Nut Oil Macadamia nut oil is a light oil with a mild nutty odor. Neem Oil Olive Oil, Pomace.

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Recipes. Cousin-chart.jpg (JPEG Image, 907x629 pixels) - Scaled (93%) Health. How to Use a Stevia Plant.