Thyme oil garden soap

I've discovered red aphids on my tomatoes. It was a dark day the first time I saw them. I thought they were some type of mite because I didn't know aphids could be red. Of course, I immediately turned to the World Wide Web to figure out what the little creatures were and how to unleash a safe and organic version of a nuclear bomb to eradicate them from my yard forever. Do you know what I found out? I read over and over on various sites that a soap and water solution spritzed on my plants and on the little red buggers would take care of the problem. And you know what? It helped a lot. Well, I also discovered that a lot of commercially produced organic insecticides contain white thyme oil. So, last weekend I whipped up a batch of this wicked cool thyme-oil garden soap.

Canola oil: 4 oz
Crisco: 8 oz
Soybean oil: 4 oz
White thyme essential oil: 1/2 oz

Potassium hydroxide (KOH): 3 oz
Water: 6 oz

First off, all ingredients are measured by weight. I dumped all of the oils/fats into my crockpot to heat up and liquefy. In a glass measuring cup, I added the KOH to the water. Once the KOH water had stopped fizzing and popping and all of the fats were melted, I added the KOH water to the fat and started stirring. Now, you don't really have to stand over the crockpot all day, but I pretty much do because I am pathologically anal retentive. Really, just giving it a stir every hour or two would be fine. After several hours it will turn into a stiff and sticky amber-colored mess and if you haven't made hot-process liquid soap before you will be certain that it is ruined. Turn the heat down and add a couple of cups of water. It will take a while, but the soap starts melting into the water and becoming liquid soap-y. Add more water a cup or two at a time until the soap is mostly melted and turn off the heat. When it was cool enough to safely pour, I poured it into a two-liter soda bottle and filled it up the rest of the way with water. The consistency was still a little thick, but since I only made it for diluting in a spritz bottle, that wasn't really a problem.

There's no reason you couldn't use this as a hand soap. It is very mild, but you would have a bit of a culinary aroma about you. I didn't formulate the recipe to be especially cleansing or conditioning, I just picked out the cheapest oils I had in my kitchen. Then I plugged the info into a soap calculator to figure out how much KOH to use. I used a 0% lye discount since I didn't care about it being conditioning and also because I didn't know the saponification value of the thyme oil.

This soap is a cinch to make. If you are a first-time soaper, this would be an easy place to start. I would recommend visiting this site first to get some good basic soapmaking info and lye-handling wisdom.

Results? Well, it may be too early to tell for sure, but it seems to me to be working well. I've been spritzing all of my veggies and roses like crazy. When I spot the tiny red demons, I switch the nozzle on my spray bottle to "firehose" setting and blast them directly. They, um, don't like that very much. But I do. He he he.

Independence Days week ending 5/23/09

We had a good week this week. I finally got some things done and it is really feeling like summer. The kids go back for 4 more days of school next week and then summer vacation begins. Love it!

Here's my list of Independence Days activities for last week:

Plant Something: bell pepper, hot peppers, roses, strawberries, blueberries

Store something: stocked up on multi-vitamins, vitamin C, rice, beans, canned pumpkin, canned turnip greens, kids Tylenol, cough drops, spaghetti sauce, and last (but certainly not least) a bag of candy

Reduce waste/reduce dependence: sorted recyclables and delivered to local recycling center, used leaves cleaned out of the back of my mom's yard in layering new lasagna beds.

Feeling great! Hoping to get strawberries this summer. I guess we'll have to wait at least a year for blueberries, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait. I'm not going to win the debate over replacing the ornamental pears out front with actual fruit-bearing trees, so I'm working on plotting out potential planting sites for peach trees in the back yard. It may mean pulling out the privet in my butterfly garden to make room, but the privet's become rather unruly anyway.

I love this Independence Days challenge. It helps me on a couple of different fronts. First, since I've never done serious gardening before, the challenge kind of keeps me going. My previous experience lies in a few common culinary herbs and a couple of tomato plants. Without the challenge to spur me on, I may have just planted in my raised "vegetable" bed and been done with it. Instead, I keep thinking, "What can I plant now and where can I put it?" I'm re-thinking current beds to include edibles and making new beds to hold even more. Second, the challenge keeps me encouraged because I keep track of what I do and how I spend my time. I find this very helpful for those days (weeks?) when I run around like crazy but feel that I have accomplished nothing. When I look at my notes, I see that I have, in fact, accomplished many important things.

These are things I have metioned before, but I think it bears repeating. Especially in light of Memorial Day. What better way to honor those who have died in service to our country than to live the most independent and abundant lives we can? Historically, isn't that what America stood for? Independence from oppression and tyranny. Abundance through hard work. These are beautiful and wonderful values and we can return to that vision. They were common values as recently as my grandparents' generation. We have departed from that vision in a way that is similar to how a rebellious teenager veers off from his parents. But it is important to remember that rebellious teenagers, through experience and success and failure, often return to the ways of their parents. We can do that, too. We can say, "You know what, we tried it our way and it just didn't work, so we're going to go back to what DID work." We can decide not to keep up with the Joneses, but instead to keep up with the needs of our families. We can choose to provide for our families in ways that will help to provide for the next generation of our families. We can do it. We will do it. It's hard, though, isn't it?
Brooke

Lightning bugs and lasagna love

I saw my first lightning bug of the year last night - a definite harbinger of summer! And I have a new love. Lasagna gardening. I first heard of it here - these chicks are just plain awesome. Play around on their blog and I'm sure you will come to agree with me on that. Anyhoo - lasagna gardening - also called layered composting and compost sheeting - just plain rocks. Here in the suburban wasteland, our soil is as hard as a rock. Digging down into this hard soil has kept my plans for new beds pretty stunted for the last few years. I mean, I had to REALLY want it. Square foot gardening gave me the encouragement I needed to start vegetable gardening this year. Now, lasagna gardening allows me to plant whatever, whenever. The easiest time to do it would probably be in the fall, because you could set it up and leave it to compost over the winter. Then, come spring you'd be set. Of course, I have never been known to do things the easiest way. But that's just another reason to love lasagna gardening - even the hard way is easy.

To build a lasagna garden, you build up instead of digging down, and you assemble it sort of like a lasagna...in layers. Begin right on top of the turf with something that will act as a weed barrier. Some people use cardboard or newspaper. I used brown paper grocery bags because that's what I had on hand. Lay it down and give it some water so it won't blow away. Then, start layering organic material over it. I used dried-out leaves from my mom's house and compost. I watered between layers. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of time it would take for me to make compost in my compost tumbler in late winter/early spring, so I bought some. On one of the bottom layers, I did use some of my own partially-composted goods. But I digress. I also used purchased manure for a couple of the layers. Since I planned to use and plant in my beds immediately, I used a lot of dirt-like material (compost and manure) in the layers, especially the upper layers, and topped it all off with a couple of bags of top soil. If you can let the bed sit over winter, you don't need to use so much dirt stuff in your assembly because the organic materials you layer will break down into the awesomest stuff ever. My finished beds were probably 18" tall, but I expect them to settle quite a bit. I immediately planted roses and strawberries in one bed and roses and peppers in another. I swear the strawberries grew an inch that first night.

Since we want to add a couple more raised beds to our veggie garden next year, I will plan ahead and (if I can get hubby to build the boxes this fall instead of waiting for spring) use the lasagna method to fill the beds. Then they should be ready for planting by spring.

Ira Flatow had a couple of great discussions today during the second hour of Science Friday. One of them was about the importance of replenishing native plant species to our local food webs. The second was a conversation with Lester Brown about his new book on food shortages and the effects on civilization. You can download the podcast for free, or check out Lester Brown's book. Is NPR considered mainstream media? I think it is, but I'm probably biased because I'm pretty weird and decidedly nerdy. So, if you do consider NPR mainstream, then the topic of food shortages is going mainstream. Things that make you go, "Hmmm." Maybe in a few years, I won't be the doomer weirdo of the family. Well, I'll probably always fall into *some* category of weirdo. It's okay. I'm learning to embrace that about myself. ;-)
TTFN,
Brooke

Independence Days week ending 5/16/09

Well, this update is going to cover two weeks' worth of activities. We had 21 straight days of rain and I was pretty much couch-bound with sick kiddos for 2 weeks - so the list of my accomplishments is shorter than I would have hoped. But I did get some things done, so I am pleased with that.

Plant something - calendula seeds (in herb garden), re-potted root-bound peppermint, seeds for Mesclun salad mix, planted new tomato plants to replace 5 of my seedling transplants that didn't make it, bee balm (herb garden), thinned seedlings and pulled weeds in veggie garden.

Manage reserves - Okay, I'm not sure if this counts, but we ate a lot of food from the back of our freezer and from the food I stored a couple of weeks ago because I was unable to get to the store for 2 weeks.

Cook something new - Cooked beets for the first time and LOVED them! Yum -roots and greens! I'm so excited now about the beets in my garden. Also, I'm not the one who actually cooked this recipe - but I enjoyed it A LOT - and I wrote the recipe down to use myself. Anyhoo - the reason I'm putting it here is that it is a super easy recipe for a yummy treat that is sure to put a smile on the family's faces even in troubled times, and it is simple and uses only items that we would almost certainly have in our emergency stores. I got it from my mom:
Peanut Butter Cookies:
1 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder

Seriously. That's it. Mix it up. Scoop it up. Flatten them with a fork and bake at 350 for 6-10 minutes. I think it deserves it's place here. The cookies are totally delish. And, in the absence of eggs, you can usually sub 1 Tblsp of milled flaxseed + 3 Tblsp of water for an egg. I haven't tried it in this recipe, but I have had success with it in other recipes.

Regenerate what is lost - planted calendula seeds in butterfly garden

Reduce waste/Reduce dependence on commercial systems - made bread, sorted recycling, used brown paper grocery sacks to make paper pulp to make handmade paper embedded with wildflower seeds (Okay, I admit it, I'm pretty bad at remembering to take my cloth grocery bags with me to the store. But don't worry; I flagellate myself regularly with a gluten-free spelt noodle ;-) ). I used this paper to wrap up my homemade soap to go with my handknit washcloths. I'm kind of proud of my handmade Mothers Day gifts, can ya tell? It's mostly because I actually finished them in time to give them on Mothers Day. Which brings me to my final activities in the reduction category: working on and completing some Christmas gifts. Sounds impressive, right? Well, it's not - these gifts are to fulfill IOU's from LAST Christmas. Yikes. I have really patient family members. I finished Dana's handbag, Lance's hat and scarf, and almost finished an apron for my mom. I'll probably get finished just in time to start on this year's Christmas gifts!

Well, this week should be more productive. I've got roses, blueberry bushes, strawberries, and peppers to get in the ground!
TTFN,
Brooke

Independence Days week ending 5/2/09

Well, I've been trying to post my Independence Days updates on Mondays, but we've been passing a non-swine-flu-virus around our family, so I'm a little behind. Last week's Independence Days activities were a little out of the ordinary for me. It's been raining for almost two weeks now, so working in the garden hasn't been much of an option. Then came swine flu. I mean, not to our house, but to the world. After marinating in all of the H1N1 hysteria for days now, I've realized that I'm actually much less afraid of H1N1 than I am of public/government responses. The H1N1 bug itself, at least in its current form seems to be fairly mild. The one confirmed case in our state did not require hospitalization.

I realized, though, that if I woke up to unexpected school closings one morning and the cupboards were bare - well, then I may have to be hospitalized. So the combination of swine flu and inclement weather brought the food storage issue to the forefront for me. And you know what? I'm really glad it did. I have been intimidated by the idea of starting a food storage system - I mean, where do you begin? Doomers (and I use that term affectionately) recommend having enough food on hand to feed your family and animals for 6-12 months. That just seems crazy overwhelming to me.

A couple of years ago, as The Ice Storm of The Century was rolling into town, I was trying to do my regular grocery shopping. I found myself in a crowded, poorly-stocked grocery store. And the worst part was that I was stuck in line for two hours surrounded by anxious and panicky shoppers. I would prefer not to repeat that experience again. So, instead of trying to prepare for the apocalypse in one fell swoop, I decided to start small. I asked myself: If getting to the store is likely to be inconvenient for a couple of weeks, what would I need to have on hand to make that time as "normal" (I use that term loosely for my crew) and comfortable as possible? That simplified things greatly for me and gave me a good jumping off point. And I can tell you that it has paid off for me big time this week. Getting to the grocery store this week would have been really inconvenient and probably would have resulted in a lot of fast-food dinners. But a little prep has truly gone a long way and this has been a valuable lesson for me.

Store something/Prep something: brown rice, dried pinto beans, TVP, canned fruit & veggies, canned beans, sweet treats (hard candy, hot chocolate, popsicles), cereal, canned soup, ramen noodles (keeps morale high around here), pasta, spaghetti sauce, cheese, mac-n-cheese, flour, Tylenol - adults and kids, ibuprofen - adults and kids, benadryl, imodium, vitamins, dog and cat food, vinegar, bleach

Reduce waste/reduce dependence: made bread, made a batch of laundry detergent, worked on knitted washcloths for Mothers Day gifts, sorted recycling

Learn a new skill: Read a book about herb gardening

So, don't get overwhelmed by tasks that seem larger-than-life. That is really the point behind the Independence Days challenge, after all: do what you can, no matter how small it seems and do a little bit everyday. Small changes applied over time really do add up.

Take care and keep on truckin'!
Brooke