Front Porch

 

 

Is this the quint-essential Autumn front porch?

I want to drink hot apple cider when I walk inside of this home, don't you?

The mix of round pumpkins with square bales of hay, flanked with linear corn stalks is no mistake.

It's good design.

Even the flag helps tell the "story" of this home.

Do you decorate your porch, deck or door?
http://oldsweetwatercottage.blogspot.com/search/label/Autumn 

Green Your Pantry: 10 Do's and Don'ts

 

From safe, nontoxic food storage and green cleaning to the basics of whole bulk foods and integrated pest management, get started on a healthier Earth-friendly diet today with these tips. By Dan Shapley

Do: Stock Bulk Whole Foods

The pantry is the place for go-to foods you need to make meals. Most of your stores should be real foods – unprocessed whole foods, like grains, root vegetables, legumes, dried fruit and nuts – and minimally processed foods like pastas. A good rule of thumb: Foods without ingredient lists or heavy-handed health claims on their packaging (or without packaging at all) are the best choice. Those foods with short ingredient lists made up only of items you recognize and can pronounce are good, too. Anything else is best thought of as "food" in name only.

Don't: Stock Processed Foods

It's often true that whole foods take more time and expertise to cook well (though couscous will rival even the quickest of quick-fix meals) but it's also true that processed foods tend to be loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and other calorie-heavy ingredients, preservatives and an array of artificial colors – including some linked to attention deficit disorder, cancer and allergic reactions.

Don't: Use Plastic Food Storage Containers

Plastic may be versatile, lightweight and cheap, but some types of plastic also leach chemicals into foods. If you're keeping some plastic around, purge anything marked with a recycling code No. 3 or 7 first. Those numbers are used to mark hard plastics that often have the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A. Whatever you use for food storage, avoid microwaving or cooking in plastic, and avoid using plastics that show signs of age, since these conditions make chemical leaching more likely

Do: Use Nontoxic Food Storage Containers

Choose glass, ceramic and stainless steel over plastic whenever possible. These materials are long-lasting, can often be transferred directly from the pantry or fridge to the oven or microwave, and – most importantly, they won't leach chemicals into your food.

Don't: Overstock Canned Foods

Unfortunately, plastics aren't the only packaging that leach chemicals into foods. The lining of cans also contains the suspect chemicals bisphenol-A and phthalates, both of which can mimic human hormones. A recent analysis found that families can reduce their exposure to the two chemicals by more than 50% simply by steering clear of canned foods, like soups, tuna and beans. Canned foods are an important part of emergency preparedness, though, so you'll probably want to keep some on hand just in case. Eden Organic is one brand that uses BPA-free cans.

Do: Make Your Own Green Cleaning Products

Save space in the pantry by stocking just a few simple cleaning agents: baking soda, vinegar, alcohol, club soda and lemon juice. That, a little knowhow and some elbow grease are all you'll need to clean just about anything in the house, from the kitchen counters and the oven, to the windows and the toilet bowl. Best of all – unlike most toilet bowl cleaners – these ingredients are useful in cooking, and relatively safe around small children and pets. (Not up to the task? Try an off-the-shelf green cleaner.) If you're making the switch, don't dump those cleansers down the drain! Check with your local waste hauler, municipality or with Earth911 to find the nearest hazardous household waste drop-off location and time. (That's right: Many are so toxic, they're considered hazardous waste.)

Do: Stock Reusable Items

Whether it's cutlery, flatware, napkins or towels, the rule of thumb should be: Wash and reuse. If you're using disposable paper plates and napkins, or plastic forks and knives, they're not only cluttering your pantry but also cluttering our landfills. Don't be too quick to be taken in by marketing about biodegrable or plant-based items, either; the Earth-friendly choice is reuseable, and – in the long run – far cheaper. If you're in the market for reusable napkins and towels, check the vintage styles at Etsy.com to kick your reuse up a notch.

Do: Check Food Safety Recalls

Even if you are a conscientious health nut who buys only organic food, your shopping trips may not be immune from the dreaded food safety recall. In recent months, everything from organic alfalfa sprouts to organic ground beef has been recalled, along with the usual sad litany of industrially processed meats and "foods." Check TheDailyGreen.com for relevant recalls, or sign up for e-alerts from foodsafety.gov.

Don't: Use Toxic Pesticides

Anyone who's stored food knows that nature is never far away. Whether it's mice in the rice or moths in the oatmeal, critters are sometimes hard to keep away, and harder to get rid of. Before resorting to the strongest poison on the market, try integrated pest management techniques – which range from sealing cracks where mice might enter to sprinkling cayenne pepper to deter ants. Consult with this list of natural pesticide alternatives compiled by Beyond Pesticides before resorting to commercial pesticides.

Do: Stock Good Cookbooks

There is no shortage of excellent cooking guides that aim to help you eat a more vegetable-based seasonal and organic diet. Some of our recent favorites include:

• The Vegetarian Option, by chef Simon ($16.50 at amazon.com)
• Farm to Fork, by chef Emeril Lagasse ($15.50 at amazon.com)
• Urban Pantry, by Amy Pennington ($12.75 at amazon.com)
• Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods, by Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian ($19.75 at amazon.com)
• The Family Dinner, by Laurie David ($17 at amazon.com) http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/plastic-food-storage-containers-0330#fbIndex1

Laundry Detergent

I've posted my recipe for Cloth Diaper Detergent, but never considered to post the version for laundry detergent. Silly me :)

They are basically the same, except that the regular detergent has soap in it :)


What soaps can you use?

From my understanding, most any bar soap will do. I think most people try to choose something that's easy on the skin.

Fels Naptha (Love this stuff)
Ivory (I think you can even find flakes of this, which would be handy)
Zote
Kirk's Castile
etc.

So what's the recipe?

Basically it's this:
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup of oxiclean
1 bar of soap, finely grated

There are tricks to grating it. The best one I've heard is to chop it up (food processor can help here), lay it out on some cookie sheets to dry for a day or so, and then chop it up again (again, food processor, big help!) Be careful not to push your processor too hard (don't rush it!).

Now, I said that the above recipe is basically the recipe. I don't like leftovers and I don't like having to do things over and over again, so I like to make large batches. It's a little more work at the time, but a lot less work over time :D

Here's the full recipe:
3 Boxes Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (55 oz each)
2 Boxes 20 Mule Team Borax (76 oz each)
1 Large Tub OxiClean (96 oz)
24 Bars of Soap, finely grated

Depending on what soap you get and how you buy it (bulk, discount store, etc.) you can make a full batch of this for around $60 and it will last a VERY long time.

I've found that getting large buckets to mix this up makes it SUPER easy! Layer all of your ingredients into one (or more) buckets. Pour from one bucket to the next, and repeat until it's mixed to your satisfaction. That's it!

This recipe has a higher yield than the CD detergent, so yo may need more than 2 buckets to mix back and forth.

How do I use it?

I liked to use 2 tablespoons per load of laundry. My husband has a fairly dirty job and I have messy kids *cough*daughter*cough*

If I'm doing a cold wash, I have a jar that I keep close by that I can put my scoops into, add some hot water and help dissolve it a little before throwing it in the wash. It will work without doing that, but I like to.

**I'd like to make a note about the borax used in this recipe. A recent article by EWG cautions the use of borax for cleaning in the home noting that toddlers and young children face special risks from hand-to-mouth transfer of carpet or crack and crevice, dust or spray borax treatments. I would recommend not using borax as a general home cleaner - any cleaner (aside from pure water) used for these purposes will leave a residue. I feel comfortable using the minuscule amount in the detergent. It is not used on open surfaces and is washed out during the rinse cycle.


You can read a bit more on this debate here - there are some great points of view in the comments  http://www.theecofriendlyfamily.com/2009/08/laundry-detergent.html

Get Stains OUT! of Your Diapers!

 

So, you use cloth, Congrats!

Aaaaand you hate stains. You're in luck!

There is a crazy simple solution :)

The sun!

Wash and dry your diapers as usual. (Need help with that? Try these tips!)

Line dry your diapers. This works in cold weather (I wouldn't do it in freezing weather) and even cloudy days. Sunny days will work best, and warm days will help dry your diapers best of course, but the sun will bleach out the stains! It is truly amazing.

When you're all done (or the day is), bring them indoors. If they aren't dry, toss them in the dryer or let them air dry (I would ONLY do this if they were like the most itty bitty bit of damp.)

Enjoy your stain free diapers!

This is March in Ohio!

Don't have a clothesline? I use a retractable version mounted to our deck and it hooks onto our garage.

No place for even a retractable? No problem!

You can still sun through a window. I've done this before through a side window and it did work, not as fast, but it did work. I would imagine a larger window with more direct sunlight would work great. Try putting your diapers on a rack like this in front of the window.
 This method of "sunning" also works great on clothing stains from foods and other miscellaneous things.

See here about cleaning up stained kids clothes (and anything else for that matter).  http://www.theecofriendlyfamily.com/2009/11/get-stains-out-of-your-diapers.html

Cloth Diaper Detergent

I have been using this since October 2008 with no issues. I've actually received compliments on used diapers that I have sold smelling so good and asking what I used :)

If you're looking for the clothing version of this, look here.

Here's what I do. It's cheap and I love it :)

More or less, It's: (this is not exact, since I use the larger recipe below)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup of oxiclean

BUT.... I don't like having misc. leftovers, so I make up a batch... like this :)
It should cost $30, max.

3 Boxes Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (55 oz each)
2 Boxes 20 Mule Team Borax (76 oz each)
1 Large Tub OxiClean (96 oz)

Yes, it's a lot, but it's super cheap to make, so no biggie :) It just lasts forever. Or you can share :)

**I'd like to make a note about the borax used in this recipe. A recent article by EWG cautions the use of borax for cleaning in the home noting that toddlers and young children face special risks from hand-to-mouth transfer of carpet or crack and crevice, dust or spray borax treatments. I would recommend not using borax as a general home cleaner - any cleaner (aside from pure water) used for these purposes will leave a residue. I feel comfortable using the minuscule amount in the detergent. It is not used on open surfaces and is washed out during the rinse cycle.

You can read a bit more on this debate here - there are some great points of view in the comments.

**I see a lot of people asking where to purchase these supplies. If you are unable to find them locally (I've had great luck at our grocery store and others at hardware stores.) you can purchase everything to make this on Alice.com at reasonable prices and that includes free shipping. They currently do not carry the 96 oz Oxiclean, so you would want to purchase two of the 56 oz that they offer.

This is my current wash routine:
I love this routine. My diapers have no smell and are so fresh. I have also been using an open pail (pail w/ no lid) and that seems to make such a huge difference when it comes to ammonia lingering.


Warm wash with cold rinse w/ 1 tablespoon of detergent
Hot (or warm) wash with cold rinse w/ 1 tablespoon of detergent

I have also done this in the past with good results:
Cold wash/rinse w/ 1 tablespoon of detergent
Hot wash/rinse w/ 1 tablespoon of detergent

If you are dealing with ammonia you can also add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vinegar to your hot wash  http://www.theecofriendlyfamily.com/2009/08/cloth-diaper-detergent.html 

Cleaning Up Stained Kids' Clothes

Each time I grab clothes for our youngest from storage I am faced with stains. I put clothes away washed and clean, but they come out with these awful, yellowed stains. They are protein stains that develop from proteins left in the fibers from drool and other things. I use to think that there was no saving them. I tried washing every which way and nothing worked. So when our youngest was due and I was faced with a tub of stained newborn clothes, I put my cloth diaper knowledge to work. I used the sun!

It worked beautifully! All of our baby clothes were saved and it was easy. I have since used this on just about any, and all, natural stains with great success. Here's what I do:

I have a wash tub in my laundry area, so I fill it about half full of hot water and added 2 or 3 massive scoops of Oxiclean. I mean the big green scoop that it comes with. I put on my rubber gloves and dissolve the Oxiclean in the water. I then add every piece of stained clothing, being sure to get each saturated. My objective is not to have it be a big pool of water, but just enough to get everything sopping and just a little left over (I want that Oxiclean super concentrated!).

You could do this in your tub or even in the washing machine - which would be ideal.

I let it all soak overnight. If I did this in the wash tub, I would transfer the laundry to the washing machine with the help of a bucket. I fill the machine as usual - using warm water and then add a normal amount of detergent. Do a normal wash cycle, but do not dry in the dryer!

Then, here comes the rest of the magic. I hung them all out to dry in the sunshine.

Voila! Every stain was gone. They all looked like new! I couldn't believe it. Some of the stains were awful too. I had a couple of outfits that were headed for the trash, but I thought I'd toss them in and give them a chance. They look like new too. Wow, just wow.

Thank you oxygen action and sunshine, you have saved me, yet again :)

This is great for getting clothes ready for donating or yard sales, for salvaging stained family favorites and more.  http://www.theecofriendlyfamily.com/2009/08/cleaning-up-stained-kids-clothes.html

Various recipes for green cleaning

 

HOMEMADE CLEANING RECIPES

LAUNDRY

Laundry LiquidMakes 10 litres
You may add any essential oil of your choice to these homemade cleaners. Oils like tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender or rose are ideal but are not an essential ingredient. They are not necessary to the recipe but do not detract from the effectiveness by adding them. Use essential oil and not a fragrant oil.

Ingredients
1½ litres water

1 bar Sunlight or generic laundry soap or any similar pure laundry soap, grated on a cheese grater OR 1 cup of Lux flakes

½ cup washing soda – NOT baking or bicarb soda

½ cup borax

Tools

Saucepan
10 litre bucket
Slotted spoon or wooden spoon for mixing
Into a medium sized saucepan add 1½ litres of water and the soap. Over a medium heat, stir this until it is completely dissolved. Make sure the soap dissolves properly or the mixture will separate when cold.

Add the washing soda and borax. Stir until thickened, and remove from heat.

Pour this mixture into your 9-10 litre bucket then fill the bucket with hot water from the tap. Stir to combine all the ingredients. The laundry liquid will thicken up more as it cools. When cool, store in a plastic container. I use one of those 10 litre flat plastic box containers with a lid. Use ¼ cup of mixture per load or monitor to see what works well for you. I keep a ¼ cup measuring scoop in the box to measure the mixture into the washing machine.

This detergent will not make suds when you wash as it does not contain the chemicals that supermarket detergents add to make suds. You do not need suds to wash your clothes or for the detergent to be effective. The agitation of the washing machine does most of the washing. Additives loosen the dirt and grease. If you use the greywater from your laundry on your garden, leave out the borax.

All these washing aids are suitable for top loaders AND front loaders. I have been using them in my front loader machines for years with no ill effects.

So, lets do a costing on this first recipe of 10 litres of laundry liquid.
These prices are a bit old, I'd say today in Australia it would cost about $2

Lux Flakes - $5.50
Sunlight soap 4 pack - $2.47
Homebrand laundry soap 4 pack - $1.39
Borax 500 grams - $2.55
Washing Soda 750 grams - $1.65
I’ll use the median soap price (Sunlight) for my calculations.
1 bar of Sunlight soap = 61 cents
½ cup borax = 63 cents
½ cup washing soda = 55 cents
Total comes to $1.79 for 10 litres of laundry liquid. The equivalent amount of national brand, TV advertised detergent is currently $4.30 for a litre in a refill pack. So, $4.30 x 10 = $43.00 for the same amount.
And it works too!
There is also a powdered version of this recipe. I like the liquid because you can use it for stain removal too, but the powder is much easier to make up. I am now using the powder for my washing and the I usually have about a litre of the liquid made up for general cleaning.

CONCENTRATED LAUNDRY POWDER - this is the powder I use in my front loader
4 cups grated laundry or homemade soap or soap flakes (Lux)
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and store in a plastic container with a lid. Use 2 tablespoons per wash. Again, this powder will not make suds and again, this is perfectly okay.

HEAVY DUTY WASHING POWDERFor use on worker’s greasy or dirty overalls, football and sports uniforms or fabric that has food spills.
2 cups grated Napisan soap
2 cups grated laundry or homemade soap
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and store in a plastic container with a lid. Use two tablespoons per wash. The powder will not make suds.

For a very heavily stained load of washing or tradesperson’s clothes, if you have a top loader turn the machine off when the powder is completely dissolved. In a front loader, operate the machine to dissolve the powder and then stop the machine for an hour to soak the clothes. Leave to soak for an hour, or overnight, and then turn the machine on and continue washing as normal.

NEVER EVER mix ammonia and bleach together. It will form a gas that could kill you.

STAIN REMOVER #1
½ cup ammonia

½ cup homemade laundry liquid

½ cup water

Mix all these ingredients well, and store in marked spray bottle.
Make sure you mark all your bottles so you know what they contain. If you reuse a bottle that previously contained other cleansers, make sure the bottle is completely clean and marked before you fill it with your homemade cleanser.

STAIN REMOVER #2
¼ cup borax or washing soda

2 cups cold water

Sponge on and let dry, or soak the fabric in borax mixture before washing in soap and cold water.

STAIN REMOVER #3
¼ cup hydrogen peroxide
¼ cup water

Mix together and dab onto stain. Leave two hours and repeat if necessary. Good on white clothes.

FABRIC SOFTENER

½ cup white vinegar in final rinse

NAPPY SOAKER and WHITENER (DIAPERS)Bicarb soda is a good pre-soaker for soiled nappies. Dissolve ¼ cup of bicarb soda in a bucket of warm water, soak for at least an hour or overnight, then wash the nappies in hot water with homemade laundry liquid. Add ½ cup of vinegar to the final rinse and let them dry in the sun.

KITCHEN

ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER #1 - do not use on aluminium
1 tablespoon ammonia

1 tablespoon liquid soap or homemade laundry detergent

2 cups hot water
Combine in a spray bottle. Pour in hot water, screw on the spray bottle top and shake until completely dissolved. This cleaner can be stored in this spray bottle, so mark it “HOMEMADE ALL PURPOSE CLEANER” with a permanent marker.
Spray the cleaner on surfaces you wish to clean. Use your terry cloth to rub on as you go. For hard to move grease or dirt, leave the cleanser on for a few minutes before wiping it off.

ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER #2
½ cup washing soda

2 litres warm water
Mix together and store in a sealed plastic container that is marked with the name.
Can be used as a floor cleaner – tiles, laminate or vinyl or for general cleaning of walls, counter tops or sinks.

SINK CLEANER

Combine equal parts of bicarb soda and course salt to scrub hard to move dirt and grease. This is an abrasive but it will make the sink shine. Finish off with a litre of water in the sink, add a cap full of liquid bleach and remove the plug. You’ll sanitise and clean the pipes at the same time. Wipe with a dry terry cloth.

OVEN CLEANER

¼ cup ammonia

2 cups of warm water

Be careful of the ammonia fumes.

Turn on the oven and leave to heat up for 5 minutes. Pour ammonia and warm water in a baking dish and leave in the warmed oven overnight. This will loosen the grime in the oven, which you can then clean with an ammonia-based cleaner or soap and water. You can also scour with a paste of bicarb soda and water.

CLEANING SILVER

This method works by a chemical reaction of the aluminium, salt and bicarb soda. Put the plug in the kitchen sink. Lay a piece of aluminium foil on the base of the sink and add your silverware. Pour in enough boiling water to cover the silver.
Add one teaspoon of bicarb soda and one teaspoon of salt to the water. Let it sit for about ten minutes. The tarnish will disappear without you touching it.

CREAMY SOFT SCRUBBER

Simply pour about ½ cup of bicarb into a bowl, and add enough liquid soap to make a texture like very thick cream. Scoop the mixture onto a sponge, and start scrubbing. This is the perfect recipe for cleaning the bath and shower because it rinses easily and doesn’t leave grit.
Note: Add 1 teaspoon of vegetable glycerin to the mixture and store in a sealed glass jar, to keep the product moist. Otherwise just make as much as you need at a time.

WINDOW CLEANER # 1

¼ - ½ teaspoon liquid or grated soap

3 tablespoons vinegar

2 cups water

spray bottle
Put all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake it up a bit, and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you might have used in the past.

WINDOW CLEANER # 2

Vinegar and newspapers

Pour a little vinegar onto a sheet of newspaper and wipe windows. Remove all the grime and polish the window with a clean sheet of newspaper.

FURNITURE (WOOD) POLISH

½ teaspoon olive oil

¼ cup vinegar or fresh lemon juice

Mix the ingredients in a glass jar. Dab a soft rag into the solution and wipe onto wooden surfaces. Seal in the glass jar and store indefinitely.

FLOOR CLEANER – tiles, vinyl or laminate
½ cup white vinegar plus 2 litres hot water in a bucket and a clean mop will clean up all but the worst floor. If you have a really dirty floor to deal with, add a squirt of homemade laundry liquid to this mix.

MOP CLEANING
A clean mop is a necessity when cleaning floors. If you start with a dirty mop you’ll just loosen the dirt on the mop by making it wet again and then spread that on the floor. When you finished your cleaning jobs, rinse the mop out to get rid of the loose dirt then let it soak in the bucket half filled with water and a ¼ cup of bleach. Let the mop soak for 30 minutes, rinse the bleach out and dry the mop in the sun.

WOODEN FLOOR CLEANER - Ammonia will strip floor wax (one cup to a bucket of hot water)
2 tablespoons homemade vegetable soap - grated

½ cup vinegar

500 mls strong black tea

bucket warm water
Combine all the ingredients in the bucket and apply with a cotton mop.

REMOVING CRAYONS FROM A PAINTED WALL

Add a few drops of water to some bicarb and make a thick paste. Wipe over the crayon marks and scrub off with a terry cloth.

HOMEMADE OLIVE OIL AND COCONUT OIL SOAPThis is the recipe for another soap I use. It's a very simple soap that is nourishing and free of harmful additives. It is basically a castile soap with coconut oil added for its good lathering qualities.

Here is the recipe:

800mls of cheap olive oil - the low grade stuff is fine for this.

200mls coconut oil - you can get it from health food stores and Asian supermarkets.

130g caustic soda - from hardware stores or supermarket

400mls rain water

Make the soap up according to the instructions in the soap making tutorial post.

HOMEMADE TOOTHPASTE
¼ cup Olssons cooking salt or any natural sea salt.
¼ cup bicarb soda

Make up ½ cup at a time and store it in a sealed jar. Just sprinkle some of the powder onto your toothbrush and clean your teeth in the normal way. This powder is bitter and takes a little while to get used to but it works well. I don't notice the taste now. You could add a few drops of peppermint essential oil to mask the taste.

HOMEMADE SHAMPOO - I also wash my hair with my homemade soap
This works very well. Say goodbye to all those expense hairdresser shampoos. It’s great for dandruff too.
Dissolve a tablespoon of bicarb soda in a cup of water. If you’ve got children, it might be better doing this in a squirt bottle.
Wet hair thoroughly and apply the mixture to the hair, massaging it in well.
To rinse, just run water through your hair, or you could use a splash of vinegar. The vinegar smell will go when your hair is dry.
You’ll be amazed at how good your hair feels. It will be clean and healthy.
This is an excellent shampoo for long and frizzy hair or short hair.

HOMEMADE DEODORANT

Add some bicarb to a shaker and use that. Dabbing a bit of bicarb under your arms is very effective as long as you wash every day.

HOMEMAKER’S LOG BOOK
It’s a great organisational tool and safety measure to keep a record of all the cleansers you use. If you ever have an accident with the cleansers, you’ll need to tell the doctor what the ingredients are so I recommend you keep your recipes together in a Homemaker’s Log Book. You can also keep food recipes in it as well as printed information you need in your home. I have made a Home Log from a three-ringed binder. That way I can add and remove pages when necessary. There is more about the Homemaker’s Log here.

Most of the ingredients for these recipes will be found in supermarkets in Australia. If you're in another country, I'd really appreciate you letting us know where you find your ingredients. Thank you ladies. : )
  http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2007/08/various-recipes-for-green-cleaning.html