EDGEWATER GARDENS

HWY 70E  WILLISTON NC  252-729-1842

 

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Now when it comes to canning you may find you aren't able to have all the variety you're wanting.  So it may become necessary to purchase the additional fruits and vegetables.  Knowing where your food comes from helps to eliminate concerns.  Going back to the basics is easy and it helps with the family budget.  Now getting started you will find some extra expenses for jars, lids, jar lifter, canner (which can be any large pot, but make sure you put extra rings on the bottom so the jars don't make direct contact with the bottom of the pot) and a few odds and ends.  You can slowly build a supply of jars by adding a case or three each year to those you already have.  Some of the items you may find at yard sales and flea markets but I find it better to start out slow and build your supplies.  I have to warn you though, canning can become additive.  I have peaches and plums to can today and I'm already thinking of what to can after I've finished. 

 

Many of the people I know are now wanting to eliminate toxins and chemicals from their foods.  When you think about all the pesticides and growth hormones that are sprayed on fruit trees and vegetables and don't forget our livestock is eating grasses and grains that may have been sprayed.  Speaking of meat, the antibiotics they give the animals are actually causing resistant bacterial strains, that are affecting all of us.  Feeding your family from your own garden, a local nursery or farmers market can become less expensive and much safer in the long run.

 

There are so many ways to cut the family budget.  I haven't bought laundry detergent in years.  I make my own in one of those 5 gallon paint buckets.  This time you will need the lid to go on it.  The recipe is really easy.  All you need is;

1)   5 gallon bucket with lid

2)   one grater

3)   a long stirring spoon

4)   pot

5)   1 bar of Fels Naptha soap  (can be found in some grocery stores and local hardware stores)

6)   1/2 cup of Borax

7)   1 cup of Washing Soda  (not to be confused with baking soda)

8)   1 cup of vinegar

9)   water

10)  an old clean laundry bottle

11)  essential oil (optional)

 

In a pot grate the bar of Fels Naptha soap, add 4 cups of hot water.  Stir on low to med heat until soap is dissolved.  Pour into a 5 gallon bucket that is half full with hot tap water.  Add Borax, Washing Soda and Vinegar and stir until all the powder is dissolved.  Fill the rest of the way with hot water  and stir in essential oil if you like (I don't).  Let sit overnight.  In the morning stir well ( it becomes a gel) until it is a liquid form again.  Fill an old clean detergent bottle half full of soap mix and add water from the tap to finish filling the bottle.  Shake each time you use.  Use in a top loading machine 5/8 of a cup and in a front loading machine 1/4 cup.  You will have to stir the 5 gallon bucket each time you refill your laundry bottle.  It gets easier each time.

 

I also use a cup of white vinegar during the rinse cycle instead of fabric softener.  It is a natural fabric softener and doesn't leave a scent.  There are recipes for fabric softeners, I have never used them.

 

Doing and making things for yourself always gives a great sense of accomplishment.  I remember days not feeling so well and coming home from work only to find we had run out of .... and had to go back out to the grocery store.  Now with planning and being more self sufficient those days are farther and fewer between.  With the start of school and the cold and flu season rapidly approaching there isn't a better feeling than knowing I don't have to be in the stores with people who maybe ill.