Making Banana Chips

I started with 7 pounds of fresh bananas. This picture is where we started; below are the results.

All I did was purchase quick-sell 'brown' bananas at the store. Brought them home, sliced for drying or smashing (the bowl).

I now have 1.5 quarts dried banana chips - wonderful sweet snacks - and enough smashed bananas for a round of banana breakfast muffins. Add in the second batch to dry (I had enough to fill the trays twice) and it was 2.5 quarts dried and two batches of muffins. Not bad for $3 and some patience!

Farmers Mini-Market

This week's market was very nearly rained out. Overnight rain, market canceled, market un-canceled at the request of a vendor (yay!). So what you see, is all one organic vendor this week:

Clockwise from top left corner: Turnip greens, broccoli, radish greens attached to the radishes on the other side; green beans, turnips, 3 bags of tomatoes.

Yum.

Homemade Beauty

I make what I can of my beauty products. Currently, I make and use my own body scrub, hair gel, shampoo/conditioner, salve, and moisturizer.

Since I've started making my own hair care products, my hair needs less attention and looks healthier. It dries faster and styles easier. It's soft, shiny, bouncy, and healthy.

My shampoo is simple baking soda, scrubbed gently into my scalp and left for about 5 minutes before rinsing out. I only use the baking soda when I need it, as it can lighten hair (it did mine!) The conditioner is 4 Tbsp cider vinegar in 32 ounces water, poured over my hair and rinsed out. And no, you can't smell it later. A bit of the gel on the ends, when my hair is still wet, seems nearly to heal damaged ends.

The first few weeks are more challenging ... commercial shampoos strip your hair, so your scalp over-produces the natural oils. Once you stop using commercial shampoos it takes your scalp a bit to adjust and *stop* overproducing them.

Related Links

Nature Moms: The No Shampoo Alternative: directions, and more detailed reasons why it's good

Life Less Plastic: The No-Shampoo Revolution: She talks about going no-poo, and there's lots of reader feedback as well.

Ravelry: No-Poo thread (free membership needed, knitting/weaving/crochet/ spinning site)

Independance Day - Oct 25

1. Plant something – nothing.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Drying banana chips as we speak. Will soon be making banana bread with the pieces pretty enough to eat but not to dry. Have local turnips that need drying as well.

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers. Still playing heater-chicken, made much easier by the fact we just had a week of 70's and it hasn't gone below 50's during the day yet. I guess being in an apartment helps; thermostat say's it's 70's in here.

5. Preparation and Storage – re-did most of the craft stash storage. I now know where things are LOL.

6. Build Community Food Systems – went to farmers market.

7. Eat the Food – Regular eating from pantry. Using the farmer market as primary store. Still trying to figure out how to store 4 months of food for when they're closed for winter. Fresh broccoli for dinner. Eating one chicken a week and looking for leftover recipes. Eating egg salad sandwiches for lunch - eggs are local, lunch meat isn't.

8. Crafting – First sock for class is just past the heel. I haven't done other crafts this week.

Independance Day Oct. 19

1. Plant something – nothing.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Made strawberry jam, and strawberry and apple fruit leathers. All fully approved as Yum! Dehydrated and froze basil.

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers.

5. Preparation and Storage – re-did closet and second pantry, and storage.

6. Build Community Food Systems – Sent my cousin home with strawberry jam, promised to bring some to Grampa at Yule. Utility work was done on market day, so they saw all the yummies I bought. And, I got to walk to the market in the morning.

7. Eat the Food – Regular eating from pantry. Using the farmer market as primary store. Trying to figure out how to store 4 months of food for when they're closed for winter. EEK!

8. Crafting – First sock for class is at the heel. I've learned I can knit an inch an hour on these :) Also my new spindle got here, so I've done a bit of spinning. The class is priority, but the wool is so yummy... This is what I'm spinning, hand-dyed Blue Faced Leicester wool:

More Jam!

Nice sale at the grocers - buy 2 pints strawberries, get 3 free. My DD has been eating a half-pint a week of the strawberry jams, even without my help, so I'm thinking more would be good. I have never seen her eat jam so much, and so eagerly.

So - I bought 6 pints of berries. About 1 pint was lost taking off tops and such. I've just now finished processing it all, and from those 5 pints I have about a cup of jam foam to put in yogurt (if I get to it fast enough, like tonight), 8 half-pints low-sugar jam, two half-trays of fruit leathers, and a bit of jam in the fridge for the morning.

My dehydrator book has recipes for fruit leather. I made strawberries with a bit of sugar, and cornstarch for thickener; strawberries with sugar-free organic applesauce for thickener; and straight applesauce. I use the sugar-free organic because I simply like the taste the best. When these are dry we'll taste-test them and see what we think. I'll let you know the results then; and if we like them I will make more.

The beauty of less

Even normal household things can amaze me with how little we really need. We have a kitchen table that is 4 foot across - all we really need is one about 2 feet square. Does that explain why half the table is always buried under books?

We replaced our dishes. Our dinner plates have gone from 11" across to 8", and the bowls hold just two cups when full (yes, I measured) instead of at least 3 cups. It's good for portion sizing, and - bonus - fits in the cabinets better. The picture shows the new plate sitting within the old one. I really enjoyed the snowflake pattern, but since I never saw them I'll just keep some of the mugs in that pattern. The 8" plates have been working perfectly.

When I put out the Fall decorations (while clearing out the storage unit, very convenient) I noticed that just a few things - candle-holders and fabric leaves on the fireplace, pumpkins on shelves - were enough to create the look I wanted. I might get a new tablecloth, in ruby or gold, to set things off as well. But that will be it, and it will be enough.