The Hippie Blog
Recipe: Wild Berry Crisp
Nothing tastes more like summer to me than the sweet, tart, and woodsy flavor of the black raspberry. Every summer as a kid I would scour the fence line for these berries, carefully avoiding the poison ivy and the swarms of mosquito that seem to guard the berries bushes.
A Taste to Remember
One of the very first harvests from the garden is the tart tasting rhubarb. As a child I would pick the stalks and eat them raw, dipping each bite into a bowl of sugar. My mom made rhubarb sauce, rhubarb crisp, rhubarb cake, but my absolute favorite was the rhubarb custard pie.
Petitgrain Essential Oil: Top 5 Uses
Petitgrain comes from the bitter orange tree which is native to Southeast Asia. This one tree also provides the essential oil of bitter (fruit) and neroli (flowers). Petitgrain, which in French means 'little grain' was originally extracted from the small, unripe oranges.
Feeling Like a Failure
So often when living this homesteading lifestyle, things just don't go as planned. From bread not rising, to garden pests destroying crops, to the heartbreaking loss of livestock, it's never easy to try your hardest and still have things completely fail.
Purple Power and Pink Lemonade
One of my favorite flowers have always been the purple violets that pop up this time of year. As a child I would pic the delicate flowers from the lawn and pastures and carefully place in bud vases to enjoy for the very short time the petals would last.
I'm a Hippie but I like to smell good!
Going green doesn't always smell the best. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't smell bad, but removing chemicals and artificial fragrances from your detergents and fabric softeners can make your clothing just smell blah.
Just say NO to chemicals!
I hate chemicals! There I said it, I'm a proud all-natural girl. But I also hate dirt and germs (just ask The Hippie Hubby, Adam about my OCD cleaning sprees). With two messy dogs, muddy barn boots, and some home renovations, dirt and germs are inevitable.
Jalapeño Overload
Every fall with the threat of frost looming I frantically try to use up the last of my pepper harvest. What were just tiny seedlings a few short months ago are now 4' tall shrubs with thick stalks and branches hanging low, heavy with their hot fruit. I have a habit of planting way more than I need and jalapeños are no exception.
The Mystical Dragonfly
Along with my mantra "Don't pull that weed" I need to add "Don't kill that bug!" Many insects that roam my garden are considered to be beneficial. The elegant dragonfly is one such insect.
Don't Pull That Weed! - Plantain
Second in my "weed" series is the hearty plantain. These little plants seem to pop up everywhere. They look to thrive in dry hard soil, or even where there is no soil in the cracks of my driveway
Don't Pull That Weed! - Purslane
So often when we think of gardening, we envision perfectly spaced vegetable plants dotting beds of fluffy black dirt where no weed would even dream of laying down roots. I have been to gardens like this and I leave scratching my head, how on earth do they do that.
Starting from Scratch
As soon as the snow begins to melt, I start getting the gardening itch. Of course, that is also about the time the s...