Fall on the homestead
My homemade laundry detergent got the true test yesterday. I brushed against some wet paint. The stain was bright red and felt dry to the touch on my cotton hoodie, and water did nothing. I took it off and decided to throw everything I had at it. I sprayed the stain it with vinegar and water solution and put the sweatshirt in the washing machine with my homemade detergent in the detergent dispenser and lemon juice in the bleach dispenser. I even used hot water even though I normally only use cold. It came out almost completely clean! There is just a faint pinkish tinge which you can only find if you are looking for it.
Either (1) my homemade detergent really works, or (2) you don't really need detergent to make your clothes clean at all. Either way, I'm happy that I'm not buying Tide anymore, and that my favorite hoodie is okay.
Yesterday we also made a jack-o-lantern out of our little CSA pumpkin. We separated out all the seeds, roasted, and ate them. And we food processed the gunk inside and used it for a pumpkin spice latte and pumpkin butter. We used every part of the pumpkin. No part of the pumpkin was wasted!
Fall has the best flavors. It's also apple season, and when we ran out of orchard apples, we bought a big bag of Macintoshes at Whole Foods. They're not normally my favorite apple, but right now -- at the peak of ripeness -- they are both beautiful and delicious.
The CSA is over. I'm sort of relieved. I love the idea, but in practice, we couldn't use all the vegetables and many things just rotted in our fridge, especially greens. My current plan is to take the money I would have spent on a CSA for next summer and add it to our grocery money, for farmer's markets and organic, local produce. The few times we made it out of the local farmer's markets this year, we felt too guilty to buy anything because we had veggies at home, but I'd rather have the veggies I like in reasonable quantities.
Maybe I will also be inspired to work harder to curate my own little veggie patch.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
Either (1) my homemade detergent really works, or (2) you don't really need detergent to make your clothes clean at all. Either way, I'm happy that I'm not buying Tide anymore, and that my favorite hoodie is okay.
Yesterday we also made a jack-o-lantern out of our little CSA pumpkin. We separated out all the seeds, roasted, and ate them. And we food processed the gunk inside and used it for a pumpkin spice latte and pumpkin butter. We used every part of the pumpkin. No part of the pumpkin was wasted!
Fall has the best flavors. It's also apple season, and when we ran out of orchard apples, we bought a big bag of Macintoshes at Whole Foods. They're not normally my favorite apple, but right now -- at the peak of ripeness -- they are both beautiful and delicious.
The CSA is over. I'm sort of relieved. I love the idea, but in practice, we couldn't use all the vegetables and many things just rotted in our fridge, especially greens. My current plan is to take the money I would have spent on a CSA for next summer and add it to our grocery money, for farmer's markets and organic, local produce. The few times we made it out of the local farmer's markets this year, we felt too guilty to buy anything because we had veggies at home, but I'd rather have the veggies I like in reasonable quantities.
Maybe I will also be inspired to work harder to curate my own little veggie patch.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.