Crystal Madrilejos

We’re taking a leap and have decided to try creating a sustainable food source for our family by raising our own fish. This spring we will be populating Andrew’s parents pond with a combination of Large Mouth Bass, Blue Gill, Red Ear Sunfish, & White Amur. White Amur or Grass Carp is not for eating, but for keeping the plant growth under control – sometimes people use chemicals to keep their plant growth in check, but we definitely don’t want any chemicals in our pond since this is one of the reasons we want to raise our own food – to avoid chemicals!

It’s that time of year again! We had a little break from garden planning during the holiday, but now the seed catalogs are out and the mad dash has begun to be ready to hit the ground running once the weather starts to warm up. I know, I know it’s still January and we have many cold days still to endure before the ground is even close to ready. But it sneaks up on us every year! We always miss those cool early days that are perfect for greens, lettuce and spinach and I am determined to get as much growing time as possible this year. We got smart after last growing season and started prepping the garden in the Fall before it turned cold, but more on that later since that’s a bigger post. Super excited to share all the new garden plans.

But for now, here’s a list of what we’re planning on growing (all our seeds are from High Mowing Organic Seeds this year):

Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans – We’ve done bush and pole beans in the past, but I prefer the pole varieties. Not only am I sucker for any plants that climb (space savers and they are beautiful to look at) but I like the fact that we don’t have to harvest all at once. You get just the right amount of beans over a longer period of time.

Danvers 126 Carrots – Another fun veggie for the kids to harvest. Root veggies are Andrew’s favorite to harvest. Again, it’s like finding treasure!

San Marzano Paste Tomato – We aren’t fans of huge tomatoes. They are too watery and seedy and aren’t that great for making pizza sauce either. Which is the main reason we grow them. San Marzano’s are the best for sauces and such because they have a lot of pulp (aka, the good stuff.)

We haven’t done flowers much in the past. In previous years, we just didn’t want to expend any more time or energy tending to things that we couldn’t eat. But this year, we’ve finally branched out. No pun intended.

Every year we do something different to stake up our tomato plants. These things get seriously unruly. I think the first year we planted a TON of pea tomatoes (never again) and we didn’t even try to stake those. When harvest time came, it was a total mess. Andrew describes the experience as sounding like you were stepping on bubble wrap. Just tiny little pea tomatoes everywhere popping underfoot. Til this day, we still have volunteer tomatoes popping up all over the garden from those little guys.

This year has been a good year for the tomatoes. Even the New York Times is talking about what a great year tomatoes are having. Apparently we aren’t the only ones enjoying this phenomenon.

For us personally, I think it also has to do with the fact that we weren’t overly ambitious in the garden this year. Yes, a lot of stuff just downright failed. But I didn’t feel overwhelmed with a huge garden and its never ending to-do list. The tomatoes were growing like crazy and the only thing on my list was to stake them up. Easy-peasy.

In a couple hours over the weekend, I was able to fashion this bad boy out of some sticks that we had lying around the yard, some wood tomato stakes from some previous year’s experiment, and some string. It’s totally got that “a face only a mother could love” look to it, but it works nicely and it’s sturdy.

It’s been an… interesting… year in the garden.

We’ve scaled back a bit and tried some new things this year with varying amounts of success. We only did 2.5 plots and we did them lasagna garden style. It started off well, though we were a bit late getting things in the ground considering the unseasonably warm spring we had. Actually, we planted on time for our growing season but we didn’t take advantage of that extra bit of time when it seemed that everyone and their mothers, due to the crazy warm weather, were getting things going in their gardens. Ah well, I’m pregnant. That’s my excuse.

In terms of successful growth, we were opposite from other years. Normally, our tomatoes are one of our lesser performers and we usually end up with more salad greens than any normal family would know what to do with. This year though, we didn’t get ANY salad greens! I believe rabbits were the culprits this time. They burrowed into the garden and ate themselves silly just like poor Peter Rabbit. I hope, just like Pater Rabbit, they tore their fancy jackets and lost their little shoes in the process too.

Same for our green beans and carrots. Eaten before they had a chance to produce anything.

Butternut squash…argh… I’m pretty sure chipmunks kept digging up the seeds and just eating those. I planted those suckers TWICE and every time I went out there, the seeds would be gone!

Basil – never recovered from one night of odd frost.

Strawberries, we had a couple. But at one point I found a freaking toad burrowing beneath one of the plants. Birds did their damn best to get through our netting that we draped over the row. One even died in the process, which is always pleasant trying to detangle a dead bird from netting. Thank goodness Andrew can stomach such things. The rest, I believe, fell victim to the chipmunks as well. They scoffed at our netting AND the bird tangled in it.

We bought our seed potatoes. Just never got around to planting them.

Don’t even ask about the blueberries. That is just straight depressing. There were so many! Birds ate them all before we could harvest even one.

Our tomatoes were the one promising and shining ray of light in the whole bunch. They were thriving and looking awesomely full (possibly due to the drier weather?) until some damn deer decided to just bust through our fence and take a siesta right in the middle of the tomato bed.

All in all, pretty dismal showings. The one thing that makes it somewhat bearable is the fact that we didn’t put too much effort into it. Yes, the lasagna beds took some time to build up. But we can still use them again next year. And there is always next year! This year isn’t over and I’m already scheming about next year’s garden, which may or may not involve a greenhouse and a front yard garden. One thing is for sure though, the one word that will describe our plans for 2013: Smarter!

-c.

So, just a couple things about me personally. I normally don’t wear a ton of makeup. I prefer a dewy look to my skin, rather than a matte look. I’m really into moisturizing for fear of getting a wrinkly neck. And I’m almost positive that chapped lips run in my family.

1. Waxelene – This has been my lip balm of choice for a little while now. But I’ve also been known to slather it on like lotion when in a bind. Andrew uses it on his entire body (good thing it comes in a huge jar) because he’s got really bad eczema and uses this when he needs to break out the heavy artillery. It’s a great, natural alternative to Vaseline. My only complaint is that it doesn’t smell super great. It doesn’t smell bad, but it has a distinct smell to it.

2.) RMS “Un” Cover Up & RMS Lip2Cheek – I love how creamy these two products are. They cover without making you look like you have a ton of makeup on.

3.) JASÖN Vitamin E Oil – I’ve used this on my face and body and never had any problems with breakouts. It has a nice scent and doesn’t make you look greasy, like you would imagine slathering oil on your face would do. I also use this to cleanse my face. I rub an excessive amount all over my face like you would with a normal cleanser, but instead of washing it off I wipe off the excess oil with a tissue/soft cloth and all the dirt and stuff comes off with it.

4.) Love & Toast Honey Nectar Body Butter – This is a new acquisition for me and it’s not heavy in rotation. I mainly got it because I needed a moisturizer that I could carry around in my purse because I hate driving to work with dry hands! I had been using the Waxelene in such situations, since I always have a little container of that in my bag, but again, the scent wasn’t ideal. This stuff smells great!

5.) Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil – We started using coconut oil when Andrew read somewhere that it was really good for eczema (which I’m sure works for some people, but didn’t really do much for Andrew’s extreme case) but I really like it as a light moisturizer. This is also what we used in our “Deo for Your B.O.” from our last post. Another thing that it’s great for is baby moisturizer. It’s not super greasy and you can rest assured it safe for their sensitive skin.

6.) Dr. Hauschka Liquid Eyeliner – Like I said, I don’t wear much makeup. But I HAVE to wear liquid eyeliner. It’s the only thing that stays put on my oily, Asian eyes. I swear. That being said, this eyeliner is okay. I find that I still have to do a lot of prepping to get it to stay put. But I’ll deal with that rather than use something that stays on longer, but has bad stuff in it.

7.) Zoya Natural Nail Polish in Avery – I wish wish wish I could have perfectly manicured nails all the time. However, it’s just not possible for me. Too much time and money that I don’t have to spare. Plus, the more I read about nail salons and the chemicals they use and the chemicals in non-clean nail polishes the more I think it’s best to just do it myself. This polish works great and doesn’t seem to last any longer (or shorter) than it’s non-clean counterparts. I’m considering this color and this color too because I’m really into just having neutrals on hand when I’m feeling the urge to get fancy.

8.) John Masters Pomegranate Facial Nourishing Oil – I’m really into using oils on my face. It seemed crazy and scary at first, but then the more I read and thought about it the more it started to make sense. I always thought that I had oily skin. Turns out that I have dry skin! My skin was just overproducing oils to compensate for the fact that it wasn’t properly being moisturized. Now that I use oil on my face, I never get greasy/shiny.

9.) Nubian Heritage Raw Shea Butter Soap – This is also a new acquisition for me. I’ve tried a few Nubian Heritage products and have been pleasantly surprised every time. When I first bought, I was worried that maybe it was too manly a scent, but I’ve found that it’s really subtle and I don’t smell like a man at all (or at least no one has said I do!)

10.) Nubian Heritage Olive & Green Tea Lotion – Okay, so I’ve been saying how much I love oils and such. But sometimes, I just want to put some fancy smelling lotion on my elbows. So, sue me! One thing about this lotion is that it is VERY VERY thick. And sort of hard to get out of the bottle. It’s more like a cream and probably should be packaged in a tub rather than a bottle. There is no way you are getting every last drop out. You’ll have to cut that sucker open. Which I plan to do.

11.) Alima Pure Satin Matte Mineral Foundation – I used Bare Minerals forever but then for some reason (maybe the pregnancy?) it started to dry out my skin. Plus, I could never find the perfect shade for my skin tone. Alima Pure has A MILLION shades and you can order samples to try before committing to one shade. I think I ordered like 10 of them or something crazy. I prefer to mix it with my face oil to make it more like a liquid/tinted moisturizer rather than apply it just straight as a powder. I like the coverage better and plus I can kill two birds with one stone.

12.)  John Masters Lavender Rosemary Shampoo for Normal Hair – Natural shampoos were one of my first forays into “clean” products. I remember my college roommate telling me how chemicals were absorbed through our scalps and that freaked me out. Scary facts aside, one of the best things about switching to all natural shampoos has been the fact that my hair hardly ever gets greasy. I used to have to wash my hair every single day or risk getting a bad case of the greasies. But now I can go 3 or 4 days without washing my hair! Yes, I go 3 to 4 days without washing my hair.

Only after I did that fancy photo collage above, did I realize that I forgot a few others so I’ll post about those another day. Plus, this post is way too long and I’m positive no one is reading at this point. Bonus points if you made it this far.

Without sounding too preachy, I know some of these things are pricey. Hell, all of them are pricey if you are used to buying drugstore cosmetics these days. But I think it’s worth the investment to live healthier even if it means just switching out one of your products for a clean one. Less chemicals is always better. Anyone else have products they recommend?

-c.

[Photo by Lauren Crew]

For the past year or so (maybe longer, who can remember that far back?), I’ve been slowly but surely transitioning to “clean” health and beauty products. We all know that there are bad chemicals/toxins/stuff in everything nowadays. So much so, that you can’t even trust when something says “All-Natural” or “Organic” these days. Andrew and I do our best to arm ourselves by staying informed and educated, but it can be frustrating and down-right depressing to find out things that you thought were good for you, are actually not as good as you thought (I’m looking at you SIGG).

Luckily, there are quite a number of resources online for checking out how “clean” a product is. No More Dirty Looks is by far my favorite site for beauty products. These lovely ladies live for clean and green beauty products. Run by Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt, who co-authored the book No More Dirty Looks: The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics, this site is a goldmine of knowledge on all types of brands and products. I used to work with Siobhan back in my NYC days and I can attest that she is one smart cookie. Also, I have tried many products based on their reviews and recommendations and have not once been disappointed. Not only are these ladies super smart and charming, but they have a following of like-minded folks that comment on their site and offer even more advice and suggestions for cleaning up your beauty routine.

One of the surest ways to know what you’re putting on (and eventually into) your body is to make it from scratch. Obviously, this works better in some scenarios than others. Recently, I came across this recipe on the No More Dirty Looks site for DIY deodorant, cleverly called Deo for Your B.O.! Andrew and I tested it out on the 4th of July and it worked awesome!

Mix equal parts corn starch, baking soda and coconut oil (we use Nutiva Virgin Coconut Oil) and, Voila!, awesome, homemade deodorant cream that keeps you B.O. free even on the hottest day of the year. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a natural deodorant option.

-c.

via UrbanHomestead

How awesome is that photo?!

The garden this year has officially gotten out of hand. Sad to say, but we just couldn’t keep up with the abundance of weeds. I don’t mind weeding, really. Andrew hates it which is completely understandable. The best way to keep them down is to make time every day to go out and pull those suckers out. And the one thing we are short on is time. And Quil isn’t quite at that point where he can run free in the garden. He’s as bad as the damn deer! He just walks all over everything and pulls unripened veggies off the vine, grabs lettuce greens by the handful. He also likes to put rocks in his mouth and eat dirt. Typical!

Both Andrew and I know that having a garden requires a lot of commitment and effort, especially if you want to do it right. My dad is a great example of this. He is out in his garden every single day, rain or shine. Right now, that just isn’t feasible for us. So, Andrew and I have decided that instead of spending our time fighting weeds and feeling bad about our neglected patch of earth, that we are going to be smart about this and create something that works for us and or current situation. I am still holding out hope of having a modern homestead someday with sprawling vegetable gardens, fruit orchards and chickens. But until then, we’ve decided to build a modest greenhouse where we can grow the stuff we eat all the time, all year round.

We’ve been doing research and I wanted to share some of the inspirational images I’ve found.

via CSGD

via HGTV

via Alm Farms

via SinaEnglish

via Pinkpollyanna

via Apartment Therapy

via FlipFlipMeHeidi

I realize most of these are completely unrealistic. Don’t judge! They are truly just inspirational. I like the idea of doing something different, smart, and efficient.

We also realize that a greenhouse isn’t like a rotisserie, you can’t just set it and forget it! It will also require work but hopefully not as much weeding. Soooo, once we can carve out some extra time to build this bad boy, then we’ll be good. Right? RIGHT? Wish us luck!

-c.

We’ve got veggies, people! Cucumbers and salad greens, to be specific.

I think growing food is one of those things in life that you can feel really good about and not have the time you’ve devoted to it weigh negatively on you. Unlike video games and reading gossip mags. Both of which, I’m known to indulge in. Super Mario is my jam!

Yum!
-c.

Hot damn! We finally got out to the garden to plant! This rain has been really been… raining on our parade (jeez, i’m dumb.)

We decided to scale things back a little bit this year. We’ve been overly ambitious the past couple years and while it’s been fun, it’s also gotten to be a headache at times. Plus, we have this tendency to just cram everything in. So this time, since we have a little more room to play with we’re giving everything room to breathe.

Yesterday (before it started pouring) we were able to get tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and carrots in the ground. Unfortunately, we were so late that we missed our chance to do regular potatoes, which have been the most fun to grow in the past. All the seed potatoes were gone before we even could consider planting, and we didn’t have any left from last year. Boo hoo!

Hoping to get the salad greens in and the fence up very very soon. The damn deer have already destroyed any strawberry plants we had left. They are such jerks! Heard this story on NPR the other day and it confirms my suspicions that the deer are hating on us hard.

-c.

p.s. How awesome is that garden in the picture above? Found it while looking for garden inspiration!

I’m pretty sure I want to own some chickens in the near future.

Yesterday I started reading Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich. I actually first learned about this book when I read an excerpt from it in one of the Mother Earth News: Wiser Living Issues awhile back. Then Cole over at Pacing the Panic Room mentioned it on their blog and I saw there was a digital version that I could read on the iPad and figured I should check it out since I really enjoyed the small portion that I initially read.

Sustainability and self-sufficiency are two things that Andrew and I are constantly striving for in our lives. For Andrew, I think it’s the logical aspects of sustainability that appeal to him. I’m not going to speak for him, but I know him well enough to assume this. To Andrew it makes sense to build a life that is sustainable, simple as that :)

As for me, the decisions I make in life weigh very heavy on me. I’m emotional like that. So this, amongst other things, motivates me to want to create a life for our family that we can feel good about. Also, it helps that both Andrew and I are very hands on. We have no problem putting the extra effort into things we think are important to us.

So this bring me back to the chickens. The first chapter of the book is all about raising chickens and the benefits of having them. I’ve been contemplated chickens for awhile, so this book was already preaching to the choir. But it did help me feel like it is something we could do. I need a chicken mentor, anyone have any advice?

P.S. I took these pictures when we went to visit Earth Song Discovery Farm a couple years back. This place is amazing!

-c.