Taking Stock

I decided to take a peek around the pantry, freezer and cold room to see how the old "planting enough from one season to the next" is working out. I don't think I'll quite get there but this will be the closest I've come so far. Things are on the right track.

Frozen Stuff: Still have carrots and snow peas; it looks like they'll last another couple - three months. They taste great and are superb on their own as a side dish and make stews and soups delish. Lots of frozen pumpkin and zucchini. They're the staples in my muffins and loafs. I also throw a bit in the dogs' dish every now and then. They're going to last until the next harvest, for sure. There's still a little bit or corn-on-the-cob left, a few bags. Probably could have planted a bit more of that. Ran out of yellow & green beans. Well, I can't have everything... I will plant more next year because everybody likes them here and I like having extras to pickle.

Stored Stuff: I harvested about 1 1/2 feedbags of yellow onions. Still have about 1/2 a feed bag left. Boy are those suckers STRONG! They taste good, just a little goes a long way. They're hold up well, I might have had three that went bad on me so far. They'll probably last till June or so. About 20 pumpkins left. I do lose one or two every couple of weeks or so. They're just baked up and given to the chickens. I totally grew too many pumpkins.

Canned Stuff: Still have about 30 jars of tomatoes of various sizes left. They should go till next season. We have about 10 jars of salsa left, wouldn't kill me to put up another 12 or so next year. Tomato juice was a by-product of the salsa making, I'd drain the cut up peeled tomatoes before making salsa, it's all gone. So is the tomato sauce.

Pickles: Well, they're all gone except for the dills. I don't think there is a way that I could make enough to last one season to the next. They get eaten a lot here and make great gifts so I make what I can and then we just do without when they're gone.

Dried Stuff: Just about ran out of all the herbs and weeds I dried for the rabbits. Still have a bit of cornstalks, lemon balm and dandelion left but it will be gone this week, for sure. I still have a wee bit of herbs for us left.

So that's about it. I'd like to say all that hard work last summer was worth it but when I open a jar of my own salt free, organic tomatoes or bake up a scrumptious pumpkin bread , it's not the work I remember, it's the delightful, long summer days.

Aromatherapy for Hair

Today I made some more stuff for my hair. I make my own shampoo, rinse and oil treatment. Hair care was one of the first things I tried when I began my incredible journey into the world of Aromatherapy. Shampoo is the easiest thing to make, I start with castille liquid soap, cut it with distilled water and add the essential oils for my hair type (old and dry). I did have to get over the whole mis-guided idea that shampoo lather has to billow like clouds to clean. That was easy once I saw how clean my hair was. I don't use cream rinse because I don't need it now that I use my own shampoo. I think cream rinse is one of the biggest scams out there, actually. I do use a vinegar rinse with essentials oils in it. It does the job and make my hair smell really nice.

Now I think my hair looks pretty good but I was amazed the last time I had my hair cut. The hairdresser cutting my hair said she had never felt hair as soft as mine before, especially she said considering how grey it was (ok, I'll ignore that part). She asked me what brand I used and could not believe I made it myself. She had no idea how easy it was to do. To be fair, neither did I ten years ago.