Rain Country Homestead

I have been making vinegar of all kinds for several years and am always experimenting with new fruits, herbs, and blends. Though vinegar is incredibly easy to make, the easiest one is raisin - which also happens to be my favorite because it seems the most versatile. Its smooth, rich flavor and aroma makes it go so well in sautes, salad dressings, making vinegar based extracts, adding to homemade breads, and much more. Newly started batch and a completed batch of raisin vinegar All you need to get started is just three ingredients:  *Water - filtered rain, spring, or well water, NOT city tap *Fruit (whole berries or raisins, sliced fruits, or even just the scraps like peels, cores, and pits from apples, peaches, pears, et cetera) * Organic cane sugar or honey (not needed with fruits that have a high sugar content like raisins). When making vinegar with berries or raisins, start with a half gallon jar and fill the bottom up to at least 1"-2" inch...

This was our second year to get a good harvest of grapes and this one much bigger than the last year.  Since our Niagra White grapes are not seedless, the best thing for us to do to preserve them is turn them into juice that will have many uses through the year.  I do not have any fancy juicing equipment, I just do it the somewhat "old fashioned" way - though I do not crush the grapes with my feet...yet...haha! I start by rinsing my grapes and picking out any bad ones and leaves.   I then put the grape clusters, stems and all, into a big pot and put a shallow layer of water at the bottom, this is mostly to keep the grapes from burning.  I place my big pot on the wood stove and mash for a bit with an old school potato masher.  I then cover with a lid and let simmer for a half hour or so, periodically lifting the lid and mashing more. If using a conventional stove, I would say set it to medium heat. Once the grapes have been mashed ...

I have been making my own seasoned salt for over 20 years. It all started when I got my hands on Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette book collection.  At that time it was three separate books but now can be found consolidated into one Complete Tightwad Gazette . I think it was in book three I found a recipe for seasoned salt and since modified it a bit to suit our tastes more.  It also spurred me into making other blends like my Mexican popcorn seasoning blend, and I will share that recipe in another blog post in the future. When I first started making my own seasoned salt many years ago, it was for the purpose of being frugal.  Now it is much more than that.  Take a look at the ingredients of most store bought blends.  They will have at least one or more of any of these ingredients such as GMO corn, MSG, or silicon dioxide.  Good grief! By making your own, you can not only cut out all that nastiness and save money at the same time, you can also choo...

Making your own tartar sauce is not only very frugal, it is also quite simple and far better for you than store bought.   I preach it all the time about reading those labels, you will find all kinds of things that serve no real purpose (other than to make a product more appealing through appearance or texture) and are very unhealthy.  Commonly found unsavory and toxic ingredients in store bought tartar sauces are Calcium Disodium EDTA, soybean oil, and high fructose corn syrup. If going with the super simple method, one only needs two ingredients: mayonnaise and  relish.  However, if buying these store bought, you are still looking at either paying a lot of money for ones without all the nasty ingredients or you are still getting the same garbage you would buying the premade tartar sauce. For me, I start by making my own organic mayo from farm raised chicken eggs, avocado oil , homemade vinegar, mustard powder , and salt .  In this batch...

Mr. Rain loves his ice cream and though we do splurge on some from time to time, I mostly try to offer a more healthy alternative.  Though I have made ice cream off and on for several years, I find the homemade creamsicles to be so much easier and just as satisfying.      *fudgesicle and blueberry-lemon creamsicle When I decided to start making them, I did not have any recipe to follow but instead came up with my own method using whatever fruits and such that I had on hand.  Sometimes it is with home canned fruits such as peaches or plums.  Sometimes it is with berries from our garden I had frozen in pint size packs such as raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries or the wild picked blackberries.  I have even used my purreed garden pumpkin with spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Other times I use things like organic cacao powder, organic peanut butter powder, coconut, or a few healthy seeds like hemp or chia.   ...

Making your own face make up powder is super easy and inexpensive.  Plus it is healthy and not full of chemicals that can be harmful to your skin and health like most store bought make up. This recipe only takes three ingredients: * Cacoa Powder * Tapioca Starch or Arrow Root Powder * French Green Clay  Start with very small and equal amounts of the cacao and the arrow root or tapioca starch (a Tablespoon of each is a good place to start) and 1;4 to 1/2 tsp of the green clay. Mix these together well then start adding more of either to suit the color of your skin.  For darker skin, use more cacao, for redder skin, use more green clay, and so on.  In the video below, I demonstrate how to blend these ingredients and to tailor to your needs. Hope you enjoyed this post and video and that it is helpful to you in becoming more frugal, healthy, and self sufficient! ~Heidi