Rain Country Homestead

  I have been making my own laundry soap for quite a few years and like many, I got started off in with the recipe for a concentrated liquid using the Fels Naptha, Borax, and washing soda.  Through the years I started changing up the recipe, at one point going to a thick paste that looked rather like mayonnaise. The thing I liked about it then is it took only a tsp at a time and used up so little space in the laundry cupboard. Then three things happened.  The first was that I finally caved to my suspicions and did a little research into Fels Naptha and was not pleased with what I found.  Not 100% natural and had a rather poor rating for toxicity.  This did not surprise me but I was still disappointed.  This was one of the catalysts that spurred me into learning to make my own all natural bar soap so that I could make a truly natural laundry soap from it.  I will be doing a post on that in the near future as well but onto the second reason I...

Ah fermenting! Many of us have been learning the importance of fermented foods for ultimate health especially in this day where most are suffering from various forms of digestive problems. Finding more ways to get these gut healing probiotics into our diet on a daily basis can sometimes be challenging.  For me, I love kimchi and use to make it weekly using the traditional brine method and a long ferment time in cold storage.  However, my husband does not like kimchi nor does he like yogurt, so finding new things to ferment and new ways to do it has really helped in being able to get more fermented foods into my his diet. A good number of years ago I got into making mead by using a ginger bug as the starter instead of store bought wine yeasts.  This was not only the healthier way to go but also the most economical. After doing this for a few years, it dawned on me that I could use this same starter to ferment just about anything and I went on to experiment...

  Years ago I used to take a handful of store bought supplements every day.  Boy was that expensive! Then I started to learn that such supplements were not only a waste of money but often times could be quite counter productive.  Many vitamins and minerals need to be consumed together to get the full benefits.  Examples would be D should be taken with K and Calcium with Magnesium.  Then you have the fact that many of the store bought supplements are made with synthetic ingredients that are toxic to the body. So what is the point spending all that money on that garbage when it is more harm than help? The best way to get your vitamins and minerals are in their whole food form but sometimes that is not always feasible year round.  Today the conventional store bought produce is severely lacking in nutrients and homegrown organic produce is not available to us year round.  Enter the multi vitamin and mineral extract! Making extracts and tincture...