Growing Edges

July 29, 2015 Rachel

Have you ever noticed where weeds are most intrusive in the garden?Where the forest erupts in plant diversity? Where shellfish thrive?

On the edges.

The boundaries of the raised bed, the forest floor, and the ocean shore are teaming with life. growing edges

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over.

Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

- Kurt Vonnegut

Growing Edges

A former supervisor used to visit the concept of growing edges in my employee review. She wanted to know where I was expanding and challenging myself and also what support she could offer.

I was uncomfortable with this concept. Visiting your boundaries requires admitting that you have room to grow, that you are full of imperfection.

Standing on the edge comes with a risk of falling and failing. Sometimes the waves splash and the weeds scratch. Sometimes breaking through boundaries feels exhausting and overwhelming.

Growing edges in nature are so intensive because resources are bountiful at boundaries. Newly turned soil at garden bed edges expose weed seeds. Ocean water splashing and pooling on the shore allow fish fry, algae, and shellfish to thrive. The sunlight at the edge of a forest gives plants an opportunity to flourish.

The idea of 'growing edges' was introduced to me over a decade ago. For most of the intervening time, my pride and discomfort have largely kept me far from the shore. I've busied myself with providing for others instead of bettering myself.

Eventually I realized that residing in my personal growing edges brings more resources to me. More courage comes when I take a step into the fray. More peace materializes when I change my fear of the edge to love. I experience layer upon layer of growth by becoming comfortable with the unknown abundance awaiting me.

I took a little break from this writing space to explore some edges recently. I'm ready to return and grateful for those of you still here.

What are your growing edges?

Printing & the Hand-Made Ethic #MoveOurIgloo

March 29, 2015 Rachel

I have a new tradition. On Sunday mornings instead of giving to a church plate, I give to a Kickstarter project. Not every Sunday, and not always Kickstarter, but over the last few years I've shifted from charitable giving to funding small businesses. Why this is would be an interesting post in itself, but I don't have time for those mental gymnastics today. I want to tell you about who I'm backing this Sunday.

Igloo Letterpress is a small print shop in downtown Worthington. I first met the owner Allison when she taught a workshop at Wild Goose Creative about book making. I have made hundreds of her simple folded paper books for Lil over the years. When I need a special card or want to feel connected to a different time, I head to Igloo.

The presses in Allison's shop are historical pieces that allow her and a small staff to continue the letterpress tradition of setting type by hand. Their products, cards, posters, and books, all elevate the act of letter writing, record-keeping, and promotion.

In this digital world, I find myself drawn to giving and receiving hand-written notes. All the better if the paper used has already passed through hands that carefully cut, fold, and imprint.

Igloo Letterpress has always been an open and welcoming place to learn and experiment with letterpress. Lil and I have attended walk-in printing activities and on Thursday Allison, Beth, and other staff allowed a group of bloggers including myself to print a set of notecards and make hand-bound books. They're great teachers and clearly passionate about the hand-made ethic of printing, even in tight quarters as it was with so many people and machines at the event I attended this week.

Today I pledged to Igloo's Kickstarter campaign to outfit a teaching space in their new location. This will be where groups can comfortably learn to carry on the tradition of letterpress. It's where Beth can say yes to Scout troops and friend groups who want to gather and share in a hand-made experience. The new studio will include a new (to Igloo) press dedicated to educational and community work. If you can, contribute to the #MoveOurIgloo - there are great rewards!

"Science Lesson" {Homestead Haiku}

March 26, 2015 Rachel

Unschool girls in woods. What better teacher exists than Mother Nature?

Homestead Happenings #3: Plans & Yeast

February 8, 2015 Rachel

This week was dominated by planning for the spring ahead. The groundhog may have seen a shadow, but sunny, longer days mean that garden work will come very soon. The weather was warm enough for me to spend a little time digging roots and washing seedling pots yesterday!

What's happened this week:

We watched BBC's Great British Baking Show on WOSU. Airing Monday nights at 10, this is our new show not-to-be-missed. The hosts are very British - quirky, kind, and quick-witted, and the spirit is more of learning and comradeship than dramatic American food competition shows.
Inspired by one challenge to bake a cake without chemical leavening, we've experimented with yeast-risen quick breads this week. Alex made yeast-risen biscuits twice (so good we're sharing the recipe soon) and he also did a batch of yeasted pancakes which tasted like a mesmerizing cross between a soft pretzel and a griddle cake.

On Saturday night, I made a Savarin, a yeast-risen cake from the Great British Baking Show recipe. Not a big fan of cakes, I enjoyed the flavors of the Savarin. The yeast made the texture airy and lightly crumbed but as a whole, the Savarin is not as dense and rich as most modern cakes.
I helped seed, harvest, deliver, and sell microgreens with Swainway Urban Farm as usual. We're at the Worthington Indoor Farmers' Market this time of year every Saturday morning.
I considered the NPR story 'Are Farmers Market Sales Peaking?' with great interest. While I love working and shopping at the farmers' market, I know how valuable diversified sales routes become to small farms like Swainway. I don't think we're quite at peak in central Ohio, but smaller markets are declining and bigger markets are refining and improving.
Based on the previous weeks' seed orders, I wrote out a generalized map of where I want to plant everything. Then I remembered that deer might ruin my sweet corn trials so I started moving things around. I tend to keep adjusting my map up to and even after planting time...
My mother treated me to dinner at Angry Bear Kitchen and the show Anything Goes presented by Broadway Columbus. Both exceeded my expectations. I ate a creative and delicious carrot wellington at Angry Bear. Emma Stratton, the female lead of Anything Goes, was spectacular.
I worked on my presentation for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association annual conference this coming weekend. I'm discussing 'Building Self-Sufficiency Through Community' and will share a version of that presentation here for those who can't come to the conference.

I just started salt-cured egg yolks for my next class at The Commissary. On February 18 I'll share how I put up excess eggs while we make egg noodles and other treats. Register online now to reserve your spot.
I am planning class proposals for the spring. What would you like to learn?

How was your week?

Homestead Happenings #2: Late & Great

February 2, 2015 Rachel

Who is surprised that in the second week of what was supposed to be a weekly list, I'm already a day late? Not I. Last week was full in so many ways. Here's what was going on in our world:

Alex spent the week in Arizona and Mexico on business. It was a long trip that included a number of life birds for Alex, a visit by javelinas to the hotel parking lot, and a few great lunches of steak and leek tacos.
Meanwhile at home it snowed, rained, iced, snowed, and rained some more.

Lil and I trekked to Wayne county, Ohio to check out an Amish farming supply store. Spring is coming and our cell trays will be ready!
I ordered sweet potato slips from Southern Exposure and New Sprout Farms.

I collected and delivered a little more than two dozen fertilized eggs to 4th Street Farms. They're going to hatch them to add to their flock. I can't wait to see the chicks!
I attended Michael Pollan's talk in New Albany, thanks to a generous friend who invited me to go with her. I might share my own food rules someday, but I generally like the cut of this man's jib. I agree with CMH Gourmand's review that the talk included "just enough facts with humor without being preachy, just pragmatic information that hopefully will make a difference."

We hosted a Sunday snack fest, I mean Super Bowl party. We fried chicken wings and Blue Jacket Dairy cheese curds and served these alongside chips and dips. The kids were impressed with Lil's Minecraft-inspired fruit salad. I was impressed with this buffalo cauliflower recipe, a spicy and satisfying alternative to the meat.

Homestead Happenings #1: Seeds, Trees, & Braces

January 25, 2015 Rachel

I advise homesteaders to keep a journal. It's a great practice because a record of daily homesteading activities is fun and useful to look back on. But I find myself not in the routine of writing daily now. "Do as I say, not as I do," I suppose.

I thought I'd try something different instead, for you and for me. I plan to share a weekly wrap-up of our major homesteading activities. Then I'll have something to refer to in the future and perhaps you'll be inspired to take on similiar chores, projects, and events.

I'm not going to share regular activities like cooking meals, taking care of animals, and general gardening. I want to list the big things - canning days, gardening projects, irregular chores, and links - with pictures taken this week. If I can keep this up, it should build a good library of resources for fellow homesteaders and an online journal for me.

Here's what I was up to this week:

Placed seed order with Bountiful Gardens for culinary flowers and grains.
Taught at The Seasoned Farmhouse and The Commissary. It's good to be back in the teaching game - I haven't led any major classes since before Thanksgiving.
Ordered (more) fruit trees and sweet sap maples from St. Lawrence Nursery.
Comforted Lil as she adjusts to her new palate expander and braces. She's not very excited about this but in a few months she'll finally be able to share a smile with two front teeth.
Meanwhile, I rid the house of sticky sweets that aren't good for her diet or orthodontia. Real Mom Nutrition has a great post up about "fruit snacks" a.k.a. sticky sweets in disguise.
Posted about our hair care routine.
Shared my recipe for ginger miso salad dressing on the Swainway Urban Farm website.
Oogled the newly-released Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District Fish & Tree Sale offerings.
Met with Kate about her new farm Foraged & Sown and the little farms project. Yes! You can still order a bundle of highly productive perennial fruit & nut trees with us!
Appreciated the wonder of being alive while sympathizing with friends and family affected by ill health and death this week. I am hopeful that the week ahead contains far less bad news.

How was your week? Do you think a weekly list of happenings on Harmonious Homestead is useful or over-sharing?

Homesteading Hair Care - Baking Soda & Vinegar Hair Rinses

January 23, 2015 Rachel

baking soda and vinegar rinse bottles Over the last couple years, we've slowly simplified our bath and body routines and made the switch from "all-natural" manufactured toiletries to homemade concoctions from food ingredients. I discovered that making our own is cheaper, requires very little effort, and works better than what I can buy. Plus there's no wasted packaging or unnecessary chemicals! The first beauty product I made was hair "conditioner" pictured on the right. This started when Lillian insisted on keeping her hair very long but hated brushing out the tangles. We tried commercial spray detanglers, conditioning shampoo, extra rinses of conditioner and nothing lessened the time we spent fighting with a hair brush. Finally, based on a tip by Chef's Widow, I tried spraying some vinegar on her long locks at the end of a shower.

Instant success. Not perfection without a single tangle, but brushing is MUCH easier. And the ingredients give me no pause - vinegar and water is truly edible. I began using the vinegar hair rinse myself and ditched the bottled conditioner too.

Vinegar Hair Rinse Recipe

12 ounces water 3 ounces apple cider or white vinegar 2-4 drops essential oil (optional) 16 ounce spray bottle

1. Mix three ingredients in spray bottle. Screw on sprayer and shake to combine. 2. Cover hair with vinegar spray at the end of a shower or bath, paying special attention to ends. Allow to sit for one minute and rinse, or leave on without rinsing.

Using Baking Soda "Shampoo"

Next I moved on to baking soda shampoo, the basis of the "no-poo" routine. Commercial shampoos include strong detergents that strip hair of natural oils. The no-poo idea is to allow your hair to carry oils for better hair health and body. To clean hair, no-poo calls for applying a dilute baking soda solution.

I experimented with different ratios and timing and settled on a very dilute solution poured over my hair like a rinse in my every-other-day showers. There's no lather, so I just smooth it around to make sure most of my hair is covered. Some people advocate scrubbing the scalp, but that seemed to make my hair more oily.

Many people experience a transition period where their hair is extra oily and itchy. I anticipated this and started shampooing less frequently and then using baking soda solution last winter when I more often wear hats. I experienced a week or so of funky hair before mine settled into a comfortable, predictable condition.

Whereas I used to have overly dry hair for 12-24 hrs and then overly oily hair after that, my hair can now go several days without washing with decent body and no itchiness. If I really want to push my time between showers, I use Lush No Drought Dry Shampoo when my hair is oily. It brushes through cleanly and corrects oily scalp. You could make something similiar at home, but I haven't tried because I've barely made a dent in the bottle I bought two years ago.

Baking Soda Shampoo Recipe

1 teaspoon baking soda 6 ounces warm water 2-4 drops essential oil (optional)

1. Shake baking soda and warm water together in a squeeze bottle. Add essential oils as you wish. 2. Pour 2-4 squirts over hair in the shower, shaking to combine before using. Smooth over hair and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes. 3. Rinse with warm water. Follow with vinegar rinse.

Tips on Using Baking Soda and Vinegar Rinses

Essential oils can address tricky hair issues. The Chagrin Valley Soap Company has a great list of essential oils used in hair care.
Spray bottles vary in their quality. If I want something cute, I go for the ones in the Target travel toiletries section. For better quality, I buy from the hardware store.
The vinegar smell dissipates very quickly, as soon as hair is dry. If it bothers you, use essential oil.
A spray bottle of vinegar conditioner lasts us over a month and costs about $0.50. I mix up a new batch of baking soda rinse every week for mere pennies.
The 'mother' of active bacterial cultures in raw apple cider vinegar may plug the sprayer mechanism. If you shake well before each spray, this shouldn't happen, but soaking the end of the sprayer in hot water and then spraying that through will usually clear the mechanism.
Chlorine from swimming pools disrupts natural hair oil production. I try to avoid chlorine pools but when I can't, I rinse with clean water as soon as possible after swimming and expect a few days of overly dry and then overly oily hair.
When we travel, I pack a smaller container with some dry baking soda but ditch the vinegar spray bottle. We add water to a drinking cup to the baking soda and pour over our hair. For conditioner, we either bring or buy a small bottle of vinegar, add water in a cup, and pour over. I've used individual packs of lemon juice or malt vinegar snitched from cafeterias in place of my preferred apple cider vinegar in a pinch.

Will you try making hair care products at home? Or are you already no-pooing? Share your story in the comments.