Tapping trees

'X' marks the spot!

This weekend, we finally got around to tapping our maple trees! Everyone helped out, and it was really a family affair. The weather is perfect for collecting sap: warm days that range from the low 40s to the high 50s in temperature, and nights that drop below freezing. Last summer, I had marked out the various maples with spray paint so I could easily identify them come winter. However, I allowed the girl child to help me out, and it seems that some non-maples got marked. This resulted in us tapping a couple of oaks and then removing the taps when we realized my error!

Helping daddy tap

The tapping process is not very complex, and can be done quiet cheaply. The spiles (the metal taps that go into the tree) are only a few cents for the cheap ones that hold buckets, or as high as $0.29 for the small metal ones we got, that accept the blue maple sap tubing. The tubing itself cost us just under $5.00 for 30 feet of it, which was more than enough for the few trees we tapped. My original plan had been to allow our taps to drip into sterilized milk jugs through a small hole in the plastic cap, via the tubing. However, I quickly learned that wasn't going to suffice . . .

Drilling the hole

The first thing you want to do once you've found your maple tree(s) is to drill a hole in them, at an upward angle. We used small spiles, and so we had a 5/16" drill bit. You can get hand drills that allow you to do this without power, but we figured we'd enjoy the power tools while we could. The drill made it very quick and easy, and you could immediately see the sap beginning to drip out of the hole. Using a hammer, you tap the spile into the hole, then hold your breath for a moment. When you see the drip-drip-dripping of the sap through the spile, you hang your bucket or attach your tubing and put a container at the other end.

More than one tap is fine on large trees

If you have large trees, you can easily put in more than one tap. In general, you would put one tap into a tree that is 53 inches or less in circumference, two into a tree that is between 53 and 75 inches in circumference, and over 75 inches in circumference can accept three taps. For very large trees,  you can go with four or five without problem, but beginners should stick to no more than three per tree until they are more experienced.

Tubing leads to a jug

The sap will drip slowly out of the tree and either off the spile and into its bucket, or down the tubing and into the collection container, so long as the sun is out and the temperature is above freezing. The warmer the day, the better the sap will run. The perfect weather for tapping is a 40-50F day and a 25F night, which will produce the freeze-thaw cycle that keeps the sap flowing for a very long time. We're heading into just such a cycle for the next couple of weeks, and we're hoping to get enough sap to make syrup for the year, plus a little bit of maple sugar as well.

Adding a second tap

If you put your taps in on a warm afternoon, as we did, you'll be immediately rewarded with the sight of flowing sap. You can actually stand and watch it come down the tubing at an astonishingly fast rate. Let the kids taste a bit of the sap, dipped out of the container, to see what it's like. There's nothing wrong with the sap, and in fact it can be used to make a very flavorful tea (use the sap instead of water).

Sap dripping out of the spile

There's something exciting about being able to do this simple thing. It's not exactly easy, per se, because it takes man-hours to tap, collect, boil and store the sap and syrup, but there's nothing complex about how it's done. You can use the sweet results of your labor with knowledge that there is no high fructose corn syrup hiding in it, and there are no artificial sweeteners, colors, or preservatives. It's just plain, delicious maple syrup.

Adding a 'Y'

My original plan for using the milk jugs as collection places turned out to be a bit underwhelming for most of our trees. Rather than have a bucket hanging on each spile, as in pioneer days, we used the blue tubing and 'Y' splitters to bring all the sap into a single place. For the tiny trees that had only a single tap in them, that was more than adequate, and a single gallon milk jug seems to be what they are going to give us in a day. That's not true of the larger trees, however.

A spile, close up

The two large trees had four taps and three taps in them, all collecting down into a single place. In one hour, we had almost filled the gallon jug! This just wasn't going to do, and so we sacrificed three of our large five gallon buckets to be used for collection. A small hole was drilled in the lid of each bucket, allowing the blue tubing to enter but hopefully no bark or insects. We put the taps in around noon yesterday, and at noon today they had about 2.5 gallons in each of the large pails and about 3/4 of a gallon in each of the small jugs.

Close-up of a milk jug lid with tubing

I will admit, I wasn't expecting to get quite that much the first time. Admittedly the weather is ideal, but still, this is my first time being the driving force behind tapping maple trees. Previously, an acquaintance had been in charge, and we had used the old-style spiles and hanging buckets. It was so exciting to see the huge amount of sap there when I went to collect!

A small jug

The fun part starts when you get the sap boiled down, but that will be a while. You can save sap to boil in very large batches, but considering we're a home-sized operation, I just boil it about half way each day as it comes in. The house smells intensely of maple syrup, and it's so wonderful! Right now I'm boiling indoors, which is NOT recommended, because you end up with sugar coated walls. However, I have the windows open and the fan on, and so I am hoping to avoid the worst of the sugar coating.

Also, I am not finishing the sap into syrup today. I will boil down each day's take until it's just barely starting to thicken up. It will still be clear and watery, but if you taste it, it'll bear more resemblance to the syrup than the sap. That half-finished product will get popped into the freezer until later on in the spring, when we've run out of freezer space. Then we'll pull out all the half-done sap and put it onto an outdoor burner to finish up. It's important to do that last bit outside, as that's when the most sugar comes off the sap. We use a propane burner at full heat, and make short work of it. The longest part really is getting that first half of the water out!

Sap that's out of the tree will last for 3 days if left in the bucket outdoors, however it's best to bring it in and start processing it once a day if at all possible. The half-boiled down sap can be safely frozen for several weeks, but should not be stored at room temperature or outdoors where it will freeze and thaw.

Finished maple syrup can be canned and stored for over a year on the shelf without worry, and can be frozen for an indefinite period of time. Honestly, I wonder who would want to test out how long it takes for maple syrup to go bad. I know I don't! I've never had a batch of syrup last more than a couple of months, never mind the year they say is safe!

As I process my sap into syrup, I'll add information to the blog for everyone to enjoy. Please share your own sap and syrup stories with us!

Shared at the Backyard Farming Connection Hop #23! This post was shared at the Homestead Barn Hop #103!

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site! 
 
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How-to: perk coffee

Morning coffee (1)

There's something wonderful and special about having fresh ground coffee in the morning. I am one of those coffee drinkers who really requires that first cup, but can then proceed with the day and not touch another drop. I sometimes indulge in a second cup mid-afternoon, but not always. I love the dusky, hearty scent of freshly ground beans, and the unmatchable flavor when you brew them into that dark, rich liquid. Add cream and sugar, and there's just nothing else like it in the world.

In an emergency or while camping, knowing how to make coffee without power is a skill that will be much appreciated by those around you.  Ignoring the lack of electricity and being able to whip up a batch of steaming hot brew will gain you many bonus points with your family and friends.

Beans

Start with some good quality beans, if at all possible. In a real emergency, you may have to make do with pre-ground, or even scrounge for substitutes like dandelion or chicory root, but let's assume you have the beans in long-term storage, ready to be pulled out. Your best long-term storage beans are ones that are dry, without the oil that you see in the picture to the right. The oil in coffee beans can go rancid relatively quickly (within days in warm weather, or months in cold weather). Dry roasted beans last longer and stay fresh longer.

My grinder

You will need to grind your coffee beans in order to make it possible to brew with them. The best method is to use an old fashioned hand-cranked coffee grinder. In my house, this is the only way we grind coffee, and the children argue over who gets to do it next! Look for hand grinders at yard sales and estate sales, as the older ones are much better (in my opinion). Old coffee mills use burrs, metal plates with bits sticking up to grind the beans into granules. Newer mills, especially electric ones, often use blades instead. Blades simply do not release the right kind of oils for a good cup of coffee. Ebay has quite a few antique grinders listed, although prices can be quite high. Places like Lehman's also sell brand new but old fashioned style coffee grinders, if you prefer to buy new.

The tension screw

One of the best things about a coffee grinder of this type is that, in a real emergency, it can be cleaned out and used to grind grains and beans into flour. It won't be perfect, but it will be functional. The secret to using an old fashioned style grinder is the tension screw. The tighter the screw, the finer the grind of coffee (or flour). For a French Press style coffee maker (another non-electric method of making delicious coffee), you want to have an incredibly fine grind, almost like a powder. For our purposes, though, in a percolator you want to have a fairly rough grind. In fact, in a pinch you could even just smash up coffee beans by putting them into a plastic bag and hitting them with a rolling pin. I don't suggest this, though, as your coffee won't taste nearly as nice as grinding it.

Freshly ground coffee

My grinder is easy to use. You put the beans into the top glass hopper and up-end it onto the grinder. Turn the tension screw until it's very loose, then grind away with the handle until all the beans are gone. Lift the hopper and poke any loose bits down into the grinding mechanism, then grind again until the burrs run free.  Tap the cast iron side lightly to release any bits of ground coffee sticking to the burrs, then remove the glass catch cup from below and there's your ground coffee. I always like to take a moment to smell the coffee when it's freshly ground, because the aroma is unbelievably good. It's almost (but not quite) better than the coffee itself.

The stem

Now we turn to the coffee percolator itself. You may be familiar with the percolator from the standard blue Grainiteware camping version that is in most stores today. The one I own is Farberware, a stainless steel version that cleans up and stores well when not in use. The kind of percolator doesn't really matter, as the process of perking coffee is pretty much the same across all the different brands. Inside the pot, you'll find a few interesting looking pieces. There will be a stem with a base that has a hole in it, and a spring part of the way up. This is the piece that allows the liquid to actually "perk" up into the coffee basket. Pressure builds up below the stand, creating bubbles which push the liquid up the stem. The liquid spurts into the clear knob on top (where you can see it) and then falls down into the coffee basket, where your grounds are.

Basket and lid

The basket itself is usually stainless steel, and has very small holes at the bottom and sometimes along the side. They're too small to allow the coffee grounds to escape, but small enough for the liquid to pass through. The lid also has holes in it, allowing the liquid in but keeping the coffee grounds from spouting all over. With an electric drip coffee maker, water comes out of the reservoir and falls into the coffee basket, where it filters through the coffee and into the urn at the bottom. In a percolator, you are actually running the liquid through the coffee grounds in the basket several times, circulating it to make a stronger cup of coffee. Keep that in mind as you load  your basket with ground coffee, and be conservative in the amount you use.

Basket and lid on the stem

That coffee you just ground can be put into the basket now, in preparation for making your coffee. To do this, take the basket off the stem and place it on your counter top. Take the lid off and set it aside. Now pour one to two teaspoons of ground coffee per 8oz of water  you'll be using. Give it a shake to settle it evenly in the basket, then put the lid on. Pour your water into the body of the percolator, being sure to keep the top of the water below the bottom of the basket by at least a half inch. Place the stem into the pot, then carefully fit the basket and lid onto the stem. The whole thing goes onto a stove burner or over a campfire. If you're doing this over an open flame of any kind, watch the percolator carefully during the entire perking process.

Ready to perk

Bring the heat up under the percolator and let the water come almost to a boil. The bubbles will cause the liquid to start circulating, which will make your coffee. When the perk starts to happen, keep an eye on the color of the liquid. When it starts to turn brown, set a timer for ten minutes. You may need to turn down the heat once the perking has begun, or move the pot farther away from the flame if you're doing it over a campfire. You don't want to have the coffee at a full boil because it will make it bitter.

Freshly perked coffee!

At the end of your ten minutes, turn off the heat and move the percolator away from the heat source. Once the coffee stops perking up into the clear top, you can take the lid off and carefully (using hot pads or a towel) remove the basket and stem entirely. Your coffee is now ready to be enjoyed!

As I mentioned above, the coffee out of a percolator is much stronger than that from a drip coffee maker. There are reasons for this, mainly that you're circulating the coffee through the grounds rather than just passing water through them once. You may need to adjust the amount of ground coffee you use, and the length of time you perk for. Play around until you get it to just the right flavor and strength.

Making perked coffee is a skill, and it takes practice.  Your first pot is likely to be rather sludgy in consistency, but don't be discouraged. Like most emergency skills, this is one to practice now, before an emergency hits. That way, when the time comes you'll be prepared. Believe me when I say, that first miraculous pot of coffee made during a power outage will make you one of the most popular people in your house!

Shared at the Homestead Barn Hop #95 (click here to enter your own post!). Also shared at the Backyard Farming Connection Hop #16 (click here to enter!) and at the Old Fashioned Recipe Exchange 1/22 (click here to enter!).

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site!
 
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1) Image by Seemann / morgueFile free photos

Winter Wonders - Making a planting schedule

Last week, I wrote about how fun it is to page through the newly arrived seed catalogs. I talked about the process of deciding what you wanted to plant, and figuring out how much of it you need to have on hand. Once you've gotten all your seeds ordered, you have to figure out when to plant them, and where to plant them. You have to know whether to start them indoors or put them straight into the ground in your garden. You need to be aware of whether they need full or partial sun, which means knowing what types of plants are growing next to one another.

When figuring out planting dates, the first task we have to complete is finding out our last frost date for the winter. According to the almanac, here in New Hampshire our last spring frost date is around May 20th, and we have a growing season of about 124 days.

Our seed catalog tells us that tomatoes take 40-60 days to mature, and do not do well until the soil temperature hits about 60F. This means that planting tomato seeds directly into the ground is going to yield few, if any, tomatoes. We'll need to start this indoors. We know that by Memorial Day the soil is about the right temperature, and our seed packets will tell us that sowing about six weeks before the last frost date is just about right. Counting six weeks back from May 20 puts us at an indoor sowing date of around April 1 through 8.

If we sow our tomato seeds indoors between April 1 and 8, by May 20 they will be ready to start hardening off (putting them outside in the sun for a couple of hours a day). By May 27, Memorial Day, we can be assured that they'll survive. If we do happen to have a frost past that date, and it sometimes happens up here in the North, we can cover our seedlings with floating row covers or tarps, or even an upturned bucket for the night.

We also know tomatoes need full sun in order to produce well. This means we have to make sure that they aren't shaded by anything else in the garden. If you plant something tall near tomatoes (like sunflowers, for instance), be sure to put the tomatoes on the sunny side, so the towering flowers don't hide them from the sun.

Each plant you want to grow needs to be given the same attention to detail, counting back to plant dates based on the last frost date. Some vegetables, such as peas, actually enjoy a little frost and will sprout better in cooler soil. Read the information on the back of each and every seed packet you purchase, and read up on the plants on the internet, too. If you're still not sure, call your local Agricultural Extension and they will have the answers you need.

When planting indoors, remember that you will need to water frequently. Some seeds may need special circumstances in order to sprout properly. These might include overnight chilling in the fridge or a snow bank, a warm seed mat to raise the temperature, or a breeze to make the stems work out once they do sprout.

I've found that putting plants into clear plastic bins works wonders for sprouting and growing. Drill a few holes in the side for air circulation, then put your seed pots into the plastic bin(s) and put the lid on. The miniature greenhouse will help keep moisture in and temperatures fairly steady. They also allow you to pick up your seedlings, en mass, and take them outside on particularly warm or sunny days, or move them from window to window as the sun moves. Watering can be done from the bottom (something important for seedlings, as it encourages root growth downward) simply by pouring water into the bins and letting it soak up into your plants. Don't let the seedlings sit in the water, though - pour it out if they haven't absorbed it all in 30 minutes or so. Too much water can encourage mold growth.

Once you know all the dates you ought to be planting on, write them onto your calendar or in a prominent place. I put mine both onto my desk calendar, and onto my Google Calendar (which emails me 24 hours beforehand to remind me to do things!). I know when to plant things indoors, when to move them onto the porch to harden, and then when to plant them out in the garden. I also make note of where in the garden they should go, so that when the time comes it's just a matter of going out, digging up a spot, and putting them gently in their new home.

The more planning you do now, the better your garden will be in May. Once spring rolls around, you'll be busy with other things, and there won't be as much time for all this planning. By putting the time in now, you save yourself time and effort later!

Linked to from The HomeAcre Hop! Want to enter? Click here! Also shared at the Homestead Barn Hop #95 (click here to enter)!

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site!
 
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Got cheese?

I love cream cheese... (1)

There's this decadent feeling you get when you cut into a cheese ball. I don't know why cheese balls are different from any other appetizer or finger food, but for me, it leaves a rich impression. I almost always buy one during the Thanksgiving holidays, either for putting out before the main meal, or just to sit and munch on during  a movie with the kids. This year, I decided to make our cheese ball.

I was zooming around on Pinterest a few weeks ago and found a recipe for a cheddar cheese ball. I swear I bookmarked it, but when I went back to find it, it was gone. Damn you, Pinterest! After looking online and realizing I didn't have the stuff to make any of the cheese balls mentioned there, I had almost resolved myself to purchasing one last minute, when a light bulb came on.

If all those other people can mix stuff together, so can I! I can cook, so I can make my OWN cheese ball recipe! And so I did. This is the result, and I am happy to say there was squabbling over the remains of it.

Ingredients:
2 packages room temperature cream cheese or neufchatal
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp pesto
1 clove minced garlic OR 1/2 tsp dried minced garlic
several tbsps each of parsley and chives, minced

In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, pepper, pesto and garlic. I use the MixMaster with the paddle and it whips right up. Using a rubber spatula, form it into a ball shape in the bottom of the bowl and set aside.

On a large piece of plastic/saran wrap, lay out a layer of the mixed parsley and chives. I used fresh parsley, minced up with my mezzaluna, but my chives were freeze dried because I couldn't find fresh and my garden ones were pretty sad. Flavor-wise, I was glad I went with the freeze dried ones, because if I'd used my own dried ones, the taste wouldn't have been as good. Spread the herbs in a thin layer, then pick up your cheese ball and sort of roll it around on the herbs. They'll stick to the cheese.

Set the ball in the middle of the plastic wrap and bring the sides up. Twist the top closed firmly, so that the cheese and herbs are held together in a tight ball in the wrap. Now chill it for at least four hours. I made mine the night before, and it was just the right consistency.

Cheese ball heaven

This cheese ball turned out marvelously. It was nice and herby on the outside, and light green on the inside (the pesto turned the neufchatal green!). It was spreadable, attractive, slightly spicy from the basil, and gone before I could get a decent picture of it. This is the sole image of my cheese ball! The little "Christmas tree" is a cheese spreader that we had. It looked like there was a little tree sitting on a grassy hill.

Have you ever made your own version of a recipe before? What's your favorite? Care to share?

PS: We've added this post to the Homestead Barn Hop #90! Click the Homestead button to share your homesteading post.

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site!
 
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1) Photo by Renee Comet / Wikimedia Commons

How to render turkey fat

Rendered turkey fat

There are a lot of things you can do with left-over turkey, and I'm sure that everyone's getting their fill of it by now. Whether you had your feast on Thursday or the weekend, the likelihood is that you have a significant amount of turkey in your fridge or freezer, and are wondering what to do with it all. I'll touch on a few recipes this week, some easy and some more labor intensive, but first I want to cover the basics - what to do with all that fat!

Believe it or not, turkey fat isn't as bad for you as butter is. It isn't as bad for you as most vegetable fats like canola or "vegetable oil" and is naturally low in saturated fats. If your turkey is pasture fed, it's also full of a lot of necessary vitamins and minerals. This means you can save that turkey fat and use it in any recipe that calls for lard or animal fat, and it can be used in place of butter.

Fat on top of broth

Before using your turkey fat, though, you need to render it. The process of rendering fat (of any kind of animal) means to remove all the non-fat from it. For me, that meant all the little bits of turkey that remained in it, as well as some herbs. It's not a difficult process, but it does take a bit of time and patience.

The easiest way to get at the turkey fat is to take all your leftover skin, bones, gristle and assorted drippings, put them in a big pot, and make stock from it. Once your stock is made, set it outside (if it's cold enough) or in the fridge until it is thoroughly chilled. The fat will float to the top and harden.

Removing fat with a spoon

Fat in a bowl

Once the fat is hard, remove it with a slotted spoon to a bowl or small sauce pan. The broth can then be heated and canned or poured into containers and frozen. Your broth will be largely fat free, because you will remove the majority of it!

The fat can then be heated on top of the stove to melt it. Use a medium high heat, and it will melt down very quickly. You'll see in the picture that my fat has bits of herbs in it, which floated to the top and got stuck there. Before finishing, I need to remove those herbs. They will go bad if they are not removed, and that will ruin your fat!

Melting turkey fat

Once the fat is melted, but before it gets really hot, pour it through a coffee filter to remove the last of the impurities from it. This helps make sure there are no bits of meat or bone or herb left in it, which might cause it to go rancid. If it doesn't look clear, re-heat it and pour through another filter. This is the most important part of rendering, and it makes a huge difference on both the length of storage of your fat, and the flavor (donuts fried in fat that contains meat are going to taste a little funny, and let's not even consider what will happen if you're washing your face and bits of old turkey end up on it!).

Removing the water

When the fat is completely strained, put it back onto the stove in its pot and let it come to a full boil. It will hiss and spit quite a bit, usually, as it steams and cooks out all the water. Continue to cook the fat on a low heat (just enough to make it bubble but not enough to cause it to boil over) until all the spitting stops. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to hours, depending on how much water is in your fat. If it looks like it'll be taking a long time, consider doing it in your crock pot on high, where you can leave it without worry of spilling over or burning.

The finished product can be stored in air-tight containers in the fridge for about three months, or in the freezer for up to a year. Turkey fat can be used in place of palm oil in soap recipes, and can be used for making pastries or anything that asks for butter or lard. It will harden up in the fridge until it looks just like store-bought lard, although it will be a darker color.

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site!
 
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Making your own firestarters

A home-made firestarter

I love fires, and we're just entering the season for it. The nights are cold, sometimes hovering down around freezing, and even the afternoons are chilly with the overcast skies and the on-again off-again rain. While we aren't at the moment of winter, where the fireplace gets lit and stays lit until spring, it's definitely that time when we occasionally decide we want the house warmer than it is on its own. There's something emotionally boosting about a nice wood fire, too, that tells you you're safe and snug in your own home. It's a sense of security like no other.

The basics

Starting a fire in damp weather can be a real hassle. Struggling with paper or cardboard, chemical starter logs, or tinder that isn't quite dry is frustrating and it takes away from the enjoyment of your fire. It can also pump a lot of smoke into your house, which is not good. Rather than pay for expensive firestarters, why not make your own? They're so simply and easy, and are made from things found around the average house. It takes only a few minutes to put them together, and a couple of hours to let them dry and cool, and you'll have dozens sitting ready to light up your fire.

Lint makes great tinder

Begin with the basics of the firestarter: an egg carton (or several), some wax (bee's wax, paraffin, or left over candle stubs are all fine), a pile of dryer lint and some wood shavings or finely shredded paper. I tend to make firestarters around canning time, so I use the wooden boxes the jars come in as holders. Since the boxes are covered in a somewhat waxy substance, and are also plastic wrapped, you don't have to worry about the melted wax weeping onto any furniture or table tops. You could also sit them on folded newspaper or old cardboard boxes.

Melt your wax

In a pot that you don't care about (once it's held melted wax it will no longer be good for anything else), melt up your wax. I have a metal bowl that works very well for this, but you could just as easily pick up an old double boiler or pot at Sally Ann or Goodwill. Set your stove to a medium high heat, and don't leave. Wax is flammable, and needs to be tended. Luckily, this stage doesn't take very long. About five minutes will melt a block of paraffin wax the size of an apple. If you see smoke, turn down your heat a little bit, as it can scorch the wax and could lead to a fire. If you spill wax on your counters or stove, wait for it to cool and then pop it off using a plastic knife or spatula.

Fill the cups with lint

While your wax is melting, you can work on the body of your firestarters. Rip the tops off your egg cartons, because there's no use for them in this. The lip that keeps the lid closed can go, too. Place your egg cartons onto whatever safe base you have, and then fill each egg cup with about a tablespoon of lint. It doesn't matter what color or texture the lint is. All lint burns very quickly, and so it makes excellent tinder. Some campers keep a tiny zip baggie filled with lint for starting their campfires easily.

Add the wood shavings

My partner happens to like doing wood working, and so there's always a ready supply of wood shavings from his planer for me to use in making firestarters (or to use as mulch in the garden). I add some of the wood shavings to the wax because it makes it easier to pour. However, you can also tuck the wood shavings into the egg cups with the lint, then pour the plain wax over the whole thing. Either way is acceptable. It's a personal choice.

Pour in the wax

Pour the wax into the egg cups as evenly as you can, making sure to coat the lint and wood shavings completely. The wax acts just as candle was does, protecting the wick from burning up too quickly. It also keeps the lint and wood very dry, which allows you to use them even in damp or wet weather.

A single firestarter

Let your wax dry and cool completely before doing anything else. Once it's cool, you can cut the egg cups into separate pieces and store them in a zip baggie or plastic container. Each firestarter should burn for 3 to 10 minutes depending on the size, amount of lint and wood, and amount of wax used. For a fire designed to heat the house, I will lay down a piece or two of newspaper, place a firestarter at either end of the woodstove, then place small bits of wood on top of that. I then light the newspaper, which in turn lights the firestarters. As the fire picks up, I add medium then large pieces of wood.

Light it up

For a camp fire or a fire that you're starting without paper, it's quite easy to light the firestarters. Using a match or lighter, just set fire to one corner of the egg carton and it should immediately catch. Be sure to have the firestarter where you want it before lighting it, because they catch very quick and burn very hot. Provided you're not using green, wet wood, it ought to begin to smoke and burn within a few minutes.

It really is that easy. I love making my own firestarters, and the kids help with portions of the creation, too. They love playing with dryer lint, and will happily stuff egg cups for me while I'm preparing the wax. The starters do a great job of getting most any fire going well, including outdoor fires for camping and such.

The following video is a short view of one of my firestarters burning merrily in the fireplace at my home. You can see how well it catches, and how steadily it burns. The video should give you a good idea of what your final product should look like.

  

Using a FoodSaver

There are lots of things you can use a FoodSaver for. Repackaging bulk size dry goods is one of the best, in my opinion.

For instance, we got a real deal on a 20lb bag of rice the other day. I don't know about your family, but even ours can't use 20lbs of rice in a single sitting. Not even at Thanksgiving. Since I already had a plastic server container filled with rice for daily use, I decided to seal it up in FoodSaver bags for longer term storage. I've done up a little video (below) for you, so I hope you'll enjoy!

How to make liquid laundry soap

All you need to make your own laundry detergent!

I'll admit to a certain amount of skepticism when I started seeing articles on homestead blogs and Pinterest talking about simple it was to make laundry detergent. After all, I had a vague idea of what went into our laundry soap, and there were a lot of words I couldn't pronounce. How could four simple items make laundry detergent that stacked up against the commercial brands?

Of course, I'm not one to let a challenge pass by. I'm also very interested in saving money and being thrifty. My laundry detergent costs me between $4.50 and $5.00 per container, and has between 34 and 60 loads. My usual brand, a store brand with no scent, costs me about $0.10 per load if I can get it on sale. I consider that a pretty good deal.

When I sat down to do the math for this home made detergent, I got very cocky at first, because my initial numbers said it would cost me $0.22 per load to wash my clothes with it. The problem is, I didn't add up all the numbers. So I'm going to write it all out, then explain the caveat after.

The Borax cost me $3.49 for the box, and the Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda was only $2.69. Neither was on sale. The soap I got was Jergens , a brand that doesn't set off anyone's allergies and is very gentle. I got three bars for $0.99 at Job Lots in Peterborough, which made me a happy lady. I also picked up a single bar of Fels Naptha , because it can also be used to make this detergent, although I didn't use it for this tutorial.

So, let's add together $3.49 plus $2.69, plus $0.99 to get a total of $7.17 for all the ingredients. That seems like a lot, but I divided it by cups. There are 16 cups in a gallon, and we end up with about 2 gallons of finished product. $7.17 divided by 32 cups comes out to $0.22 per load.  That's where my math was wrong. I don't use a whole cup of the detergent per load. I use a half cup. That means I am dividing my $7.17 by 64 half cups, and so the correct total is $0.11 per load.

But wait! That's not entirely true. I only used one cup each of the Borax and washing soda, and there are several more cups in each box. There are two more bars of Jergins soap. I believe it is quite safe to say that I could make two more batches of this without depleting my supply of powdered ingredients. That means I would be getting not 64 loads out of the finished product but 192 loads! $7.17 divided by 192 loads gives us a total of $0.04 per load.

Wow. Okay, I can look at that and say that's thrifty. That's one third my usual price for detergent! Having done the math, I decided it was definitely time to try making this laundry detergent, and see what all the fuss was about.

Jergens and grater

The first step in creating laundry soap is to grate up a bar of soap. My research told me that any hard soap would be fine for this but that softer soaps (like our home made lye soap) would not be adequate. I opted for Jergins because it doesn't set off allergies and has a very mild scent, and it doesn't contain a lot of junk. I also wanted to have some Fels Naptha on hand for a second batch, but had been warned that I should do half milder soap and half Fels Naptha, because the plain Fels is very hard on clothing. When I make up the Fels Naptha batch, it will be labelled clearly and set aside, to be used for jeans and oil stained things, items that will withstand being treated roughly.

Grating the soap

I grated the soap right into my big aluminum pot. I used an old cheese grater with big holes, and when I was done I clearly labelled it "for soap only." The grating went very easily, and made the cutest little curls in the bottom of the pot. It took me less than five minutes to grate the whole bar. I was surprised it went so quick; I had been expecting at least a bit of difficulty with the end, if nothing else, but it was smooth sailing.

Adding warm water

To the grated soap you want to add one gallon of water. It can be hot or cold, and I chose to use hot tap water. I used a one gallon plastic jug I'd been saving just for that purpose. It had been a milk jug at one point, and I had cleaned it within an inch of its life with soap and water, then with bleach. I then allowed it to air dry on the porch before bringing it in and storing it until I needed it. Milk jugs are not great for storing food items like rice or potato flakes, both because of the small neck and because they tend to leach plastic over time. They are ideal for storing detergents and cleansers, though, and are wonderful for quickly measuring out one gallon of water.

Mark things "for soap only"

I used a large wooden spoon that had seen better days for my mixing. I clearly marked it "for soap only" because I don't want to ever use it for food again. The same thing happened to my pot and the funnel I used. Once your water is in the pot with the soap bits, bring the temperature up to medium high and stir until all the soap is dissolved. A few suds do come up during this process, and you will have to move them aside with your spoon to see if the soap is fully dissolved. This part of the process took me about five to ten minutes, and wasn't difficult at all. If the children had been home, I would have let them do the stirring.

Add the Borax and washing soda

Once all the soap is dissolved, you can add your other items. You want to pour in one cup of Borax and one cup of washing soda. I found the washing soda at Market Basket and the Borax at the local WalMart, but I suspect most places would carry them. WalMart also had the washing soda but it was more expensive. Bring the temperature up to high and bring your mixture to a full boil. This takes a bit of time. I waited about ten minutes before it was boiling. Once that full boil is reached, set your timer and allow it to boil for one minute only.

Cold water

At the end of the boil time, turn the heat off and immediately pour in one gallon of cold tap water. Stir it up very well. It should have a bit of a pearly sheen to it, and it's very soapy. There were not a lot of suds at this point, and my research turned up that this was normal. Suds don't equal cleaning power, especially in laundry detergent. In fact, some machines like the new High Efficiency ones, work better when there are little to no suds, and this detergent works just fine in HE washers and cold water. The finished product should be somewhat creamy in texture, and should coat the spoon lightly when it is dipped in.

Fill up the containers

I had my one gallon water jug to use as a container for my newly made detergent, and one empty detergent container with a half cup cap (how convenient!). The pot was too hot and heavy at first to pour directly, so I scooped with my measuring cup into the jugs. Once it got a bit cooler and lighter, I poured it directly into the funnel. I quickly filled the milk jug and the laundry detergent jug, and ended up filling two quart canning jars as well. I believe the final amount came to a bit more than two gallons, but I didn't measure it out when I was filling the other containers.

The finished product smells nice. It's not too strong, but has a faint smell that I can say is just plain "soap." You can use oxy booster with this detergent, just as you would with others. You pour in a half cup to your laundry as you would with any detergent, and your clothes should come out feeling very clean, and with very little scent.

For some slightly different recipes, try out:
Homemade liquid laundry soap
How to make homemade laundry detergent
Homemade laundry soap (dry)

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site!
 
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