Natural Hair Care

Have you read the ingredients label on your shampoo lately? No? Well, go ahead, grab your shampoo bottle, and have a look. I’ll wait here.

Done? Shocking, no? Even many so-called “natural” brands have all sorts of unrecognizable ingredients (well, unrecognizable to those of us who aren’t chemists!) As I have been on a mission the past couple of years to rid my family’s products ofunnecessary chemicals, a while ago I took the plunge into Shampoo Alternatives.

Now let me start by saying that, unlike my switch from my old facial cleanser and bodywash, this was not such an easy transition. I tried a variety different homemade shampoo recipes over the last year, and there were some really rough hair days during that time! Turns out that castile soap and my hair are not friends, no matter what else I added to the mix! BUT… I have finally settled into a hair care routine that really works for me, is cheap and so natural that the ingredients are completely edible! For many months now, I have been using a baking soda solution to wash my hair, and an apple cider vinegar solution for conditioner. This is commonly called the “no poo” method of hair care, and when I first read about it online, I thought “NO WAY!” But after reading how many other people swear by this method, I decided to give it a go! I’m SO glad that I did! I have found that it works better than anything else I’ve ever done for my hair.

My hair has a lot of texture… it’s fairly thick, long and wavy, bordering on curly. I have always needed lots and lots of Anti-frizz styling product to keep myself from looking like Rosanne Rosannadanna, especially on humid days. But that was before, when I used shampoo… turns out that wasn’t “just my hair” as I always thought it was… it was the shampoo, making my hair all frizzy! Now that I’ve been using the baking soda and vinegar, my hair is so healthy that I have been able to stop using styling products! Occasionally, depending on the weather, I might smooth just a smidge of coconut oil into my hair, but I don’t usually need it. 

I will say that this method took some trial and error. I found that too much baking soda made my hair feel rough and dry, but if I used too little, my hair didn’t feel clean. The exact ratio you use will depend on your hair. I use a ratio of about 2 Tbsp of baking soda to a cup of water, but your hair might need more or less. For the vinegar rinse, I use a 50/50 blend of apple cider vinegar and water in a recycled squeeze bottle. To make it smell less vinegary, I toss a cinnamon stick in the bottle, along with a few drops of essential oil.

Here’s how I wash my hair with this method: I start by brushing my hair out while it’s still dry. Then, in the shower, I wet my hair and then dump the baking soda solution onto my head. I massage my scalp a bit to loosen up any dirt, then rinse. Next, I squirt on the vinegar mixture, and comb it through my hair with my fingers, then rinse. That’s it! I was totally paranoid at first that my hair would smell like vinegar, but after it’s rinsed and dried there is no vinegar smell, thank goodness.

Also on the topic of hair… soon I plan to do a post about how to cover up your grays without yucky chemicals. Until then, we’ll be doing a few more garden and recipe posts, and some Not-Back-to-School posts. So much going on, this time of year!

A Seasonal Recipe for Late August: Purple Salad

One of the best way to feed your family naturally and frugally is to eat seasonally. This means eating foods which are in season in your area, while they are in season. Local seasonal produce is fresher and it’s cheaper… both good things, right? As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we have a big garden, and we participate in our local CSA, so we get a huge batch of fresh local produce each week during the growing season. We plan all of our meals for the week around this produce.  Sometimes it’s a challenge to find recipes to work it all in, but so far, we’ve done a pretty good job of using everything with little to no waste. 

This time of year, some of the things we have in abundance are cabbage, carrots and beets. The following recipe uses these three ingredients, along with raisins and sunflower seeds, to make a sweet, crunchy late-summer side dish. In our family, we call this recipe “Purple Salad” even though it is definitely more of a slaw than a proper salad. My family enjoys this alongside veggie burgers, sandwiches or wraps. It keeps in the fridge for a couple of days. 

“Purple Salad”

½  head of red cabbage, shredded

2 large carrots, shredded

2 large beets, shredded

½ cup sunflower seed kernels

¾ cup raisins

The Dressing:

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

2 Tbsp honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the first 5 ingredients into a large bowl. Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well until thoroughly mixed. Pour dressing over veggies and toss to combine. You can eat this straight away, but I prefer to chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving. 

Enjoy!

DIY Nature Shelf

In the past, we have enjoyed having a special spot in our home to place seasonal treasures we find out in nature. But as we’ve reorganized our spaces, it fell by the wayside, and we haven’t had such a space for a couple of years.  Since we have recently been working on sprucing up our Homeschool Area for September, we decided it was time to bring back the Nature Shelf! 

We made this shelf out of an old piece of baseboard leftover from a previous home project, and some inexpensive brackets from the hardware store.  Ladybug painted the baseboard white with some leftover paint we had in the basement, and then I attached the brackets. Noodle measured how high we should hang the shelf (he wanted to make sure he could reach it easily!)  

In the frame is a quote from Aristotle: "In all things of Nature there is something of the Marvelous."

On the shelf we have all sorts of Summer Treasures: a bowl of small seashells, some beach rocks, a robin's eggshell, some larger seashells and a jelly jar of Summer flowers from our gardens.

We decided to hang the shelf underneath our Season Wall, which is where we display seasonal artwork, poems and projects.

As the seasons change, so will the items on our shelf! This will be a constantly-evolving display of Nature's Beauty; a place for us to share all the little treasures we collect when we are out and about... pretty rocks, leaves, flowers, fallen pine cones, etc. 

Peach Season!

We are in the midst of Peach Season here in my part of New England. When I went to pick up our Farm Share the other day, I came home with tons of them! So what to do with all these peaches? Well, many of them will just be eaten fresh… sweet, juicy peaches are such an amazing summertime treat!  We also plan to make up a batch of Peach Preserves, and last night my beautiful daughter made the most delicious Peach Cobbler using this recipe. It came out great! We served it with fresh whipped cream, and I was going to get a picture, but it was gone too fast!

But my favorite peach recipe of all is Spiced Peach Compote. This compote is perfect over pancakes, French toast, or ice cream. Here's the recipe!

6 cups of peeled, sliced peaches (it’s best to use slightly firm peaches for this)

¾ cup raw cane sugar

1 tsp ground ginger, (or use some grated fresh ginger, if you have it)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp corn starch

Put the peaches into a pot over med heat. Add the sugar, ginger and cinnamon and stir to coat the peaches. When the juice starts to bubble, whisk the corn starch into a little bit of cold water, and add to the peaches. Simmer until the peaches are soft (but not too mushy) Serve hot over pancakes or French toast.

Kids’ Art Wall

We just made this cool art display wall in the Homeschool area of our kitchen! We purchased 3 packages of stick-on cork board tiles (usually around $10 for a 4-pack… but watch for sales… I’ve seen them as low at $7) It was an inexpensive and quick spruce-up for that corner… less than $30, and only 20 minutes to complete. Here it is!

Our Art Wall

We added some quotes about Art.

We are considering making a wood frame for it at some point, to make it look more “finished,” but for now, we are happy with this little project! I'm pleased to have this space for a rotating gallery of the children's artwork. 

Catnip

One of our cats, Willow, sitting in our pot of catnip, which grows next to our back porch.

Greener Food Storage

So in my quest to live a little Greener, I’ve been trying to eliminate some of the plastic from our lives. I’m particularly concerned about plastic and food, so I’ve been slowly working toward non-plastic food storage solutions. While we do have some of these great Pyrex food storage containers, my hands-down favorite storage containers are glass jars. Boxes of canning jars are readily available at discount stores, hardware stores, some grocery stores or online. They are cheap, and they last forever! They also do not stain or retain odors the way plastic does, and most importantly, they don’t leach harmful chemicals into your food! Of course, you can also reuse glass jars from products you buy, which is even cheaper (FREE!) Here are some of the ways we use glass jars for food storage in our home:

This is our Grains and Dry Beans cabinet. We tend to buy this kind of stuff in bulk, so we need containers to store it in. Glass jars works perfectly, as we can see the contents. (and yes... that is some Annie's Mac-n-Cheese on the top right... my one concession to packaged food! Sometimes a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do)

Glass jars are perfect for storing things in the freezer! Just make sure to leave at least an inch of space at the top of the jar when you fill in, to allow for expansion when it freezes. If you don't the jar will break.

We also buy baking staples in bulk, so we use glass jars to store those things, too!

We do still use some plastic containers, particularly for packing food-to-go for the kiddos. And, I admit that I do like using ziplock bags in the freezer for some things, because they don’t take up much space. But I figure every little bit of plastic I replace with glass is a step toward a greener life, so I don’t fret too much about the occasional plastic bag or Gladware container. Baby steps!