And So it Begins...

For those of you who have been keeping up with my months long journey to alternative certification, I just wanted to give an update. Yesterday I started what will be a school-year long internship, 24 hours a week (minimum), which at this point looks like three full school days (Mon/Wed/Fri). I'm getting my certification in secondary English, while taking online classes towards a master's degree in education. It's a legit brick and mortar school here in Colorado, but they're kind and allow you to take the classes online so that you can do a post-bacc certification from anywhere in the world. Plus, a lot of post-bacc certification courses have you take random education classes, and it's nice that the education classes I am taking are going towards something instead of just a clap on the back and a check mark for completion.**

Although I don't plan on saying anything bad about the program or the students or the school or any of that, I will still, for obvious reasons, not share the name of the school in which I am interning. The most I will say is that I purposefully chose a Title I school because of my convictions regarding education inequality in America. I would feel like a chump if I cried all over the pages of "Savage Inequalities", kept up with all  the lawsuits against school districts in Texas and Colorado, and then blithely signed up to student teach at some high end fancy school attended by angel babies filled with SAT words, a fierce love for all things learning, and showered in $$$. I have more than one mentor teacher in the English department, which is neat because I get exposure to every grade level in high school, plus every class from AP English to intervention classes. I'm also assisting in the drama department, and this week we have auditions. It's nice to get thrown right into the mix of things. Classes are going well- my first week's assignments all came back A's- and I'm really enjoying the literature they are giving us. I'm also doing my nerd thang and supplementing all of  this with random books on education from the library. Any suggestions for me?

The only womp womp of all of this is my broken foot. Being in the classroom will be a lot better when I'm not clicking around on awkward crutches. Seriously, awkward like whoa. Thoughts on crutches, which I shared on FB, I shall now share here as well:

For a person with excellent balance, good coordination, and a strong upper body, I'm not really sure why I'm such a flailing baby giraffe on my crutches...also, since I've never broken anything/had a cast/had crutches I have to say that my childhood jealousy of those with crutches was totally stupid. Crutches are not like arm pit stilts, contrary to my fantasies of their fun potential as a 9 year old...they're just awkward and hurt my hands.

Unrelated- our tomato plants are going crazy and tonight it's caprese salads for dinner- heirloom tomatoes and basil from our garden, plus balsamic vinegar from the farmers' market. I'm watching Bobby pick tomatoes from the dining room window, and afterwards we're off to the grocery store to see if they have their  local goat cheese mozzarella in stock. If not, I can handle that being the biggest problem of my day.

 **I am not knocking those who took that route, I'm just saying, either way I have to pay for those classes and do the work, so ending up with a degree for taking them makes me a happy cat.

Daredevil

Anytime I tell people I broke my foot, they naturally ask me what I did. The problem is, there really is no accident story, no specific fateful incident that cracked my poor foot bone. I mean, do you want to know what I was doing the night before I woke up with my foot so swollen I couldn't move it without pain?

I was learning to can peaches with our friends.

I know, I know, I need to be more risk averse. But seriously, stress fractures are kind of a straw that broke the camel's back kind of thing- apparently that part of the bone just weakens and weakens until one day it flops onto its chaise lounge, puts its hand to its head, and says "I give up". And then it cracks.

The good news is, canning peaches was fun and canning is not as scary as it seemed to be. I mean, botulism is pretty damned terrifying, don't get me wrong, but after doing some reading I've learned that fruits are acidic enough to make botulism risk virtually nil as long as they are processed correctly.

Speaking of processed, I thought it only right that the old timey-ness of this endeavor should be captured with a vintage filter.

 The key to not dying of botulism- the water bath.

 Off and on during the process, the boys played video games. Yes, they helped, but once all that was left to do was boil the jars they took to playing a terrifyingly weird Japanese video game.

 Willow, eating up the attention, blissfully unaware of how she is hindering Bobby's progress in rolling a giant sticky ball through an imaginary world.

 A little sugar water, some lemon juice, and local, organic peaches picked up at the farmers' market that morning. Purrrrrr-fect.

 The finished product. I was super excited to can my own peaches after this, but then, you know, I woke up with broken foot extravaganza and I've only cooked one time since then.

Paige and Matt have a huge backdoor garden, so they sent us home with a baggie of cherry tomatoes and some beets. All in all, between the farmers' market that morning, the canning, and the good night gifts of fruits and veggies from their garden, it was a most excellent way to celebrate, unbeknownst to me, my last day of mobility for 8 weeks.

Hygienic Hippies: Washing My Face With Oil- The Verdict

This review is not going to be as straightforward as my review of the no 'poo method. However, I did love oil cleansing. It's just that, with my skin woes, things are always going to be a bit complicated...

The first three weeks of  oil cleansing were incredible. I mean, off the charts, nothing has cleared my skin up that quickly without leaving it cracked and dry, outstanding results.

Castor oil is the active participant that really cleans your face, so if you're going to do oil cleansing you must have it. I picked this castor oil up at Whole Foods for a pretty decent price. You want cold pressed and cold processed because this creates a more pure end product. It won't be in the oil section, it will be in the medicine/health and beauty section since technically one is not supposed to ingest it (although pregnant women past their due date do so often as a way to try and jump start labor, and I have seen it used as a "cleanse").

I picked up grapeseed oil because it is a thinner/lighter oil than olive oil. A lot of the oil cleansing method info on the 'net recommends sunflower oil, but grapeseed worked for me from the start so I'm not messing around with a good thing.

The ratios of castor oil to your oil of choice are totally dependent upon your individual skin type. The castor oil will actually dry your skin out if you use too much of it. I found that a 50/50 ratio worked perfectly. I do think that if you have oily skin or are acne prone you probably shouldn't go less than 50% castor oil, and maybe even a bit more. I found that 1/3 grapeseed to 2/3 castor oil was too much- after two nights, I started getting flaky.

I followed the instructions outlined here. I massaged the oil mixture on to my dry face (makeup and all if you wear it, yes, really!) with clean hands. I thought it would feel gross to rub oil on my face, but it was actually pretty soothing. I massaged it in for a few minutes, and then I steamed my face. I did this by running a wash cloth under very hot water, wringing it out a bit, and then letting it sit on my face until it cooled (usually about 30 seconds). Once the cloth had cooled, I gently wiped off my entire face, rinsed the wash cloth, and repeated the process. Personally I do this 4 times. I find this is enough to get the oil off of the surface of my face, while still leaving enough to keep me moisturized. My first reaction on the first night of using the oil cleansing method: "Afterward my face didn’t feel dry, or oily, or tight, or anything. It just felt like normal, healthy skin. I did have a noticeable glow, and my pores were already much smaller. My skin was also much more even toned, and a few bumps I already had were noticeably decreased in size"

I continued on in this manner for a few more days. My skin kept getting better and better. It was glowing and soft, my pores were almost invisible, and my blackheads were disappearing. I also noticed a reduction in fine lines around my eyes- rubbing oil into your skin definitely helps in that regard. Bobby confirmed that the oil cleansing was the best thing I had ever done for my skin overall, because it worked immediately and didn't give me crappy side effects. He said that my skin looked 80% better from the 2nd day on. About 4 days in, I was googling around to get more information on castor oil, and I read that it is a natural anti-inflammatory, which explains why it helps with acne. I also found that the properties of castor  oil allow it to penetrate the skin more deeply than other oils, which is why it can clean out your pores. And then, on a forum for oil cleansing, I stumbled upon a comment by a woman who said that oil cleansing was the only thing that cleared up her adult onset, cystic acne (oh, hello, that's me to a T). She mentioned that she rubbed in circles for at least 5 minutes, and usually 10, until she started to feel grit, like sand. I immediately remembered that I, too, had been feeling a grittiness after a few minutes- I assumed it was just my face oil reacting to the oil mixture, or dead skin being rubbed off. Turns out, it was neither of those things. She went on to say that if you look at your hands, you can see the blackheads/whiteheads that have been pulled  out of your pores all over your palms. What the what? That is kind of gross but also a good way to tell if it works. That night, I massaged a bit longer, and worked the oil in deeper in places where I felt that gritty feeling. Sure enough, I looked at my palms (sorry if this is grossing any of you out) and there were flecks of black and white all over them- easily 20 or 30 flecks- aka 20 or 30 potential future blemishes that would have pissed me off. That was huge proof to me (on top of the way my skin was looking) that the oil cleansing method is legitimate. How many times had I scrubbed my skin with medicated exfoliating wash trying to get blackheads to go away? I can't even count. Yet I could gently rub oil into my face and those same stubborn jerks would just slide right out? Dammit, oil cleansing method, where have you been the last 13 years?!

Anyway, I was going right along having a grand old time with the oil cleansing method for right at 3 weeks. And then, out of nowhere, I started to break out, all along my jaw, the week before my period. Hormonal acne strikes again! However, even when broken out, my skin looked healthier than when I was on Retin-A, with clear skin that was cracked and dry, flaking constantly. So despite the breakout I kept at the oil cleansing, because the previous 3 weeks had proven to me that it wasn't the cause of it- my wonky body was. Thanks, ovaries.

The oil cleansing method takes a bit more time than just washing quickly with a face wash, but in my mind those extra 10 minutes a night are well worth it. I bike pretty much every day, at least 10 miles, and work out 6 out of 7 days a week. I had no problem getting sweat and grime and sunscreen and the occasional bit of powder/eye shadow off of my face with the oil. In the morning I would just gently wipe my face with a clean warm wash cloth, and then splash cold water on it and go. The hormonal breakout at the end of week 3 confirmed to me that I still need to get a handle on that side of things. For the last few days I've been experimenting with putting Retin-A on my face for two nights, taking a break for one night, and then repeating, and that has been working out really well. For anyone on Accutane or Retin-A or other drying medications for acne, the oil cleansing method will probably be a godsend. And I think that if you don't have acne prone skin the oil cleansing method will probably make your skin look even healthier than it already is. If you do have great skin, take a moment to realize just how incredibly lucky you are. Oh for the reckless joy of going to bed without washing one's face... or using a random drugstore mask and being able to relax without thinking, over and over again on a loop "isthisgoingtobreakmeoutisthisgoingtobreakmeoutOMGwhatifthisbreaksmeout". For 3 weeks out of 4, at least, the oil cleansing method lets me experience what it's like to be one of those people with good genes and good skin.

On the Contrary, My Garden Tends to Not Grow At All

I am not the best gardener. True, I have never had a proper plot to garden, and people have told me patio gardening in pots is particularly picky. However, I have managed to kill herbs the last 3 times I tried to grow them. I think that goes beyond the difficulties of patio gardens and is firmly in the realm of "maybe the problem in this relationship is ME".

Despite my past failures, I was determined to make one last go of it. We live in a garden level apartment, which means we're half underground. Our living room window has a wooden box around it where the ground has been dug out so that we can have a regular sized window despite the whole being halfway underground thing. It gets 6 hours a day of full sun, making it the perfect spot for plants in pots. As a bonus, our dining room table is right next to it, so any little garden would be a nice view. Weekend before last we headed to the farmers' market and picked up locally grown, organic tomato and herb starts in coconut fiber planters for $3 each. I was hoping that the universe would smile benevolently on my eco-friendly hippie virtue- no plastic, Universe!- and bless my garden with good luck. I peppered the farmer with all sorts of questions, telling her that if these plants only knew how terrible I was at gardening they would be crossing their little plant fingers that they would NOT be coming home with me.

We left with two starts each of rosemary and basil, and one each of apple mint and pineapple sage. We also chose two heirloom tomato plants- Purple Prudens and Boxcar Willy. I planted them just as she suggested- a bit of pebbles in the bottom for drainage, organic soil, plant it coconut fiber pot and all- and then I gave them all a hearty shake of organic plant food. Since then I've been watering them and anxiously waiting for them to die... but they haven't! And more than that, they're actually thriving. I buried a trailing vine of the apple mint, because the farmer said that it would sprout up a new plant- and it totally did. The pineapple sage has increased its leaves by 50%, and the basil is starting to fill out with new shoots as well. I don't have any blooms on the tomato plants yet, but the important thing is they're not dead, which bodes well for future bloom possibilities.

This is the day I planted them. They're probably whispering get away plans to themselves at this point.

 Two weeks later, they look a bit more at ease.

 This basil needs to quadruple in size. I need to make fresh pesto every night of the week. And basil on fresh strawberries need to happen often as well.

 The apple mint is bumpin'. I've stripped a few leaves off already to put in ice water.

 Pineapple sage- it truly does have a pineapple smell to it. See all those little shoots along the stem? Surprisingly, that all happened on my watch. Maybe my thumbs aren't coal black after all!

 The true test will be if these tomato plants produce anything. Even if it's just one tomato, I'll be pleased.

 Here's the new baby apple mint shoot I mentioned. I still can't believe it worked. I'm like a 4 year old in awe of bean sprouts in a plastic baggie.

 This is the view from our dining room table. Grow little ones, grow!

 All of this success is making me look forward to the day when we can have a full on garden. Oh, and I didn't just have success with herbs and vegetables! I almost forgot...

The day that we picked up these guys, we got the pots from a local nursery. There had been some terrible hail, so they were selling four packs of raggedy, hail damaged petunias for $1 each. We got two 4 packs of pitiful petunias. I took them home and stripped away the bruised flowers and dead leaves, pruned back the snapped stems, and planted them in fresh soil with plant food. Two weeks later, they're blooming like crazy and they look great.

That guy on the right looks rough, but trust me, he looked way worse 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping that things keep going well. By this point most of my plants were long dead, so I think we've gotten through the touch and go first few days. I'm looking forward to picking tomatoes in about a month or two!

Hygienic Hippies: Giving up Shampoo and Conditioner - The Verdict

The day I wrote this post I gave up shampoo and conditioner and tried out the no 'poo method that very morning. I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that I love washing my hair with a mixture of baking soda and water, and then rinsing it with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water. There. If you want, you don't even have to read the rest of this post. You can pop over to this site to see what directions I followed (ish).

If you want more info + pictures, follow along...

So, Thursday June 2nd I washed my hair with BS/ACV for the first time. Like a true nerd, I took notes**. I used about a tbsp and a half of BS and poured  water into it until it was a silty mixture. Not a sludge, per the instructions, but definitely not a runny liquid. I then mixed up about 1/3 a cup of ACV to 1/3 a cup of water. These are the containers I used:

Ketchup/mustard squirt bottles, .97 cents each (I took this last night, that's how much of the original ACV mix I still have left after using it for 12 days

I chose this type of bottle because it has a long pointy top which would allow me to squirt the BS mixture directly onto my scalp, which is exactly where it needs to go. It also allows me to control the amount of ACV rinse I put on the ends. Basically I started as my left temple and squirted all the way back, following my scalp with the point of the bottle, until I hit the nape of my neck. I worked my way across my head in this manner, and then massaged my scalp for probably about 2 minutes. I rinsed it out well, and it immediately felt squeaky clean. I then squirted a bit of the ACV mix just on the bottom half of my hair. I didn't use too much, as apparently that can make things greasy. I worked my fingers through any tangles, and surprisingly, ACV is an incredible detangler. I rinsed it out well. If you're familiar with vinegar, you'll know it smells strongly for a bit and then fades away to smelling like nothing. I put a tiny bit of coconut oil on the very ends of my hair, and then I let it air dry per my usual routine. It smelled neutral, just clean, with a hint of the coconut oil. Here's a picture of the first afternoon:

I wanted to really test this method out, and see just how long I could go without washing. I woke up on Friday, and noted that "Hair still feels and looks great. Not greasy at all, feels just washed and fresh". On Saturday night, I had gone 3 full days since washing Thursday morning, and per my notes (and Bobby's observation) "still not greasy, soft and shiny, no frizz. Love it." Here are some pictures:

I like how 3 days later I had washed the shirt I wore on Day 1, but I still hadn't washed my hair. Niiiiiiiice.

 Day 4, Sunday, I biked 10 miles round trip to an hour of sweaty vinyasa yoga and home. Then, we biked to Whole Foods, about 6 miles round trip. Once I took my helmet off and aired my head out a bit, miraculously it looked great. Pictures for proof I'm not delusional:

I took this inside right after yoga + bike ride, before we headed to Whole Foods on our bikes

After a little under 20 miles of bike riding in a helmet

Bobby got this in mid flip, which is awkward, but it's a good indicator of how thick my hair is- if BS can clean this pile of hair, it can clean anything.

I would have washed it on the night of Day 4 just on principle since I usually never go more than 3 days without a wash, but I was going running on Monday morning and doing yoga Monday night, so I decided to wait. Day 5, Monday I woke up and noted "it still looked fine this morning, not greasy at all" I washed it Monday night and experimented with a bit more ACV. Day 6, Tuesday morning, I woke up, it looked fine, but the bottom half felt kind of grimy/greasy and a bit weighed down. This was proof to me that somehow ACV will truly make your hair greasy if you use too much. Crazy. Tuesday during the day I did yoga and biked 20 miles doing errands, and Tuesday night it still looked great, even though it felt kind of weird to the touch. I was having one of my super curly days and it was soft, not frizzy, as you can see here:

Wednesday night, Day 7, I noted this - "I went the whole day on the wash from Monday night and my hair looked fine, it just felt weird. I washed it tonight and it already feels much cleaner and lighter. This method is so simple and honestly takes maybe 5 minutes total longer to do, including mixing the baking soda. I haven't had to refill the ACV bottle yet at all, and I mix the BS every time I wash it and use the whole mixture. My hair feels squeaky clean and I never have to buy shampoo/conditioner again- awesome". I didn't wash day 8 or 9, and then I washed it on Saturday, Day 10. I didn't use the coconut oil, and still had no frizz or tangles. I went Day 11 and all day Monday without washing, and then washed it Monday night, the end of day 12.

After 12 days of not using shampoo and conditioner and no 'pooing 5 times, this is what my hair looks like-

From the back (a bit of a crappy pic, it was on my phone)

From the front

I'm totally sold. It's incredibly cheap and it doesn't have any crazy ingredients to worry about. I thought it would be a hassle, but it isn't at all. My hair looks great and feels awesome, and I can go longer between washings because I'm not stripping the natural oils out of my scalp and forcing it to freak out and produce more. I have thick wavy/curly hair almost down to my waist, so if it works for me I imagine it will work for most anyone. If you try it and hate it, I apologize in advance, but I don't think you'll hate it.

**No, really, I realize it was nerdy to take notes, but I wanted to get a real picture of how this all went down. When I read a blog post and people just say "it's awesome, I loved it, you should do it, too!"  I have no idea what that even means, how long they did it, or what snafus came up. So, I'll gladly be that nerd :)

Hygienic Hippies: Giving up Shampoo and Conditioner, and Washing My Face with Oil

Back in my last post about washing our clothes with nuts, using salt for deodorant, and coconut oil for lotion, I talked about going no 'poo when my free shampoo and conditioner from CVS ran out. Well, I'm going no 'poo earlier than planned because said shampoo  and conditioner are pretty crappy. Prior to these two I was using an organic, all natural duo and the difference is night and day. My hair feels super heavy, and has a residue no matter how many times I try and rinse it. At this point you might be thinking "why don't you just keep using the all natural stuff, then?". Good question. The answer is that it still has loads of crap in it that I don't think are necessary to get clean hair, and I still having plastic waste associated with using it. I can buy baking soda and apple cider vinegar in the bulk section of my food co-op, using my own glass containers, and get an incredibly low price on both. So, onto the no 'poo!

I've decided to follow this method because I like that she includes a section for troubleshooting potential problems. My hair is very, very thick, wavy/curly, and almost down to my waist. With the exception of dying the tips hot pink/purple/red a few times, I have not dyed my hair since I was 21, I have not owned a hairbrush since I was 16, and I don't blow dry it. Usually I wash it about 3 times a week, run my fingers through it, rub some coconut oil into the ends, and then let it air dry. My bangs air dry correctly about 95% of the time, and when they don't, I use a curling iron to shape them. So that's my routine now, we'll see how it goes once I give up shampoo.

Now, about washing my face with oil. I've been researching the oil cleansing method  (I read about it on tons of sites but that link has the best overview, minus the cheesy meditation part) and I decided to give it a try in conjunction with giving up shampoo and conditioner. You should know that I have battled some pretty terrible acne from about 16 until now. I know some people say they have terrible acne and they don't, but here's my proof- I can count, on two hands, the number of STRANGERS who have come up to me in random public places and, with a wrinkle of concern and pity between their brows, offered various advice on how to take care of my skin. I have had people tell me "you're sooooo gorgeous, it's so sad you have acne!". Now, the past year and a half have been great, because I was on birth control, and using Retin-A, AND using a super expensive face wash and following a crazy strict morning and night routine. I went back to a restaurant I used to frequent in college, a sushi place, and the women behind the counter (who never, by the way, spoke to me in all 6 years I had been going there) exclaimed "Your skin! Oh, your SKIN! It looks soooo good!" Then they called over the other waitresses. One said "oh, we always used to say "such a beautiful girl, but that SKIN! So sad. Now it's not sad!". Yeah.

So, anyway, I've found that, like so many other things that have worked in the past and then faded out, my triple punch approach is starting to fail me. The Retin-A just makes my skin incredibly dry now that I live in Colorado (in Texas it made my face incredibly clear), the face wash is leaving me feeling greasy, and I have such a love hate relationship with birth control that I went off of it last September. Ok, with that long preface in place, to the point- I've heard incredible things about the oil cleansing method, so I'm giving it a shot. I'm doing a mix of castor oil and grapeseed oil, and I have some tea tree oil as well if I need to add it into the mix.

At the very least, you'll have me as your guinea pig so that you won't have to wash your head with baking soda, or slather oil on your face. I imagine I'll give a quick update about every week. I might end up hating both of these methods, but it's worth a try, and if they *do* work they'll both be considerably less expensive than their alternatives.

Salt, Oil, and Nuts: How to Be a Hygienic Hippie Without Resorting to Patchouli

I think it's valid to recognize that our skin is our largest organ, and as such whatever we slather all over it will get absorbed into our body. There's a reason birth control and morphine patches work, after all- the drugs are readily absorbed directly through the skin. With this in mind, in the last year I started thinking that as great as free toiletries from CVS are (I played the coupon game, and got pretty much everything to do with bodily hygiene and makeup for free) the ingredients list isn't that great, plus there is a lot of plastic waste associated with those products. I started my foray into natural replacements for conventional products with deodorant. Mind you, this wasn't something I took lightly, because I really didn't want to be that stinky girl that everyone was too nice to say anything to. I looked into Tom's of Maine, but honestly their products were not that different from Secret or Dove. That's when I found crystal stick deodorant- or, to be more accurate, salt stick deodorant.

The sticker on the top proudly trumpets "No aluminum chlorohydrates! Here's a basic overview of what that means. When it comes to body odor, our underarms smell because of bacteria that live on our skin. That bacteria interacts with and breaks down our sweat. Traditional deodorant has various aluminum compounds that serve as anti-perspirants. In addition, there is usually a fragrance to cover up any smells that may arise should you sweat in spite of the anti-perspirant. Salt stick deodorant however, is just that- a stick of salt. It works by neutralizing the bacteria that cause bad odors. It doesn't serve as an anti-perspirant, but I've never had a problem with excessive sweating so that's fine by me.

Basically you wet the top and swipe it under your arms. Conversely, you can swipe it on your wet underarms when you get out of the shower. Either way, after using give it a quick rinse and then dry it off and you're good. I purchased this for $5 at Sprouts over a year ago, and I have barely used 1/4 of it. I also don't have to worry about it melting in the heat. On very hot summer days I'll go back to my old standby Secret as a just in case precaution, but between the two I haven't purchased deodorant in over a year. The salt stick thing totally had me dubious, but it works, and it's cheap and all natural, so for me it's a great option.

About a year ago, I made a second replacement- I ditched my frou frou, scented Bath and Body works lotion and got myself a jar of coconut oil. 100%, pure, organic oil made from nothing but coconuts.

 I also picked this up at Sprouts, and it was on sale for about $7. It's lasted me (and Bobby, since he uses it too) 4 months so far, and I use it every other day.

For ease of use (and to keep it pure since I also use it for cooking and love it for that purpose as well) I scoop out about 5 spoon fulls and put it in this little blue cup, and then keep it on our bathroom counter. I also use it for lip gloss, and at night I put it around my eyes where my skin can get really dry. In all these uses, it rocks. It goes on pretty greasy, but almost immediately dries. I've also melted this down in the microwave to mix in drops of vanilla for a subtle scent. Speaking of scent, you don't smell strongly of coconuts, at all. Honestly I think we've all become so accustomed to hyper strong, fake coconut smell that we've forgotten how subtle real coconuts smell. I would recommend this to anyone as a far superior product for lips and skin than lotion. Also, it's edible. Wink wink.

I made the third replacement around the same time as the second. I had been looking for an all natural replacement for laundry detergent, to avoid the chemicals as well as the problem of the packaging waste. In my search, I came upon soap nuts. After researching them for some while, I decided to give them a try.

 Back in July, we ordered a one pound bag for $18, which included shipping. We still have a little less than half the bag left over- and we do a lot of laundry. Side note- I was pissed that it came in this bag because it was advertised in a canvas, re-usable bag. Oh well...

 Soap nuts are totally natural- they're just dried out fruit, which contains saponins. You can use them in one of two ways. One, you can put about 7 or 8 in a small canvas bag and toss it in the wash with your laundry. I wash all our clothes in cold, but usually I'll give it a quick burst of hot to release the suds. With this method you can re-use the soap nuts about 3 times. You can check if they're "tapped out" by rubbing the canvas bag under the running water- if it suds up, you know they're got some cleaning left in them.

Alternatively, you can make a liquid detergent by boiling a handful of soap nuts in water for about 15-25  minutes until the saponins have boiled out into the water. This liquid can be used in cold washes as well, eliminating the need for a hot blast of water. The amount suggested to use varies, but I just dump in approximately 1/4 of a cup. I've never had a problem with clothes not being clean, and women who cloth diaper their children rave about the cleaning power of soap nuts.

I like all three of these replacements because they are frugal, they are truly all natural, and they work just as well as- if not better- than their traditional counterparts. Once the last of my free-thanks-to-the-CVS-coupon-game shampoo and conditioner runs out I will be switching to the no 'poo method. You can google no 'poo and find hundreds of hits, but here's a good overview of the general idea. The best part is that coconut oil is also great- in very, very small amounts- as a hair conditioner with this method. I already have all the ingredients on hand, I just need to wait until my shampoo/conditioner cache runs dry.

If you try any of these alternatives- or if you have any questions!- let me know. When I give the no 'poo method a try I'll do a second part to this post. In the meantime, at the very least, go find some coconut oil- it's fantastic and is far superior to any lotion/chapstick I've ever used.

Farm Day

Last Saturday was Farm Day with our CSA. It's the last pickup of the season, and they invite all the members out to the farm to see where the food is grown and glean the fields. For our last pickup we got an insane amount of grey Hubbard hard squash, a baking pumpkin, a pile of tomatoes, a half gallon of homemade organic, local apple cider, fresh roasted green chilies, and a huge bag of apples. After we hauled all that back to the car, Bobby and I hit the fields. I really, REALLY wish I had brought my camera to the farm, but at least we had a good time photographing the pile of food we brought home, as we laughed and told each other about 10 times "getting a CSA was SO worth it".

We both agreed we should lay everything out on the table and take a picture. It was pretty ridiculous.

In addition to the potatoes, carrots, peppers, broccoli, swiss chard, corn, and tomatoes we gleaned from the field, we also got to pick out a carving pumpkin. Here I am for size reference. Bobby said a few times "this is the best Halloween pumpkin I've ever had!". Thanks for making dreams come true CSA. You're a peach.

You might be thinking, what do you do with all those squash?? The good thing is, these gray guys will last until March, provided they are stored in a dark, temperature controlled, fairly cool place...

so now they're living on the shelf in our laundry room. Their more colorful friends will last until December this way.

This is a HUGE wooden bowl in the middle of our dining room table, filled with apples.

Then we took about two hours to wash, chop, and store all the fridge worthy veggies.

More veggies and the chard filling up both drawers- the left one that's closed is more of the same.

All of the onions, potatoes, shallots, garlic, and beets we got will be going in a wire hanging basket we scored from Goodwill for $1.50, but it needs to be hung. So for now they're living in a canvas bag.

We have been eating like crazy this whole week, and you can bet that the apple cider is almost gone. I need to use the chilies soon before their roasted awesomeness is wasted, but everything else is working out well. Between the natural shelf life of the hard squash, and the fact that we sorted, washed, and chopped pre-emptively, I think we'll get through without wasting too much.

All in all, I'm VERY sad our CSA is over. I've shopped at farmers' markets for years, but CSA's are so much easier, and to me, more enjoyable. Once you vet your CSA and know how they work before you buy a share, you absolutely know that everything you are getting each week is local, organic, and fresh picked. You get to see the people who grow and pick your food every single week for 5 months, or in states with longer growing seasons, sometimes as long as 9 months. Plus it's always fun to have veggies fresh enough to have clumps of dirt on them, or fruit that naturally ripened instead of being picked early to sit on a truck for a month and arrive at the store feeling like a rock and tasting like nothing. Plus, it's cheap. Our CSA was $500 for 5 months. That's $100 a month, $25 a week. We had a fruit and veggie share of local, organic, fresh produce, plus we had a flower share- we got a bouquet every week of native flowers. And then at the end, we were able to glean as much as we wanted. I saw some families carting away wagon loads of food. It's a healthy, environmentally friendly, and economical way to help local farmers and eat great food. I don't ever want to go without a CSA again, and I hope I don't have to!

It's Cool, I'm Sure There's Another Planet We Can Trash

So, this whole BP mess- wow, what an understatement- has left me just exhausted, overwhelmed, pissed off, sad, I dunno, pretty much any other adjective that is related to not feeling good. Prior to the spill, Bobby and I had been trying to make conscious efforts to use far less plastic. Sure, we recycle- diligently- but really, in the end, it's better to just not use the stuff.

So, in the midst of biking more, cooking more from scratch, getting glass jars second hand at thrift stores to avoid plastic bags when purchasing from the bulk bins, making more bread from scratch, and looking into ways to replace household items like toothpaste and laundry soap with natural alternatives with no packaging- as in, baking soda, vinegar, old school alternatives- BP goes and shits all over the ocean.

And I mean, I am totally with that Margaret Mead quote, about not doubting the power of a group of committed people to make change and yadda yadda happy time optimism, but... man. I feel so USELESS constantly refusing things because they're in plastic- or any packaging, at all- and trying to walk more, and having our low flow shower heads, and utilizing our food to avoid waste, when in the grand scheme of things, oil is gushing non-stop into our Gulf, spreading to other areas, and, oh yeah, in addition to the huge plastic garbage patch twice the size of Texas in the Pacific, there are actually FOUR MORE HUGE FLOATING PLASTIC GARBAGE PATCHES- http://5gyres.org/ for more info. Gross. Gross. Gross.

This isn't about "believing in" global warming. You want something to "believe in"? Check out the destruction of the Gulf Coast. Listen to BP say they don't know when the oil will be plugged. Go google some pictures of the not one, not three, not even four, but five damn garbage patches that are floating in our oceans, the lymphatic system of our WORLD, the only world we HAVE. This isn't about some political scheme, or whether or not you like Al Gore or Greenpeace. Our trash, our waste, our excessive consumption, they're all very "real". It's not some Santa Claus conspiracy meant to dupe you into being green. Tainted water, terrible air, damaged soil, plastic filled oceans, and gushing oil aren't the Easter Bunny sent by liberals to "ruin America" by forcing it to go green. It's all happening, right now.

And it's so, so overwhelming to think of how far we have to go to even begin to remotely fix it. And I feel like my little contributions are laughable, or, at worst, not even a blip on the radar. I know we should all keep trying, but when it comes down to it, it can't just be consumers making the changes. Some of these changes have to start from the top down. We need to stop making crap that is meant to last forever, but be used once and thrown away. Companies need MORE regulations- yes, more, I know that means I hate capitalism and Uncle Sam- because quite frankly, when you have a liability cap at a laughably low level in relation to your profits- as oil companies do- what motivation do you have to drill responsibly? Oh, that's right, pretty much none.

I am so angry. I had to stop reading the news, because it was just horror story after horror story on BP, for so many weeks now I can't even handle it. We have got to get our shit together.

Tare It Up

So, I've been thinking about ways to reduce my trash and plastic consumption. Sure, I try to recycle, but wouldn't it be better to just not use it in the first place?

I found a few blogs dedicated to these endeavors, and over and again they mentioned taking glass containers to grocery stores to buy bulk items. I adore Sprouts with pretty much everything in my grocery shopping parts, so yesterday, when picking up the fixings for a new recipe, I asked if I could bring my glass container in to partake of the 4 aisles of bulk goodness they got goin' on.

To which the cashier replied,

"Sure, but we don't tare the container, so it's included in the weight of what you're buying".

What the hell? I'm just trying to be a good consumer, avoid my plastic consumption, and get my bulk buy on. And you tell me I'll essentially be charged, basically fiscally punished, as a result? How hard is it to tare my container Sprouts? Seriously.

So, here's the deal, Sprouts, we've had a good run, and you're way more laid back and easy to hang out with than your uptight sister Whole Foods, and certainly a cheaper date, but I think this is one issue where you just don't do it for me. I won't talk about getting my bulk on at Whole Foods as long as you don't get all pissy when I don't visit your barrels anymore, deal? Deal.