#i bought some seeds at the dollar store for a few herbs to grow i think i got

[grimandghoulish]

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[shadowcraftgrove]

Plant growing from seeds for urban witches

Day 2/333

#333DaysofMagick

I’m gonna start this off with a warning that I am just a baby green witch with a little green thumb. This is my first year growing plants from seed all by myself. 

Here is what I did to get started and also *try* to be cost friendly. 

1. I looked at what plant hardiness zone I’m located in. This will let you know what plants you can and can’t grow as well as when times to plant and harvest. (this was a little heart breaking for me. I’m somewhere awkwardly between zone 4 and 3 but probably leaning towards 3). 

2. I look at what plants grow well in containers. This was also pretty heart breaking, but ultimately you want what will make your plants thrive. Herbs: How to grow, use. and enjoy herbs from your own garden by Publications International, Ltd. is a book that I love to use, but always refer to your instructions on your seed packet or the guide that your seed vendor gives you. 

Here are some herbs suited for container growth: 

Aloe, Basil, Calendula, Catnip, Cayenne Pepper, Chives, Geranium, Ginger, Horsetail, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Marjoram, Oregano, Nastutium, Parsley, Peppermint, Rosemary, Rue, Sage, Summer Savory, Spearmint, Thyme.

Here are all of the other ones I’ve personally reasearched if they can container grow & I currently am growing. (this includes some flowers). 

St. John’s Wort, Hyssop, Wormwood, Feverfew, Borage, Rue, Comfrey, Stinging Nettle, Dandelions, Milk Thistle, Morning Glories (pink variation), Morning Glories (blue variation), Mugwort, Shepherd’s Purse, Purple Basil, Echinacea, Horehound, Black Petunas, Chives, Plaintains, Sweet Peppers, Elderberries, pennyroyal, red clovers and sunflowers. (I haven’t planted the red clover or sunflowers cause I gotta wait till May). 

Elderberries are typical shrubs--I got these seeds for free from my vendor and their seed life span is only a year so I’m growing them for family and friends that can have them transplanted in yards. 

A lot of these plants can have deep roots, and so I understand that deep containers will be needed. I understand that $$$ is going to hurt a bit there. 

3. Buying Seeds. Check MULTIPLE local stores and online to find the best prices and type of seed that I wanted. This part is fun, but I ended up with 29 different plants. Yeah I bit off more than I can chew, but I’m out of a job until further notice so I have time. :)

I ended up paying probably...60 dollars on seeds. Obviously, you could always start out with 3 or 4 plants. That would maybe be 10 dollars. 

4. Containers, soil and storage. I could only dream for a proper seedling growing indoor greenhouse equippe with lights, but i’m not about dropping 200-400 dollars on that am I. I already owned this shoe rack (hence why one row is missing). But, i did actually order another rack because my cats are messing with the bottom 3 rows heavily. 

I ordered the Mainstays 10_tier Narrow Shoe Rack off of walmart. It is only available in stores or online for about 25 dollars.  

For the containers I bought  Seedling Starter Trays, 720 Cells: (120 Trays; 6-Cells Per Tray), Plus 5 Plant Labels off of amazon. 

I also bought some labels, because with this many seeds...yeah labels are good. 

For soil, I used Jiffy Natural and Organic Seedling Starter Soil though a few of my plants did require more Peat moss, which I bought at a local nursery. I’m growing some edible herbs, flowers, and veggies so i wanted something well rounded and not geared towards one thing specific. All of the containers you see used two 12 Qt sized bags for 5 dollars each. 

5. Lighting. This one was a lesson learner for me. So, I live in nowhere South Dakota and we have had only 4 days full sun in 4 weeks. Yup. Seedlings need 8-12 hours of full sun to grow properly. I’ve had to replant a few trays because they got pale, thin, and limped over and died overnight from lack of light. I bit the bullet and knew I was going all in this year and bought some full spectrum plant lights from amazon. There are soooo many options, I would pick ones that work best for you. I bought a total of two and they cost 35 dollars each. Yikes. 

Increasing the lighting has made all the difference for many of the seeds. A lot of them require the seeds to be lightly scattered on the surface because they germinate with the sunlight. 

6. Planting your seeds. This was the hardest for me to do tbh. I wasn’t sure how compact the soil should be, how wet, etc. I also had some plants that required more steps before planting so take note of that! For example, morning glories need either a nick to the shell or to be soaked overnight before planting because of how hard the seed coat is. My comfrey was planted in cells, and put in a ziploc bag for 1 month to stratify. Stratification is when the plants need a period of coldness to emulate winter to then germinate. I also had to do this with mugwort and elderberry.

Date to Plant by: Always read how many weeks before your regions last frost you can plant the seeds. I made a chart with the plants and the dates they should be planted. Sometimes they can be 3-4 weeks before last frost or 6-8. My regions last frost is May 1st at the latest. 

Seed Depth: Pay attention to the depth of the seeds as well. Some required light soil and some require 1/2 inch and some just require to be loosely scattered. 

Number of seeds per cell: Now the spacing and # of seeds per cell is still something I need to work on. Most instructions for seed packets tell you spacing for out doors or when the seedlings get big enough and need to be separated. They also don’t always tell you the rate of germination. A long time ago when i started planting seeds, I would either only place 1 seed per cell or a shite ton. Now if you do 1 seed, and the germination rate is 75%, there is a chance it may not survive. If you do 10 seeds per cell, the plants will have spacing issues and some may die or it will be a pain to separate later. I did 3-4 seeds per cell depending on the average germination rate of the seeds. My morning glories had a really high rate so I did 2 seeds for cell. 

Soil tightness???: Early on, I used to press the soil in the containers and leave little to no air in the soil (oops). Now, how I prep my soil. I will pour the soil into a large bowl or container and pour in some water to moisten it but not soak it. I will stir it to break the large chunks apart with my hands and just pour them into each cell. Then I will take the container and tap it against the grow so that the soil will compact itself together, but it leaves space for air. Repeat. 

Watering: I personally duel wield two spray bottles of water and go ham over the cells, but it leaves so much pain in my wrists. I don’t use a watering can because it can mispalce your lightly scattered seeds or drown your really small seedlings. I even tried watering bottom up. That’s when I would dip the container in a bowl of water or even my tub (haha don’t do that srsly) and the water would come up from the bottom to water the roots. This was a pain in the booty and made a mess for me... if it was outdoors...sure. I will just spray them twice a day heavily. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is all I know for now, yall. I’ll try to keep everyone here updated on the progress. I probably spent $250 total on everything, but i’m also growing a lot. (^_^#) 

[bentonpena]

How to Start a Cannabis Business On a Budget

How to Start a Cannabis Business On a Budget http://bit.ly/303gpri

So you've got a big idea (genius, of course) but little money to play with. What's the first step? These scrappy entrepreneurs have some advice.

August 13, 2019 10 min read

This story appears in the August 2019 issue of Green Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

From the outside, it looks like the race to get into the cannabis space is available only to people with enough capital to pay cash for a five-bedroom home. But in reality, there are a ton of thriving businesses in all segments of the cannabis market that started with a great idea and just a piggy bank of savings. Here are three companies that bootstrapped their way to success from an initial investment of $5,000 or less -- in fact, way less -- plus advice from the founders on how you can do it, too.

 Fruit Slabs

The founders: The creation of Roxanne Dennant and Brian Cona, Fruit Slabs are basically like middle-­school-style fruit leathers: chewy, ultrahealthy kosher snacks infused with 100 milligrams of THC and made from 100 percent USDA-certified organic ingredients. The company sells four flavors, including Grape Ape and Mango Maui Wowie; a new collab with drag queen Laganja Estranja, called Pride Passion Fruit, is hitting shelves soon.

How much they started with: Less than $1,000.

What they did with it: Bought equipment and materials.

Their origin story: Dennant was working in the denim world, and her longtime friend Cona was in cultivation; the duo were dabbling with consuming edibles but disappointed that they couldn’t find products that fit their healthy lifestyle. So, after buying cooking equipment, they started experimenting in their kitchens, making concoctions from the organic ingredients they liked to eat. Once they nailed their first batch of Fruit Slabs, they sold them to friends and family, and reinvested the money into their second batch. Since founding the company in 2015, Dennant and Cona have continued the same bootstrapping strategy, without taking any outside investment money. And it has worked. The product is in 65 stores in Cali and will expand to Washington soon.

RELATED: 9 Business Ideas for People Looking to Cash in on the Marijuana Boom

The biggest hurdle: Trying to upsell a new product when they launched. Fruit Slabs’ organic ingredients make it more expensive than most edibles -- and therefore more expensive to sell, even wholesale. “In 2015, it was a very raw industry,” Dennant says. “You could walk in [to a dispensary] with a Rice Krispies treat you made in your own home that was wrapped in cellophane…and get five dollars out the door.” But the price of Fruit Slabs? “People would look at me like I had 10 heads.” Today expectations have really changed, she says. “A lot of shops won’t even take an edible if it doesn’t have some type of vegan, gluten-free, or kosher dietary specification -- because people are shopping in that manner.”

And the best lesson learned: When a business is starting out, says Dennant, “you can’t make that $2,000 packaging and screw up, and be like, ‘Oh, it’s [only] $2,000.’ It’s like: ‘Two thousand dollars -- how are we going to recover from that?’” After facing a few such setbacks due to bad partners, she and Cona realized that vetting whom you work with is critical. That’s true even as the industry becomes more regulated. “Whether you’re working with a license partner, a distribution partner, a packaging partner, or a co-manufacturing partner,” she says, “really learning what that partnership is going to bring you in the beginning, and getting term sheets written, setting deadlines for the people and not just the vendor you’re working with -- that’s been a big [lesson] along the way.”

Image Credit: Brad Wenner | Getty Images

Plant People

The founders: Plant People sells CBD tinctures, capsules, and salves made with cannabinoids and other beneficial herbs. “Our mission is to heal and connect people and the planet through the power of plants,” says Gabe Kennedy, who started the company with Hudson Gaines-Ross.

How much they started with: $5,000.

What they did with it: Developed their product and got it out the door.

Their origin story: Longtime friends Kennedy, a chef, and Gaines-Ross, a CPG entrepreneur, were on a hike when they started talking about something they had in common: back surgeries. They’d both been unhappy with the care they’d gotten from traditional Western medicine. Kennedy knew there were other options. He grew up with parents who are acupuncturists; his mother is also a Chinese herbalist, and his dad, a chiropractor. And he leveraged that knowledge to get Plant People’s initial inventory off the ground. “We began packing herbal capsules in our kitchens, used stickers as packaging labels, and gave product away to our friends and families to get feedback, learn, and iterate,” says Kennedy. “These grassroots efforts really worked out for us, as people responded well and started asking for more Plant People. We were overwhelmed by the demand.”

RELATED: Women Are Disappearing From the Cannabis Industry. Why?

The company launched in 2018. “I had a lot of experience building products from seed to sale, so we hit the ground running,” Kennedy says. “Hudson fortunately had a ton of experience building brands and has the networks that provide a voice for those brands. We tapped our friends at Juice Press, Bumble, Vice, Vogue, etc. [for help getting the word out].” 

In addition, they decided that with every sale, they’d plant a tree to support their mission of saving the world through plants. “We hope to someday be responsible for planting more than 10 million trees,” says Kennedy. “We’re not too far off!”

The biggest hurdle: Product sourcing. “We don’t white-label anything,” Kennedy says, so being able to set up a really robust supply chain with partners operating with integrity was a challenge. He dealt with it by continuing to be curious and asking questions about everything from “how people are treating their employees to what their extracting methods look like and how they are capturing solvents,” he says. “We continually did research and didn’t say yes to the first people we came across.” 

The other hurdle was payment processing. Like many startups in the industry, they had to get around the banks’ and financial firms’ reluctance to work with cannabis products. “We’ve had five credit card processors to date,” says Kennedy. “We’ve seen the worst -- 6 percent credit card fees, 10 percent rolling reserves, international declines -- and we’ve seen the best. We’re now with a standard processor that treats us as if we’re any other non-­cannabis brand. We couldn’t be more grateful. And we’re in talks with one of the largest banks in the world about taking over our credit card processing. We never thought we’d be in such conversations.”

And the best lesson learned: “To make decisions and move forward has been such great learning,” says Kennedy. “You make a decision, and you do your best -- it may not be the most perfect decision, but it’s better than not making one at all. What I really learned about bootstrapping is that it’s just putting one foot in front of the other, and oftentimes it’s two steps forward and one and a half steps back--but I have to keep stepping forward.”

Image Credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images

Gofire

The founders: Peter Calfee and John Woodbine started Gofire with the goal of creating the perfect vaporizer -- one that delivers the exact dosage promised. But eventually, they grew the company to also include the Gofire Suite, a database of medical uses for cannabis broken down by the chemicals ingested, the time of day they should be consumed, and the dosage that’s most beneficial; the data can then be accessed by physicians to give patients.

How much they started with: $200.

What they did with it: Bribed a local college student to gain access to a 3-D printer at Calfee’s school, which they needed to create their prototype -- and then they used that to get a first round of funding. 

RELATED: Yes, Medical Cannabis Works. So Why Deny the Anecdotal Evidence?

Their origin story: In 2014, Woodbine, who’d dabbled in the music and food businesses before working at a dispensary, approached Calfee, who was doing IT and alternative medicine consulting work, and tried to talk him into building the perfect vaporizer. Initially, Calfee wasn’t interested. But he eventually changed his mind when he realized that there was a market for a more perfectly attuned vaporizer and that his background in the health field could be a perfect fit.  

The biggest hurdle: Right after the company raised its first $25,000 in a friends-and-family round, Calfee nearly died in a car crash when the person driving had a seizure. “That was when John and I came together and said, ‘Listen: Whatever this takes, whatever we have to go through to build this, we will achieve this,’” Calfee says. After that, there was a fire under them to get it done. 

The accident effectively put the project on hold. But it also led to Gofire’s second product. While recovering from a broken back, Calfee discovered that the opioids he was being prescribed didn’t help as much as the cannabis he was consuming, which is when the idea for the database took root. As soon as he could, Calfee worked on their next round; it took a year, but they got $750,000 to help them grow the business. This year, they’re finally bringing it to market with a beta launch that has garnered tens of thousands of reviews. “There’s no better reward than a patient telling us how we’ve helped to improve their life,” he says.

And the best lesson learned: “There are always going to be obstacles, but they’re just that,” says Calfee. “You’ve got to find a way around [them] -- if it’s a physical ailment, if you break your back, or the bottom’s falling out in the economy, or whatever the situation you’re up against. I believe being a true entrepreneur is not taking no for an answer, and not being able to give up.” 

Also this: Treat your team like your peers. “We have 25 employees,” Calfee says, “and we all own stock in the company.” Unsurprisingly, that gives each of them a drive Calfee couldn’t have necessarily found in salary-only employees. When Calfee calls for a possible meet-up in the office on a Sunday afternoon, often the reply is “‘Oh, I’m already here,’” he says. “You can’t buy that.”

via Entrepreneur.com - Startup Business News and Articles - Starting a Business http://bit.ly/2Z3xKmO August 13, 2019 at 10:48AM

[alchemagick]

Discussion Time: Witchy Tools

When I first started my path as a witch, I did what I think a lot of beginner witches out there do... I spent way too much money on extremely overpriced items that appeared to be necessary witchy tools and to this day haven’t used nearly half of them. I have a few theories as to why we do this, and I’m sure these are collective beliefs.

1. We’re too excited to start in on witchy things to slow down and really research the things that might be useful to us

2. We’re looking for that Aesthetic™ that only certain materials have

3. We had yet to realize that magick is literally all around us, and we have the capability of making anything magickal with the right intent

Sounding familiar? If you’re new to witchcraft or are still stuck in this vicious cycle of spending way too much on items you probably won’t use in your craft, then hopefully these tips will be useful to you.

Tips for gathering materials

🕯️ Do your research - No seriously. Before you decide you want/need an item for your practice, look into why you want it and how you’ll be using it. How does it fit into your beliefs? What will you gain from using it? Is it readily available to you? What might be used as a substitute and are you comfortable using a substitute?

🕯️ Look past the aesthetic - This is what really got me. I bought a lot of items simply because they looked witchy, only to go home and realize I already had an item similar sans witchy vibe. If you find this to be the case, I urge you to use the items you already have and make them magickal. Charge the heck out of them with energy, crystals, moonlight, sunlight, etc. Paint or color them in some way to fit your aesthetic needs.

🕯️ Search around to see if you can get it cheaper - Don’t be afraid to be thrifty. If you’re buying an item online especially, search other sites and other shops to see if you can get an item for less money. A little research can be the difference between a $50 cauldron and a $20 one.

🕯️ Utilize the world around you - Nature has so much to offer us. Not only will you be able to find tools for witchcraft by taking a walk in nature, but it’s a good way to balance yourself and soak up the earth’s lovely vibes. Leaves, sticks, rocks, nuts, bones (careful with that one), etc... You never know what you might find to use in your craft.

🕯️ Invest in making your own items - This can get a little pricey to begin with, but in the long run, homemade items (if budgeted correctly) can save you a lot of money. I invested nearly $100 on natural items like oils and such and Castile soap to make my own body/face/hair/hand soaps a little over half a year ago. In the time since, I’ve only spent $15 on another bottle of Castile soap and I’m still using up my original bottle. Investing for the win.

Places to find items for cheap

Candles/Wax Melters

🕯️ Dollar Store - They have 6 packs of emergency candles for a dollar. They last quite a while and fit into any regular-sized stick candle holder. 🕯️ Dollar Store - You can get 112 tealight candles for $7 USD. At Target you can get 100 for $6.29 USD in white or ivory. If you want different colored candles, buy the white ones, melt them down over a flat electric stove and add a drop or two of food coloring then mix the color around with a toothpick. You could also add a drop of essential oils or herbs for a magick boost. Be careful not to burn yourself! 🕯️ Dollar Store - Wax melters are a dollar, and they are super cute and fit almost anywhere. I don’t suggest getting their scented wax cubes because they are pumped full of chemicals. The only reason I would say to get one package of their wax cubes is to throw out the wax and use the container as a mold to make your own wax cubes. 🕯️ Michaels - Paraffin wax is $27.99 for 9lbs., $19.99 for 4lbs., and $6.99 for 1lbs. Obviously 9lbs is your best deal, but these are overall what I have found to be the cheapest prices around that you can buy in store without having to buy online and pay shipping. 🕯️ Michaels - This is pretty much the only place I know of to get candle wicks for a relatively good price. It is possible to get candle wicks from Amazon for super cheap, I’m just lazy and would rather go to the store and pick up my items that day.

Herbs

🕯️ Fred Meyer - For those of you that know what this is (it’s mostly a West Coast thing, part of the Kroger company so if you look up the Kroger company equivalent nearest you I’m sure they’ll have something similar to this), Fred Meyer has been a life saver for me. They have an organic/natural section where, at most locations, you can buy herbs and other food items in bulk. They will have things like dried fruits, assorted seeds and nuts, rosemary, basil, clove, etc. You can also find aloe vera gel in the natural aisles, along with things like activated charcoal and other supplements in the natural vitamins section. There’s so much down these aisles that can be used for witchcraft that it really has to be experienced in person. No description will do this section of Fred Meyer any justice. 🕯️ Your back yard - Okay, obviously you’ll have to initially buy the plant/seeds in order to grow it, but growing your own herbs is so fulfilling. Plus you’ll be able to charge those little plant babies with other forms of magick while they grow. 🕯️ Your community - Take some time getting to know your surroundings. What plants are native to your area? Which ones are safe to use in your craft? Needled trees grow in abundance in my area along with moss and other temperate plants. Consider altering your style to lean toward what is freely available to you. 🕯️ Antique stores - Some antique stores will have full lavender, stem and all, in bundles that you can buy for relatively cheap. I love going to antique stores because I can usually find other treasures like figurines or metal boxes to store items in. Recently my grandmother went to an antique store and found a whole set of witchcraft items for only $50. There was a cauldron which I knew to be priced around $25-30, a tapestry made of thick cloth that would have been at least $20, an assortment of around 20 spell candles of all different colors, a copper bowl with a triple moon engraving, a vintage tarot deck and a beautiful beaded green tarot bag that they came in. For $50. It was an amazing deal.

Crystals

🕯️ Etsy - TheCornerCrystal; I love this shop. Everything is such a great price and the shop owner is so sweet! I sent a thank you message after my purchase and within 12 hours I had heard back from them and they just had the nicest things to say. I highly recommend checking out what this shop has to offer. 🕯️ Gem shows - Here in the Seattle area there are periodic gem shows where you can find different crystals and stones at awesome prices. I’ve never personally been (yet), but I know quite a few people who only have good things to say about these events.

Miscellaneous Items

🕯️ Joann Fabrics - If you have a sewing machine at your dispense and know how to sew in a straight line, I highly suggest going to Joann Fabrics and searching through the really cheap fabrics to make your own altar cloths/tarot bags/sachets/etc. It is so fulfilling to make these items yourself and use the finished product. 🕯️ Micheals - Jewelry wire is super cheap here. You can use it to create necklace pendants out of your crystals and stones. Don’t forget to thumb up those YouTube tutorials!

[rosegoldwitchcraft]

“I’m new to witchcraft, where should I start?”

Witchcraft is incredibly flexible, so there isn’t any defined area where you need to begin -- you can start anywhere you like! There are so many different areas of witchcraft, so simply find something that interests you and start learning about it (which is so much easier in the age of the internet!). My biggest recommendation would be to use various sources, and to remember that nothing is required in witchcraft -- you don’t need to read tarot, celebrate sabbats, own a huge crystal collection, etc...these are all just different ways of practicing the craft, and it’s up to you to decide what witchcraft means to you personally! 

I’ve listed a few popular “categories” of witchcraft below and some easy, affordable ways to begin experimenting and practicing within those areas! Of course this list is by no means complete, but I hope it gives you some ideas and inspiration! 💖

🔮 Divination

Tarot is one of the most famous forms of divination, and there’s lots of ways to start practicing! If you want to buy a physical deck, there are many affordable options, such as this Rider-Waite deck in a tin that I bought when I was first starting out. You could also try using a digital tarot deck or app; the Golden Thread Tarot app is a personal favorite of mine, and it’s free! If you’re feeling especially creative, you could even experiment with making your own tarot deck. And when you’re ready to start learning the meanings of the different cards, here’s a post I wrote with some general tips and advice, and here’s a list of my favorite websites to learn how to read tarot cards.

Many forms of divination are very easy to “DIY.” You could create your own set of runes using pebbles, pieces of wood, heavy paper, etc. I actually made myself a set of penny runes inspired by this post...it took me about 30 minutes and less than 30 cents! A pendulum could simply be a pendant necklace you already own, or even a string with a rock attached. A pendulum board is optional, but doesn’t need to be fancy either -- it can easily be quickly sketched out on a piece of computer paper if you wish! And while scrying is often associated with crystal balls, a more affordable option is to practice with a dark room, a mirror, and a candle!

Finally, there are many simple forms of divination that require no special tools at all! Bibliomancy only requires a book, and is simply the practice of divining from a randomly chosen passage. Traditionally this was often done with a bible, but any book will work! And while tech witchcraft isn’t for everyone, shufflemancy can be a fun version of divination that only requires some form of music player, such as Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, etc. As you may have guessed, in shufflemancy you put your music player on shuffle, and divine based off the lyrics, title, etc. of the song that plays!

💫 Astrology

Astrology is a fascinating subject, but don’t be discouraged by how vast and complex it is! Like tarot, there is no need to learn everything at once. Start with what interests you, learn at your own pace, and I recommend taking notes on what you learn -- it’s a lot to keep track of! Thankfully, there are tons of resources out there for learning about astrology.There are many daily horoscope apps and websites out there, so try some out and see what you like. There’s also a beautiful app called SkyView that uses your phone’s camera to help you identify constellations.

When you want to get into the slightly more complex details of astrology, cafeastrology.com is one of my favorite sites. They offer features like free birth charts and basic interpretations, so I think it’s definitely worth a visit! Astrology.com and tarot.com/astrology also offer some great resources for learning the basics about sun signs, planets, houses, and elements.  

🌿 Nature and Gardening

Gardening is a classic method of practicing witchcraft. I’m sure everybody is familiar with the popular image of a witch brewing a potion in a cauldron, adding fantastical ingredients such as bat’s wings and newt’s eyes. Supposedly these are actually code names for common plants (in this case bat’s wings = holly and newt’s eyes = mustard seeds), so that those who found the recipes would give up after being unable to collect these ingredients! Here’s a lengthy list of all these code names, as well as some correspondences for most common plants. I also highly recommend checking out this tumblr post by sylvaetria that’s full of information about growing and drying herbs, correspondences, and safety!

If gardening isn’t your thing, simply being in nature can be just as magical! Taking a moment to appreciate the small details of a bird’s song, the intricacy of the leaves on a tree, or the vibrant colors of a flower is a wonderful way to recognize the beauty and magic that surrounds us on a daily basis...too often we just forget it’s there. 

🥘 Kitchen Witchcraft

Cooking has so much potential for witchcraft -- it often involves working with the elements of fire and water, and you’ll find that nearly every ingredient has a magical correspondence (and if there’s not a commonly accepted one, you may find it on your own)! All it takes is intent to make this daily activity into a ritual. Here’s a fairly comprehensive list of correspondences for reference.

Kitchen witchcraft doesn’t have to involve elaborate dishes! Make your daily cup of coffee meaningful based on the flavorings you add, and if you’re a tea drinker check out this post of the magical/health benefits of different types of tea. Or (if you’re of legal drinking age) check out this list of wine correspondences!

📜 Spells

For those looking for spells, here’s a few of my recommendations! Orriculum has a lovely collection, including some that are great for beginners and some fun pop culture spells! Sylvaetria has an enormous, wondefully organized masterlist of spells for every purpose. Finally, on witchy-woman you’ll find lots of spells and spell jars! And don’t forget about sigils -- they are a great way of channeling intent, and are especially great for beginners or secret witches. My two favorite resources are sigilathenaeum and strangesigils.

Don’t worry if you don’t have every ingredient a spell calls for -- after all, the most powerful element of any spell is intent. Feel free to substitute when needed! For example, a white candle can stand in for any color, a clear quartz for any crystal, rosemary for any herb, etc. You could also use tarot cards, sigils, or other symbols with the right correspondences to charge the spell with the energy of the missing ingredient!

🍂 Sabbats

There are eight sabbats throughout the year; Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh, Mabon and Samhain. Many beginner witches are hesitant to celebrate the sabbats because they think you need to be apart of a coven to do so...but this is definitely not the case! You can celebrate the sabbats on your own, and do as much or as little as you like. Here’s a post with some ideas for decorating your altar and celebrating the sabbats for solitary witches. A youtuber named Harmony Nice has also made some helpful videos about each sabbat with some history and celebration ideas, so you might want to watch those for some inspiration too!

🕯️ Candles and Crystals

First of all, there are no “required” supplies for witches...you can work with whatever you have! But if you are interested in working with some supplies, here are my personal suggestions.

Candles are a great option, because you can almost always find them at the dollar store or elsewhere for pretty cheap! Certain colors and scents have different correspondences, but a plain white candle can be substituted for any other one. There’s endless magic you can do with candles; scrying, meditation, spellwork, carving sigils into the wax, etc.

Crystals can be expensive, and depending on where you live can be hard to find. I’ve found some crystals for decent prices at local metaphysical shops and craft fairs, but if you don’t have those options you could try purchasing some online (though I highly recommend finding a source with legitimate reviews so you are sure you are getting a genuine, quality product). I think it’s best to purchase a crystal you feel drawn to, but some of my “starter” crystal suggestions would be clear quartz (which can stand in for any other crystal), amethyst, and rose quartz!

Even though this post ended up being super long (sorry!), I’ve barely scratched the surface of what you can explore in witchcraft! Once again, my main bit of advice would be to look into what interests you, gather information from multiple sources, and use what works for you. Because there’s so much information associated with witchcraft, I also recommend keeping track of what you’ve learned, and I plan on making a post soon about how to start your own book of shadows/grimoire for just this purpose!

You can find my other posts in this series of “Advice for New Witches” here. I truly hope you’ve found some of this helpful -- feel free to reach out if you have any questions, and best of luck on your journey! 💖

[ghostlyerlkonig]

I'm not great at cute asks but talk about the plants you have at the moment!! Or just plants/ flowers that you like!

Plants. I fucking love plants.

Holy shit, did you know that aspen trees are all connected?! Like there’s one mother tree! The rest are roots that tried hard to be tall!

I have around thirteen plants! I’ve bought two in the past week, because they looked sad in the store. I have a lot of pothos since it’s easy to grow from cuttings. I want to get a bonsai, but I’m saving up for a book, so I’m putting my tree dreams on hold for now.

I found a dollar on the ground yesterday so I went I bought some baby’s breath, small flowers are wonderful. I want to get some more sunflowers or just yellow flowers, but they cost so much, so I bought the seeds to plant.

I want to plant some veggies or herbs, but I’m gonna put that on hold for a few months.

I really like ferns too. They’re so fluffy.

And wild flowers. So pretty. So wild.

Thank you for letting my rant about plants 💕💕💕

[thecoroutfitters]

Want to avoid the premium store prices and horrible, toxic food chemicals that can make you sick?

Start by reading a homesteader handbook that will help you become food independent. My choice would be a book called “Forgotten Lessons of Yesterday“, written by Theresa Crouse. I was surprised at the wide array of topics that she covered.

I’ve collaborated with Theresa Crouse via Survivopedia for several years now and, though we’ve emailed back and forth hundreds of times, we’d never met in person.

I finally met her and found out her story from zero to hero. Now I’m sharing her story it with you!

The interesting thing about Theresa is that she’s not your typical prepper. She lives a lifestyle that’s a motley collection of modern homesteading, common sense, and resiliency – exactly what her writing reflects.

She regularly covers topics ranging from growing medicinal plants to tanning hides. She is, indeed, resilient and independent, and the topics that she covered in the book reflected her diverse collection of skills.

We both agreed that, since I was going to be in the her state for a business conference, it would be a great time to finally meet in person.

Instead of meeting somewhere for lunch, Theresa invited me to meet her at her home so that I could meet her husband and see in person the gardening and homesteading techniques that she proudly shares with her readers.

Because her favorite articles tend to revolve around farming, I expected her to live on a farm, or at least a couple of acres. I was surprised to find that she currently resides in a suburb of Orlando, or, more correctly, a suburb of a suburb of Orlando.

When I pulled up, it looked like any other house on any other residential street, though I do have to say that the neighborhood had more trees than average and her yard had an abundance of tastefully arranged ornamental plants. When we went around to her enclosed backyard, however, it was as if we’d stepped right into the country. Well, as much as you can when you can still see rooftops.

She had several citrus trees and vertical gardens were arranged around nearly her entire fence line. Even the ornamental plants on the patio turned out to be edibles – chili peppers, squash, kale, and strawberries. There were four 10×10 raised beds with a path that wandered through them to a barbeque area, complete with a brick oven, that husband had built. As I expected, she and her husband were both relaxed and welcoming.

I didn’t go there for an interview, but after a great lunch on her patio – including a salad made with lettuce and vegetables from her garden and a fresh salsa that she’d just made that morning, it seemed that it would be a great time to ask her some questions about her book and her way of life in general to share with you.

Me: Looking at your book, “Forgotten Lessons of Yesterday“, it seems like you’re encouraging people to turn back to the days when people were healthier, by making our own food or living close to nature. In recent times, and in your writings, it’s like the pioneers are coming back to life and calling themselves homesteaders. Do you consider yourself a modern pioneer?

Theresa: I don’t know if I believe that “modern pioneer” is exactly what I’d call myself. I think I’m just a person who likes to live simply and be as independent as I can be. I guess, since most people have gotten away from living that way, you could call me a modern pioneer for encouraging it. I believe that, as our ancestors proved, the land will give us everything that we need, but we need to start taking care of it.

Me: Learning the old lessons of homesteading may seem pretty hard for somebody coming from an urban civilization. How hard is it to get the knowledge? How is that to you?

Theresa (laughing): It’s not hard, but there will be some bumps and lots of learning experiences. It’s funny you should mention that because we recently tried growing sweet potatoes – a crop we’d never grown before. Suffice it to say that there’s more to it than just sticking it in the ground. But now we know, and it was fun. I even wrote an article about it afterwards!

Seriously, though, the main thing is that you’re willing to learn. Just like anything else that you’re new at, there will be some mistakes, but you’ll learn from them. Trial and error. And you’ll always mistakes, just like you do in everything else.

For instance, see all of those tomato and pepper plants over there? I made the mistake of assuming that because I bought seeds from the Dollar Store – 50 cents each – that I’d be lucky if a quarter of them grew, so I planted them ALL.

Now we have 70 tomato plants and 40 pepper plants! I’ll never plant unknown seeds without sample germinating again! But, the upside is that we’re selling most of them, which will cover our gardening and canning costs for the entire year. Not all of my mistakes have been so cheap, though!

 Me: Would it be possible for a person like you to change how he or she lives – to go back to being a consumerist? And could you?

Theresa:  You know, I actually did for several years, though it never felt right to me. It was convenient to just buy everything from the store, but it didn’t take us long to realize that that just wasn’t the life for us.

As you know, I was raised on a farm, so I was used to eating everything – meat, veggies, milk, butter – fresh, without any chemicals. Once I started buying everything from the store, I noticed that the food just didn’t taste as good. The most noticeable things for me were tomatoes and milk. The tomatoes always seem to be mealy and flavorless, and the milk tastes like chemicals. Plus, there’s just nothing like fresh cream in your coffee. But still, it was convenient, so I pushed on.

Then John and I both started feeling just … yuck. We both gained weight (me more than him, of course!) and we had some other problems. I had brain fog and my skin was rough and splotchy. I was sick to my stomach a lot. Even though John was in the military and has always been pretty fit, his cholesterol shot up.

I started paying attention to what we were actually putting in our bodies, and knew that we had to get away from all of that garbage and start eating chemical free, taste-good food again. And once we did, we never looked back.

It was like slipping on a favorite pair of slippers – I was just comfortable again. And our health problems went away. I guess you can take the girl off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the girl. It’s a core part of who I am and I can’t just NOT think and live that way.

 Me: Reading your book feels very much like a journey that the reader takes along with you, in a very personal area of knowledge. Why is this book so personal?

Theresa: The easiest answer is that it’s personal because I’m sharing a core part of myself. In my heart, this is who I am. It’s not just how I was raised.

The more complicated reason that it probably feels more personal is that writing it brought back a lot of memories. I mean, I know how to do all of the things in my book, and so I just do them without investing much thought into it. When I actually sat down and explained how to do it, it made me think back to canning with my mom, or hunting with my grandfather. I realized that I’m not just teaching methods, I’m sharing my heritage.

Me: What would you tell to somebody who would like to turn to self-sufficiency but he or she doesn’t have the courage or doesn’t know where to start?

Theresa: I’d tell them that you start at the same spot that you start any new task – at the beginning. Start small. Don’t plan to be completely self-sufficient by next fall! Pick something that you’d like to do – for me, a big part of being self-reliant is growing my own food. If that’s the case, then maybe start out with some herbs, or if you’ve already grown herbs, start some vegetable seeds.

Buy books for beginners – for instance, mine breaks every task into small steps because I was writing on the assumption that the reader has never done it before. Find books like that. Do searches on the internet. Go through websites – Survivopedia is great, and that’s not just because I’m biased. There are several other sites out there, too. Just suck up the knowledge. There’s nothing like hands-on experience, but if you read about it, you’re already a step ahead because you’re not going in blind.

Me: I know we’ve been talking for a while now, and I need to get back, but for my last question, let’s address those folks who don’t live on a farm, or even in a single-family house. I’m looking around your yard and see that you’ve been really creative with a relatively small amount of space. What would you say to other people who want to be self-sufficient but don’t have much space?

Theresa: I’d say what my grandmother used to say – can’t never could. In other words, don’t find reasons why you can’t become self-sufficient; find ways that you can. Everybody has room on a counter for some herbs. That will save you quite a few bucks right there. You don’t need a ton of space to become at least partially resilient. You just have to find them.

There are other ways to go about it than just growing food, too. I didn’t write about this in the book, but it’s something that mirrors how I was raised – yard sales. They’re a great way to find good deals, get away from the big stores, learn how to barter, and how to upcycle/reuse just about anything. I watch Flea Market Flip and was hooked from the first episode. I’ve been trying my hand at that, in addition to finding cool clothes and stuff that I need. It’s fun!

Being self-sufficient shouldn’t be painful – don’t t make it something that you do because you have to. There’s a real sense of pride that accompanies eating food that you’ve grown or setting your glass on a coffee table that you’ve made or repurposed with your own hands.

Find the joy in being able to take care of yourself, even if it’s in small ways. Because, trust me, once you start, you won’t want to stop!

This interview has been taken by Alec Deacon for Survivopedia.

from Survivopedia Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[ecmjoanne]

Seedling Care

Where do you get the best vegetable starts? I hear that question often. The ultimate is to start your own babies from seeds.

When you start from seeds, you gain access to the huge selection of scrumptious heirloom vegetables (drool over this). Exotic colored tomatoes, gorgeous leafy greens, herbs you’ll never find in the garden supply store. As you go to plant those luscious seeds, here are some things to consider …

Am I working with a cool season crop or a warm season crop? … here’s What to plant when in Southern California (or climates like ours).

Is my seed fresh? Old seed might not sprout, or the plants that result might be weak. Seeds are alive, which means they have lifespans — differing lifespans. The beans you bought a few years ago might still be okay, but that lettuce and onion seed not so much. If you have older seed, every seed envelope sold has a date on it someplace. Look up the seed’s expiration on a Seed viability table

Where do I get the best seeds? I start with catalogues from companies that have taken the Safe Seed Pledge to preserve our seed heritage and say NO! to GMOs. Your buying dollars are a vote: vote for a safe future. How do you find signers of the Safe Seed Pledge? Plenty come up on Google when you search for “safe seed pledge”, or you can search the website of the company you’re thinking about buying from: if they’ve signed it, they’ll tell you about it, it’s that important. (What about those seeds at big box stores? No way are those companies interested in participating in a sustainable future.)

But those tomatoes at the big box center are HUGE already, and you want me to start seeds? Think about what those tomato plants at that store have been living on … yup, I didn’t think you wanted that yucky stuff in your garden environment. If you plant your seeds at the right time for our area, your seeded vegetables will do fine and will live out a healthy, productive life. Download my “Success with Seedlings” (pdf)

How many seeds do I plant? In general, one seed per hole (or per unit in your plug tray). Although when it comes to really fine seed like carrots or chamomile or feverfew, I plant a light scattering over top of the soil. If you are planting directly into the garden — for instance peas, beans, or squash — plant your seeds at the spacing that the mature plants will need. What is ideal plant spacing? Look it up on the VegGardens365 free app

But isn’t that kind of far apart, making my garden look naked? You can fix that. Underplanting is the term for planting smaller, quicker-to-mature crops beneath a developing larger plant. For example, squash: it will take a long time for that zucchini plant to get big enough to shade the garden soil, and you don’t want to crowd too many zucchinis together (so the growing seedlings are spaced fairly far apart). You can grow a quickie crop of bush beans or lettuces in-between. The beans or lettuces will sprout, grow, and mature before the zucchini really gets going.

How deep should I plant a seed? You don’t want to plunge it so deep into the soil that the roots come out in the oceans off Madagascar. My general (and I mean g-e-n-e-r-a-l) rule of thumb is to plant the seed as deep as the seed is big. For instance a huge fava bean goes far deeper into the soil than a tiny lettuce seed. That said, each type of veggie has its growing preferences, so do your homework (or look it up on the VegGardens365 free app)

What is the biggest issue with planting seeds in SoCal? Water and dryness. You know those blasting-hot, dry weeks we can get in the middle of winter? They can fry your seedlings, or at a minimum dry out the soil in your plug trays. So when you have seedling babies out to sprout, remember: they are babies. They need TLC. (don’t worry, it’s fun!) Check your seedlings every day. They’ll probably need water daily. Talk to them. Some people even brush their hand over the top of their tomato babies, which supposedly strengthens them. And while you’re at it, check a really local weather report. If it’s going to be hot, move your container babies to the shade. For your in-ground babies, manufacture a bit of shade.

What about snails and slugs? These can be a problem in a garden, but a really serious problem when you’re sprouting seedlings. Here are my favorite tricks on what to do about snails and slugs (pdf). Meanwhile here’s my take on organic pest control.

And, as you plan your garden — winter or summer — don’t forget to plant plenty of legumes. In SoCal cool season, that’s peas and fava beans. In SoCal warm season, that’s beans, runner beans, blackeyed peas, yard-long beans. Legumes are hugely beneficial to soil-building. Plus they give you bountiful harvests of nutritious plant-based protein food. Yum!

from Seedling Care

[jeninthegarden]

2020 Seed List

Seed List 2020

 Less is more, …and so is more!

Always interesting to compare the formal garden plan to the list of seeds I have actually purchased. Since I order seeds online from at least 5 sources, over several months, it is only when I compile the total seed list that I realize just how far overboard I’ve gone.  This year I’m really cutting back, I promise.  Except that I have some seeds leftover from last year that will go bad if I don’t plant them, which would be a shameful waste.  And then there are the seed catalogues, the “garden porn��� with pictures of beautiful vegetables in new and different hybrid varieties, or non-native plants I have never heard of but want to attempt to grow…but I am really trying to hold back.  I did not buy any herb or flower seeds because I usually just pick those up as plants in the local nursery. But I also planted some perennial flower seeds last year (I know, totally out of character!) and my husband fell under the spell of a delusion about the lavender fields of Provence growing right in our back yard, so we’re going to buy another 10 lavender plants to build the dream.

 I am over the broccoli, cabbage, eggplant and daikon radish fixations.  This year I

’

m enthralled with potatoes, beans, sunflowers, and every kind of winter squash and pumpkin.

Legumes:

Peas –  Burpee’s “Wando”, is a warm weather tolerant variety that can be planted early and late so I’m betting on a warmer spring and early summer with this one. But Burpee’s “First 13 Pea” is the first shelling pea to have 13 peas per pod, so I feel I must try it. We also have some leftover “Lincoln” peas to plant. There is nothing better than fresh raw peas, eaten right in the garden. Over the years I have planted more, and more, and the magic number for us seems to be 250 pea vines.  That takes up all the pea fence I’ve got, and a lot of premium garden space inside the walled garden.

Runner beans- I love runner beans because they taste really good! The blooms alone taste so sweet it is hard to leave any to set pods.  Young pods are eaten just like string beans and the mature beans are wonderful in salad or soup or cassoulet.  This year I ordered Territorial Seeds “Scarlet Emperor” with red blossoms, and Pinetree Seeds “Painted Lady” with red and white blossoms “Sunset” with pale pink blossoms. I still have Park Seeds “Stardust”, with white blossoms, left from last year. 

Bush beans- Park Seeds “Velour” is a compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season. A great success last season so will plant the remainder again this year. And I ordered Pinetree Seeds “Turtle” black bus beans. I intend to eat the Velour as string beans and let the Turtle mature to be dried and stored, or maybe canned.

Pole beans- Last year I ordered some black climbing beans online.  These were eaten by deer so will try the remainder again this year. I ordered Territoral Seeds “Rattlesnake” beans which are harvested young as a sweeter string bean, and then mature, shelled beans reportedly have a meaty texture and a flavor similar to pinto beans. Pinetree Seeds “Winged Bean” harvested like string beans but with edible leaves that taste like spinach.

Noodle beans – I like red noodle beans best because they have an almost pecan nutty taste, so I ordered Pinetree Seeds “Red Noodle”.  I also have some “Mosaic” leftover, which have a more asparagus flavor.

Soybeans- I saved a lot of seeds the last time I grew them, which was 2017? So it may be too late for these seeds. Because I have so much garden space that is due, in strict crop rotation, to be planted with legumes, I ordered fresh soybean seeds, Park Seeds “Midori Giant”.

Fava beans-  Pinetree Seeds “Varoma” although traditionally a cool weather crop, is also heat tolerant, so that is the variety I ordered.

Fruits:

Tomatoes – I saved a lot of seeds from heirloom, beefsteak tomatoes I bought at the green market. I’ll plant whatever I’ve got since tomato seeds never seem to go bad. And the local garden swap always has some interesting selections.  My favorites are the Big Rainbow/Mr. Stripy varieties which are gold with orange and red stripes. Others in the household prefer the Black Krim or Purple Cherokee.

Corn – I have leftover Burpee’s Maple Candy sweet corn. So I will plant it and put wire cages over it to keep critters from digging it up.  It is not available this year from Burpee, so I ordered Burpee’s “Kandy Korn”.

Eggplant – my fixation with eggplant is dormant this year.  I am just going with a Terratorial Seeds traditional Italian black eggplant that fruits prolifically over 3 months, and the “millionaire” variety that is a long, black Japanese variety. And just as I said that, I found a mixed pack of green, purple and white fingerling eggplant from Park Seed and bought it!

Pepper – I went wild last year and then had such a hard time rescuing the peppers from drowning.  I saved a lot of seeds: Burpee’s “Sweet Thing” a sweet cheyenne, “Born to be mild” sweet jalapeno, “Hot Fish” an African hot pepper, “heat-less” habanero. So I will plant all I saved and just put them in pots on the patio at the outset. But also ordered Park Seeds “Pasilla Bajio” for the mole sauce I never make, and “Early Jalapeno” which hopefully won’t need so much heat.  And I ordered “Corno de Toro” which is a thin-walled, sweet pepper.

Okra – looked promising until the deer at it. I bought Burpee’s Go Big last year.  I have seeds left so I will try again. I ordered Park Seeds “Rainbow Fiesta” ivory, green and pink okra.  But then I saw Pinetree Seeds, giant “Cow Horn” super large, “Star of David” deeply ribbed and “Red Burgungy” dark red, and Pinetree sells very small quantities, so I ordered all of them. And I also ordered something called the “Unicorn” which, although it is eaten like okra, is actually “devil’s claw”, a member of the sesame family and a medicinal herb.

 Zucchini- Burpee fordhook heirloom is an excellent staple, but the Burpee’s Sure Thing variety really does well with less sun, and is very resistant to powdery mildew so I’m going with that one because last summer was just not hot enough for zucchini.  Had to order new seeds since the deer ate it all last year.

Cucumber- Cucumbers didn’t get enough heat last summer.  And there was the extended growing season for the spring peas which meant the cucumbers didn’t get planted until July and just never fruited. Last year was all bush and pickling varieties.  This year I am into vines, so I ordered Park Seeds “Marketer”, a nice seedless slicing variety. 

Melon- Like the tomatoes, this year I saved a lot of seeds from the melons I got at the farmer’s market, so I am not sure what variety they are, but I will plant them because I only saved seeds from the tastiest melons, cantalope and honeydew. I have a few Burpee “Mango Melon” seeds left to try again.

Gourd- I bought seeds for the Serpent Melon Gourd, which is eaten as a vegetable when it is young. It is striped green and white, coils like a serpent and is bright red inside. When mature it can be a poor substitute for tomato. Doesn’t sound particularly yummy but I got “cat-fished” by its online photos. Then somebody in my gardening group mentioned it was time to start the Luffa gourds so I panicked and bought some seeds, thinking it would be very good for the environment if I dispensed with plastic sponges.  And then Bushel gourds caught my eye and I got those seeds as well, because they grow to the size of a beach ball and you can hollow them, wax them and use them for storage containers.  Don’t ask me what the Dipper gourds are for…please, just don’t.

Pumpkin- I am enthralled with squash of all kinds. I have leftover Dill’s Atlantic Giant, so that is the pumpkin variety this year.

Squash:  No bush varieties, only vines this year.  I bought a mixed pack of 50 seeds of all types of squash.

Watermelon: Not buying seeds. They are too difficult to germinate so I will just buy seedlings.

Roots:

Radish: I’m indifferent this year.  The daikons were a bust. Territorial Seeds Spanish black radish were stunted. I will plant the rest of them, plus Park Seeds “Easter Egg mix” because they were on sale for a dollar. I bought more “Macca”, a Peruvian radish that is said to have an energizing effect like ginseng. Last year it was direct sown and did not germinate. I will start it indoors this year.

Beets: Territorial Seed’s cylindrical beets worked space-wise they are more carrot shaped and don’t need to be thinned as much, but it never got hot enough.  I’ll plant the rest of the seeds, but I don’t have high hopes.

Turnip: I still have copious amounts of seeds left from last year, Park Seeds standard purple top white globe which is a national standard turnip grown in spring or fall and Park Seeds Alamo hybrid that produce big greens with rapid regrowth for multiple harvests, and is bolt resistant.  I will plant the rest. I don’t really like turnip root unless it is pickled.

Carrot: we harvested fresh carrots for Thanksgiving and still have a bunch in the ground.  First good carrot harvest in a couple years. So again, I bought Park Seed “rainbow mix, six inch regular season carrots” and Park Seed  “sow all season big Nantes type orange carrot”.

Parsnips:  I might plant some parsnips, but they are tricky to companion plant since they cannot be planted with carrots or celery, and their leaves get really tall and shade other plants. I might try them in the hugle. Did not buy seeds yet since I am undecided.

Potatoes: This year I have gone crazy over potatoes and am going to give them more valuable real estate in the garden. I ordered Territorial Seeds “Rose Finn” a pale, blush pink potato, “Red Mountain” red-skinned, red-fleshed, “German butterball” a gold potato and Park Seeds  “Japanese yams” purple-skinned and white-fleshed.  And then, I completely lost track of everything and ordered “Yacón”…It is an Andes Mountain tuber related to sunflowers.

Salsify and other odd roots - And then I really lost it.  I bought  Dave’s Garden “Mammoth Island” salsify and “Blue Hispanica” scorzonera.  I’ve never grown these successfully because they are a bi-annual and need to be planted in their own spot, in the hugle.  Then I bought Outsiderpride chicory, milk thistle and “Garnet” dandelion, to roast the roots and make tea.

Greens:

Amaranth:  Pinetree Seeds “Red Garnet”. This is a leafy variety and leaves are eaten like any other kale/chard/collard green.

Orach: a violet red, velvet leafed spinach that grows on an 18 inch, upright stalk. Territorial Seeds “Red Plume”.

Claytonia: It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads. Terrirotial Seeds “Miner’s Lettuce”.

Lettuce:  I went with Territorial Seeds “Wildest Lettuce Mix”. And Park Seeds “Salad bowl mix”.

Escarole: Burpee “Sugarloaf” Italian lettuce leaf style with a nutty flavor, for cooking.

Endive: Territorial Seeds “Rhodos” a French, frisee salad variety.

Chard: Park Seeds “El Dorado” golden stemmed chard.

Arugula: I have a large supply of leftover seed, some saved seeds and also purchased some new Pinetree Seeds “Astro” quick growing for clipping.

Mache:  Territorial Seeds “Vit” corn mache. A larger variety I have purchased in the past.

Spinach: Park Seeds “Space”heat and mildew resistant, and “Renegade”a high yielding, weather indifferent variety.

Purslane: Territorial Seed “Golden Purslane”a larger, paler and more succulent variety, with a lovely golden bloom.

Asian Green Mix: Tatsoi, Bok Choi, Mustard, Chinese cabbage, Chinese broc, chrysanthemum, shiso perilla.

   Brassica:

Cabbage: I was terribly disappointed by the cabbages last year. I am not buying and new cabbages, but will plant leftover seeds of Territorial Seeds “January King” and “Large Dutch Green”. Besides that, I will buy the obligatory 6 pack of early red cabbage seedlings.

Kale: Tronchuda Beira from Burpee.  I have often described it as looking like giant green roses. It tastes more like cabbage than kale.  I also have leftover seeds for every other type of kale: Red Russian, Dino, curly Blue Dwarf, Black kale, I will obviously plant some of those too.

Cauliflower:  Park Seeds “Veronica” which is that weird, green pyramidal Romanesco.  I also could not resist Burpee’s “Fioretto” a super fast sprouting variety.

Collards: Territorial Seeds “Flash” is fast growing and re-growing, and a little more compact and upright to withstand snow.

Broccoli:  I went crazy with broccoli last year and it was prolific.  I have leftover seeds so I will plant the same again: Territorial Seed’s three season hybrid sprouting types: “Aspabroc” “Rudolph” “Rioja”

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums:

Leek: Have to have leeks for the Leeky Dance.  Just planted the seeds pods left from Territorial Seeds “Lancelot” but also ordered 30 more plants of the same.

Onion: The mixed lot of every type of onion, 50 sets from Territorial Seed.

Scallions: Territorial Seeds “Guardsman”

[peacefulheartfarm]

Traditional Healing Wisdom

Traditional Healing Wisdom has been with us since the beginning of time. Exploring where we are with that today is my main topic for this edition of the Peaceful Heart FarmCast.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to all of the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast every week. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week.

Today’s Show

Homestead Life Updates

Traditional Healing Wisdom

Stinging Nettles Infusion

Homestead Life Updates

Wytheville Farmer’s Market

Life is moving along at a rapid pace here at the homestead. The Wytheville Farmer’s Market is having the last winter market this Saturday. We will be there from 10 – 12 noon. The following week the market opens up for the summer season. We will be there each and every week from 8 am to 12 noon.

I have decided to let go of a lot of the celery starts I planted a couple of months ago. Celery is hard to get started but pretty easy once you get it going. Stop by and pick up a plant or two. Celery grown in your own garden is nothing like what you would buy in the store. 110 days and you will have wonderful celery.  Fresh celery is so different from store bought.  It has an intense flavor and smell that is almost peppery.  I planted Utah Tall. It is the standard for green celery.

Dairy Cows

Yesterday Claire’s udder was so big and tight it looked like it was about to burst. We thought, “surely tomorrow it will happen.” And . . . It did. She had trouble last year and I wasvery anxious at this point for her to deliver without issue. Shortly after I got to the Farmer’s Market to set up, I got a call from Scott. Claire had her calf without issue. Yet another bull calf. Two more to go. Will we get a heifer? That’s a girl calf for those who are not farm animal savvy.

Katahdin Sheep

We are still waiting on one ewe to have her lambs. Oh, and the triplets are a unique situation. A couple of days ago I noticed one of the triplets was hunched over. He was also much less bulky than the other two. I’m sure he got colostrum in the first day or he wouldn’t have made it as long as this. It is absolutely required for any young ruminant animal to survive more than a few days. But his mom was definitely not standing still for him at this point, or perhaps the others were pushing him out.

Lambert

That brings me to the interesting situation. We started giving him a bottle to supplement his nutrition. However, we left him to run with his mom and siblings. She doesn’t let him nurse but she let him hang out. He is very fast and keeps up with her very well. He stays closer to her than the other two. We were hoping to get him to come running to us so we didn’t have to chase him down to give him his bottle. Our sheep are not wild, but they are not tame to our touch either. We can get to about 10 feet from them before they all run off. We have a Shepard’s hook to catch him up. We get close to them and then I get a little closer and kind of force them to a point where they will run past Scott. He reaches out and snags the little guy as he runs by. Once we have him, he eagerly drinks that bottle. He knows where his food is coming from. 

This morning we had to alter that plan a little. He is just not thriving. He is still very small compared to all the other lambs. We decided to keep him close and feed him more often. Scott caught him up again and put him in a dog cage that we have for just this situation. Lambert has straw bedding and is keeping Scott company while he lays blocks for the creamery.

The Garden

The strawberries are now all planted in the garden. We bought straw to use as mulch. Bad purchase. It was full of seeds. We have all kinds of wheat grass growing in the strawberry bed and also in the potatoes where I piled it high to cover the potatoes. Using straw mulch on potatoes is normally a great idea. Using straw instead of dirt is much lighter cover where the potatoes will form. There is less resistance for those potatoes so they can grow really big. That is if we can keep the wheat grass pulled out.

As far as the Herd share status, we are working with the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Organization to get our contracts in order. They are a great group of people that help small farmers all over the country with legal issues. As soon as the contract is ready, I will let you know so you can purchase your part of the herd and get going on having your own milk products available for weekly pickup. I’m experimenting with yogurt and I must say it is the best yogurt I have ever had. And I eat a lot of yogurt.

Another plug for the Farmer’s Market. I will have samples for tasting each week. These cows truly are unique and your yogurt, butter and cheese will reflect that.

Traditional Healing Wisdom

Today I want to talk a little bit about traditional healing wisdom from days gone past. Much of the issues with health care up until the later part of the 20th century revolved around access to care. I know it seems like people died from all sorts of things that we can treat easily today, and there is truth in that. But I want to point out that much of the problem in the past was how spread out people were and how little access most people had to anyone who had any knowledge at all about medicine. It was all herbal medicine back in the day and a lot of it worked pretty well. But again, if you weren’t at least an herbalist, your chances of getting medical care in a timely manner were greatly diminished.

I want to take a moment here and point you in the direction of a resource that I have used for many years. Herb Mentor and Learning Herbs.com. I started with them shortly after they started their mission to see an herbalist in every community. There is so much valuable information on their website, I couldn’t begin to fully describe it here. There are courses from the vary basics all the way to advanced courses for full-time herbal medicine practitioners. 

The Village Herbalist

Village or community herbalists are the mainstay of herbalism, the nurturers and protectors of good health. Their ideal to have someone educated and experienced in the use of herbs for general health and minor illness and injury is a very noble one. The role of the herbalist complements the work of other holistic care providers and even modern medical providers. A community herbalist can be invaluable in educating people about good health practices and in helping them recover from common family ailments. They are first in line to give people answers about how plants can assist in their basic care.

When I was growing up, I was fortunate to have a mother who was not afraid of practicing some home care medicine. While she wasn’t a village herbalist, she was educated in what to do for cuts, bruises, colds, diarrhea and so on. She even knew exactly what to do when, at 12-years-old, I burned by left hand very badly. I spent 2 weeks in the hospital healing from that. But her quick thinking, calmness is the face of disaster, early action with cold water and ice, and a methodical but hair-raising drive to the local clinic were invaluable to my healing process. The hospital treatment was an age-old one. Silver nitrate. It forms a crust on the burned surface where skin used to be. Leaking fluids due to no skin to hold it in runs neck-and-neck with infection as the leading cause of complications and death in extensive burns.

Traditional village herbalists can and do provide education and healing techniques to their local communities. I want to stress the importance of education. Again, because I had a wonderfully educated mother when it came to basic first aid, I benefited and also learned much of the basic medical knowledge that I believe every woman in the world should have. Teaching basic first-aid for everyday use and using herbs for specific therapeutic purpose has long been the province of the village herbalist. However, many people today either never had it or have lost this traditional link with basic survival skills developed over millennia.

Return to Our Roots

The desire for a return to this basic understanding—moving away from conveyor belt apparatus that is our modern healthcare service—to a simpler and more natural lifestyle grows ever stronger as human experience becomes more complex and the further removed from our connection with the Earth. Western culture pushes incessantly for more modern access to medical care, but how much of those costs would be reduced if we were simply educated in what to do for a fever, a cough, diarrhea. More will always be balanced by less somewhere else. Today’s “less” is less knowledge of how to take care of ourselves and our families during the simplest of illnesses. And don’t let me forget to mention that a HUGE part of that education is knowing when you need that specialized medical care that can only be obtained from someone with far more education. Context matters. Looking at our medicine—how we care for ourselves—reveals the need for greater knowledge and more personal responsibility for the health of ourselves and our families.

A functional health care system, first and foremost, takes place nearby. Caring begins with people who know us. This is where you or someone you know can be that village herbalist. Certainly, conventional medical care serves a good purpose in apt situations. We definitely want that 7 to 9 minutes with a doctor should the need arise. Yet somewhere between our body’s innate ability to heal itself with a little knowledgeable support and conventional medicine’s high-dollar attempt at a cure lie many situations that can be bridged by common sense and a compassionate connection to the community we serve.

Alternative Medicine

Is it truly “alternative” or is it simply a return to the basics of what has worked throughout our time here on earth?

More than 83 million Americans reported using what is termed “alternative medicine” in 1998, according to a nationwide survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The therapies most commonly used were chiropractic, herbs, massage, and relaxation techniques. Yet the numbers are not the telling consideration here. People are turning to healing modalities that work effectively, cost less, and do the desired good with fewer side effects than mainstream medicine. The term alternative medicine is revealing, for it completely overlooks the fact that from the perspective of someone born in the 1800’s it might seem as though the medical profession threw out the baby with the bath water as each modern technique became the new miracle, the connection to the simpler forms of health eroded. History shapes all cultural destiny, and medicine is no exception. Shall we examine the thousands of years of herbal knowledge garnered from plant-based experience that preceded the allopathic doctoring to which many now turn to in times of illness or injury?

Doctors have been quoted as saying that a good three quarters of the people coming to see them have come to the wrong place. Patients often come at the first sign of discomfort or irregularity, expecting a quick fix for obvious symptoms. Over-the-counter medications possess all the glitter that advertising can muster, yet a pill prescribed by a doctor carries a heavier stick. Naturally people want assurance, and to understand the current predicament of their bodies. We are fearful, inconvenienced, and downright whiny. We place our responsibilities at the feet of professionals and pay for expensive services rather than take it upon ourselves to learn a little bit about the human body and how to work in harmony with it.

To Doctor or Not to Doctor

It has been estimated that 70 to 80% of the people who go to doctors have nothing wrong with them that couldn’t be cleared up by a vacation, a pay raise, or relief from everyday emotional stress. This is the education and support that a local herbalists could easily provide. Education and coaching. Only 10% of patients visiting their doctor for that 9 minutes—that required half a day off from work—require drugs or surgery to get well, and approximately 10% have diseases for which there is no known cure. Most illnesses run a benign course if left to what the Hippocratic physicians called the healing power of nature. The natural healing mechanisms of the body build in an 80% recovery rate from all illnesses regardless of medical intervention. . . . But the mothers and other caretakers would need to know how to treat at home and when it is beyond their knowledge. It’s a scary thing, I know. It’s so much easier to just go to the doctor and be done with it.

We are thankful for good doctors. Medical intervention proves itself whenever the surgeon repairs bones or remove stones, the internist uses antibiotics or insulin appropriately, or the pediatrician spots a problem and nips it in the bud before it can cause greater damage. Yet many situations call for more personal involvement and homegrown understanding.

Interfering in the natural processes of the body can cause trouble. Iatrogenic (treatment-caused) harm is every doctor’s worst nightmare. The listed side effects of pharmaceutical drugs often gives us pause to consider the additional health risks incurred to obtain a predicted benefit. Working humbly within these limitations makes physicians good at what they do. I do want to point out however, that doctors are as human as the rest of us. They are not infallible. They do not know your child the way that you know your child. Educate yourself or find a local herbalist to help you understand. It will be well worth it.

Responsibility for Ourselves, Our Families, Our Communities

Taking care of yourself and your family for the majority of everyday health needs is both plausible and sensible. Empowerment begins with knowledge. Herbalists can help people use plant remedies respectfully and intelligently. Going to medical school is not essential to be able to help people feel better. We have deeded the legal practice of medicine to an elite group on the basis of one type of training.

Interest in an herbal approach to health is growing rapidly. However, this high regard for natural living is often accompanied by an allopathic perception of illness we’ve been raised to view as routine. We now take this herb for that condition. Modern medicine insists upon a physical explanation for each cause and effect. Symptoms are treated accordingly. Yet the whole of the matter often goes unresolved. Holistic plant medicine goes well beyond this kind of narrowminded, simplistic thinking. Each individual has a different Constitution. Different therapeutic strategies for seemingly similar conditions must take into account the biological, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of each individual. A good herbalist not only helps people become medically self-sufficient but also shares the journey into the big picture of who we are. There is no one-size-fits-all in good health care.

Traditional Healing Wisdom

Using plants as medicine predates written history. Anthropologists believe that people learned how to use plants for healing by trial and error and by watching birds and animals. Many wild animals possess an instinct to seek out plants that are good to eat and filled with vital nutrition, while avoiding those that might be poisonous.

Plant by plant, humans have added to a collective knowledge that is been handed down through the ages by word-of-mouth and later in written documents. Regardless of a given cultural understanding of plants, where blood flowed, Yarrow stanched it. When influenza raised its head, garlic was universally applied. Plantain for bee stings is another treatment that spanned continents. Such plant remedies showed their effectiveness time and time again.

Western Herbalism

Here in North America, the aboriginal people had a multitude of uses for the plants of this continent. The Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and other tribes on the planes were the first to discover and use Echinacea for its immune-stimulating ability. You saw the Eastern Woodland tribes boil wild mint and inhale the steam to help relieve congested lungs and sinuses. The Apache, Hopi, and Navajo rubbed powdered cayenne on arthritic joints to help block pain and reduce swelling. The Chippewa and other Great Lakes tribes boiled willow bark and drank the tea to reduce fevers and headaches. Modern science has identified many of the plant components that validate the use of each of these treatments exactly as they were prescribed.

As the European population of the US grew, many learned the Indian ways of using the local herbs. These treatments were passed along to eager settlers and pharmaceutical entrepreneurs needing knowledge of native botanical medicine. European herbal lore and Native American plant wisdom joined together. They united many traditions under one banner and Western herbalism was born.

Modern Medicine

Today much of the world population continues to use herbs as their primary source of medicine. The world health organization (WHO) estimates that 80% of the world’s people rely on herbs for their health. An unbroken chain of herbal knowledge has continued to be passed down in many, many cultures around the world. Take for instance, the long-standing teachings of Chinese and Ayurvedic health practitioners. Unfortunately, for many of us in the Western world this chain has been broken. We have fooled ourselves into believing that synthetic medicine made in a lab by people wearing white coats has more worth than the humble dandelion in our backyards.

We still need the perception and conscious intelligence of our ancestors to be embodied anew in every generation by women and men who are called to be healers. They include the country doctor who is well-versed in spending time with patients; the village herbalist who uses plant medicines for treating an array of disease; a midwife who assists with home births in the home. We don’t have to go back very far in time to find such these healers who diligently cared for their communities to the best of their ability.

For many of us it was our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers that taught us the basics but we dropped the ball. We dropped the ball for the quick trip to the doctor’s office instead of the continuing education that is readily available in our modern society. The internet offers any amount of education in the body and its systems. Books galore on your kindle can provide the basics that a mother needs to know about how to treat a fever and when to abandon home remedies and get to the ER immediately. What better way to pass the time during pregnancy than educating yourself in the care of your children? Too often I see that women have been convinced that attention to a career is so much more important. I just can’t see it. Caring for my family seems a much better choice. 

Women: Traditional Keepers of the Hearth

Traditionally women are the keepers of the hearth. The responsibilities of cooking, tending the herb garden, drying the herbs, making medicines, and brewing the brews traditionally have been met by their loving hands. Women tended to the birth of babies and care of the sick in the homes of their families and friends. The unique ones heeded a call to serve the wider communities. Are you one of those? Is it brewing inside of you and you haven’t responded to the call? I urge you to reconsider.

People will always need good medicine. Accordingly, a process of trial and error has been going on for thousands of years, always directed at the same goal of making us well. Therapies that worked were passed down to subsequent generations; those that did not were forgotten. Plant remedies that survived this test of time, and especially those shared by different cultures from around the world, have tremendous validity. Coming to understand how these remedies work—the job of objective science—will never alter the fact that they do work. Let’s bring back these traditions. Why don’t we get away from the cold, impersonal medical office and return to the native community support provided by your village herbalist.

Nettles Infusion

This is an energizing infusion. It works on the adrenals to build energy and stamina. Conversely, with strengthened adrenal function you can expect to rest better and to experience less anxiety. Four to five quarts of nettle infusion weekly can yield results in 3 to 6 weeks. That’s right. Three to six weeks. True health is not a pill that you take. You didn’t run yourself down in one day. It takes time to return your body to balance. But return it will.

Nourishing infusions ensure that your body stays in tip-top shape. Once you’ve achieved a balance, a quart a week should be sufficient. Using nourishing infusions becomes part of your daily lifestyle.

As far as I know there are no contraindications to stinging nettle infusion. However, you may experience side effects such as thicker hair, softer skin, stronger veins, an uptick in your enjoyment of life.

What You Need

1 oz of dried nettle herb

1-quart boiling water

Salt (optional)

What To Do

Place the herbs in a glass quart jar. Fill the jar with boiling water.

Steep for at least four hours; More is fine. Overnight is fine.

Strain herb from the water with a cheesecloth. (You can use an old white T-shirt as well.) Add salt if desired.

Compost the herbs and drink the infusion. Refrigerating and then drinking cold is great but finish it within a day or two lest it ferment.

Final Thoughts

No matter how stressed fast life goes for Scott and myself, we just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Our life together here on the homestead is everything we could have ever dreamed of and more. We are blessed each spring with the gift of life in your animal offspring and the plants in the orchard and gardens. I invite you all to go to our website and sign up on our mailing list. We’ll let you know when our farm tours kick off. We’d love to meet you in person and hear your stories, your hopes and your dreams.

In the meantime, you can come to the farm and shop our grass-fed meats on Tuesday mornings from 10 am to 12 noon and on Saturday afternoons from 3 to 5 pm.

I hope you incorporate nourishing infusions into your daily routine. You might consider replacing your infusion of coffee with an infusion of nettles. Well, that may be too far for some of you, but at least give it some consideration.

I have not spoken before about my herbal formulas. As I continue to grow the website, I will be adding listings and information about the herbs I use. You can join our mailing list at www.peacefulheartfarm.com to stay up to date. Currently, there are 3 formulas that I use regularly. Echinacea and goldenseal, a formula I call Sleepwell, and a heart tonic I call Heart Health. I’d love to talk with you about what they contain, when I use them and why.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to iTunes and give me a 5-star rating and review. Also, please share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content.

As always, I’m here to help you “taste the traditional touch.”

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

Recipe Link

Stinging Nettles Infusion

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NEW!! Peaceful Heart FarmCast Episode. Enjoy!!

[theprettiestshit]

10 Herbs You Need That Will Help Maintain Skin Health 2019

Written by @Downtownpepper

When thinking of flawless skin, it’s hard not to think about my wallet and credit cards at the same time. Maintaining beautiful skin doesn’t have to cost you a ton of money we are just trained to think this way. We think hey “The more expensive the moisturizer. The better it works” in some case true in most cases not so much. What drove me to share a few items that are practical and easy to find. I have been working on my personal budget and being cost conscious Is a priority for me right now. Which means eating out only on the weekends ( if necessary ) . Waisting less product by completing one product prior to starting a new one. Lastly making a great effort to use natural items that I can locate personally in my routine. During a trip to the supermarket a couple of months ago, I saved myself 14.00 dollars on one product. After currently using a store bought aloe mask for my hair as a treatment this became a routine for me. After researching the Ingredients I discovered that the mask didn’t really contain that much aloe. Although it was effective it had a ton of other ingredients. In the market I found an aloe leaf for 2.49. This cost 14.00 dollars less than the mask I purchased. Using the plant worked completely different ( better ) not to mention being able to use this for other things was a bonus.

Basil is extremely useful if you live in a big city with tons of pollution and smog. As basil can help the skin with environmental damage. Reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Helps skin with itching and irritation. Using boiling water steep herbs for a minimum of 4 hours allow herbs to cool down completely and splash face.

Witch Hazel is also an anti-inflammatory this can be used as an astringent or toner for the skin. Witch hazel is great for tighten the skin and pores while softening the texture of your skin. It’s personally apart of my daily skincare routine and has helped tremendously.

Turmeric is great for the skin if you suffer from hyperpigmentation, scars or acne marks. Turmeric helps to diminish darkness. Turmeric also brights complexion beware Turmeric can stain the skin for a few days when using it if it is not mixed with other items such as milk or honey.

Rose is extremely popular you find rose water in a lot of skincare routines. Roses contain anti-inflammatory and antibacterial compounds (which goes well with acne-prone skin), are rich in anti-aging properties, and are known to nourish, hydrate, and even help tone and rejuvenate the skin.

Carrot seed is rich in vitamin A & E and is very rich in beta-carotene. It helps to balance moisture in skin. It is great for extremely dry skin and that may feel tight and crack. Carrot seed oil increases the resistance in skin to sunlight it is also one of the best skin lighteners.

Sage is amazing for oily skin and or acne prone skin. Sage is anti-inflammatory and will help subside break on the skin. One of the best ways to use sage is mixing steeped sage with ACV and using this as a toner or astringent.

Aloe Vera I believe should be in your kitchen or house if you grow one at all times. Like most of the items above aloe vera is a true multitasker. Aloe vera fights against acne and gives the skin a healthy nourishing glow , when using it in the form of a face mask. It is very rich in vitamin C & E which are very important for skin health. Aloe Vera softens the texture of your hair and adds luster back to the hair. Aloe very is ideal for burning or itching as it soothes the skin but will also kill bacteria due to its anti-microbial properties.

We associate lavender most with calming the area which is very true. Calming the area is great for you skin also. Skin looks better when you are in a great in mood lol. Lavender is also great for keeping the skin firm and preventing wrinkles.

Calendula is an oil extracted from the marigold flower. Calendula is great for anti-aging as it helps cell turn over and cell repair. Reduces inflammation and is great for scars and wounds on the body. Great for a skin that may suffer from eczema and works to relieve diaper rash.

Burdock Root is great for extremely dry skin. The anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties of the root can help resolve skin issues when it's applied topically to the skin. Burdock has been know to treat eczema and Psoriasis.

[welshwilliam0-blog]

How to setup Planting Strategies

Container Gardening

According to the National Gardening Association, container gardening grew 46% between 2008 and 2013. Container gardening is easier than in-ground gardening in many respects. Since you’re using potting mix, you don’t have to prepare your soil before getting started. You are likely to have far fewer issues with weeds, if any at all, and it’s easier to protect container crops from threats, such as animals and wind or frost damage. Container gardening resolves issues with space, allowing people to start gardens on patios, decks, rooftops, and in other alternative settings.

Raising a container garden can also help you avoid the following problems: • Lack of adequate sunlight in the yard • Water availability issues, such as water restrictions • Soil problems, such excessive lead and zinc • Physical challenges that limit a gardener’s mobility • Limited time to devote to the demands of in-ground gardening

Where To Buy Terrarium Container: Best Price Finds http://www.homegardeningplans.com/where-to-buy-terrarium-container-best-price-finds

Of course container gardening still requires planning and work, and involves a unique set of considerations: • Drainage. If you select containers that don’t drain properly, you can drown your plants. Always use containers that allow proper water flow, with holes around the bottom outer sides. If most of the holes are beneath the container, you must elevate it, at least on one side. • Soil Porosity. Soil structure is especially important with container gardening, as it also affects proper drainage. The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension explains that soil in containers has less capillary pull to encourage moisture downward, and the lack of porous soil encourages fungi that can rot your plants’ roots. Soil porosity also affects aeration. Your plants must have the proper amount of air circulating through the soil to grow properly. • Container Size. According to the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, many new gardeners underestimate the size container necessary for full-grown plants. Crowded roots can lead to stunted growth and reduce or prevent yield. Water also evaporates more quickly from containers than the ground, so if you slack on watering, you may be harvesting dried plants instead of food.

How To Care For A Yucca Plant: A Comprehensive Guide For Beginners http://www.homegardeningplans.com/how-to-care-for-a-yucca-plant-a-comprehensive-guide-for-beginners

When getting started, use cheap materials such as trash cans, buckets, and plastic pots – just remember to add holes to the bottom. If you find you’re not committed to gardening, you won’t have wasted much money. Many people have learned the hard way just how much container gardening can cost.

Consider the amount you spend on containers, trellises, soil, and other materials as investments. If you spend hundreds of dollars, how many years must you garden to see a return? I have a friend who spent about $270 on fancy containers and soil for one season, and then decided gardening wasn’t her thing. That doesn’t even include the cost of the plants. She would have done much better to experiment with in-ground gardening first.

Seeds vs. Starter Plants

You can stock your garden using seeds, seed pods, or starter plants. Your choices influence your costs, workload, and crop selection.

Seeds

Loose seeds provide the widest variety and are the cheapest option. At least 20 or more seeds generally come in a pack, and some packs contain hundreds.

For many crops, you won’t need to use all your seeds in one season – but don’t throw them away. According to Oregon State University Extension Service, many seeds can last from one to five years or longer if stored in a cool, dry place. Buying long-life seeds and using them over multiple growing seasons translates into a good long-term garden investment, reducing your costs to pennies or less per plant. However, raising an entire garden from seeds is not for everyone, especially people with limited experience or issues with time and space. Planting seeds is a longer garden-to-plate process than using starter plants, and requires more skill, knowledge, and work.

Where To Buy Clear Orchid Pots Without Breaking Your Piggybank http://www.homegardeningplans.com/where-to-buy-clear-orchid-pots-without-breaking-your-piggybank

It often means getting started earlier in the season, depending on crops’ planting times. For example, eggplant and peppers need to be started about eight weeks before your last frost. Like many other seeds, they need to be started indoors where you can control growing conditions. Starting indoors requires sufficient amounts of adequately lit space. According to Burpee, if you can’t expose your seeds to 6 to 10 hours of sunlight, you need to use fluorescent or full-spectrum lights, which generally have to be on for 12 to 16 hours per day.

Heavy reliance on seeds is best for experienced gardeners or those with a lot of time. If you’re busy or have limited space, use seeds primarily for crops you can’t get as starter plants. Focusing strictly on costs could still result in wasted money because your garden could get out of hand before it’s off to a good start.

Seed Pods

These growing kits allow you to start at the seed stage but are easier and more convenient to work with than loose seeds. The fertilizer and all growing materials are included in the pod, and the seeds are already positioned so you don’t have to worry about digging and placing them at the proper depth. Simply push the seed pod into dirt, and water it until your plants grow.

Seed pods are more expensive than loose seeds, yet cheaper than many starter plants. In 2015, I bought Miracle-Gro Gro-ables pods for about $1 each. One pod usually produces two or more plants, so it averages out to paying cents per plant.

However, some negatives with seed pods are limited selection of crops and a shelf life of less than year. Seed pods also have many of the same challenges as loose seeds, including the need to weed around tiny seedlings when started in the ground. Seed pods are a good option when you only need a few plants, especially if you don’t have anyone to split a pack of loose seeds with – but the seeds have a single season lifespan, like spinach seeds.

Starter Plants

Buying starter plants is the quickest, easiest way to start a garden. Since you don’t have to wait and see if a plant emerges, it also provides the most certainty. Crops in cell packs often average out to less than $1 per plant and may even be cheaper than seed pods. Otherwise, starter plants are the most expensive planting option. Plants sold individually generally cost several dollars each, which can add up fast if that’s the only way you stock a large garden. With that said, starter plants save a lot of time. You can begin gardening weeks or months after seed-sowers and still harvest about the same time. It’s an ideal choice for most of a busy gardener’s needs.

Whatever your choices, start small and expand your garden size as you gain experience. Also, grow things you like to eat – too often, people get excited by the options and waste money on crops they don’t use.

Additional Ways to Cut Plant Costs

There are plenty of other moves you can make to cut your costs when planting: • Use Propagation Methods. Division and stem, branch, and rhizome cutting methods allow you to grow new plants from existing plants. • Collect Seeds. Gathering seeds from the current season’s crops cuts down on costs for the upcoming season. Some plants aren’t good candidates for seed collection. Research your crops to learn which you can collect from and the best method to do so. Storing seeds is generally easy. The University of Michigan Extension advises storing each type of crop in individual paper packets. You can make the packets from the corners of envelopes. Then, put them in a glass container with either silica gel or a sachet of powdered milk to absorb the moisture, and keep the container at temperatures between 32 degrees and 41 degrees. • Stop Replacing Garden Products on Your Own Dime. When plants die prematurely or don’t grow at all, take advantage of replacement policies and money-back guarantees, which are commonly offered by plant companies and retailers. For example, Burgess Seed & Plant Co. offers a one-year replacement guarantee on any item that does not grow or that you’re dissatisfied with, as long as you have the original shipping label. • Grow Perennial Crops. Planting more crops that come back reduces your annual spending. Perennial crops include asparagus, blackberries, watercress, and avocados, along with herbs such as oregano, thyme, and chives. Just remember to delay tilling the soil the following season until your plants emerge.

Companion Planting

Think of your garden as a community. Aren’t there certain people you prefer to have – or avoid – as neighbors? Plants feel the same way. Companion planting is a technique that involves placing crops together that benefit each other. For example, corn stalks provide support for beans, and beans help corn get nitrogen that improves growth. Chives improve the growth and flavor of apples, berries, tomatoes, and carrots, while carrots also benefit from onions and leeks because they repel carrot flies.

Likewise, you need to keep nasty neighbors separate. Sage injures cucumbers. Garlic, onions, and shallots stunt beans and peas, and kohlrabi and tomatoes have a similarly negative effect on one another. Also, avoid planting crops together that suffer from similar struggles, such as pest and disease. Tomatoes and corn attract the same worm, while tomatoes and potatoes are susceptible to the same blight. Most beginning gardeners don’t naturally know which plants are friends or foes, but companion planting guides are widely available for free on the Internet at websites such as Mother Earth News.

Block Planting

Plant crops in a square formation instead of rows – a method known as block planting. According to Colorado State University Extension, block planting increases yield by 5-fold to 15-fold depending on the crop. Block planting has other benefits including conserving space, reducing weeds, and minimizing foot traffic, which leads to soil compaction. Colorado State University Extension recommends making each block at least three to four feet wide. The blocks can be any length you desire as long as you can equally space your plants. The recommended spacing for each crop is usually listed on the package or in plant catalogs. For example, carrots only need one to three inches of space, whereas cauliflower needs 18 to 24 inches. Adequate space is important because over-crowding reduces air circulation, which promotes disease.

Vertical Planting

Vertical planting involves growing things upright instead of allowing them to sprawl out. You can use fences, trellises, or a net hung between stakes for crops like cucumbers, spaghetti squash, pole beans, and peas. Many vine plants naturally cling to and climb vertical items they come into contact with.

Vertical planting saves a lot of space too. It keeps your crops off the ground, which reduces susceptibility to rotting, pests, and disease, and having your plants growing vertically makes weeding easier. Another benefit of vertical planting is it makes harvesting a cinch since your produce is more accessible. This is especially true for people who may have problems bending or squatting, and therefore might be discouraged to plant crops such as green beans and cherry tomatoes.

[nessathawitch]

Today we will be going over the Sabbat, Mabon. Mabon also goes by other names, such as, Autumnal Equinox, Me’an Fo’mhair, Alban Elfed, Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Grape Harvest, Feast of Avalon, and Cornucopia. Mabon is celebrated this year, on September 21st. Mabon is celebrated on the Autumn Equinox. Day and night are now equal again, but the days will become shorter, and the nights will become longer. Mabon is the Second Harvest. On this day, we can work on spells that bring balance in our lives, and in ourselves. Mabon is a time of reflection, remembrance, and preparation for the dark half of the year. Many people still grow their own food, so this is a time where we harvest and store our food for the long winter that is coming. Mabon can be compared to Thanksgiving, although not all Pagans celebrate Thanksgiving due to the history behind it, but that is a different story, for a different time. Around this time, we should give thanks for our loved ones and good fortune in our lives. Here are some associations: Herbs: Sage (garden, purple, white - just remember that white sage is becoming endangered), Rue, Yarrow, Rosemary, Mistletoe, Saffron, Chamomile, Passionflower, and Rose Hips. Colors: Orange, Gold, Yellow, Brown, Deep Greens, Red, Maroon, Purple Flowers: Marigold, Rose, Honeysuckle, Red Poppies Scents: Frankincense, Rose, Apple, Sage, Chamomile, Myrrh, Pine, Patchouli, Jasmine, Clove, Cinnamon Crystals: Clear Quartz, Amber, Peridot, Diamond, Gold, Citrine, Yellow Topaz, Cat’s Eye, Aventurine, Carnelian, Yellow Agates Trees: Hazel, Pine, Oak Animals: Dogs, Wolves, Stag, Blackbird, Owl, Eagle, Salmon, Goat, Gnomes, Sphinx, Minotaur. Deities: Modron, Bona Dea, Land Mother, Triple Goddess Aspect, Persephone, Demeter, Ceres, Morgan, Snake Woman, Epona, Pamona, The Muses, Mabon, Sky Father, The Green Man, The Wicker Man, The Corn Mn, Thoth, Hermes, Hotei, Thor, Dionysus, Bacchus Food: Grapes, Apples, Grains, Vegetables, Squash, Pumpkin, Corn, Gourds, Nuts, Bread, Roots, Dried Fruit Symbols and Decorations: Baskets, Grape Vines, Oak Leaves, Pinecones, Acorns, Oak Sprigs, Wreaths, Cornucopia, Horns of Plenty, Burial Cairns, Seeds, Apples, Any Food Listed Above Mabon is a good time to do spells regarding: Charity, Thanksgiving, Compassion, Family, Remembrance, Harmony, Balance and Peace. Here are some examples of Activities and Spells that you can do around this time. You can tailor them to your needs, or what you have available, or you can use what is listed. Make do with what you have, don’t go out and buy stuff if you don’t need it. You will be surprised what you can find in your cabinets. Just remember, anything can be substituted. -Decorate Your Altar! - This should be fairly simple as you can go outside and gather acorns, pinecones, leaves, pretty much anything that you can find outside right about now. Also, if you are on a budget, you can take a trip to the dollar store, or the thrift store, and you can find many things there as well! I know I did!! Add to your altar, or make a new one, with things that resonate with you. There is no right or wrong way to do this. It is what you find in your heart. - Things To Take To Celebrations: Pagan or Not - If you are looking to do something decorations wise, I would advise to head to the dollar store, Michaels, or a craft store. I went to Wal-Mart and the dollar store and got some great things to make! I found stick wreaths, leaves, flowers, signs, plastic pumpkins and gourds, hay bales, and many other things that I am using. One thing I have already made is a Harvest Bowl for my Altar. It can be used as a centerpiece pretty much anywhere. I bought a clear plastic bowl, plastic gourds and pumpkins, loose leaves, apple cinnamon potpourri, hay bales, and little scarecrows on a stick. I just arranged everything nicely in the bowl and set in on my altar. I will be working on the wreaths, and autumn crowns soon. I have all of the stuff for it but I am awaiting for my daughter to get home from her dad’s house. You could also make food from any of the above correspondences and bring that along. Just to be on the safe side, I would inquire if anyone has allergies to anything. Another thing you can do is gather supplies that you could make an Autumn collage out of and bring the supplies with you so you can do some arts and crafts with anyone interested, child or adult alike. - Make a prayer flag! - You can gather a piece of string and some fabric or cloth. Prayers and requests are written on the prayer flags and hung outside for them to be carried away by the Gods and Goddesses. When you are done constructing, you can hang the flag outside. - Apple Candle Holders - All you need is a Tea Light Candle and Apples. The candle holders will be good for about 3 to 4 days. Test each apple to make sure that the apple stands correctly. Hold the tealight on top of the apple and make a score line to show how big of a hole you will need and use a spoon to hollow out the apple. Then set the candle inside the apple and ta-da! You have a candle holder. You can use these to decorate your altar, or you can put some on a plate with other decorations - that are fire safe - and use it as a centerpiece. - Blessing Salt - You will need, Fresh Kitchen Basil, Fresh Holy Basil, Fresh Rosemary, and Coarse Salt, a kitchen knife, and a cutting board. You will need approximately about 1 cup of herbs, all together, and 3 cups of salt. Place salt on the cutting board with some herbs and start to incorporate the herbs with the salt by cutting them. Continue to add salt until desired texture. When you are done, if you used fresh herbs, you will need to let it sit out for 1 to 2 days until the herbs have properly dried. Cover with a paper towel. The shelf life is about 3 to 4 months. You can use the blessing salt for: Place at every threshold in the house for inviting in positive energy. Blessing the people entering your home. You can even use it on food! -Create a list of things that you are thankful for and read it everyday. - Honor the darkness. Keep in mind, “Without Darkness, There Is No Light”. Call upon the Gods and Goddesses of the dark night, and ask for their blessings at this time of year. - Raise some energy - A great way to do this is at a gathering, you can create a drum or music circle. You can also raise energy by chanting or dancing, or a combination of all three! - Fall Cleaning! - You have all heard of Spring Cleaning. Why not do some fall cleaning! You could be spending a lot of time indoors especially with all the holidays coming up. You should physically and spiritually cleanse your house. You can spiritually cleanse your house with sage, sweetgrass, or a spiritually cleansing spray. - DIY Spiritual Cleansing Spray - Simplified - Gather a dark glass or metal spray bottle - 2 4 oz, distilled water, sea salt, a tablespoon of witch hazel, or vodka (to preserve the spray), Tablespoon of sea salt, 1 Tablespoon of dried rosemary or 5-7 drops of essential oil, 1 Tablespoon of dried sage leaf, pinch of dried basil, and 3 cloves. -Steep all ingredients in the warm, distilled or purified water for 20 minutes. Stir.- Line a sieve with a piece of cheesecloth or a paper towel and place it over a bowl. Pour the mixture through to strain and let it drain into the bowl. - Pour into the spray bottles and place the lids on them. Label them. - If you like, place several crystals around the bottles for a few hours so that the spray becomes charged with the added energy of the crystals. - Shake well before using each time. Dark Mother – Mabon Honey Wheat Bread added by Linda Rupp At Mabon, we celebrate the goddess in her aspect as the crone, the wise old woman. This honey wheat blend is a delicious way to celebrate the end of the harvest. Serve warm with herbed oils for dipping, or with a big scoop of Apple Butter. Makes 2 loaves Cook time: 30 Min Prep time: 1 Hour Serves: 8 Ingredients 2 c warm water 1 Tbsp active dry yeast 1/3 c honey 3 c whole wheat flour 1 tsp salt 1/4 c vegetable oil 2 Tbsp butter 4 c all -purpose flour Directions 1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add honey and mix well. Stir in the whole wheat flour, salt, vegetable oil, and butter and mix until a stiff dough has formed. Gradually work the all-purpose flour into the mix, one cup at a time. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured countertop, and knead for about fifteen minutes. When it reaches the point where it's sort of elastic, shape it into a ball and place it into an oiled bowl. Cover with a warm, damp cloth, and allow to sit and rise until it's doubled in size -- usually about 45 minutes. 2. Punch the dough down and cut in half, so you can make two loaves of bread. Place each half in a greased loaf pan, and allow to rise. Once the dough has risen an inch or two above the top of the loaf pan, pop them in the oven. Bake at 375 for half an hour, or until golden brown at the top. When you remove the loaves from the oven, allow to cool for about fifteen minutes before removing from the pan. If you like, brush some melted butter over the top of the hot loaves, to add a pretty golden glaze to them. 3. Note - If you're doing this in a bread machine, remember, the recipes makes two loaves. Halve everything if you're allowing the machine to do the mixing. If you hand mix it, you can still drop the single-loaf balls of dough into the machine to bake. Butternut Squash Soup INGREDIENTS 1 large butternut squash Butter (I use half a stick, but use as much or as little as you like) 1 onion 2 -3 cloves garlic, minced (I like to use a lot of garlic, but go with your own taste preference) 2 C vegetable broth 1 C applesauce 1 C water 1 C heavy cream Fresh rosemary Salt and pepper to taste DIRECTIONS First, roast your squash. Preheat your oven to 375, and cut the squash longways down the middle. Scoop out the seeds and strings, so that all that’s left is the meat. See the little hollows where you scooped the seeds out of each half? Put the butter in there. Alternately, you can melt the butter and brush it all over the inside of the squash – either method works just fine. Put the two halves, cut side up, in a baking dish and bake for about 45 minutes. While your squash is in the oven roasting away, you can go ahead and start the rest of your soup. If you want to use a pot on the stove, set it on low, or do like I do and use a crockpot on the lowest setting. Dice the onion into small pieces, and put them in the pot with the garlic, vegetable broth, applesauce and heavy cream. Cover the pot with a lid while it simmers. Once your squash is done, let it cool for a few minutes, and then scoop the meat out of the center – it should be nice and tender by now. Place the squash meat into your blender or chopper and puree it so it’s smooth and creamy – depending on how big your blender is, and how big your squash is, you may need to do this in batches. It’s fine to do it that way. After you’ve pureed the squash, add it into the soup pot and stir gently to get it all blended together. How long you leave your soup simmering is entirely up to you – if you’re doing it on the stovetop, be sure to stir occasionally so it doesn’t burn. If you do it in the crockpot, I like to let mine go about four hours. About half an hour before you plan to serve it, chop up some fresh rosemary and stir it in, as well as adding as much salt and pepper as you like. I typically use a tablespoon of salt, because it really brings out the flavor of the squash when you season it well, but do whatever your palate prefers. Likewise, with the pepper, I typically add about a teaspoon. If you like, garnish with a small dollop of sour cream and some chopped green onions. Serve this at your Mabon celebration with a big chunk of crusty bread, your favorite veggie dish, or anything else you can think of! Note: An alternate method is something you can try if you’ve got an immersion blender – instead of pureeing the squash before adding it to the soup, add it in directly, and then use the immersion blender to puree it in the soup pot. Try it and see which way works best for you! - Gratitude Ritual by Patti Wigington Updated August 31, 2016 For many Pagans, autumn is a time of giving thanks. Although this is the most obvious around the Mabon holiday, if you live in the United States, most of your friends and family will be giving thanks in November. If you'd like to tie in to that a little, but with a Pagan flair, you might want to consider doing a short gratitude ritual as a way of expressing your own thankfulness. Before you begin, decorate your altar with symbols of the season. You may want to choose items that represent abundance, such as: You'll want to have a candle on your altar. Gold or green is preferable, but you can use another color if it signifies abundance to you. Also, make a batch of Gratitude Oil ahead of time to use in the ritual. Baskets of fruit, such as apples or grapes Cornucopias An abundance mandala Colors associated with abundance, such as gold and green Symbols of things you're thankful for, such as your health or your career Photos of your family and friends who mean a lot to you If your tradition calls for you to cast a circle, go ahead and do so. As you begin, take a moment to reflect on the abundance in your life. When we say abundance, it doesn't necessarily mean material or financial gain -- you may be abundant if you have friends who love you, a satisfying family life, or a rewarding career. Think about that things you have for which you are most grateful. These are the things you will be focusing on in this rite. As you're thinking about these things, anoint the candle with the Gratitude Oil, and then light it on your altar table or workspace. If you have a particular deity in your tradition who is associated with thankfulness, you may wish to call out to this god or goddess and invite them into your circle. If not, that's okay too -- you can express your gratitude to the universe itself. Beginning at one corner of the table, begin saying the things you are thankful for, and why. It might go something like this: I am thankful for my health, because it allows me to feel well. I am thankful for my children, for keeping me young. I am thankful for my career, because each day I get paid to do what I love. I am thankful for my job, because I am able to feed my family. I am thankful for my garden, because it provides me fresh herbs. I am thankful for my coven sisters, because they make me feel spiritually complete… and so forth, until you have expressed your thankfulness for everything in your life. If you're doing this ritual with a group, each person should anoint a candle of their own, and call out their own things that they are thankful for. Take a few more minutes to meditate on the candle flame, and to focus on the notion of abundance. While you're thinking about things you are grateful for, you might also wish to consider the people in your life that are grateful towards you, for the things you have done. Recognize that gratitude is a gift that keeps on giving, and that counting one's blessings is an important thing to do, because it reminds us of how truly fortunate we are. Note: It's important to realize that one of the things about being thankful is that we should let people who have made us happy know they've done so. If there's someone specific you wish to thank for their words or actions, you should take the time to tell them so directly, instead of (or in addition to) merely doing a ritual that they'll never know about. Send a note, make a phone call, or tell them in person how much you appreciate what they've done for you. - Cooking and Magick - Anything you cook, magick can be incorporated into! You can use corresponding herbs and stir in your intentions. - Collect Fallen Leaves - Another good activity is to collect the fallen leaves off trees and write wishes in black ink, or you can use sigils. During Mabon, you burn the leaves to release the energy of your wish. If you cannot burn the leaves, bury them in the earth. *Quite a bit of the magick for Mabon is based on cooking. There are plenty of other ways to celebrate if you do not like cooking or you are not able to do it* I'd like to hear some of your suggestions as well on how you practice! I used many resources for this article. I used books, webpages, Tumblr, and best of all, I also quoted some of these from Witch Way Magazine. Witch Way Magazine is one of my favorite Witchy Magazines as well as the people who contribute. I can definitely say that they treat everyone with respect and like they are family. One of my best Witchy references! (This was supposed to post Tuesday, the correspondences)

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editor’s Note: This post is another entry in the Prepper Writing Contest from Kena K. If you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.

Everyone has different reasons for prepping. For us it was the combination of hearing about the increasing devastation of more natural disasters in the U.S. and abroad, and seeing how many people lost their jobs and homes during the economic recession. Initially, our thought was just to have some extra food in the cupboards in case I lost my job. We started by emptying out the closet in our extra bedroom, which allowed us to get rid of some of the extra “stuff ”we all seem to accumulate. Next, we purchased a few shelving units on sale, and secured them to the wall inside the closet. From there, we researched food items with longer storage lives like beans, instant rice, oatmeal, pasta, instant potatoes, honey and sugar and then started buying a little extra food each time we went to the store, focusing on sales to keep things cheaper. Once home with the the food, I wrote the “use by” date on the labels of the food before storing them in the closet so the items that expire soonest would be used first and those with the later expiration dates would be placed behind those to be used later.

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As time went on our food storage grew and became more diverse. We began to compare our closet to a savings vault and the more food we put in it, the richer we felt. Coincidentally, the more we collected, the more interested we got in the whole prepping concept. I organized the food according to categories like beans, rice, oatmeal, canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned fish and meats, boxed meals, spices, baking items, drink mixes (coffee, tea, hot cocoa, hot cider, instant milk, Gatorade, Tang, Kool-Aid, etc.) and so on. We not only thought of ourselves, we also planned for the possibility that other members of our family might have to leave their homes, so we downsized more of our “junk” to create more space, and collected more food.

The biggest challenge for me was storing water. I didn’t want anything to be so heavy it would fall on our heads, collapse the shelves, or worse to leak and ruin our food, so I boiled water and stored it in glass quart jars that I had saved from empty juice containers, and then dated the jars and placed them upright, underneath the shelving units where lucky for me, they fit perfectly. I also purchased and stored some plastic drinking water bottles. Since the minimum recommendation is to save one gallon of water per day, per person and pets, and since water is life, I found it difficult to determine how many days we should save for and where to find enough space to store it all. Eventually, I got creative and found other places throughout the house to store more water and we kept empty 5 gallon water containers with our camping gear so we could use them to gather more water, as needed.

Prepping isn’t a new idea – What is new is the idea that you don’t need to prepare.

At some point, we began to expand our storage items from just food into thoughts of our pets needs, first aid, extra indoor and outdoor clothes and shoes, towels and blankets, soap, shampoo, lotion, toothbrushes, toothpaste and the like, again purchasing items on sale. We started going to garage sales to look for things like oil lamps and camping items. We made Bug Out Bags for ourselves should we need to evacuate at a moments notice and I even stored a few emergency items in my purse and in our vehicles. We have a camp trailer so we also got it ready with extra sleeping bags, food, hygiene items, books, puzzles, cards, and toys for the grandkids. It became a game to us, always thinking of things we might need and how to purchase them without spending tons of money. We bought things like tools, personal protection items, backpacks, cooking and camping gear for each other for our birthday and Christmas presents. During the winter when the weather was too bad to go outside, I used my time to copy our important papers, put family pictures in a small photo album, and wrote down their addresses, phone numbers and birthdays and anything else of importance I could think of (scars, blood types, etc). We stored some state and Forest Service maps in the glove box and our backpacks in case we had to travel or use the back roads. I also started collecting recipes for ways to use the freeze-dried foods we’d purchased.

In the spring we expanded our garden area and mostly planted food that we could freeze, dry or can. We felt really good growing our own food because we kept it organic and knew it would taste so much better in the winter than grocery canned foods. We read articles on sprouting and bought seeds so we could try it. Since we owned an acre of land outside the city limits we figured we should utilize our property to help us survive, so instead of a yard full of grass and ornamental trees, we opted for edible landscaping by planting a few fruit trees, berry plants, rhubarb and herbs. We even raised our own chickens for eggs and meat, and had rabbits and turkeys for awhile.

Keep in mind that none of this happened over night by any means. It was something that we started that grew over time. It grew because we saw the importance of it, turned it into a game and then had fun doing it.

What could possibly go wrong?

As our adult children came to visit they began to notice all the food we were collecting and they laughed saying if the Cascadia Fault line acted up, they would just bring their friends and come to our house since we were already so stocked up. I had read an article about someone who opened his property to a few friends who ended up bringing other friend after the Katrina hurricane in 2005 but no one brought anything to contribute towards the cause and soon the years worth of food that he had saved for himself was gone because he had to share it with everyone else. Remembering this, I told the kids that they were more than welcome to come and to think about what they could bring to contribute (food, bedding, towels, etc), and that we had indeed planned for them to stay with us if need be, but then I had to let them know that we did not have enough for their friends, so they would have to prepare for themselves or plan on going someplace else. I felt like I was being a bit mean, but when the SHTF, we all have to decide who can enter our domain and who can’t…and what we are willing to do in order to back that up.

Major cities affected by a disturbance in this subduction zone include Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia; Seattle, Washington; and Portland, Oregon.

That year for Christmas, I gave the kids a mini survival bag for the glove box of their cars that included things like a metal cup with a bit of food, a pocket knife, flashlight, fire starter, and hand warmers and a tiny address book that I wrote our address and phone number in, thinking that in an emergency they may not have cell service so it would be helpful to have important numbers written down with the hope they might be able to use a land line. I told them it was just a starter kit, and encouraged them to add to it.

After some time, I noticed it seems the kids have been paying attention. They have started to collect extra food in case the power goes out or they get sick and can’t go to work or get to the store. My 80 year old mother recently had to rely on the water and food she had stored for just such an occasion when she was unable to leave home due to a heavy snow storm. Fortunately she didn’t lose power, but if she had, she would have been OK because she had candles, a flashlight and an indoor propane heater on hand that we had given her. She had extra blankets and winter clothes too, all things we had given her or that she had gotten for herself. It was a big relief to know she was prepared as we do not live in the same town and are in fact divided by a mountain pass that may have been impossible for us to go over during the storm. Fortunately, she also has a kind neighbor who helped keep her walkway shoveled and some folks from her church who stopped by to check on her. I would prefer that we lived closer so we could help her more, but for now at least, that is not the case.

Whatever your reason, I hope this article inspires you to begin your prepping adventure. Keep it simple, make a game of it, and don’t spend a ton of money upfront if you don’t have it. Second-hand stores, Dollar stores, garage and estate sales, all have great deals. Online stores and military supply stores are great places to look for backpacks, camping supplies, military clothing and a whole host of other items without paying an arm and a leg for it like you might at a specialty-type store. There are numerous prepping articles full of great advice and helpful lists of whatever you might be interested in, like what to put in your first aid kit or your bug-out bag for example. There are also plenty of prepper-type stores online to buy freeze-dried and dehydrated food if you choose to go that way, and they tend to have different items on sale every month, which is how I am building up our freeze-dried and dehydrated items. You can even find a limited supply at some stores like Walmart. So, there are lots of options, and the more you get into it, the more you will want to do. Perhaps you can get others to join you – encourage your family, friends and neighbors to have extra supplies on hand “just-in-case” explaining you never know when you might get sick or when the power will go out. Let them know they don’t want to be the one stuck without gas, food or water. They wouldn’t want the power to go out and be sitting in the dark without some sort of light, heat, or a way to cook and clean. Invite your friends to go to a garage sale with you as a fun way to get started.

There is still so much I want learn like emergency first aid, tying knots, identifying edible mushrooms and wild foods. Reading books and watching survival-type shows is a fun way to be introduced to different ways to build shelter, make fires, use weapons and just live off the land, but of course nothing prepares you for this type of survival like taking a class and practicing your skills and I look forward to it all. I hope you do, too.

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from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag