Super Simple Sour Dough

I didn't add a recipe to my reasons to make sour dough post because I figured there were already tons of recipes online. But since I've had a few requests I decided to go on ahead and share my recipe/process. 

It's so simple and very rewarding.

First thing I do is clean one of my quart size mason jars making sure to rinse them in really hot water. 

Then I mix together equal parts rye flour and water, and fed it 2 times a day with equal parts water and rye flour. You're supposed to transfer it to a new container each time, but I may not do that each time. I at least aim for doing it after I've fed my starter twice. Changing it helps to cut down on your chances of mold. 

Once my starter got bubbly I started feeding it once a day. It took about a week for it to get good and bubbly.

Doing equal parts definitely makes it easier to not mess up the measurements. If I added too much flour I could easily just add more water ;o)

When I baked the bread I just used half, or more, of the starter and then added flour water and salt. If you are the type to measure things out specifically then the recipe below will be helpful. But if you're like me then just add flour and water until it's a slightly sticky dough.

My first few loaves didn't come out as well as my more recent ones, but the longer I keep my starter going, the better of a rise I  get. I also switched to unbleached all purpose flour because my family didn't care for the taste of the rye bread.

You could store your unused starter in the fridge. But since I bake a loaf once a week, I keep mine out and feed it once a day with about a 1/4 cup of flour. (sometimes I forget and it still does well)

Super Simple Sour Dough Starter Recipe   

(adapted from Nourishing Traditions Cookbook)

1 cup rye flour, 1 cup water, tight weave cloth, 
3 1/2 cups rye flour, cold water

Mix the one cup rye flour and 1 cup water in a large glass bowl or jar. Mixture should be soupy. Cover with cloth and let sit for a day. The next day "feed" your starter by adding 1/4 c of flour and enough water to keep the soupy consistency. After 12 hours "feed" your starter  again. Repeat this process every 12 hours for 7 days. After the 7th day you should be ready to bake. 

note: if you are running out of room for your starter in your jars, pour out half and then feed what's left. It's not about having a lot but getting what you have cultured. By the end of this you should have about a quart of sour dough, more if you didn't dump any out. 

Super Simple Sour Dough Bread Recipe

1/2 quart (2 cups) of sour dough starter, 3 1/4 cups of flour (I use unbleached all purpose), 1/2 tablespoon sea salt, 3/4 cup water 

Pour your sour dough starter into a bowl, then add your flour, and salt. Mix together gradually adding water until you have a smooth slightly sticky dough consistency (add more flour if needed). Then cover mixture and put it to the side to rise for 12 hours. 
Before baking preheat oven to 350*. Then shape your loaves either in a loaf pan or by hand. Bake for about an hour.

This recipe gave me 2 good sized loaves. 

After you finish preparing your loaves to bake you can feed your starter again. At this point I began using unbleached flour to feed mine. 

Make sure if you are fermenting anything else that you keep your starter at least a few feet away. A whole seperate area would be best. I keep my kombucha on the counter and my sour dough on the table. 


Do you make sour dough? Will you now that you have a simple recipe?

linking up at: Homestead Barn Hop, Mostly Homemade Monday, Backyard Farming Connection, Simple Life Sunday, From the Farm

Laundry on the Homestead

We have been using plain white vinegar as fabric softener for about a year now, and it has been great! Before we just didn't use anything and I was always frustrated with how our laundry came out. I'm sure having to use the laundry mat didn't help that any. 

When we moved into where we live now, we were blessed with a washer and dryer! Once we were finally able to do laundry at home I started researching more natural ways of completing this chore, and using vinegar for softener was the first thing I did.

I found countless detergent recipes and I wanted to try them all. But my husband wasn't as convinced. That was until I used his 5 favorite words.....

It will save us money!

After that he was all for it. So I went out to the store to hunt down the ingredients needed. 

When I got to the store I searched high and low for washing soda. But it was no where to be found! My husband had already told me they didn't have it, but I was determined not to come back home empty handed. Like he did, ahem...

So I started reading all the packaging to see if I really needed both baking soda and washing powder. I decided since the Zote is a laundry bar, and people use just that to do their laundry, that I would give it a try without the washing soda.

I dumped the whole box of borax and all 3 boxes of baking soda in a bag. Then I grated up the Zote.

Ok, ok I got my husband to grate up the Zote. Lol, that bar is BIG! I managed to do about a quarter of it before I decided to call in reinforcement. He breezed through it like a BOSS. Love my man! 

Once everything was all grated up I tied up the bag and mixed everything around, so it could be evenly distributed. Then I put it in this awesome green waste basket I found at the store for $1.99! 

So now this, my vinegar, and a bottle of essential oil (to sent the vinegar) sits on my dryer. 

I've used this detergent for probably 10 loads now and I love it. After doing some googling I learned that leaving out the washing powder isn't a big deal and that my recipe is actually better for cloth diapers! Which I am hoping to switch to soon.

I use 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup), but my husband uses like 8 scoops! I can't even call the tablespoons. He goes crazy on the soap, always has. Thankfully he only does laundry sometimes lol.

Even with his excessive soap use, we've barely even made a dent in our soap stash! It cost me about $8 to make this and works out to be around $0.11 per load. Normally we spend about $0.20-$0.30 per load. So this particular batch didn't save me as much as it could have. But I know for a fact I over paid for the baking soda. I'm confident I can get it down to $0.08 per load. If we did liquid detergent I could probably get it down to $0.05 per load but storing a big 5 gallon container kind of makes it not worth it for us right now. 

I know we are counting pennies here but over time it adds up. As a friend used to always say "pennies make dollars". Plus I feel better knowing what's going into my detergent and being able to control it. 

What about you? Do you make your own detergent? Would you ever consider making your own?

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Making Sour Dough Ya'll

So in my quest to "ferment all the things" (kombucha, carrots) I learned about making sour dough.

At first I was a little intimidated but once I got going I realized it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. The only thing that gets rough is remembering to feed it daily.

But with just a little bit of dedication it's possible to make healthy bread for your family!

Why is sour dough healthy you ask? Let me count the ways!

1. It breaks down the gluten in the flour making it more tolerable to those with gluten intolerance. This one is a biggie for us because along with the many allergies my little bit has, the doctor also thinks she may have a sensitivity to gluten.

2. It's easier to digest. The combo of the natural yeast and bacteria work to sort of "pre-digest" the dough making it much easier for our systems to digest.

3. It doesn't cause an insulin shock. Even if you aren't a diabetic this is a great thing! When we eat something that is high in sugar or starch our bodies tell our pancreas to release insulin. A whole host of other things happen but ultimately the stimulation from the insulin causes your body to store fat. And who wants that?

4. Breaks down phytates/phytic acid. Ok this is another big one around here. Phytates are a found in the hulls of nuts, grains, and seeds. They bind to important minerals like calcium, zinc, magnesium, and iron. Then as they leave our system it takes these minerals with it. But by using the sour dough method, instead of modern quick rise yeast, the enzyme phytase is released which helps to break down the phytates.

5. Provides B vitamins. Sour dough is a source of vitamins B1-B6 and also B12. As well as niacin, folate, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and selenium.

And those are just some of the reasons to enjoy sour dough. It's really not that complicated and it is a real treat. Especially with some homemade butter slathered on it! mmmhm...

Want to know how I make my starter and my bread? Check out this post.

Have you tried making sour dough bread? Are you considering it now?

I'm linking up at: Simple Life Sundays, Mostly Homemade Mondays, Homestead Barn Hop, The Backyard Farming Connection

Top 5 Reasons to Cook in Cast Iron {GIVEAWAY}

This giveaway is now closed

Do you use cast iron cookware? I have one cast iron pan that I absolutely love, and use every chance I get! I'm hoping to up my collection, and I've been eyeing a few pieces that belong to my grandmother.

Aside from making you feel like a pioneer in the kitchen there are many benefits to using cast iron like:

1. Naturally non-stick- I love that food just slides out of my cast iron pan. And on the occasions that something does stick it's usually my fault. Like I didn't let the pan heat up all the way or I burnt what ever I was cooking!

2. Cooks food evenly- These pans are excellent at evenly distributing heat so you can be guaranteed nice even cooking.

3. Easy to clean- I love that my cast iron is easy to clean. Even if I have to scrub a smidge it's no where like my other pans. Even though it's heavier than my others, easy cleaning makes it my go to pan.

4. Versatility- What's better than being able to go from cook top to oven? Or what about camping? Cast iron is really able to be used in any cooking situation, stove top, oven, grill, or even camp fire. When we went camping recently I brought my cast iron skillet and we used it for every meal.

5. It adds iron to your food- This is definitely one of my favorite added benefits. Using cast iron actually adds much needed iron to your food. During my most recent pregnancy I struggled with iron deficiency and one of the first things my midwife told me was, "use your cast iron pan to cook EVERYTHING".

Well, enough of my ode to cast iron, how about a giveaway?!? We were so completely blown away by the welcome and love people showed us through comments, and facebook page likes! So we decided to do a giveaway to show our appreciation. The blog has only been up and running for a short amount of time but we've already made some new friends, which is really exciting to us!

So without further ado, I present to you the Lodge Double Dutch Oven and Casserole with Skillet Cover. Not only is this a great dutch oven, but the lid doubles as a skillet! Umm I wish I could win this! 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Keep These Bugs Off Of Me!

So it happened.

One of my kids got bit by tick. Ok, to a seasoned homesteader this may not be a big deal.

But we live in the city and I have NEVER in all my life been bitten by a tick. NEVER.

I've never even seen one. My husband, who is even more of a city slicker than I am, was the one who found it. I was in the kitchen and he sort of calmly yells out to me, "come here quick!" So I come into the living room like what happened? And he shows it to me.

In case there are some of you who have also never experienced this, let me tell you a little about it.

THERE WAS A BUG WITH IT'S HEAD IN MY KID!

As I try to act all calm, I instruct my husband not to bother it. Because I had just recently seen how using essential oils would make it back out. His reply? "I'm not letting this thing go all the way inside her!" Again, we have never dealt with ticks before lol.

I found online that putting some peppermint EO on it will make it back out. So I do that and we watch. It starts backing out and then my darling husband was like that's it, I'm getting this thing. So he tugs it out. He had to tug a lot harder than either of us expected! But praise the Lord she is fine and now we know what to do next time... please Lord don't let there be a next time

There will probably be a next time, huh?

In order to be proactive about this, especially since we plan to spend a good amount of time out doors. I scoured the internet looking for some advice on a DIY repellent. I found a list of essential oils to choose from and I have... none of them. But I do have a blend that is called Plague Rescue (clove, lemon, eucalyptus, cinnamon, and rosemary) and that will have to do for now.

Apparently the cinnamon will help with mosquitoes, and the eucalyptus will help with ticks. Clove and rosemary are also supposed to be good at repelling insects. So I figure I can't loose, right?

So here is my recipe for an 8oz bottle:
4oz Water
4oz Witch Hazel
20-30 drops of Plague Rescue (same as Thieves or OnGuard)

In case you are wondering where I get my oils from I have a very dear friend that bottles oils straight from the distiller. I like that I'm helping her business AND that I'm avoiding multilevel marketing. Which I'm really not a huge fan of. If you'd like info about her company please e-mail me, or leave me a comment with your email, and I'd be happy to share the info with you. (trying to avoid spam here)

So what about you? Do you have a plan to keep bugs away this spring and summer?

I'm linking up at: Mostly Homemade Monday, Mountain Woman Rendezvous , HomeAcre Hop, Homemaking Link Up

Easy Fermented Carrots

A few months ago I discovered the joy of fermenting vegetables! 

What prompted my journey to fermenting pretty much everything, is that my second born has eczema. I didn't want to use steroid creams on her so we began our search for how to heal her naturally. Something I learned along the way is that her eczema is a result of a leaky gut. So we've been trying to fix it. 

Leaky gut put very, very, simply is when your intestines are too porous. When this happens food "particles" are allowed to enter the blood stream. Now I'm not talking chunks of food but more like microscopic particles. These "particles" then cause our body to attack them. This leads to food sensitivities, and allergies. Eczema is the result of the skin trying to eliminate the toxins.

Having the right amount of good bacteria in our guts will aid in proper digestion and help with the gut issues. But in addition to that you need to heal the gut. So eating probiotic rich foods is only part of the solution. As a result of all this we've been introducing more and more fermented foods to our diet. We started with fermented carrots and then moved to kombucha, sour dough, and pickles. Actually those are the only things I was successful with. I've tried other things too lol.. Although I wish my baby didn't have these issues, it's been awesome learning about all theses things. 

Ok now for how we actually do it. I make carrot slices using a mandolin. I've done sticks before, and everyone liked them except for the little girl who needed to be eating them the most! Since I switched to slices she likes them way better. So for those with picky eaters, try slices. 

Then I let the girls put the slices in a jar. I've found that when they help they are more likely to eat it, especially when it's something new. 

Then I pour salt water over the carrots and covered them. I use 1 teaspoon of salt for this 8oz jar of carrots. I use the plastic to keep the carrots below the liquid, and to keep unwanted things out. If it's not below the liquid, you up your chances for developing mold.

Once I get everything finished up I set it on top of my fridge (only because I need it away from my other ferments) for 3 days. After that they are ready to eat and/or refrigerate. 

You can play around with the flavors and add herbs. Our favorite so far is garlic carrots. Adding dill is on my things to try list though. 

What about you? Do you ferment any vegetables?

I'm linking up at: Front Porch Fridays, The HomeAcre Blog Hop, From The Farm, Farmgirl Friday, Simple Life Sunday, Homemaking link up, Tasty Tuesday

Stop Making Excuses and Make Butter!

Ok, I am really guilty of watching youtube videos on homesteading skills and dreaming about someday. But why dream about someday when you can live it today??? So I decided to do just that, and go on ahead and make myself some butter!

At first I was nervous. Because in the past I attempted to make goat cheese and it was an epic fail! But I was determined this time to get it done and get it done right.

After watching a few videos I realized I really didn't have the equipment necessary (like a standing mixer) and I got a little disheartened, But then I remember, that my Magic Bullet has a whipping blade. So I poured a pint of whipping cream in the bullet cup, added the whipping base, and blended away.

Initially it was just moving like regular, which gave me whipped cream. But then it started to gain speed and I eventually saw the butter milk separate from the butter solids! Hooray! Now we're in business. I let it go a little longer just to make sure I got it good and churned.

Then I strained it, washed it, and salted it!

Can I just tell you this stuff is GOOD! Like beyond good. Store bough butter can't hold a candle to it! If you are buying store bought butter do yourself a favor and STOP! It's so easy to make your own and it tastes way better. I bet it would have been even better if I had raw milk... someday.

My next goal is to make goat butter. It's a little harder to get the cream from the milk with goat milk, and none of my local stores carry heavy goat cream. But I am bound and determined to make this happen!

So what are you waiting to try that you can get to working on today??

I'm linking up with: Homestead Barn Hop, Mostly Homemade Monday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, We Did It Wednesday, Down Home Blog Hop, Mountain Woman Rendevous, Front Porch Fridays, The HomeAcre Blog Hop, From The Farm, Farmgirl Friday, Simple Life Sunday, From The Farm