Homesteading – Page 2 – Green Lifestyle Market

Environmental Emphasis: The Sustainable Home Recycled

The American dream of a large, palatial home filled with possessions is dying. Simply put, this concept is no longer a sustainable option. Rethinking dreams and ideals is what environmental consciousness is all about, a spur to something brand-new and exciting.

Many of us really ‘live’ in only a portion of our spacious homes. Usually, those rooms will be the kitchen and living room area. Do we need all that extra space that we are paying to heat, cool and maintain? A small home constructed with eco-friendly living space has multiple advantages. First of all, small living quarters can give the illusion of light and space to rest the soul without large actual size. Manageability in heating and cooling will grant freedom from high monthly overhead, not to mention real estate taxes and maintenance.

The key to smallness is design. Proper design can give efficient kitchen, bathroom and storage space without the appearance of crowding.

A practical component to smaller living space is the need divest oneself of excessive possessions. Emancipation from the care and purchase of multiple wanted items can be revolutionary. Lifestyle simplification is a very positive benefit of smaller living spaces.

Location, location, location. This is the realtor’s rallying cry, an especially important issue when the goal is an eco-friendly lifestyle. The wrong location can put the kibosh on an environmentally efficient living plan.
For instance, will there be an area of routine sunlight for solar panels? Is the soil and location suitable to grow some food? Will there be proper air circulation and drainage to provide some natural cooling for the home? Is there a way to walk or take public transportation when leaving the home for school or work?

Choices of building materials for the ecologically-friendly house are so diverse and creative that they are mind-boggling. We will begin with some concepts to keep in mind. Builder-speak specifies the need for a ‘tight envelope’. Simply put, the better a building keeps out rain, wind, cold and heat, the better the envelope.

An unusual recommendation for tight insulating material is recycled steel. At least 65 tons of steel are scrapped and recycled every year, and it can be used economically in the place of forest products for beams and structural support.

Insulated concrete buildings reportedly saved 20 percent more energy than homes constructed with wood framing in cold climates. The secret is in pouring the concrete into walls with insulation material sandwiched between. Creativity with cement and its forms is practically limitless.

Straw is a by-product of the grain industry that is well-known for its isolative qualities. Animals are bedded with straw. Today, people take advantage of straw by building homes from square bales.At first, this concept may seem a lesson in disaster. What if it becomes wet, or filled with insects?

At first, this concept may seem a lesson in disaster. What if it becomes wet, or filled with insects?
Good questions.

According to the California Straw Building Association, straw will last for thousands of years if kept dry. Dryness is paramount. The key is bonding the straw with stucco and plaster for walls and the outside surface. When that is accomplished, straw bales provide structure and good isolative qualities.
Local building ordinances do not often account for straw construction, but, on a case-by-case basis, authorities can manage the situation positively.

Plastic bags seem the quintessential environmental plague. However, if you have recycled them, they may just turn up as a building resource. Brightly coloured bricks are made from plastic bags, which are very difficult to recycle in other ways. The bags are compressed and placed in a heat mould and forced into blocks of plastic. They are too lightweight to be used as outside or bearing walls for a home but are just right to use for room dividers or outside patios.

Bottles become bricks with just a little bit of attention to their design. The Heineken company originated this concept. The owner of the brewery, Alfred Henry Heineken, visited an island in the Caribbean in the 1960’s and was appalled at the lack of housing. Forthwith the company embarked upon a new, brick-shaped bottle that could be reused and built into housing walls.

Some people think that recycling already-used building products will result in derelict design or poor durability. Nothing could be farther than the truth! Though going through old construction waste and configuring it to meet new construction needs is difficult and time-consuming, it can result in a truly unique tribute to home artistry and design.

An internet service called freecycle.org is a site for people wanting to buy or trade construction materials. Habitat for Humanity retails outlets called ReStores that have used and surplus building supplies for sale. The money garnered from the sales is used to financially aid Habitat’s building endeavours for those in need.

Recycling is truly a momentous endeavour today. The technology to recycle just about everything has geared up and produces products from recycled carpet to reformed glass for windows. Agricultural by-products, cardboard, and paper are routinely shredded into home insulation and pressed into particle board. Recycled plastic foam and concrete are formed into Rasta building blocks, lightweight and extremely durable.

The sustainable home concept is thriving through new technologies and the creativity and innovation of builders everywhere.

Sources:

How to Pickle Anything Like a Pro – Infographic

Did you pick a peck of peppers with Peter Piper this summer? Pickling your summer harvest will not only preserve your bounty, but will also give it an entirely new and delicious flavor – not to mention all the added health benefits.

Pickling vegetables is a relatively easy task, but there are a few tips and tricks you can use to ensure pickling perfection. For starters, it is very important that you follow the recipe exactly. If you alter the quantities you risk the spread of spoilage-causing bacteria. It is also important to clean all cooking utensils and jars in hot, soapy water.

There are also some ingredients that are better suited for pickling than others. If you don’t have access to garden-fresh vegetables, make sure you select produce that appears blemish-free and crisp. Keep in mind if you wish to pickle cucumbers, there are different varieties. Pass on salad cucumbers or ones that are waxed and look for pickling cucumbers.

When making pickling brine, opt for pickling salt over standard table salt. The iodine found in table salt will darken your pickles and the anticaking agents can cause your brine to appear cloudy. Using cider and malt vinegars can also darken light-colored vegetables. You can avoid this by using commercial white vinegar with less than 5% acidity. If you prefer your pickles sour, use vinegar with 7% acidity.

Once you have gathered all the necessary ingredients you can begin the pickling process. Stainless steel bowls and pots are best suited for these recipes. You want avoid containers and utensils with copper, iron, zinc, or brass because they may react with the salt and acidic vinegar.

Use our easy-to-follow guide below to ensure you don’t land yourself in a pickling pickle. Don’t forget to send a jar to Peter; he did do all the picking, after all.

Infographic and Article courtesy of Fix.com

15 Effective Ways To Make Your Home Energy Efficient – Infographic

If you thought the great BP oil spill of 2010 wasted a lot of energy, then you should realize that 75,000 average American households squander just as much energy every year. This stunning fact helps you get a better perspective about the enormous amount of energy wasted by the U.S. In fact, Americans waste 130 billion dollars of energy annually, which is enough energy to provide power to the entire United Kingdom for seven years.

Something needs to be done about this situation because it affects everyone. Fortunately, there are many things that you can do as a responsible global citizen in order to help put an end to this massive amount of waste as per this infographic by 99SmartHomes. First, there are a lot of daily habits that you can adopt that will allow you to not use quite so much energy every day. In addition, there are also a lot of eco-friendly products now available on the marketplace that will help you to control the total amount of your personal energy usage.

Growing Chili Peppers at Home – Infographic

Chilies make a beautiful and satisfying crop. The colors are stunning: reds, purples, yellows and oranges, and there is a chili to suit every taste, from the delicate and fruity to the heart-stoppingly fiery. You can grow them all yourself as long as you can find a sunny corner for them. They are great plants for growing in pots on a warm patio, and will be even happier in a conservatory or cool greenhouse.

Hot History

Chili peppers, or “chili peppers” in the UK, originated in South and Central America, traveling to warm parts of Europe and Asia from around the 16th century onwards. They have become a huge part of many Asian cuisines and varieties have developed independently wherever they are grown. Chilies contain natural chemicals called capsaicinoids, which when eaten, cause a burning sensation. Increased heart rate, perspiration, and a rush of endorphins follows. The heat of a chili pepper is measured on the Scoville Scale, a method of measurement created by American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912. The test is not entirely accurate, depending as it does on whether the heat in dilutions of the particular chili can be detected by a panel of tasters (the higher the figure, the higher the dilution at which it was sensed), but it gives a rough idea of the pepper’s relative fieriness.

Growing Chilies

Chilies are not the easiest plants to grow, but if you can master their cultivation you will have grown a crop that is packed full of flavor and that will improve a wide array of meals. The problem for many growers is that chilies originate from such warm places, where the season is long and hot and the plants have more time to grow, flower, fruit, and ripen.

Those of us who can’t expect these kinds of conditions have to use a few tricks to fool them into flourishing. These tricks are designed to lengthen the season, even where the season is naturally short and cool. Start sowing early in the year. It feels like an odd time to be sowing the seed of such heat lovers, but they really do need to be sown in February or March if you hope to see many fruits. The need for heat starts early; your seeds will struggle to germinate if they are in a cool or temperature-fluctuating environment. A heated propagator creates the perfect environment. These small closed cases are cheap to buy and to run. They are plugged into an electrical outlet and emit a gentle but constant heat that seeds find irresistible. If you don’t have a heated propagator, then a sunny windowsill may be your next best bet, though the fluctuation between night and day temperatures is not ideal, particularly on cold nights. You may get better results if you move your pots of seeds to a warmer spot at night.

Once you have germinated seedlings, pot them up into individual pots and keep them somewhere warm and sunny. A greenhouse or a conservatory is ideal but if you have neither of these, then a sunny windowsill will do until the weather warms. It is important to pot your chilies into larger pots regularly: other plants such as tomatoes and cucumbers make it obvious when they need to be potted on, growing leggy and over-balancing their little pots, but chilies do the opposite – they sit and wait for a bigger pot before they grow. So keep on potting on and prompt them into growth. Their final pot should be generous. You can also plant them directly into the ground in polytunnels and greenhouses.

When all chance of frost has passed and the weather is reliably warm, you can plant the chilies out in the open ground. Ideally they should be protected from cold nights by a glass cloche. All plants that have been started indoors will need a period of hardening off to slowly get them used to being outdoors. Start with a few hours outdoors during the day for a few days, then leave them out a full day, followed by a day and night as long as they are well protected. Chilies should not be outdoors unprotected at night until June, and even then, they will be happier with night-time protection.

The Five Chili Species

Domestic chilies are cultivars originating from 5 species

Capsicum annuum (e.g. Jalapeno, Chipotle, Cayenne)
Capsicum frutescens (e.g. Tabasco, Thai)
Capsicum chinense (e.g. Habanero, Ghost Peppers, Carolina Reaper)
Capsicum pubescens (e.g. Rocoto)
Capsicum baccatum (e.g. Aji)

With luck and a sunny summer your plants will grow happily. Don’t be tempted to prune them – some gardeners nip out the first shoots to encourage their chilies to bush out. There is really no need and you will just delay the development of the first fruit. They have a naturally bushy habit, so let them develop it. However, they may not prove to be entirely self-supporting as they grow, and can benefit from having a stout cane pushed into the ground near the base. Tie the main stem to the cane to prevent toppling.

Keep plants reasonably well watered over the summer (but not waterlogged) and start feeding with a high-potash fertilizer once the flowers appear. A high-potash fertilizer is one that encourages flower and fruit production. Tomato fertilizers are good examples and will work perfectly for chilies. It is worth feeding your plants with them regularly, at least once every week.

Once the fruits start to ripen up, you have the choice of whether to leave them on the plant to grow to their full sweetness or remove them and encourage more fruits. Those removed will carry on ripening, but they do it best on the plant. You have a race to ripen: just as seedlings need protecting at the beginning of the season, so will plants be affected by the colder weather towards the end. In a greenhouse or conservatory, plants will go on into autumn but outdoors they will start to suffer. Any fruits that are hit by frost will turn to mush. Protect outdoor-grown plants with horticultural fleece or cloches, and carry pot-grown plants indoors to a sunny room.

Drying Chilies

One great way to preserve chili peppers is to dry them out. Drying works best with waxier peppers, and they will stay for years. You can also pickle your peppers, make jellies, and more! Below, we cover three awesome ways to dry your chilies.

Once the fruits start to ripen, the real fun begins: you will have chili con carne and curries to your (slightly faster-beating) heart’s content, and the knowledge that you grew the most important ingredient yourself.

WRITTEN BY

Lia Leendertz is an award-winning garden writer based in the UK. She is a regular writer for The Guardian and The Telegraph and for most of the major gardening magazines. She has a town garden and an allotment in Bristol, England and loves growing flowers, vegetables, and fruit. – Author Profile

Meadowsweet – Check Out What This Wild Herb Can Do For You

Meadowsweet is a wild herb and flower that is rich in vitamin C, antioxidants, and bioflavonoids and works as a natural digestive aid and pain reliever. It has been found to decrease the amount of acid build up in the stomach by soothing the mucous membranes and digestive tract which makes it an excellent remedy for digestive issues such as nausea, ulcers, heartburn, gastritis, indigestion, ibs, and diarrhea. Meadowsweet contains

Meadowsweet contains salicyclic acid, which is commonly used as the active ingredient in aspirin and can provide similar pain relief from headaches, fevers, and various aches and pains. Meadowsweet also contains potent anti-inflammatory properties and can help reduce swelling associated with arthritis, rheumatism, fibromyalgia, bursitis, sinusitis, allergies, migraines, and chronic illnesses. Meadowsweet is a gentle, yet effective herb for urinary tract, bladder, and kidney infections and can safely be used on children and adults alike.

Meadowsweet also contains sedative properties that help to relax the nervous system and reduce muscle tension throughout the body. Meadowsweet tea has a smooth, clean, sweet flavor. Use 2 teaspoons of dried herb to 1 cup of boiling water and allow to steep for at least 20 minutes, sweeten with raw honey if desired. Topically, meadowsweet tea can be used as compress for neuralgia, painful arthritis, rheumatic joints, hemorrhoids, cellulite, acne, and edema. It is also an excellent eyewash for conjunctivitis and other eye related problems.

If you find the herb growing locally in the wild the flowers can be added to fruit salads, ice tea, jams, and sorbets for a subtly sweet almond flavor. Meadowsweet can also be found online or at your local health food store in tea, tincture, extract, capsule, and cream form.