The Perfect Kale Soup

This soup has been a family favorite for years now.  I came across it in a blog called Passionate Homemaking. She had a much fancier name for it "Zuppa Tuscana." :) At my house, the kids get to pick what they want for their birthday meal, and more than once they have picked to have Kale Soup (as we uncreatively call it). A few weeks ago, we went to Gibbs Garden for a fall outing, and a distraction from what our original purpose for that day, which was supposed to be our first chicken butchering day....but that's another post.  Anyway, we had a great day in the beautiful gardens and got fully into the spirit of fall. 

 

 

We returned home and all I wanted was a big bowl of warming soup!  I turned to my favorite, Kale Soup, and it made a perfect ending to a bitter sweet day full of God's blessings! The bonus is it is even better the next day!!!

1 lb bacon
1 lb.  Italian sausage bulk
4-6 potatoes peeled and diced
1 onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
6-8 cups chicken stock
2 cups whole milk, half & half, or raw cream
1 head of kale (5-6 leaves, as desired), chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese

First, cook the bacon in the oven at 415 degrees for 15 minutes. (This is the only way to cook bacon!)  Cool, finely chop and set the bacon aside. In a large pot, cook the sausage, onions, and garlic (in bacon grease, if desired) until the sausage has browned. Crumble sausage as you cook it. Add the potatoes and stock and bring to a boil. Once it has reached a boil, turn it down to low and simmer for 20 minutes or so, just until the potatoes are tender. Add the milk, kale, and bacon (save some bacon to go  on the top of each bowl) and allow to cook for 5-10 minutes. Season to taste. Top with parmesan cheese and bacon for extra flavor!

This little Peter Rabbit dish, that my second little man eats out of, was my husband's as a kid.  I love that all of my kids have eaten out of it. 

We love a big hunk of sourdough bread and butter to go with this rich soup.

Sourdough and Parmesan Cheese 

I promise this will become your new favorite soup!! 

Enjoy, stay warm and enjoy God's blessings in the everyday moments!

Blessings,
Jill
 

How I Was Able To Never Buy Laundry Soap Again

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Many years ago, when I first started down this more natural lifestyle path, I had a desire to learn how to make the daily products I used. One of the first things I learned to make was laundry soap.  I used liquid laundry soap at the time and I searched through recipes, and there are tons out there!  During my quest I came across the Duggar's recipe for Liquid Laundry soap. Well, I thought they should know something about good laundry soap with all of their active children.  Surprisingly, it was very easy to make.  The hardest part was finding the Fels-Naptha soap. Don't worry it is much easier now just look on the top shelf in the laundry detergent section.  It is a bar of soap wrapped in paper.  If your store doesn't carry it there is always Amazon.  So here you go my/The Duggar's Liquid Laundry Soap (directly from their page).  I hope it works as well for you as it does me!

 

 

 

Laundry Soap

(Front or top load machine-best value) 

Ingredients: 

4  Cups - hot tap water
1  Fels-Naptha soap bar*
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda**
½ Cup Borax

Directions: 

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Visit the Fels-Naptha website to find a store in your area that carries the product.
**Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

 

 

If you would like a  more thorough post on the Duggar Detergent check out this post by leahlefler

Another detergent option to try is this one by Mommypotamus, but I have never tried it. 

 

Lastly, I want you to take a look at how our random half functioning garden tub gets used at our home...

It has never been used for a bath, but countless 5 gallon buckets have been filled!!!

 

Happy Washing!

Jill

The Herbal Hutch

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

"Mama's Mud" A Spa Treatment for Baby"

This is a shared post from my blog over at Linden Row Botanicals. I will be posting over there as well on soap and skincare topics.

      In May, I was blessed to give birth to my fifth child.  That's a lot of diapers and many opportunities for diaper rash to occur.  Naturally, once I started down this natural health and body care journey, over six years ago, I had to learn to make a better diaper rash cream.  I tried several recipes, but none worked as well as the one I came up with "Mama's Mud".  I have been using it for years now and given it as baby gifts as well.  The best thing is that it is VERY simple to make!

You will need:

1/8 cup coconut oil (extra virgin is preferred)

1/4 cup raw shea butter

3-4 Tablespoons Bentonite Clay (I use Redmond Clay)

This will make about 1 cup.

First, combine the coconut oil and shea butter in a small bowl.  You can use a hand mixer to blend or even soften the shea butter slightly in a double boiler.  Then add the clay until you reach the desired whipped texture.  Store it in a sealed container at your changing table or in a small tin in your diaper bag.  You can apply the paste at each diaper change to prevent rash or just apply when a rash occurs. 

I use the paste when there is an active rash.  As prevention, I have Redmond Clay (can you tell I love the stuff) in a shaker that I dust my babies bottom with during each diaper change. 

If you use cloth diapers, you can use this too!  I apply the paste and then use one of my homemade wet wipes (in its dry state) as a barrier. My wet wipes are made from cut up fleece receiving blankets.

*The paste may discolor or stain fabric.  It  is clay after all. :) 

"Mama's Mud" has worked wonders for me and I hope it brings quick healing to the little bums in your life.

Jill

A New Motto

     We are always striving to become more self-sufficient and I often feel that we aren’t moving quickly enough towards our goals.  The only way we seem to make progress is to leap!  We read, study and plan only to not act on the plan.  Things should be prepared for the animal before you take on the responsibility of the life and well-being of an animal. Right?

  Yes, we plan to eat our animals, but we want to give them the best life possible and respect their contribution to sustaining our lives.  There is a tendency for us to plan & plan & plan…you get the picture.  I have found the  only way we make progress is to do drastic things...

First Batch of Egg Layers

like order 15 or even 25 chicks when we don’t even have a coop :$.  Say yes to a rabbit before our colony is built.  If we don’t have the pressure of the animal coming we don’t “build it.” 

 My new motto instead of “Build it and they will come.” Is “Build it they are coming!” 

There is a big difference between the above statements, but it has been our motivator thus far.  I hope one day we won’t function this way, but for now, this is how we make progress. 





The Chicken Castle

Hawthorne, my husband, has almost finished the “Chicken Castle” as we are calling it due to it being 25% larger than we intended.  You could say we are also growing in our building experience as well, if you can call assembling PVC pipe and chicken wire building. ;)  This PVC pipe structure will house our Freedom Rangers when we move them outside around 3 to 4 weeks.  This will be our first batch of meat chickens and they arrived yesterday so I will be writing about that new learning  experience soon.  Birch, my oldest daughter, helped me set up our brooder so we would at least be ready when the chicks arrived. 



Sweet Fern


 

 

 For now our  breeder meat rabbit, Sweet Fern, is being moved around on grass in a modified dog kennel. 

In the coming weeks we plan to fence the rabbit colony and try to seed it with plot spike.  Our property has some interesting quirks and one is a concrete pad in the woods that is half fenced.  There is a very thick cover of organic matter on top of the concrete pad from years of leaves falling.  When my farm friends at East West Farm and Free Home Farm came for a visit they gave us the idea to build the colony.  This will be a huge learning experience and I pray we learn quickly without many mishaps.






There is always so much going on here and more we want to do, but I am trying to learn to rest in the journey and see the Lord's blessings each day.  Thanks for taking the journey with me.


Jill, The Herbal Hutch

Changes

     What a journey of learning and growing this has been!  The Herbal Hutch all started as a simple way to help my friends and family and share what I had learned with others.  As time went on a farmer friend Daniel at East West Farm asked if I would like to make items for his farmers market.  Then Anna from Suburban Fresh Farm generously offered to share her space with me at the Woodstock Farmers Market. 

                          My studies in herbs, natural body care, and essential oils continued and then branched into soap design with the completion of my certification in soap making through the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild. 


     There are many other facets to my life that are of great interest, and I enjoy sharing them with others. 

My family has started the slow venture into homesteading, which includes many different areas of interest.  I am also still working on my herbal studies.  If you have followed me on my Facebook page The Herbal Hutch then you have seen this evolving process through my posts, but in the last six months my natural soap and body care business has grown.  During this time, I have felt a tug of war on my Herbal Hutch Facebook page and name.  I have decided to divide the two due to growth and identity conflict.  The Herbal Hutch will continue as a source of education and possible future homesteading, herbal, and soaping classes. 

I am very excited about the new options that this separation will have, and hope you will continue to follow me in both. My new body care company name is  Linden Row Botanicals and I will be posting about my new products on its new page.  There will also be a new website and it will link to my Etsy page.  Thank you all for your support and the opportunity to share wonderful nourishing body products with you. 

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram!


Jill
The Herbal Hutch
& Linden Row Botanicals

Into the Woods We Go...

 

Twice a year my family goes camping at an event called Earthskills Rendezvous.  At this event there are several well trained healthcare providers in the holistic approach.  Even though, there are wonderful care givers at the event I always pack my own family first aid kit.  Every trip looks a little different and every trip I can better tweak my herbal bag, but for this trip I took:

Redmond Clay- I love this stuff, and one day I will do a post just on it.  We use it for upset stomach, burns, stings, diaper rash, and poison ivy

Elderberry Tincture- to fight off colds

Echinacea Tincture- for immune support and to clean wounds

 OnGuard Essential oil blend- immune support and cold fighting

 Essential oil travel set- has a collection of oils that have several uses

 Past Tense essential oil blend- for headaches

Emergen-C-immune support

Arnica salve- for sore muscles and bruises

Throat Coat tea by Traditional Medicinals

The trip went well for several days, and we only used the Echinacea to clean two small knife cuts and Past Tense for a sun/dehydration migraine.  On day three my husband came down with a cold, and he is very susceptible to it moving to his chest.  We weren’t very diligent and I didn’t have the syrups I usually treat him with so he went to the first aid.  They gave him some lovely tincture blends for immune system support and cold fighting. Great!  Well, with my husband’s tendencies it wasn’t enough.  Very quickly his cold went to his chest and was a very violent wet cough.  This gave him great discomfort and me great concern.  I decided to brainstorm and treat with what I did have.  A wonderful friend loaned me a pot to boil water in and I made a steam out of tea tree, lemon, peppermint and Breathe essential oil blend.  I rubbed his chest and neck with Onguard and Breathe, and also applied OnGuard to the soles of his feet.  Then I got him to take my Elderberry tincture along with the camp's First Aid tincture blend.  His coughing soon settled and he was able to sleep.  I was so thankful, because it was very violent, and he was having a hard time catching his breath.  About four hours later, he woke and started coughing again.  The treatment had worn off so I re-dosed him with everything and he settled back down.  This was the cycle for the rest of the night, but by morning he was MUCH better!  I was so thankful for my bag of herbs, but I missed my thyme treatment.  The next day there was a bizarre put on by the campers and one man brought his wildcrafted Mullein, so I bought a small sample amount to make a tea if my husband’s coughing got worse.  We are home now and I have him on my usual treatment for his chest colds http://theherbalhutch.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-first-herbal-remedy-i-make-each-fall.html.  This trip showed me one area that was lacking in my herb kit, so I will soon be making a thyme tincture to fill this need.  I know there are other herbs for chest congestion, but so far thyme has worked wonders for my husband so I plan to start there for now.

What Herbs would you take into the woods with you?

 

Jill, The Herbal Hutch

 

 

 

How Can You Resist This Hair?

       Well to be honest I couldn't, but I could do without the cradle cap that my little man occasionally gets.  Thankfully, there is an easy herbal fix for this problem!  In just a few steps his head is free of all those yucky flakes.  I use three ingredients that are all antifungal and antibacterial.  They also are moisturizing. 
This will make several treatments, but you can use it on other areas that you would use a fungal cream.  Also, other members of the family may also benefit from a deep scalp treatment if they have dandruff. 



 



  Ingredients:
  1/4 cup Virgin Coconut Oil
  2-4 drops Tea Tree essential oil (Melaleuca for my Doterra friends)
  2-4 drops Rosemary essential oil

Mix all of the ingredients together and rub it on the problem area of the scalp.  I mean saturate the area!  Let the oil soak for awhile, and then with a stiff bristle brush, a comb, or I prefer my finger nails you begin to scrub.  The flakes will peel off and they can be combed away.  Once the area is free of the flakes, you can give the child a bath, which includes many hair washings.  I usually have to give an additional bath just to get the remaining oil out, but it is worth it.  Now his head is flake free and he is still irresistible.


Jill, The Herbal Hutch