This guide will cover everything you need to know to make beautiful homemade bath salts using natural ingredients like epsom salt, sea salt, herbs, flowers, and organic essential oils. We’ll explore the best types of salt to use, the benefits they offer, and optional additions like colloidal oat powder. I’ll also cover frequently asked questions about bath salts – including usage, storage, tips for easy clean up, septic system concerns, and more.

Whether they’re for self-care or to share as special gifts, homemade bath salts are fun and easy to make. I’ll share our usual DIY bath salt recipe, but the process is very flexible. Feel free to get creative with your own blends! 

Why and how bath salt soaks work

Bath salts are usually made of epsom salts and sometimes other types of salt too, such as sea salt. When added to warm water, bath salts dissolve and release beneficial minerals (magnesium sulfate in the case of epsom salt) into your bath water. 

In theory, bath salt minerals absorb into your skin and help relax muscles, soothe skin irritation, and reduce inflammation as you soak. Warm bath salt soaks can also help improve circulation and stimulate detoxification in your body. Studies are still lacking on the exact benefits of bath salts, but soaking in warm salty water is incredibly relaxing and relieves stress nonetheless!  

Beyond minerals, bath salts may offer additional benefits depending on the ingredients in them – such as the medicinal powers of herbs, skin healing benefits of colloidal oatmeal, or soothing aromatherapy of essential oils.

What type of salt is best to make DIY bath salts?

You can make bath salts with only one type of salt (e.g. epsom salts alone), or combine several in your DIY bath salt recipe to reap the benefits of each one – plus add visual interest! Here are some of the most popular options:

• Epsom salt is the most common type of salt to use in bath salts, and potentially the most therapeutic too. However, epsom salt is technically not a real “salt” at all! Rather, epsom salt is a naturally occurring mineral compound made of magnesium and sulfate. Epsom salt soaks are used to promote quick healing and pain relief from a range of issues such as sprains, bruises, ingrown nails, stiff joints and muscles, or fibromyalgia. It’s also used to relieve constipation when taken internally.

• Sea Salts*. Sea salts are derived from seawater and are mostly composed of sodium chloride. Since they’re not refined or only minimally processed, sea salts retain numerous valuable minerals including magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, bromine, boron, zinc, iron, manganese, copper and silicon. Like epsom salts, sea salt baths can ease tension and stiffness while stimulating circulation and detoxification.

• Pink Himalayan Salt. As opposed to the sea, pink salt is a rock salt found high in the Himalayan mountains of South Asia. Though it’s about 98% sodium chloride, pink Himalayan salt also contains up to 84 other trace minerals and elements! It’s also really pretty, ideal for adding a pop of color and interest to your DIY bath salt recipe. 

• Cooking salts. You can also use common cooking salts in homemade bath salts, such as kosher salt, pickling salt or coarse rock salt. These salts are economical, readily available, and contain some trace minerals too. However, AVOID using iodized table salt to make bath salts. Lacking minerals, highly processed table salt doesn’t offer many health benefits. Instead, it adds trace amounts of unwanted iodine to your bath water. 

*Note: Depending on the origin, there are a number of unique sea salts to choose from, such as grey sea salt, Celtic sea salt, Dead Sea salt, and more. Each may offer slightly unique properties (e.g. Dead Sea salt is especially magnesium-rich) but in general, sea salts offer similar benefits in the bath. 

Fine, medium or coarse grind salts for bath salts

Salts come in various grain sizes or “grinds”: coarse, medium, fine, and extra fine. Finer grain salts dissolve fast and easy in your bath, while coarser salts take just a tad longer to dissolve. Yet coarse salts have more surface area and therefore absorb essential oils better, and look pretty cool to boot! All that considered, I generally like to make DIY bath salts with a mix of medium and coarse grind salts. 

Ingredients for Natural DIY Bath Salts 

Homemade bath salts can be as simple or complex as you wish to make them! At minimum, all you really need is salt to create a soothing soak. Yet if you’ve landed on this article, I imagine you’re looking for ideas to spice things up and create more interesting, fragrant, or healing homemade bath salt blends. 

Below is a list of ingredients that we use in our DIY bath salt recipe, though you can easily adjust or omit things as you see fit. I always try to source high-quality organic ingredients… especially for something I’ll be soaking my bits and parts in! This recipe makes about 5 cups of finished bath salts. Scale up or down as needed.

• 4 cups of salt total, such as epsom salt, sea salt, and/or pink Himalayan salt. I often use three kinds (e.g. 2 cups of epsom salt, 1 cup grey sea salt, and 1 cup pink).
  
  
• ½ cup to 1 cup dried herbs or flowers, such as dried rose petals, lavender, calendula, chamomile, rosemary, mint leaves, lemon verbena, or even dried citrus – just to name a few! Again, I like to mix in a couple different things. To prevent mold, it’s important to use 100% dry herbs or flowers for bath salt blends you intend to store for later use. We use a lot of homegrown herbs, though we also source organic herbs from Starwest Botanicals.
  
  
• ½ cup colloidal oat powder. Colloidal oatmeal is phenomenal for your skin! It’s proven to soothe irritation and itching, add softness, and lock in moisture – therefore alleviating skin conditions such as dermatitis, rashes, psoriasis, eczema and more. I also find it helps make bath salts less oily. I make my own colloidal oatmeal by grinding organic oats into a super fine powder in our Vitamix blender, but here is a great organic colloidal oat powder from a small black-owned business!
  
  
• 2 Tbsp Vitamin E oil. Vitamin E oil is a powerful antioxidant with moisturizing and anti-inflammatory properties that improve skin health. Though they’re not quite as potent, feel free to substitute with olive oil, sweet almond oil, argan oil, or your other favorite carrier oil of choice.
  
  
• ½ teaspoon (50 drops) up to 1 teaspoon (100 drops) of essential oils total (e.g. 30 drops lavender and 20 drops eucalyptus, one of my favorite combos). Sliding scale based on how strongly-scented you want your DIY bath salts. If you’re unsure, start with less – you can always add more later! I recommend using just one or two scents. See more information on essential oil options below.

The best essential oils for bath salts

Though not required, plant-based essential oils really enhance natural DIY bath salts and your overall bath experience! Certain scents are very effective at calming nerves or elevating your mood. It’s called aroma-therapy, after all! Beyond the benefits of aromatherapy, various herbs and essential oils offer unique healing properties. For example, lavender has antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal properties, and is known to ease anxiety and calm the mind. Similarly, eucalyptus and rosemary are antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and offer a very uplifting scent.

The most popular essential oils for DIY bath salts include: lavender, sweet orange, roman chamomile, tea tree, eucalyptus, bergamot, geranium, sandalwood, cedarwood, jasmine, rose, lemongrass, clary sage, frankincense, ylang ylang, vanilla, and rosemary. Use one scent alone, or try mixing two or three. 

Tip: Balance sweet, woody, or floral scents with a more bright, herbaceous or citrusy scent, such as lavender + eucalyptus or rosemary, chamomile + lemongrass, sandalwood or cedarwood + bergamot, or jasmine + sweet orange. Again, I recommend starting with just one, two, or maayyybe three scents combined.

Avoid using “hot” or potentially irritating essential oils like peppermint, wintergreen, cinnamon, clove, oregano, cassia, and thyme in the bath. 

What about baking soda?

Unlike some DIY bath salt recipes, I do not recommend adding baking soda to your bath salt blend unless you plan to use it immediately, or unless you’re using epsom salts only (no sea salt). The combination of baking soda and salt reacts to create carbon dioxide gas which will expand in packaging, and can even break glass jars in extreme circumstances! So, if you do want to include baking soda (which is great for softening skin) then simply add up to a half cup directly to your bathwater as it fills. 

Now, on to the easiest part… aside from soaking that is!

Instructions to Make DIY Bath Salts

1. First, add salts and colloidal oatmeal to a mixing bowl. Stir well to combine.
2. Next, drizzle over the vitamin E oil (or other oil) and then the dry herbs or flowers. Mix again.
3. Add your chosen essential oils and stir until everything is evenly combined.
4. Finally, package your homemade bath salts into aitight storage containers of choice, and enjoy your soak! Keep reading for tips on storing and using bath salts.

How to store bath salts

Store homemade bath salts in an airtight container. Sealable bags, a glass container with swing-top lid and gasket, or mason jars with tight-fitting lids work great. Store in a cool, dark, dry location. A good storage container should prevent moisture intrusion and clumping as well as keep in the aroma of the essential oils, helping your bath salts stay nice and fresh.

If you’re going to share your homemade bath salts with others, be sure to add a label that lists all of the ingredients! This way, the recipient can know what to expect and be aware of any potential allergens.

How much bath salts to add to the bathtub

Add anywhere from ¼ cup up to 2 cups of bath salts to a standard size bathtub. Unless I need intense relief, I tend to lean more on the light side since the ingredients we use are high quality (read: not exactly cheap). If I want a little extra oomph, I toss in an extra half cup of plain epsom salt in addition to my “special” DIY bath salts. 

Do not put bath salts in whirlpool tubs, hot tubs, or other tubs with jets unless the manufacturer specifies that’s okay.

How to add bath salts to your bath

There’s really no “wrong” way to add bath salts to a bath! However, if you’re using homemade bath salts made with essential oils and hope to bask in the aroma, I suggest waiting to add the bath salts until the tub is nearly full of warm water. Then stir the water around with your hand to help them dissolve. 

Essential oils are volatile (meaning they evaporate easily, especially when heated) so their aroma tends to dissipate more quickly than synthetic fragrances. If added to the bath too early, the smell can be quite faint by the time you’re ready to climb in! Close the bathroom door to keep the lovely scented steam in too.

How to make bath salts less messy

Some folks like to add bath salts directly to the bathwater. Soaking while rose petals swirl around you can certainly feel luxurious! On the other hand, some people may not like the feeling of floaties touching them as they soak. Or, want to deal with the clean up. For a mess-free, floaty-free bath salt experience, simply put your bath salts in a “tea bag” to steep! 

Add bath salts to a small reusable cotton drawstring bag, or fashion a steeping satchel out of organic cheesecloth and a hair tie or string. Hang or hold the teabag in the water near the downspout as the tub finishes filling. The salt will still dissolve and seep into the water, while the bag contains the herb and flower floaties. As an added bonus, the herbal tea bag doubles as an exfoliating wash cloth!

If you don’t steep your bath within a tea bag and they contain large flower or herb bits, you may want to use a mesh drain strainer to catch debris as the tub drains at the end of your bath.

How long to soak in bath salts (and how often)

To reap the maximum benefits from your bath salt experience, allow yourself to soak for 20 to 30 minutes. You can use bath salt soaks up to three times per week in times of need. 

It’s difficult to “overdo it” when it comes to bath salts, though too much could lead to dry skin in some sensitive individuals. Frequent bath salt soaks could also change vaginal pH levels, making a more hospitable environment for yeast infections or irritation. 

Should I rinse off after a bath salt soak?

That’s up to you! A strong bath salt soak (using 1 to 2 cups of bath salts) could potentially leave skin feeling dry later, depending on the other ingredients in your bath salt recipe. You may also want to rinse off if your bath had herbs and flowers floating around that are now stuck to your skin. Since I usually steep my herbal bath salts in a tea bag (and my tub is separate from my shower) I personally don’t feel the need to rinse off afterwards. 

Can bath salts expire?

Salts themselves (epsom salt and sea salt) do not expire. Similarly, homemade bath salts will not “go bad” but they’ll be the best quality if used within a year or two. The other ingredients added to DIY bath salts such as oils, colloidal oatmeal, or dried herbs may have a “best by” date or degrade in quality over time. 

Are bath salts bad for septic systems?

No, bath salts should not harm your septic system. (For the record, I used to permit septic systems for the county!) In general, highly salty water isn’t great for septic systems. For instance, most septic experts advise against discharging water softener backwash (brine) into septic tanks. However, the water from an occasional bath salt soak has a very dilute salt concentration in comparison. 

Plus, epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) aren’t actually a true “salt”, remember?  Epsom salts are completely harmless to septic systems. In fact, some septic professionals actually suggest adding epsom salt to septic systems. They claim that they help the system run more efficiently and encourage healthier plant growth in the drainage field. So, fear not!

If you plan to use bath salts routinely (e.g. once a week or more) and have a septic tank, use a 2:1 epsom salt to sea salt ratio. Or, use just epsom salts alone to make homemade bath salts.

Are bath salt soaks safe during pregnancy?

If you’re pregnant, talk with your doctor before using bath salts. While warm (not hot) baths are generally safe during pregnancy, it’s unclear if adding bath salts is recommended. Many sources say that natural bath salts made with epsom salts are okay to use while pregnant, and can provide much-needed relief from the discomforts that go hand-in-hand with pregnancy. Yet it’s suggested to exercise caution with essential oils while pregnant, and avoid them entirely during the first trimester. It’s also important to avoid bath salts that contain artificial fragrances, phthalates, or other chemicals.

And that’s how to make your own beautiful, natural DIY bath salts!

I hope you found this tutorial to be both insightful and inspiring. As you can see, making homemade bath salts is quite easy to do, flexible, and perfect for self-care and thoughtful gifts alike. Have fun getting creative and making your own! Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments. Also please consider leaving a rating or review below. Happy soaking!

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• How to Make Herb Infused Oil: Two Ways
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• How to Make a DIY Beeswax Fall Leaf Garland
• Soothing Homemade Lavender Salve Recipe
• Calendula Salve Recipe for Healthy Skin
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DIY Bath Salts Recipe ~ Beautiful Natural Herbal Bath Salts

Learn how to make beautiful homemade bath salts using natural ingredients like epsom salt, sea salt, herbs, flowers, and organic essential oils. Perfect for self-care or a thoughtful DIY gift to share, bath salt soaks help alleviate stress, tension, sore muscles, inflammation, and more.

Ingredients

• 4 cups salts of choice, such as epsom salt, sea salt, and/or pink Himalayan salt. I often use three kinds (e.g. 2 cups of epsom salt, 1 cup grey sea salt, and 1 cup pink).
• 1/2 to 1 cup dried herbs or flowers, such as dried rose petals, lavender, calendula flowers, chamomile, rosemary, mint leaves, lemon verbena, or even dried citrus – just to name a few! (do not use fresh herbs or flowers as they may mold in storage)
• 1/2 cup colloidal oat powder
• 2 Tbsp Vitamin E oil (sub with olive oil, sweet almond oil, argan oil, or other carrier oil of choice)
• 1/2 tsp (50 drops) up to 1 teaspoon (100 drops) of essential oils of choice – such as 30 drops lavender and 20 drops eucalyptus. Sliding scale based on how strong you want the scent. I recommend using just one or two scents.

Instructions

• First, add salts and colloidal oatmeal to a mixing bowl. Stir well to combine.
• Next, drizzle over the vitamin E oil (or other oil) and then the dry herbs or flowers. Mix again.
• Add your chosen essential oils and stir until everything is evenly combined.
• Finally, package your homemade bath salts into air tight storage containers of choice.
• Add 1/4 cup up to 2 cups of bath salts to warm water once the bathtub is nearly full and stir in to dissolve OR for a floaty-free soak, put the bath salts in a small reusable cotton "tea bag" or cheesecloth and steep them that way.

The post DIY Bath Salts Recipe: Beautiful Natural Herbal Bath Salts appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

From homemade treats and crafts to puzzles, organic bedding, and personal weather stations, there is something on the list for every budget or special someone in your life! To make browsing a breeze, I broke up this homestead gift guide into five sections:

1. Past Homestead Gift Favorites
2. Handmade Gifts and Crafts 
3. Garden Goods and Gadgets
4. Kitchen Supplies
5. Natural Health and Home

To shop this article, please use the links and buttons provided throughout. Some are affiliate links, meaning we gain a small commission from purchases made through those links, but at no additional cost to you. Using our links directly supports our small business, and is a very meaningful way to say thank you if you value the work we do here at Homestead and Chill. And for that, we are so incredibly grateful!

Past Homestead Gift Favorites

Since this is my fourth year publishing a holiday gift guide, and in an effort to keep things fresh and interesting, I tried to include mostly new ideas on this year’s list. YET I don’t want y’all to miss out on any awesome ideas, so here is a quick list of some tried-and-true favorite garden gifts from year’s past. Feel free to explore our gift guides from 2019, 2020, and 2021 to see more details about these – and more!

• Seed storage boxes. Photo boxes make the BEST seed storage and organization system ever! They make my little Type A heart sing. We’ve had these durable USA-made seed storage boxes for almost 5 years and they’re still in pristine condition.
  
  
• Hummingbird feeder. Attract hummingbirds and add flair to your garden with a cute hummingbird feeder, and then learn how to make DIY nectar here.
  
  
• Books. One of the best things about gardening and homesteading is that there is ALWAYS something new to learn. Browse a list of our top garden, cooking, preserving and homesteading books here. There are some fantastic resources on this list!
  
  
• Solar garden lights. Adding solar lights to your garden and outdoor space creates a cozy, magical ambiance. It also makes it more inviting to spend time in the garden once the sun goes down. We use a combination of flickering solar tiki torches, string fairy lights, pretty pathway lights, and overhead bistro lights to brighten our space.
  
  
• Birdies raised garden beds. If you’re in the market for raised garden beds (and aren’t up for building your own), I highly recommend Birdies metal raised bed kits. They come in a variety of sizes, colors, and shapes. My friend Kevin at Epic Gardening sells them here – discount code “deannacat3” will save 5% off!

Handmade Gifts & Crafts

Edible Gifts

Who doesn’t love homemade treats, especially around the holidays? Consider whipping up some tasty edible creations as gifts for family, friends, neighbors and coworkers. Package them up in cute sustainable wrapping like mason jars, small paper bags, fabric, or other containers tied with twine. Tuck in a sprig of rosemary, pine, or lavender to the package for a festive pop, or combine several homemade treats alongside a local bottle of wine, balsamic vinegar, chocolate or olives in a cute basket.

A few homemade edible gift ideas include: sweet and salty rosemary roasted mixed nuts, homemade chex mix, fruit preserves, sourdough crackers with herbs or cheese, sourdough pumpkin spice bread (or muffins), or cookies – like our soft and chewy ginger molasses sourdough cookies or sourdough chocolate chip cookies. You could even bake pumpkin-shaped sourdough bread to give to someone special! 

Elderberry Syrup

We love to share our homemade elderberry syrup – a delicious natural immune support that can help prevent illness as well relieve allergy and cold symptoms. It’s perfect for winter time, and a little goes a long way! Learn how to make your own here.

My friend Sarah owns TC Elderberry and sells dry DIY elderberry syrup kits, which are especially easy to make or gift, and would be perfect to pair with a bottle of local honey! Sarah also offers loose-leaf elderberry tea, tinctures, and bottles of fresh organic elderberry syrup. I personally love the “Kicked Up” version! Use code “deannacat” to save 15% at TC Elderberry here.

Homemade Body Care Products

Give the gift of self care! Homemade body care products are incredibly thoughtful and useful gifts, and are easier to make than you may think. Check out our step-by-step tutorials on how to make healing calendula salve, calming lavender salve, soothing cannabis salve, homemade lip balm, or herb-infused face or body oil. Bonus: just one batch can create dozens of gifts at once! 

Homemade soap, bath bombs, sugar body scrubs, or DIY bath salts are other fun self-care gift ideas. We also offer luxurious herb and flower-infused mineral bath salts in our shop. Use code “thankyou” to save $5 when you buy 3 bath salts or more!

Crafty DIY Gifts

I love crafting… just writing this makes me want to start a craft project! Pinterest is always full of fun ideas I want to try, like these handmade bird houses. If you like to sew, don’t miss our DIY heating pad or cold pack tutorial. Making fruit and vegetable stamped tea towels is a fun activity for the whole family. If you have backyard chickens, these blown egg ornaments are totally adorable. Or, learn how to make DIY beeswax wraps here (sustainable/reusable food wraps). 

Puzzles

So this isn’t exactly a craft, but similar! I’ve been SO into puzzles this year – especially ones with plants or gardens, birds, farms, cats, or other beautiful natural scenes. I enjoy the challenge, pretty photos, and opportunity to clear my mind and focus on one task. When I’m finished with them, I either pass them on to friends or followers on Instagram, or donate them to local senior centers. I’ve used this puzzle saver backing to keep and frame one of the best ones too!

Homestead and Chill Goods

I can’t share a gift guide without highlighting all the goodies we offer in our shop, right? And we’d be SO grateful if you considered supporting our small business during this holiday season! As a special thank you, please use code “SHOPSMALL” to enjoy 10% off – now through Monday Nov 28th at midnight. To give back, we also donate a portion of all proceeds to rotating wildlife, social justice, and environmental nonprofits each year.

One of our most popular items is our organic sourdough starter. It’s a little piece of our personal starter, comes dehydrated (perfect for gifting!) and with easy instructions to reactivate it  – success guaranteed! 

Using homegrown, fair-trade and high-quality organic ingredients, we also make a wide variety of natural body care products, including healing salves and lip balms, luxurious herb and mineral bath salts, natural insect repellent, soothing aftershave or beard balm, kid-safe “breathe easy” balm, and more. 

New this season: I rounded up some of my favorite photos and created a beautiful 8-pack of pollinator greeting cards (printed on recycled paper) as well as a 2023 nature wall calendar. Last but not least, we also offer Homestead and Chill t-shirts and canvas tote bags printed on organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, and other sustainable materials! 

Garden Goods & Gadgets

Seeds or Plants

While it may not be the best idea to pick out specific varieties for someone else, I know us gardeners always get excited about seeds – and plant shopping! So perhaps consider giving the special gardener in your life a gift certificate to their favorite local nursery or seed supplier so they can pick out exactly what they need. Tuck the gift card inside a garden hod or harvest basket (I always find the best ones at thrift stores!) and a new pair of garden gloves to round out the gift.

For seeds, I highly recommend High Mowing Organic Seeds. They’re an awesome small business based out of Vermont, and offer a stellar selection of certified organic veggie, flower and herb seeds. 95% of what we grow in our garden comes from High Mowing!

Personal Weather Station

Monitoring the weather is crucial for us gardeners, and can be really fun too! We’ve found that our local weather forecasts always seem several degrees off from what we truly experience in our garden, so this year we invested in a personal weather station! Now we can monitor the real-time temperature, humidity, wind, rain, UV, and pressure in our backyard microclimate. This is especially key when it comes to frost and deciding when to act and cover our most tender plants. 

We just recently got our weather station so we admittedly haven’t had a lot of time to test it out yet. But so far, so good! I chose it based on the reputable brand (a small business!), rave reviews, features, versatile mounting options, and range. Set-up was a breeze, and I’ve heard from dozens of folks in my Instagram community who say they’ve had the same one for years and love it!

Merry People Boots

Whether we’re out here harvesting, weeding, or just kicking back in the garden, you can pretty much always catch us in our Merry People boots. They’ve been our favorite garden boots since we first discovered them a few years ago; I wear mine pretty much every day. Merry People boots are comfortable, sturdy, vegan, waterproof, unisex, and come in a TON of fun color combinations! They offer tall boots and short clogs too. I’m also very happy to support a great small company that was founded by a woman of color. 

Wildlife Trail Camera

Here’s another new fun toy we got this year: a wildlife camera! After a lot of research (and trying a not-so-great trail cam first) we settled on a Bushnell trail cam. Admittedly, I have mostly used it to spy on the baby quail we had on our property this summer (squee!) but it’s a great tool to have around to identify garden visitors – especially those that come out at night. When you’re experiencing damage to your crops, it’s essential to identify the culprit before deciding how to best proceed! I’ve also spotted coyotes and raccoons on ours.

LED Grow Light Shelf

Here’s a gift idea for the serious seed-starter. We’ve been growing food from seed for many, many years now, but our seedlings have NEVER looked so healthy or grown as quickly as they have since we got this LED grow light shelf from Gardener’s Supply. In fact, we now have two! We’ve even decided we probably won’t add a greenhouse to our new homestead. The light shelves simply work too well, and raising seedlings indoors (or in this case, in our barn/shed) is actually easier than fighting the temperature swings that go hand-in-hand with greenhouses. 

Gardener’s Supply is currently offering free shipping on orders over $150 with code “HOLIDAYS22”

A Drone

Okay, it may be a bit of a stretch to call this a “garden tool”… but I love capturing our garden space with our new drone! It’s going to be so fun to document changes and progress on the property over time. When I was shopping and comparing drones, I chose the DJI Mini 3 Pro for several reasons. It is lightweight and compact, easy to fly, has absolutely stellar photo and video quality, and the biggest selling point (for me): it’s ability to shoot in portrait mode, with an easy toggle back to landscape too. Almost all other drones only shoot in landscape, which isn’t ideal for sharing on social media like I do so much!

Kitchen Supplies

Ceramic egg holder 

Anyone can enjoy this stylish little egg holder, but it’s an especially perfect gift for the backyard chicken keeper in your life. We keep ours out on the counter to display our girls’ beautiful (unwashed) eggs, though it works just fine on a refrigerator shelf too! (If you’re curious about storing fresh eggs at room temperature, please see this article.)

Sourdough Baking Kit 

Here is a super cute homestead gift idea: a sourdough baking kit, complete with a bread proofing basket (aka, a banneton) and a few smaller supplies tucked inside like a dough scraper, bread lame, and sourdough starter. A cast iron combo cooker (what we bake our sourdough bread in, like an upside down dutch oven) would be another fun addition! 

Our organic sourdough starter comes dehydrated (but alive), is easily reactivated with just a little flour and water, but doesn’t have to be activated for up to a year – so there is no pressure for the recipient to do anything with it right away.

Baking fresh sourdough bread is incredibly fun, rewarding, reduces wasteful packaging, is more nutritious and easier to digest than regular bread. Plus, it’s not difficult to do! All you need is a few basic supplies, a sourdough starter culture, and the desire to learn. We’re here to help with plenty of start-to-finish tutorials and recipes.

Loose Leaf Tea Party

Does someone in your life love to drink tea? Consider putting together a cute little tea party set! I adore our loose-leaf glass teapot for two, or use this high-quality stainless infuser for a single mug. Then pop over to Farmhouse Tea to browse their absolutely delectable tea blends like Coastal Cranberry Spice, Cherry Country Chai, Apple Cider Fixin’s, Prudent Pumpkin Spice, Gingerbread Spice, and Cottage Peach Roobis… just to name a few! Some contain caffeine, though most are non-caffeinated.

Farmhouse Teas is a small family-run business from Oregon, where they source all of their ingredients locally and/or organic. Their “trial size” packs are a wonderful budget-friendly gift, and still contain up to 12 cups of tea! They also offer larger bags of loose-leaf tea, bundles with 3 small bags of choice, holiday gift sets, and more. Save 20% off on Farmhouse Teas from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday with code “FARMHOUSE20”.

Zoodler

This may seem like a silly contraption, but we are stoked to have a zoodler come zucchini season! We use it all summer long. Zoodles are a fun and different way to enjoy your zucchini bounty, and an awesome low-carb pasta substitute. They’re especially delicious with homemade tomato sauce or pesto, fresh tomatoes, and even some black beans or chickpeas added for protein. Zucchini aside, you can use it to spiralize a wide variety of veggies!

Dehydrator 

We use our food dehydrators almost non-stop year-round, drying and preserving everything from herbs and flowers to fruits and veggies. There are a lot of food dehydrators out there, but Excalibur machines are top-notch – and far superior to others we’ve used in the past! They’re efficient, fairly quiet, made in the USA, all BPA-free, and some models are available with convenient timers. 

I personally love the large capacity of the 9-tray models to fit all our goodies. When we had an old 4-tray dehydrator (different brand), we often found ourselves having to dry things in batches because it filled up too quickly. The precise temperature control is also fabulous, especially if you’re into raw foods and preserving the maximum nutrients and medicinal properties possible. 

Excalibur has a stellar Black Friday deal going on too: save 30% off site wide with code “BFCM22“!

Natural Health and Home

Organic Linens

I hate to be doom-and-gloom here… but did you know that conventional cotton is one of the most pesticide intensive crops to grow? On the other hand, choosing organic cotton bedding is better for your health, the environment, wildlife, and farmworkers alike!

We have organic cotton sheets from Boll & Branch and Avocado – they’re both wonderful! I especially love that Boll & Branch is certified fair trade. They also offer organic cotton bath towels, duvet covers, blankets, pillows and more. You could even take it a step further and invest in a non-toxic organic mattress from Avocado. We love ours!

Boll & Branch is currently having a 25% off sale with code “CYBER25”, and Avocado is offering 10% off site wide.

Air Purifier

Between dust, dander, allergens, mold, cleaning products, wood smoke and other impurities, did you know the air inside your home is often far more “polluted” than outside? And, that’s where we usually spend most of our time… breathing all that in!

Several years ago we invested in an air purifier with a HEPA filter during summer wildfires. The smoke was almost unbearable. Then I realized just how much the air purifier was helping my allergies too, so we ended up getting another – one for the bedroom, and one for the living room. Now I sleep with one on every night and feel much better about our indoor air quality!

Beeswax Candles

Speaking of indoor air quality… Consider gifting some clean-burning beeswax candles this holiday season! We quit burning traditional petroleum based candles years ago. I also avoid scented candles, even ones made from natural waxes. Those types of candles expose you to harmful chemicals, including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. (Learn more here)

Instead, we love to burn 100% pure beeswax candles during cozy or festive occasions. The natural light honey aroma is scented enough, and if I want more aroma, I whip up a natural simmer pot instead! Tip: keep the wick trimmed short to prevent beeswax candles from smoking. (Plus I turn on the air purifier to clear the smoke once I blow them out.) 

I really like these beeswax pillars (which come in a variety of sizes) and these beeswax votives – both from small businesses and made from USA beeswax!

Natural Soaps 

This year I discovered a fantastic new natural deodorant company, Humble! My armpits have never been happier. (I especially love their sensitive skin formulas and cardboard packaging.) The small company has really stellar ethics when it comes to the environment, diversity and charitable giving. They also make cold-process natural soaps that are free of artificial fragrance, sodium lauryl sulfate or parabens. The soaps are sustainably packaged, cruelty-free, and come as single bars or mixed sets – which would make great gifts or stocking stuffers!

Body Massage Hook

Between working in the garden and the general stress of life, my shoulders are always riddled with knots. Aaron is a sweetheart and rubs my shoulders often, but sometimes his hands need a break too. That’s when this body hook massager becomes my BFF. I can reach every spot! It provides amazing relief, especially paired with CBD. You can use it all over your body, such as for acupressure on the bottom your feet. (Check out the photos in the listing.)

NuVita CBD

Last but not least, NuVita. If you’ve been around, you’ve probably heard me rave about NuVita CBD more than a time or two. This small business has truly changed my life for the better! I take their full spectrum CBD every day for anxiety, stress, muscle aches and joint pain (which comes in an oil tincture, softgels or gummies) along with their CBN tincture every night for the best sleep ever.

NuVita also offers CBD and CBN topical rollers, which are absolutely amazing for localized pain, inflammation relief, and aromatherapy – especially after a long day working in the garden!

Use code “deannacat” to save 10% on NuVita products, any time. If you like them as much I do, you can also sign up for autoship for an additional 15% off – for 25% savings total!

And that wraps up this year’s homestead gift guide.

Well friends, I hope you found some new and fun homestead gift ideas after browsing this list! We hope you have a wonderful winter holiday season ahead. I’m always extra-reflective this time of year, because exactly four years ago this week I sat down to start building this website… and what a wild ride it’s been ever since! We truly can’t thank you enough for being a part of our community and journey. Homestead and Chill wouldn’t be the same without you! 

The post Homestead Gift Guide 2022: DIY, Home & Garden Gift Ideas appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

Making beeswax leaf garlands is a fantastic way to celebrate the changing seasons and bring a little piece of the great outdoors inside to enjoy. Especially here on the Central Coast of California where the seasons don’t change very dramatically, our colorful leaf garlands bring me so much joy. They really enhance the fall vibes! This also gave us the perfect excuse to get outside and visit our local park to forage for the most beautiful leaves.

See 17 other wonderful winter garden activities and projects to do indoors here.

Supplies Needed

• Leaves. The more bright and colorful, the better! Don’t be afraid to mix various shapes and sizes.
• Beeswax (or vegan wax alternative). The amount needed depends on your dipping pot and how many leaves you have. You’ll want at least ¼ to ½” of wax in the bottom of the pan after melting. About ½ cup to 1 cup of beeswax pastilles should be plenty. You can always melt more! 
• A double boiler* See notes below.
• Parchment paper or wax paper
• Jute twine, string, or other similar material to hang the leaves from. A string of twinkle lights can create a beautiful wax leaf garland too!
• Optional: Petite clothespins or clips to connect the leaves to the garland. I love using them because it makes it SO easy to attach and adjust the leaves, plus the pins themselves are really cute! But if your string is fine enough, you can also tie it directly around the leaf stems.

Double Boiler Notes

It’s best to heat beeswax via a double boiler rather than in a single pan directly on the stove because beeswax is highly flammable. It can smoke and actually catch fire if it gets too hot, much like grease! To create your own double boiler, choose a smaller pot, pan, or glass bowl that can rest on top or or partially nestle inside the lower pot of boiling water (but not fit completely inside, you don’t want it resting on the bottom of the lower pot). 

Since it can be a bit messy to clean up, some folks use an old or dedicated pan for beeswax. We don’t find that necessary though! For easy clean-up, simply re-heat the pot of beeswax, pour off any leftover wax to save for another project, wipe out the pot or pan with a paper towel, then wash well with soap and hot water (use the hot water from the double boiler!). 

Tips for success

It’s really simple and straightforward to make a beeswax leaf garland. Cliff notes: dip leaves in wax and hang. Lol! But here are a few tips that will make things even easier and create the most beautiful, long-lasting beeswax leaf garland possible:

• Use fallen, flat leaves. For the best results, collect leaves that have naturally fallen off the tree already. They’ll usually contain less moisture than those plucked fresh from the tree and preserve better in wax. Collect fairly flat leaves rather than ones that are already beginning to curl, and avoid leaves that are crispy and dry. 
  
  
• Press the collected leaves in a book for 24 to 48 hours before you make your beeswax leaf garland (but not much longer or they’ll start to lose color). Flattened leaves are far easier to dip in wax, will dry more flat, and the coating of wax will be more even. Try to keep the stems laying fairly straight and away from the leaf while pressing. Add weight on top of the book as needed.
  
  
• Keep the wax warm, but not piping hot. Super-hot wax can wilt or “cook” the leaves, so after melting, remove the hot wax from the heat and let it sit for a couple minutes to cool just slightly. But use it before it gets too cool! As the wax cools, it will start to re-solidify and dry more thick and chunky (less clear) on the leaves. If you’re dipping a lot of leaves, you may need to reheat the wax once or twice while you work. 
  
  
• Dip the stems too! Dipping the leaf stems in wax helps to fully seal the leaves, better preserve their color, and make the wax leaf garland last longer. 

Instructions to Make a Wax Leaf Garland

1. Add beeswax to the top portion of a double boiler, and with water in the lower pot, heat it on the stovetop over medium-high heat until the beeswax melts completely. Remove the wax from the heat, but keep the water in the double boiler in case you need to reheat it.
   
   
2. One at a time, dip the pressed leaves in the melted beeswax. Work quickly, but be sure the wax coats all parts of the leaf. Tip: Also dip a good portion of the stem in wax now too. It will be easier to go back and dip just the remaining tip of the stem later.
   
   
3. Hold the leaf above the pot and give it a gentle wiggle to let excess wax drip off. Then lay out the wax-dipped leaf flat on a piece of parchment paper or wax paper. Sometimes little chunks of wax will collect where the leaf is touching the parchment paper, so it may be best to lay the leaves face-side-up to hide those imperfections on the back. 
   

4. Once all the leaves have been dipped and are dry, go back and dip the remaining exposed portion of stem in wax as well. Avoid re-dipping the leaf though, or the extra wax layer will show.
   

5. After all the waxed leaves are dry (they dry fast!), clip or tie them to twine to create a garland. It’s usually easiest to hang the twine where you want it first and then attach the leaves. Cluster the leaves close together for an extra lush leaf garland, or hang them more sparsely for a simple, dainty look.

Beeswax leaf garlands look even more amazing when backlit, such as strung in a sunny window or pinned in front of twinkle lights. Light really makes the colors pop! If you don’t want to use tacks or nails, try these small suction window hooks.

How long do waxed leaves last?

Wax-dipped leaves should last (retain color) for several weeks, perhaps up to a couple of months. That said, we like to do this project close to Halloween and then enjoy the colorful wax leaf garland through Thanksgiving. If I make more than I hang, I save the extra waxed leaves in a dark place as back-up so I can swap out any that fade faster than the others. Once we’re done with them, the waxed leaves are a welcome addition to our compost pile. (We don’t put them in our worm bin however.)

Other uses for beeswax leaves

Beyond garlands, there are many beautiful and creative ways to display waxed leaves for fall decor! Cluster the leaves in a bowl or spread them out on the table to create a centerpiece. Pinecones, acorns, and gourds make great waxed leaf companions! Tuck the waxed leaves into a fall wreath, or fill a clear vase with them. You could even glue a magnet on the backside to adorn the refrigerator with fall flair.   

And that’s how to make a beeswax leaf garland.

Well friends, I sure hope you have just as much fun creating your own fall wax leaf garlands as I do. Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. Also tag me on Instagram so I can see your beautiful leaf garlands too! If you found this tutorial to be inspiring and useful, please consider leaving a star review below. Also, spread the fall love by pinning or sharing this post. Happy leaf foraging and crafting!

You may also enjoy:

• How to Make Homemade Beeswax Wraps (Reusable Food Wraps)
• DIY Rice Heating Pad (or Cold Pack) Tutorial
• How to Make Blown Egg Ornaments
• Are Toxic Candles Poisoning Your Home?
• Natural Homemade Lip Balm Recipe

Print

DIY Beeswax Fall Leaf Garland

Learn how to make a beautiful, natural fall beeswax leaf garland. It's a fun, easy, and sustainable autumn craft project that the whole family can enjoy! Wax leaf garlands look beautiful strung across a sunny window, fireplace mantle, or trailing along a banister. 

Keyword beeswax leaf garland, diy fall garland, fall leaf garland, homemade leaf garland, waxed leaf garland

Ingredients

• Leaves – choose fallen, flat, colorful leaves that are not yet curling or getting crispy
• Beeswax or vegan alternative, enough to create a shallow pool of wax (about 1/4 to 1/2-inch deep) in the pot once melted
• Jute twine, string or twinkle lights
• Double boiler
• Small clothespins
• Parchment paper or waxed paper

Instructions

• Press your collected leaves in a book for 24 to 48 hours before you make your beeswax leaf garland.
• Gently heat beeswax on the stovetop in a double-boiler.
• Once the wax has completely melted, quickly dip each leaf in the wax (one by one) and ensure all parts of the leaf have been coated. Dip some of the stem too.
• Hold the leaf over the pot of wax and lightly wiggle it, allowing excess wax to drip off
• Lay waxed leaves out on parchment paper or waxed paper to dry. They dry fast; within 10 minutes!
• Once dry, go back and dip the uncoated tips of the stems in wax (avoid getting more wax on the leaf). Allow to dry again.
• Use small clothespins to attach the waxes leaves to a piece of twine, string or twinkle lights to create a garland. (It's easiest to hang the string where you want it first, then attach the leaves)
• The leaves should retain their color for several weeks, up to a couple months.
• Enjoy your beautiful homemade beeswax leaf garland!
• For easy clean-up, re-heat the pot of beeswax, pour off any leftover wax to save for another project, wipe out the pot or pan with a paper towel, then wash well with soap and hot water.

The post How to Make a Fall Beeswax Leaf Garland  appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t be using water outdoors though. Trees, shrubs, flowers and edible gardens are all very worthy of water! Plants help to feed us, absorb heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, provide shade, stabilize soil, and offer habitat for wildlife. We just need to do better with how we maintain them.

Read along to learn 17 different ways to save water in the garden and increase drought resilience. Whether your goal is to cut your water bill or be more eco-friendly, many of these water-saving tips are actually best for plant health too! A water-wise garden doesn’t necessarily mean xeriscaping with rock and cacti either. It’s possible to grow lush, vibrant, beautiful gardens while still being conscious of water use.

Ways to save water in the garden, a glance:

1. Stop overwatering
2. Reduce or eliminate grass lawn
3. Mulch, mulch, mulch!
4. Use drip irrigation
5. Water deeply but less frequently
6. Adjust with seasons and weather
7. Choose drought tolerant and native plants
8. Repair leaks
9. Amend soil with organic matter
10. Use ollas
11. Water at night
12. Plant densely
13. Automate, timers, and valves
14. Collect rainwater
15. Swales, berms and land contouring 
16. Prioritize and compromise
17. Greywater systems

Now let’s briefly discuss each of these water-saving techniques, one-by-one!

1) Stop overwatering

Overwatering is one of the most common mistakes in the garden. Even the most well-intended plant parents sometimes give their plants more water than they actually need to get by – houseplants and seedlings included! Plants breathe through their root systems, and most of them do not like to be constantly soggy. Rather, most plants prefer only modestly damp soil and will tolerate when the soil dries out just slightly between watering. So, err on the conservative side rather than being heavy-handed with water!

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you exactly how much and how often to water. That varies greatly depending on your climate, soil type, plants, and more. Finding the perfect watering schedule for your landscape will take a little research and experimentation on your part. But get in there and feel how damp or dry your soil (check several inches below the surface) is before watering again!

If you’re trying to cut back and save water in your garden, gradually reduce the water and see how the plants respond. Watch for wilting, yellowing, dry or crisping leaves – all signs that a plant may need more water again.

2) Reduce or eliminate lawn areas

Lush green lawns are a thing of the past. Once a sign of prestige, grass lawns scream “wasteful” nowadays – especially in dry climates like California. Maintaining a green lawn requires an exorbitant amount of water, and isn’t doing the environment many favors in return! Lawns don’t offer food or habitat for native wildlife and pollinators, and instead, usually rely on chemical fertilizers and herbicides to keep up their neat appearance. 

With over 40 million acres of lawn in the US alone, watering grass accounts for literal trillions of gallons of water used per year. Plus, lawn sprinklers are notoriously the most wasteful type of irrigation you can use due to overspray, runoff, and evaporation. On the other hand, woody plants, shrubs, and other non-turf plants can thrive with 55% less water than that needed to maintain typical fescue lawn. 

If you would like a small patch of green space for kids or dogs, consider using native low or no-mow grasses, or even clover. Otherwise, eliminating lawn areas will help you save a ton of water in the garden! Please see this guide to learn how to kill, smother, or otherwise remove your lawn – so you can use valuable water to grow more beneficial things like food, flowers, and shrubs instead.

3) Mulch

Mulch, mulch, and more mulch! Okay, more isn’t *always* better, but providing 2 to 4 inches of mulch over bare soil is absolutely essential to save water in the garden. Naked soil is just begging to dry out! Mulch protects and insulates soil, reduces evaporation and runoff while simultaneously buffering the soil (and plant roots) from temperature extremes. The top few inches of soil especially will stay damp far longer when mulched than when exposed to air and sunlight.

Popular organic mulch options for the garden include wood chips, bark, compost, straw, and leaves. Gravel acts as mulch too, but is usually used in pathways and open spaces rather than directly around plants. Learn more about mulching best practices here, and explore the pros and cons of 8 different mulch types in this article. 

4) Switch to drip irrigation

Compared to overhead sprinklers, drip irrigation can save significant water in the garden! According to the UC Master Gardener Program, drip irrigation is up to 90% efficient while sprinklers OR hand-watering are only 50 to 70 percent efficient. Drip emitters disperse water only where needed at the base of each plant. Specialized emitters, bubblers, and other attachments enable you to tailor your drip system to a wide variety of plants, applications, and flow rates.  

Drip irrigation systems eliminate wasted water that goes hand-in-hand with traditional sprinklers, avoiding overspray, runoff, watering walkways, or space between plants. Not watering unnecessary areas also helps reduce unwanted weed growth! When water is sprayed up into the air, it also evaporates much faster – sometimes before it even hits the ground.

Drip irrigation also saves water in the garden by delivering smaller volumes and more slowly. Slow drip irrigation gives the water more time to soak into the soil, which reduces runoff and nutrient leaching – ideal for sloped or flat gardens alike. It also means the water penetrates the soil more deeply, which results in deeper root systems, healthier plants, and moist soil for a longer period of time. 

5) Water deeply and less frequently

If they had to choose, plants will always prefer deep, slow, and less frequent watering sessions over frequent bouts of shallow water or flooding. For instance, we run the drip irrigation in our raised beds, orchard and general landscape for about an hour twice per week, which is far better than turning it on for 20 or 30 minutes every day or two. 

By offering slow deep water, the soil stays damp longer – reducing overall water demand. Even better, plant roots will grow nice and deep, following where the water goes. Deep-rooted plants are more drought tolerant, resilient to temperature swings, and grow larger. In contrast, offering shallow water more frequently encourages plants with shallow root systems that are generally less healthy. 

6) Adjust with seasons and weather

Adjusting your irrigation schedule with the seasons is another important way to save water in the garden. For instance, we change our irrigation timers to reduce both the duration and frequency of water during the cooler months of late autumn, winter and early spring – even if it’s not raining much here! Most plants go dormant or semi-dormant during the darker days of winter, so they need less water overall compared to when they’re actively growing, flowering or bearing fruit. The same applies to houseplants!

Also keep an eye on the weather forecast. When rain is on the horizon, be sure to turn off all your automated irrigation systems until things dry up again. Many modern irrigation controllers have a rain sensor setting or other seasonal control options too.

7) Choose drought tolerant and native plants

Choosing drought-tolerant plants or those native to your area will help save water in the garden. Yet again, that doesn’t mean you need to fill your garden with ONLY natives and extra drought-resistant plants like cacti and succulents. Woody shrubs, herbs, and flowers are already a more water-wise choice than grass lawn. Some of our favorite low-water plants include lavender, rosemary, various salvia and sages, yarrow, echinacea, agastache, catmint, verbena and lantana. We love to grow agave, cacti and succulents too! Avoid water-loving tropical plants in dry, arid climates.

Related: Top 23 Plants for Pollinators to Attract Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds

8) Watch for and repair leaks

Stay vigilant and watch for unusual wet spots, runoff, dripping fixtures, or suspicious extra-green patches that may be getting “free” water from somewhere. We’ve discovered and repaired many holes and tears in our drip tubing (usually thanks to gophers chewing on them) after observing an odd bloom of weeds in an otherwise dry area.

The EPA explains that a single leaky faucet that drips one time per second can waste up to 3,000 gallons of water per year! So tighten or replace leaky faucets, and use plumbers tape to help stop dripping threaded connections. If needed, call in a plumber or irrigation specialist for help. Finally, don’t just let your hose run free when it’s on! Use a trusty hose nozzle on the end that shuts off the flow for you.

9) Add compost and organic matter to soil 

Soil composition plays a significant role in how well it retains water. Sandy soil drains very quickly and therefore dries out fast. The same goes for extra fluffy potting soils, especially those “made for containers” with a lot of perlite. On the other hand, clay soil has the potential to hold a lot of water, but is often so dense and compact the water runs right off instead of being absorbed.  

Amending your soil with organic matter like well-aged compost and worm castings will greatly benefit sandy and clay soil alike. Water is naturally attracted to organic matter, which is perfectly suited to absorb and retain it like a sponge. Organic matter also breaks up hard clay soil, providing more air pockets and space for roots to grow and breathe. We also like to add small ⅜” volcanic rock to our raised garden bed soil. The lava rock is both absorbent and porous, which helps with overall moisture balance – promoting good moisture retention AND drainage. 

Even better, did you know that compost and other amendments can make plants more resilient to drought? The nutrients and beneficial microbes found in compost enhance overall soil and plant health, especially when paired with deep watering practices. Robust, healthy, deep-rooted plants are more resilient to environmental stress, including drought, disease, and pests. Meaning, they’ll be able to hang with a little less water. 

Related:

• How to Amend and Fertilize Garden Soil
• Composting 101: 6 Ways to Compost at Home
• How to Fill Raised Beds with the Perfect Organic Soil
• How to Make Actively Aerated Compost Tea to Feed Your Garden

10) Use Ollas

Ollas (pronounced oy-ya or oh-ya) are amazing little tools that save water in the garden! Traditionally made of porous clay, an olla is a container or vessel that’s buried in the soil and filled with water. Via osmosis, water then slowly seeps out through the walls of the vessel to irrigate the surrounding soil.

Much like drip irrigation, ollas have the benefit of delivering water slow and deep. They usually aren’t used as the sole form of irrigation (with the exception of in containers), but can help offset the frequency and amount that you need to provide other water – and also prevent soil from yo-yoing between extreme wet and dry!

The really neat thing is, water will only seep from the olla if the soil needs it. So, ollas are also a great gauge of how dry your soil is, or how well you’re watering in general. If they empty very slowly over several days, your soil is probably nicely moist. In contrast, if the olla empties rapidly after filling it, the soil must be very dry and thirsty.

Before we had automated drip irrigation, we used ollas in combination with BPA-free soaker hoses to water our raised garden beds. Now, we still use ollas in large grow bags, wine barrels, and other big containers! Save 5% off GrowOyas (our favorite ollas) with code “deannacat”.

11) Water at night

It’s best to set automated irrigation timers to go off sometime between 6 pm and 6 am. Watering plants overnight (including in the evening or early morning hours) helps save water in the garden by reducing evaporation. As opposed to during the heat of the day, providing water when it is cool and dark gives plant roots ample time to absorb water before the sun hits and starts to dry soil out. 

12) Plant densely

Densely planted spaces use less water per plant than sparsely planted landscapes. Meaning, 20 shrubs planted in clusters or fairly close to one another will require less water to maintain than those same 20 shrubs if they were more spread out. Similarly, full garden beds retain moisture better than partially empty ones. Dense plant cover shades the soil which reduces evaporation, while smothering weeds and increasing both biodiversity and yields. 

Yet don’t confuse dense planting with overcrowding! Try to still respect the recommended spacing for each plant species, as crowding plants can lead to issues with disease, pests, airflow, nutrient competition or stunted growth.

13) Get in control with timers, zones and valves

Using automated timers and controllers is a great way to save water in the garden, and can save loads of time and effort too! Irrigation control systems are set to deliver only the amount of water the plants need, and at ideal times (such as overnight). With timers, you don’t have to worry about turning on the water and accidentally forgetting to turn it off.

We use a variety of controllers and timers in our garden, including a larger Hunter controller for our main 6-station landscape irrigation hub, along with several of these easy garden hose/faucet timers in other areas. Even if you don’t want a timer that turns the water ON for you, these simple hose timers will turn it off after a set amount of time. They operate much like an old school count-down oven timer.

Since different plants have varying water requirements, breaking your landscape irrigation up into different zones is also key. For instance, our orchard is on a separate irrigation zone from our raised garden beds, plus other zones for the perennials and ornamental trees. Then we can run the zones for different days, times, or turn some off completely as needed. We also installed individual shut-off valves at every raised garden bed so we can turn off individual beds to save water when they don’t have crops in them. 

14) Set up a rainwater collection system

Did you know that you can collect over 600 gallons of water from a 1000 square foot roof in a single 1-inch rainstorm?! Harvesting rainwater is a fantastic way to get “free” water for your garden and offset your water bill. Plus, plants absolutely thrive with fresh natural rain water compared to chlorinated city tap water. 

Rainwater collection systems can be as simple as a 50 gallon barrel at the end of a gutter downspout, or as elaborate as multi-thousand gallon tanks and pump systems. Check out this guide to learn all about setting up and using a basic rainwater collection system, along with frequently asked questions about size, regulations, roof types, contaminants, mosquitoes and more. 

We had a pretty sweet little rainwater collection system in our old garden, and it’s definitely on our “to-do” list for the new homestead too! Collecting and using rainwater can be a bit tricky in arid climates like ours though. Since we get all of our annual rainfall over a short span of time (it only rains in winter here), it’s best to have large tanks with ample storage capacity – to be able to capture as much rainwater as possible at once, and have enough stored to hopefully last until it rains once again the following year. Folks with more frequent rainfall throughout the year can get by with much smaller systems since its constantly refilling.

15) Swales, berms, and water-wise landscape design

There are a number of ways to work with the contours of the land to passively increase water efficiency. Swales are a technique used in permaculture that relies on trenches or depressions in the ground (either man-made or natural) to direct and channel water runoff to key areas. For example, swales around fruit trees can concentrate and increase the water each tree receives, rather than the water absorbing in the empty spaces between the trees. Similarly, terracing and/or raised berms help to reduce runoff and increase water absorption on sloped terrain. 

I highly suggest the book Gaia’s Garden if you’re interested to learn more about home-scale permaculture.

16) Prioritize and compromise

When push comes to shove (say, if you’re facing mandatory water reductions or penalties) you may need to simply evaluate and choose what plants in your garden get first priority. For instance, we are fully prepared to let the existing ornamental shrubs in our front yard die if needed, while funneling our water use to our more valuable edibles and pollinator gardens instead. In fact, we already cut all the landscape irrigation in half from what the previous owners provided. I told the plants: “Sorry, but if you can’t hang with this, you aren’t meant for this California garden.” Some have died, and that’s okay.

On that note, don’t feel stuck keeping up a landscape that you inherited and doesn’t jive water-wise! We’ve removed plenty of established plants after moving to a new home.

The existing garden space at our new homestead had a lush catmint border along the center brick pathway. While it was beautiful at first, it became really infested with leafhoppers that were impossible to treat organically. Plus, even though catmint is native and drought tolerant, there were over 60 plants total – with a 1 gallon per hour drip emitter each! Under the previous owners watering schedule, just those catmint plants alone were using 420 gallons of water every week! Again, we’d already cut that schedule in half, but that’s still 200+ gallons of water that could be used for better things.

17) Reuse greywater

Last but not least, consider using recycled water in your garden! Sustainable greywater systems capture used water from household fixtures including sinks, showers, tubs and washing machines (but not toilets, dishwashers, or the kitchen sink – that’s blackwater). Instead of sending water down the drain to the sewer, it’s redirected to reuse in landscape irrigation.

Greywater systems are fantastic, but can be costly and complicated to install (especially if you don’t have a raised foundation). Since it requires retrofitting your home’s plumbing, engineering, permits, and skilled professionals are typically involved. So, the first step is to contact your local building department to see what the requirements are! Laundry-to-landscape greywater systems are usually the most straightforward and inexpensive to install, and often do not require elaborate permitting or engineering. 

And that concludes this lesson on ways to save water in the garden.

Well folks, if you made it to the end – good for you! Thank you so much for reading, and for caring about water conservation. If you found this information to be useful, please consider pinning or sharing this post! Also, don’t forget to consider all the ways you can save water indoors, and therefore offset some of your landscape water use too! Check out this great guide on indoor water conservation for some ideas.

Otherwise, you may also enjoy these related articles:

• Installing Drip Irrigation (Drip Tape) for Raised Garden Beds (video included)
• How to Install Drip Irrigation to a Hose Bib or Faucet (video included)
• How to Build a Raised Garden Bed (video included)
• Rainwater Harvesting 101: How to Set up a Rainwater Collection System
• How to Set Up Drip Irrigation for Containers, Wine Barrels, Grow Bags and More
• How to Remove or Kill Grass (and Grow Food, Not Lawns!)
• Garden Irrigation Solutions: DIY, Efficient, & Toxin-Free Watering Options
• Composting 101: 6 Ways to Compost at Home

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The post 17 Ways to Save Water in the Garden and Landscape appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

A note about oil and skin health

When it comes to skin care, don’t be afraid of oil! Contrary to popular belief, using oil on your face won’t necessarily make it more oily or cause breakouts. (Especially if you choose the right carrier oil for your skin). Rather, oil plays a vital role in skin health. Many modern skin care products claim to “reduce shine” and impurities. In reality, they strip away natural oils, leaving your skin tight, high and dry. Dry irritated skin then overcompensates and produces more oil. All aboard the greasy rollercoaster, amirite?  

Instead, just a few drops of the right oil can restore natural sebum balance, lock in moisture, soothe irritation, and heal “imperfections”. In fact, homemade face oils are the only thing I use on my face anymore – and my skin has never been happier! It’s time to embrace fresh and dewey shine, and leave the rollercoaster behind. 

What is an herbal infusion?

Herbal infusions are created by steeping dry herbs (or other dried plant material like flowers, spices, or fruit) in a carrier oil of choice for an extended period of time. It’s crucial to use dry plant material for oil infusions as wet material can easily lead to mold and spoilage. The vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other beneficial components of the herbs are slowly extracted into the surrounding carrier oil. 

Then, the infused oil may be used on its own – such as directly on your face or hair, or a culinary oil for salad dressing or cooking. Infused oils also serve as an important base ingredient in homemade personal care products such as salves, balms, body butter, lotion, lip balm, soap and more. Of course, you can use plain oil (not infused with herbs) in all these things too!

I will write up a guide with more detailed instructions and best practices on making herbal oil infusions soon. In the meantime, check out our guides on how to make calendula oil, lavender oil, rosehip oil, or cannabis-infused oil.

Choosing the Best Carrier Oil

When it comes to choosing a carrier oil, there is no single “best” option. What works well for you depends on your skin type, preferences, budget, and what you intend to use it for! For instance, olive oil and avocado oil are awesome options for edible creations, ultra-rich coconut oil and sweet almond oil make fantastic body care products, while you may prefer something more delicate (and non-comedogenic) like argan oil or jojoba oil for your face. 

Here are a few other things to consider:

Extraction Method: Refined vs Unrefined Oils 

Have you ever wondered what cold-pressed vs expeller-pressed oil means? Or, what’s the difference between refined and unrefined oils? Both of these concepts relate to how an oil was extracted or produced, and greatly influence the final product! 

Broadly speaking, “virgin” cold-pressed or unrefined oils are considered the highest quality carrier oils for skin care. Cold-pressed (unrefined) oils are created by crushing and pressing the raw material to extract oil without the use of heat. By avoiding heat exposure, cold-pressed oils retain the highest nutrient content. Even more, cold-pressed oils are not exposed to toxins that often go hand-in-hand with other extraction methods.

In contrast, refined oils are extracted with heat. They’re often further heavily processed and filtered to remove color, odor, or other “impurities”. Yet at the same time, they’re also being stripped of many health benefits. Enzymes and nutrients are destroyed during high-heat mechanical extraction (including expeller-pressed). What’s worse, heat can create new toxic byproducts such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) – known carcinogens. Toxins like hexane are also introduced during chemical or solvent extraction, further contaminating the oil.

Oil labels or product descriptions should always specify if it’s refined, unrefined, or what extraction method was used.

Benefits of Organic Carrier Oils

Personally, we like to use certified organic carrier oils to make skin care products and infusions. The goal is to create the most healthy, healing, and helpful products possible after all! Plus, our skin is our largest organ – and a highly absorbent one at that. Be it olives, sunflowers, or almonds, if a crop was treated with pesticides and herbicides while it was growing, residual toxins will be present in the oil extraction too, and likely even more concentrated than they were on the crop themselves! 

The same idea applies to essential oils, which is why we only use USDA-certified organic essential oils from Plant Therapy. Many other popular EO brands claim to be “self-certified” or “better than organic” but I am skeptical. This is a personal decision of course, but we try to be just as cautious about what we put ON our bodies as what we put in them. 

Comedogenic Ratings

The comedogenic scale is a rating system for how likely an oil (or other product) is to clog your pores and therefore cause breakouts. The lower the comedogenic rating, the least likely it is to clog your pores. Therefore, carrier oils with a rating of 0 to 2 are considered “non-comedogenic”. A rating of 3 is slightly comedogenic, and 4 to 5 is moderate-to-highly comedogenic and very likely to clog pores. In most cases, oils with higher ratings are increasingly thick or “greasy”, while lower-ranked oils are more lightweight and easily absorb into skin.  

The severity of the potential breakout depends on each individual’s skin and sensitivities, as well as the part of the body the oil is used on. For instance, using a comedogenic oil or butter may not cause issues when applied to your legs, hands or arms, though it may lead to acne when used on your face, shoulders or back. 

Mixing Oils

If you’re going through the list of the best carrier oils below and think “shoot, several of these sound good!” then by all means: mix them up! Create your own custom blend with two or three different oils. For example, we usually use half sweet almond oil and half sunflower carrier oil in the organic skin care products we offer in our shop. Both are organic, cold-pressed, and highly nourishing, but offer a great balance to one another – both in texture and in price. 

Shelf Life and Storage 

You may also want to consider shelf life and storage requirements when choosing a carrier oil for skin care or infusions. For instance, rosehip oil tends to have a shorter shelf life (only 6 months) while jojoba oil stays good for up to 5 years! Some oils suggest refrigerating after opening (especially hemp oil), while many others do not. These characteristics vary a lot by brand and formulation, so refer to the manufacturer’s recommendations on the bottle.

Now without further ado…

11 Best Carrier Oils for Skin, Salves, Edibles and More

1) Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Comedogenic rating: Olive oil comes in at a 2 on the comedogenic scale. Though it’s only “mildly comedogenic”, olive oil is known to be on the thick and heavy side – which may lead to breakouts for acne-prone individuals. 

Edible? Yes. As a popular healthy cooking oil, olive oil is an ideal choice for edible herb infusions, such as homemade rosemary or basil-infused oil! 

Unique properties: Extra virgin olive oil (also known as EVOO) is possibly one of the most readily-available oils on this list. You should be able to find great organic olive oil options at your local natural food store! High in natural fatty acids, polyphenols and vitamin A, E, D and K, it is also extremely nourishing and hydrating for dry skin and hair. Olive oil also contains a rare antioxidant called hydroxytyrosol, an anti-aging compound that protects against free radical damage. 

Compared to many other carrier oils, olive oil does have a fairly strong and distinct odor and flavor, which will also influence your final product.  

2) Argan Oil

Comedogenic rating: Coming in with a rating of zero, argan oil is totally non-comedogenic. 

Edible? Argan oil is available in both culinary-grade (edible) and cosmetic-only (non-edible) versions, so read the label! It has a subtle nutty flavor.

Unique properties: Argan oil, also known as Moroccan oil, is fantastic for your skin! It goes on light but is highly moisturizing, and is a great choice for all skin types. The high levels of Vitamin E, stearic acid, and palmitic fatty acid found in argan oil help to reduce fine lines, discoloration, scars, excess oil production, and even acne. It’s known to soften skin, increase elasticity, and protect against sun damage. It’s also a very popular ingredient in hair care products. Argan is one of my personal favorite carrier oils for skin care!

3) Jojoba Oil

Comedogenic rating: Jojoba oil is rated a 2 but is still considered non-comedogenic. The molecular structure of jojoba closely resembles that of our skin’s natural oils, so it absorbs exceptionally well! Overall, it’s lightweight, non-greasy, and tolerated well by most users. In fact, it is one of the most popular carrier oils for skin care!

Edible? No, jojoba oil is not edible. Even though it shouldn’t be consumed in large quantities, it’s perfectly safe to use jojoba oil as a carrier oil for homemade lip balm recipes however! 

Unique properties: Jojoba oil (which is actually a liquid wax, not a true oil) is an antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory. It boasts high levels of Vitamin E, zinc, and omega fatty acids. All of which make jojoba oil effective at soothing eczema, acne, psoriasis, wounds, and other skin conditions. Its exceptional shelf-life (up to 5 years), neutral aroma and color are added benefits.

Eicosenoic acid (EA) accounts for 70% of the total fatty acids found in jojoba oil – a powerful plant-based monounsaturated fatty acid. EA works to break down oil build up, unclog pores, remove impurities, and reduce excess sebum (oil) production. This helps stressed skin regain a healthy moisture balance, and makes jojoba a great option for those with dry, oily, or combination skin alike! Because of this however, some people experience a temporary initial “purge” of small breakouts when they first begin to use jojoba oil. Rest assured it’s just doing its job.

4) Coconut Oil (Regular or Fractionated)

Comedogenic rating: Regular coconut oil (the stuff that is solid at room temperature) is a 4 on the comedogenic scale, which means it is likely to cause breakouts. On the other hand, fractionated coconut oil (liquid at room temperature) is slightly lower – rated a 2 to 3.

Edible? Yep! Coconut oil is a good choice for edible infusions, though keep in mind it will add a coconut-y flavor to your final product. 

Unique properties: Rich, luxurious, and loaded with nutrients, coconut oil is often praised for its numerous benefits in the world of natural health and beauty. In addition to offering deep moisture to soften skin and hair, the high levels of lauric and caprylic acid in coconut oil make it antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antifungal. Meaning, coconut oil can aid in healing wounds, infections, and potentially acne. 

However, acne-prone folks should proceed with caution – especially with coconut oil infusions intended for your face, shoulders, or upper back. Coconut is exceptionally thick and can easily clog pores, counterproductive to its healing properties. In that case, fractionated coconut oil may be a better choice, which is less thick and greasy.

5) Sweet Almond Oil

Comedogenic rating: Sweet almond oil is rated 2 on the comedogenic scale, but it is still largely considered “non-comedogenic” and is unlikely to cause breakouts.

Edible? Sweet almond oil is indeed edible, though cooking or high heat will decrease its nutritional value.

Unique properties: Sweet almond oil is rich but gentle. It’s an excellent carrier oil choice for sensitive skin, dry and delicate skin, and is also safe for babies. Sweet almond oil is packed with vitamins and nutrients, including omega 6 and 9 fatty acids, vitamin A and E, potassium, and zinc. It’s effective at reducing inflammation, excess sebum, eczema, acne, and dryness. Sweet almond oil may help to improve overall skin tone and complexion by reducing scars, dark circles, and discoloration.

6) Rosehip Seed Oil

Comedogenic rating: Rosehip oil has a comedogenic rating of 1, making it non-comedogenic.   

Edible? Rosehip oil is made by pressing the fruit and seeds of rosehips, the small berry-like fruit of rose plants. Though rosehips themselves are edible, it’s generally recommended to NOT consume processed (concentrated) rosehip oil or use it internally. 

Unique properties: Rosehip oil is a lightweight and hydrating carrier oil that absorbs easily into skin. It’s loaded with antioxidants, essential fatty acids, flavonoids, polyphenols, and Vitamins C, A, B, E and F that all help fight inflammation, redness, scars, fine lines, stretch marks, and sun damage. Rosehip oil also contains retinoids that can soothe acne, dermatitis, psoriasis and eczema. 

All in all, rosehip oil is really fantastic for your skin! However, it’s fairly rare and costly to make, so high-quality rosehip oil tends to cost a pretty penny. So, we make our own rosehip-infused oil instead! Learn how here. It’s not exactly the same as a commercially-extracted rosehip seed oil, but by steeping homegrown organic rosehips in a carrier oil of choice (such as argan oil) we’re able to reap the benefits of both!

7) Hemp Seed Oil

Comedogenic rating: Hemp seed oil is another zero on the comedogenic scale.   

Edible? Yes! In fact, hemp seed oil is becoming increasingly popular to use in salads, smoothies and other meals as an easy source of healthy essential fatty acids. Hemp seed oil has a low smoke point so it’s not the best for hot cooking.

Unique properties: Hemp seed oil is a fine carrier oil choice for any skin type! Chock-full of omega 6 fatty acids, a powerful anti-inflammatory that also promotes new healthy cell growth, hemp oil can calm irritation, psoriasis, eczema and acne. It’s very light, “dry”, and highly absorbable oil because it closely resembles the fat and amino acid composition as our skin’s natural sebum. Hemp seed oil will leave your skin supple and hydrated but not greasy.  

Note: Don’t confuse hemp seed oil with other hemp oils. Hemp seed oil is an innocuous oil that comes from hemp seeds, not cannabis flower. Unlike some other types of hemp oil out there, it does not contain cannabinoids like THC or CBD.

8) Sunflower Oil

Comedogenic rating: Sunflower oil is non-comedogenic (rated 0 or 1 depending on how it was processed) and will not clog your pores.

Edible? Technically, sunflower oil is edible. Yet when it’s exposed to extreme heat (such as frying), sunflower oil can produce harmful substances including aldehydes – a toxin that is linked to cancer, heart disease and dementia. Therefore, it’s best to avoid cooking with sunflower oil. On the other hand, rest assured that lightly heating sunflower oil to make salve or balm (e.g. in a double boiler) is not hot enough to form aldehydes. (It has to be heated to 365F or 180C for that to occur). 

Unique properties: Sunflower oil is exceptionally high in Vitamin E, an incredible antioxidant that rejuvenates skin while fighting inflammation, redness, irritation, free radicals, and UV sun damage. It’s also known to help repair the natural skin barrier. High oleic sunflower oil has the longest shelf life along with the highest concentrations of Vitamin E, C, K, and nourishing omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids. 

Sunflower oil is considered a “dry oil”, meaning it is lightweight, absorbs quickly, and leaves your skin feeling hydrated but not greasy. That said, it doesn’t provide as intense of moisture as other carrier oils on the list but is a good choice for oily and combination skin. It’s also a good one to pair with heavier oils if you’re considering mixing a couple.

9) Avocado Oil

Comedogenic rating: Avocado oil is rated a 3 on the comedogenic scale. 

Edible: Absolutely! Along with olive oil, avocado oil is an ideal option for edible oil infusions.

Unique properties: Avocado oil is thick and somewhat heavy, and offers deep, long-lasting, skin-softening moisture. It’s a great carrier oil for dry skin or luxurious body creams, but may not be the best choice for those with oily or acne-prone skin. Avocado oil boasts lofty levels of fatty acids, lecithin, beta carotene, protein, and vitamins E, A, and D. Studies show it can help boost collagen production as well as aid in healing wounds, inflammation, scars, age spots, and potentially psoriasis. Note that avocado oil is typically quite green. This will impact the color of your herbal infusion, salve, or balm. 

10) Safflower Oil

Comedogenic rating: Safflower oil is rated 0 on the comedogenic scale, so it should not lead to breakouts.

Edible? Safflower oil is edible at both low and high temperatures. 

Unique properties: Safflower oil is often underrated as a carrier oil for skin. While it doesn’t quite have the allure of argan or esteem of EVOO, safflower oil has a lot to offer for dry, acne-prone, oily, or sensitive skin alike! Its neutral aroma lends itself well to herbal infusions and homemade body care products. 

Like sunflower oil, safflower oil is a lightweight “dry oil” that soaks right in but offers long-lasting hydration. Similar to jojoba, safflower oil is known to help unclog pores and restore balance to natural oil levels. It boasts antioxidants and fatty acids that can soothe inflammation, psoriasis, eczema, rosacea, and protect against UV damage. The high linoleic acid content in safflower oil promotes cell renewal to improve acne, scars, hyperpigmentation and overall skin texture.  

Note: Safflower oil comes from a flower that is part of the ragweed family. Thus, those with allergies to ragweed should avoid this oil. 

11) Grapeseed Oil

Comedogenic rating: Grapeseed oil is rated 1 on the comedogenic scale.

Edible? Yes, but not recommended for high-heat cooking. When exposed to high heat (such as frying) it forms harmful compounds and free radicals.

Unique properties: Grapeseed oil is naturally antimicrobial and may help reduce acne. It’s high in polyunsaturated fats (mostly omega 6 fatty acids) and Vitamin E. As another “dry” oil, grapeseed oil is especially lightweight, non-greasy, and easily absorbs into skin. It won’t provide quite as deep of moisture as some other oils on the list, which makes it a great carrier oil choice for oily skin – or one to combine with another richer oil.

One thing to be aware of is that grapeseed oil is sometimes contaminated with trace PAHs – or polyaromatic hydrocarbons (known carcinogens). This occurs when the grapeseeds are heated to dry before extraction, so cold-pressed grapeseed oil doesn’t necessarily avoid this. The PAH content seems unpredictable and varies depending on how the oil is further refined and filtered after extraction.

And that sums up the 11 best carrier oil options for your skin, body, and culinary creations!

Well folks, I hope that was enlightening and informative! There are so many awesome carrier oil options out there, but it was pretty easy to narrow it down to these top 11 choices. I left out a few other popular options like castor oil (great for hair growth and inflammation, but rather thick for your face) and meadowfoam oil (more rare and difficult to source organic). Did I miss your favorite? Please let us know or feel free to ask any questions in the comments below. Also please consider pinning or sharing this post if you found it useful! Thanks for tuning in.

Don’t miss these related posts:

• Homemade Natural Lip Balm Recipe
• How to Make Lavender Oil, Calendula Oil or Rosehip Oil
• Soothing Homemade Lavender Salve Recipe
• Calendula Salve Recipe for Healthy Skin
• Homemade Cannabis Oil and Salve Recipe (THC or CBD)

The post 11 Best Carrier Oils for Skin Care, Salves and Infusions appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

Come learn how to safely make sun tea using dry or fresh herbs. We’ll explore examples of the best herbs to use in sun tea, important safety precautions and good brewing practices, and other commonly asked questions. Overall, it’s easy and fun to make sun tea. Depending on the herbs you use, sun tea can offer wonderful medicinal benefits too! 

What is sun tea?

Sun tea is a refreshing beverage made by steeping herbs or tea in water, left out in the sunshine to infuse. You can make sun tea with a variety of fresh herbs, dried herbs, flowers, spices, and/or tea leaves – including decaf or caffeinated tea. Black sun tea is a classic, but we’ll focus mostly on herbs today. 

While undoubtedly nostalgic and delicious, sun tea has become a bit controversial in recent years. Herbalists revere sun tea for its place in tradition and potential health benefits – including the powers of solar infusion. Meanwhile, leery microbiologists warn that sun tea can be the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

To be honest, it makes me sad how many Google hits around sun tea are warnings to avoid it altogether! That’s silly, like saying to avoid preserving your own food since there is risk involved if done incorrectly (and a very slight risk at that). So, let’s address that from the start! 

Keep in mind that I used to be a health inspector in a past life, and we make sun tea all the time.

Is sun tea safe?

For the most part, yes. If you follow the recommended best practices, making herbal sun tea is safe, healthy, and fun. However, there is some slight risk for potentially harmful bacteria to grow in sun tea under prime and unfortunate circumstances. In addition to following a short brewing time of 4 hours or less (explained more below), other ways to minimize risk include:

• Thoroughly wash and clean your brewing vessel with hot water before starting. 
• Choose glass containers to make sun tea rather than plastic. Toxins can leach out of plastic, especially when left to sit in the hot sun! We usually brew our tea in sturdy half-gallon mason jars or a glass flip-top container like this.
• Keep the brewing vessel covered with a sealed lid at all times, especially while it is sitting outside. Do not cover with cheesecloth or other breathable materials that may allow contaminants in. 
• Wash fresh herbs well with hot water before steeping.
• If you’re extra nervous, stick with dry herbs. We often use fresh herbs to make sun tea, though dried herbs do pose less risk. 
• Do not add sugar during brewing because sugar encourages bacterial growth. If you wish to sweeten your sun tea, wait to add sugar (or honey, agave, maple syrup, etc) until right before you drink it. 
• Make small batches of sun tea at a time; an amount you’ll be able to consume within a few days. Keep tea refrigerated after brewing.
• Avoid herbs with bird poop.

How long should sun tea sit in the sun?

To follow food safety best practices, sun tea should sit out for only three to four hours maximum, and then be consumed or refrigerated immediately thereafter. Temperatures between 40-140 degrees Fahrenheit (aka, the temperature of your beloved tea is steeping at) is considered the “danger zone” in the food safety world. When potentially hazardous foods or beverages are in that temperature range for 4 hours or longer, harmful pathogens may develop. This also applies to wet plant material in an enclosed jar.

That said, I know there are many folks who often brew their sun tea much longer without any issues! Myself included, especially before I “knew better”…. But out of an overabundance of caution, I have to pass along the information so you can make an informed decision.

To maximize the steeping, sun power, and flavor extraction despite the short brew time, I like to start my herbal sun tea with warm water (especially because our weather is quite mild here). I also try to put it out during the hottest, sunniest part of the afternoon. Without adequate warmth and time, sun tea can be weaker in flavor or medicinal benefits. You can also allow the herbs to continue to cold-infuse in the refrigerator after a few hours in the sun, as explained in the instructions to follow.

Can I use fresh herbs to make sun tea?

Yes! Most store-bought herbal tea is dried to extend its shelf life, but that doesn’t mean it has to be. Fresh herbs can be more rich in vitamins and nutrients, and offer a lighter, more delicate flavor to sun tea. On the other hand, the flavor and antioxidants are even more concentrated in dry herbs – so a little goes a long way! The general rule of thumb is to use three times as much fresh herbs than dry herbs to achieve a similar flavor. 

Last but not least, keep in mind that fresh herbs are more likely to introduce bacteria to your sun tea than dry herbs… but don’t let that dissuade you from using them. Just stick to the recommended brew time, washing, and temperature controls. Plus, not all bacteria is harmful! By and large, microbes are our friends. Use just-picked herbs for the best results.

The Best Herbs to Make Sun Tea

You can use any edible herb to make sun tea. Rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage… However, the herbs listed below will make the best-tasting sun tea:

• Mint – including peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint and others
• Lemon Balm
• Lemon Verbena
• Chamomile 
• Tulsi (holy basil)
• Pineapple sage
• Basil
• Anise hyssop (flowers or leaves)
• Lavender buds (English lavender is the most sweet)

The following herbs may not be quite as tasty, but will offer wonderful medicinal benefits to your sun tea:

• Yarrow flowers
• Echinacea (root and flower mostly)
• Dandelion (root, leaf or flower)
• Red clover blossoms or leaves
• Nettles (blanch or dry before use to “de-sting”)

You can also add edible flowers to sun tea for a pretty pop of color, including but not limited to: violas, roses, bachelors buttons, borage flowers (in moderation), hibiscus, calendula, and elderflower (flowers only, the leaves and stems are toxic).

Make sun tea with just one or two types of herbs, or mix several at once! Just be sure you’re familiar with or properly ID the herbs before adding them to your brew. A quick Google search can usually help with identification. Also please do further research about safety if you’re pregnant, nursing, or have any health issues. 

To learn more about the characteristics, medicinal benefits, and other uses for each herb, I highly recommend this book: Beginner’s Guide to Medicinal Herbs by Rosemary Gladstar. Also feel free to pop over to our Growing Herbs 101 guide.

Steps To Make Sun Tea

1. Start with a durable clean glass container (washed with hot water), and thoroughly rinse fresh herbs with warm water.
   
   
2. For fresh herbs, fill the container about one-third to half full. To make sun tea with dried herbs, you can either add dry herbs right into the container/water and strain them later (like we’ll do with fresh herbs), or keep them contained in a large loose-leaf tea strainer, cheesecloth, reusable mesh bag, or other similar porous material. A handful or several tablespoons (about an ounce) of dry herbs per half gallon water is a good amount.
   
   
3. Optional: add some tea if you’d like! We usually just use herbs, but if I do add tea, I really love the bulk organic loose leaf options from Numi – like jasmine green, golden oolong, or black breakfast blend. Follow recommended amounts on the package.
   
   
4. Add filtered water, and cover the container with a tight-fitting lid. Again, I usually use warm water to jumpstart the brewing process.
   
   
5. Allow the sun tea to brew in direct sunlight for three to four hours. Food safety experts recommend no more than 4 hours if you intend to drink it immediately, and only 3 to 3.5 hours if you’ll be refrigerating leftovers. I like to set mine outside (which will warm up the most) though you could also set it in a sunny window if needed. The hottest time of day will yield the best results.
   
   
6. When the time is up, strain the fresh herbs or remove the dry herb “tea bag”. To strain our tea, we usually position a fine mesh colander over a separate clean container (jar or bowl) and pour the sun tea through. For a stronger infusion, you can also leave the herbs in the sun tea overnight (in the fridge) and strain it the following day. I do this often, especially after brewing on temperate days, or when I’m too lazy/busy to strain it immediately! Compost the spent herbs or tea.
   
   
7. Store the finished sun tea in the refrigerator.
   
   
8. Now it’s time to enjoy your brew! Pour some over ice and enjoy a refreshing glass of homemade herbal sun tea. I usually drink mine plain, or add a slice of lemon and/or cucumber from the garden. 

How long is sun tea good for?

Sun tea that has been refrigerated after brewing is best used within 5 days (a week maximum). You’ll notice it darkens in color over time, which is totally normal. Chlorophyll, or the compound in plants that gives them their green color, is simply oxidizing.  Do not consume if it grows mold or develops off odors.

Can you add fresh fruit to sun tea?

Adding fruit to sun tea increases the risk for harmful bacterial growth in your brew. The fruit itself may introduce microbes, and the sugar in the fruit helps to feed microbes that may be in the vessel in general. If you really want to make a fruit-forward tea, it’d be best to use boiling water and a short steeping period rather than slow-brewing sun tea.

That said, you can add fruit to your sun tea if you follow the best safe brewing practices we’ve explored in this article. Strawberries, peaches, and cucumber are especially delicious, and pair exceptionally well with minty tea flavors. 

Citrus are the safest fruits to use in sun tea, including lemon, lime, oranges or grapefruit. Their acidic nature can help reduce bacterial growth. I love to add dehydrated citrus to mine! I also often add sliced cucumber or fresh lemon to my glass of sun tea, but not during the brewing process itself. Sliced fresh ginger is another amazing addition!

And that concludes this lesson on how to safely make herbal sun tea!

Of course you can also make herbal tea by steeping fresh or dried herbs in boiling water for a few minutes, but sun tea has always held a special place in my heart – and now on our homestead! I hope this provides you with all the information you need to feel comfortable and excited to safely make sun tea too. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments below, and please consider sharing or pinning this article if you found it useful. You can also leave a star rating and review below if you wish! Happy brewing!

You may also like:

• Growing Herbs 101: How to Start a Kitchen Herb Garden
• How to Make Golden Milk: Turmeric Latte Recipe
• 10 Best Vegetarian and Vegan Supplements for Improved Health
• Homemade Elderberry Syrup Recipe
• How to Make Fire Cider Immunity Tonic
• How to Propagate (Grow) Sage Cuttings in Water or Soil

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How to Safely Make Sun Tea With Fresh or Dry Herbs

Mint. Lemon verbena. Chamomile. Pineapple sage. Doesn't that sound refreshing? Come learn how to safely make sun tea using fresh or dried herbs, including the best herbs to use, important safety precautions, good brewing practices, and other commonly asked questions.

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Brewing Time 4 hours hours

Equipment

• Large glass container with lid (such as a half mason jar or flip-top container)
• Bulk loose-leaf tea strainer, cheesecloth, or reusable food safe mesh bag (optional)

Ingredients

• Fresh herbs of choice, such as mint, chamomile, lemon verbena, lemon balm, tulsi, etc. (fill container about 1/3 to half full)
• or 1/3 the amount in dry herbs (use about 1 ounce or 2-3 tbsp of dried herbs per half gallon of water)

Instructions

• Start with a very clean container (wash with hot water). Also rinse fresh herbs with warm to hot water.
• For fresh herbs, loosely fill the container 1/3 to 1/2 full of herbs (sometimes I do less). For dry herbs, use about 1 ounce or 2-3 Tbsp (about a handful). You can put dry herbs right in the containers, or keep them inside a loose leaf tea strainer, cheesecloth, or other porous "tea bag".
• Optional: add some tea if you'd like, such as bulk organic loose leaf jasmine green, golden oolong, or black breakfast blend. Follow recommended amounts on the package.
• Add warm filtered water.
• Cover the container with a lid.
• Allow the herbal sun tea to steep in the direct sun for 3 to 4 hours (4 hours if you'll consume it all immediately thereafter, 3 to 3.5 hours if you'll be refrigerating leftovers). The hottest time of day will yield best results.
• Stain tea through a fine mesh colander or cheesecloth to remove the herbs. (For a stronger brew, let the herbs continue to cold-infuse in the fridge overnight and strain the following day instead.)
• Immediately refrigerate leftovers and maintain refrigerated.
• Enjoy within 5 days for best results, up to one week. Discard if mold or off odors develop.
• Food safety best practice: only add sugar, fruit, or other sweetener at the time of consumption, not during the brewing process.

The post How to Safely Make Sun Tea With Fresh or Dry Herbs appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

The short and sweet answer is: we eat it! Well, most of it at least. I’d say we consume about 70% of our homegrown produce fresh, preserve about 20%, and the remaining 10% goes to the chickens, compost, the local food bank, and/or friends. As simple as that may sound, it isn’t always easy! It takes a concerted effort, dedication, and a bit of creativity at times. And we certainly aren’t perfect in our endeavors.

I’ve shared a number of recipes here over the years, but in reality, we rarely follow “recipes” in our day-to-day cooking. So, get ready for some serious garden-to-table food inspo! In this article I’ll share the ways we use our homegrown food, including recipes and meal ideas for both fresh and preserved produce, tips for cooking fresh veggies, how to harvest and store produce to extend its lifespan, places to donate excess to, and other creative ways to reduce food waste in general.

I hope this will spark some inspiration on how you can make the best use of your homegrown goodies too!

Grow What You Like

Start by growing crops that you enjoy eating most, because it’s far easier to use and consume your favorite fruits and veggies than ones you’re not as fond of. If you don’t like to eat kale, don’t grow kale! Though I will say, homegrown produce is always exponentially better than anything you’ll buy, so don’t be afraid to experiment and grow a small amount of something new or different to you. Perhaps you’ll be pleasantly surprised! As a matter of fact, I used to “dislike” radishes, and now they’re one of my favorite things to grow.

Grow A Reasonable Number of Plants

At first glance, it looks like we’re growing A LOT of food in our 19 raised garden beds. But upon closer inspection, you’ll see that we’re only growing a handful of each type of plant. That definitely makes it easier to use things up! We aren’t overwhelmed with an excessive amount of one kind of veggie, and many of the crops are ready to harvest at different or staggered times. 

It may take you a few seasons of experience and experimenting to find the right balance of plants for you or your family. For example, there were years we planted WAY too many hot chili peppers. We don’t eat a ton of those fresh, and despite our best efforts to preserve the rest, there is only so much fermented hot sauce, pickled peppers and homemade chili powder we can use… So we grow far fewer hot chilis now, and plant more sweet bell peppers instead.

This also varies depending on your personal goals and growing seasons! Do you hope to simply enjoy a smattering of homegrown veggies over the summer months? Or is it your intent to be self-sufficient, and therefore grow and “put up” as much food as possible? Can you grow year-round, or do you need to pack all your production into a few short months? Clearly that will influence how many plants you grow – and how much effort it will take to use or preserve it all!

Eat What’s In Season 

This may sound obvious, but it actually takes a good deal of practice and thought! Rather than trying to “fit” our homegrown produce into existing recipes or meal plans, we make a concerted effort to create and cook meals primarily based around the produce that’s currently available in the garden. We don’t eat out, and try not to buy additional produce at times when we have plenty homegrown. 

In our garden, that means we’re eating tons of zucchini, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, peas, green beans, and basil all summer. Yes, even if we’re feeling a bit tired of them by the end of the season! Then in the winter we don’t eat those things at all (that is, unless they’re preserved) and load up on leafy greens, root veggies, cabbage, cauliflower, winter squash, and broccoli instead. This also applies to things we get from the farmer’s market or grocery store. 

Okay, I get the idea.. But how do you eat all those vegetables?

Being vegetarian, fresh produce makes up a large portion of what’s on our plate. Our dinners often consist of lightly sautéed mixed seasonal veggies served with either whole grains and legumes (such brown rice or quinoa with black beans or chickpeas), lentils, or a veggie burger patty – served “Buddha bowl” style. We also occasionally eat eggs, brown rice pasta, or potatoes as the “base” with our veggies, and may toss in an organic corn tortilla or slice of homemade sourdough bread from time to time. 

We also eat a lot of big salads (especially for lunch), veggie-loaded soups and sandwiches, and tostadas with beans, cheese and vegetables. Avocado, fresh herbs, pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts, and other nuts or seeds are a welcome addition to most any meal! “Snack plates” or mini charcuterie boards is another easy and satisfying lunch idea. Simply load up a plate with fresh cut seasonal veggies, fruit, your favorite dips (I’m a big nut butter fan), and handful nuts or chunks of cheese.

“What we eat in a day” could be a full post of its own, but keep reading for a list of example meal ideas and recipes at the end of this post! Then if you’re still feeling stuck for ideas, feel free to browse some of our favorite recipe books here.  Now let’s talk about ways to cook, store, and preserve your garden veggies. 

Quick Tips for Cooking Fresh Veggies

Our favorite way to cook vegetables is in a large cast iron wok. We’ve used it dang near every night for over a decade! Yet rather than tossing everything in at once, I like to add the firmest veggies first (or the ones I want to cook longest), followed by medium-firm or faster-cooking ones about halfway through, and then toss in the leafy greens to wilt just before turning off the heat. I also like to separate the stems from certain greens, adding those sooner than the tender tops. That way, nothing gets mushy or overcooked.

For example, things like onion, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, and carrots go in the wok first, followed by zucchini, green beans, snap peas, bok choy or swiss chard stems a few minutes later, and finally things like chopped kale, mustard greens, arugula, swiss chard or bok choy tops at the very end. I also tend to strip away tough kale or collard stems and not use those at all.

In the wok, we sauté the vegetables with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil or butter. To keep things interesting, we rotate through a variety of seasonings or sauces: fresh herbs, curry or turmeric powder, cumin, onion powder, taco seasoning, pesto, roasted tomato sauce, nutritional yeast, or tamari. Though most times, we keep it pretty simple with just salt and pepper. Fresh garlic and onion always add a lot of flavor too! 

Of course there are many other ways to cook veggies: steamed, fried, boiled, baked, in soup… Roasting vegetables in the oven is particularly delicious! I especially love herb roasted cauliflower and marinated Brussel sprouts. The caramelization process brings out a wonderful nutty, sweet flavor while reducing bitter vegetal notes. In the summertime, we love to bust out our favorite veggie grill basket to cook herbed potatoes, squash, peppers, onions, eggplant and other seasonal goodies outside on the BBQ. Marinated portobello mushrooms are divine cooked right on the grill as well!

Homegrown Produce: Harvest & Storage Tips 

When it comes time to harvest goodies from the garden, there are a few different ways to approach it. You can harvest a little at a time, perhaps just what you need for each day or meal. Everything will be extra fresh that way! Then you also don’t have to worry about storing as much volume, or things going bad or limp in the fridge. It’s a great approach if that is what your schedule allows!

Years ago, we got in the habit of doing a big harvest every Sunday for the week ahead – and it stuck. Our big all-at-once harvests admittedly take up a lot of space in the fridge, but I find it exceptionally convenient to have everything already cool, crisp and on hand when we need it. Similar to a big grocery store haul, SEEING it all in the fridge also encourages us to use it even more! If we had to pop outside every time we prepared a meal, not only would it take more time, but I think we’d actually use far less of our garden produce. 

I plan to write an article about the best ways to store fresh produce soon, since there are many nuances and tips depending on the type of fruit or vegetable we’re talking about! Such as, you know it’s best to leave (uncut) tomatoes out at room temperature, right? Right. In the meantime…

Here are a few general tips to store produce for maximum freshness and lifespan:

• Harvest crops early in the day and/or when the weather is cool. Crops that are cool and firm at the time of harvest will be more likely to stay that way in storage compared to warm limp ones! Especially if you get them inside and into the fridge quickly. In the interim, keep your harvest baskets (and harvest photoshoots) in the shade if possible.
  
  
• Most fresh garden produce will stay crisp and perky when stored in the refrigerator inside an air-tight container. We reuse a lot of old plastic produce bags over and over. It’s not ideal but works really well – especially for big bulky harvests of leafy greens! The greens stay crisp for well over a week if the bag is clipped shut. I also really like these reusable silicone food storage bags, particularly for more compact items like green beans, snap peas, zucchini, radishes or carrots. You can also use a large tupperware-like container, including a glass container with a tight lid. Add a tiny splash of water to containers/bags of leafy greens and root veggies (except potatoes).
  
  
• Remove the leafy green tops from root vegetables before putting them in containers or bags for storage, including carrots, radishes, beets, or turnips. You can store and use those greens separately (yes, they’re all edible!), but they’ll also be the first to rot. With the tops removed, root veggies should stay good in cold storage for many months.
  
  
• We do not wash produce before storage, with the exception of very dirty root vegetables (like carrots or radishes) – we rinse or brush those off first. Also avoid prepping or cutting anything until you’re ready to use it. Things will stay good far longer when left whole!

Preserve The Rest

Preserving homegrown food is a fantastic way to reduce waste, reap the rewards of your bounty into winter, or simply enjoy something when it’s no longer in season. It’s also an opportunity to transform food items into something different, like a seasoning, jam, pickle, or condiment, which helps to keep things interesting and palatable!

If you browse through the “Preserve Your Harvest” section of Homestead and Chill, you’ll quickly spot my favorite ways to preserve things: ferment, freeze, dehydrate and pickle. We do dip into hot-bath canning on occasion too, but far less than the other preservation methods. Long-term cold storage (such as in a root cellar or refrigerator) is another simple option. I’ve listed some of our favorite preservation recipes below, and if you Google “ways to preserve xyz” you’ll see countless ideas!

I highly recommend investing in a few quality food preservation tools. My top-choices include:

1. A food dehydrator to dry fruit, veggies, herbs, flowers and more. We absolutely love our Excalibur dehydrators and use them almost non-stop! They’re large capacity, quiet, efficient, made in the USA, and BPA-free. I also love how little space dried goods take up in storage.
2. A Kraut Source fermentation device makes lacto-fermentation a breeze! We’ve been using them for years to make pickles, sauerkraut, fermented hot sauce, and other delicious probiotic-packed goods. 
3. These durable BPA-free freezer containers are great for freezing soups, sauces, broth, jam and more. They’re reusable and protect food from freezer burn.
4. My good friend Crystal just published a stellar new book called “Freeze Fresh”. It’s PACKED with information on not only how to best freeze fresh produce, but also includes recipes for how to use the frozen produce – which can be the trickiest part!  

Our Top Preservation Recipes

Freeze

• Simple Roasted Tomato Sauce (or can)
• The Besto Pesto: Lemon Walnut Parmesan Basil Pesto
• Homemade Vegetable Broth Using Saved Kitchen Scraps
• Homemade Pumpkin Puree
• Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde Recipe (Green Salsa)
• How to Freeze Tomatoes (plus tips to defrost and use)
• How to Freeze Zucchini (Summer Squash) Two Ways
• All of our soup recipes are freezer-friendly, including Tomato Basil, Creamy Roasted Carrot & Sweet Potato, Potato Leek, Butternut Squash with Sage and Apple, Hearty Kale Lentil Stew, and No-Chicken Noodle Soup

Dehydrate

• Homemade dried seasonings like garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, turmeric powder, and lemon peel powder
• Preserving Basil: How to Dry Basil in a Dehydrator or Oven
• Herb “Sun-Dried” Tomatoes
• Simple Apple Cinnamon Chips or Rings (or oven)
• Homemade Seasoned Crispy Kale Chips Recipe (or oven)

Ferment and/or Vinegar Pickle

• Simple Sauerkraut or Super Green Sauerkraut
• Vinegar pickles: pickled cucumbers, quick pickled red onions, refrigerator pickled peppers
• Lacto-fermented “pickles”: dilly green beans, radishes, carrots, and beets
• Apple Cider Vinegar with whole apples or apple scraps
• Sweet & Spicy Fermented Pepper Hot Sauce

Compost

Don’t feel bad if some of your homegrown goods end up in the compost! Like, at all. Creating free organic fertilizer at home all while diverting food waste from the landfill and reducing your carbon footprint couldn’t be further from wasteful! Sure, hopefully it’s only a small portion of your edibles hitting the compost, but still. Our worm bin is one of the key ways feed our garden plants – so we need to keep those worms fed, happy, and pooping! Learn 6 different ways to compost at home here, including tumblers, worm bins, hot and passive piles, and more.

Sharing is Caring

Ding-dong-ditch-the-zucchini anyone? When you’re blessed with an abundance, share it! Give away excess homegrown produce to friends, family, colleagues and neighbors. I’m sure they’ll be stoked! You could also consider setting up a roadside “free food” library, or donate to local organizations that help folks in need. Contact your local food bank or homeless shelter, or use this handy zipcode lookup tool from Ample Harvest to find a food pantry that accepts garden donations near you! 

Maximize Use, Minimize Waste 

The garden presents endless opportunities to nourish yourself AND reduce waste; sometimes in ways you don’t even realize! For instance, did you know that carrot and radish greens, broccoli and cauliflower leaves, fava bean greens, and even the young tender seed pods from bolted radishes are all edible? Check out our fava bean green pesto recipe here!

Daikon radish greens are especially delicious sautéed, or in green juice/smoothies. Carrot tops can make a mean pesto or chimichurri. Older broccoli and cauliflower leaves may be a little tough, but can be treated much like collard greens. And don’t forget leek and onion tops! We save and dehydrate those to turn into leek powder or onion powder.

Similarly, we save and eat most of our thinned seedlings as microgreens. Hellooo radish, kale, and broccoli sprouts! The spoiled chickens get some too. Just don’t eat the seedlings from the nightshade family like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant – they’re toxic.

There are also numerous ways to “up-cycle” food scraps – and turn them into something even better! For instance, we save and use citrus peels to turn into dried lemon peel powder or natural non-toxic household cleaner, and make homemade apple cider vinegar from apple peels and cores (or damaged, mealy fruit). We also save veggie scraps and trimmings in the freezer to later turn into homemade vegetable broth. It’s been a couple years since we’ve brewed kombucha, but we always used to always add garden produce to flavor our booch! See our favorite seasonal “second ferment” flavor combos here.

Grow Things Beyond “Food”

For some gardeners, having an excess bounty would be a dream come true! Many folks are contending with a limited amount of growing space, and therefore can only grow a select few plants anyways. However, if you’re blessed with an extra large garden and find that it’s producing more food than you reasonably keep up with, grow something else! In addition to veggies, use extra garden space to grow herbs, perennials, shrubs, flowers for pollinators, or cover crops that will naturally enrich the soil. 

Garden to Table Recipes & Meal Ideas

To wrap it all up, here are a few more vegetarian meal ideas based on things we commonly eat. I’ve linked a few recipes for you as well, though we don’t follow them all that often! After all, one of the keys to successful garden-to-table eating is getting comfortable enough in the kitchen to be able to throw meals together without following a strict recipe at all times. Being able to tweak and adapt a recipe to what you have on hand or in the garden is also essential!

Breakfast

• Plain yogurt with granola (light on the granola) topped with hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds, walnuts and/or almonds and seasonal fruit like blueberries, strawberries, figs, apricots… Whatever you grow!
• Overnight oats with similar add-ins as above
• Smoothies or fresh juice with garden greens, veggies and/or fruit. I’m especially fond of carrot, kale, celery, apple, ginger and lemon together!
• Scrambled eggs, black beans, sautéed veggies, guacamole and/or salsa
• Sourdough pancakes with homemade fruit preserves, fresh seasonal fruit, ricotta cheese, walnuts and/or pumpkin seeds.
• Loaded avocado toast on homemade sourdough bread.
• Lately we’ve been making “turnip taters”. We mix half shredded garden turnips, half potatoes (red potatoes or sweet potatoes are especially good), and then cook them like hash browns and serve with eggs, beans, avocado, etc.

Lunch or Dinner

• As I mentioned, we make “Buddha bowl” type meals the majority of our dinners. The bottom base will include a modest amount of brown rice, quinoa, black beans, pinto beans, chick peas, lentils, and/or potatoes (including sweet potatoes). Then we pile a heaping portion of seasoned veggies on top, usually sautéed, sometimes roasted or grilled. We finish it all off with a little avocado, kraut, cheese, nuts, seeds, or hemp hearts.
• Soup with seasonal veggies, broth, herbs, a grain and/or legume, plus seasonings. We make a lot of “kitchen sink” style soup, tossing in everything we have or need to use (not following a recipe). Yet I’ve posted several soup recipes here, including carrot sweet potato soup, roasted butternut squash, no-chicken noodle, kale lentil and more.
• Fiesta-style wild rice stuffed squash – the perfect solution for overgrown zucchini!
• Quiche or frittata with seasonal veggies. Kale, spinach, arugula, tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers and onions go especially well with egg dishes.
• Sourdough pizza loaded with garden veggies and even homemade sauce. We alternate between using roasted tomato sauce or besto pesto on our pizzas.
• Vegan roasted sugar pie pumpkin 3-bean chili with a side of sourdough cornbread.
• Zucchini fritters with yogurt dill lemon sauce.
• Zoodles with garden pesto, black beans, fresh tomatoes, and a side of sourdough focaccia – shown earlier in this post.

Lunch or Dinner continued…

• Veggie sandwiches. You can stick with classic toppings of hummus, avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles, or add roasted/grilled zucchini, eggplant, peppers and pickled onions. Check out the beet and apple sandwich below!
• Tostadas, tacos or burritos with sautéed, stir-fried, or grilled veggies plus all the other normal fixings
• Pasta with garden tomato sauce or pesto (fresh or from the freezer) with fresh sautéed zucchini, snap peas, cauliflower, and basil from the garden. We had this the other night! I really love these organic brown rice noodles.
• A veggie burger patty with sautéed veggies and other fixin’s. Costco has some decent organic veggie patty options. We also make our own black bean and quinoa patties and freeze them for future use.
• A bowl of madras curry lentils with sautéed seasonal veggies on top, plus a side of sauerkraut
• Biryani (Indian rice) stuffed winter squash
• Pan-blackened shishito peppers
• A big steamed artichoke with dipping sauce and a side of seasoned brown rice and black beans. I love to cook brown rice with a fresh bay leaf for a great pop of flavor! If you’ve never cooked or eaten a fresh artichoke, learn how here. They’re my favorite!

Are we feeling hungry yet?

I sure am! I hope this post gives you plenty of ideas of how to use and preserve your homegrown produce so nothing goes to waste! If you have any other clever tips share them in the comments below. Please keep in mind that it took us many years to get to this level of garden-to-table living. It’s an acquired skill, so please don’t feel intimidated! Just do your best and have fun doing it.

I also just realized I didn’t even get into our 20+ favorite vegan and vegetarian holiday recipes today, so be sure to check those out here. Thank you for tuning in, and enjoy!

The post How to Use, Store or Preserve Garden Produce to Reduce Waste appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

Close your eyes and picture a lush garden at sundown. As the last rays of sun kiss the colorful plants, flickering tiki torches start to illuminate one-by-one as a water fountain babbles softly nearby. Gardens can be downright magical. Along with bountiful food, flowers, habitat, and beauty, they’re capable of providing immense joy and peace – especially if you make a little effort to enhance your space beyond the basics! It’s time to create your own paradise at home.

I should probably mention that I’m not a professional landscape designer, but our gardens always have ample style and beauty! Also, the tips we’ll explore today can be applied to any size garden. You’ll see plenty of photos of both modest and large spaces below. We spent many years curating the gardens at our old ⅕ acre urban homestead; it was overflowing with charm by the time we moved away! We’re still working on weaving the whimsy into our big brand new garden… slowly but surely.

HOW TO ADD INTEREST TO YOUR GARDEN

1) Mix Textures, Materials & Shapes

Use a variety of plant textures, ground cover and hardscaping materials to create balance in your garden. For instance, I like to incorporate curved lines, round stones, large boulders, tree stumps or interesting branches, potted plants and wine barrel planters into our landscape to soften the space and offset the hard angles created by our rectangular raised garden beds and pavers. I also find using a combination of gravel and bark or wood chips (nearby, but not together) creates a nice blend of rustic and modern. Visit your local bulk landscape supply company to see what materials they offer.

Play with height and add interest to your garden by mixing a combination of raised beds and in-ground planting areas. You could even arrange your garden beds in an interesting pattern, such as a U-shape or herringbone layout. Raised planting spaces don’t have to be traditional wood garden beds either! We’ve created terraces and large elevated perennial planter beds using stone blocks (shown below). Galvanized steel raised beds also add a unique flair. See this article for more ideas about alternative raised garden bed materials.

In perennial landscapes, mix plants with various heights, leaf size or structure, and bloom times. Add flowy plants like native ornamental grasses or ferns to balance the more structured ones. On the flip side, we like to incorporate stately cacti and agave to complement all of our other softer plantings. Trees create the most majestic vibes of them all. Finally, don’t be afraid to experiment! You can always change plants later.

2) Play with Color

In addition to plants and flowers, there are plenty of other ways to add pops of color to your garden. Incorporate colorful ceramic pots, yard art, outdoor pillows and patio furniture, shade umbrellas, or an outdoor rug. Heck, you could even paint your fence or arbors! Black fences and arbors have been especially trendy lately.

Hardscaping materials like flagstone or gravel can make a color statement too. In our old garden, we used stunning pastel-colored cobblestones that looked gorgeous against the blue-green gravel. Yet the materials in our new garden are a bit more rustic and natural. I love both for different reasons!

Decide if you want to stick with a particular limited color scheme, or mix and match many colors for an extra playful space. For example, we grow annual flowers in every color of the rainbow, but I usually choose purple, pink and yellow flowers in our perennial landscape. I also tend to be drawn to blue, green or purple pots, pillows and other accents.

3) Light it Up

Solar lights are one of my favorite ways to add interest to the garden! Come evening time, our outdoor spaces feel downright magical. We use a combination of solar pathway lights and awesome flickering solar tiki torches (they look like real flames!) that have held up wonderfully over the years. Our arched trellises are adorned with solar fairy string lights, which we’ve also strung along fences and around garden beds over the years. Overhead bistro lights are always fun, and add even more functional bright light for entertaining. 

And of course, don’t forget a fire pit! In addition to light, fire pits provide warmth and cozy ambience. We absolutely love our low-profile round gas fire pit, perfect for kicking your feet up to warm by the fire. Other ways to add mood lighting in the garden include tabletop lanterns, citronella candles, or landscape spotlights under trees. I absolutely love the way they light up our oak canopy! See more details below.

Tip: Did you know that you can change the batteries in many solar lights? If the lights start to look weak or stop working, simply swap out the batteries with new rechargeable solar batteries. Also, you can turn them on and off to conserve battery life – rather than leaving them on all night long. 

4) Adorn with Art 

Add personality, flair, and interest to your garden with outdoor art. Adorn the space with metal sculptures, statues, a cute sign, garden flags, murals, or other artistic accents that suit your style. Pop in an old wagon wheel, a few little mushrooms or gnomes if that tickles your fancy! Get crafty and make your own art, or look around your local garden centers. I’ve also seen some creative flower beds made from old clawfoot bathtubs or wheelbarrows.

Gardener’s Supply Co has some really cute yard and garden decor options – including metal sculptures, weathervanes, wind spinners, statues and more. Don’t forget to add a pretty hummingbird feeder for our little friends!

We have a variety of decorative metal flowers, birds, leaves, suns, and butterflies throughout our garden space, along with a few fun windmills and this adorable rustic steel hummingbird. Our old homestead was dubbed “the beach jungalow”, so I created a sun mural out of sand dollars. I also found a fun “garden” sign at our local nursery, and then customized it with small copper tubing to create the shape of a rising sun. We also made a rad insect hotel (which is honestly serving more as an art piece than functional bug hotel at this point. Lol.)

5) Define Borders & Pathways

Define your space by accenting borders or transition areas with edging, decorative rocks, pavers, logs, attractive fences, arbors, arches, low-growing shrubs, or other materials. This could include the edges of a pathway, around an in-ground flower bed, a central patio area, the perimeter of the entire garden, or a statement at the entrance to the space. Adding a few stepping stones between garden beds makes the space look far more interesting and complete. It’s amazing what a big difference a few details can make! 

6) Grow Vertical

One awesome way to add interest to your garden is to grow UP. Use vertical trellises, arches, or arbors to create dimension – and increase your usable growing space! In the veggie garden, things like pole beans, peas, vining squash and cucumbers all love to climb. Passionfruit and kiwi are two vining perennial fruits. Other beautiful ornamental plants well-suited for climbing include jasmine, wisteria, bower vines, trumpet vines, black eyed susan, or trailing roses. 

There are also some really awesome vertical garden towers (not just for trailing plants) that are perfect for small or urban spaces. Finally, don’t forget about hanging baskets – especially around your porch or patio garden!

Need some trellis inspo? Check out our step-by-step tutorial on how to create an inexpensive DIY (flat) trellis. As far as arched trellises go, we found ours at a local nursery – but I know many folks make similar ones out of cattle or hog panel too! Or, check out these beautiful arches and arbors from Gardener’s Supply. I especially love their rounded “moon gate” or modern Gracie ones.

7) Water Features

No yard or garden space is complete without a water feature, IMHO. Water features can provide flowing movement, soothing sounds, and also offer an important lifeline to wildlife and pollinators! A water feature can be as simple as a birdbath, as stately as a fountain, or as elaborate as a pond and waterfall. In deeper fountains or bird baths, add a few large stones for bees, small birds, or lizards to safely perch on. 

We’ve found all of our water features at local nurseries, though I do love the look of this highly-rated ceramic bird bath and this beautiful cascading lotus fountain. You can also get crafty and create your own small pond in a wine barrel, galvanized metal tub/trough, or a pot that doesn’t have a drainage hole. Add a basic pump and turn it into a fountain! 

If you’re concerned about mosquitoes, keep in mind that they need standing water to breed in – and 10 to 14 days to complete their life cycle. So, a running fountain is not a concern! Refresh your bird bath water at least once a week to avoid long-standing stagnant water. In larger ponds, consider adding a handful of mosquito fish to keep them away. 

8) Music to My Ears 

Sometimes the sounds of birds chirping and leaves rustling in the breeze is all you need. Yet other noises can add pleasure and interest to your garden too! (Especially if you live near a busy road or highway like we do.) We’ve already covered a popular option in the water feature section above; the sound of trickling water from a fountain is oh-so-calming! I also love the sounds of deep melodic wind chimes and rain chains. 

Tip: If your fountain is too noisy, try reducing the water flow with one of these handy tube clamps. It made our new fountain sound so much more peaceful.

More often than not, we also play music while we’re out in the garden! We simply grab our favorite wireless “Move” Sonos speaker to bring out to the patio with us, plus open the back windows. The Move is all synced up with our home Sonos speaker system via WiFi, but is also bluetooth compatible. This Bose bluetooth speaker is also highly portable and well-rated by fellow audiophiles. If you’re looking for some new tunes, be sure to check out our music playlists here. We love reggae, blues, folk, indie, alternative, and everything in between!

9) Places to Relax

Last but not least, add personality and interest to your garden with seating areas – perhaps enough to entertain! Arrange lounge chairs around a fire pit, or set up an outdoor dining space with tables and chairs. Even the most petite gardens need a bench or small bistro set! In addition to providing function and comfort, seating areas can add a lot of style to your garden too.

Elevate seating areas with pavers or flagstone, bistro lights, or even a pergola overhead! Decorate with outdoor pillows, table lanterns, citronella candles, shade umbrellas, or other accents to match your vibe. After you’ve gone through all these lengths to create such a beautiful space, it’s time to sit back, relax, and soak it all in. 

And that is how you add interest to your garden!

Well friends, I hope this article gave you plenty of ideas and inspiration to spice up your outdoor space. Remember, it took us years to get our old homestead looking as whimsical as it did, so be patient! Good things take time. (This is also me telling myself this as I compare our old garden to our new one… it feels so naked! I can’t wait for all the plant life to fill in.) Are there any other fun and quirky ways you like to add flair to your garden? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below. Now go have fun creating your own paradise at home!

You may also love:

• DIY Trellis: How to Build a Simple Inexpensive Homemade Trellis
• How to Remove Your Grass – And Grow Food, Not Lawns!
• How to Choose Fruit Trees for Your Garden
• Top 23 Plants for Pollinators: Attract Bees, Butterflies & Hummingbirds
• How to Build a Raised Garden Bed: Step by Step Guide
• How to Start a Homestead: 9 Must-Read Tips for Beginners

The post 9 Ways to Add Whimsy and Interest to Your Garden appeared first on Homestead and Chill.