Homemade Pickles!

I absolutely LOVE pickles. I have to confess that my inspiration to start making them myself started with a small obsession with an adult beverage called picklebacks, which involves pickle brine. I wanted to make this beverage at home, but couldn't find pickles in the store which weren't laden with chemicals. The organic pickles I found were unbelievably expensive. I then discovered something amazing: it is about the easiest thing on earth to make your own pickles. It is probably the simplest thing I will ever post on this blog. The one caveat is that these easy pickles cannot be stored in the cupboard. You have to put them in the fridge.

Here is how to make pickles:

Boil 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup water, and 1tbsp salt.
Pour this mixture over a bunch of cucumbers, cut up or not as per your preference, in a jar.
Leave the jar in the fridge for 3 weeks.
Pickles.

If you want to get a little fancy, chop up a couple cloves of garlic and about 2 tbsps of fresh dill and throw that in too. I did so and the result was the closest thing I have ever had to a Kosher Dill from the Jewish deli on Kings Highway in the 80s, which probably no longer exists.

Once you have piggishly eaten then entire jar in 2 days, you can reuse the brine at least once, just add more cucumber.

DIY At Home Spa Treatments

I can't figure out why, but my skin has been super irritated lately. My guess is it's the abrupt seasonal changes. After days of suffering from an itchy, red, irritated face, I decided to take action. Here were some of the spa recipes I improvised:

Facial
Step One: Exfoliator
Take about 2 tbsps of raw oatmeal and drizzle warm water on it til it forms a paste. Rinse your face with water, then use the paste to gently scrub your skin. Rinse again. (Caveat-- if it gets in your hair, it's a pain to get out.)

Step Two: Toner
This was my toner recipe:
1/2 cup Witch Hazel
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp aloe gel
1/4 tsp Willow Bark extract (natural salycic acid, which is commonly used in acne medicine)
Rub over face with soft cloth or cotton ball

Step 3: Moisturizing Mask
All the recipes I had looked up for moisturizing masks called for either eggs or honey, neither of which I keep in my vegan home. So I invented this one:
1/4 avocado
1/4 ripe banana
Mash
Smear on face and leave on 15 min, rinse.
The avocado oil is a good moisturizer for your skin. I'm honestly not sure what use the banana is except as a binder, but it was in some of the recipes I found online too. (I also ate some. It was pretty yummy.)

Bath
A nice warm/hot bath with epsom salts and apple cider vinegar is great for the skin and for sore muscles. I poured about a half cup of each in. Then I also threw in the leftover oatmeal from the exfoliator for the soothing properties.

It remains to be seen if any of this is helping my skin look better, but it made it feel somewhat better!

Herbal Remedies

I'm not much of a fan of pharmaceuticals, and usually I stay pretty healthy just through diet and exercise. However, I am fond of a few herbal remedies when certain health issues come up. As a caveat, one should use caution when taking any medication, herbal or otherwise, and if you take prescription drugs or have a health issue, it would be wise to consult with both your doctor and an herbalist (don't expect your regular doctor to know anything about herbs) before using an herbal medicine. If you're basically healthy, googling the herb and checking for the side effects or interactions is probably sufficient. I will say that my husband and I have taken the herbs I'm about to mention with no side effects whatsoever.

Cold/Sinus/Allergy Herbs
Echinacea (this one is fairly commonly known, it is a general immune booster)
Nettle (this stuff tastes VERY strong but is good for allergies and sinus-- its super-strong taste alone is enough to clear out your sinuses!)
Schisandria (helps with sore throats)
Sage (also soothing for throats)

PMS
I suffered from horrible PMS until I discovered some of these herbs. It was life-changing. I should mention that I DO NOT take oral birth control and those who do should potentially not use these herbs.
Dong Quai (helps to generally regulate cycle and reduce PMS discomfort)
Black Cohosh (this one helps the uterus to relax and shed-- I take it the last 8 days of my cycle and can keep myself on an exact 28-day cycle if I remember to take it the last week, it also helps with cramps during menstruation)
Evening Primrose Oil (also brings on menstruation and aids with cramps, I have known pregnant women who were late delivering and used it to induce labor)
My personal favorite is a melange sold at Westerly Natural Market in Manhattan known as Fem Cycle. If you can't get to this store, there are many tinctures which contain a series of female herbs. Fem Cycle contains Chaste Tree Berries, Wild Yam Root, Dong Quai, Red Raspberry Leaf, Licorice Root, Oregon Grape Root, Cramp Bark, Nettles Leaf, Fresh Garrya Herb.

Pain
Willow Bark (natural salycic acid, which is the active ingredient in aspirin)

Mood
St. John's Wort (mood stabilizer, a natural version of Prozac. Helps with depression and anxiety. Has a host of potential interactions and side effects, so google extensively before deciding to use it. Super helpful if it's right for you, good for short and long-term use.)
Kava (helps with relaxation and sleeping. Take in moderation and do not mix with alcohol)

These various herbs can be taken as tinctures (dried herbs soaked in alcohol-- similar concept to vanilla extract) or as infusions (similar to tea, usually an expensive option.) The least expensive option is making your own tinctures, which I do. In order to do this, cover 1 parts herb to 1 part water to 2-4 parts grain alcohol. You have to adjust according to what the herb is, this information is easily found online. Dried herbs can be purchased in New York at Flower Power in the East Village. The women who work there will be sure to tell you that they cannot give medical advice, and then proffer a bounty of useful information.

Food for Your Face!

If you go into a cosmetics store the options for skin care are endless and often confusing. Then if you read the labels on some of the "natural" skin care products, your head will really start to spin from the list of unpronounceable chemicals! Since I tend to have bad reactions to a lot of skincare products, I prefer to use food on my skin whenever possible. The following are some simple foods which are great for skin care:

Green Tea (good for irritated skin)
You can either gently rub a warm, wet tea bag on your face or simply rinse your face with some lukewarm tea. It gently cleanses and soothes irritation.
Apple Cider Vinegar (good for broken out, oily, or dirty skin)
This is good for blemishes and/or makeup removal. Dilute in water before putting on skin. Really deep clean. I wouldn't use it every day or your skin will get irritated.

Turmeric (good for red, irritated skin)
Make a paste with milk or soymilk and rub gently on your face like a mask. Leave on for 15 min or so then rinse off. Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory, so it helps to soothe red, inflamed skin. An ayurvedic technique.

Coconut Oil (good for dry skin)
Coconut oil has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory qualities, so it reduces irritation and cleanses impurities while also moisturizing. Can be used on the entire body.

Aloe Gel (good for everything)
You can get aloe gel made for the skin, but it usually has a host of additives. Pure aloe straight from the plant is best, but you can also get food-grade aloe which has fewer additives. Sunburns, irritated skin, shaving bumps, aloe helps it all.

Corn Starch (good for heat rash, baby diaper rash, or sweaty, irritated feet)
Just sprinkle on like baby powder. You can, of course, also purchase corn starch baby powder, but it's usually double the price. There is controversy around whether talc is bad for humans, but cornstarch will definitely not hurt you (or your baby.)

Making Your Own Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar, an elixir whose many benefits are enumerated here, is relatively inexpensive, but I like the challenge of making things myself. Unlike other sorts of vinegars which require a starter batch and a several-step process, ACV-making is about as easy as it gets. One needs only apple scraps, water, a jar, a paper towel, and some patience.

How To Make ACV:
1. Let apple scraps (cores, peels, apple bits) sit out for 1-2 days to brown. I'd suggest scraps from a minimum of 4 apples, but you can use as much as you want. 

2. Place scraps in a jar and cover with water. The scraps should come up close to the top of the jar, not float in the water. (I used a peanut butter jar, which winded up yielding such a small amount of vinegar that it almost wasn't worth it. I'd suggest using at least a quart-sized jar to make a decent amount of vinegar.)

3. Cover the top of the jar with cheesecloth or a paper towel and secure with a rubber band. Put the jar in a cool, dark place such as a kitchen cupboard.

4. Wait. Vinegar is made through fermentation, so there's no quick way to make it. I allowed my first batch to ferment for a month, which I would say is the bare minimum. It did not come out strong enough for my taste, so next time I will let it ferment for at least 2 months. Just smell it periodically and you will have your answer as to whether or not it has become vinegar yet.

5. Pour through a strainer into a bottle to separate the scraps. The cloudy brown gunk which remains in the water is actually what makes this particular vinegar so good for you, so don't strain too vigorously!

Again, commercial ACV is cheap enough if you'd rather not go through the 2 months of waiting, but I love the idea of making something out of what would ordinarily be garbage!

Homemade Laundry Soap

Why spend tons of money on organic or hypoallergenic laundry detergents when it is SO easy to make at home? I highly recommend this process to anyone with sensitive skin or people with babies. If you're a New Yorker and want to try some before making it, message me in the comments section and I will give you a sample or sell you a half gallon for $4.

Step One: Grate 1/2 bar soap of your choice (I like to use castille or coconut oil soap). ***

Step Two: Dissolve at low heat on stovetop in 3 c water.

Step Three: Add 1/4 c washing soda (can be ordered online if you can't find it), 1/4 c borax, 2 c hot water.

Step Four: Stir, let sit about 5 min. Add 1/2 gallon water and 2 cups, stir.

Step Five: Let sit overnight. It will come out kind of goopy and lumpy.

You don't need to use much, maybe a 1/4 cup per load. I store it in milk jugs. I wash all my laundry with it and have to make more about once every 3 months. It works GREAT in high efficiency washers-- I use slightly more than is recommended since this soap is not highly concentrated. FYI: It will not suds. This is ok. Sudsing is not necessary for cleaning.

*** Many online recipes insist you use Ivory soap. Guess what? The only thing "pure" about Ivory is the name and the color. Here is Ivory's ingredient list: sodium tallowate (that would be BEEF OR PORK FAT, which is in almost every commonly used commercial soap-- ew), sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernelate (palm oil or coconut oil, but there's no guarantee which), water, sodium chloride, sodium silicate, magnesium sulfate, and fragrance (who knows from what source or whether it will make you itchy.) The first time I made it I used a coconut oil soap whose ingredients were as follows: Saponified Coconut Oil. It worked great. I have used a multitude of pure vegetable soaps and all have been fine. If you WANT fragrance I'd suggest using a lavender soap which will give a nice fresh scent.

Cleaning Practically Anything with Natural Ingredients

Aside from being concerned about what goes IN our bodies, it's also important to be concerned about what goes on and around them. So many commercial cleaning products have chemicals which can irritate or harm us (not to mention our kids and pets) and it can be a major operation to figure out what's in these products and whether or not they're harmful. There is now a huge market for "green" products, but often these are two to three times more expensive than their conventional counterparts. Why should we have to choose between buying products with harsh, unwanted chemicals and overspending, just to keep our homes clean? Years ago our great-grandparents cleaned everything with just a few simple ingredients, before the dawn of advertising, product placement, convenience stores, and the like. Why must we now stand baffled in the supermarket between 17 different choices of floor cleaner? Additionally, the amount of plastic saved by making your own stuff rather than buying a spray cleaner, floor cleaner, bathroom scrub, tile scrub, laundry soap, etc, is remarkable.

The following is a list of must-have ingredients in order to keep your home clean without having to use even one squirt of commercial disinfectant

White vinegar (disinfectant-- dilute in water for a great glass cleaner)
Baking soda (disinfectant, deodorant, abrasive)
Castille soap (highly concentrated natural soap made from coconut oil-- a few drops go a long way)
Borax (disinfectant, deodorant)

Actually you can do most of your cleaning just with those items and water, but a few other helpful items include:
Washing soda (this is hard to find but can be ordered online and is essential for making your own laundry soap)
Grain alcohol
Essential oil (to customize how you want your cleaning supplies to smell-- eucalyptus and citrus are good choices)
Salt

Online recipes abound, but for most basic cleaning you can't really go wrong with the first four items on the list. Add some vinegar, borax, and castille soap to warm water and go nuts. You'll be able to quickly figure out if you need more or less. For an initial cost of maybe $30-$40 for the ingredients (this is assuming you get a nice big box or bottle of each), you can clean everything you own for probably over a year before having to buy more! Your house will not smell like chemicals, and you won't get that "cleaning headache" I used to get from the fumes from things like Comet and Fantastic. I will post some "recipes" I use here and there, so go out and get those supplies!

Homemade Toothpaste

Sometimes I make my own products to save money, sometimes it's because I can't find a product on the market which is to my liking, and sometimes it's just because it is so fun and liberating to make things for yourself which most people would automatically purchase in a store. My homemade toothpaste falls under all three categories.

Here is the recipe:
6 tbsp calcium carbonate
2 tbsp xylitol
1 tsp baking soda
Combined with:
1 tbsp peroxide
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp vegetable glycerine
16 drops peppermint oil

Here is the background as to how I came to this recipe. Initially, I made the traditional homemade toothpaste combo of baking soda and peroxide, which got my teeth extremely clean, but was making my gums bleed. Further research gleaned the information that brushing daily with baking soda leads to receding gums due to the BS being too abrasive, and I certainly didn't want that. I noticed that the main ingredient in the Tom's of Maine toothpaste I'd been using was calcium carbonate, and after a bit of rooting around online I managed to find some (I later discovered it can be ordered at Soap.com for much less that I paid for it on some vitamin website.) I asked my aunt, a dentist, about the pros and cons of CC vs BS. She had no idea and forwarded the question to my uncle, a chemist, who thought that CC would be MORE abrasive than BS, but it actually wasn't. Once I started the above recipe with only a tiny bit of BS the bleeding gums stopped immediately, and my teeth were getting quite clean and sparkly. 

As for the other ingredients, the xylitol is a natural sugar alcohol with a very low sugar content which makes the toothpaste sweet and also is a bacteria deterrent, the peroxide whitens the teeth and disinfects, the coconut oil is a natural antiseptic and has been used in Ayurvedic medicine as a tooth cleaner for centuries, and the peppermint oil freshens your breath. Aside from the calcium powder all the other ingredients were fairly easy to find at a health food store or drug store, and while I haven't actually done an algebraic price comparison between what it costs to make vs buying Tom's of Maine or another "natural" toothpaste brand, I'm quite certain my own is less expensive. 

Want to try this but too busy to make it yourself? Send me an email with your address and make a donation of $5 in the donation box on this page, and I will send you a double batch of this recipe! If you are in NYC and can pick it up, it will be $3. *Warning* I have not figured out how to put it in a tube so it will come in a tupperware container.