Acknowledging the Need for Margin If you are like me, I’m sure you’ve said a time or two that you wished you had more hours in the day, more days in the week, more time to get all the things done. We never seem to wake up early enough or stay up late enough to get all the laundry, dishes, reading, tidying, loving on our people done. Depending on our goals and priorities, we have to cram in all the…
Homemade Vanilla Extract is very simple to make. It only requires 2 ingredients and about 10 minutes of your time. You can speed up the extract process in an instant pot and cut your wait time to about 2 weeks or let it slowly extract over 6 weeks to 3 months. Allow me to break down all the steps and options for you and you can decide which method serves your family best. FUN FACT: Did you know vanilla doesn’t…
The Fall 2023 Garden Fail After a long, hot, dry summer, and what felt like a never ending football season (we started conditioning in July and had our last game right before Thanksgiving), the last thing I wanted to do was get out in the garden. Early in the year I had all the plans to grow all year long, but by the time the end of summer came, I was as burnt out as a sun-bleached jalapeno. So, despite…
Hello all! The New Year often brings a time of reflection, and this year was no different. I’m excited to share what to expect from The Homemade Mama for 2024. First of all, thank you for following along over these past months. I have enjoyed chatting with you and growing this community of people who want to get back to the simpler ways of doing things. I decided to try again (for the 3rd time) at this blogging thing back…
Last month (November), I did a thing. My dear friend (and farm mentor) and I took the plunge and launched a podcast! We share a passion for rediscovering the old ways and sharing them with others. We are a couple months into this journey and are blown away by the response. It is fun to get to set aside a time once a week to sit with my friend while we sip tea and chat about all the things we…
Store bought ranch mix is a classic, but is full of unnecessary and unhealthy chemicals. Why not make it yourself! This recipe is so simple, you will wonder why you didn’t try it sooner. Homemade Ranch Mix is the way to go! The base ingredient you will need is dry buttermilk. I searched around for the best prices and settled on Azure Standard. I purchased mine in a 5lb bag. If you are interested in learning more about Azure Standard…
I’m sure you’ve seen the videos floating around social media about starting this wonderful home remedy this time of year. It is time! Honey Fermented Garlic is a beautiful immune-boosting tool to add to your medicine cabinet this winter. I’m going to walk you through why you should add this to your medicinal arsenal and how to make your very own Honey Fermented Garlic to combat winter illnesses, among other things. First, I will break down each of the components…
Did you know homemade cranberry juice is incredibly easy to make and doesn’t required any special equipment? That’s right. It is as simple as filling a jar halfway with cranberries and adding some sugar and pouring boiling water into a jar. Process using the water bath canning method (you just need a tall pot, not an official water bath canner) and presto, you have a beautiful homemade, shelf stable cranberry juice to enjoy throughout the year. Our family moved into…
Hear ye! Hear ye! In October I made my first real excursion into herbalism. I’ve been gleaning any information I can from a variety of reliable sources and growing my herbal knowledge base all while eyeing a particularly long, stalky-looking weed that sprouted this spring close to my compost pile. A few months ago, I used a plant-identifying app to confirm my suspicions; to my excitement, my limited knowledge of foraging served me well! Goldenrod! I spotted goldenrod growing right…