Apple Scrap Vinegar
Apple Scrap Vinegar Getting Made.
I promised I would get this up as soon as I could because I already put the cart before the horse in my last post. Where I shared my recipe for laundry detergent and dish soap. This is very easy….. You won’t need any pots or pans…. Just a quart ball jar. Fill it up half way with scraps of apple. I like to throw in peels, and cores, and left overs….. etc…. Sometimes I even pick some specifically for this purpose. Often, I do this while I am prepping canned apple slices, pie filling, or even left overs from prepping them for dehydrating….. There is no wrong. Once the jar is half full of apples throw in 1 cup of sugar, then fill the jar with water. Mix the sugar into the water. Cover jar with a cheese cloth held in place with a rubber band. Put somewhere dark and room temperature. Take it out 3 or 4 days a week for a quick mix. Allow to sit for 2 weeks. At the 2 week mark, it is time to strain it into a smaller jar. Strain out the apple, put in the kitchen compost heading for the chickens, so no waste. Jars are glass not plastic. They are reusable, and create less plastic for the sea life to be eating. Give it a mix after straining cover again with rubber band to sit another 2 weeks in the same spot. Then you get apple scrap vinegar.
On a homestead farm, I use this stuff in so many many ways. There is just never enough…. I put it in the water for the geese, their pet duck, and the chickens to keep the worms away, along with some oregano. I use it in cleaning products to keep things clean…. You name it this stuff likely is applicable in some capacity….
It has been another long day and I am tired.
So I hope I can be forgiven for not getting into the poetics of nature this once?
After all… There is always something that needs my attention
and I am only human….
Have a lovely night
And thank you for reading.
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm
Tags: ag, agriculture, agro, apple scrap vinegar, farm, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, hobby farm, homemade vinegar, homestead, homestead farm, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, lifestyle, natural life, simple living, simpler life, suburban homesteading, urban homesteading, vinegar recipe, wildflower farm
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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