Zero Waste Sour Cream

I don't buy sour cream all the time but it is something that we enjoy fairly often. I didn't know of any way to buy it however except in plastic containers with a plastic seal. So I tried making some instead.

 I figured if I was now buying raw milk with cream that I could somehow turn some of that cream into sour cream.  So I started searching that online to see what I could learn.

 I found instructions at Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking and at OhLardy. I decided to try it two different ways. In one jar of cream I put 1/4 cup of sour cream that I had on hand and stirred it up well. In the other I put 2 teaspoons or white vinegar. I stirred them and covered them with a cloth napkin and set it on the windowsill for 24 hours. I then checked it but it didn't seem like it had done much so I left it another 24 hours.

   The cream did get nice and thick. It got a little sour but not as much as I would like. I don't feel like we were completely successful yet. But it does work okay.

  This time I used older cream and I think there was a little after taste from that. Next time I want to use cream that is pretty fresh. I also may try using citric acid to help sour it.

Have any of you ever made sour cream? I would love to hear if you have. 

The Church is the Body of Christ

Lately on Sundays here we have been talking about different word pictures for the church. Today we want to look at verses that talk about the church as Christ's body. This is a pretty commonly used word picture. Let's check it out...

"He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything." Colossians 1:18

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." Colossians 1:24

"And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22 &23

Christians are what make up this body: "Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it." 1 Corinthians 12:27

1 Corinthians 12:14-26 Explains how we are each different but no less important than another. We need each other to work together. One part is no good all by itself. And what is super important to remember is the fact that Christ is the head. That means we should all be listening to Him.

"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!" Matthew 17:5

We need to be in submission to Christ as well: "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything." Ephesians 5:23 &24

We need to abide in His teaching: " Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teachings of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son." 2 John 9

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:4 & 5

"Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread." 1 Corinthians 10:17

 We are only supposed to have one Head - Christ. There is also only one body - The Church. It should not be full of divisiveness. We should work together to follow Christ and tell others about Him.

My Woodland Nymph

 Mara was invited to go to a birthday party today. They were asked to dress up and told their would be a costume contest. Mara decided that she would go as a woodland fairy/nymph.

 The leaves are still beautiful around here (but falling fast) and Mara loves creating things with them. So she made a headwreath with leaves and flowers that we still had blooming in our gardens.

 I thought she should use woodland products to wrap her gift as well so I helped her with that. We couldn't find leaves big enough so we did have to use a under-wrapping of recycled brown paper. Then I wrapped mullein leaves around and tied them on. I finished it off with a couple of acorns and a birch tag.

Mara, ready for the party.

A side note... I am so happy that Mara is not afraid to be herself - to be different if that is what it takes. When we got to the party we found that pretty much nobody else really dressed up. But I figured Mara would do fine and she did. And yes, she won the the contest of being best dressed :-).

I included this with my Zero Waste series because I think it fits. Here's why:

• Items like leaves and flowers can just be composted after use.
• No plastic packaging was required for this costume or gift.
• We used what we had instead of buying things.

A New Rag Rug

 I finished a rag rug to go by my side of the bed today.

Making rag rugs is a favorite hobby of mine as it is truly a perfect way to use up trash and turn it into something useful and beautiful. Rag Rugs can be made out of small narrow scraps, old stained garments and such like. It is fun to make a bit of a pattern that depends upon how you add in your colors.

Green and purple are the main colors we have used in our room so that is what I tried to mostly use.

Homemade Eggrolls

 This week we made egg rolls for supper. This is something I often think to make in the fall when we are bringing so much in from the garden. I tend to get fairly creative when it comes to what vegetables go in them. :-) This week I had a huge cabbage from a friend to use that got me thinking about egg rolls. I also put onions, garlic, celery, carrots, hamburger, ginger, salt and pepper in them.

 I make my own wrappers (and avoid the plastic wrapping that comes on the ones you buy) which is not that hard. I talk more about doing that in this post.  Making egg rolls is a kind of messy project but I do enjoy the results! :-)

  In the last year or so I have been frying them in tallow (that I processed from our grass fed and finished beef). I think it is a healthier and cheaper alternative (and also fairly Zero Waste).

  You might notice in the top picture that I have the egg rolls on a brown paper. That is the inside of a sugar bag that I saved for that purpose. I do not buy paper towels and generally use cloth rags instead but for this purpose I do like using paper. The bags work great. Afterwards they work good for fire starter.

  Do you make egg rolls? Making them from scratch instead of buying the frozen ones or even buying the egg roll wrappers definitely creates less trash. I made extra and froze a bunch too. I am looking forward to using them on a busy day.

A Broiler Pen made from Repurposed Items

 This Spring we were needing a place to put our broilers for their growing up. We didn't need anything super great as they would only need it for a few months and not through the winter. We also weren't wanted to spend a ton of money.

  So, Aaron and I went to work with trusty pallets (we had some on hand that I had collected another time).

For the shelter (that would go inside the pen that we made) we used pallets and some screws and made the lovely contraption about. Then we took a lumberyard tarp (that we get for free) and folded it in half (or maybe more times) to make it even sturdier and then we stapled it securely on our "roof".

For the actual pen we decided to use the garden fence for one side of it. Then we made pallet fences for the other 3 sides. We had to dig a few places so that they sat nice and flat with no holes underneath them. We screwed them together as we went along.

 We worked the fence through and around some brush. I cut down as little as possible as I liked the idea of the brush hiding the fence on the outside and on the inside I knew that it would provide greenery and shade for the chickens.

This is the view from inside the garden.

We used another pallet for the gate and some zip ties served as "hinges".

We found some odds and ends of wire mesh that we had and put that up on the inside of the fence down near the bottom to keep little chicks in (since there were some cracks) and predators out.

 The chickens really enjoyed their new space.

 Mara, standing by our "gate".

It was a fun project that we made without having to spend money or create waste. In fact we used up some things that would normally be wasted. And it worked! It was a successful home for our chickens until time for butchering. We thought about getting a piglet after their butchering time but that didn't happen this year. Another nice thing about this pen was that it actually looked pretty decent and especially with it being in the brush it was not an eyesore on the property. Ken really appreciated that.

Have you made things out of pallets? What have you done?