Clean Your Entire Home with Baking Soda and Vinegar

NATURAL HOME LIVING
Robyn Griggs Lawrence on green homes, natural health, comfortable and uncluttered living spaces, wabi sabi simplicity philosophy, and more.

6/7/2011 4:55:19 PM

By Robyn Griggs Lawrence

I had such a great time talking with attendees at the  Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup, Washington, this weekend about how to make green cleaners. As always, I learned a new trick or two, and I promised everyone that I’d recap our conversation here for easy access. Today let’s examine one of my workshop’s premises--that you can clean your entire home with vinegar and baking soda.

Acidic vinegar kills some germs and microbes and inhibits their growth; cuts grease, lime deposits and soap buildup; disinfects and deodorizes; removes stains, shines and polishes. I use white vinegar for practically everything I clean, from my wood floors to my toilets. I mix about ½ cup of vinegar with a cup of water and add a little orange or lemon essential oil to make a wonderful, all-purpose sanitizing spray. I also like to put a little in a small bowl and place it on a high shelf to absorb odors, and I use vinegar scented with essential oils to wash garbage cans and remove pet stains.

During the workshop, we talked about the importance of checking the label before you buy white vinegar to make sure it’s made from natural ingredients. If the label says “grain alcohol,” “neutral grain spirits” or “wine,” it’s made from natural ingredients such as corn, apples or grapes. Avoid anything that says “synthetic alcohol,” as it’s likely petroleum-based.

Baking soda is an effective (and cheap) deodorizer that also scours and removes smudges or scuffs from floors. When my dog has an accident inside (which, in her defense, is almost always my fault), I add a few drops of lavender essential oil to baking soda, sprinkle it on the rug, let it dry and vacuum. This formula is much more pleasant smelling and healthier than the chemical formulas that are sold for this purpose. I also use a thick paste made from baking soda and water to clean my oven—simply apply the paste, let it sit overnight, remove and follow with a swipe of vinegar-water solution. (You can play with the ratios. One of the great things about cleaning with these simple ingredients is that it doesn’t have to be an exact science.)

The real fun happens when you combine baking soda and vinegar in to clear sluggish drains. Pour in ½ cup of baking soda and chase it with ½ cup of vinegar, then watch it fizz as the acid and alkaline react to each other. It’s so much fun that my kids beg to clean the drains!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, on natural and scientifically proven ways to fight germs and viruses—without nasty chemicals.

Common baking soda deodorizes, scours and removes scuffs and smudges. Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison

Read more:http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-home-living/clean-your-entire-home-with-baking-soda-vinegar.aspx

My Potato Project; The Importance of "Organic"

A child's experiment turns into a lesson on the toxins in our food supply.

Did you notice the differences between the three sweet potatoes?

Which sweet potato would you rather eat?

Summer Pruning and Thinning

Summer Pruning and Thinning of Fruit Trees

Keep your trees to size with summer pruning. Thin the fruit crops to get high quality fruit and improve next year's harvest. Tricia shares her tips on how and when to get it done.

REASONS FOR SUMMER PRUNING FRUIT TREES

Jun 14, 2011 - Charlotte from Peaceful Valley

TREE & FRUIT HEALTH ARE AFFECTED BY TREE SIZE

Summer pruning fruit trees controls undesirable growth on a tree by removing energy-wasting water sprouts. Summer is also a good time to remove leafy upper branches that excessively shade fruit on lower branches. After the lower branches are exposed, protect them from sunburn by painting them with a 50/50 mixture of water and white latex interior paint.
Winter pruning is meant to stimulate the tree. Summer pruning uses thinning cuts (where the branch is cut off at its point of attachment, instead of part way along the branch) and these cuts do not encourage new growth. By removing leaves with the limbs, the tree is also getting less energy.
Summer pruning is a technique to train young fruit trees, with thinning cuts to build your ideal tree limb structure. If you want to keep your mature fruit trees at an easy-to-harvest height, summer pruning is essential.

INSECTS

Pest control can be a benefit of summer pruning too. If you prune off fruit with damage from codling moths, mites or aphids, be careful with your orchard sanitation. Dispose of the fruit and branches promptly, and don’t compost them.

SPECIAL CASES: APRICOT & CHERRY TREES

Experts advise pruning apricots and cherries only in the summer. They are susceptible to Eutypa dieback, a branch-killing disease, if pruned during rainy weather. With this in mind, the most cautious gardeners do no dormant pruning on apricot and cherry trees. The University of California authorities in The Home Orchard say, “[I]t is best to prune apricot and cherry trees in the summer (July or August) so that at least 6 weeks of rain-free weather are likely to follow the pruning.”

HOW MUCH TO PRUNE

Some stone fruits (peaches and nectarines) grow quite rapidly and should have 50% of their new growth removed after harvest.
Apricots and plums grow more slowly and only need to have 20% of their new growth pruned away.
Experts differ on summer pruning of cherry trees. Mario Moratorio, former Farm Advisor in El Dorado County, suggested summer pruning cherry trees only for the first five years. Chuck Ingels, Sacramento County’s Farm Advisor, recommends pruning 10% off mature cherry trees.

THE MUST-HAVE BOOK

Do you have fruit trees on your property? If so, we hope you have The Home Orchard on your bookshelf. This primer from the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources is as essential as sharp loppers and pruners. With all those tools in hand you can become an expert at summer pruning fruit trees.

Organic Eggs Not Created Equal, Says New Scorecard

 



Organic Eggs Not Created Equal, Says New Scorecard

ENN.com: Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment

 

 

 

 

Next time you're at the grocery store aisle picking out eggs, you might need to think twice before assuming one organic brand is interchangeable with another. According to the Cornucopia Institute (CI), a non-profit which promotes economic justice for family scale farming, all organic eggs are not alike. They recently released the report Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production from Authentic Organic Agriculture.

The report contains an Organic Egg Scorecard that rates 70 name brand as well as additional private label organic egg producers based on 22 factors that the organization deems critical to the typical organic consumer. The main rating criteria include outdoor access, outdoor management, indoor quality of life and welfare, and organic principles of farm interdependence and ecological sustainability.

The highest rating, five eggs, goes to companies CI considers ethical family farms, companies that go beyond national organic standards. Most of these companies are small, local distributors. The producers given the lowest rating, one egg, are those CI believes are in violation of organic standards of animal welfare and/or were not transparent with their practices during CI's research. Sadly, many of the single-egg brands are the ones most easily available to consumers. Whole Foods' 365 brand, Trader Joe's brand, O Organic by Safeway, and Costco’s Kirkland brand all received a single egg for their sup-par performance.

The report, conducted over a one year period, details how organic egg producers vary greatly in their interpretation of the Federal USDA Organic Standards, "Paths are diverging in the organic-egg-producing community: One path affords more outdoor access and more diversity on the farm; and another path has led to large-scale industrialization motivated by profit."

Article continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/organic-eggs-created-equal-new-scorecard/

 http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/42756

 

Best Brands of Organic Milk

 




Best Brands of Organic Milk
Find the best milk for your family using this new scorecard. 

By Alison Rogers 
October/November 2007

You'll enjoy that tall glass of fresh, cold milk even more when you're sure it came from a well-managed organic dairy.

TABITHA ALTERMAN

The ever-growing popularity of all things organic has encouraged a boom in organic and hormone-free dairy products. While this trend gives us more healthy and affordable options at the grocery store, it also has given rise to a number of dairies willing to bend the rules for a share of the profit. But the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit small farm advocacy group, has developed a way to enable consumers to identify the best dairy brands. The report, Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk, includes a scorecard that rates 68 different organic dairy brands against a set of criteria central to true organic standards. Check out the milk brand scorecard.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Best-Organic-Milk-Brands.aspx