Ideas for Low Impact, Simple Living

Join fellow mountain activists this Monday, Dec. 7, to travel to the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection headquarters in Charleston, WV for a rally and protest to save Coal River Mountain.

We’ll be traveling in a van from the Appalachian Voices headquarters in Boone to join local residents from Coal River Mountain for the rally in Charleston. The van leaves Boone at 8:45am for the 2 pm rally; we will return to Boone by 10pm or so.

This rally is of urgent importance. Massey Energy is actively blasting and mining on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia. The blasting is taking place only a few hundred feet away from the Brushy Fork impoundment dam, which holds over 9 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge above the Coal River Valley. This blasting is happening despite studies that show Coal River Mountains has the highest and most productive potential for wind power generation in the Appalachian Mountains.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection needs to see that Virginia residents support a clean energy future — not the dirty energy and destructive practice of mountaintop removal.

Please join us:

Where: Appalachian Voices Headquarters, 191 Howard St, Boone, NC Click here for directions.

When: Monday, December 7th, 8:45am

For more information and to RSVP, please contact Austin Hall, austin@appvoices.org, 828.262.1500.

We hope to see you there! 

Matt Wasson

iLoveMountains.org

I just wanted to give everyone a head’s up. If your looking for a gift that’s green, fun and teaches edible and medicinal plants you should check out this great board game. Wildcraft! includes a 20×20 inch game board, instructions, 4 player pieces, 52 plant cards, 52 trouble cards, 25 cooperative cards, and a spinner. It also comes with a downloadable story to enhance the story of the game.

Learn while you play with the Wildcraft board game.

Winner of Dr. Toy’s Best Green Product of 2009 and Mothering Magazine Best Natural Toys of 2008, Wildcraft! is

• Made in the U.S.A.

• Box/board made with 100% recycled chipboard.

• Printed with vegetable oil based inks.

• Water based coating on paper, no varnish.

• Forest Stewardship Council certified paper.

• All material is 100% recyclable

Wildcraft! is a great introduction to the world of edible and medicinal herbs for children of ALL ages.

They’re also giving away SEVEN highly prized bonus items.

* Bonus 1: Herbal Remedies for the Cold & Flu Season (PDF)

* Bonus 2: The Dandelion Activity eBook (PDF)

This 20 page children’s activity book is a nice
companion to the Wildcraft game.

* Bonus 3: Kids, Herbs and Health 90 minute mp3 Audio! (mp3)

A wonderful 90 minnute audio eClass on using herbs safe and
effectively with kids. Includes PDF transcript.

* Bonus 4: Herbal Medicine Chart

This 10 inch by 10 inch medicine cabinet sized chart is
from the Home Remedy Secrets Video eBook. It is located inside
the game box.

* Bonus 5: Herbal Roots Zine: Full Issue! (pdf)

This amazing magazine has over 20 pages of information,
games, activities, and recipes for the herb Calendula. Calendula
is an herb featured in Wildcraft. A great opportunity to learn
more about this easy to grow and versatile herb.

* Bonus 6: Herbal Gifts eBook  (pdf)

A 14 page eBook with many herbal gift ideas including, sachets,
herbal eye pillows, facial scrubs, oils, bee pollen candy, honey,
syrup, chai and more!

* Bonus 7: Understanding H1N1 and our Remedies from Nature (mp3)

This informative special edition HerbMentor Radio episode
covers h1n1, herbal prevention, and natural treatments.

That’s nearly $140 worth of goodies …and you get it all FREE
when you order Wildcraft at $19.99, nearly 50% off.

Learn while you play with the Wildcraft board game.

I just took part in saving America’s Most Endangered Mountain- Coal River Mountain! Coal River Mountain could be a clean energy wind farm- or a 6,600 acre mountaintop removal wasteland. I urge you to contact the Obama Administration today and ask them to stop the blasting that has just started on the mountain.

http://www.ilovemountains.org/coalriver

There is also a danger associated with a coal sludge dam near the current blast site. So not only are local residents afraid of losing the last remaining mountain in Coal River Valley, their lives are in danger should the dam fail. Please help by emailing the Obama Administration today!

You can multiply your impact for preserving the mountains and communities of Central Appalachia, as well as our nation’s drinking water, by getting your friends to take action.

There are many things that folks have lost the knowledge of, like making the simple things. Our ancestors (and not that far back) knew these things. We have become dependent on the convenience of finding everything we need on the grocery store shelf. Large corporations, that want you to buy their product, plant the seed of fear and doubt that we can not make things ourselves because there must be some kind of secret process or it’s not safe.

Ok, sorry, I’ll get off my soap box (for now).

I just made yogurt. Right here in my kitchen. There was no secret process. It is entirely safe. I consulted a few books and a few internet sites. Each gave the same general information. Using all those sources here’s the recipe I came up with.

Ingredients:

• 1 quart whole milk (pasturized, not ultra-pasteurized. Raw milk is good to use but pricey & hard to come by.)
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt with live cultures ( this will be my starter. Once I have made my own, I can use that as a starter for the next 3-4 batches. Then I’ll need to start over.)

Equipment:

• A large pot
• Thermometers (one for checking the temp of the milk & an oven thermometer for checking the temp in the incubator)
• Quart jar or container
• A cooler
• Jars of hot water
• Bath towel

Process:

• Heat the milk to about 140°. ( Or, Bring it just to a boil.) Stirring to keep it from forming skin. Remove from heat to cool.
• While the milk is cooling, place the jars of hot water & the oven thermometer in the cooler. Place the towel on top & cover with cooler lid.
• Once the milk has cooled to about 115°, whisk the yogurt starter & 1/2 cup of the milk together until smooth. Pour into the quart jar.
• Pour the rest of the milk into the quart jar & stir. Put the lid on the jar & place inside the cooler with the hot water jars. Check the temp, it should be between 100°-115°.
• In a few hours it should start setting up. Keep checking the temp in the cooler every few hours. Replace the water in the jars as needed to keep the temp right.
• Once the yogurt has become firm, place it in the fridge.

It works! You can now eat it as you wish. I like mine with granola or my homemade grape nuts cereal. You can mix in some jelly or jam, fresh fruit or make smoothies with it.

Everyone here eats yogurt, including the dogs, cats, chickens and ducks. The yogurt I made yesterday (my first batch) passed the taste test with all of us. It was really good. Now that I know the process, I’ll be making larger batches.

One day we hope to have goats. The milk they provide can be made into cheese & yogurt. Having the knowledge of how to make these things will be an asset. Learning to make cheese is next on the list!

Methods of incubation for Homemade Yogurt:

In my research I found several methods of incubation. I chose the cooler method because it used very little electricity (just enough to get the hot water from the tap).

• Yogurt in the crockpot
• Yogurt in the oven
• Yogurt in a gas oven
• Yogurt with a heating pad
• Yogurt in a picnic cooler

Tip: In my research it was suggested that you use whole milk until you get the process down. Then try low fat milk in your future batches.

I completely forgot to mention that the milk and the yogurt used for the starter were Organic!

I’ve added some new questions to the Q&A page.  Mostly sugar related but there is a new one on Indian Runner Ducks.

Are all indian runner ducks the same color when they are babys?

Is raw sugar as bad as white sugar?

Is raw sugar low glycemic?

If you have a simple living question, the answer to a question, question the answer or have additional information to add just type it into the comment box.