Cotton vs Synthetic - Who's is the Winner??

All my life I have been a very big fan of cotton. I guess most of us are!! As a child, I have seen my mom grow her own cotton plant in backyard. My ultra sensitive skin wants cotton, even during those uncomfortable days of the month. Never thought that I would blog about this unpleasant phase which is imminent in every women's life. In the early 90's, homemade Cloth menstrual pad is what I was introduced into like many others. Gradually a product called "Stayfree" came in and we switched to that during college days. Never had any issues till then but gradually when other products like Kotex, Whisper were introduced in mid 90's, rashes surfaced. I always lived with those rashes during my cycles. Couple years back when I tried Seventh Generation Pads, my rashes never showed up.

After moving from CA, it wasn't easy to find them here in Cincy. I found out that CVS carried their own brand called "pure cotton pads". They are really good form me.

Is this better for environment? Yes, it does eventually end up in landfill but will decompose faster  than the Rayon base pads!! Since CVS pads are made in Italy, where GMO is still in experimental stage, that gives me a relief. I will keep an eye for Organic Cotton Pads. I have never used Tampons and will probably never use.

There are more environmentally sustainable options for those who are concerned about the use of sanitary pads be it cotton or synthetic. I am still not there yet!! For now, Cotton pads are winner according to me!!

Inexpensive Homemade Wreath

 I am always fascinated with Wreaths! As the holiday seasons are ahead, I had an urge to make wreath using stuff available at home. I used up a dead Grape Ivy vine to form a big circle. The vines are so strong and flexible that bending them doesn't break. I had Chinese grass growing at one corner of my yard, so cut few of them and placed them on one side of ivy vine. Had few burlap pieces and made a bow out of that.

Grape Ivy

Chinese grass


The end results was amazing!! I plan to give this a make-over according to seasons!! I could glue some preserved fall leaves during Autumn, red fake flowers during Christmas and fake green vine during spring.

My Newest Obsession with Air Plants

First glimpse of Air Plants bring smile on my face. Tillandsia are easy to grow and care. Air Plant jellyfish are one of the amazing decor ideas. These small hairy plants with minimal roots are bit expensive but they last long. Recently I found few of them with blooms in a local fair. The crucial factors in keeping Air Plants alive are Light, Water and Air Circulation. They don't need any soil to survive!! Isn't it neat?

Top: Blooms fell off, awaiting PUPS
Bottom: Currently with blooms

Sep 25th, 2016

Sep 28th, 2016

Light: These can be grown in the house directly in front of a window. They basically need bright filtered light. Make sure there are no drafts during winter months.

Water: In summer months water them more often like every other day. In winter twice/thrice a week should be good. You could spray water by inverting the whole plant and ensure no water gets collected at the base. Over-watering is the main cause for them to die. Alternatively you could dip the entire plant in a bowl of water and gently shake to get excess water out. If they are placed or glued inside a shell, ensure all water gets drained out.

Air Circulation: Plants should be given plenty of light and air circulation to dry in 4 hours after watering.

Fertilizer: Orchid Plant food can be used on Air Plants as fertilizer.

Life Cycle: Every plant blooms at one point in time. After blooms, they reproduce 2-8 PUPS. You could separate PUPS when they are half the size of mother plant.

Are you ready for a toxic free Pantry?

Grocery shopping to me is a time consuming task as I go through ingredient lists of each new product that I buy. Any product with unfamiliar ingredient doesn't make it in my pantry. I have a habit of reading nutritional chart. Here is the list...

Rennet: Used in cheese making to curdle the milk. Few years ago my sister mentioned about this Rennet in cheese and their extraction from young calves stomach. After having found the source, I never felt like eating them. For few years I stopped eating Pizza as I was not aware of alternatives. Thanks to Whole Foods who carry Rice cheese and Almond cheese for vegans. Trader Joe's have mozzarella cheese made using microbial/vegetable rennet   and so does Costco in kosher section. Better to avoid if you are a vegetarian.

Carrageenan: These are used in food industry for gelling and thickening. I found this ingredient in Trader Joe's Almond milk. I use Almond Beverage from TJ's. Carrageenan has no nutritional value and some people can't digest them. Better to avoid this addictive.

Sulfites: These are used as preservatives as they inhibit growth of bacteria. I have seen Balsamic vinegar brands and some dried fruits often mentioning sulfites as their ingredient. Some people often experience side effects like face swelling, asthma attacks after consuming food with sulfites. Fermentation naturally causes sulfites. So vinegar has natural sulfites in them. I avoid products where sulfites were "added".

MSG - Mono Sodium Glutamate: This is used as flavor enhancer in Chinese food, canned vegetables and soups. It has long list of side effects so better avoid.

Artificial Food Dyes: Although they make any boring dish look more fancy and colorful, they never make it in my pantry. They pose great risks to kids and sadly all colorful food stuffs are consumed by kids. Natural food Dyes are some options. Found this article for few enthusiast to try. http://nourishingjoy.com/homemade-natural-food-dyes/

High Fructose Corn Syrup: This is found in sodas, baked items like cakes/bread and fruit flavored drinks. It contributes to unwanted calorie hence leading to weight gain. Better to avoid.

Artificial Sweeteners: I remember those days when seeing/trying "sugar free" products never felt guilty. But studies have proved that it does more harm than normal sugar. They never make it in my pantry!!

Trans fat: As kid I loved eating a bag of Potato chips. When the side effects of trans fat surfaced, I had to let go this favorite snack from entering my kitchen. Occasionally I do munch them as they say old habits die hard!!. It shoots up cholesterol levels.

Table Salt: I met a lady few years back who had a son recovered from an unknown illeness. She adviced me start a healthy life by replacing simple stuff like salt and sugar from my pantry. Table salt are mined from salt deposits and are heavily processed to give fine texture there by loosing all trace minerals. They also have additives added to prevent clumping. Use Sea salt/Kosher salt or Himalayan Pink salt as an alternative. I buy Himalayan Pink salt from https://www.seasalt.com and shipping is free in the USA.

Table Sugar: I detest the idea of consuming highly processed food, so normal sugar is one among them!! Like table salt white sugar is stripped off all nutrients and animal bone char added to bleach them. I use a combination of sweeteners in my pantry like Jaggery, Brown sugar, Agave never and Stevie plant. I am finding my way to get hold of palm sugar which is next best natural sweetner.

Learnings from Gardening Failures

Early in my childhood, I was exposed to the concept of gardening. My mom grew Eggplants, Bananas, Okra, Tomatoes and few others in our backyard. So early in life, I had discovered the joys of playing in the dirt. As a kid, harvesting brought lot of excitement. Guess I imbibed my mom's passion of gardening. I see those influences on my 8 year old daughter now!! She is growing her own Potato plant.

Well, this is my first year of gardening in beds. So last winter was just the research and understanding the dynamics to grow in Ohio weather. Faced few hurdles and an action plan to cope up with failures are in progress!! Here are few challenges that I came across.

Lining for Raised Beds: I had a ready raised bed available in my yard when we moved in. Never occurred that some rodents will mess my plants underneath. So having a landscape fabric lining will block Voles and Moles. I have seen few 1 inch diameter holes in my raised bed.

Thinning: I got away with thinning Carrot seedlings and when harvested my Carrots were merely 2 inch long. It is very hard to space out seeds when you sow them as they are tiny. So when the plants reach 4-5 inches tall, thinning is must.

Broccoli Bolting: I have two Broccoli plants one from seed and another from nursery. I harvested multiple Broccoli heads from nursery plant while the one from seed started to bolt(flower). Not able to understand what went wrong. Few on net suggest bolting happens when temperatures go very high. I have another plant in perfect shape still producing heads!! Room for mystery!!!

Caterpillars and Slugs on Cabbage: Slugs and Cabbage showed up when my Cabbage plants were mature enough to produce heads. Used Salt to get away from Slugs. The population reduced drastically. Had spotted white butterflies in my beds making pit stops. Few days later my plant was stormed by Caterpillars. Had to use solution of Neem oil/Water and dish washing detergent to get rid of them.

Squash Vine Borer: My Zucchini plant was producing first set of harvest when one day I noticed the entire plant wilt. In spite of watering, the plant was not able to revive. Then noticed larvae inside the stems close to ground. It was too late to save the plant. I had to pull out the plants and look for buried pupae inside the soil as it will overwinter and moths emerge next summer and lay eggs on stems and the entire life cycle starts again. Pumpkin plant is attacked but it is still producing flowers. I have piled a heap of compost to kill larvae.

Cauliflower: I was not successful in growing Cauliflower this summer. The plant that I started off as seeds never produced any heads but the plant from nursery did form a crooked head!! Guess too much heat won't yield any heads. 

Cilantro: Never had success growing this simple herb. I tried several ways to plant them but somehow it does not germinate. I get seeds from Indian grocery and I suspect that could be the reason!!

Can you grow a Mango Tree?

I always believed that you can never get good mangoes here in the USA, until last year when I accidentally tasted a slice of Kent Mango at Whole Foods. I was looking for those mangoes here in Cincinnati and I was lucky last week to have spotted them at Pipkin's. Got home 10 of those as they were mature and inexpensive (2 for $1). As I was savoring each bite, an idea to grow my own Mango tree struck me!!! I had attempted to grow one last year but in vain. Had watched YouTube video on how a seed can be removed. Extreme caution needed as you insert knife to make a slit in the hard case. I gently opened two of those and buried them in a pot. It took one week to sprout.

Seed inside this hard case

Mango tree sapling

Mango tree sapling after 3 weeks

Have no clue how this plant will do in winter. I shall update this as and when possible with the progress. I happened to get a big piece of Jackfruit from local grocer this week and spotted 3 seeds that were already sprouted. They are buried in my plant pots!!

Jackfruit seed

Jackfruit sapling after 3 weeks

Make sure the seeds are placed horizontal on the soil bed. It is possible to grow a Mango tree but harvesting one is whole new ballgame, only time will tell.

Early Spring Update( Mar 2017 ): My Mango saplings did pretty good indoors in winter except they were dormant. One Jackfruit plant out of three survived winter!

Watering Plants While Away

We are planning a 10 day vacation to Adirondack National Park during second week of August. I have been thinking few ways to water my raised bed but wasn't sure what method worked best. I had spotted a water timer at Costco during early spring time. I got home Orbit water timer for $30 which has 2 ports, one for manual and the other to program.

Orbit Water Timer

My raised beds are 30 feet away from faucet so I have two hoses connected. I also got a Melnor oscillating sprinkler and turned the adjustment dial to Right to cover ground from center of the sprinkler to the right side of it at the farthest distance of throw where my raised beds are located.

Melnor sprinkler

It took a while for me to understand the settings of the sprinkler. This set up was tested during last weekend when I was away camping. All my plants survived!!

Sprinkler in Action!!

Veggie patch from kitchen Scraps!!

When I began my patio gardening back in California two years ago, I began growing greens and few veggies from my kitchen scraps. I wasn't ready to spend money on something which I wasn't sure of growing with minimal sunlight in a patio. Growing Fenugreek (Methi), Tomatoes, Potatoes, Onions, Chillies, Chamomile, Garlic are simple and easy for me!!

Here are few veggies growing this year in my garden....

Fenugreek: 2 Tbsp of methi seeds are good enough to get a decent sized patch of greens in about 10 days. One of the easiest greens to grow. Needs direct sunlight.

Fenugreek leaves

                         
Tomatoes: I do not use Tomatoe seeds in my cooking, they usually end up in my compost pile. If I like the color or texture then I dry those seeds and plant them. Make sure the tomatoes or any other veggies are heirloom variety. The hybrid doest yield good crops or produce. I use organic tomatoes in my cooking. Needs direct sunlight.

Tomatoes

Potatoes: Not all Potatoes can be grown when you toss them in ground. Most of them are hybrid. I plant them when I see sprouts in them. They are cold loving plants. Grow them in fall and early winter outdoors.

Potatoes 

Onions: They grow in spring, summer and fall outdoors. I noticed a giant onion sprout in my shelf so I planted in my raised bed along with few green Onions from store. They are all blooming now and I use them only for their leaves. It was interesting to note that none of my green Onions had bulb below them. Not sure if it was hybrid!!

Onion bloom!!

Onions         

Chillies: Am great fan of Chile California because of the sweetness and its rich red color. These dried chillies are available widely in CA. Here in Ohio, only Mexican stores carries them. I usually discard seeds while cooking. I save them up for sowing later. They grow pretty big!! My sister who lives in London imports them from here. If you need deep red color with zero spice, these are the chillies to use. Haven't tried with Badgi or Kashmiri dried chilies yet!!

Chile California 

Cilantro: For some reason I don't have green thumb growing Cilantro. I have tried splitting the seeds in two by crushing them. Tough luck there!!

Chamomile flowers: Chamomile tea is my favourite!! Sprouts farmer market in CA carry them in bulk. Drinking 2 cups a day keeps your nerves calm.  It also calms the upset tummy and helps to fall asleep when you have a bout of insomnia. Growing them is pretty easy. I sprinkle these dried flowers used in tea on a ground and in matter of weeks you could see the blooms. Needs lot of sunlight.

Garlic: I tried growing from a garlic that sprouted in my kitchen shelf. They can be grown from spring to fall. They are not hardy unlike Onions.

I have had some success growing few more veggies got from grocery stores. Lemongrass, Chickpeas, Taro leaves, Basella Alba(Basele Soppu), Lemon and Orange plant(from seeds).

Lemongrass: Got few stalks from grocery store and kept them in a glass so I could see roots when they emerge. It took about 2 weeks for the roots to show up. Change water once in 2-3 days. Once the roots emerge, you could plant them into a pot or ground. They need lot of sunlight.
               

Lemongrass root

Taro leaves : Got two corms from Jungle Jim's. An Indian guy who was helping other customers gave me a tip to pick the ones with pink pointy tip. I picked one with pink pointy and another one without. Planted two of those corms in separate pots indoors in Feb. It took 2 months for them to sprout. The one without pointy tip never sprouted but got rotted inside the soil. These need lot of water and sunlight.

Taro leaves

Garbanzo Beans: I love eating them raw!! It brings back memories from childhood where the pods were plucked from plant and eaten. Indian stores in Cincy carries them in spring and summer. I planted few mature beans and it took a week for plant to emerge. 

Chickpeas

Basella Alba/Basale Soppu: My mom uses these greens in making Tambli. In one of our regular conversation when I told her about the availability of this, she suggested I could grow them from cuttings. Needs lot of sunlight. Mine has a stunted growth as it is indoors.

Basella Alba

Lemon/Honey Orange: Out of curiosity, one day I planted bunch of lemon seeds and Honey Orange seeds in a pot and kept them indoors on a sunny windowsill. I forgot about it as nothing happened for 3 months. When the temperature started to warm up saw these saplings emerge. Well, I can't tell the difference between Lemon and Orange plant :-)

Lemon and Honey Orange

The list does not end here!! If you have tried with any other veggies not mentioned here please let me know.

My garden pictures - Exclusively for Euphoric Delight friends

Many thanks for those who showered me with compliments. Not sure if I have green thumb or not but I do have passion to grow plants. As said earlier, I have 2 raised beds. The one with wooden sides gets only 5-6 hrs of sunlight. Bradford pear tree behind blocks most of the morning sunlight. So I have Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower,  Brussels Sprouts growing in them. They don't need much sunlight. My other bed has concrete blocks as fence and this gets 6-8hrs of sunlight. Onions, Zucchini, Dill, Carrots, Chards, Chickpeas, Chillies are growing.

The two raised beds are on southeast side of my backyard.

A friend of mine who recently moved to India gave few more plants that I have arranged on this table. I have a 4 month old chocolate lab so can't afford to let them sit in my yard. He will rip them in no time!!

I have tomatoes growing in Topsy Turvey planter(green) hung on one side of this pole. We have Deers who loves to munch on tomatoes. I have blueberry plant on the other side. Squirrels eat them too.

My front porch has herbs growing in painted canned tins.

I also have a perrineal herbs growing in a wooden crate. I recycled my neighbor's wooden crate that was dumped outside :-)

I have Apple Mint, Chives, Winter Savory, Lavender, Sage, Brown Fennel and Lemon Balm growing. I have put Petunias on the side openings, so looks colorful.

Also my daughter and I made this fairy garden in spring. 

I have Irish moss which is dark green growing with just evening sunlight. It seems to be doing good!! I used popsicle sticks to make fence. The dog and fairy were from a local nursery in fairy garden section. I love seeing those tiny figurines!!

What's growing in my veggie patch??

I was lucky enough to harvest some vegetables from my veggie patch recently!! The ride was not all smooth, there is always pest infestation challenge. I had slug eating the cabbage leaves, smearing few grains of salt over them helped control their population. My next challenge was the Cabbageworm, I sprayed a solution(1 tsp Neem Oil, 1 litre Water and 1/2 tsp dis washing solution) over the leaves and was surprised to see them gone!! Don't know what awaits next!! Now thinking of a store cabbage, I know how many pesticides are sprayed over it!!

Kale, Cabbage, Taro leaves and Blackberry

Garbanzo beans pod, Green Pepper, Thai Hot Chillies and Broccoli 

Roma Tomatoes

Serrano Chillies

I was happy to share my harvested Kale, Brocolli and some Dill leaves with my very old friend who came to visit me over the weekend!! 

Harvested Kale, Dill and Broccoli 

Carrots

San Marzano Tomatoes

Zucchini

Cabbage, Red Cabbage, Lunch Box Pepper and Brussel Sprouts 

Red Chard, Roma/ Marzano tomatoes and Broccoli

My last harvest of the season were kind of surprise as I did not care well for my veggies. I have Mosquitos in my yard and it was pretty hard to go near plants. 

Fennel leaves, Broccoli, Peppers, Okra and Tomatoes

Pumpkin