Imagine combining the spicy zing of your favorite Tobasco sauce with the complex flavors and live-culture, probiotic goodness of a lactic acid ferment, and you get this amazing homemade hot sauce - one that we make at the end of summer and enjoy all winter long. How to Make Homemade Hot Sauce First, we start with ripe, fresh chiles. These are Long Thin Cayenne Peppers mixed with a few yellow hot peppers, but you could also use green chiles like seranos or jalapenos for a green hot sauce. Cut off the stems and chop into a couple of pieces, and loosely pack into a mason jar. Mix a 5% brine (3 TBSP salt per quart water) in another container. Pour this over the chiles and … [Read more...]
Make Your Own Homemade Toothpaste
Although my family eats a whole foods, low-sugar diet, we've had our share of dental challenges, particularly the kids. Ella had to have restorative work on several of her molars before the age of four, and Everett's teeth have some degree of enamel decay on most surfaces. My take on dental health is like my view of health in general - it matters what you put into your body and how you care for yourself, but also, sometimes things just happen. Our kids don't drink sugary beverages, we don't give them candy or an excess of dried fruits, we floss and brush, and yet… When Ella's dental problems first presented themselves, we went searching for information as to how to best … [Read more...]