Stevia!

You may have heard of Stevia before. It's a sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of a Stevia plant, and is becoming popular again. Companies like Coca-Cola use a Stevia-Sugar mix to sweeten their products. Many people prefer Stevia over other "sugar imposters" such as Splenda or Sweet'N Low. It does not mess with blood glucose, which makes it attractive to people with Diabetes or controlled diets.

Stevia has no calories, but don't let that fool you. Total intake should still be managed; eating too much could make you gain weight as easily as too much sugar. Surprisingly, 1 tsp of Stevia = 1 cup of sugar, so be careful how much you add!

Fun Fact: Packaged Stevia is not necessarily straight Stevia. Many companies mix other compounds to lower the cost.

To avoid eating unknown substances, I make my own! Keeping reading to find out how to plant, harvest, and blend your own substitute!

I bought one Bonnie Stevia plant from Lowe's at the beginning of  Summer. I now have 6 different plants because they multiply themselves.  The plant I had purchased was a little wilted and in desperate need of water. Bonnie's website has a great list of tips for raising each type of plant they sell. (https://bonnieplants.com/growing/growing-stevia/) I went to the website and did some research on the plant since I have never raised one before. I did what the website said to do and it only took one night for it to recover after being replanted and watered! Obviously, since it revived so fast, it is super easy to take care of! That's good news for people who have a hard time keeping plants alive, like my mom ( :

After growing all Summer, I decided it was time to harvest the leaves and finally make some sweetener! 

They do taste a tad bit better in cooler weather, but it is also bitterish after the plant blooms flowers, so I am going to get as many batches as I can.

 The leaves should get about 5-8 inches long (some shorter, some longer) before harvesting. The website says to cut the entire stem with the leaves on it, but I simply just detach the leaves and leave the stem. The leaves will regrow in their place. 

For my first batch of powder, I collected around 10 leaves. Of course you can use more, I was just experimenting, so I didn't want to waste any. 

Making your own blend is super easy!

 After you have harvested your leaves, thoroughly wash them. You don't want bugs or dirt in your substitute!

Completely dry them.

The easiest way to dry out the Stevia is to lay them on a dry towel, paper towel, cloth, or screen. Place outside in a place the sun can completely remove all moisture, or in a dry spot in the house.

Once completely dried, use a blender or Ninja to completely break the leaves into tiny grains.
Use to sweeten foods and drinks. Please note that Stevia grains do not fully dissolve, but they make a great sweetener!

You can also make your own Stevia extract by adding a cup of warm water to 1/4 cup of Stevia grains. Let mixture set for 24 hours and then refrigerate. The extract can also be used to sweeten foods and beverages.

There are so many things Stevia is used for. Baking is one of them.
It does sweeten everything without using very much, but keep in mind that it doesn't carmelize.
 See what all the buzz is about! Try it out for yourself!

10+ Ways to Cut Down on Waste

Here at the farm, we used to go through trash bags like CRAZY!
After doing a little thinking, I came up with a list of stuff that would help to cut back on waste.
Not only are we saving money now, but we are also helping to save the Earth.
Many of the things we throw away every day can be reused around the house, or recycled.

Cut back. Period.

This can be hard for people to do, especially if they are as picky as I am.
I could suggest not buying single bottles of water, but I'm not going to because that's all I will drink.
I will suggest buying a reusable water bottle though, because they are becoming a popular thing, and getting a lot cuter!
I really believe we should all be cutting down on the processed foods all together. In that case, we would be cutting down the on packaging we throw away tremendously. We all need sweets and easy-to-make foods sometimes. In this case, we should buy in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging we pitch.
Also, use less napkins and paper products at your house!

These are just a few examples, but there are so many more great ways to cut back.
That's not all though! Put what you do have to buy to good use!

Reusing Around The House

I reuse many things around the house.
There's no need to throw away most of the stuff we tend to pitch!

1. Lunch meat containers can be reused for storing leftovers or other items (also can be recycled.)

2. Plastic water bottles can be re-purposed in many ways.

• Use bottle halves to start seeds in.
• Hang bottles with the ends removed in rabbit cages. Use for holding hay and treats to give them something to do.
• Use for bird feeders. Poke holes big enough for their beaks, but small enough that the feed doesn't all come out. Put bird or chicken feed in and hang! 
• Poke holes in cap and use as waterer.
• Use dry bottles to store seeds for following years. 
• Craft, Craft, Craft! Pintrest has a TON of crafting posts using plastic bottles!
• Recycle them!

3. Used milk jugs (or any jugs) can be used as watering jugs as well. We fill them with our homemade herbal air freshener so it is ready to go when we need it. 

4. Used toilet paper and paper towel rolls can be used as hanging bird feeders and hanging hay holders for the rabbits.

5. Used K-Cups also have many uses around the house! (SAVE THE COFFEE GROUNDS!)

• Use them as seed starters. They already have a drain hole in the bottom, so just plant and go!
• Use them as bath bomb molds.
• Decorate with them! Poke Christmas lights through the bottom holes, and have instant party lighting.

http://creative.viralnova.com/coffee-pod-crafts/

•  Check Pintrest for additional crafts and DIY K-Cup activities!
• Again, Recycle

6.  Save Coffee and Tea Grounds for your compost bin, garden, and more!

• Using the grounds in your garden adds nitrogen to the soil and greatly helps your plants thrive. It also eliminates snails, slugs, and ants!
• Using them on root plants, such as carrots, makes them grow the most!
• Cleaning with coffee helps get that deeper clean that some places need, not to mention it smells GREAT!
• Make homemade scrubs and soaps with it! Once again, it smells awesome! 
• Ladies - coffee grounds even have a possibility of helping with cellulite. Rubbing grounds on the areas for about 10 minutes a few times per week could help make it disappear.
• Some people even cook with grounds! Meat rubs are the most popular.

7.  Look up DIY activities for other things you throw away. There are tons of things you can do with stuff that will save you money and create fun!

Getting Rid of Food Scraps

There are a lot of food scraps you have to pitch, but there are also many you can put to good use!

1. Replanting

• Replant lettuce and celery bottoms, pineapple tops, mushroom stems, garlic heads, and onions to save you money and cut back.

2. Composting

• Start a compost bin or pile if you don't already have one! You can add vegetable scraps, fruit scraps, eggshells, newpaper, wood scraps, manure, weeds, and grass cuttings. Keep turning it and you will have fresh, healthy soil in no time!

3. Feeding scraps to animals

• Chickens, ducks, and rabbits LOVE getting vegie and fruit scraps!
• Goats like anything really from vegies to old bread.
• Feed meat scrap to your dogs.

I recommend not feeding your animals anything moldy.

Let Others Put it to Good Use

If you don't like that shirt anymore, or got a new TV, don't just throw it away. There's plenty you can do with that stuff!

1. Good Will and Thrift shops
2. Facebook Fleamarkets/Craigslist
3. Yardsale
4. Give to people in need
5. Freecycle
6. BuyNothing

There are always people out there in search of free or cheap stuff. Don't pitch it! Sell it or give it away!
Even things like baby food jars are needed by people.


I like the idea of saving the Earth. Though one person could never do it themselves, they can inspire others to help make a change. Change really does start with you!
Until tomorrow!

Saving Money By Raising Mealworms!

Hey everyone! I am so excited to tell you about our new critters, that also happen to be chicken food!

MEALWORMS is the word! That's right. We are now proud Mealworm farmers.

Why bother with raising insects for our chickens you ask? 

Well, Mealworms are literally the easiest to take care of, they are cheap, and are great for chickens, so why not!? 

Mealworms provide plenty of protein that chickens need to lay eggs and live healthy lives.

Again, raising them is SO EASY!

Life Cycle

Mealworms actually are immature darkling beetles. 

Mealworms hatch from the beetle's eggs (2 weeks after laid) , and live a full 3 months before going into a pupa stage. They then spend a whole month in the pupa stage before coming out a full grown beetle. 

They then lay eggs, and the process starts again!

Simple enough!

Proper Housing

At first, we used a long, deep Tupperware container to house the worms, but then I found out they turn into beetles. 

 

Now we use this:

Using drawers ensures that the beetles will not make an escape, and since I am storing them in my room, I DO NOT WANT THEM TO ESCAPE!!!

The first and second drawers have the worms in them, and the last drawer has beetles and eggs in it. 

The female beetles will lay up to 500 eggs before she dies. 

We put almond flake flour in the containers for them to live in, but people also use saw dust and dry oats. 

Feeding

They eat pretty much anything. We give them decaying grass and weeds, soft vegetables, and fruits. 

They do their own thing; we just give them food 1-2 times a week.

 Harvesting

Harvesting the worms is also easy! Simply take out as many worms as you need and feed them to your chickens! I give mine roughly 1/2 cup per 5 hens.

Of course, this takes a while to grow as many worms as you need, so I would suggest not taking any live ones out until you have a large number of worms. The more worms you have, the more eggs you'll get.

You can also freeze dry the worms if you decide you need to cut down or just don't have the space anymore. Put the worms in a container with a lid and put them in the freezer for 20 minutes. This is considered a humane way to kill the worms..

You can store them in Ziplock Baggies in the freezer, but you may not want to see worms every time you open the freezer door. In this case, you can store them on a shelf.

 

 

Raising Mealworms is just one of the many ways we save money on the farm.

Come back to find out more ways we save money!