I have been hearing all these good things about Fire Cider and

how it helps with keeping sickness at bay or helping you feel better when you are actually sick.

I decided to make some to see if it would work.

My husband works outside, and I have another daughter that started school for the first time this year.

So, there has been a lot of sickness in the house. 

I should have started this batch earlier in the year but it’s better to be late than never starting it at all.

Fire Cider Fermenting

It takes about 4 to 6 weeks give or take for fire cider to ferment.

It can even take a shorter ferment time if you use all dry ingredients. 

I did a lot of searching and found there are a couple different ways to make fire cider,

but there are some ingredients that do not change.

The Ingredients That Don’t Change:

apple cider vinegar,

onion, ginger, turmeric,

lemons, lime, oranges,

jalapenos, rosemary,

garlic, and thyme.

The ingredients I add:

I added all of those plus cranberries.

I had left over cranberries and with having lots of girls in the house I thought it couldn’t hurt.

We also have lots of kiddos so when the fire cider is done fermenting,

we add honey when we drink it. 

Fire Cider Drained

Fire Cider is for shore a different taste but not as bad as I was expecting.

I can even get my one year old to drink it but

my oldest gags every time he drinks it.

It’s kinda funny.

The rest of them do not like it but will drink it just fine. 

I do think it helps a lot.

We did not have a whole lot of time to truly test it because there are a lot of us but

after not drinking it for two weeks everyone got sick again.

So, It had to of helped.

I am definitely making way more next time.

This year I decided I wanted to make bone broth with the bones from the thanksgiving turkey. I have never made bone broth before, and I am totally glad I did. There are a couple things I will do differently next time of course, but for the first time it turned out really good. Let me tell you what I did to make the bone broth.

The kiddos and I were going to leaving the house the day I was starting the bone broth. We were going to be gone for about four hours, so I felt the safest using the crock pot. 

I put the bones and the juices from when I cooked the turkey into the crock pot first. Then I added some water. I put the lid on the crock pot and set it to low. 

Cooking Bone Broth

In the morning there was a lot of water gone from the crock pot. So, I added more water and about a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar. I should have added the apple cider vinegar when I first started but I forgot. I let all that cook for the rest of the day and before bed I turned it down. I wanted to make sure I got everything I could from the bones.  

In the morning I turned the crock pot off and let it cool for a couple hours. Then when it was cooled enough I strained what was in the crock pot into a jar. I need a new strainer but I used what I had and it worked just fine. The bone broth was still pretty warm. I left it on my oven to cool down some more because I did not want to break the glass jar. I was also going to be using it that night for dinner anyway.

Straining Bone Broth

That night I used the bone broth to make a gravy. Which I have never made gravy before either, but it turned out really good. I got the leftover turkey, corn and green beans from thanksgiving and mixed it into the gravy. Then I put a crust on top and through it in the oven. I made a Thanksgiving Leftover Pot Pie. Oh My was it good. The kiddos even enjoyed it. The pot pie also got rid of almost all of the leftovers. 

Gravy

Pot Pie

So, I made bone broth for the first time, turned it into gravy also for the first time and made a dinner for 7 people. This cooking from scratch thing is getting easier. I think that was the easiest thing I have tried to make from scratch yet.

This year’s garden seemed like a failure. I felt so defeated and discouraged.

My husband and I have been gardening for six years. Our gardens would produce so much food.

At the time I didn’t know what to do with it I would give so much away.

This year we finally made the decision to start our homesteading journey and my garden was a flop.

This year was the year I was going to learn how to preserve food and cook from scratch.

You know all the things. I was so excited especially because just recently I became a stay-at-home mom.

So, this was going to be my way of contributing to my family,

and my garden was not doing so hot.

Old Garden

Welp let me also tell you we moved to a different zone, zone 9.

I’m from zone 6 so that is a really big difference. It’s like relearning how to garden.

There isn’t any soil and the summer is so hot and humid.

We made two raised beds, used tires and a whole lot of pots.

In my other blog post Copperhead Living’s Garden (Spring/Summer 2022)

I explain how we set up the garden.

But anyways.

I have been thinking and guess what?

My garden was NOT a complete failure.

I was able to learn alot from this year’s 2022 spring/summer garden

even though it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to learn. 

I learned that zone 9 has a long growing season and

there is a way I can grow something all year round.

I started seeds inside for the first time and have a weird setup but it works.

This next year I’m going to try different plants at different times so when it’s at its hottest or coldest

my plants in the ground will be done producing food. 

My pepper plants did amazing.

For my first year doing herb they did pretty good too.

A Harvest

I learned how to preserve and harvest some herbs.

I even made some basil tea that I learned from Jess at Roots and Refuge (https://rootsandrefuge.com/)

with the basil I grew from the garden.

Which was my first time ever using fresh herbs to make tea.

Basil Tea

I also had a pretty good bean harvest as well and

found out I could keep those in the freezer till I had enough to cook with.

Of course my radishes did amazing and

we had them all out of the ground before it got to hot. 

I found out that cucumbers and some other vine plants can grow off the ground.

Even though their fruit can be kind of heavy.

I also found out that squirrels like to eat all my vine plants and

a lot of other plants which I have to come up with a plan for them next year. 

There were also a lot of other bugs I’m not used to dealing with.

I found some different ways to deal with them more organically. 

Horn Worm

I was able to save some seeds from some of the plants

which is another thing I have never done before.

I also started a lot of food from scraps from foods at the grocery store.

Some worked some did not, but it was still cool to try. 

Onion Scrapes

So, see

I did learn a whole lot from my garden,

even the failures were a learning experience.

Sometimes you have to give yourself grace even when you feel defeated or discouraged.

Take a minute step back and

I bet you will find something that made it worth it.  

Our Old Garden

My husband and I have had a garden for about 6 years.

We only started growing our garden in the springtime.

Living in the north we were able to sow our seeds right into

the ground because it was dirt.

We did have a small, raised bed for our strawberries

so our children could get to them outside of the main garden.

My husband and I also like to grow our tomatoes in pots.

They were in the front of the house and for us they grew better this way.

It was amazing to grow our garden and see it get to how we wanted it each year.

We even had a small flower garden in the front of the house.

We started that one a couple years ago and we were starting to get good at it.

BUT…….

This year we have to start all over.

Our New Garden

This past year my family and I moved from the north with lots of dirt to

the south that does not have any dirt or not even a lot of grass anywhere.

I thought this was so strange because it was not something I was used to.

It was a learning curve for us but we figured it out.

We decided to start with a small garden to see what we could grow because

it gets really hot here in the summer and there are not many days that freeze.

My husband and I like to keep things on the cheaper side and

reuse what we can as you will soon see. 

In our small garden this year my husband made me two raised beds out of wood we already had.

A small square raised bed that has beans, peas, radishes, carrots, onions and two tomato plants.

There is also a bigger square raised bed that has a lot of herbs and different lettuce in it so far.

My husband cut three tires in half and a small tire that has

squash, zucchini, pumpkin, corn and tomatoes in them.

We dug out a small hole and put the tire on top and filled it up with dirt.

There are also about fourteen pots that we already had that have peppers and tomatoes in them.

For the pots we dug holes in the ground to put the pots in.

We did this because we get hurricane strong winds and storms.

We thought this would help the pots from blowing away or getting broken.

Around the garden half of the fence that is up we already had and

the other half we did have to buy.

We already had all of the posts for the fence.

I do not have a real gate yet but

my husband made a creative way to open and close the fence.

I love it.

I also have a little place for the littlest kiddos to play in because

the littlest one which is 14 months old already likes to pull the plants out of the garden.

She thinks she is helping mommy pull out the weeds

which would be helpful if what she was pulling out was actually weeds.

So the play area gives them something to do.

I can not wait to see how the garden grows from plants

and other things we put into it.

Our Reason Why

My husband and I have talked about homesteading for years now and

both agreed that homesteading is something we both want to do.

There are a couple reasons why we wanted to have a homestead.

One of the reasons is we thought it would be good for our kiddos to learn this way of life and

to find something that interests them other than just T.V. and video games.

There is so much they can learn from this way of life.

Another reason we want to homestead is having healthier food for our body’s.

Less chemicals, steroids and other not so natural things.

Now that we found out last year one of our sons has Ulcer Colitis.

We know this is the best thing for our family. 

Our Journey Begins

Our family has always had a little garden and we have gotten pretty good at it.

I’m not saying there isn’t a lot for us to still learn because there so is,

BUT this year we will be officially homesteading.

We moved and got a little over an acre to work with

and let me tell ya we have so many projects.

Our first project was to clean up the land to see what we were working with and

about where we wanted everything to go.

Oh My, was that a lot of work but so satisfying.

The next project was getting our garden where we wanted it and fenced in.

My husband and I really like to reuse things we already have to make things and

in the garden we were able to reuse everything except dirt and part of the fence.

Finally the garden is ready to put plants in.

It’s not very big this year because moving from the north to the south we want

to start off slow but wait till you see it.

Our garden might not be the prettiest or best organized but it works the best for us this year.

Now that the garden is ready my husband has already started a new project.

I don’t think the projects will ever end but

that’s okay because we are building our best life.

We invite you to come along for the ride while we learn to

make, grow and do all the things our hearts desire and

just maybe help you guys learn or come up with good ideas along the way.