Lexie Smith

I’m not a single woman, living alone but I definitely understand the intimidation of hiring someone to be on my property and I wanted to make a suggestion that has worked really well for me in hiring someone to help on a project basis. Near my home is a fairly large farm, for my area, that supplies hay to most people in the area. It’s a big enough place to require fencing and projects but not a full time crew. I mentioned to him that I needed someone to build fences for me (definitely not something I am personally capable of) and he immediately recommended someone that works for him occasionally. It has worked really well and the man he recommended has done an outstanding job for us.

I make a really extra healing recipe by adding loads of onions and garlic as well as ginger and turmeric. It’s absolutely delicious as well as remarkably healing and nourishing.

I do the same as Mac. Our current favorites are a rosemary, sage, thyme and garlic scape herbed salt and a plain, garlic scape salt. I use these every day. The garlic is particularly delicious on a seared steak.

I grow it in my greenhouse in Alabama in permanent raised beds. It’s incredibly easy and resilient.  I just buy a couple pounds of organic roots every time I replant and cut them into pieces that have at least one sprout on them. I also grow a purple variety that is more cold resistant that supposed to be highly medicinal though I couldn’t tell you right now,  what it’s supposed to be so good for. I make gallons of fire cider every year and both varieties as well as turmeric and horseradish are the centerpieces.

I can’t wait to try this method! The American chestnut has been mostly made extinct by a blight that decimated the trees that once filled the woods. It is my understanding that very few American chestnut trees survive and most nuts available are, at least partially, due to the addition of Chinese genetics. I am definitely not a scientist so my knowledge is probably very limited.

They are delicious raw but much easier to eat if you boil or roast them briefly after cutting an x in the shell. There’s a special tool for this that I can’t recommend enough, it saves a lot of cut fingers!  I cook them either way but only enough to make them open up for easy peeling. If you watch them cook, it doesn’t take long before the x you cut peels away from the edges and the shell and inner skin both come away easily.

I love the 2nd one with lots of uses for sourdough!

I haven’t yet used much salt preservation for meat but I’m sure enjoying using it to preserve spices. I have a mix of sage, rosemary and thyme with a little garlic that I processed in the food processor with Himalayan salt and another of garlic scapes done the same way and both are wonderful! I use them just about every day. I simply spun it up until it was finely chopped and then dried it on trays, though it would have been just as easy in the dehydrator.

I keep them on the counter until they’re softish and then freeze them. Once they’re all frozen I thaw them out and run them through the food mill and then freeze dry them. The powder is delicious for a huge variety of things but I started it for my dad’s favorite flavor of my kombucha, his persimmon and honey.

I have almost always worn my hair long because it’s so much easier, unless it’s REALLY short which doesn’t please my beloved, so I have tried a great many things over the 50+ years I’ve been managing it. One of my favorites is called a twist clip on Amazon. I lean forward and brush all the hair into a handful, like I would for a ponytail, then I twist the whole thing until I have a bun shape, tucking the ends underneath. The clip is designed to twist into the bun and become almost invisible. Depending upon how much hair you have, it might take one on each side but it holds well and keeps it out of my eyes. Another must have is satin wrapped scrunchies that don’t break or stress the hair. It’s handy to be able to put one on my wrist or gear shift for quick changes on the go. Last but not least, I recommend not washing it every day or every other day but once or twice a week unless it gets really dirty and just rinsing it well and maybe applying shampoo to the oily areas otherwise. I see so many people who wash every time they shower and their hair becomes frizzy and dry. My daughter in law has gorgeous hair and she follows this advice and even playing with her hair color all the time it remains soft and healthy.