Blog - Our Heritage of Health

12 Ways to Hygge in the Spring

The art of hygge is something that has become more and more popular in recent years. Hygge is usually associated with the cold, dark winter months, but hygge isn’t something that needs to be limited to just the cold months of the year. Practicing hygge in the spring can be just as enjoyable and as rewarding.

Hygge (usually pronounced “hoo-gah” or “hue-gah”) is a Danish word that doesn’t have a direct translation into English. Some of the connotations associated with hygge include the ideas of creating an atmosphere of warmth, light, comfort, and connection; an awareness and appreciation for the beauty and joy around us; enjoying simple pleasures; and the feelings of coziness and well-being.

How to Start a Compost Pile for Your Garden

One of the best ways to help add nutrients back into your soil is to start a compost pile to create your own homemade fertilizer. This is simple to do, and it’s also a great way to be able to reduce waste while improving your soil at the same time.

Building your own compost pile is the cheapest way to add nutrients to your soil, but it does take time for materials in the pile to break down enough that you can use the compost in your garden. Depending on how late in the season you start creating your compost, you might not be able to use your own compost for your first planting season, but if you start building a compost pile now, you’ll have wonderful nutrient-rich compost to add to your garden for next year.

Scarborough Fair Maple-Glazed Carrots

Everything is better with maple syrup, and these maple-glazed carrots are no exception!

These carrots are rich and buttery with savory herbs and caramelized in plenty of maple syrup to bring out their natural sweetness.

I decided to call these carrots Scarborough Fair carrots because this recipe uses all of the herbs mentioned in the song “Are You Going to Scarborough Fair?” – parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

6 Simple Tips to Help You Meet Your Healthy Living Goals This Year

Whenever we set any type of healthy living goal, whether it’s New Year’s resolutions or any other type of goal, it’s pretty easy to stay excited and motivated at the very beginning. But it usually doesn’t take very long until the excitement starts to wear off and keeping those goals starts to seem more and more challenging and eventually we lose motivation altogether.

There have been plenty of times that I’ve found myself falling into this pattern, but over the years I’ve found a few things that have helped me to stay on track and keep making progress toward accomplishing my goals (at least most of them anyways!)

So, whether you’re trying to eat healthier this year, or get more exercise, or live a more natural lifestyle, or whatever else, hopefully some of these six tips can help you to stay motivated to meet your healthy living goals.

Growing Fruit in Containers

Today I’m happy to share with you a guest post from Cindy Keller of MyGardenGifts.com. Cindy will be sharing some tips for growing fruit in containers. Growing fruit in containers is something I’ve never tried before in my own garden, so I was excited to be able to learn more about some of the best tips for using containers to expand your gardening options!

The Versatility of Growing Fruits in Containers

Many gardeners have discovered the joy of growing fruit in containers. You can produce delicious crops in containers that are not only free of chemicals but are both rich in nutrients and absolutely fresh.

Most fruiting plants are also extremely decorative and are grown for the way they look. They adorn well when placed in niches in your garden such as the patio or front door entrances. As an example, apples are often grown in containers for their ornamental virtues as well as for their edible fruits while strawberries are suitable when planted in hanging baskets as well as in multi-holed terracotta pots.

10 Best Herbs for an Indoor Herb Garden

Growing an indoor herb garden is a great way to be able to enjoy having fresh herbs all year long even if you live in a climate with cold winters. Keeping herbs indoors also makes cooking with fresh herbs really convenient because you only need to step over to your windowsill to gather all the fresh herbs you need to flavor your meals.

I love being able to have fragrant green herbs growing inside even when it’s cold and snowy outside, and there’s nothing quite as good as being able to harvest some of my favorite kitchen herbs right from my windowsill.

Decadent Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread Recipe

This chocolate chip pumpkin bread is one of my absolute favorite autumn recipes to make. Every year I look forward to the “pumpkin spice season” so I can make another batch of this bread.

The pumpkin and coconut oil in this recipe give the bread a really soft and moist texture, and you really can’t go wrong with the pumpkin spice and chocolate chip flavor combination.