Frugal Living Archives - Our Heritage of Health

How to Store Apples to Last for the Winter

One of the many reasons why apples were such a popular fruit in previous centuries is the fact that they are one of the few fruits that will keep well in long term storage. Unlike berries that will only keep for a few days if you don’t dry them or turn them into jams and jellies, apples that are stored properly can often last for several weeks or even months. This is one of the reasons why knowing how to store apples for the winter months was such an important skill for our ancestors who needed to have enough food in storage to last them until spring.

For those of us living in modern times, though, it’s still a very helpful thing to know even if we aren’t dependent on our harvest to see us through the winter. Knowing how to store apples to last through the winter months allows us to enjoy having fresh apples for eating and for baking with for as long as we possibly can (because you can only make so many batches of applesauce with your fresh-picked apples, and it’s so nice to be able to enjoy eating fresh apples at Christmas time and beyond!)

How to Save Seeds from Carrots, Beets, and Other Biennial Plants

Saving seeds from your own garden plants is a great old-fashioned way to save money in your garden, but the process of saving seeds from some vegetables isn’t always quite as simple as harvesting the plants at the end of …

4 Times When It’s Best NOT to DIY

DIY projects have become increasingly popular the past few years (as anyone who has visited Pinterest lately is well aware of), and there are lots of great reasons to give them a try.

They are a great way to customize things exactly the way you like them, and when you’re making things yourself, you can use simple and natural ingredients and avoid the harmful chemicals in many store bought products – especially for personal care and household products. DIY products can also often allow you to save a decent amount of money compared to what you would spend buying a similar product at the store.

There are a few situations, though, when DIY projects aren’t the best option. In the natural health and simple living world, we can sometimes end up feeling like we have to make things ourselves if we truly want good quality products that are the best for our health.

How to Store Vegetables for Winter

Whether you want to store your own garden-grown produce or whether you want to take advantage of a bulk discount for fresh vegetables from a local farm stand or farmer’s market, one of the most important things to know is how to properly store those vegetables for the winter.

Storing produce for the winter is something we don’t always think about today since we have the option of running out to the grocery store anytime we want, but our ancestors had to plan carefully for winter storage to make sure they would have a well-preserved food supply to last through the winter without spoiling.

How to Save Seeds From Your Garden for Next Year

Saving the seeds from your own garden plants is a simple and easy way to make your frugal, old-fashioned garden even more frugal. Whether you’ve been gardening for years or whether this is your very first year gardening, with a little bit of planning you can easily save seeds from your garden harvest to use again for next year’s planting.

For most types of vegetables, saving seeds is a very easy process that requires little hands-on time and just a bit of organization and planning. Here are a few simple guidelines to make sure that your seeds are stored in a way that will keep them viable for planting next spring.

How to Use Soap Nuts as a Natural Laundry Detergent Alternative

When I first heard about using soap nuts as a laundry detergent alternative, I liked the idea of using something that was natural and simple . . . but I was also pretty skeptical that they would actually work.

When I tried them, though, I was pleasantly surprised by how well they cleaned my clothes. They worked just as well as any homemade or store bought natural laundry detergents I had tried, only they’re even easier to use and much cheaper too.

6 Simple Ways to Improve Your Health for Free Right Now

Sometimes it seems like there’s the misconception that you have to spend a lot of money in order to improve your health. Especially in the world of natural health, it can sometimes seem as though you can’t be truly healthy unless you’re willing to spend a fortune on vitamin and mineral supplements covering every letter of the alphabet or special tools like dehydrators and water purifiers and Vitamix blenders.

These things can all be very helpful, of course, and there are times when trying to live a healthier lifestyle may mean shifting your priorities around a bit to allow you to spend the extra money to buy organic food or natural products, or it might mean waiting a while until you can save up enough money. But if you have a tight budget and you don’t have the money to buy all of the fancy natural products and ingredients you hear about on the web, that doesn’t mean you can’t still do things to improve your health!