Simple Living Archives - Our Heritage of Health

How to Make Homemade Maple Syrup: Tapping Your Maple Trees

There are some aspects of homesteading that are definitely more challenging for those of us who live in suburban areas with small yards, but if you have maple trees in your backyard and you have the right climate, then learning how to make homemade maple syrup is a simple process that’s easy for a suburban homesteader to do.

Making your own homemade maple syrup is a great way to know that your syrup is pure and organic, and it’s also a way that you can save some money since the supplies you need are usually not very expensive if you’re tapping just a few trees and producing syrup on a small scale. And since good quality maple syrup can be pretty expensive, it can be economical to make some of your own.

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.

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.

8 Easy Ways to Get Healthier (Without Changing What You Eat)

Trying to live a healthier lifestyle seems like it would be a simple thing, but it can get surprisingly complicated sometimes, especially when it comes to food.

If you do any reading or researching online, you’ll likely find dozens of different recommendations for the ideal healthy diet or for foods that you should either add to your diet or eliminate from your diet if you want to improve your health.

Since food can be such a confusing topic at times, I wanted to talk about some of the simple and easy ways to get healthier that have absolutely nothing to do with food at all.

So, if you’re trying to improve your health but you’re not sure what foods you should or shouldn’t be eating, these eight things can help you to live a healthier lifestyle even if you don’t change anything about your diet.

How to Use Hygge to Improve Your Health and Well-Being

For our ancestors, winter was usually thought of as an enjoyable time of year even though the weather was cold. Winter time was often a time of less work and more leisure time, and this slower pace meant that winter was a peaceful time for relaxation and rest. This old-fashioned view of the cold weather months, and of life in general, is something that the Danish people embrace with their concept of hygge.

Hygge is pronounced something like “hue-gah” (although for months I had read it like “higgy” so that’s still how it sounds in my mind!), and there’s no direct equivalent for this word in English.