Most people cut off parts of vegetables and fruits and discard them. Everything from carrot peels to squash ends can end up as food waste. Ac cording to Zero Waste Memoirs, as much as 40% of food grown and sold in the United States ends up as waste. People don’t utilize every inch of their produce items, but you can help change that statistic by putting your scraps to good use. Trust us when we say that it’s well worth the effort. 

Some methods are more obvious, including composting vegetable scraps or recycling them in the right trash can. It may surprise you to learn that you can make an all-natural food dye or aromatic, flavorful vegetable stock with food scraps. With a little extra effort and culinary creativity, you can make sure that things don’t go to waste. Read on to learn how you can reduce food waste by reusing vegetable scraps. 

Boil Them Into A Broth

It’s always a good idea to have broth in your kitchen because you can use it in so many dishes. From soups and stews to risotto and casseroles, there are so many ways to use broth. Rather than purchasing sodium-rich broths from the store, make your own using vegetable scraps. It is very easy to do and you can customize the flavor based on the scraps you add to the pot. Plus, you get to control the salt content, which is great if you have high blood pressure. Place the scraps in a pot and cover them with water. Garlic, bay leaf, and other aromatics can add flavor, so don’t be afraid to add them. Cook the broth for 10 minutes or so and then strain through a fine mesh sieve. Store the broth in glass jars in the fridge or freezer, depending how soon you are going to use it. 

Use Them To Grow New Vegetables

If you have enough of a vegetable’s leftover, like the base of a bunch of celery, you can use it to start the growth of new plants. You can even sprout from a large avocado pit! It seems difficult, but it is quite easy and very rewarding. To grow vegetables from scraps, you need to trim off the end of the vegetable. That allows the vegetable to take up fresh water and start to regenerate roots. Once you trim the vegetable, place it in fresh water and set it somewhere that receives natural light. In time, you should see growth, but make sure that the base of the vegetable end is touching water, and change the water when it gets cloudy.

Compost Them

Composting is a great way to put your food scraps to good use. This process uses the scraps and other organic materials to make a natural fertilizer that you can use to enrich soil. In doing so, you reduce the amount of food waste that ends up in landfills. Plus, composting also decreases the amount of methane emitted into the atmosphere. There are many ways to compost, but the easiest way is to collect your scraps in a small bucket or container. You then dig a shallow hole in the ground, add the scraps from the bucket into the hole, chop them up with a shovel, and cover with dirt. Ideally, you bury the food scraps next to plants you’re growing to encourage healthier growth. You can compost produce, grains, coffee grounds, and eggshells, but don’t compost meat, dairy, liquids, food wrappers or plastic. 

Use Them To Make A Natural Dye

Get creative and colorful with your vegetable scraps by transforming them into a natural dye. Instead of using the dye for fabric, though, use it for coloring other foods to create a cheery meal. For example, use the dye to color everything from homemade pasta to hard-boiled eggs. Use beets and bell peppers to make red and orange dye, depending on their color. You can use yellow bell peppers or turmeric to create a yellow dye. Use spinach for green and red cabbage to make purple dye. There are many recipes for this online, but the simplest way is to blend the food scraps with water in a blender and then strain the liquid. Just make sure to wash the blender between dyes to get the richest colors. 

Pickle Watermelon Rinds

This is more specific, but watermelon rinds are some of the most wasted parts of any fruit. This is especially saddening because they contain a lot of valuable nutrients. Save watermelon rinds and pickle them to create a crunchy, satisfying snack. Just simmer the rinds in a mixture of vinegar, water, sugar, and salt until they soften. Then you can store them in an airtight jar or container in the fridge until you want to enjoy them. Get creative with other spices or seasonings, such as ginger, peppercorns, cloves, and cinnamon, to liven up the pickled rinds.

SHARE:

The post 5 Ways To Reuse Vegetables Scraps To Reduce Food Waste appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

With the end of the year on the horizon, people are making their checklists of resolutions. Be it a six-pack by June or reading two books in four months, people love to crush New Year’s goals. The sad reality is that many people go back on their resolutions by February, especially in regards to weight loss. More often than not, people set themselves up for failure by making unattainable resolutions. This article provides resolutions you can actually accomplish in the New Year. 

New Year’s resolutions date back centuries. For many people, the New Year is a clean slate, a chance to start fresh. The key to accomplishing your goals is to be smart about it. Don’t set lofty goals that put too much pressure on you because that’s how you fail. You can prevent that from happening by setting small, achievable goals, like the ones below. Stay on track and believe that you can accomplish them!

Try One New Recipe Every Week

When you are completely exhausted, it’s difficult to conjure the energy to make a meal. You order takeout or pizza and pig out, which is understandable. Life can get in the way of cooking, but try to set a resolution to cook at least one new recipe per week. And if you can make that recipe a healthy one, that’s all the better. Statistically, people who cook at home more often save more money. In your acquisition of a new recipe each week, you can build your recipe catalog and cook more often!

Do One Thing To Help The Environment

The conversation about environmental change is ongoing, and it is on us to take action to help whenever and wherever possible. Since significant environmental changes are ahead, make a difference by doing one thing in 2023 to help out. Perhaps you start composting your kitchen scraps or recycling cardboard. Maybe you pick up trash on your street or participate in a beach cleanup. Nothing is too small and doing one little thing can help encourage a healthier future for the planet. 

Unplug At A Certain Time Each Day

This is easier said than done, but putting your devices away at a certain time before bed has a long list of health benefits. First off, when you don’t look at screens an hour or two before bed, you may be able to fall asleep easier. The blue light that emits from screens makes your brain think that it’s daytime, and it can also interfere with melatonin production. Instead of looking at screens until the moment you go to bed, try reading a book, stretching, or breathing exercises to help calm the mind and relax the body. 

Change Up Your Look

Losing weight and exercising are always in the top 10 most common New Year’s resolutions. Fitness resolutions tend to be short-lived because people want immediate results. Progress typically comes after weeks, not days, of consistent training and healthy eating. You can change up your look without shaving a few inches off your waistline. You can try a new hair color, switch up your personal style, or give your hair a little trim. Embrace bolder colors and don’t be afraid to wear outfits you’ve always wanted to pull off!

Get More Sleep

This sounds much easier than it actually is, but getting more sleep every night can benefit your overall health. Studies confirm that sleeping eight hours every night can increase productivity, boost immune function, improve mood, and potentially prevent weight gain. If you take the steps to improve sleep by going to bed earlier, reducing screen time, and meditating more often and still don’t see results, your mattress may be ruining your sleep. A new mattress may be the key to unlocking better sleep!

Accomplish One Small Thing Every Week

Resolutions don’t have to be life-changing events. Sometimes, it’s the little things that make you feel like you get more done in life. Clean out the change in the center console of your car or wash your car. Make a list of things that you need to accomplish and cross them off, in no particular order, when you do them. A small but impactful list can set you up for success, not failure. Just don’t make your list too long, or else it can be very overwhelming. Dust the blinds in the bedroom, clean under the couch, or re-pot your plants. 

Save A Small Percentage Of Your Paycheck

When you live from paycheck to paycheck, the temptation to splurge is strong when you see your bank account replenish. Impulsive purchases add up, though, no matter how affordable they seem at the time. Consider saving a portion of each paycheck in the New Year. Open up a Roth IRA account or a savings account and deposit $50 to $100 every month. Another way to save money is by making coffee at home instead of going out to get it everyday. This adds up and saves you money over time.

SHARE:

The post 7 New Year’s Resolutions You Can Accomplish In 2023 appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

What’s the most common household activity during COVID-19? If you guessed “cleaning,” then you are 100% accurate. The COVID-19 pandemic caused everyone, from apartment dwellers to homeowners to business employees, to enhance their sanitation methods. Unfortunately for your respiratory health, many of the cleaning products that are effective against coronavirus contain harmful chemicals.

It’s beneficial to deep clean your high-touch surfaces to reduce the chances of bacterial build-up. You don’t always have to use chemical cleaners, though, especially if you want to limit your exposure to harsh chemicals. This is why many people enjoy cleaning with distilled white vinegar. Not only is it versatile, but it is also inexpensive and remarkable at cleaning a variety of surfaces.

An Important Note About White Vinegar

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), white vinegar does not kill a virus like COVID-19. White vinegar can kill or inhibit the growth of foodborne, pathogenic bacteria. When combined with heat or salt, vinegar’s bactericidal activity increases. When combined with citrus peels or juices, vinegar can reduce the amount of pathogens to the point where they are undetectable.

Vinegar As A Cleaning Agent

Vinegar is an inexpensive item to have in your cleaning arsenal. It helps to keep your washer clean, it can get rid of stains, and it is even effective at cleaning windows. One thing to keep in mind about vinegar is that it is acidic, meaning it can damage certain materials in the home. Not everybody wants to clean his or her home with vinegar because the smell can be off-putting. The cleaning spray in this article, however, uses citrus peels to offset that pungent, vinegary scent.

Why Use Citrus Peels?

People discard citrus peels without thinking twice. Some people take advantage of the zest to enhance the flavors of their culinary creations, but most people just toss them in the trash. Citrus peels are compostable and you can use them in DIY cleaning recipes. The cleaning spray in this article uses orange peels, offering a wonderfully fragrant and citrusy aroma. Using citrus peels in this way helps to reduce food waste, and don’t forget to compost them when you discard them. Simply dig a hole in the ground, dump the citrus peels in the hole, give them a quick chop with the shovel, and cover them with dirt. This will help create nutrient-rich soil.

DIY Citrus Cleaning Spray

Ingredients:

• The peels of four oranges, torn into pieces (or however many fit in the jar you choose)
• 1 wide-mouthed glass jar (a 16-32-ounce jar is best)
• 16-20 ounces distilled white vinegar
• 20-30 drops lemon essential oil (optional)
• cheesecloth or sieve (to strain orange peels from vinegar)
• spray bottle

Instructions:

• First off, eat the oranges. Don’t just peel them and let the fruit go to waste!
• When you are ready to make the cleaning spray, add the torn peels to the jar you use. Don’t worry if you can’t fit the peels from all four oranges inside the jar.
• Pour enough vinegar into the jar so that the orange peels are completely covered. Cover the jar and leave it in a cool, dry place for three weeks. This fermentation helps to intensify the cleaning spray.
• Once the fermentation process is complete, strain the vinegar into a bowl through a cheesecloth or fine mesh sieve.
• Make a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water in a spray bottle. You can add 20-30 drops of lemon essential oil if you want to do that.
• Now it’s time to clean!

SHARE:

The post Zero Waste DIY Citrus Cleaning Spray appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a serious plastic problem around the world. Microplastics end up in our oceans and water sources, and plastic straws, bags, cups, and containers wind up in the digestive systems of various marine species. One new study found that stadiums and concert venues worldwide throw away over five billion single-use plastic cups every year; and they aren’t getting recycled! How do we put an end to such a serious problem that threatens our health, planetary health, and the health of animals?

It all starts with you. You, as in each person reading this article and related material, have the ability, nay, the responsibility to recycle what you can and reduce your plastic waste as much as possible. About 91% of plastic does not get recycled, meaning that it ends up somewhere else, which is apparently everywhere. Fortunately, it’s getting easier to go plastic-free, and that means that there is no excuse for wasting plastic. You can reduce your plastic use by implementing the following tips into your life.

No More Bottled Water

Did you know that bottled water is less regulated than tap water in North America? Well, it is, and that makes purchasing bottled water absurd. Bottled water is basically tap water that has been moderately filtered. Plastic bottles are some of the most popular plastic items that end up in the ocean and landfills. It’s unnecessary and we need to stop. Get a reusable bottle that is either glass or stainless steel and consider investing in a Berkey filter to reduce plastic bottle waste.

Compostable Cutlery

The whole point of recycling is to avoid the use of single-use products. There’s no need to throw away something that can be repurposed as something else or easily composted. The allure of plastic kitchen utensils is that they are cheap and can be thrown away, making cleanup minimal and easy. Spend a little extra to obtain sustainably made cutlery that is recyclable or compostable. Some companies are even making cutlery out of avocado pits!

Glass Tupperware

Glass is best when it comes to Tupperware. Not only does it not leach plastic into your food during the heating process, but it also can safely withstand higher temperatures. That means you could reheat your food in the toaster oven as opposed to using the microwave. You can also get your hands on some Mason jars because they are versatile and sustainable containers.

Reef-Safe Sunscreen

A lot of commercial sunscreens contain plastics and chemicals that harm coral reefs. Considering that most coral reefs around the world are dying or already dead, we need to work hard to preserve the healthy reefs that are left. Many sunscreen companies are releasing paraben-free, reef-safe sunscreens with all natural ingredients, which are beneficial for your skin and the planet.

Plastic-Free & Recycled TP

Toilet paper rolls are typically wrapped in clear plastic that holds the rolls together. There are companies like Who Gives A Crap that have started packaging toilet paper in cardboard boxes and delivering rolls straight to your door. You don’t even need to leave your house for new rolls of TP. Who Gives A Crap TP rolls are made from recycled toilet paper or bamboo, making them tree-friendly. Plus, 50% of their profits go toward building toilets for people in need.

It’s all about starting small when you go plastic-free. Reusable bags and straws are a great step in the right direction, but we need to do more as a species to reduce plastic waste if we want a healthy planet in the future.

SHARE:

The post How To Go Plastic-Free Beyond Reusable Bags & Straws appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

Known as National Gardening Month, April is the most optimal time of year to start gardening because the days are longer and the soil is warmer. Not only is gardening a great excuse to beautify your yard and grow your own produce, but it is also a great excuse to venture outside and absorb some much-needed vitamin D.

When it comes to gardening, most people are unsure how to begin planting flowers or produce. How do you know if the soil is healthy? What do you plant? Where do you even start? Because today, April 14^th, is National Gardening Day, we are providing you with a few helpful tips that can increase your gardening confidence.

Before we continue, it is integral to invest in a few essential gardening tools to make gardening easier. The minute that gardening becomes a chore is when most people tend to give up. Don’t get your butter knife out of the silverware drawer to dig a hole to plant your seeds. Basic gardening tools include a hand shovel, a rake, gardening gloves, and a trowel. You will greatly benefit from a hoe and a shovel if you plan on gardening in a large area.

#1: Decide What You Want To Grow

The rule that you need to abide by is, “If you won’t eat it, don’t grow it.” There is an exception if you are growing flowers, of course. Try to focus on the herbs, vegetables, and fruits that you enjoy eating. When you pick your produce, make sure that it can grow in your area. You can browse information about your gardening zone and microclimate online.

#2: Choosing A Location

Plants require sun exposure, and if you want fruiting to happen then five hours of direct sunlight per day are necessary. Greens, herbs, and root vegetables can grow in partial shade with minimal sunlight. Pick a location for your garden that is exposed to sunlight, but make sure that it is easily accessible and easy to water. If you have to work hard to get to your garden, you won’t have the desire to maintain it.

#3: Test Your Soil

If you plan on using garden boxes, you can purchase soil that is healthy with a neutral pH balance. If you have rough soil that is contaminated, rocky, or soil that is a mixture of silt and clay, you may need to purchase a simple at home soil test kit for about ten dollars. You can also improve your soil by composting, meaning that you bury kitchen scraps in the dirt to enrich it with nutrients.

#4: Nurture Your Garden

After planting your seeds, you have to dedicate a little time out of every day to nurture your growing plants. If you aren’t going to take time out of your day to water your plants, weed your garden, and search for pests, your garden may not turn out the way you want it to.

A final rule of thumb for gardening is that plants require about one inch of water per week during growing season (during the spring). Watering too much does as much harm as under watering, so feel the soil prior to watering to see if the plants really need a lot of water.

SHARE:

The post We Just Wet Our Plants For National Gardening Day appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

Children enjoy making a mess, and that includes throwing food all over the place. When children don’t want to eat their vegetables, the parent or adult commonly instructs them to eat their food because there are less fortunate, starving children in countries around the world. As such, many of us learn to feel guilty for wasting food at an early age, but the sad truth is that many people continue to waste food throughout their entire lives.

About 40% of the all the food in America is wasted. All of that wasted food could feed roughly 60 million people around the world. On a global scale, the amount of wasted food could feed about one billion hungry people in the world. Wasted food comprises about 20% of the solid waste in landfills, where it cannot properly decompose. The reason for this is due to the lack of air in landfills. The surrounding inorganic materials make it impossible for the food to break down. The organics begin releasing methane, which is about 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide, and this greatly contributes to climate change.

All of this is not to say that we should keep eating until we can’t move. That doesn’t have a positive outcome. You don’t have to let the guilt of wasting food paralyze you; rather, you can use the following tips to help reduce food waste at home.

One Bad Spot Does Not Mean It’s Bad

A lot of people are disgusted by the slightest indication of mold. If there is a little speck of it on a tomato, for example, slice off that area and use the rest of it. Sometimes you can see that a vegetable or fruit will go bad if it isn’t used within the next day, so plan a meal that includes that food.

Start Composting

This sounds intimidating, but it is quite simple and beneficial for the soil in your yard or garden. Get a large airtight container (can be a quart-size container) and keep it close to the area where you cut fruits or vegetables. Any stems, ends, bad spots, peels, eggshells, or seeds can all be thrown in that container. When the container fills up, go outside, dig a small hole with a shovel, and throw the scraps in the hole. Chop them with the shovel and then cover them with dirt. Worms will come, compost the food, and richen the soil with nutrients.

Learn To Use The Entire Produce Item

Too often do people buy a produce item and throw a large portion of it away. The broccoli stem, for instance, is commonly tossed into the garbage. It can be shredded for salads or it can be thinly sliced for stir-fries. People who buy beets with greens typically throw the greens away, but they can be treated like chard or spinach. Eat them raw, sautéed, stewed, or boiled!

Befriend Your Freezer

A lot of people purchase bread and meat (poultry, beef, or pork) in America and it can sometimes go bad before it is used. Freeze sliced bread or meat that you know you aren’t going to finish before it’s bad. You can also prep a lot of meals, for example, soups, smoothie bags, or sauces and then freeze them. A great way to save fruits or vegetables before they go bad is to freeze them and use them in smoothies.

Practice FIFO

FIFO stands for First In, First Out. Upon returning home with a new load of groceries, move the older products to the front of the fridge, freezer, or pantry and the newer products in the back. This allows you to use the older items before they expire or turn bad. When you use up anything that comes in a glass jar, you can also wash it out and use that as a cup or container.

Lastly, try to take stock in your fridge, freezer, and pantry to know exactly what you need before you go grocery shopping. You don’t want to buy too much of one thing or buy an item you already have.

SHARE:

The post 5 Ways To Avoid Food Waste At Home appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

Do you like to garden, but don’t like paying for potting soil? Be more environmentally friendly, nourish your dirt, and lessen the stink in your trashcan by learning how to compost! Composting is one of the easiest ways to get high quality soil without doing a lot of work.

It’s interesting to think that the waste from your kitchen can turn into nutrients for your soil. Whether you have used coffee grounds, eggshells, carrot tops, or other fruit/vegetable scraps, bury them in your yard to enrich your soil with a plethora of nutrients. Composting is the practice of taking certain kitchen scraps and making them work for your benefit. Some people buy composting bins, in which they can add wood chips, newspapers, or grass clippings, while others like to do it on a smaller scale.

Vermiculture

If you are familiar with the idea of composting, you will probably recognize this word. Vermiculture is the practice of using worms to decompose organic food waste, thereby turning it into nutrient-rich material that benefits the growth of plants. Think of vermiculture as nature’s way of recycling. Instead of sending food scraps down the garbage disposal, where it will end up in a landfill, bury them in the earth to create healthier soil structure.

To start off, get an airtight container to store your kitchen scraps. If you are burying these in the ground, you can add apple cores, banana peels, broccoli stems, wilted leaves, carrot tops, crushed eggshells, citrus peels, melon rinds, or celery butts, among many other fruit/vegetables scraps. Once your container fills up, dig a little hole in the dirt and bury the scraps. Make sure you cover the scraps with dirt and pack it down. Worms will come and work their magic! 

After doing this for a couple weeks, you can begin to plant different fruits, vegetables, herbs, or flowers. It is easier for these plants to grow when the soil is replete with nutrients. Just so you are aware, you may get a couple volunteer plants from the scraps you bury in the dirt. Tomatoes, melons, and potatoes are common volunteers!

Composting is a very easy way to benefit the environment. Give back to the earth because it has given us so much!

SHARE:

The post National Learn About Composting Day appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

The Dherbs social media team attended an Earth Day event in Los Angeles this past Thursday, April 19^th, 2018. Grand Park was replete with children on school field trips and the booths were never empty. Adults and children alike came to learn how we impact the environment and what sustainable steps we can take to be more eco-friendly.

People around the world could be more conscious about their impact on the environment. These Earth Day events help to shine a light on how careless people are, when it comes to giving back to a planet that has given us so much life. We thoroughly enjoyed the plethora of booths, but a couple ideas stood out to us, which we have detailed below.

Vermiculture

If you are familiar with the idea of composting, you will probably recognize this word. Vermiculture is the practice of using worms to decompose organic food waste, thereby turning it into nutrient-rich material that benefits the growth of plants. Think of vermiculture as nature’s way of recycling. Instead of sending food scraps down the garbage disposal, where it will end up in a landfill, bury them in the earth to create healthier soil structure.

To start off, get an airtight container to store your kitchen scraps. If you are burying these in the ground, you can add apple cores, banana peels, broccoli stems, wilted leaves, carrot tops, crushed eggshells, citrus peels, melon rinds, or celery butts, among many other fruit/vegetables scraps. Once your container fills up, dig a little hole in the dirt and bury the scraps. Make sure you cover the scraps with dirt and pack it down. Worms will come and work their magic! 

WARNING: Do not compost meat, dairy products, or processed foods.

If you don’t have a yard or an area where you can compost your scraps, you can make a very simple worm farm, which you can keep in your house or apartment. You should get red worms and try to avoid adding citrus peels to the containers; otherwise you will attract fruit flies. You’ll collect liquid in the bottom and it is probably the most beneficial liquid, with which you can nurture your plants. See the video below to learn how to make your own worm farm.

Harvesting Rainwater

We don’t know about people in other states, but California needs all the water it can get. We came across a rainwater-harvesting booth, which we absolutely fell in love with. Rain is not only free, but it also a salt-free water source containing beneficial microorganisms for plants.

Harvesting rainwater can be done easily. Rather than letting the water run from your gutter into the street, you can funnel the gutter into a large bucket for collection. You can water your plants at will with this water. If you don’t want to do this option, you can create a channel system that leads to your plants or yard. When you do this, it helps to replenish ground water. Remember that gravity is your friend when you are creating this channel system.

When rain falls it seeps underground to become ground water, whereby it feeds rivers or lakes. The construction of cities has stopped this natural cycle, meaning the ground can no longer store water as it should. The groundwater works to improve the earth, so there’s no reason not to harvest rainwater!

We hope that you take some steps to be more eco-friendly or employ one of these simple ideas in your daily lives. If these seem too drastic or out of reach, try carrying a reusable straw with you at all times and abstain from using plastic straws. You can also stop buying plastic water bottles and start using a Berkey filter, which is a great product to naturally filter out heavy metals and other toxins from tap water. Happy Earth Day! Let’s treat the planet like we want it to be around for a while!

SHARE:

The post How Dherbs Learned To Be More Eco-Friendly For Earth Day appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

Spring is just around the corner, which means it is optimal gardening time. The weather isn’t too hot, but you still get the essential sunlight that plants need. Some vegetables thrive more than others, which means that you can easily grow them to save money on groceries in the summertime.

Did you know that you could save over $500 over a six-month period by growing your own vegetables? When produce isn’t in season, it can be hard to continually see the prices rise in grocery stores. It turns out that these pricey items are very easy to grow for any gardener, experienced or not.

Setting Up Your Garden

The cost of setting up a garden can be inexpensive if you have ample yard space. You can also save money if you collect rainwater. Plants actually prefer rainwater because tap water contains chlorine. It is also beneficial to start composting your soil. Some people like to invest in compost systems, but it can be as simple as burying kitchen scraps in your garden soil.

Collect your vegetable & fruit scraps and coffee grounds in a container in your kitchen when you are prepping food. Once you fill the container up, go out to your garden area and bury the scraps. When you do this around the area, worms will come to eat the scraps and create healthy, nutritious soil for your future plants. You’ll save money at the grocery store if you grow the following vegetables.

Smoothie Greens

Greens like kale or chard are actually very easy to grow. They can even grow in colder temperatures. Adding kale or chard to your smoothies can be a great way to get more green vegetables in your diet. Make a smoothie with a kale, bananas, strawberries, cucumbers, and blueberries, or use avocado, chard, mango, kiwis, and beets. If you find that your kale is flourishing faster than you can consume it, pick it, cut it up, and store it in the freezer in plastic bags.

Zucchini

The vegetable spiralizer has made zucchini a very popular health food. Fortunately, zucchini have an impressive yield and they are incredibly easy to grow. You can make grilled zucchini sticks, zucchini noodles, dip raw zucchini in hummus, or stir-fry zucchini slices with other vegetables. If you are cleansing and making zucchini noodles, having a zucchini plant could save you $100 over the harvest season.

Cherry Tomatoes

Fresh cherry tomatoes are probably one of the easiest and best garden vegetables to grow. There’s nothing like going to the plant and picking fresh cherry tomatoes for a healthy snack. These little guys are loaded with antioxidants and they come in many varieties. A great planting tip is to make a simple a-frame structure for them to grow on. Plant seeds at each of the four corners of the a-frame and continually put compost in the center for best results.

Salad Greens

Growing salad greens like lettuce varieties, arugula, or spinach is not a difficult process. Sometimes you can even grow lettuce from kitchen scraps. After you plant seeds, however, it is important to keep the earth moist to ensure healthy sprouting. Always harvest some leaves from the salad greens every day to keep the plants healthy. This way you can have fresh salads directly from your garden!

Culinary Herbs

Depending on where you live, a bundle of herbs can be quite pricey. Herbs don’t take up a lot of space and you can grow them in little pots in your windowsill or out in your garden. Plus, there is nothing like picking fresh basil, mint, rosemary, or cilantro off the stalk to cook with. Oregano, chives, and mint can grow quickly, but other herbs may take a little longer. If you purchase small herbs in pots, you will have an easier time growing the plant.

SHARE:

The post 5 Easy Vegetables You Can Grow Now To Save Money appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.

When the majority of us eat oranges and grapefruit or juice lemons and limes, we usually end up throwing the peels away. Occasionally we decide to get fancy with our cooking by zesting a lime, but that is usually the extent of our citrus peel use. There are actually many other ways to use the peels so you don’t waste them.

Most citrus peels are interchangeable when it comes to using them in the kitchen. If a recipe calls for lime zest, the world will not end if you use orange zest. When it comes to some of the peel suggestions we are about to list, the different peels may taste different by themselves. There are lots of nutrients in these peels so enjoy using them!

Dehydrate The Peels

Dehydrated citrus peels can be a delicious snack, but that’s not all they are. You can use dehydrated citrus peels to make comforting teas, or you can even grind them up and add them to a sea salt scrub for awesome exfoliating powers. Additionally, you can blend the dehydrated peels into a fine powder and combine it with a vegan protein powder for an added vitamin C boost.

To dehydrate your peels, lay them out on your dehydrator trays and dry them at 125 degrees until they are crispy. To avoid running the dehydrator all the time, you can store your peels in a container in the fridge and dehydrate them once a week. You can hang them to dry, but if your environment is cold or humid then they may mold. Warm and dry is best for this method.

Infuse Your Peels

You have a few options when it comes to infusing your peels into things. To make a natural cleaning product, you can put the citrus peels in a jar with some distilled white vinegar and let it sit for a couple weeks. Strain the citrus vinegar and you can use the solution for cleaning.

Sometimes you want a little citrus zing to your seasoning, but you don’t want to zest a lemon or lime every time. Place a little sea salt, black pepper, or chili powder, in a jar and zest orange, lemon, or lime into the seasoning. Shake it up and you have an exotic blend in your spice cabinet.

Compost Your Peels

Composting is a way of giving back to the earth, and a way to keep your soil healthy. All you have to do is place your citrus peels, along with other kitchen scraps, in a bin in your kitchen. When it fills up, go dig a shallow hole in the ground and bury the scraps. It is great for the soil!

We know it’s easy to throw these peels away, but there are so many things you can do them. Better to not waste things that have use!

SHARE:

The post The Best Ways To Use Those Citrus Peels You Throw Away appeared first on Dherbs - The Best All Natural Herbal Remedies & Products.