My Homemade Cleaner Trifecta

If you've followed this blog for a while, you likely know that I derive more satisfaction and joy from homemade cleaning concoction than a person probably should, even though I'm not a clean freak. I think my love of homemade cleaners is found in the principle of them. To be honest, I don't know if it's the frugal or au naturale part of me that enjoys the idea of homemade cleaning solutions more.

The frugalista in me loves that inexpensive household items like vinegar or baking soda can work just as well as, if not better than, the more expensive pre-made cleaning solutions at the store. Homemade cleaners are cheap! I haven't bought an all-purpose cleaner, powdered cleanser, tub and tile spray, glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleanser, or furniture polish in years.

The eco-friendly granola girl in me likes the homemade cleaners because they give me peace of mind. I don't have to worry about my kids coming in contact with toxic sprays and cleansers. No fumes, no skin irritants, no poisons to ingest. I don't have to worry about the effects of my homemade cleaners on their ever-growing and developing bodies and brains. I also love that I don't have to worry about what kinds of chemicals I'm washing down the drain or flushing down the toilet when I use homemade cleaners.

So, today I'm sharing my homemade cleaner trifecta, the three homemade cleaners I use the most at my house over at the

A Summertime Staple: The Best Classic Potato Salad

I wasn't always a fan of my mom's potato salad.  In fact, I wouldn't touch the stuff when I was a kid. Thing is, I don't know if I even tried it back then. I probably did what my own kids do whenever they see something new on their plates: assume it's gross before even trying it. Another reason I might have avoided it was that I didn't really like eggs when I was a kid, especially the hard-boiled ones.

Fast-forward to my later teenage years when I overcame my prejudice and tried it. When I did, I finally understood why everyone else was heaping it onto their plates at family picnics and barbecues. Mom's potato salad is simple but delicious, balanced in its flavors, and even kind of colorful. I may be just the teensiest bit biased, but I think my mom makes THE BEST classic potato salad. And I won't even go into how it's superior over the store-bought stuff in the deli section of the grocery store or in tall tubs at Costco. I mean, that just goes without saying.

The recipe was my grandma's first (it's actually her birthday today). Even though my grandma passed away many years ago, whenever my mom makes this recipe, it's like part of her is back at the gathering. Last year, when my mom planned a picnic with a few of her brothers, they all requested that she make their mom's potato salad.

I've asked for the recipe a couple times, but my mom doesn't have it written down. She makes it from memory, eyeballing the ingredient amounts and consistency of the salad, tasting it all as she goes. This past weekend she made it again for a Father's Day picnic, so I took notes.  I figured I should write it down, you know, for posterity's sake -- and yours.

Grandma Erickson's Potato Salad, aka The Best Classic Potato Salad 
5 lbs. potatoes (my mom uses Yukon Gold, but you can use any variety), boiled, peeled, and cut into bite-sized cubes
2-3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup chives (or green onions), finely chopped
8 large eggs, hard-boiled, finely chopped
1/2 cup sweet pickles, finely chopped, with some of the pickle juice reserved (we used these pickles we canned, but the store-bought sweet pickles work fine, too)
1/2 cup peppers, finely chopped  (we used these pickled peppers, but you can use pickled peppers, pimientos, or fresh red bell pepper)
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1 cup mayonnaise (Mom swears by Best Foods/Hellman's mayo)
2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1 tsp. ground pepper

Boil potatoes until soft. My grandma always boiled them with the skins on -- makes them easier to peel. Peel potatoes then chop into bite-size cubes

Boil the eggs. Be sure that the eggs are thoroughly cooked. Word to the wise: before you peel all of them, check one of them first. You wouldn't want to boil a dozen of your chickens' lovely eggs, peel them all, realize that they weren't cooked through all the way, and have your mom tell you that they can't be used. Not that I would know from experience or anything. (ahem.)

Perfectly cooked eggs have a tender white and the yolk is pale yellow, fluffy but firm. Undercooked hardboiled eggs (like the one on the left in the picture above) have a damp yolk that is more dark-gold than pale yellow. Be careful not to overcook them, though, or the yolk will have a harmless-but-ugly grayish-green ring around it  (Helpful tutorial for hard-boiling eggs can be found here.)

Cut the eggs up well, so that they're almost crumbly. My mom likes to use a paring knife to cut the egg up in her hand. I helped her out and did the same, holding it as I cut it the way I would an onion.

IMPORTANT: let the potatoes and eggs cool completely before you make the potato salad. If you don't, it will turn into this hot, mushy mess instead of a cool, refreshing salad. Who wants that?

Put the chopped potatoes in large bowl. Drizzle with reserved pickle juice (and the juice from the pickled peppers, if you're using them), about 1/2 cup (if you're using the juice from pickled peppers, too, do 1/4 cup pickle juice and 1/4 cup pickled pepper juice).

Add salt, pepper, and chives. Stir gently so the potatoes don't get mushy. For the best results, stop at this point and let the mixture chill overnight. This lets the flavors really seep into the potatoes. This step isn't completely necessary, though.

Add the chopped pickles, peppers, celery, eggs, mustard, and mayonnaise. Fold these ingredients in gently, too. Taste the salad and add more salt and pepper, if needed, depending on your preferences. You can also add more mayonnaise, too, if you want a creamier consistency.

Keep the salad chilled until served -- and be prepared for future requests.

More Good, Cultured Fun :: Making Frozen and Greek Yogurt

Have you tried making your own yogurt yet? See, I told you it was easy!

Without question, I prefer Greek yogurt over regular. I remember the first time I ever tried Greek yogurt (mmmm....Chobani pineapple. Yum.), I was surprised how it tasted more like a dessert than the yogurt I was used to. Since that first taste, I haven't been able to eat regular yogurt; it just seems too watery. This kept me from making my own yogurt for a while -- I wasn't ready to give up my Chobani yogurt. Turns out, making your yogurt Greek is simple. The difference between regular yogurt and Greek is that the Greek yogurt has been strained, removing the whey, hence the creamier texture.

To Greek-ify your yogurt, you'll need:

• fresh homemade yogurt
• a large bowl
• a colander/strainer that's smaller than the aforementioned bowl
• thin cloth (more on that in a bit)

Line the colander/strainer with the thin cloth. This can be from a variety of sources. I ran out of cheesecloth (which wasn't working that well anyway since I'd bought cheap grocery store kind that doesn't have a very fine weave), so I improvised with some my cloth napkins that are made out of birdseye cotton (it's the same kind of cloth used for diapers. I got my cloth napkins from Etsy -- I love them.), with the cheesecloth I had left layered on top of that. They worked even better than the layers of cheesecloth I'd used before (plus cheesecloth can get kind of pricey). You could use a thin tea towel or some muslin cloth, too. I've also read about people using paper towel and paper coffee filters. Personally, I like the idea using cloth over paper since it's reusable, but work with what you've got. 

Put the strainer over the large bowl and then pour your yogurt into the cloth (or whatever you choose to use). Fold the edges of the cloth over the yogurt and put it (the whole shebang: bowl, strainer, yogurt, etc) into the fridge for 1-2 hours. Really, you can let it strain as long or short as you want, until it gets to the consistency you like.

I strained mine for a couple hours and it got to that consistency I love. It's not the best picture, but if you look closely, you can see where I got my fingerful of yogurt in the lower-right corner. Totally strained and creamy. Yum!

Once you've strained your yogurt, you'll see that there's liquid collected in the bowl under the strainer. Whatever you do, don't throw that out!! That clear, yellowish liquid is the whey and it's actually quite useful and really good for you. For a great post about whey and how to use it (she has 16 different uses for it!), check out this link. 

If you're not going to use your whey in a couple days or so, you can freeze it for later. I freeze mine in jars. My boys' pediatrician (remember, the guy who finally convinced me to give this yogurt making a go) said he freezes whey in an ice cube tray (yet another use for them -- what a useful kitchen tool!) and then will pop a couple cubes into the smoothies he makes (since whey is full of protein and vitamins).  

The only downside to making your yogurt Greek: it does cut your yield down. Because of the straining, you'll end up with less yogurt than you started with (obviously) -- how much less depends on how much you strain it.

Want to make your homemade Greek yogurt even more delicious? Make frozen yogurt!

My husband has been on a certain kick lately: he loves plain, tangy frozen yogurt. You know, the kind at those places where it's self-serve and you can load it with toppings. Knowing this, I thought it'd be fun to try to use my newfound yogurt-making skill to make one of his favorite treats.

Time to pull out the ol' ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen-Aid. 

I got the ice cream attachment a few years ago for Christmas from my husband. Really, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Throw some cream, and some sugar into that bowl (after the bowl has been chilled in the freezer for several hours) and you've got ice cream that makes the store-bought stuff taste like...well...a sorry excuse for ice cream.  

I'd never made frozen yogurt before but I figured it couldn't be much different than making ice cream. It wasn't.

Even so, I wanted to use a recipe as my guide and I thought this one sounded the best, just what I'd been looking for in recreating my husband's favorite kind. (Note: it works with any kind of ice cream maker.)

You simply mix the yogurt with some sugar and stick it in the fridge for an hour. I used less sugar in my version than was called for in the recipe because we still wanted the tangy flavor of the yogurt to come out. 

Once it chilled in the fridge, I poured it into the already-started machine and let it the Kitchen-Aid work its magic.

I was going to dish up the frozen yogurt into a cute little bowl with a pretty placemat underneath, with some of the raspberries from my yard (yay!) daintily placed on top. Nope. It didn't make it that far. No way were were going to risk that stuff melting while I tried to style it just-so and get a un-blurry photo. Basically, I split it between the hubs and I in a couple oversized mugs, gave the obligatory offer to the boys (they didn't want any -- hooray!), tossed some of the raspberries on it, and stuck a couple spoons in each mug. Nothing fancy here.

But the taste. Oh my goodness. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say it was one of the most delicious things I've eaten lately. It was divine. You owe it to yourself to make this homemade frozen yogurt. It may be one of my favorite homemade vs. pre-made accomplishments yet.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, From the Farm Blog Hop, and Little House Friday DIY Linky.}

Good, Cultured Fun :: How to Make Homemade Yogurt

My kids have the best pediatrician, who my family affectionately refers to as Dr. Pete. My boys actually look forward to visits with him. He has nicknames for them, tickles them, gives hugs, and makes jokes about farting and poo (aka, boy humor). I think he's the best because he really knows his stuff and never hesitates to thoroughly answer any and all of my questions (no matter how dumb they may sound to him). Another thing that makes him super cool: we feel pretty similar when it comes to food. A couple visits ago, we chatted about The Omnivore's Dilemma and how much better a fresh egg tastes than its grocery store counterpart. It was pretty great.

A couple weeks ago, I thought my six-year-old had strep throat again, so we paid a visit to Dr. Pete. When he came to tell us the test was negative (hooray!) and as he examined both boys (because they'd had the same virus, it turned out), we got on the topic of food again. That's when he asked if I'd ever made yogurt. I told him no, that I'd wanted to for a while but that it'd always seemed tricky. He proceeded to tell me how easy it is to make. I was convinced. That same day, I went to the store, picked up the ingredients, and made my first batch of yogurt.

He wasn't kidding: homemade yogurt is so easy to make! Not only is it really easy to make your own yogurt, it's also much cheaper! To make a quart of yogurt (and this is with organic milk, which can cost a bit more), it only cost around $1.50.

To make yogurt, you'll need the following:

• 4 cups of milk, any fat percentage -- I used whole milk (Do NOT use milk that has been ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurized milk has been heated to a higher temperature than pasteurized milk, so it doesn't respond to the cultures.)
• 3 Tablespoons plain yogurt with live, active cultures (You only have to use store-bought yogurt for the first time you make it. Once you've made your own yogurt, you can just use three tablespoons of it for your next batch.)
• two dish towels
• a food thermometer
• a slow cooker

There are a variety of ways to make and incubate yogurt, but this is the way Dr. Pete told me to do it...

Plug your slow cooker in and set it to 'warm' or to its lowest setting.  Put one of the dish towels inside and put the lid on the slow cooker.

Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and heat it over medium heat, stirring often so it doesn't scald.

Heat the milk until it gets to 180°F. This takes about 15-20 minutes.  (Please ignore my not-hand-model hands, especially the dirty thumbnail. I swear they were clean but that dirt from the camping trip the day before was stubborn!)

Remove the pot from the heat. Wait for it to cool to 110°F. This is the longest part of the process. You can let it cool at room temperature (which is what I've done), but I read recently that you can also put the pot into a larger bowl or sink with ice water.

While was I waiting for this batch to cool, I flipped through Home Dairy with Ashley English. I'm telling you, there's something super-empowering about making your own dairy products. I can't quite explain why, but it is. So far, I've made butter, mozzarella cheese, and yogurt. I can't wait to try making feta, cream cheese, and kefir next, among a bunch of other things.  If you're interested in making your own dairy and feeling all cool and self-sufficient, Home Dairy is a wonderful resource for making a wide range of dairy products; another great book with fantastic beginner dairy recipes is one of my favorite cookbooks, The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila.

Once the milk has cooled to 110°F, mix in the three tablespoons of yogurt with a metal spoon. 

Pour the milk-yogurt mixture into a quart-size Mason jar. Place the lid on top and screw the ring on tightly.

Wrap the jar in the other dish towel (it's like insulation) and put it into the slow cooker. It looks like you're putting a baby to bed. Unplug the slow cooker and put the lid on it. Leave the jar in the slow cooker for six hours (or overnight) and let the cultures work their magic.

It's cool that your yogurt starts so liquidy but then within a few hours...

...it turns into yogurt -- fresh, tangy, delicious yogurt!

Before serving, let the yogurt chill in the fridge for an hour or two. It's a good idea to set three tablespoons aside in a little jar or other container for your next batch of yogurt (I had to buy another cup of yogurt since we ate ours up without thinking ahead).  This yogurt will keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks -- the longer it's in the fridge, the more tangy it'll get.

Serve this with some fresh fruit, granola, or sweetened with honey or syrup.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, From the Farm Blog Hop, and Little House Friday DIY Linky.}

Peeeaaaanut, Peanut Butter :: How I Ditched the Jar of Skippy and Started Making My Own Peanut Butter

First, you get the peanuts and you crush 'em, you crush 'em...

Just kidding. That's not how this blog post is going to go down. {If you want to sing the song, feel free to click here. Oooh! Even better, if you want to relive your childhood, you can watch this vintage Sesame Street film of a peanut butter factory! It's two minutes well spent. I'll wait.}

I'm totally into buying natural foods, but I've never been able to really bring myself to switch to the healthy peanut butter. You know, the kind that has all the oil on top, the kind that you have stir before using it. Whenever I tried it, I just..well...wasn't a fan. Even when I did start buying natural and organic food, I still bought my family's peanut butter at the regular grocery store. I figured if I bought the Skippy Natural kind (so it didn't have hydrogenated oils and stuff), we'd be good.

A couple months ago, I learned that peanuts are sprayed heavily with pesticides -- a problem since the shells of peanuts are porous, so the pesticides can get right down to the meat of the peanut. The pesticides that are used are carcinogenic, not to mention containing neurotoxins and hormone disruptors. On top of that, there are developmental and reproductive effects from these pesticides -- this concerned me most because of how much peanut butter my boys eat (seriously, both of my boys have been known to eat all the peanut butter off bread and ask for a second slathering). Peanuts are also prone to mold and when peanut butter is mass-produced, quite often the yucky ones get thrown into the mix. Remember all the peanut butter recalls we've seen in past years? It felt dumb for me to buy all this organic produce, meat, and dairy but hold out on the organic peanut butter.

Well, now that I've made you paranoid like I was, I have a solution: make your peanut butter from scratch! Not only is it suuuuper easy but it tastes delicious. It's not exactly the same taste or consistency as the jar of Skippy (mmmm...that's stuff's good for peanut butter on a spoon, which my husband, incidentally (and adorably), used to call "He-Man suckers" when he was a kid), but it's good in a different way. I love it. My kids love it. My often-skeptical-about-natural-foods husband likes it. I feel good about serving it to my family because it's healthier and I know exactly what's in it. And it's pretty inexpensive to make. It's a win-win-win-win-win situation, really.  P.S.- you can use the same method and recipe for other nut butters. Almond butter, anyone? Yum!

(Also, I have to give this blog a shout-out. I've read countless recipes for homemade nut butters -- they're all pretty much the same -- but this post was the one that finally made me do it. Credit where it's due, as always)

On to the recipe!

Homemade Peanut Butter

3 cups of roasted peanuts (I bought mine organic in the bulk section for $2.99/lb.)
1 Tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon salt (I like Redmond Real Salt)

Pour all of the peanuts into the bowl of a food processor.

Turn it on and let it run for about 6-8 minutes, depending on how smooth you want yours to be.

It'll seem like it's taking a while and that it's not working out.  At one point, it'll look all dry and grainy like this:

And then it'll look all clumpy like this:

Trust me, though -- it works out in the end.

Ta-da! Peanut butter! I like mine a little rough -- not super creamy but not full of chunks either. It has a sort of grit to it that the husband and I particularly like. Run your food processor as much or little as you like until you see a consistency you want.

Add the honey and salt. Turn the processor on for about 30 seconds.

In less than ten minutes, you've got your own homemade jar of peanut butter. I keep ours in the fridge in a pint-sized Mason jar.  What's nice about this peanut butter is that it's completely natural (none of that hydrogenated garbage), organic if you want it to be, and, unlike store-bought natural peanut butter, you don't have to stir it because the oils don't separate. The flavor of this peanut butter is so good -- the way the peanuts and honey mix, along with the hint of saltiness, is really great. I don't see us going back to the store-bought variety anytime soon. Sorry, Skippy.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Little House Friday DIY Linky, Creative Home & Garden Hop, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.}

Homemade Dulce de Leche ( + End-of-the-Year Teacher Gratitude)

These last few weeks of school are taking a toll on me. I thought I was an emotional, sentimental mess in the weeks leading up to my son's first day of kindergarten, but I think I'm worse now that the school year is coming to a close. Between adorable kindergarten graduation programs and field days and the bringing home of all the folders/writing journals/papers/desk name tags, I'm really struggling. It was all I could do to not start bawling during the post-graduation slideshow of photos taken of my son's class throughout the school year.

It's not that I don't love summer or the idea of having Max home all day (hooray!), but I'm just sad that he isn't going to be a kindergartener anymore. There's just something so sweet and innocent about kindergarten -- it's this lovely combination between school and play. And the thought of Max being a first grader seems...well...so big. I'm hoping that this is just the typical emotions of a mother dealing with her firstborn in school; by the time my other boy goes to school, I'll be a pro and not take things so hard.

One other reason I'm sad to see the school year end: Max had an amazing teacher this year. I remember meeting Mrs. A and thinking, "She is how you'd imagine a perfect kindergarten teacher to be." She's young, smiles easily, is nice but firm, calls the students "friends", and sings songs to the kids to get them to clean up or sit down or stop what they're doing. Her room is bright and happy, with paper flowers hanging from the ceiling, shelves of full of fun little toys and activities, a reading corner with a full book rack and comfy cushions, framed photos from when she taught school in Africa, a mailbox for the kids to "mail" letters to classmates, darling artwork all over the walls, and a hundred other sweet little touches. Every time I went to volunteer in that class, I loved how simply walking into the room just made me happy; I can only imagine the effect it has on a class of five and six-year-olds. Mrs. A has set the bar pretty darn high.

Anyway, to express my family's appreciation to this wonderful teacher, we got her a card with an Amazon gift card. To personalize things just a bit, I decided to make her a jar of homemade dulce de leche. Sweets for the sweet, right?

I got this idea from one of my favorite blogs, Dinner: A Love Story, from a post about teacher gifts. (click this link for the post - it has some really great ideas. I wanted to get the alphabet tote but, sadly, didn't have enough time for shipping.)  I thought I would expound on what was written in the post -- give you some more pictures, a sort of play-by-play of how my homemade dulce de leche endeavor went.

There are various ways to make homemade dulce de leche; here's what worked for me. It takes around 1-2 hours to make, but there's hardly any effort.

To make dulce de leche, all you need is a can of sweetened condensed milk and a double boiler.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Once it's boiling, reduce the heat to low so that the water is simmering. Place the double boiler over the pan. Pour the entire can of sweetened condensed milk into the double boiler.

Cover the double boiler. I used a plate. I didn't do this to begin with and I was wondering why the milk wasn't turning the color I wanted. Covering it made it things move along more quickly.

Once you've covered the double boiler, you only need to check on the milk occasionally to give it a stir. Also, check periodically to make sure your water level in the pan below hasn't gotten too low.

The milk will be begin to get thicker and darker in color as it cooks over the simmering water. You're going for a light brown caramel color. This does take a while, anywhere from 1-2 hours.

Try your best to not lick the spatula between stirs because you'll want to eat it all up. It's hard not to, believe me. My two-year-old kept sampling the milk that dripped from the spatula, eating it and saying, "Mmm. Nummy, nummy!"

While the milk is thickening and getting more delicious by the minute, you can make a cute chalkboard label for the jar. I also got this idea from that Dinner: A Love Story post.  I just think it's such a fun thing to do for a teacher gift.

I bought these chalkboard labels off Amazon (I only needed one for this gift, but I figured I could easily use these around the house -- they're cute and they're reusable since the chalk washes off). A lot of the reviews I read for these labels suggested using a liquid chalk marker, so I ordered one of those, too.

I wrote on the labels with both the marker and regular chalk to see if I'd wasted my money on the marker. I liked the look of the regular chalk on the label (the one on the right) better than the marker. It just looked more classic, you know?   What were all those reviewers complaining about? Chalk works just fine! I was a little annoyed that I wasted five dollars on the pen until I picked up the jar with the regular chalk label on it. You barely have to touch the label and the chalk comes off. It took hardly any handling before the the regular chalk had been totally smudged and practically erased. Moral of the story: use the liquid chalk marker. It stays on perfectly (and it washes right off if you mess up or want to change the label).

Also, while your dulce is cooking, you can make an instruction label between stirs.

I'm not crafty at all when it comes to paper and scrapbooking and the like. I do have a stash of scrapbooking paper (I tried scrapbooking...really I did. Kinda.), so I cut out a little square with some kiddie serrated scissors. I wrote some serving suggestions on there, along with how to store it and for how long. Then I punched a hole in the corner, found some extra ribbon with my sewing supplies, and tied it around the jar. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. (Yes, I wrote that in honor of Mrs. A. It's one of her class catchphrases.)

Your dulce de leche is done once it's a nice light brown color. Let me just tell you: this stuff is gooood. It's not quite like regular caramel -- it's creamier and milkier and tastier. I've now become kind of addicted to the stuff. I want to dip apples in it. Today's all dark and cold and rainy -- maybe it'd be good in hot chocolate. Oooh, and brownies...it'd be so good on a brownie!

Who wouldn't love to get a jar of this stuff?

Many thanks to Mrs. A and all the wonderful teachers out there. The work you do is certainly among the most important and life-changing.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, From the Farm Blog Hop, and Little House Friday.}

Homemade Weed Killer: The Experiment and the Results

I've read in numerous places about using vinegar as a weed killer. Oh, vinegar. Is there anything you can't do?  {sigh}

Okay, so there are a lot of things vinegar can't do, including killing weeds -- at least, by itself.  I've tried before. I was going to post the results on here. I poured a bunch of vinegar onto the weeds in my driveway. Nothing. So I gave up on at least that use of vinegar.

But I have this weed problem along the strip of cement that is adjacent to our driveway and alongside the side of our house, along the fence we share with our neighbors on the east. Our previous neighbor (she has since moved away) let the weeds go kind of wild on that part of her yard so they crept under the fence and went wild on our side, too.

In years past, I've either pulled all the weeds by hand or I've hit it with some Round-Up. This year, I decided to skip the chemicals. I won't go into all the reasons, but some of the main reasons are that I'm not a fan of having poisons around the kids (especially with the latest findings about health issues with Round-Up), don't want to support Monsanto, and I'm too cheap to buy the stuff.

So I tried a different approach to killing my weeds with vinegar -- I added a couple more ingredients to the mix.

To make this homemade weed killer, mix:

• 1 quart vinegar (I used white vinegar but I've heard that apple cider vinegar works -- it has a slightly higher acidity level, so it probably will work even better)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 tsp. dish soap (I used the Dawn soap I use for my homemade laundry detergent, but any kind will work)

The vinegar's acetic acid is what kills the plant. The salt assists by pulling the moisture out of the weeds.  The dish soap helps the weed killer stay on the plant once you spray it. Word to the wise: this weed killer will kill any plant it comes into contact with; it's not selective at all. 

Once you've mixed up your weed killer, pour it in a spray bottle. It's best to wait for a day that is going to be dry, hot and sunny.

I sprayed all of those weeds along the fence on a Saturday morning, enjoying myself maybe a little more than I should have ("Ha ha! How do you like that?" Kind of how I was when I was trapping snails with beer).

Here's one of the before pictures again:

The next day, after letting the chickens out and feeding them, I decided to check on the weeds.

As you can see, they're not entirely dead and completely withered, but they're on their way. One or two more applications and those weeds will be history. {insert maniacal laugh}

Note: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have disclosed.

{This post is linked up to Simple Lives Thursday, Little House Friday, Farmgirl Friday, From the Farm Blog Hop, Creative HomeAcre Hop, and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.}