Going Scratch

This post appears in the 84th Make It From Scratch Carnival.

Yesterday I signed up for “Going Scratch with Coming Up for Air”. Beth decided to try and make everything she possibly could from scratch and invited her readers to come along. She was not only cooking from scratch, she was making soap, and candles and napkins. She was creating her own crackers and potato chips. She was canning and making cheese. A few weeks later she reported that she had not left her kitchen the whole time and she was exhausted! Her update post said she was going to back off a little and try to be more realistic in her approach. After all, never leaving the kitchen does tend to take a bit away from your quality of life!

It was at this point I stumbled across her on 5 Minutes for Going Green and decided to give it a whirl. I seldom use packaged foods so that wasn’t an area in which I could improve a whole lot. I looked over my current grocery list to see if I could find anything I could make instead of buy. It primarily consisted of staples like beans and lentils so no likely candidates. I already use baking soda and white vinegar for cleaning so that was done. I did come across a recipe for homemade laundry detergent the other day. I’m going to give that a try the next time I need some. I’m also going to start making my own dog food. My left behind pug is allergic to everything and eats only prescription dog food. I’m hoping the homemade kind will help alleviate some of his misery and may also cost less. I already have worms busily vermicomposting in my basement and am making plans to grow some food under lights down there this winter. So maybe, in my case, she’s preaching to the choir. I’m going to have to work on this one a bit but I know that I will be able to think of some more areas where I can “go scratch”. Do you want to come along? Go by “Coming Up for Air” and sign up.

Update: Beth hasn’t slowed down too much. Her blog today shows shelf after shelf of canned produce with a promise of more to come!