Calendula infused Coconut Oil with French Lavender

Mary’s Gold: I use Calendula in my super popular Healing Honey Butter.  Why?  Calendula has been used since ancient times for cooking, making clothing dye, and for medicinal use.  The earliest records claim that the tea from the Calendula Officinalis can help with women issues, gut issues, and many others.  Topically Calendula flowers were placed in open wounds to staunch bleeding, help heal and to avoid infection.  It was also used in tinctures and balms to heal the skin, treat acne, reduce inflammation, help heal cuts, scrapes and bug bites to name a few. 

Most everyone is familiar with Lavender.  The soothing scent has been used to reduce anxiety and induce sleep for ions.  It was also used as an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory.  I have used Lavender on my skin to help take the sting out of sunburns.  We take the Healing Honey Butter on all of our trips, especially our last trip to visit my Mom in Florida.  Where my Mom ended up with a bad sunburn.  She put on the Healing Honey butter, and while her skin remained red through the next day, she did not hurt or itch at all.  I usually burn one time a year, I know it's bad I don't mean too.  I used my Healing Honey Butter and no longer felt the sting and itching of my damaged skin. Below is a picture of my sunburned shoulder, I posted on Instagram. 

How many times have you seen a commercial that touts their Lavender product will help you sleep, will calm your child and help them sleep, will reduce your anxiety and stress levels?  There's a reason Lavender has been used since ancient times.  It works.  Not the chemically processed versions sold on tv and in commercial skin care and bath products.  Pure Lavender from the actual Lavender plant.  Distilled into pure therapeutic essential oils.  The real lavender.  True and pure lavender.  Essentially and Purely Lavender oil.  Once you smell true lavender, you will be able  to detect the imposters and reject them.  

How do I make this amazing, Healing Honey Butter?

I infuse my Organic Coconut oil with Organic, dried, Calendula Officinalis flowers and beeswax. I like to take my time when making an infusion, I want to get the absolute most out of the flowers I use.  I want to sell my Customers the highest quality product. So I start my infusion and carefully monitor it, stirring the coconut oil to allow a perfect mixture of oil to healing benefits of the calendula flower.  

Once the infusion has reached maturity I then start the process to whip it into a frothy state to keep it from hardening into a big lump that is difficult to get out of it's container.  This has to been done several times as the butter cools and hardens.  After it has cooled sufficiently, I then add the pure French Lavender Essential oil.  Blend and pour into the containers. The smell is heavenly and the result is divine.  I should have named it Heavenly Honey Butter.  

I like to add beeswax as it helps the coconut oil set up and seals in the skins moisture along with the healing power of the Calendula.  By adding Lavender, the skin healing/soothing benefits gets a real boost, plus the scent of lavender is soothing and calming.  Healing Honey Butter has a light fragrance and goes on smoothly.  Your skin will be soft and supple all day long.  Try some today, see how much your skin can benefit from this ultra moisturizing and healing butter.  I promise your skin will love you for it!

I use all the products in my line of skin care.  All of them, I wouldn't sell anything that I don't love. If you would like to make a purchase go to my website: www.essentiallypurely.com or visit my Etsy store.  

Legal mumbo-jumbo:

These Statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, mitigate, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Avoid if pregnant. Avoid if allergic to any ingredients, or if allergic to the Daisy family.  Pictures from Wikipedia, except the one of my shoulder.  That's mine. 

Frozen Fresh Strawberry Syrup with dried up Brown Sugar and freshground Cinnamon

Frozen fresh? What is that? My Dad went to North Carolina this past fall and harvested a bunch of fresh strawberries.  He brought me about 6 gallons of them.  I washed them off and let them dry. After they were dry I placed them, in a single layer, in a freezer safe container and directly into the freezer.  So, Fresh Frozen. Dad's idea and it worked beautifully.  Stored in that way, they could be used, at will, throughout the winter.  I still have some left and noticed that they were "growing" ice, which means they are going to be ruined and frost bitten.  What in the world was I going to do with them?

My son asked for waffles for breakfast.  We have gluten free, multi-grain Pumpkin spice waffles, which actually taste like gingerbread.  How to incorporate those strawberries?  Strawberry syrup.  

I have been purchasing organic Ceylon cinnamon sticks so I can grind my own cinnamon.  I have read articles that claim some cinnamon is cut with bark.  Cinnamon is bark, but I don't want another kind of bark in my cinnamon.  I prefer pure cinnamon.  How can I assure this?  Grind it myself.  I put several sticks in my coffee mill and poof, freshly ground cinnamon that I know is 100% and nothing extra added.  

Where does the dried up brown sugar come into play?  I keep my Organic brown sugar in a ceramic container, with a terra cotta bear to keep it moist.  However, not all of the brown sugar fits.  Some of it has to stay in the original container, where it dries up into a big ole' lump.  I know if you add sugar to strawberries, the strawberries released their juice so it becomes a delicious syrupy treat.  It's so good, just strawberries and sugar.  Not so much frozen strawberries and sugar, fresh strawberries.  

I capped the strawberries,  dumped the dried up brown sugar over them, and sprinkled some cinnamon on them too.  Let me tell you, it only took a few minutes to have a fresh strawberry syrup with delicious strawberries to go with it!

Fresh Frozen Strawberry Syrup

Skillet for cooking

Frozen Strawberries

Organic Ceylon Cinnamon sticks

Organic Brown Sugar (dried up, fresh, whichever doesn't matter)

1-2 cups frozen strawberries, cap them and place into the skillet

Sprinkle the ground cinnamon over the strawberries

Put brown sugar on top

Turn skillet on low

The heat will start to un-thaw the frozen strawberries and a syrup will start to form, 

Gently stir the berries to incorporate the brown sugar and cinnamon

No need to wait too long, the syrup will form pretty quickly 

Ladel the strawberries over the waffles, scoop out some syrup and you have your own, freshly prepared Strawberry syrup.   

My son gobbled all, but 4, of the strawberries (I saved some for myself) and his entire waffle.  Which he rarely does.  Healthy goodness I could feel good about.  Like most Moms, I beat myself up over every little thing I think I'm doing wrong.  Today it was, that I didn't think I was feeding him enough healthy things to help him grown and develop properly.  This was a good start to a great day!  

Introducing Essentially Purely™ and a recipe for making your own PureVanilla Extract.

Thank you to all of my friends for the outpouring of support for my new venture!  I started my new company, Essentially Purely™, with the intention of sharing the products God has blessed me to be able to create.  They really work, they are fantastic and I am so fortunate to have so many wonderful friends, and family who are Customers, and to have added Customers who feel like friends.

I've been making making my own deodorant for years.  I started my search for a natural deodorant about 16 years ago, after my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.  The lump was caught in the very early stages and thanks be to God, she is 100% ok. After the surgery and the treatments, she was told not to use commercial deodorants.  She was advised to find a natural deodorant that didn't contain aluminum or other harsh chemicals.  That really triggered a "WHY?" Response in me.  I have always been that person who needs to know why?  When I found out how some of the chemicals in our deodorants can negatively affect our health, I was appalled.  That is probably the root of why I have been so persistent in my search for natural/organic things for my family and myself.  How can the FDA approve such things to be used, when they know what kinds of awful side effects they can cause.  Serious problems, such as cancer!!!!  It's not ok.  A couple of examples:

Aluminum Chlorhydrate is found in most antiperspirants, it is used to close the pores.  Doctors have found links to that and Alzheimer's disease as well as breast cancer and other illnesses.  (Check out article: http://side-effects.owndoc.com/deodorants-and-antiperspirants-side-effects.php)

Triclosan is an endocrin blocker, it's found in deodorants, toothpaste, anti-bacterial soaps, soaps, shampoos, it's bad but it's FDA approved for you to rub on your body, and use in your mouth.  Here is an excerpt from a great artical on the dangers of the ingredients in commercial deodorants. 

"Triclosan

Triclosan is an artificial antimicrobial chemical used to kill bacteria on the skin and other surfaces. Triclosan is a skin irritant and may cause contact dermatitis. Recent studies suggest this chemical may disrupt thyroid function and other critical hormone systems. The American Medical Association recommends that triclosan and other “antibacterial” products not be used in the home, as they may encourage bacterial resistance to antibiotics that can allow resistant strains to flourish." (http://www.naturalcosmeticnews.com/toxic-products/dangerous-chemicals-in-deodorant-antiperspirant-a-detailed-review-of-the-chemicals-research-avoidance-tips/)

I could go on and on and on! Please take time to take ownership of your health and look up what the chemicals in the products, you use everyday, are capable of doing to your body.  With that said, make sure when you find something natural/organic that you do your research on that.  Everything that claims to be natural, may be labeled natural because the FDA says it was, at one point, from nature.  For example, Artificial Vanilla Flavoring.  How can that be labeled natural and have the word artificial in it?  Here's an excerpt of an artical from Dr. Mercola (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/02/vanilla-flavored-processed-foods.aspx)

"Anal secretions from beavers, which beavers use to mark their territory, smell, ironically, like vanilla. These secretions, called castoreum, may be used as vanilla flavoring in baked goods, pudding, chewing gum and more.1

Here's the rub … you certainly won't see 'beaver anal secretions' on your food labels, and you probably won't see 'castoreum' either. All that has to be listed is vanilla natural flavor, because, after all, beaver anal secretions are natural.

It's clearly absurd that food manufacturers can describe secretions from beaver anal glands as natural vanilla flavor. This isn't a huge health issue, especially because beavers are not a bred animal, and the total consumption of castoreum is thought to be around just 250 pounds a year.2" 

(Refer to the article link above to see the references used)

So, this is an example of how deceptive the FDA approved ingredients can be.  I don't think they use  Beavers Anal secretions that much anymore, since I'm sure they have found a slew of chemicals to mimic the taste.  My question to YOU (yes you),  why not make your own?  I can tell you how.  And you can use it over, over and over again.  

Pure Vanilla Extract:

2-3 Vanilla Beans (you can order them organic, or not, on the web)

A clean, empty glass bottle with a lid

a small bottle of vodka, rum, or any liquor that doesn't have a strong taste.

Slice the beans on a cutting board and drop into the bottle

Pour in the vodka/rum/ To cover the beans. 

Seal tightly

Place in a cool dark place for about 6 months

After each use, refill and shake.  Store in dark, cool place, like your cabinets. 

Bam.  Pure Vanilla extract.  

Don't worry about the liquor, it gets burned off when you cook or bake with it. Doesn't add a liquor flavor if you chose one that doesn't really have a strong flavor. 

As you can see there are many reasons we should know and understand exactly what is in our beauty products, as well as, our food.  I do a lot of research to find out what organic and truly natural products, can benefit us and be used in my deodorants and body care products.  I try each of them on myself and then I have friends, who try to them as well.  I hope you all enjoy my products as much as we do.  I will be using this blog for both "Hey Paw™" recipes and for "Essentially Purely™" blog posts.  

Thanks ever so much for your support.  Please visit www.EssentiallyPurely.com and give us a try. I'm sure you will be so happy you will keep coming back again and again!

Remember! Take ownership of your health!

Beautiful and Festive Crabapple Preserves or Candied Crabapples

Crab apple Preserves

or

Candied Crab apples 

My Mom always made everything a celebration.  Our birthdays were not just a regular day.  On our birthdays we didn't have to do any chores.  Nothing! That by itself was a perfect day!  First thing in the morning, I couldn't come downstairs until Mom or Dad called for me. 

Walking down the stairs, I couldn't help but smile knowing how special everything was going to be.  As I stepped down each step I could see the lights had been dimmed, and I could smell my favorite breakfast, anything bacon! After the last step I would look up and see my family standing around a beautifully decorated table, arranged with flowers, a chocolate iced cake (my favorite) decorated beautifully, presents sitting on my plate and my family smiling and singing Happy Birthday to me.  I can't tell you how much those memories mean to me.  Like I said, my Mom always makes everything a celebration!  Thankfully some of my Mom's creativity has rubbed off on me. My best friend, Angie, calls me Rosie Jr.  I love it.  

Thanksgiving and Christmas were fantastic events, full of German customs mingled with American tradition.  We had advent wreaths, sugar cookies with smiling icing faces, Gingerbread houses iced with white sugar and covered in candies.  We wrote letters to Santa and awaited a visit from St. Nikolaus on Christmas eve while we remembered Jesus' birth at Christmas Eve service.  With nervous anticipation we would come into the house, to see if St. Nikolaus left us sticks with coal, or brightly covered pieces of chocolate.  We had to dress up in our best clothes for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  Mom laid out her best china, linens and festive tablecloths.  Fresh pine fronds were cheerfully nestled among the silver serving dishes filled with steaming and home cooked foods.  Perfectly cooked turkeys with crisp golden skin, ham covered in pineapples, cloves and bright red cherries.  Gravy, stuffing, veggies, bread, casseroles, and salad laid out in abundance.  Right beside the ham, served in it's own silver bowl were the candied crab apples, covered in a bright red syrup.  In my mind I can still see those crab apples, served over a slice of ham. In the bowl they looked like Christmas tree decorations that should be sparkling on the tree, not shimmering at me under a spicy, sweet syrup.  With each slice of ham or turkey, Mom would carefully ladle the festive apples and syrup over each one. Absolutely delicious.

Last year I decided that I would find some crab apples and try my hand at making my childhood memory come to life again.  I mentioned to a lady at church and she told me that she has a crab apple tree in her yard.  She would check to see if they were still OK, then let me know.  Next time I saw here she told me that her apples had turned bad, but her daughter also had a tree and she would check, but that would turn out to be a bust as well.  It was too late in the season for the crab apples.  I was very disappointed.  I would just have to wait until next year.  

This summer, as I was walking around my neighborhood, I decided to go down a street I never walk on.  As I made my way along I noticed a tree with cherries on it.  As I neared the tree I realized they were crab apples!!  I was so excited I couldn't believe my eyes!   There they were, red, small round apples on a gorgeous green tree! Anyone who knows me, is shocked by what I did next, I marched right up to the front door of someone I don't know and knocked.  My heart was pounding and I was thinking, what am I doing! No one answered.  Unbelievable!  I got up the nerve to knock on a strangers door and no one is home.  Great.  I didn't think I'd ever get the nerve up again, but the memories flooded in and I

knew what I had to do.  The next day, I walked down that street again and knocked on the door.  No one answered.  This must be a cruel joke.  As I was walking away a man with a dog came toward me, he asked if he could help me.  I told him yes while proceeding to tell him I'd like to get some of the crab apples, but no one is home for me to ask permission.  He looked at me in an almost disgusted way, mingled with surprise and asked, "what in the world do you want with those nasty old crab apples?"  His mouth curled in distaste as he said it.  I told him my reasons and he advised me that the couple that lived there would not have a problem with me collecting as many apples as I could carry.  He explained that they despise the tree and are planning to chop it down.  He then went on to invite me to harvest white and purple concord grapes from his backyard.  He and his wife had planted grape vines along their fence line and there was an abundance of them.  I thanked him heartily promising to bring him a sample to try, and finished my walk as quickly as I could in order to prepare for an afternoon of harvesting fruit from my neighbors yards!  

I called Mom to inquire about the recipe, she informed me it is from a very old Kerr Canning Cookbook, which she would type out and e-mail to me.  I then took the boys to help me gather the crab apples and grapes.  We got a lot of fruit! I wasn't sure what to do with the grapes but thought I'd make jelly.  That's a story for another day though.  I knew I needed canning jars and lids, even though I don't know how to can.  I do know how to freeze, so I wasn't too concerned about preserving the crab apples.  The recipe seemed easy, but I didn't believe it, no way it could be so easy.  Let me tell you, it was easy.  It didn't take a lot of time.  I also added my own touches to the recipe. 

When I had cooked up the apples, they tasted just as I remembered and they were amazing!!!  I was so happy with how they turned out.  I took a jar for the the people who let me harvest the apples from their tree, a jar to the neighbor that let me harvest grapes and to a couple other people I told about and they all reacted negatively to the crab apples.  I also put a couple in a baggie, so they could taste them and decide if they wanted to keep the canned jar for the Holidays, or give it back to me if they didn't like them.   Everyone that tried them, loved them.  I had to go get more crab apples and make another batch.  I cleaned the tree of them.  After the second batch, I shared a jar with my friend Kimberly and she loved them.  I brought her a jar when we all met to eat lunch with two other families.  Everyone at table tasted them, and loved them.  The owner of the restaurant came over and tasted them and he wanted some too.  I have found more crab apples, but they are green.  I'm going to try them as well, but I am told they are a little more tart.  I have also been told of another family with a red crab apple tree in their yard!!!! I'm so excited.  

The most labor intensive thing was cleaning the apples and sorting through them.  I filled a sink with warm soapy water and poured some white vinegar in to kill any germs on the apples.  I left them in the sink for a few minutes and then rinsed them really well.  I then sorted through the crab apples taking out any with holes and placing them in a separate bowl to use later.  After the apples were sorted and ready I moved on to the next step, cooking them.  Here is the recipe for Crab Apple Preserves.  I call them Candied Crab Apples, but the Kerr Recipe names them Crab Apple Preserves.  

Crab Apple Preserves

Inspired by Kerr Canning Recipe Book

Select good sound apples, wash and remove the blossom end.  Leave stems on and do not peel.

Syrup:

3 Cups Water

6 Cups Organic Sugar

2 Fresh Cinnamon Sticks

1 Tsp cloves

1 1/2 Tsp Red Hots Cinnamon candy

Boil the syrup for 5 minutes

Add the crab apples to the syrup and boil until they are tender and transparent (my crab apples didn't become transparent, but the skin did split a little. I took that as the indication they were done.)

Work rapidly and Pack cooked apples into *sterilized canning jars, cover with boiling syrup and seal each jar as filled.  

Make sure to wipe the top rim of each jar, to make sure that there is nothing that will cause the seal to fail, before adding the lids.    

Two options:

1) Let the jars "heat seal".  With this method the apples should be eaten within a few months of preparing.  Making sure the jars are hot, as well as the lids, will help with this method.  Also make sure you are filling the jars with the boiling liquid and apples. Fill to "neck" of jar and try not to leave too much air space.  You can turn the jars upside down it you want, I left mine upright. As the contents cool, the lids contract and "pop" shut, sealing them.  

2) Place your filled jars on rack of large lidded canning kettle.  The jars have to be a least 1/2 inch above the kettle bottom so water can circulate and the water has to be at least 1 inch about the top of the jars.  Process in boiling water bath, at a rolling boil for 25 minutes.  Use canning tongs to remove the jars from the canner, put them on several thicknesses of cloth to cool. 

You should hear the lids "pop" indicating they have sealed.  

*Sterilizing Your jars:

Wash them in hot soapy water, rinse and then boil them in clear water for at least 15 minutes.  Turn upside down on a clean kitchen towel until ready to fill.  (or you could wash them in the dish washer under sanitize) 

Important for canning. 

To keep the jars warm,  you could place them in an oven set at the lowest heat setting.  

Scald the lids by placing them in a pan and pouring boiling water over them.  Do NOT boil the lids, but keep them warm until you are ready to use.  

NOTE: Without the Red Hot Candies, The syrup was a brown color, and didn't look very good.  That was a problem.  Everyone that heard about my desire to find crab apples, asked the same question; "why on earth do you want those nasty crab apples?"

I didn't want to use the Red Hots because of the artificial color and I suspect they are made with High Fructose Corn syrup which means it's probably made with GMO corn.  I try to stay away from anything that is GMO or GE.  In this case, I really had three choices.  

1. leave them out and have a muddy looking syrup no one would want to taste
2. add food coloring and get a strong dose of red 40 (which has been shown to cause a lot of problems in kids and adults.)
3. add the minimum amount of red hots, just to turn the syrup red and add more cinnamon flavor

I went with option number 3.  Sometimes you just have to go with it.  

The Kerr recipe only calls for the sugar, water and red hots. I added the cinnamon sticks and cloves.