Sprouting For Chickens

Ever wonder how you can get your chickens access to fresh, healthy green matter in the dead of winter when everything is dormant, frozen or snow covered without the added expense of buying it from the grocery store in the produce aisle?

Sprouting is a wonderful and nutritious way to get a lot with just a little and it goes a long way too.  One of my favorites and the easiest things to sprout is wheat.  In about 5-7 days you’ll have fresh greens they will love!  1 quart jar gives plenty of fresh greens to my 12 chickens and 1 ducks for 1 day.

Here’s how:

~Start with a large mason jar with ring, fill bottom with about a half inch of raw wheat, fill the rest of the jar with cold water.  Put cheese cloth over the opening of the jar and secure with ring.  Let sit in a cool dark place, in a kitchen cabinet works well, or like me, I leave mine behind our coffee pot on the counter, be sure to keep it out of direct sunlight.

~After 24 hours drain water, rinse, drain again and let sit.  Rinse and drain every 12 hours after that. This step is very important! Without at least 2 rinses in a 24 hour period, mold will start to grow and you do not want that!!

~On the second day you will start to notice tiny little white fibers emerging from the wheat.  These are roots and they grow quick!

Wheat Sprouts after 2 days.

Wheat Sprouts after 2 days.

~On the fourth day, the roots will be much longer and the “grass” will start to emerge.

Wheat sprouts day 4

Wheat sprouts day 4

~Day 6 your wheat sprouts will now have grown into wheat grass, full of nutrients!

Many other seeds can be sprouted as well as legumes.  I have found that black beans do not sprout well, but still have plenty of nutritional benefits.

Wheat grass day 6

Wheat grass day 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

My New Addiction

Making homemade soap is something I have been wanting to do for a while now, so for Christmas my wonderful hubby gave me a soap making kit packed full of all the essentials to start me on my way.

soap making supplies

soap making supplies

Little did I know how much I would love making soap!! It is now my new addictionI find myself “ooh-ing and ahh-ing” over all the creations that I see other people post on social media such as facebook, instagram and pinterest with all the crazy colors and techniques……I can’t wait to add to my soap making arsenal! Once I am well seasoned, I want to experiment with a more natural approach by making my own lye using wood ash from our woodstove and tallow (rendered animal fat). I also would love to add dried herbs and essential oils. The possibilities seem endless and what better way to bathe then with all natural organic soap that I made myself without all the harmful chemicals that are found in traditional store bought soap. It’s just one more step in our journey to live a more self sufficient lifestyle!

My first batch of homemade soap

My first batch of homemade soap

The first batch I made was just a basic simple recipe I found in “The Soapmaker’s Companion” A Comprehensive Guide With Recipes, Techniques, and Know-How by: Susan Miller Cavitch

The basic ingredients used were:

Lye, distilled water, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil and an energy blend fragrance. Let me just tell you how amazing my laundry room smelled as my soap cured!!! Stay tuned for more fun posts in my soap making adventure!!