After picking our own peaches this past weekend in Berryville, Virginia, my husband and I prepared ourselves for a first try with canning and freezing. Oh boy was it work! I think the hardest part was removing the skin, which, while made easier by blanching the peaches, still took the bulk of our time and energy. The best part about canning peaches though, in my opinion, is the delicious aroma of peaches and spice throughout the house.

Since we are beginner canners, we referenced 2 articles on canning. One article comes from my green friend Elizabeth, whose tips on canning were not only useful but detailed in such a way that I knew what to look and listen for (the sound of my cans popping when sealed was music to my ears! Thanks Elizabeth!). To create the recipe for my peach jam, I followed another article: Recipe Zaar’s Peach Jam Recipe. All together, the canning process took me about 2 1/2 to 3 hours from start to finish. It was quite an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon with the family, and the rewards this winter, I am sure, will be well worth the time and effort.

In addition to canning our peaches and making peach jam, my husband and I portioned off about 8 lbs. of peaches for freezing, which is a little bit easier than canning (although you still need to blanch the peaches and remove the skin). Here are a few tips on freezing your fruit. I can’t wait for winter smoothies and vegan fruit jello! Yum!

Hopefully we’ll continue with our canning and freezing in a couple of weeks when more apples are in season. On a final note, I think it is a good idea to invest in a pair of jar lifters (metal tongs are not necessarily the safest way to handle hot jars and it’s a little bit tricky to do too).

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on jarring, freezing, and preserving foods for the winter. Thanks for sharing!

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As mentioned previously here on Green Mamma, my husband Matt is becoming quite the cycling enthusiast, something that he got started with to make his commute more enjoyable and because it’s good for his heart.  Like any new athlete, he is loving the physical and mental effects of exercise, but that is not to say that his sport is not without its challenges.  To read more about my husband’s trials with biking (and a little bit about our family’s adjusting to a totally green lifestyle), head on over to 5 Minutes for Going Green to read “Hitting the Wall.”

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If you have a minute, I have 2 new posts over at 5 Minutes for Going Green.  Check out “5 Minute Miracles” and  “Healthy Green Pets.”

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Okay, so I have a strange neurosis regarding floor cleanliness and not wearing shoes indoors. Sometimes I even wish I were Asian so I could simply tell people that they have to remove their shoes because it’s a cultural thing. My husband looks a bit like Keanu Reeves, so I guess we could lie . . .

Anyway, to read more about my obsession with clean, green, and healthy floors, go on over to 5 Minutes for Going Green and read “Shoes Off!”

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“I can’t think of any sorrow in the world that a hot bath wouldn’t help, just a little bit,” said Susan Glasee.

Most of the world’s problems can be solved with a long hot bath, or at least our suffering can be temporarily assuaged. With this in mind after a busy day chasing my little one, I wandered out back to our herb garden to gather some mint. I thought about what I might make with the mint and it occurred to me that I could take a bath and enjoy some homemade aromatherapy. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

coffee filter

2 handfuls of herb leaves (whatever scent appeals to your senses)

2 tbsp. oatmeal (for soft skin)

string, yarn or thread to tie your filter together

1. Chop up 2 handfuls of herbs. Place into coffee filter.

2. Layer 2 tbspn. of oatmeal on top of herbs.

3. Twist filter to to create tea bag. Secure with string, twine, yarn, etc.

4. Run a hot bath. Steep tea bag in the water being careful not to let the force of running water push bag open (this cause the bag to open and then you’re pretty much bathing with floating bits of oatmeal and herbs).

5. Take your spa tea bath. Play a little background music like Enya, classical, or whatever it is that helps you unwind (I guess even death metal would do).

6. Make tea bath bags for your friends. Distribute. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could all just relax a little?

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What’s your family’s bath time ritual?   Are you a go-it-aloner or do you love to share shower time with your kiddos?  To read more about my family’s bath time bonding, stop on over at API Speaks to read my cobathing post.

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Now that Annabelle knows how to scoop and pour (and I’m learning my way around the kitchen), we’re spending more time together whipping up yummy treats. I follow a K.I.S.S. culinary philosophy (perhaps my greatest fault as an environmentally minded mamma), and tend to be one of those people who follows package recipes, spicing things up a bit with an added ingredient here and there.

Here’s how to whip up your own batch of pink banana nut pancakes–pink because we’re girly girls who wanna have fun.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Arrowhead Mills Organic Buckwheat Pancake/Waffle Mix

2 tbsp. canola oil

1/2 cup organic soy, rice, or whole milk

1 mashed banana

1/4 cup sliced almonds

vanilla

food coloring

Recipe

1. Combine pancake mix, canola oil, vanilla, milk and food coloring in a bowl. Stir until mixture isn’t lumpy.

2. Mash banana in a separate bowl. Stir into mixture.

3. Add almonds. Stir.

4. Fry pancakes (yes, even I know how to do that!). Garnish with almonds.

Serves 2.

Annabelle pours pancake mix into bowl.

She adds milk.

And a few minutes later, we have our girly pink banana nut pancakes. Yummy!

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For the second time in a week, I’m sending you over to my friend Melody’s web-site. Melody is a passionate advocate for homebirth and natural parenting, is a maternity and birth photographer, and is the director of Birth Matters in Northern Virginia. Everything I know about homebirth and the history of birth in the United States I owe to Melody, who often refers to herself as an information junkie (yes, she is one smart mamma too).

Recently, the AMA (American Medical Assocation) and ACOG (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology) made resolutions against homebirth. I remember visiting Melody one afternoon and listening to her frustrations over the misinformation about homebirth that is prevalent in our media and national medical associations. Since having seen Ricki Lake’s The Business of Being Born, I had some understanding and insight as to why Melody was so angry that a woman’s right to choose how to birth was in jeopardy of being violated. On some level, I personally relate since 2 ob-gyns I visited while I was pregnant practically laughed at my birth plan and 1 ob was more than happy to direct me (an outrageous patient?) to the care of the midwives at his practice. Thank goodness he did!

Well, after a long wait, the American College of Nurse Midwives responded. To see what they said, go here. And for more in-depth and better informed commentary on the ins and outs of homebirth, go visit Melody. She’s definitely the homebirth expert in my neck of the woods.

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Happy Friday green readers! As an alternative to my weekly green friend of the week post, I am introducing a quick green linky post where I direct green folks like yourself to green goodies around the web. This week, I am asking folks to think about topics ranging from fish manging on dead skin to using honey as an alternative medicine for wounds. So, here we go:

1. Fish Pedicures. As a follow up to my post about giving yourself a good karma pedicure, I thought I’d see what folks think about the new fish spa pedicure in which people pay for Garra Rufa, or Doctor Fish, to nibble away at the dead skin on their feet. Spas that employ Garra Rufa to eat customer’s foot skin have been open in Turkey, Japan, Umag, Croatia, China, Hainan, South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia for several years; recently John Ho started offering a fish spa treatment at his salon Yvonne Hair and Nail Salon here in Northern Virginia. According to Ho, the hot water in which Garra Rufa thrive does not support plant life so the fish learned to thrive on available food sources, like dead skin. As someone who cares about animal rights, I feel somewhat weary about the idea of a fish pedicure becoming a widespread trend; at the same time, I am curious as to what the pedicure feels like, how sanitary it is, and whether or not the fish are happy to feast on all that dead skin. What is your opinion on fish pedicures? Would you consider a fish pedicure?

2. Hollywood Vaccination Debate. Amanda Peet apologized on Good Morning America for her negative comments in Cookie Magazine, in which she called parents who choose not to vaccinate their children “parasites.” On GMA, Peet emphasized that she is not an expert, that she is an actor, and that the public should “go to the experts” for advice regarding vaccinations. GMA covered Amanda Peet’s comments and stance regarding vaccinations by juxtaposing her with footage from an interview with Jenny McCarthy, who spoke with GMA for her Green Our Vaccines rally, which she lead in Washington, D.C. Whether or not you agree with Peet or McCarthy, based on Peet’s interview on GMA, I agree with her stance regarding whether or not parents and other guardians should vaccinate based on the opinions of celebrities. Many parents consider their child’s pediatrician the most qualified expert to help them determine their child’s medical care; at the same time, other parents are not convinced that their pediatrician is the most qualified individual to make choices in their child’s life (especially those in which an unknown x-factor, like mercury, can be life changing). A great read for any parent hoping to learn more about vaccinations and vaccine schedules is The Vaccine Book by Robert Sears. What I love about The Vaccine Book is that Sears offers a course of action for all parents based on their concerns with vaccinations; our family is following Sears’ alternative vaccine schedule.

3. World Breastfeeding Week. Last week I ran this post highlighting awesome boob coverage around the net. This week, I recommend that folks check out Creative Kismet’s boob cookies and breastfeeding art. She is an especially talented artist, and if you can’t tell, I’m among her fans. Go on over and see for yourself.

4. Save at the Pump. Check out Jenn’s post about surprising ways to save cash at the pump. My favorite tip is that keeping your car clean and light will help cut costs each time you fuel up (a perfect excuse for me to indulge my habit of cleaning my car each week). I love being green and clean, and an added bonus is being able to save dollars!

5. Bee Alternative to Antibiotics. Laura over at We Don’t Buy it just shared this post about how her son’s leg wound (from a biking collision with a fire hydrant) is being cared for with a honey treatment. To read more about her research on honey and its healing abilities, go here.

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