Dandelion Jelly

So apparently those lovely little yellow weeds called dandelion can have many uses. After doing some research I found out that during the great depression many people ate dandelion greens (the green part of the dandelion) to help supplement some nutritional needs that couldn't get due to lack of food. 

I also found out thanks to a friend that you can batter and fry the top of dandelions and eat them as well. She said it was similar to how you would pan-fry mushrooms. Not only that but the internet had tones of other recipes that could be used to batter and fry them as well.

As for myself, I decided to go with turning them into jelly. It was a long but easy process that any well-seasoned canner should be able to do with ease. However, I am not a well-seasoned canner. Thank God my mom is!

So to start off your going to want to send your kids out to pick dandelions. (It's ok don't feel bad they like picking those weeds anyway and blowing the seeds all over the place while they do it). Now, keep in mind that the area you pick in isn't so close to a road, an area where pets use the bathroom, or any type of pesticide or fertilizer has been used. No one wants to eat that stuff. 

After your kids pick you dandelions (make sure they got enough to have at least 2 cups worth of petals) you must harvest the petals. It's a really simple process, you gently pull the petals and little bit of greenback, take some scissor and cut just enough of the bottom off the whole top of the flower falls apart in your hand. After that remove as much of the green as you can. If not your jelly could turn out bitter. (I have never tested this put many people say the green makes the jelly bitter). 

After you get two cups of petals you take 4 cups of boiling water and pour it over the petals in a container with a lid or some type of cover. Once cool put the container into the frigid and let sit 24 hours. (After making this a few times now I would suggest doing 4 and 1/4 cup water. We found that after the overnight step we were always short some tea. The shortness did not affect the process other than the amount of jelly we had though)

When petals have seeped for 24 hours it is time to get your canning pot and jar read. While they are in the sanitizing bath you can start the jelly making process. You take at 3 and 1/4 to 4 cup of the tea you made (note: the tea will have a grass smell to it but it will go away after you cook it) and put in a pot with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, (so half to the whole lemon depending on the size) and one pouch of pectin powder and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil add 4 cups of sugar (note: this jelly is very sweet, now I have not tried it yet, but if you do not like very sweet jelly you may won't cut back on the sugar). Stir well and let return to boil. Let it boil for 1 to 2 minutes. 

When the jelly is done cooking it is time to put it in the jars. Once all jars are filled and lids put on put them in a canning bath and let boil for 10 minutes (Or according to your altitudes). When 10 minutes up pull the jars out and let cool. (I like to let them cool overnight). After that enjoy. We really like ours on beer bread. N

Thank you for reading and make sure to follow us on Instagram @retrogirlworksheets. Make sure to follow our blog and find out the podcast on Podbean under the name Retro Girls Treehouse. 

Social Distancing Easter Egg Hunt

Ok, so I am pretty sure I should have talked about this before Easter but I didn't. Hopefully, if anyone reads this it can help them come up with some ideas so do in their home town or with their kids. 

So if you read my last blog post you would know that I am currently staying with my parents in West Virginia tell all the shelter in place orders calm down. If you didn't well now you know! The nice thing about this state is they try to help each other out. A lot of patents are now stuck at home with kids who have a way to much energy, icky weather, and parents who are not used to spending this much time with their kids. So our local boys and girls club put on a social distancing Easter Egg Hunt.

They did this by printing out pictures of eggs and placed them all out the county that we live in. Then they gave so many hints to find the eggs. When you found an egg you had to take a picture (also known as a selfy) with the egg. There were 50 eggs in total hidden all over the place.

As for the social distancing part, and safety. The rule was you could not touch the egg when you found it. You Also could no search in a group larger than 5, and the group you searched with had to be people you lived with. (Cool thing about a small town is everyone knows who you live with so these rules were easy to enforce). They also recommended proper hand washing before and after searching, using hand sanitizer, and to remember not to touch your face. All egg we're hidden outside and spaced far enough from each other you did not have to worry about large groups of people gathering.

(photo of my daughter and my sister with one of the eggs)

They gave everyone in town a week to find them all. Adding more hints threw the week. Depending on where you live and the rules your area has at the moment this could be a really fun activity to do. (Even after this is over it might be a fun activity for your co-op.) You do not have to make it Easter themed either. To make this an all-around activity you could just use local landmarks. (And that would cover a history lesson or two). 

If you have any other ideas of how you could make this work for you, your community, co op, or club please leave me a comment. If it is a great idea it may be featured on our podcast (Retro Girl's Treehouse on Beanpod) in May! 

Teach Your Kids to Garden

Disclaimer: I have nothing supporting anything in this post. It just my thoughts. 

(My oldest window experiment for plants)

As everyone knows most of us are stuck at home. For homeschool school it sucks! My family is used to traveling A lot. In a month we will go all over Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and spend a lot of time in the Washington D.C. area. Unfortunately, we can not do that right now.

So we have decided to hunker down at my parent's house. Their property is much bigger plus they have a guest house the kids and I can stay in. Not only that but there is a yard I can kick the into when they drive me nuts from having too much energy. (Plus my parents are elderly so they like having us around to go into town for them so it is a win-win).

However, even with all the space, we have here we are starting to get sick of each other. The kids are bored, I'm tired of living by my parent's rules, and my parents are tired of not being able to take naps because of all the noise. So to hopefully help with some of this I have decided that the kids and I will learn to garden.

My parents are all for this since it means fresh veggies for them, fewer trips to the (yes we know we won't have them soon but my dad hates going to the store), and hopefully worn out kids. So with this, we set out.

(me pretending to be Shredder from TMNT as the store) 

So after making a poor decision to go to the store (it was a nice day so everyone else in town decided to go to), I got some rainbow carrots, broccoli,  a bunch of other random seeds, and some seed starter. In short, all seed that turn into gross things and a bag of dirt according to my 6-year-old. 

So now here I am with a lot of pickle jars to start seeds in, gross seeds, a bag of dirt, and no idea what I am doing. With that being said, I will figure this out with the help of a six-year-old, my dad, and the internet. So now that we have our stuff the next part is clearing the land! (Aka moving the woodpile).

Hopefully, in this advantage, we will learn a useful skill, get the kids to eat better, and help our time pass faster. More to come to next week. So please find us on Instagram @retrogirlworksheets. Facebook at Retro Girl Worksheets and Twitter @rworksheets.