I enjoy a lifelong love affair with books. My collection had grown to a formidable size before my last three moves. Knowing each living situation would be temporary, I culled my library down to its bare bones—the best of the best. I now have another favorite to add to my smaller, more selective collection that will accompany me wherever I go.

A Wilder Life: A Season-by-Season Guide to Getting in Touch with Nature by Celestine Maddy with Abbye Churchill is a beautiful, informative, thoughtful compilation of facts, recipes, DIY instructions, and more – a book designed to put you a little more in touch with nature and a lot more in touch with yourself.

Celestine Maddy takes you on a season-by-season journey under the headings: Growing, Cooking, Home & Self-Reliance, Beauty & Healing, and Wilderness. The Growing sections include a seasonal growing checklist along with plant profiles and numerous educational articles about various aspects of gardening. Do you want to learn how to make cheese or a simple homemade tomato sauce? How about sauerkraut or the basics of canning? If so, check out the Cooking sections. The Home & Self-Reliance Sections, the Beauty & Healing Sections, and the Wilderness sections read like a cross between the Foxfire books, modern prepper guides, and Mother Earth News with a little bit of whimsy thrown in for good measure. You can choose from how to find water in the wilderness and foraging for edible plants to making a tincture, a perfume, or a healing balm. The following is a recipe from the spring Cooking section:

Make a Simple Ricotta

Ricotta is an Italian form of fresh cheese usually made with sheep’s milk. Here we’ve substituted fresh cow’s milk and used vinegar as our acid. Experiment with using lemon juice and citric acid in place of vinegar to see how that affects the flavor.

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

• 6 cups whole milk (unpasteurized if possible or not processed using ultra-high temperatures)
• 2 cups cream
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

Equipment

• Strainer
• Cheesecloth
• 4-quart pot

Directions

1. Line a strainer with damp cheesecloth and place over the sink.
2. In a 4-quart pot, combine the milk, cream, vinegar, and salt and bring the ingredients to a simmer (but do not let the mixture come to a boil , as this will burn your milk). After about 3 minutes, you should begin to see curds form and separate from the whey. Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the heat.
3. Pour the curds and the whey into the cheesecloth, allowing the whey to pass through the cloth. Let the mixture drain for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the cheesecloth from the strainer and twist the top closed to capture the curds in one ball. Gently but firmly squeeze the curds. You don’t want to remove all of the whey, just the majority of it.
5. The ricotta is now ready to eat or to incorporate into a recipe and will keep refrigerated for 1 to 2 days.

I highly recommend this book. Buy one for yourself and add it to your list of thoughtful gifts for others.

Find it on Amazon,  Barnes and Noble, and other sites.

MJ’s Herbals sent us their line of Herbal Salves to try. We love them! All of the ingredients are natural (most organic) and they work very well. Their line includes:

• Lavender E Salve – headaches, stress, cuts, scrapes, rashes, blemishes, tissue repair (vitamin E)
• Breast Balm – strengthens breast tissue, activates immune system and lymphatic system, softens scars over time.
• First Aid Salve – antiseptic, antibacterial, cuts, scraps, cracked lips, burns, rashes.
• Arnica Salve – bruises, overworked sore muscles, tendon injuries and sprains.
• Calendula Salve – slow healing wounds, skin ulcers, irritated skin (ideal for baby skin).

MJ’s Herbals should be in everyone’s medicine cabinet. www.mjsherbals.com

Doc’s Eye Bright formula is a must for every “medicine” chest. Eye infections are dangerous. Though pinkeye is usually a viral infection, secondary bacterial infections are common and they can eat right through eye tissue in a matter of hours.

We learned about the efficacy of eyebright for eye infections years ago. We used eyebright tea to flush the eyes when pinkeye reared its ugly head, and discovered that all symptoms disappeared in hours rather than days (as with conventional medicine), but in recent years we have only been able to find loose tea and it was very difficult to strain all the tiny pieces of leaves and stems. This is not a problem with Doc’s formula.

Doc’s formula is excellent. It does burn for a minute when you first use it, and though we have not had the “opportunity” to use it with an infection, it immediately clears the vision, sharpening focus. We will continue to use it to see if it eliminates floaters and improves vision. We’ll report back in few months.

Click here for Shillington’s Eyebright Formula.

The tester for Doc Shillington’s Tooth and Gum Formula is a middle age woman who has suffered from severe and persistent gum disease for many years. Her gums had seriously receded. After four weeks of using Doc’s Tooth and Gum Formula, she reports the following:

I am a skeptic. The claims for this formula seemed too good to be true. They weren’t. Doc Shillington’s Tooth and Gum Formula is miraculous.

My gums had receded to the point the roots of seven of my upper teeth were fully exposed and several of my teeth were loose. A few of my lower roots were exposed as well.

I followed Doc’s recommendation, using salt and baking soda as a toothpaste then rinsing with his formula. Now, weeks later, not one tooth is loose. None of the roots of my lower teeth are exposed and all of the upper gums have significantly improved—at least half of the exposure is gone on each tooth. Most are near normal.

There has been another unexpected change. Food, especially lettuce and spinach, stuck to my teeth. It seemed that my enamel had worn away. Now my teeth are slick again; my tongue slides over them and food doesn’t stick. I love this formula! Available at Green Lifestyle Market.

There’s something really disturbing to me about dowsing my skin or my children’s skin with a bunch of chemicals that I can’t even pronounce. I prefer natural skincare products. But these days the words “all natural” and “from nature” on a label are meaningless; usually it’s just a marketing ploy. Too many companies that started out with the best of intentions have been bought out. The products we once trusted are now filled with the cheapest preservatives, making them no better than their conventional counterparts. I find the lack of conscience in the skincare industry to be very sad and, in many cases, downright infuriating.

Enter Eaurganic. I was so excited when I came across this company. Their ingredients weren’t listed on their site, so I got on the phone with them to learn more. I was assured that these products, made in Canada, were certified organic by a very strict third party certification. In fact, we were told that Eaurganic was the ONLY skin care company in Canada that met this very strict criteria, putting them head and shoulders above the rest.

After receiving the link to a password protected page that contained the product ingredients, I grew a little concerned. There were some chemicals used in the facial cleanser that I wasn’t familiar with and some preservatives in the lotions. They assured me these were mild chemical preservatives and claimed they were necessary. But, why are they necessary? We’ve found companies who make 100% organic, preservative-free skin care products. Granted, they are very few and far between, but they are out there.

I held off judgment until I received the product. The first time I used the facial cleanser, I absolutely loved it. My skin tends to be oily, so there’s nothing like that clean, oil-free feeling. But I know that when my face feels that clean, it’s not a good thing. In the past, every time I’ve used a product that gives me that feeling, I end up swimming in a pool of oil as my skin tries to make up for the oil that’s been lost. It’s a vicious cycle that results in breakouts and the need to wash my face six times a day.

Once again, I decided to keep an open mind. I continued to use the Eaurganic Facial Cleanser and moisturizer. But after about three weeks, I had to discontinue its use. My skin was so oily, it was disgusting.

I talked to a friend who is also the founder of another skin care company. She has created a product line that OLM trusts, (we are not affiliated with them or any ohter company). I told her what was going on with my skin and read her the ingredients in Eaurganic’s cleanser. She confirmed what I had already guessed, that the cleanser itself was causing the oil imbalance. I switched to Tilvee’s Tea Tree Facial Cleansing Bar. After two days, the oils in my skin started to come back into balance, though it took about three weeks to get it totally under control.

If there’s one thing that my skin is teaching me throughout this quest to find real “natural” skincare lines, it’s that I need to not onlybe gentle with it, but to put back what I take away. If I cleanse my face, I need to replace the oils that have been stripped away. My pores don’t secrete lotions or creams, they secrete oil. So if I apply an oil after cleansing, my skin is definitely happier and it’s actually less oily.

If you look on the web, you’ll find rave reviews for Eaurganic. But, for me something just isn’t adding up here. Any company that does not list their products’ ingredients raises a big red flag! The companies that we have come to trust, those that produce truly organic and natural skincare products, are proud to show their ingredients for anyone to see. Eaurganic’s website under ingredients simply lists “54% organic 46% natural/natural origin.” What does that mean? Arsenic is natural, so is kerosene, but I’m not going to put either one on my face!

As for the third party certification, we at OLM have learned to be very skeptical of those claims. Anybody can start their own third party certification company, including the company seeking certification.

Eaurganic is just another company using slick marketing and hyped up claims to sell a not-so-good-for-your-skin skincare product.

Tilvee’s collection of skin care products includes body soaps for adults as well as babies and children, facial masques, creams, oils, lotions, toners, cleansing bars, and lip care. Their soaps do not contain sulfates, chemicals, synthetic preservatives, petro-chemicals, or synthetic fragrances or colors. Instead they contain essential fatty acids, antioxidants, essential oils, and nutrient rich fruits like pomegranate, raspberries, avocado, lime, and mandarin oranges.

Just when I thought I would never find another bar soap I like, Tilvee surprised me. This soap foams well, is gentle and moisturizing, and fabulous for sensitive skin. It also lasts—it’s not a soap that melts away in the soap dish.

Though Tilvee has many products, Tilvee’s soap and their Muscle and Joint Recovery Balm are the only products we’ve tested. The Muscle and Joint Recovery Balm is for use “on sore and tense muscles, arthritis, bruising and more.”  The 79% organic formula works quite well, relieving muscle stiffness and does not irritate the skin. www.tilvee.com

Salt and pepper doesn’t sound like an interesting topic, does it? We didn’t think so either until we opened a box from Sustainable Sourcing LLC and spread their products across our counter. Once we read the enclosed information we found salt and pepper could be very interesting, especially when the company that brings these organic, gourmet products to market is downright inspirational.

HimalaSalt is hand harvested from the Himalayan Mountains. It is pure, pristine sea salt created 250 million years ago from an ancient ocean. Its lovely pink color is due to its high content of essential minerals (it’s high in magnesium, calcium, and iron and contains more than 80 essential trace minerals). It is never heat treated. It is stone ground, all natural, unrefined, and additive free. Its taste is full-bodied and rich. When you taste it, you’ll realize this is how salt is supposed to taste!

HimalaSalt is actually good for you. Its essential minerals replenish vital electrolytes. It alkalizes the body, allowing vital nutrients to be absorbed more efficiently, while aiding the body in releasing acidic waste.

It comes in a surprising variety which includes a 7oz. box of coarse crystals, 4 oz. and 2.8 oz. refillable salt grinders, a 6 oz. fine grain shaker, and a one pound Zen Cube that comes with a stainless steel Inox Italian grater. The Zen Cube looks like a big chunk of rose quartz. It’s unique, beautiful, and fun to use. Sustainable Sourcing also offers organic garlic salt in a shaker.

Sustainable Sourcing’s Organic Heirloom Peppercorn ™ line is equally appealing. Sold in refillable pepper grinders and spice jars, the variety includes Cubeb Pepper grown in the Monsoon Forests of Indonesia, Heirloom Long Pepper from Bali, pink peppercorns from Brazil, green peppercorns from India, white peppercorns from Indonesia, and the Rainbow Blend—black, white, pink, and green peppercorns. Each delivers a distinctive flavor.

Melissa Kushi, the founder and president of Sustainable Sourcing, is a former whole foods cooking teacher, a macrobiotic educator, and a successful organic commodities trader who has devoted much of her life’s work to sustainable foods farming, alternative health, and ethical business models. Her integrity and morality provide the foundation for Sustainable Sourcing, a company that puts health, well-being, and the environment first and insists on ethical sourcing, artisan harvesting and production methods, natural packaging, and a carbon-neutral, zero-landfill footprint. Check out www.himalasalt.com.