This tomato sauce recipe comes from my mother-in-law. We use it as pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and the best damn tomato soup you’ll ever eat! This blog is part of a series about preserving food so you can eat local all year long. I’ve collected them all into a free course that you can access here.
Last year I turned about 30 pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes from my farmers market into 17 quarts of canned tomatoes for year round cooking. Tomatoes are such a favorite for me that I’m devoting several blogs to my best strategies to bottle this summer goodness […]
It’s canning season! My backyard garden is starting to overflow with vegetables and I’m starting to see bushels of tomatoes and cucumbers at my farmers market. It’s the most wonderful time of the year! This blog is part of a series about preserving food so you can eat […]
We’ve been on again, off again with making our own mayonnaise over the years. It’s not that hard, but buying mayo from the store seems so much easier… thats my habit talking, right? I am not in the habit of making my own mayo so it seems easier to buy […]
I’ve been talking a LOT about local food lately. It’s summer and when the weather gets warm I quickly become obsessed with my garden (where I grow herbs, vegetables, and fruit), the farmers market, UPick, local roadside stands, foraging in the woods, and buying in bulk to can and freeze […]
Happy July! I can still say that, right? Have you heard of “Plastic Free July”? I figure since the month is almost half way over, I should really start talking about it! Plastic Free July is a global movement encouraging everyone to refuse single use plastic for one month. […]
I’ve had chives in my herb garden for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never figured out how to incorporate them into my cooking. This spring, since I’m unemployed, the newly appointed head chef, and trying to minimize trips to the grocery store (for both financial and COVID […]
We’ve been on a journey to find a more sustainable solution for shampoo and conditioner for a while now and I think we’ve finally found a permanent solution that all members of the family can live with! I fully believe in progress not perfection. I believe that absolute zero waste […]
If you’re on a mission to reduce your single use plastic and you’ve got even a fraction of space for an herb garden… you should drop everything and start making your own ranch dressing… immediately! The herbs in this recipe are so easy to grow! Thyme is a perennial herb […]
Hi! I’m Erin Augustine and welcome to Carbon Free Family — a blog where I’ll share tips and stories about my sustainability progress, failures, and philosophy.
I hope to help you define what sustainability means for you and your family, achieve progress on your journey from exactly where you are, and debunk the “sustainability is hard” myth.