Every summer I pick blackberries. And every summer I get chigger bites.. like crazy. I haven’t planted any because they grow wild here and are everywhere. So picking blackberries requires me to rummage through the woods with my little basket in 96 degree heat and basically offering myself as a free meal. So I itch all night and all day for a basket of berries. Now that’s homesteading dedication! A year ago I would have went to work and showed off my battle wounds and gotten a steroid cream. Now… I prefer to look for natural remedies to treat nature’s ailments.
I’ve read where you can make a baking soda paste (just out of baking soda and water) and apply it to the bites and it will help with the irritation. Well that sounded like a perfect test for my diy deodorant. It actually helped mine. I had to apply it several times throughout the day for days – because anyone who has had chigger bites know they last for a week or two and maybe even three. They are 100x worse than mosquito bites. Anyways my bites seemed to heal quicker than they normally would and my skin isn’t bleached out from steroid cream.
Ashley-1 Chiggers-0
I did make some blackberry jam today and I can’t wait to make a fresh loaf of bread tomorrow to accompany it! Ooo my husband is going to love me! 🙂
We just got back from a week-long camping trip and are prepping for another. Our garden has really taken off since we left and we should be harvesting some veggies by next week! I’m super excited about this year’s garden. We planted spaghetti squash and I really haven’t seen a squash plant quite this big. They are huge!
So we have had a lot of volunteer beans where we planted “three sisters” last year. And I just so happen to have sunflowers come up around those beans giving them a natural trellis to climb! I told my husband that next year I’d like to plant a runner then a sunflower and repeat that all the way to the end of the row. Forget the stakes and the twine! I mean surely that’d work. If someone has done this or decides to do this I would love to know how it went for you!
Happy gardening!
Earth and Oven 