Thursday, January 5, 2012

Decanting Vanilla

Its been a good and busy morning for me.

I got a load of laundry washed and hung.

One feed sack tote bag made.

I was also able to decant the vanilla that I made about a year and a half ago. I have decanted some before but today I decanted all that was left. I got 4 large glass lemonade bottles from what was left. Today I will go buy some more vodka so I can use the vanilla beans one more time. If I don't think it is working as good as I want it to I do have more vanilla I can use. If these beans are not good enough to use to make vanilla again I will dry them and make vanilla sugar. That stuff is really good in tea and I am not a sweet tea drinker but I do like vanilla sugar in my tea.

Since I was all our clothes outside using only cold water the whites look pretty bad. They are gray and yellow, ick. Today I put a few white (or used to be white) items in a big pot and put it on to boil with vinegar and dawn dish soap. I am going to let this soak overnight and wash them tomorrow and see if it helped any.

Do you have any hints for getting whites back to at least them a little more white?
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4 comments:

  1. The Red Brick Farmhouse05 January, 2012

    I make my own vanilla sugar and my own vanilla extract now as well. I have used vodka and bourbon to make it, and I think I like the bourbon better....it has a deeper, bolder flavor to it!

    I have read that the beans can last up to seven years in the alcohol. Have you heard that too?

    Blessings~
    Laura

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  2. loves2spin06 January, 2012

    I'm sorry to hear about your laundry. The hype about cold water washing... no thanks! My laundry smells off when I do that and gets dingier. Plenty of super hot water, extra detergent and a good hang out in the sun. It might not do it all at once, but will help. My mom used blueing in her whites.

    http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Stewarts-Bluing-8oz/dp/B001NEMV3Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325871546&sr=8-1

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  3. loves2spin06 January, 2012

    p.s. Mom put the blueing in the last rinse.

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  4. debbieo06 January, 2012

    Yolanda,
    I dont mind washing in cold water, I would rather do that than go to a washateria/laundry mat any day. The dingy whites is just something I have to deal with. I had thought of blueing too and am keeping an eye out for some. I think my boiling and vinegar trick helped a bunch.
    I dont have a dryer so all of my clothes are hung to dry. I have thought of laying the whites on the grass to dry, I have heard that helps.
    debbieo

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