164. Organic Earth Friendly Living | Simply josephine.com | Dacia Dailey | Eureka, MT

Dacia Dailey is here to share her passions for organic earth friendly living and creating a simple luxurious natural life and her business Simply Josephine.

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Tell us a little about yourself.

I live in Montana, which I am very grateful for. I think, one thing that helps with the budgeting, is the slower pace of the lifestyle in Eureka, MT

everything seems to be slowed down a bit  … when we slow down a bit we can focus on the most important things that might not be so materialistic.

That definitely helps… you can … trying to find your center … a huge thing that helps me with is  

exercise

staying on top of movement … whatever you enjoy doing … it doesn’t have to be going to the gym, having a membership … if classes work for you … I personally take a few classes myself. 

daciapurple

I enjoy going outside, everyday …

  • walking or
  • gardening
  • paddle-boarding
  • cross country skiing
  • pilates
  • strength training

In the summertime I really like to paddle board

In the winter time I like to cross country ski!

Those are good outlets to keep me balanced and slowed down … when we come down into this moment … a lot of makes a lot of. 

At least once a week, sometimes 2xs a week.

I like pilates, it’s very good for you, strength training… creates a lot of strength the underside muscles … over-used muscles … injury prevention

Sometimes I do those twice a week. once a week is at least the goal, trying to walk almost daily …. keeping the movement going… is good…

Yogurt

I actually do like yogurt… but  … I’ll talk a little bit about that …. yogurt that is low fat, with fruit already in it, those things have a lot of sugar and chemicals to make them low fat so if you are going to eat yogurt it should be full fat ….

Of course organic dairy is better for you … if you can afford that, if not just make sure it’s full fat … look at the ingredients

Mountain High Yogurt

Sometimes I get Mountain High

Brown Cow Yogurt Website

if Im at the healthy store I like Brown Cow

I don’t count any calories … I eat what I want whenever I want … I try not to eat high white sugar processed things …

I eat a lot of meat as well …. I have the good fortune of being from Alaska and I bring back 50 lbs of seafood …. I have a good supply of that … we also get deer that we eat… 

I rarely buy any meat other then chicken …. that is a big thing …. processed meats…

Hippie Water

Hippie Water

Everyday I create a water, in a glass quart jar.

I start with citrus … usually lemon, sometimes I switch it up with an orange or lime

  • slice the lemon

put the halves in the jar … juice the lemon

  • go with some sort of fruit or cucumber

today I put 3 large frozen strawberries and fresh basil

  • lemon
  • strawberries
  • basil

I keep adding water to that all day … helps you make sure your getting enough water

Lemon Cucumber Mint Hippie Water

  • lemon
  • cucumber
  • mint

any sort of fresh thing

  • lilacs

they make excellent water … just go out an pick a few lilacs

anything year round

  • edible
  • mint
  • or parsley
  • horsetail
  • cilantro

very good for you …. it very cleansing in a way

I like the way you drink it out of glass… because that’s another step of the food babe way is to drink out of glass…

What’s that stuff you gave me yesterday?

Elderberry Syrup

Another thing I like to do is make my own medicine…

Elderberries grow all over the United States

and it’s very easy to identify plants these days, all you have to do is google it and you can see if they grow near by you or not

I didn’t have the chance to go explore for elderberries this year… so I ended up just ordering a pound of them from Azure…

Something I I like to make are tinctures which are basically

alcohol based medicines….

You want to use fresh herbs and 100 proof vodka….

You just fill your jar with your herb,

fill it to top with this 100 proof vodka… then you cap it…

You always want to label it! That saying Illl remember that and then months later your like what is this?

So it’s good to label what it is and date it.

They need to sit at least six weeks and then put in a dropper bottle and you can take a drop full…

How to Make Tinctures

internet is full of information about how to make tinctures

I have found that Susan Weed has the best information for tincture making… so I would suggest  if you are interested in making tinctures, to read up a little bit on how she says to do it

I made Elderberry tincture this year, I had some leftover Elderberries, so I thought I’ll make Elderberry syrup

I used a quart jar full of Elderberries, and these are dried Elderberries that you order.

2 quarts of water and put it in a pan on the stove… I let that simmer for about an hour till it was about 1/2 in size

added the same amount of honey to a pot,

  • clovers
  • ginger
  • don’t let it boil or simmer but heat it till its almost simmering
  • mixed well
  • let it cool
  • bottle it
  • label it
  • make sure you store it in the fridge because it will mold if you don’t
  • take a few teaspoons of that on a daily basis.

Good shot of vitamin C.

Awesome I was looking to see if your website to see if you have written about … because not only does she have to make this but she has salves and her rose water and body sprays

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I love your blog

  • Peanut Butter Granola
  • Lavender Cleaner
  • Sea Salt Spray
  • Home made Toner
  • Pumpkin Spice face scrub

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even if it’s today like a last minute Christmas gift … There’s always her lovely aprons that I wear that are so helpful for me… Green smoothie recipes her website has come so far…

What do you want to talk about next?

Earth Friendly Green Cleaning Sprays

The cleaning spray?

That is a wonderful thing…. I‘ve been doing for about a year

The cleaning spray, kind of a similar concept to the hippie water … anything undertake sun that you can think of… anything that’s in bloom … infused white vinegar … recently I wanted to make a holiday vinegar

So I did

  • spruce tips
  • fresh cranberries

There’s no exact recipe… just throw it in a jar

  • fill it to the top with white vinegar
  • cap it
  • shake
  • put it in a window for about 2 weeks, it it ends up sitting there for a month that’s fine too
  • strain

After about 2 weeks, you strain it and works on everything…

spray that I use in the house

  • windows
  • mirrors
  • granite counter tops
  • formica
  • flattop
  • bathroom

Works on formica I have  a little bit of both in the kitchen …. Works great on my flattop elective stove…. works great in the bathroom… although the tub needs something scrubby … pretty much everywhere

Citrus Cleaner

I am on kind of this rotation where every 2 weeks, I need another quart jar

  • use the mason quart jars

one or two going all the time…when I strain one off, I think what do I want to make this out of?

  • grapefruit part- use the peel, don’t use the middle part, make sure you use the peel…
  • lime cilantro that’s excellent cleaning vinegar…
  • grapefruit lavender

now that it’s wintertime

Winter Wildcrafting

wintertime wildcrafting

  • cedar
  • spruce
  • juniper

Im using more cedar and spruce and just made juniper yesterday…. any of those works…. And you know what it costs pennies to make this and it doesn’t create any waste at all…

And her house is spotless, she has 2 kids, and now she has 2 cats… any day you walk in there it’s like walking into Cosmopolitan or Better Homes and Gardens and the fabric match and it’s just amazing…

  • clean
  • smells great
  • And you can pour it down the drain

Green cleaning

It’s just plants and vinegar … really fun to play around, the cranberry spruce… and it’s pink too and it’s a pretty color…

Where should we go next…?

Want to talk about your soaps at all…

soap making process is kind of a lengthy I like

but I like it all!

Soap basically consists of oils or fats…

I just found a connection for buffalo tallow, gonna experiment and see where that ’s gonna go…

I do use palm oil is not a very earth-friendly thing to purchase so I’m trying to move away from that, so I hoping this local source of buffalo tallow will work out but I am not there yet…

Geranium Red Clay Soap Simply Josephine LavenderOatmeal LemonEucalyptos LemonGrassCornmeal

Soaps consist of oil and lye when you mix these together the lye causes a chemical reaction that makes the fat hard which is how you end up with a bar of soap…

but again it’s endless just like the cleaning and hippie water you can mix anything you want into there

I currently offer 5 different kinds of soap…

  • lavender oatmeal
  • patchouli orange (my favorite)
  • lemon eucalyptus
  • peppermint poppyseed

peppermintPoppyseedSoapI do also make a geranium red clay but I’m thinking about discontinuing that one… those are the soaps that I offer..

Im really looking forward to January when things sort of slow down, I can experiment with things for the year… because Summer is busy with

shows and markets

and we go to Alaska

and as soon as summers over I have to stay really disciplined in preparing for the holiday season

I sell online, I do shows. people stop by my home to buy things… and it’s very busy

then it just gets poof! and its slow for a few months

and I can focus on creativity.

I want to create a more natural bar and infuse the oils with real plants … instead of using essential oils. more of a plant based bar … made with essential oil, because they’re really popular and sometimes that’s just what people want….looking forward to the plant based oils and infuse the oils and then take that oil make bars

And there will be some of those new things coming to soap line…

So Dacia is another one of those amazing millennials I am always talking about… she bought her own house and… 

Living a frugal life…

eating really healthy and living a nice life…

Do you want to talk about budgeting at all? I always think your a master of shopping …

I think something that helps with budgeting and frugal living simply thing…

I really enjoy having all of my time, be all of my time.

And in order to do that, I have to work from home, you have to be self-disciplined to do that…

but that also makes simplifying everything… makes you want to do that all more…

because I don’t want to spend a lot of time away form home… I am a single parent I like to be available 2 the children and myself and the home 24/7…

Frugal tips

  • definitely buying in bulk is huge
  • having a good source for bulk items

Azure Standard Website

Azure Standard is excellent

Do you want to explain that to people who maybe don’t know what that is?

you go to AZUREtandard.com wholesale online health food store located in Oregon.

They have drop places just about all over the country … Just groups of small people who put together an order, so you do this order and then it all gets distributed form a drop point….

So let’s say you live in Post Falls, ID, and you don’t know anything about where the drop would be… you could call azure and ask them, usually there’s an organizer, somebody who puts together the order. You can get in touch with them … you order right online and pay with your bankcard, then when it comes deliver you get it much more affordable price … and you can buy like a gallon of shampoo or conditioner or whatever that may be…

50 lbs of epsom salt …. 50 lbs of rolled oats, if you go through a lot of oats,  we go through through a lot of rolled oats… things like that…

AZURE standard

if you feel like starting a group… you can call them if you have any questions

if you might be  interested… they do have like a $500 minimum… which is easy to come up with if you have a few people in the group … it comes once a month if you make your minimum …. Our group … we don’t always come up their minimum… so we tend to order 3-4 times a year. My mom who lives in Alaska, their group has one every month…

Wrangell doesn’t have a food store to shop with so they definitely make their minimum… because they have 20-40

Jacqueline Freeman OGP page

I interviewed a Jacqueline Freeman in episode 121 in Washington who talked about a Facebook Group where they order in bulk…. We go through a lot of nuts like walnuts etc…

fresh produce… they even have fresh herbs you can order… good stuff …

I tend to get my nuts from Costco… there again you can buy a lot of bulk things…

Another excellent source for herbs is Frontier Coop… I also order several things from them…

I think that’s where the Health food store orders from too…

That helps with budgeting…

We also have the option to get all the fresh seafood and deer…. that is very helpful… my fortunate situation …

I also think it’s really important to create everything from scratch … when your not used to eating processed foods and things aren’t so quick and simple … if the children do want cookies, they actually have to make them, I think that is really important and helps cut down on a huge portion of processed 

Do you want to talk about your mom’s cookbook? There’s some great recipes in there… I remember I came over one day you I came over and you were like Im just whipping up some eclair cake and I was like that looks so complicate and you made it took  so easy!

She has a great cookbook… i am really so glad she created a cookbook because for years I was always like what was the one thing you cooked two years ago, so now they are all in one collection…

Something I can say for living a more frugal life… it doesn’t have to be a set recipe… improvising, recipe calls for ginger and you don’t have ginger no big deal use garlic, if you don’t have garlic, use green onion.. about improvising fro different ingredients. That helps for living more frugally then you don’t have to go out and buy new things all the time just to make a recipe…

What’s her cookbook called?

The Huntress Cookbook

Salmon Patties

One of my favorite recipes, is her salmon patties, of course you could use any sort of salmon, you could probably even make this with canned salmon…. use a lb. of salmon, like a filet, we cut the skin off, thinly cut skin off, make sure there aren’t any bones, so you usually have to chop those out of there or you have to pull them out, just by hand, chop salmon into bite size pieces… or with wild salmon filets from Costco, I’ve made this recipe out of those,

chop them into teeny tiny pieces,

  • thinly chop green onions
  • tablespoon of fresh minced ginger
  • tablespoon of soy sauce
  • tablespoon  of avocado oil
  • tablespoon  of mustard
  • 1/4 cup cilantro
  • mix all that in a bowl
  • ginger
  • green onions
  • cilantro

add 1/2 cup pancko = Japanese bread crumb

form the patties into like burgers

They could be a burger, but they are so delicious don’t need a bun, from those and it’s good to put them in the fridge for an hour before cooking, but many times, I’ve made them without the time to chill and they go right to the frying pan…

I usually use avocado oil,

  • extra virgin olive oil
  • coconut oil
  • avocado oils

heat the pan then fry them

while those are cooking,

salmon doesn’t need to cook very long

need a few minutes…

I love salmon patties, I usually use saltines so those pancake patties sound a little more nutritious.

Lemon Caper Mayo

also I make a little dressing

  • 1/2 cup of mayo
  • 1 TBLSP lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 TBLSP chopped caper

have it with the lemon caper mayo and have a salad with it is just DELICIOUS!

BEADING

Do you want to just tell us about your aprons and things?

I’ve been making things actually my whole life, growing up in Alaska, there’s a lot of tourism, a lot of kids in Wrangell where I grew up, there was a lot of garnets… there was a garnet ledge

But what ultimately happens the parents end up doing a lot of the work….my family, we just weren’t into doing that…so I started beading at a young age, a cousin of mine beaded a ring, and I thought that was cool. I was probably about 10, I got a book from the library on how to bead, I taught myself who taught me how to bead earrings… I had a few other older women in my life who helped me as well.

Beaded Earrings

So I started to bead earrings and I would sell those to the tourists, and here I am 11 or 12 and I would make $50-60 off this beaded jewelry, that got me at an early age into beading… I did a lot of ceramic art in my late teens, then moving onto Montana I started making soap about 2000, then had the kids and quit doing the whole creative thing other then creativity to through your home and food for quite a few years, and then probably about let’s see, Josie is 8 when she was about 1 1/2 I read this article on aprons and I thought what fun I want to make some aprons!

and the whole thing came together for me and the whole vision came together for me and at that moment I hadn’t even sewed an apron yet and I told my mom who said I just made an apron and that was the farm girl pattern, I’ll mail you the pattern and I’m still making that one today … the other patterns have evolved over the years.

Dacia 1/2 apron

1/2 Aprons

The most popular online is the waitress 1/2 apron. I think that was because we don’t hesitate to buy something when we need it for work and I waited tables for 15 years so I knew exactly what I wanted in an apron, it’s my pattern….

1/2 apron

I created it!

And the Floret Farmers bought a bunch for a workshop right?

They did! They just sold them on their website … they put in a wholesale order for half aprons….

They went back to making soap. They go nice to go together even thought they are two totally different things … it’s nice to have something small, that’s inexpensive that you need anyway so they are good sellers

Earth Friendly Salves

I kind of always made salves

when I was in high school, my mom and I took an herbal workshop together….we made a cottonwood bud solar

Neosporin alternative

before we had tubes of who knows what, people made cottonwood bud salve… I also make a …

Comfrey Lavender

  • chapped skin
  • chapped feet
  • diaper rash
  • make-up remover

it can even be an eye makeup remover

Arnica Salve Joint Pain Reliever

Arnica Salve

Montana arnica grows all over the place

the most beautiful medicinal little yellow flower

Arnica Infusion

I love to go out in the wild woods of Montana and pick it all day long… That’s good for

  • soreness
  • sore joints
  • arthritis
  • bruising

things like that…

Grocery Bags

Earth Friendly Reusable Grocery Bags

Im always promoting as little plastic as possible, because plastic is really wreaking havoc on our planet especially our ocean.

A lot of people don’t realize that plastic is made from petroleum… and with the Dakota Access Pipeline DAPL right now… I’m always telling my kids form school… we eat breakfast in the classroom and everyday it comes with plastic spoons and individual cups and containers etc and 17 in my room and 22-24 in the 3rd grades… that’s a lot of plastic

The other thing is they won’t rip on you… I don’t understand how people who live in the city where they have to walk for blocks… I have always used cloth grocery bags the thought of going back to plastic bags that rip… the practical purpose of using a grocery sack that doesn’t rip and how much they can hold… to me I can’t imagine ever going back to wasting plastic on our planet … Do you want to say anything about your fabric because your design and fabrics are just gorgeous….

I know, I get so much enjoyment about putting fabrics together, that does a lot for time there’s a couple of designers I really like…

Amy Butler design and fabric I love…. they’re like vintage wallpaper… there’s another one Joel dewberry… I use a lot of his fabrics… I use a few others but those are the main two fabric collections I use …

If you have a business to you have any advice for our listeners about how to sell extra produce or get started in the industry?

A huge vending tip for me… I like to make a list of all the things that I need, because it’s easy to forget something when your blasting out of the house to head to market.

Having a list of what you need…. a lot of time for set ups it’s good to have a lot of clothespins, for instance to clip things here or there….  another great way to create a unique sign, is find an old window and I found 2 old windows with different panes, and I painted it with chalkboard paint … sign and I hinged it together and it made a flip up sign, so that is nice you can do it anyway you wanted … 

Plain chalkboard paint on an old vintage window works real nice…

I guess, just displays, signs are really good, vista print you can make a banner behind you that’s very affordable…

moo.com

make some nice things there…

What I loved about your banner you got a Vista Print, I loved the way it matched your fabric and it really nailed your brand….

Also having some sort of table covering to the floor or the ground.. then there’s nothing messy underneath your table… everything looks really neat….

Final question- if there was one change you would like to see to create a greener world what would it be? For example is there a charity or organization your passionate about or a project you would like to see put into action. What do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment either in your local area or on a national or global scale?

Honor The Earth Website

There is an organization I do really like, it’s called

Honor the Earth

Winona LaDuke – that woman I could listen to that woman speak 24/7, she’s an excellent speaker and the indigo girls are also heavily involved in that organization…

They seem very knowledgeable to me on what’s going on as far the fossil fuel industry and how we need to back off of our fossil fuels and move towards cleaner energy … we can’t deny it we live in a fossil fuel world… we all rely on it every day

but that doesn’t mean we can’t move towards renewable energy and ween ourselves off of fossil fuels… at this point with the load we have on our planet

we need the planet to survive, but it doesn’t need us, mother earth can shake all of us off

We have to stop and we have to keep it in the ground in my opinion…

Less Plastic

any less plastic we can use … anytime we can walk some where we should …. if you gonna buy a new car … why not think about getting an electric car… and why not think about changing your own electricity to your home… many energy companies they want you to have solar… so ask your local electric company if they offer any sort of incentives for solar…  look up what it would cost … because in the long run

A lot of people stop themselves from doing things by saying I can’t afford that…we need to say What do I need to do to get solar? What do I need to do to get an electric car? What do I need to do to invest in wind if you live in a windy area?

Ask questions … look up numbers … find out what it does cost … maybe we have a payment plant … we’re all gonna end up using energy till we die, so investing in solar now will end up saving money in the long run…. so that’s it!

Honor the Earth!

I love the way you walk your walk, walk your talk… .you really live a simple life but it’s such an elegant life and your kids are so lucky to have you for a mom.

How do we connect with you?

simply josepine (1)

My business is Simply Josephine is my website

Simply Josephine Facebook Page

Im also Simply Josephine on Instagram and on Facebook

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About the author, Jackie Marie

I'm an artist and educator. I live at the "Organic Oasis" with my husband Mike where we practice earth friendly techniques in our garden nestled in the mountains of Montana.

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