How to Make Bone Broth in a Slow Cooker (The Easy Way That Actually Tastes Like Something)

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I’ll be honest — I put off making bone broth for way too long because I thought it was some complicated, all-day-hovering-over-the-stove kind of thing. Turns out it’s about the most hands-off thing I cook. You basically do five minutes of prep, walk away, and come back to liquid gold.

We started making it regularly a couple years ago when I was trying to get more nourishing, real-food staples into our weekly rhythm. Our kids eat it in soups, we cook rice and grains in it, and on a chilly Northwest Florida morning (yes, we get those — all twelve of them), there’s nothing better than a warm mug of broth with a little salt and butter.

If you’ve been curious but haven’t tried it yet, this is your sign. Let’s do it.

Why Bone Broth Is Worth Making at Home

Store-bought broth is fine in a pinch, but most of it is watery, over-salted, and doesn’t have anywhere near the gelatin content of a good homemade batch. When your broth gels in the fridge — and it will, if you do it right — that’s the collagen and minerals that came straight from the bones. That stuff is genuinely good for gut health, joints, skin, and immunity.

For our family, it’s also a zero-waste win. We save bones in a zip-lock bag in the freezer all week — from roasted chickens, pork chops, whatever — and when the bag gets full, it’s broth time. Nothing gets wasted, and we’re stretching every dollar from the meat we buy.

And yes — if you have backyard chickens like we do, the carcass from a spent hen makes the most incredibly rich broth you’ve ever tasted. I wrote more about our flock over in Best Chicken Breeds for Egg Color Variety (And Which Ones Actually Thrive in Florida), but just know — dual-purpose birds earn their keep even at the end.

What You’ll Need

The Bones

You’ve got options here:

• Chicken — whole carcass, backs, necks, and feet (feet are magic for gelatin)
• Beef — knuckles, oxtail, short rib bones, marrow bones
• Pork — trotters, neck bones
• Mixed — whatever you’ve been saving in the freezer

For the richest flavor and most gelatin, use a mix of knuckle or joint bones (high collagen) and marrow bones (deep flavor). If you can roast the bones in the oven for 20–30 minutes at 400°F first, do it — it deepens the flavor so much. But if you’re just tossing in a leftover roasted chicken carcass, you’re already ahead.

The Vegetables and Aromatics

This is where you just clean out your vegetable drawer. Truly:

• 2–3 carrots (or carrot peels)
• 3–4 stalks of celery
• 1 large onion, halved (skin on is fine)
• A whole head of garlic, cut in half horizontally
• A handful of fresh or dried herbs — thyme, parsley, bay leaves, rosemary
• 1–2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (this is important — it helps pull the minerals out of the bones)
• Salt and peppercorns to taste

The Equipment

A slow cooker is genuinely the easiest way to do this. Set it, forget it, go do your morning basket with the kids, feed the chickens, live your life. A 6-quart works great for a chicken carcass or 2–3 pounds of beef bones.

How to Make Bone Broth in a Slow Cooker — Step by Step

Step 1: Add Your Bones

Place your bones in the slow cooker. If you’re using raw bones, roasting them first is optional but recommended for beef. For chicken carcasses straight from a roasted chicken, just toss them in.

Step 2: Add Vegetables and Aromatics

Throw in your carrots, celery, onion, garlic, herbs, and peppercorns. Don’t overthink it — this isn’t precise cooking, it’s more like a long, slow extraction.

Step 3: Add Apple Cider Vinegar

Pour in 1–2 tablespoons. Let everything sit for about 20–30 minutes before turning it on if you can — the vinegar starts working on those minerals right away.

Step 4: Cover with Cold Water

Fill the slow cooker with cold, filtered water — leaving about an inch of headspace. Cold water helps the broth stay clear.

Step 5: Cook Low and Long

• Chicken broth: 12–18 hours on low
• Beef broth: 18–24 hours on low

That’s it. You literally just let it go. I usually start mine in the evening and strain it the next morning. The house smells incredible.

Step 6: Strain and Store

Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl or pot. Discard the solids. Let it cool, then portion into wide-mouth canning jars for the fridge (good for 5 days) or freeze for up to 6 months.

When it’s cold, a good broth should look like Jell-O in the jar. That gel is everything. That’s your collagen.

Tips for the Best Broth Every Time

Don’t let it boil. A hard boil makes cloudy, sometimes bitter broth. Low and slow is the whole point — that’s why the slow cooker is so perfect for this.

Skim the foam. In the first hour or two, some grey foam may rise to the top. Skim it off with a spoon. It’s not harmful, just not pretty.

Use cold water. Starting with cold water and a slow heat-up keeps the broth clearer.

Add feet if you can. Chicken feet are high in collagen and make for an incredibly gelatinous broth. Our local farm store carries them — worth asking around.

Don’t salt heavily until the end (or at all before storing). The broth concentrates as it cooks, so season when you’re ready to use it.

How We Use Bone Broth in Our Home

Once you have a steady supply in the fridge or freezer, you’ll start putting it in everything:

• Cooking rice, quinoa, and lentils instead of water
• As the base for soups and stews (our go-to slow cooker chicken soup in fall and winter)
• Sipping warm from a mug with a pinch of salt when someone’s feeling under the weather
• Deglazing the cast iron skillet for pan sauces
• In the kids’ mac and cheese instead of water

This kind of simple, intentional kitchen practice is exactly what I talk about in Simple Living with Kids: Practical Tips That Actually Work for Real Families — it doesn’t have to be complicated to be meaningful.

Making It a Learning Moment

If you homeschool, this is such a natural kitchen science moment. My kids have learned about:

• Why the broth gels (collagen, gelatin, protein chains — yes, even my seven-year-old gets this now)
• What apple cider vinegar does to the minerals in bones (basic chemistry!)
• How traditional cultures have made broth for centuries, all over the world
• Where our food comes from — especially when we’re using bones from our own chickens

It connects so naturally to our Charlotte Mason approach of learning through real life and living experiences. And if your kids are into nature journaling, they can sketch the process, label the ingredients, and observe how the broth changes from liquid to gel overnight — we use a nature journal for all kinds of kitchen and garden observations like this.

For more on that kind of seasonal, real-life learning, check out Charlotte Mason Nature Study Journal Prompts by Season (For Real Kids Who’d Rather Be Outside).

A Note on Non-Toxic Storage

We store our broth in glass — always. Wide-mouth mason jars are our favorite because they stack neatly and are easy to pour from. Avoid plastic containers, especially for hot liquids. If you’re freezing, leave an inch of headspace so the glass doesn’t crack as the broth expands.

For more on swapping out plastics and choosing safer options in the kitchen, you might like my post on Non-Toxic Baby Products: What to Actually Buy (and What’s Just Marketing Hype) — a lot of those principles apply to the whole family’s kitchen, not just babies.

You Don’t Have to Do It Perfectly

Here’s the thing I want you to walk away with: bone broth doesn’t require a recipe in the precise sense. It’s more of a practice. The bones, the water, the time — that’s really it. Everything else is just adding flavor and nourishment.

Our grandmothers (and their grandmothers) didn’t follow a carefully measured recipe. They just saved the bones, covered them with water, and let them simmer. It’s one of those old-fashioned kitchen habits that got lost somewhere in the convenience-food era, and bringing it back just feels right.

If you’ve got a slow cooker, some saved bones, and a free evening to get it started — you’ve got everything you need. Give it a try this week. I think you’re going to love it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long should I cook bone broth in a slow cooker?

For chicken bone broth, cook on low for 12–18 hours. For beef bone broth, go 18–24 hours on low. The longer it simmers, the more minerals and collagen you’ll extract from the bones. Avoid cooking on high — a gentle, slow simmer is what gives you a clear, rich broth.

What bones are best for making bone broth?

A mix of joint or knuckle bones (high in collagen) and marrow bones (great for flavor) gives you the best results. For chicken, a whole carcass, necks, backs, and feet work beautifully. For beef, try oxtail, knuckles, or short rib bones. Roasting raw bones in the oven first adds deeper flavor.

Why does bone broth gel when it cools?

That gel is collagen that’s been extracted from the connective tissue and cartilage in the bones during the long cooking process. When it cools, it solidifies into a gel — and that’s exactly what you want. A gelatinous broth is a sign of a nutrient-rich, well-made batch. It liquefies again when heated.

Do I need to add apple cider vinegar to bone broth?

It’s not strictly required, but it’s highly recommended. Apple cider vinegar is mildly acidic and helps break down the bone matrix so more minerals — like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus — leach into the broth. You only need 1–2 tablespoons, and you won’t taste it in the final broth.

How do I store homemade bone broth and how long does it last?

Store cooled bone broth in glass jars in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze it for up to 6 months. Wide-mouth mason jars work great for both fridge and freezer storage — just leave an inch of headspace if freezing so the glass doesn’t crack as the liquid expands.

Florida Backyard Beekeeping for Beginners: What You Actually Need to Know Before You Start

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

I’ll be honest — beekeeping was on my “someday” list for years. Right there next to sourdough bread and raising quail. It felt a little big, a little intimidating, like maybe it was for someone more capable than me.

And then one spring afternoon my kids and I were sitting in the backyard watching our chickens scratch around, and a big fat bumblebee landed on the rosemary bush by the fence. My oldest looked up at me and said, “Mama, why don’t we have bees?”

Good question, kid.

We’re in Northwest Florida — Pensacola area — and let me tell you, if you’re going to keep bees anywhere, Florida is a pretty spectacular place to do it. Our winters are mild, our bloom season is long, and there is no shortage of wildflowers, citrus, and gallberry for your girls to forage on. Once I started actually researching it, I realized beekeeping wasn’t nearly as out-of-reach as I’d made it in my head.

Here’s what I wish someone had just sat down and told me at the beginning.

Why Florida Is Actually a Great Place to Start Beekeeping

Most of the country has a hard stop on beekeeping in winter — colonies have to be managed for cold, wrapped, kept alive through months with no forage. Here in Florida? Our bees are often still foraging in December. We’ve got blooms from late winter straight through fall, and the longer active season means your colony has more time to build up honey stores and population before you ever have to worry about a rough stretch.

The flip side: Florida heat and humidity mean your hives need good ventilation, and you’ll want to be thoughtful about hive placement. Full afternoon shade is your friend down here. We put ours near our back fence line where they get morning sun and shade by 1pm, and that’s made a noticeable difference.

What You Actually Need to Get Started

You don’t need a barn full of equipment. Here’s the honest beginner list:

The Hive

Most Florida backyard beekeepers start with a Langstroth hive — it’s the standard stackable box style you’re probably picturing. You’ll want at minimum a bottom board, one deep brood box, a medium super, an inner cover, and a top cover. You can buy these as a kit or piece together your own setup.

Site your hive so the entrance faces southeast if you can — bees like early morning sun to get them moving — and make sure it’s level front-to-back with a very slight forward tilt so rain doesn’t pool inside.

Your Protective Gear

Please don’t skip this part. A good veil and jacket are non-negotiable, especially when you’re new and your movements are still a little uncertain. Gloves too, at least at first. The beekeeping starter kit I found on Amazon had everything we needed to get suited up without spending a fortune — jacket, veil, gloves, and a hive tool all in one box.

Your Bees

You’ll want to order a package of bees or a nucleus colony (called a “nuc”) from a reputable local supplier. In Florida, I’d strongly recommend buying locally — Florida bees are already adapted to our heat, humidity, and specific forage. Check with your local beekeeping association (Florida has a great network of them) or your county extension office for recommended suppliers.

Florida-Specific Rules You Need to Know

This is the part people skip and then regret. Florida does require that beekeepers register their colonies with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). It’s a simple process and costs very little, but it’s the law — and it actually works in your favor because registered beekeepers get support and resources from the state apiarist program.

You’ll also want to check your local municipality or HOA rules. Some areas in Escambia County and surrounding areas have specific setbacks — meaning your hive needs to be a certain distance from property lines or neighbor’s homes. A quick call to your county extension office will get you straight answers fast.

And one more Florida-specific thing: Africanized honey bees. They are present in parts of Florida. This is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to source your bees carefully, keep calm and gentle stock, and requeen if your hive ever becomes unusually defensive. Most backyard beekeepers never have an issue, especially in the panhandle region where Africanization pressure is lower than South Florida.

How Beekeeping Fits Into Our Homeschool

This is honestly my favorite part to talk about. If you’re doing any kind of Charlotte Mason or nature-based learning, bees are an absolute goldmine.

We’ve used our hive as the jumping-off point for lessons on pollination, ecosystems, geometry (hexagons!), the lifecycle of insects, and even basic economics — honey production, division of labor, the whole thing. My kids started keeping detailed observations in their nature journals, sketching bees, drawing comb cells, and writing down what they noticed each time we opened the hive.

We also grabbed a pocket microscope so they could look at pollen up close — that was a full morning of school right there, no curriculum needed. This is exactly the kind of thing I mean when I say living books and living experiences beat a worksheet every single time.

If you want more ideas for weaving nature observation into your days, check out our Charlotte Mason Nature Study Journal Prompts by Season — lots of it translates beautifully to bee study.

Managing Your Hive Through the Florida Seasons

Spring (February–April)

This is your big build-up season. Colonies are expanding rapidly, forage is blooming, and you’ll be doing regular inspections to watch for swarm cells and make sure your queen has room to lay. Add supers before they need them, not after.

Summer (May–August)

Heat management is everything. Make sure there’s always water nearby — bees need it to cool the hive, and they’ll find your neighbor’s pool if you don’t provide an alternative. A simple dish with marbles and water works great. Keep shade on the hive during peak afternoon heat.

Fall (September–November)

The goldenrod and wildflowers give your colony a late-season boost. This is a good time to assess honey stores and make sure they’re set up well going into the mild Florida winter.

Winter (December–January)

Honestly, our bees barely slow down. You’ll do fewer inspections, but there’s still activity and some foraging. This is a good time to treat for Varroa mites if needed and to plan for spring splits.

A Word About Integrating Bees With Your Backyard Flock

We get asked about this a lot since we have chickens too. The short answer: they mostly ignore each other. Our chickens occasionally snap at a bee that gets too close to their feed, which is not smart on the chicken’s part, but nobody’s been seriously hurt. Just don’t place your hive directly in the path your chickens travel daily, and give everyone their own space.

If you’re still building out your backyard homestead, our post on Best Chicken Breeds for Egg Color Variety (And Which Ones Actually Thrive in Florida) is a good companion read.

My Honest Recommendation for Getting Started

Join a local beekeeping club before you buy a single piece of equipment. Seriously. The Escambia Beekeepers Association and neighboring county clubs offer mentorship programs, hands-on hive days, and a community of people who genuinely want to help you succeed. Go to a meeting, ask questions, and ideally get your hands in someone else’s hive before you set up your own. That alone will save you so much second-guessing.

Then grab your beekeeping starter kit, register with FDACS, source local bees, and just begin. The bees will teach you more in one season than any book can.

And speaking of a natural ecosystem for your whole backyard — if you’re not already collecting rainwater to keep your garden and animals watered through dry stretches, that’s worth setting up alongside your hive. We wrote all about it in Best Rain Barrel Setup for Florida Homes (What Actually Works Down Here).

Beekeeping has been one of those things that’s made our backyard feel more alive — more connected, more purposeful. My kids talk to the bees, they watch for them on flowers during our nature walks, they understand now in this deep and instinctive way why pollinators matter. That’s the kind of education that sticks. Not because we planned a unit study around it, but because we just let them get close to something real.

You don’t have to do everything at once. You don’t have to be an expert before you start. You just have to start.

📖 You Might Also Like:

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a permit to keep bees in Florida?

Yes — Florida requires all beekeepers to register their colonies with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). The process is simple and inexpensive. You’ll also want to check your local county or municipality rules for any setback requirements from property lines.

When is the best time to start a beehive in Florida?

Late winter to early spring — roughly February through April — is ideal in Florida. Colonies installed in early spring have the entire bloom season ahead of them to build up population and honey stores before the intense summer heat sets in.

Are Africanized bees a problem for Florida backyard beekeepers?

Africanized honey bees are present in parts of Florida, particularly South Florida. In the Panhandle region the risk is lower, but it’s still important to source bees from reputable local suppliers, maintain gentle stock, and requeen any hive that becomes unusually defensive. Most backyard beekeepers in Northwest Florida never have a serious issue.

How many beehives should a beginner start with?

Most experienced beekeepers recommend starting with two hives rather than one. Having two allows you to compare colonies side by side, borrow resources like frames of brood or honey between hives if needed, and better understand what ‘normal’ looks like. It sounds like more work but it actually makes troubleshooting much easier.

Can I keep bees if I also have backyard chickens?

Yes, bees and chickens coexist just fine in most backyard setups. The key is to place your hive away from the main chicken traffic areas and make sure the hive entrance isn’t in a spot where chickens congregate. Chickens may occasionally snap at a passing bee, but serious conflicts are rare and both animals generally mind their own business.

Best Homeschool Morning Basket Books for Toddlers (What We Actually Read and Why They Work)

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If you’ve ever tried to do morning basket with a toddler in the house, you already know how that can go. One minute you’re reading a beautiful poem aloud, the next someone is sitting on the dog or unraveling an entire roll of paper towels across the living room floor. Been there. More than once.

But here’s what I’ve learned after doing this for a few years now with kids at different stages: toddlers want to be part of morning basket. They don’t want to be entertained in another room. They want to be with you, with their big brothers and sisters, with the books and the cozy and the belonging of it all. You just have to give them something they can actually hold onto.

The trick isn’t keeping them out of morning basket — it’s pulling them in with the right books.

What Makes a Good Morning Basket Book for Toddlers?

Before I share what we use, here’s the honest filter I run every book through:

• Short enough that they don’t lose the thread halfway through
• Beautiful enough that they want to look at the pictures even when they’re not tracking every word
• Real enough — not dumbed down, not condescending
• Repeatable — because toddlers want the same book seventeen times and that’s actually a feature, not a bug

Charlotte Mason would have said that even the youngest child deserves living books — books with heart and beauty and something real to offer. I believe that. Toddlers don’t need flashcard books or skill-and-drill readers in morning basket. They need stories, art, wonder, and the rhythm of a family who reads together.

Our Charlotte Mason Nature Study Journal Prompts by Season post talks a lot about how we weave nature into our learning rhythm — morning basket is a big part of that, even for the littles.

The Books We Actually Use (Organized by Type)

Picture Books Worth Reading Over and Over

This is the heart of any toddler-friendly morning basket. You want picture books that are genuinely lovely — not just cute, but good. Books that your older kids won’t groan at either, because let’s be honest, you’re reading these to the whole room.

Some favorites in our house:

• The Gardener by Sarah Stewart — gentle, beautiful, deeply good
• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney — this one gets pulled out again and again, especially in spring
• Frederick by Leo Lionni — my kids have memorized this one and still ask for it
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen — slow, quiet, perfect for a winter morning basket even here in Florida
• A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams — talks about family in such a real way
• Roxaboxen by Alice McLernan — this one. THIS one. If you want a book that captures the 1990s-outside-all-day childhood we’re trying to give our kids, it’s this.

These aren’t just good for toddlers — they’re good for people. That’s the CM standard right there.

Nature and Animal Books That Pull Them In

Here’s where it gets really fun for our family, because we have backyard chickens and a mini labradoodle and the kids are always noticing things outside. Connecting morning basket to what they’re seeing in real life is magic.

We keep the Sibley Birds guide on our basket shelf year-round — yes, even for the toddler. He loves flipping to whatever bird he saw that morning and pointing. No pressure, no quiz. Just real science, real pictures, real connection.

For toddler-level nature books:

• National Audubon Society Field Guides (any regional one — we use the Southeast)
• The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess — older kids love the stories, toddlers love the bird names
• In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming — gorgeous and short
• Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner — perfect when you’re also doing a garden unit

For our little chicken lovers, Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens lives more on my shelf, but the Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens is one our older kids read independently and the toddler loves flipping through for the photos.

Poetry and Rhythm Books

Toddlers are made for poetry. The rhyme, the rhythm, the way a good poem bounces — they lock onto it instinctively. This is not a Charlotte Mason opinion, it’s just a toddler fact.

We rotate these through our morning basket constantly:

• A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson — a classic for a reason
• Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne — Winnie the Pooh’s poet dad did not miss
• Sing a Song of Seasons — gorgeous anthology, beautiful art
• Any Mother Goose collection with good illustrations

Poetry is also a wonderful bridge moment in morning basket. It takes two minutes, it settles everyone down, and the toddler usually stops whatever chaos they were causing to listen. That alone earns poetry a permanent spot.

Read-Alouds the Whole Family Can Share

This is where morning basket gets really beautiful — when you find a read aloud book that works across ages. Your kindergartner is following the plot, your third grader is building vocabulary, and your toddler is snuggled in someone’s lap just soaking in the rhythm of your voice and the safety of the whole family together.

Some of our family read-alouds that even toddlers tolerate and enjoy:

• The Little House on the Prairie series — Laura’s descriptions of nature are so vivid even tiny ones look up
• Beatrix Potter collections — short, illustrated, perfect
• The Story of Ferdinand — a must-have
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — we started this with a two-year-old in the room and she sat through whole chapters

Art and Observation Books

This one might surprise you, but art books in morning basket are so good for toddlers. You don’t read them front to back — you just open to a page, look together, and talk about what you see. That’s it. That’s the whole lesson.

We use our Faber-Castell watercolors alongside these sometimes — even a two-year-old can make a watercolor painting while the older kids do narration. And keeping a simple nature journal on the basket shelf means when something sparks their interest, we can sketch it right then.

Art museum books, illustrated nature encyclopedias, and picture book biographies of artists all work beautifully here.

How We Actually Structure Morning Basket With a Toddler

Honestly? Loosely. We do:

1. A poem (2 minutes)
2. A picture book or nature book (5-10 minutes)
3. A chapter from our current family read-aloud (10-15 minutes)
4. Whatever else the older kids need that day

The toddler has a small basket of his own with board books, a fabric quiet book, and a few wooden figures. He can dip in and out. Some days he sits the whole time. Some days he wanders off and comes back. Both are fine.

The goal isn’t perfect attention — it’s a rhythm. It’s morning, it’s books, it’s together. He’s learning what learning looks like, and that might be the most important thing happening in that whole basket.

If you’re also navigating the Florida PEP scholarship and trying to figure out how this all fits into your documentation and evaluation process, our post on Florida Homeschool Testing Requirements: Evaluation vs Portfolio is worth a read.

A Few Practical Tips Before You Go

• Rotate your basket. Keeping the same 10 books out for a month means everyone knows what’s coming. Surprise them.
• Let the toddler pick sometimes. Yes, you’ll read The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the fortieth time. Read it like it’s the first time. That matters to them.
• Don’t stress about the chaos. A toddler climbing in your lap mid-poem is not failure. That’s the whole point.
• Quality over quantity. Five really beautiful books beats twenty mediocre ones every single time.

This Is the Season, Mama

I know mornings with a toddler and multiple school-age kids can feel like organized chaos at best. But morning basket — even an imperfect, interrupted, someone-knocked-over-the-tea version of morning basket — is one of the most important things we do in our homeschool. It sets the tone. It says: we are a family who reads together, who slows down together, who learns together.

Your toddler won’t remember every book. But they will remember the lap, the voice, the feeling of being included. And one day — I promise you this — they’ll be the one pulling the poetry book off the shelf and asking you to read.

That’s worth every chaotic morning between here and there.

📖 You Might Also Like:

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a morning basket in homeschooling?

A morning basket (sometimes called a morning time) is a shared learning time at the start of the homeschool day where the whole family gathers together for read-alouds, poetry, art, music, and other enriching content. It’s a Charlotte Mason-inspired tradition that works beautifully across multiple ages, including toddlers.

Can toddlers participate in homeschool morning basket?

Absolutely. Toddlers don’t need their own formal curriculum to benefit from morning basket — they absorb language, rhythm, story, and connection just by being present. The key is choosing books with beautiful illustrations and short enough text that they stay engaged, and giving them a small activity basket of their own for when they need a break.

How long should morning basket be for families with toddlers?

For families with toddlers, 20-30 minutes is a realistic and effective morning basket length. You can include a short poem, one picture book, and a chapter from a family read-aloud in that window. Keep it flexible — some days will be shorter, and that’s perfectly okay.

What types of books work best for toddlers in a Charlotte Mason morning basket?

Charlotte Mason-style morning baskets for toddlers work best with living picture books (stories with heart and beauty), poetry collections, nature and animal books with real illustrations, and family read-alouds with vivid storytelling. Avoid flashcard-style or skill-drill books in the basket — save those for other parts of your school day.

How do I keep a toddler occupied during morning basket without screens?

A small ‘toddler basket’ placed near the family reading spot works really well. Fill it with a few board books, a fabric quiet book, beeswax crayons, wooden figures, or a simple felt board. The goal isn’t to keep them perfectly still — it’s to give them something to do while staying in the room so they absorb the rhythm and atmosphere of learning.

How to Start Seed Saving for Your Garden (A Beginner’s Guide That Actually Makes Sense)

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Somewhere between buying yet another packet of tomato seeds at the garden center and watching my kids crack open a dried pepper pod on the back porch, it clicked for me: we can just… keep the seeds. Like people have always done. Like our grandmothers did without even thinking about it.

That’s honestly where seed saving started for us — not with a big plan, but with a moment of oh, wait, this is actually simple. And now, a couple of seasons in, our seed saving setup has become one of those quiet, satisfying things that makes our whole homestead feel a little more self-sufficient and a lot more intentional.

If you’ve been curious about how to start seed saving for your garden but assumed it was complicated or required special equipment, I want to reassure you: it’s not, and it doesn’t. Here’s how we do it, what we’ve learned, and how we’ve made it a real part of our homeschool and home life.

Why Seed Saving Is Worth It (Especially Down Here in Florida)

First, the practical stuff. Seeds add up fast. If you’re planting a real kitchen garden — tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs — you can easily spend $30–$50 on seed packets before you’ve even touched the soil. Saving your own seeds cuts that cost dramatically over time.

But beyond the money, there’s something else: when you save seeds from plants that thrived in your yard, in your specific microclimate, you’re slowly selecting for plants that are adapted to your conditions. Here in Northwest Florida, that means heat tolerance, humidity resilience, and the ability to survive our weird late-summer rainstorms. Over time, your saved seeds genuinely outperform store-bought ones for your specific garden.

And then there’s the homeschool angle, because of course there is. Seed saving is living science. It covers plant biology, life cycles, classification, botany — all the things Charlotte Mason said children should learn through direct experience with living things, not through a textbook. My kids are way more invested in a plant they watched go from seed to seed than anything we’ve ever read about.

We use our nature journals to sketch and record seeds as we harvest them — what plant they came from, what the seed looks like up close, when we collected them. Pair that with a pocket microscope and suddenly you’ve got a full nature study lesson happening over a bowl of dried beans on the kitchen table.

Start Here: Which Seeds Are Easiest to Save

Not all seeds are created equal when it comes to saving. Some require isolation or special processing. Others practically save themselves. If you’re just starting out, stick to these:

Open-Pollinated and Heirloom Varieties

This is the big one. You must start with open-pollinated or heirloom seeds — not hybrids. Hybrid seeds (labeled F1 on the packet) won’t reliably reproduce the parent plant. Open-pollinated varieties will. Look for “heirloom” or “OP” on the seed packet, or source from a seed company that specializes in them.

The Easiest Beginner Seeds

Tomatoes — Tomatoes are self-pollinating, which means you don’t have to worry much about cross-pollination. They’re one of the most forgiving seeds to save. More on processing below.

Peppers — Let a pepper fully ripen (past the stage you’d normally eat it) until it’s deeply red, orange, or yellow. Then scoop the seeds, dry them on a paper plate, and store.

Beans and peas — Honestly the easiest. Just let the pods dry on the plant, then shell them out. Done.

Squash and zucchini — Let one fruit go well past eating stage — it’ll get huge and almost waxy. Scoop seeds, rinse, dry.

Herbs — Basil, cilantro, dill, and fennel will literally drop seeds on their own if you let them bolt. You’re just collecting what nature’s already doing.

How to Actually Process and Dry Seeds

The Wet Method (For Tomatoes)

Tomatoes have a gel coating around each seed that inhibits germination — you need to remove it. Here’s the quick version:

1. Squeeze seeds and pulp into a jar with a little water.
2. Let it sit on the counter for 2–3 days, stirring daily. A layer of mold will form on top — that’s normal and good. It breaks down the gel.
3. After fermentation, pour off the moldy top layer. Viable seeds will sink.
4. Rinse seeds well, then spread on a ceramic plate or parchment paper to dry completely — at least 1–2 weeks in a warm, ventilated spot.

Do NOT use paper towels for drying tomato seeds — they stick and you’ll lose half of them trying to peel them off. Ask me how I know.

The Dry Method (For Everything Else)

For peppers, beans, squash, and herbs, it’s much simpler:

1. Harvest when fully mature and dry on the plant if possible.
2. Spread seeds in a single layer on a plate or screen.
3. Dry in a warm, low-humidity spot for 1–2 weeks.
4. Seeds should snap, not bend, when fully dry.

Here in Florida, our humidity makes this trickier in summer. I run a fan near them or dry them inside with the AC on.

Storing Seeds the Right Way

Once your seeds are bone dry, storage is simple. The enemies of seed viability are heat, humidity, and light — so you want cool, dark, and dry.

We use canning jars with tight-fitting lids for our seed storage. A small silica gel packet inside helps with any residual moisture (save the ones that come in shoe boxes — they work perfectly).

Label everything with:

• Plant variety name
• Date harvested
• Any notes (“best producer,” “grew huge,” “resistant to that weird wilt we had”)

We use a seed saving kit for smaller quantities — little envelopes that fit neatly inside a jar or a small box. My kids love writing the labels. It becomes part of our fall rhythm, right alongside canning and putting the garden to bed.

Store your jars somewhere cool — a pantry shelf works fine. If you want maximum longevity, the fridge or freezer works for many types of seeds, though for most home gardeners, a cool pantry is plenty.

Making It Part of Your Homeschool (And Your Kids’ Actual Childhood)

This is the part I love most about seed saving — it connects kids to something real. Not a worksheet about plant life cycles, but actual plant life cycles playing out in their hands.

We’ve made seed saving part of our Charlotte Mason nature study in a few ways:

• Sketching and journaling seeds at harvest time (the Faber-Castell watercolors are perfect for painting detailed botanical sketches)
• Examining seeds under the microscope — even simple bean seeds look incredible up close
• Keeping a seed inventory as a practical math and record-keeping exercise
• Reading about where our food comes from and why seed diversity matters

This is the 1990s-kid way of learning, honestly. You go outside, you do a thing, you pay attention to what’s happening. My kids are learning more about biology through seed saving and our backyard chickens than any curriculum could teach them sitting at a table. (And if you want more ideas for weaving nature into your days, check out Charlotte Mason Nature Study Journal Prompts by Season — it’s one of my most-used posts.)

We also tie our composting and garden cycles together — kitchen scraps go to the compost bin, compost feeds the garden, the garden produces seeds, seeds start next year’s garden. The kids see the whole loop. That’s real education.

And if you’re growing vegetables to eventually preserve — we’re big on putting things up in Florida’s brief cool-season harvest windows — check out how to start composting with kids and cover crops for a Florida summer garden to round out your whole-garden approach.

One More Thing: Grow More Than You Need

Here’s the simple rule for seed saving: always grow a little extra with the intention of letting some plants go to seed. You can’t save seeds from produce you’ve already eaten — at least not for most vegetables. So plant a few extra tomatoes, let one zucchini get away from you (honestly, that’s not hard), and leave a few pepper plants to fully ripen past eating stage.

Once you get into the rhythm, it becomes second nature. You start looking at your garden differently — not just as food, but as a living seed bank that belongs to your family.

Seed saving is one of those practices that sounds like it requires more than it does. The truth is it’s just attention and a little patience — two things our kids are building every day they spend time outside, in the garden, watching things grow. If our great-grandmothers could do this with a paper envelope and a cool cellar, we can absolutely do it with a mason jar and a Florida pantry.

Start small. Save a few tomato seeds this season. Label them, put them away, and pull them out next spring. That one small act connects you to generations of people who fed their families the same way — and it’ll mean more to your kids than you expect.

📖 You Might Also Like:

• How to Make Homemade Yogurt from Scratch (The Simple Way Our Family Actually Does It)
• Best Cover Crops for a Florida Garden in Summer (What Actually Works in the Heat)
• Charlotte Mason Nature Study Journal Prompts by Season (For Real Kids Who’d Rather Be Outside)

Frequently Asked Questions

What seeds are easiest to save for beginners?

Beans, peas, peppers, and tomatoes are the best starting points for beginner seed savers. Beans and peas are the simplest — just let the pods dry on the plant and shell them out. Tomatoes require a short fermentation process but are very forgiving. Stick to open-pollinated or heirloom varieties, not hybrids, or your saved seeds won’t reliably reproduce the parent plant.

Can I save seeds from grocery store vegetables?

Sometimes, but it’s hit or miss. Most grocery store produce comes from hybrid varieties, which means the seeds won’t reliably grow true to the parent plant. Your best bet is to save seeds from heirloom or open-pollinated varieties you’ve grown yourself from a reputable seed source. The exception is things like dried beans from the bulk aisle — many of those will actually sprout just fine.

How long do saved seeds last?

It depends on the type of seed and how you store them. Most vegetable seeds stored in a cool, dry, dark place will remain viable for 2–5 years. Onions and parsnips tend to lose viability faster (1–2 years), while tomatoes and squash can last 4–5 years if stored well. Always do a simple germination test — lay 10 seeds on a damp paper towel and count how many sprout in a week — before planting a large amount of older seeds.

Do I need to worry about cross-pollination when saving seeds?

For some plants, yes. Corn, squash, melons, and brassicas (like kale, broccoli, and cabbage) cross-pollinate easily with other varieties of the same species, which can give you unpredictable results. Tomatoes and beans are largely self-pollinating and much easier to save without worrying about isolation. If you’re growing multiple varieties of squash, for example, you’d need to hand-pollinate and cover flowers, or grow only one variety if you want to save true seeds.

How do I know if my saved seeds are still good?

Do a simple germination test before planting season. Place 10 seeds on a damp paper towel, fold it over, seal it in a zip-lock bag, and put it somewhere warm (on top of the fridge works great). Check after 5–10 days and count how many have sprouted. If 7 or more germinate, you’re in great shape. If fewer than 5 sprout, either plant more densely to compensate or start fresh with new seeds.

Non-Toxic Dish Soap That Actually Cuts Grease (What We Use and Why It Matters)

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If you’ve ever grabbed a bottle of dish soap off the grocery store shelf because it had a leaf on the label and the word “plant-based” in big green letters — and then stood there scrubbing dried scrambled eggs off a pan wondering why it wasn’t working — you are not alone. That was me, more times than I care to admit.

We cook a lot from scratch in this house. Cast iron every morning, a slow cooker running a few times a week, roasting pans, soup pots, and approximately one million snack bowls per day courtesy of my kids. Greasy dishes are just part of the deal. And when I made the switch to a non-toxic home, dish soap was one of those things I kept going back and forth on — because so many of the “clean” options just didn’t perform.

So I want to share what I’ve learned, what we actually use now, and how to read a label so you’re not getting greenwashed at the store.

Why Dish Soap Ingredients Actually Matter

I know it can feel like dish soap is low on the priority list. It rinses off, right? But here’s the thing — we use it multiple times a day, every single day. Our kids help wash dishes. It goes down our drain and into the water supply. And a lot of conventional dish soaps contain ingredients that are worth knowing about.

Here are a few to watch for:

Fragrance (or “parfum”) — This is a catch-all term that can legally hide hundreds of undisclosed chemicals, including known hormone disruptors. Even if a soap smells like lavender, “fragrance” on the label is a red flag.

Triclosan — An antibacterial agent that’s been linked to hormone disruption and antibiotic resistance. It’s been banned in hand soaps but still appears in some dish products.

SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) — It’s what makes soap foam up. It’s not the worst thing on the planet, but it can be a skin irritant, especially for kids with sensitive skin. Some people are fine with it; others aren’t.

Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) and Benzisothiazolinone — These are preservatives that show up in a lot of “green” soaps too. They’re skin sensitizers and can be problematic with repeated exposure.

Synthetic dyes — Completely unnecessary and just added for aesthetics. No thanks.

A good resource for checking your current soap is the EWG Healthy Living app — you can scan the barcode right there in the store aisle. We also love Grove Collaborative for sourcing cleaner home products — they vet their brands and make it easy to find things that actually work without the ingredient guessing game.

What “Plant-Based” Actually Means (and Doesn’t)

Here’s the greenwashing part. “Plant-based” doesn’t mean non-toxic, and it doesn’t mean effective. It just means the surfactants (the cleaning agents) were derived from plants at some point in the process. The rest of the formula can still be full of synthetic preservatives, fragrance, and dyes.

Same goes for “biodegradable.” Most dish soaps biodegrade eventually. That word alone tells you almost nothing about whether it’s safe for your family.

What you actually want to look for is a full ingredient list you can read and recognize, a fragrance-free or essential-oil-scented option, and ideally third-party certifications like EPA Safer Choice or EWG Verified.

Brands That Actually Work

Okay, here’s what you actually came for. I’m going to be honest — I’ve tried a lot of these, and some were disappointing. Here’s what has held up in our kitchen.

Branch Basics

This is my current favorite and what we keep at the sink. It’s a concentrate you dilute yourself, the ingredient list is genuinely clean and transparent, and it actually cuts through grease. Like, real grease — the kind left behind after frying chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet. It’s not cheap upfront, but because you dilute it, one bottle lasts a long time. We also use it for other cleaning tasks around the house, which makes it even more economical.

If you’re interested in making more of your own cleaning products from scratch, I’ve got a whole post on DIY Natural Cleaning Products for Every Room (That Actually Work and Cost Almost Nothing) that walks through what we make ourselves versus what we buy.

Seventh Generation Free & Clear

This is my budget-friendly backup and honestly it does a solid job. The Free & Clear version specifically avoids fragrance and dye, which is the version I’d recommend over their scented lines. It’s widely available — I can grab it at Walmart or order through Grove Collaborative when I’m stocking up. It’s EPA Safer Choice certified, which gives me extra confidence.

Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap

Pure castile soap is a great option, especially if you’re already using Dr. Bronner’s for other things in the house. It’s simple, the ingredient list is about as clean as it gets, and it works. The one caveat — if you have hard water (and a lot of us in Florida do), castile soap can leave a film. Adding a small splash of white vinegar to your rinse water helps with this.

Ecover Zero

Another solid EWG-rated option that’s fragrance-free and performs well. I’ve used this one in a pinch and been happy with it.

Tips for Getting Dishes Actually Clean Without Toxic Soap

Switching soaps is sometimes only half the battle. Here are a few things that made a real difference for us:

• Hot water matters more than you think. The hotter the water, the less you need to rely on strong surfactants. This is especially true for greasy pots.
• Don’t dilute your soap before it hits the dish. Squirt it directly on your sponge or brush, not into a water-filled sink, for maximum cleaning power.
• Baking soda as a booster. For really stubborn baked-on food, a sprinkle of baking soda with your dish soap works great — no harsh chemicals needed.
• Good tools help. A quality dish brush or a natural fiber scrubber makes a real difference.

We also keep beeswax wrap in heavy rotation in our kitchen — it means fewer dishes overall, since we’re not going through as much plastic wrap or foil to cover things.

What This Has to Do With Raising Kids Intentionally

I know dish soap might seem like a small thing. But I think about it this way — when my kids help wash dishes (which they do, because that’s just part of life around here), they’re putting their hands in that water. When I’m rinsing out their stainless steel water bottles and their snack containers, that soap is touching everything they eat from.

And there’s something bigger too. Teaching kids to pay attention to what goes into and onto their bodies, to ask questions about labels, to care about what goes down the drain and into the earth — that’s part of raising a thoughtful human. My kids have started noticing ingredient labels on their own. My oldest will pick up a bottle at the store and say “Mom, it has fragrance in it” before I even say a word. That’s the win, honestly.

For more on navigating non-toxic products for your family, my post on Non-Toxic Baby Products: What to Actually Buy (and What’s Just Marketing Hype) covers a lot of the same greenwashing traps across a wider range of products.

Our Current Sink Setup

In case you just want to know what we literally have right now:

• Branch Basics dish soap concentrate in a glass pump bottle
• A natural fiber dish brush (ours is bamboo)
• White vinegar in a small jar nearby for hard water rinse situations
• Wool dryer balls — okay, those aren’t at the sink, but they’re part of our overall swap-out-the-synthetics life

It took some trial and error to get here, and I don’t think there’s one perfect answer for every family. But I hope this saves you some of the back-and-forth I went through.

If you’re on a similar journey of cleaning up your home without losing your mind (or your budget), you might also love my post on How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent (Non-Toxic, Actually Works, and Costs Almost Nothing) — it’s one of the easiest swaps we’ve made.

Here’s to clean dishes and a cleaner home — for real this time. 🌿

📖 You Might Also Like:

• DIY Natural Cleaning Products for Every Room (That Actually Work and Cost Almost Nothing)
• Non-Toxic Baby Products: What to Actually Buy (and What’s Just Marketing Hype)
• How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent (Non-Toxic, Actually Works, and Costs Almost Nothing)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the safest non-toxic dish soap for families with kids?

Some of the safest options are Branch Basics, Seventh Generation Free & Clear, and Ecover Zero. Look for soaps that are fragrance-free, dye-free, and ideally EPA Safer Choice or EWG Verified. Avoid anything with “fragrance” listed as an ingredient, synthetic dyes, or preservatives like methylisothiazolinone.

Does non-toxic dish soap actually cut grease?

Yes — but not all of them are equal. Branch Basics concentrate and Seventh Generation Free & Clear both perform well on greasy dishes. Using hot water and applying soap directly to your brush rather than into a full sink also makes a big difference in cleaning power.

Is Dawn dish soap non-toxic?

Dawn is effective but it’s not considered a non-toxic option. It contains synthetic fragrances, dyes, and surfactants that score poorly on the EWG database. If you’re trying to reduce chemical exposure in your home, there are cleaner alternatives that work just as well for everyday use.

What should I avoid in dish soap ingredients?

The main ingredients to avoid are synthetic fragrance (listed as ‘fragrance’ or ‘parfum’), artificial dyes (like Blue 1 or Yellow 5), triclosan, SLS if your family has sensitive skin, and preservatives like methylisothiazolinone (MIT) or benzisothiazolinone. These show up in many conventional and even some ‘green’ brands.

Is castile soap good for washing dishes?

Castile soap like Dr. Bronner’s can work well for dishes and has a very clean ingredient list. The main drawback is that in hard water areas — which is common in many parts of Florida — it can leave a white film or residue. Adding a small splash of white vinegar to your rinse water helps counteract this.