Vinegar the Elixir of Life

Wait wait wait!  Did I just say vinegar???  Yes, yes I did.  So I am sure all you connoisseurs of wine and hoppy beers are screaming in agony, but do me a favor and let me explain why I love vinegar so much.  I came across vinegar at a young age and we only used it sporadically in our household.  Mainly it was for washing windows with newspaper and catching flies in the summertime.  Yes that old adage about catching more flies with honey than vinegar is just a household myth unless you are trying to get that wormy professor to see why you should have another chance at taking that exam.  Don't worry I will provide a link at the end of this blog with a few resources and one being the recipe for the fly recipe.  It really does work by the way.  Biting flies in the summer especially in the midwest can be highly annoying and keeping a fly swatter handy is not always convenient.  So besides destroying the innocent lives of those biting flies what can vinegar be used for?

If you go to your local library, one can probably find a book about vinegar or just google vinegar and its uses and you will find a plethora of information.  I have a little book by Margaret Briggs that describes the 1001 practical uses of vinegar.  Trust me I have not used all of them.  Like my mother, I have my favorite uses for vinegar.  One of my favorite uses is in the washing machine, I put vinegar into the rinse cycle.  My clothes do not come out smelling like detergent either.  I know some of you will be shocked to discover I do not use dryer sheets. I do not need to because the vinegar in my wash also softens the fabrics in the dryer.  I don't have the static cling that so many people have to deal with and my clothes get a sense of freedom from all the chemicals in those dryer sheets.  Now if you buy used clothing for your child, be prepared to run those clothes even with vinegar through a couple of cycles to get rid of the detergent smell.  Have you gone down the detergent aisle in a grocery store lately?  WOW!  It is more potent than going to those bath places in the mall.  Maybe not quite, but I refuse to reek of these scents.

So vinegar can be very useful just for laundry and who doesn't have laundry?  I never seem to see the end of it especially with a small toddler in tow.  I have no idea how one child can create so much laundry for me, but she does.  Thinking of my little girl, I have found out that she enjoys a cucumber onion vinegar recipe that my Mom always made in the summertime.  Slice some onions and cucumber, soak those in some water with a little bit of pepper and salt, and add vinegar before serving.  However, she loves to have the cucumber and onion if they have been soaking in vinegar for quite some time.  Play with it!  That would be my suggestion.

Besides, a great little snack use, I love to use vinegar to wipe down my bathroom and kitchen counters. My only problem is remembering where I last put the spray bottle of vinegar and water.  Sometimes bathroom cleanser can make your counter feel tacky and using a little bit of vinegar on a cloth can remove this buildup.  So the smell is not one my hubby enjoys, but I actually do not mind it.  Turn on a fan if it smells bad, but trust me the smell does not linger for very long.

Recently, I finally found the time to plant some African violets and a small cactus that had been sitting in water.  The little cactus had been in a shot glass and the glass did not look very pretty.  I ran it in the dishwasher and it still had a bunch of crud on the inside.  I put full strength vinegar on it and let it sit for two days and VOILA crud gone!

So yes vinegar has it uses in my home and I could go on and on about the uses of this one simple little product about how it can kill weeds to turning milk into buttermilk.  However, there are reasons that they have had to write books on vinegar and if I have piqued your interest then take a moment and google vinegar.  I am still skeptical that apple cider vinegar can make you lose weight, but maybe thats another blog experiment I will need to revisit someday!  Btw, if you are an experienced wine or beer maker then try your hand at making this elixir for your household.  I promise you won't be sorry!!!!

Fly Recipe
Vinegar Uses