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.

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. 

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

Sometimes I get Mountain High

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

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

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

I love your blog

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

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

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

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…

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...