[Almost] Edible Spring Cleaning

There is something about the Spring that makes you want to clean and declutter.  After months of cool temperatures it feels wonderful to be able to throw open the windows on a sunny day.  The sunlight has the added disadvantage of showing how much dust is swilling around as it glistens in its rays, doing a merry dance.  I am the first to admit that I am not a huge fan of housework, I do the minimum I need each week.  I am reading a fascinating book at the moment, it is not about cleaning but it does mention our obsession to clean and in doing so we are ridding the world of good and bad bacteria and worryingly in the case of the good ones possible forever.  A bit of dirt is no bad thing it would seem, I am also doing my bit for the preservation of good bacteria.

I mostly* always use my own homemade products when I clean.  The cleaning product aisles in the supermarket are not ones I ever venture down.  When I inadvertently do, on the way to the checkout, the smell of chemicals is really strong and totally overpowering.  A recent study highlighted that whilst they might clean our homes the fragrance chemicals in these products react with the air effecting air quality in our homes, if you also use scented candles and air freshness you could be creating an interesting, and not terribly good for you, soup.

The two ingredients I use the most are ones that you might find in your food stores.  Bicarb [baking soda] and white vinegar, I use enough of each to justify buying it in bulk as the shops tend to only sell small quantities.  I use the bicarb to clean all surfaces, floors and the bathroom suite either sprinkling it neat and rubbing it in with a damp cloth or dissolving in water and using the solution which is what I do to clean the tiled and wooden floors.  A 50:50 mix with borax is my washing and dishwater powder.  I inherited a carpet in my bathroom which can get a little smelly at times, but this carpet deodoriser is perfect for removing the smell.  You may wonder why we don't just get rid of the carpet but the floorboards underneath are not a suitable flooring either, the bathroom will eventually need an overhaul so there is no point replacing the flooring only to rip it out again when we come to replace everything.

My oven doesn't get a clean inside very often, we eat very little meat so I can get away with it.  But when it does get a clean I make this:

Oven Cleaner mix 1/4 cup salt, 3/4 bicarb and a 1/2 cup of water and mix into a paste, apply into a warm and oven and let it sit for a least an hour or overnight and wipe clean.

I not only clean the house with bicarb, I also use it to make.....

Deodorant  1/4 cup deodorant, 1/4 arrowroot, 2tbsp coconut oil (you can also add drops of essential oil if you wish) melt the coconut oil and mix.  I use an old deodorant stick and keep refilling it, you might need to store this in the fridge in summer if your house gets warm.

I mentioned white vinegar earlier, this is great for cleaning glass you can spray it on neat or dilute with a little water, wipe off with some old newspaper.  It gets used neat as a fabric conditioner , 2 tbsp with a few drops of essential oil.  I use lavender which seems to be doing a great job of keeping the moths out of our house, that is not to say we were ever infested with them but I rarely see them in my house these days.  I also use it neat to clean the loo.   If you have mildew then mix 50:50 with salt to make a paste and wipe onto effected area.  I have read recently that you can use it as a weed killer anyone ever tried this?  I am not sure what effect it would have on the soil or on other plants growing near by, I will be doing a little more research before trying that one out I think.

You have probably had enough now, so I will leave you with one last recipe.  I mentioned recently that I make my own toothpaste, here is my recipe for that:

Toothpaste 4tbs coconut oil, 4tbs fullers earth /bentonite clay, 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, 10 - 15 drops food grade peppermint oil.  Mix together, add a little water if necessary to gain the consistency you like.

What cleaning products do you make?

  :::::::::::::::

* I buy soap and washing up liquid

I will be back on the 20th (Wednesday) with this months In My Kitchen if you wish to join me.

Slow Living.....

It is always lovely to look back and reflect on what you have done over the previous weeks or months, taking stock, observing changes and celebrating achievements.  Even better if you can join together and see what others have been doing too in their part of the world, blogging is a wonderful way of making the world a smaller place.  Christine over a Slow Living Essentials hosts a monthly link up of reflections here are mine for April....

...nourish as we enter fully into Spring in my part of the world it is a time of warming up and a green haze blooming.  It is a gradual awakening and this had also bought a change each week to our veg bag.  Slowly the root vegetables of the last months have been replaced with new veg which is so exciting!  We have been enjoying spring greens, asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and salad leaves.  Each week when I get a list of what will be in my bag, I sit down with my recipe books and plan a menu, each week there is something new to cook with.  Much as I love the root vegetables of the autumn and winter I am always ready for the change that spring brings.

...prepare the greening of our hedgerows has meant that we have been out doing a wee spot of foraging.  We have been picking the beautifully pale hawthorn leaves for our salads, nettle for cups of tea and wild garlic to make into pesto using this recipe I have frozen most of what we made as it was a huge quantity.  I last made this two years ago and we are just finishing up that batch!

...reduce after fourteen years of continual use, including over four years of nappies, our washing machine died this month.  My husband opened the machine up to establish whether or not it could be repaired, sadly it was beyond that it was completely worn out.  Rather than send the whole machine to the tip, my husband strip it down completely making piles of bits, some for recycling, some for reusing, some which had to go to the tip.  The drum we are keeping to make into a fire pit.

...green out of necessity I make nearly all the toiletries and cleaning products we use in our house.  Although I was forced down this road I would not go back to buying them even if they were ok for my skin.  This month I made another batch of deodorant.  I can't find a record of making this last year but I know I did, two years ago I made some in May.  I think this batch probably lasts for a year as I know I don't make it that often!  The quantity I make fills two old deodorant sticks that I kept and keep refilling.

...grow apart from both my children having massive growth spurts lately our garden is also blooming too.  We have sown and chitted potatoes, the latter of which will need planting out in the next week or so.  We have also sown many seeds all of which are now wee seedlings sitting happily in their seed trays and pots on the staging in the polytunnel.  It is always interesting that seeds sown on the same day grow at completely different rates.  As well as the seeds I have also started some onion sets off in trays, we have such a short growing season where I live that this gives them the head start they need to grow to a decent size, otherwise I end up with a crop of onions the size of golf balls!

The seedlings are being kept insulated by some horticultural fleece as an over blanket and some leftover carpet underlay underneath them. We had some carpets laid a month or so ago and the carpet layers left us the off cuts. One piece is a perfect fit for our staging. Despite having a polytunnel the temperatures in there still drop really low most nights this extra insulation is an attempt to keep the temperature slightly more constant and it seems to work as most seeds do germinate.

...create I have been doing huge amounts of sewing this month for the many birthdays of children of friends and my family.   I have rustled up an owl storysack, a wee gnome, two rainbow balls, a play cape and a couple of pairs of slouchy/pyjama type trousers.  I created a Mother Earth for our seasonal table.  My knitting needles have been a little quieter this month, I have finished the body of a cardigan for myself and now need to work on the sleeves, I have blocked and sewn up a cardigan for my eldest which now needs a hood adding and I have cast on a new project and knitted a few rows.

...discover with all the sewing I have been doing I have reading a lot about different techniques and words used in the world of sewing.  I am totally self taught and rarely use patterns but I am making use of one to make something for my youngest.  The pattern directions are a bit scant for me so I have been looking lots up to try and make sense of what I need to do!

...enhance I have been doing lots of different things with my local Explorer Scout unit this month including a trip to the theatre with some of them, it has been a very long time since I visited a theatre.  We are entering a busy period for our unit so I have lots of preparation to do for the coming months.

...enjoy the warmer weather has meant that we have dusted off, literally it is kept in the garage and was covered in sawdust, our canoe and taken it out on several trips.  I love going out canoeing on day trips and overnight or longer journeys.  The weather was beautiful on both occasions although the wind made sailing, we have a small sail for our canoe, rather hairy at the end of one of the days.

Deodorant

For some time now I have been trying to find a deodorant that works for me.  Last year I started to have symptoms of Urticaria a skin condition that you can read about here.  The upshot of this is that most skin products or products that come in to contact with my skin have ingredients that make me itch.  I tried using bicarb on its own for a while.  I found it difficult to apply and it make my skin a bit red, dry and itchy.  After doing some research I realised that bicarb on its own may be a bit strong for my skin and it would be better to mix it with something else to tone it down.

I have now settled on the following recipe:

Homemade Deodorant
1/4 cup bicarb
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
5 tbsp coconut oil

Coconut oil is solid a room temperature.  I placed it in a glass bowl and put the bowl in another bowl of boiling water and left it to melt.  I then stirred in the bicarb and arrowroot.  I left this to cool a little before putting into an old deodorant stick that I had cleaned.  I bought all these ingredients in my local health food shop.

I have been using this for the last month and it seems to be working.  We have had the occasional warm day but admittedly it has been cold on most days.  It remains to be seen (and smelt!) as to whether it works in hot weather, if we get any this year that is.