Strawberry Liqueur

We picked up some strawberry "seconds" at the farmer's market last weekend and I thought I'd make a few pots of jam. Well, I didn't get a round tuit on the weekend, but the berries (what we hadn't eaten) made it to the pot early this evening.

The strawberries were in the pot, simmering away when I noticed there was a fair amount of liquid in the pot, even though I'd only added the juice of a couple of lemons. The evil plan was hatched (tee hee :)). If I only potted up the berries and some of the syrup, I could use the rest of the syrup for strawberry liqueur.

Quick trip to the liquor cabinet revealed a bottle and a little bit of vodka. Some quick calculations and 800ml 40% vodka + 500ml strawberry syrup = 1.3L strawberry liqueur at 25% alcohol. Should work.

Scurry back to the stove, skim off the fruit and some syrup - two pots of strawberry jam. With assistance from my dear one, we strained the syrup, mixed it with the vodka and bottled. Taste test (of course!) revealed a fruity drink, obviously quite alcoholic. Will taste sooo great this summer on ice with a sprig of mint!

Oh, and we are so having oat cakes for breakfast to check out the jam.

love and light
naturewitch

Shredding and Milling

Inspired by the Crone's Mount Mulch, I decided to get the shredder out of the shed on the weekend and convert some prunings into mulch. Well, I ended up converting Mount Prunings to Mulch Molehill! It is absolutely amazing how much the pile shrinks when shredded.

On a totally unrelated note, I finally got back to milling some soap a little while ago and thought I'd share the results with you.

I know a lot of you are making basic soaps, but I'm not sure how many of you are milling your soap. Milling soap is when you grate up your basic cured soap and remelt it. You can then add all sorts of things and they don't react with the soap ingredients, so you don't lose the fragrances, colours, etc.

To mill soap, add 3 parts of water by weight to every 4 parts of grated soap, eg, to mill 600g basic soap, you add 450g water.

Slowly remelt it over a low heat, stirring occasionally but not too much or it will go frothy (if it does, you can always turn it into floating soap by giving it a good stir to incorporate lots of air).

When the soap is remelted, add whatever ingredients you like, eg, nut butters, pureed fruits, oatbran, honey, etc. Remove from the heat and stir gently until the soap stops shrinking and is relatively thick. Pour into moulds. Lightly tap moulds on the bench or table top to remove air pockets. Place in a warm spot. Remove from moulds in a day or two, then leave to dry for a couple of weeks before using. You can trim off any little extra bits if you like to neaten them up, but I don't usually bother.

Most authors recommend milling within a few weeks of making the basic soap. I've found, however, that if you are patient with the remelting process, that you can mill soap at any age. The older the soap, the drier it tends to be, so you may need to add a bit extra water, but it still seems to work. For example, the soap I used recently was actually about 8 or 9 years (yes, years!) old. Admittedly, there are some white parts in the finished soap where the base soap had not melted completely, but I think that just adds to the charm.

For moulds, I use whatever little containers I can get my paws on - generally the little plastic containers they put camembert in are a good size. You can also use milk cartons, then cut across to make soap slices.

Now, to satisfy your curiosity - the soaps are (clockwise, from top left) mandarin and passionfruit (pulped mandarin and passionfruit fragrance); pawpaw (pulped pawpaw skin); jasmine scented yoghurt soap (out of date berry yoghurt found in back of fridge); and shea nut butter and honeycomb (from bees, not confectionery).

Milling soap is such a fun thing to do from time to time that I recommend you try it! And the finished products make great gifts.

love and light
naturewitch

Lunar Eclipse

While I was taking the cats for a walk early this morning (between about 5:45 and 6:15am), there was a partial lunar eclipse. The earth was blocking the top part of the full moon. This is roughly what we saw.

love and light
naturewitch

Solar Rooftops

From the latest Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) bulletin:

Take action: 1,000,000 solar rooftops in 15 years!

ACF wants to see a million solar rooftops within fifteen years. To do this at least 1000 Australian households need to install solar panels every week. An excellent way to achieve this would be if households get paid for all the electricity their solar panels generate. Send an e-mail to Environment Minister Peter Garrett now, asking for the introduction of an effective national solar feed-in tariff by July 2009.

This sounds like a great opportunity to lobby for solar subsidy.

love and light
naturewitch

Cosmetics

Lots of us try to be careful about what we put on our skin for many reasons - our health, the environment and our finances, to name a few. But what are we really using?

A couple of friends have recently emailed me about a cosmetics ingredients site that may interest you as well. There is an American site: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ which tells you the possible effects of ingredients in cosmetic products. Although the site is American, because a lot of cosmetics companies are multinationals, you'll find heaps of familiar brands.

I looked at a few items and it was scary what they contain. My favourite body butter (my main cosmetic indulgence), for example, contains ingredients linked to cancer, developmental / reproductive toxicity, allergies, immunotoxicity, etc, etc. And it is one touted as being "natural"!

Well, it looks like it's back to the kitchen for me - I've never quite managed a moisturising cream that's completely satisfactory, but I'll give it another go.

love and light
naturewitch

Are Animal Manures Organic?

I had an interesting conversation with someone the other night about organic gardening. He maintained that the animal manures we can purchase (eg, cow, sheep, poultry) are not truly organic products because of the hormones and/or antibiotics the animals are fed.

However, most advocates of domestic organic food production seem to use them, as I'm sure do most of us. The person I was talking to said that he considered the only "organic" fertilisers commonly available to home gardeners were fish emulsion, seaweed extract and home-made compost.

Granted, the fish emulsion and seaweed extract probably are "organic", but we know our oceans and waterways are often polluted and are therefore contaminants will most likely be present in the fish and the seaweed. As for compost, how many of us manage to have the only components in our compost fully "organic"? For example, I add shredded paper to mine, which I would almost guarantee is not totally "organic".

Which leads me to wonder about the time it might take for "non-organic" components to break down to the point of being relatively harmless. If this break down does occur within a reasonable period of time, maybe the manures we buy are OK, as they tend to be heat composted.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

love and light
naturewitch

Another Fun Day in the Garden

Today was another productive day in the garden. I dug over a neglected area of the garden to plant my red pear and put the mattock through a dock. I decided to try to identify what sort of dock it was and I think it may be yellow dock or Rumex crispus, which is the medicinal dock. Before getting too excited, though, I'm going to confirm with my herb teacher tomorrow.

Yellow dock is great for a host of ailments such as liver congestion, gall stones, spleen and lymphatic conditions, psoriasis and constipation, as well as promoting the flow of bile and cleansing the blood. (As always, this information is intended for interest only and any treatment of these conditions should be done under the supervision of a qualified herbalist.)

Apart from the great find, I planted a few things today:

• 20 Lily of the Valley pips
• 40 Solomon's Seal tubers
• the red pear
• a female and a male kiwi fruit

It started to rain at that point, so I had to come inside, but the rain will water everything in nicely. Don't you just love the way that nature provides us with what we need?

love and light
naturewitch

Delightful Day in the Garden

I cannot be cooped up for too long, so I've found the past couple of weeks or so very frustrating, as I've recuperated from my horrible lurgy. However, this morning dawned beautifully fine and feeling somewhat recovered, I headed for the garden.

The first delight that greeted me was a lovely buzz coming from our early flowering peach - about two dozen bees were already at work, drinking the lovely peach flower nectar. I tried to take a photo, but alas it didn't come out very well. Actually, this peach tree was one I bought from someone at the local farmers' markets. It was supposed to be a yellow fleshed bottling peach, but turned out to be a white fleshed eating peach. It has some of the best peaches I have ever eaten, so the mix up is long forgiven. Can't wait for the new crop.

Another delight was discovering some little waxy potatoes in an area I was preparing for kiwi fruit. I had planted potatoes in this area the summer before last and apparently, a few have continued to grow. They made a lovely warm potato salad for lunch, accompanied by fresh herbs, baby beets, carrots and winter lettuce, all from our garden - not bad for the middle of winter!

While I worked in the garden today, I was serenaded by a local family of magpies. The song from Australian magpies is indeed unique and is especially beautiful on a Sunday for some reason. I found a lovely fat scarab beetle larva while digging and threw it to one of the magpies who then watched me keenly for the rest of the day, awaiting further treats. No more fat grubs, unfortunately, but the family did come down and dine from our compost heap, as well as checking over my diggings.

During the day, I was also talking to my neighbour and saying that I wanted to get some bees. Apparently, he has had the same thoughts, so a hive in the back yard should not present any problems. I just have to source one now.

And at the end of this gorgeous day was a chat with my sister, a lovely hot shower and dinner with my darling man. Hope your day was just as great.

love and light
naturewitch

The Joys of a Hot Shower and a New Desk

I stood under the shower late this afternoon and gave thanks to the sun for heating the water and thanks to our local authority for having dams that supply us with running water. How luxurious that shower felt! And how many people don't have that luxury?

The truth is that I have been a mad woman today, rearranging bookcases and other furniture about the house, all because I got a desk for my study so I don't have to take over the kitchen table any more. So I was tired and dusty and the shower went down a treat.

When I went looking for a desk the other day, I decided to check out the local classifieds first (always been a fan of second-hand items and op-shops). There were heaps of second-hand desks, many of which people were struggling to sell. I guess that people in Canberra generally just go out and buy things brand new. Anyway, I found the perfect desk in the next suburb for the bargain price of $60.

This got me to thinking about what will happen to all those other desks on the classifieds? Will they all find new homes? Will they eventually be dumped? How much are we, as a society, reusing items for which others no longer have a use and how much are we just going out and buying things new, just because we can? And what is this costing our planet?

I'm pleased with my desk. It meets all my needs and fits the space we have beautifully. The "desk miles" were not that many and we are using something that someone else no longer needed. It was a great purchase for us and also for our planet.

love and light
naturewitch

Tatie Planting Time

For a lot of you, it's time to start thinking about planting potatoes. It's a little early here yet, but since there's been a bit of discussion about growing potatoes, I thought I'd share with you a great way of growing them without any back-breaking digging.

1. Choose your patch of ground and cover it liberally with newspapers.
2. Place potatoes on top of the paper at about 30cm or 12in apart in a grid.
3. Cover with a layer of mulch or hay (lucerne hay is best if it's not too expensive). On top of the mulch / hay, place liberal amounts of blood and bone, well rotted animal manures and/or compost. Water the lot in well.
4. Add more hay and more fertilisers / manures, watering after each addition. You want the pile to be moist throughout, but not sodden.
5. When you reach a height of about 60cm, finish off with a layer of mulch or hay.
6. Note: you can add shredded paper and lawn clippings in with your hay if you like.

The advantages of this technique are:

• no digging!
• when the potatoes are ready, you just lift up the layer of mulch and pick them up
• you are left with an area ready to dig over and plant with new things
• you end up with a heap of semi-composted hay, which is a great addition to the garden

The disadvantages are:

• the hay can be expensive
• you may need to top up the hay during the growing season, so the potatoes do not get exposed to light
• it takes a reasonable sized patch of ground (compared with potato condos)

Happy planting!

love and light
naturewitch

Chris James is Coming to Canberra

I normally wouldn't promote things like this on my blog, but this is a fantastic opportunity and may interest those in and around Canberra.

Chris James conducts the most beautiful singing workshops and he is coming to Canberra - thanks Felicity! The Innermost Sound Workshop will be held in Hackett on Sunday 7 September 2008 from 10am to 4:30pm. Cost is $150. Click here to get more details.

I've been to his workshops before and they are fantastic. You will not be disappointed. And for the first person who claims it, there is a Silk in the Clouds CD free!

love and light
naturewitch

Green Tomato Marmalade

I've been meaning to put this recipe up for a little while. I'm not a great fan of marmalade normally, but this one is quite lovely. It is extra nice on oat cakes for breakfast - YUM!

Ingredients
1.7kg (3.75lb) green (as in unripe) tomatoes, chopped
200g (7oz) crystallised ginger, chopped
Rind of 2 oranges (no pith), shredded
Rind of 4 lemons (no pith), shredded
Juice of the 2 oranges and 4 lemons
8 cups sugar

Method
Place everything except for the sugar in a large, heavy-based pan. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until it is all soft and pulpy - this may take up to one hour.
Add sugar and stir until dissolved, then boil rapidly until setting point is reached. You may need to stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
Pour into sterile jars and seal.

Notes
Test if the marmalade is set by placing a small amount of marmalade on a chilled saucer; leave for about 30 seconds and see if it thickens up.
Sterilise jars by placing clean, wet jars and lids on a tray in the oven at 120C for 20 minutes or more. Jars with metal lids are the best.
Fill jars while marmalade is still hot, place lids on, then with knuckle inside a teatowel (to stop you getting burned), press on the centre of the lid and screw down. As the jam cools, you will hear a pop as a vacuum is formed. Jam bottled in this way will keep for years without going mouldy on top.

This recipe will make about 2.7kg (6lb) of lovely golden marmalade.

love and light
naturewitch

Been Crook

FYI - haven't been posting in the last week or so due to a horrible lurgy in my chest. Feel like I'm starting to recover, but am still not up to much. Will hopefully post again soon.

love and light
naturewitch

Vacuum Sealers

The other day, I was tempted enough to make Molly's Peanut Butter Biscuits - well, my version of them, using cashew nut butter instead of peanut butter and gluten free flour.

When I finished making them, it occurred to me that every time I do make something like these scrummy biscuits we end up throwing out part of it because we are not very big cake or biscuit eaters. So, I thought I would be proactive and save some at the outset. The obvious choice would have been the freezer, except that ours is rather full at the moment. What to do?

Light bulb goes off - the vacuum sealer!!!! I had just been using it to package the baby corn prior to freezing it (bottling seemed like too much work, on reflection). So, I set about making small packets of delicious biscuits for us to munch some time in the future.

Then it occurred to me - the vacuum sealer is an ideal way to package many foods we might dry. They can then be stored in the cupboard, without taking up valuable freezer space.

Actually, I originally purchased the vacuum sealer to package produce prior to freezing to reduce the risk of freezer burn. It works a treat - I have been able to store sweet corn in peak condition from one year to the next. And there is no need to blanch, as all air is removed.

We found ours on ebay (see picture from ebay store at left) and I've been very happy with it. Yes, it uses plastic bags, but I think the savings in food wastage more than make up for the environmental cost of the bags and the small amount of electricity needed to suck and seal. Also, with dry goods you don't need to use any more energy to store - a ccol, dry cupboard is all you need. Despite the fact they use electricity, I think they are a great addition to the household buffering themselves against peak oil.

If you are thinking of purchasing one, however, do your homework and check out the specifications. We found that some of the better known brands were not as good as the one we eventually purchased (for about $150, I think).

Apologies for the dead meat in the pictures for all of you who might be sensitive to such things . . .

love and light
naturewitch

Great Day in the Garden

What a great day in the garden! Daphne has just started to flower - I love her beautifully sweet, rich scent. Have you noticed that many winter and early spring flowers have a particularly appealing scent? I wonder if they are calling the bees?

The great maize experiment has come to a close for now. We have had a few heavy frosts now and so I thought it was time to stop hoping for much produce. We didn't get much suitable for grain, but we did get quite a few "baby corn" cobs, which I intend to bottle and use in stir-fries. I've gathered the silks and will dry them to use as a herbal remedy (great as a diuretic and for soothing cystitis), as well as gathering some long leaves, which I will use to try some rush work. So, we may not have obtained what we hoped, but it certainly wasn't all in vain. I'll definitely be planting it earlier next season.

This morning I planted a packet of globe artichoke seeds (37), so hopefully we will have some baby artichoke plants by spring. Globe artichoke is a fantastic food - full of nutrients and a great tonic for tired livers.

I cleared the asparagus bed of the spent ferns today and there was a bonus - red berries, full of seeds. Normally I wouldn't bother with the seeds, as it takes quite a while to grow them to harvest size and you have to sort out the male from the female plants. But this asparagus is rather special. I bought it to replace the crowns that were overpowered by parsley a few years ago when I was ill and couldn't tend the garden. I had ordered both green and purple asparagus crowns, but when the order arrived, there was only purple asparagus because they had run out of green. The purple was merely to satisfy my curiosity, but it has proven to be a very prolific and delicious asparagus. It's not in the catalogue anymore; hence, I thought it might be worth trying to propagate some from the seed. I can't remember whether it was a hydrid or not, but I guess its babies will let me know the answer to that. Anyway, the asparagus bed is now fed and mulched and ready for next season.

Remember those cheeky potatoes surviving under the asparagus ferns? Well, the frost had knocked them back as well, so I harvested their produce - a couple of kilos of nice, red potatoes. They'll make a great meal.

Oh, and I picked the last of the tomatoes this morning - I'm blown away by the fact we still had tomatoes on bushes (albeit rather dead looking bushes) in open ground in Canberra in mid-July! It must be a record of some type, I'm sure. This winter has been rather mild until the last week or so, so maybe that accounts for it. I've collected both red and green tomatoes, so when I find my green tomato marmalade recipe, I'll be in the kitchen cooking some up - it sounds weird, but is truly delicious.

Unfortunately, with the frost the nasturtiums are looking rather sad and the peas, onions, leeks and shallots are not making much progress. But the broccoli is still producing madly and there's a couple of nice cauliflowers ready for picking, not to mention the ongoing Asian greens and the baby beets.

I'm fairly pleased with my vege garden - my aim is ultimately to produce fruit and vegetables all year round, so we are more self-sustaining. There will be some limitations, though - mangoes, bananas, pineapples and pawpaws are not likely to grow here. But we'll be happy with what we have.

love and light
naturewitch

My Blogging Sanctuary

At the end of a day, after I've finished my paid work, study and home duties, I love to come to my computer and have a visit with my blogging friends. Sometimes I have nothing particular to say and so I look at your blogs and see what interesting things you are all up to. It is so lovely to "meet" so many like-minded people, going through life's little ups and downs, sharing stories, photos, recipes and tips, but with the one goal in mind - sustainable living.

So, here's to you, my fellow bloggers. Thanks for your company. I really enjoy sharing the road with you on my journey.

Here's a poem just for you. It was written by Hafiz, a Sufi poet, in the 14th century. Translation is by Daniel Ladinsky, from his book I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz.

(Note: the terms Friend and Beloved refer to God, Buddha, the universal life force, nature or any higher entity you personally acknowledge.)

What Happens

What happens when your soul

Begins to awaken

Your eyes

And you heart

And the cells of your body

To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter

And probably precious tears

And a hundred sweet promises

And those heroic vows

No one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused

You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul

Begins to awake in this world

To our deep need to love

And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved

Will send you

One of His wonderful, wild companions -

Like Hafiz.

love and light
naturewitch

Detergents Ain't Just Detergents

Following on from Molly's post about climate change and the things she is doing to safeguard her garden and family, I thought I'd revisit some research on washing detergents.

Lanfax Laboratories have done some great independent research on washing powders and liquids and the amount of sodium, potassium, sulphur, etc that they contribute if the grey water is used on the garden. You can visit their Laundry Products Research pages and have a good read about what comes out of your washing machine when you use different detergents. You can compare top loaders with front loaders and powders with liquids.

I first found their research a few years ago and because I was particularly concerned about sodium load, I started at the bottom of the list (ie, lowest load) and worked my way up until I found a detergent that actually worked. At that time, I chose Green Care as my main detergent and Earth Choice as my detergent for woollens and delicates. Powders generally have a much higher sodium load than liquids, so just by using a liquid you are probably on the right track, but some liquids still have a pretty hefty sodium load.

Now that the research has been updated, my choices still look reasonably good, but I am thinking of trying a couple of different liquids with lower sodium loads. Unfortunately, manufacturers can vary their formulations without notice, so you need to review your choices from time to time.

As they point out on the site, there is no eco-friendly washing detergent - all of them have an impact on the environment. The key is to make the most responsible choice you can within the constraints of cleaning ability, cost and your geographic location, ie, according to your own unique needs.

love and light
naturewitch

Recent Distraction

This is quite unashamedly a brag post. I've been a bit distracted lately by a little project, which needed to be finished for last Sunday. The quilt pictured was made (by me) for a lovely young couple I know who celebrated their nuptials on Sunday. It went through a couple of design changes early on, but I was pleased with the final result, so I thought I'd share it with you.

love and light
naturewitch

Hustle, Bustle and Thankfulness

This week in our household will be very busy. We'll have two teenage girls and two pre-teen boys all playing in the Kanga Cup (a soccer competition) each day. That will mean heaps of cooking (have menu, am sort of organised); washing jerseys, shorts, track pants and socks each day (and getting them dry!); transportation to, from and between venues; as well as general management of people that age. I'll be at work, but my darling partner will be on "holidays" and doing the ferrying around and people management. Oh, and did I mention that it is predicted to rain each day (with maxima from 9C to 13C) and we are a one-bathroom household with no clothes drier? OMG! LOL (hyserically)!

Well, this afternoon I gave my self a small respite from frantic preparation activity and went for a walk. As I came near to a poplar, I noticed it hadn't yet fully lost its leaves (they are normally totally bare this time of year in Canberra). As I passed, a breeze rustled its leaves and it seemed to be saying, "calm down, relax, take your time, enjoy the moment". I do try to take each day as it comes and to appreciate each of the little surprises and challenges a day can bring. But sometimes, just sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of life, I forget. Thank you, Poplar, for reminding me.

It all comes back to that old saying about life being a journey, not a destination. Hope you can take some time this week to enjoy the little pleasures that life's journey has to offer, in all their guises.

love and light
naturewitch

Compact Fluorescents - Friend or Foe?

In Australia, the federal government is planning to phase out incandescent globes in the next couple of years and only have compact fluorescent bulbs available. The main aim of the program is to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse emissions. This is commendable.

However, there was a story last night on the ABC's 730 Report about compact fluorescent light bulbs - click here for the transcript. Apparently, the compact fluorescent globes contain minute amounts of mercury which can cause significant issues if they go to landfill. They can also cause a problem for children or pregnant women if the globes break and the contents are inhaled. The way it was presented in the report strongly suggested that the compact fluorescents were causing another environmental issue.

Looking at the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) website today, I found another article on the globes - click here. The ACF are saying that while the globes do contain mercury, their advantages outweigh their disadvantages.

What both reports have in common is that they are calling for government-controlled recycling programs for the bulbs. The ACF give a link to the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts which discusses how to dispose of the bulbs, what to do if they should break and collection sites for your state/territory.

We, like many others, have embraced this new technology. Now I'm feeling not so sure about it. Should we return to lanterns and candles for our lighting? Go solar? Should we simply go to bed when it gets dark? Maybe get some glow worms? All suggestions welcome.

love and light
naturewitch