Making hand soap

*I wrote this post ages ago but was unable to publish for...... grrrr..... technical reasons.  I've decided to publish it late and unchanged.*

I'm having a different but lovely evening.  I'm by myself at a hotel in the city!  Feels weird but very relaxing.  I'm here to do a workshop tomorrow so that I'll be able to speak confidently about Down syndrome.  Then I'll be able to help out in our local area if anybody needs information.

So know I'm here, in peace, writing a post I've been promising for ages.  How to make hand soap. 

I've tried a few times to make hand soap with no success.  I spoke with a couple of friends and they had the same experience.

I would melt down some soap flakes and water on the stovetop and let it cool.

It would turn into a solid, gluggy mess.  I would add water and try again and it would become a less solid gluggy mess.

Finally, I have achieved a useable result!!  And the method?  I whizzed the gluggy mess with a hand held blender.  It whips up beautifully!  Just melt the soap flakes and water on the stove, let it cool to gluggy stage, then beat until it's fluffy.

I used a ratio of one to three.  So if you use one cup of soap flakes, add three cups of water.  If you use one third of a cup of flakes, add a cup of water.  You might want to play with the amounts until you achieve a consistency you like.  The only issue I have is getting it into a pump pack.  I use a funnel but the mixture just sits there and doesn't run through.  I tried poking it down with a skewer but that was just frustrating!  The only way I found was to bang the pump pack with the funnel filled with soap.  I banged it up and down on the bench and gradually the soap made its way through.

And there you have it!  Simple, isn't it?  It's not quite the same as the stuff from the shops but it is very useable and gets grubby hands clean.

 

How to make sour dough

On the weekend I taught a group of people how I make sour dough.  This is the second time I've shown people what I do.  The first group have all gone on to continue making their bread. 

I'm not a great teacher.  In fact, if you've only met me in this space, you may not realise it but I'm a terrible speaker in public.  But I wanted to be part of this.  A farm blitz with a workshop component so participants take home useful skills!  Great idea!!

For ages I've been thinking I should post about sour dough making and now I think the time is right.  Hopefully I can explain it clearly in writing.

The first thing I need to tell you is that sour dough bread is a process rather than a precise recipe but do not be put off by this.  It is the easiest bread I've ever made.  Just follow my instructions below and you will fall in love with the resulting bread. 

The easiest way for me to teach you is just to show you exactly what I did in my kitchen today.  I had seven and a half cups of sponge (I'll tell you how to make the sponge in a minute).  The sponge should get past the frothy stage and start to look bubbly like mine is in the middle. Then it's ready to use.  I could have even let it get bubblier than this mix.

Making the bread

 

I made two loaves today so I put seven cups of sponge into a bowl and mixed in two tablespoons of oil, two tablespoons of sugar and two teaspoons of salt.  If you only want one loaf then halve the amount.  Then I put the remaining half cup of sponge into my pot (not with airtight lid).  This will be your new starter.  NEVER forget this step or you will have no starter.

I added one cup of flour and one cup of water to the starter in the pot to build it up again because I'm making more bread tomorrow.  If I wasn't going to make bread for a couple of days I wouldn't have added any flour or water because it was just fed when I made the sponge.  You just put the pot aside on the bench.

To my bowl of sponge, oil, sugar and water, I just added flour until it was the right consistency to knead (see picture below). 

Knead your bread for a couple of minutes.  Sour dough doesn't need anywhere near as much kneading as yeast bread.  When you knead, make sure you aren't pushing down on the dough but just sort of stretch it forward, turn, stretch forward, turn.  When it's ready you'll know.  During the kneading, let go of your dough.  If it moves and it bounces back into shape - it's ready.  Shape it into a rough cigar shape and place in an oiled tin.

Cover with a clean tea towel and leave until it doubles in size.  Today this took about six hours.

Slash the top of the bread from one side across to the other in whatever pattern you'd like (I forgot) and put it into the oven.  I bake at 180c but I think most recipes recommend hotter than this. 

Bake the loaves (or loaf if you're only making one) for about forty minutes.  You'll know when it's cooked by tipping it out of the tin and rapping it with your knuckles.  It sounds hollow then it's done.  If not, or if you're not sure, chuck it back in the oven.  Cooking it longer will just make the crust very crunchy.  It won't overcook the bread.

The aroma of the baking bread is divine, as is the flavour.

Tips

Now for all the nitty gritty tips -

• don't be scared to try.  It's easier than you think
• know that this is an imprecise process, you're dealing with a living ingredient
• Use a ceramic or glass bowl to prove your sponge, metal can inhibit the rising action
• near enough is good enough.  I don't measure.  I just guess.
• some days it will rise quicker than others, depends on humidity, temperature etc.
• the amount of flour needed will vary depending on the type of flour and weather conditions
• if you make wholemeal the texture is better if you do half and half wholemeal and white flour, it will also rise better
• sour dough slows down in the fridge.  If you want to slow the rise of the bread (if you need to go to bed before it's ready etc.) then put it in the fridge.  Same with the starter.  If you won't use it for a while put it in the fridge.  I think of it as putting it to sleep. 
• If you want to add fun stuff like sun dried tomato and olives or similar, do it at the kneading stage. 

The sponge

A sponge is the term for the mix you prepare from the starter when you want to make some bread.  To make the sponge you need to add the same amount of flour and water as there is starter.  So if  I have two cups of starter, I would add 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of water to make the sponge.  You leave it until it's bubbly and then make your bread.  You don't need to panic about getting back to it at exactly the right time.  It will be ready for several hours.  I generally make it at night so that it's ready to go in the morning sometime.

Feeding the starter

Because sour dough needs to be kept active, it needs to be fed.  To feed the starter just put half the flour and water to starter.  If you have half a cup of starter, add a quarter cup of flour and a quarter cup of water.  The reason is that you don't want to waste your flour if you're not making bread with it.  You just want to keep it active.  Obviously if you don't make a loaf with it and you keep adding by feeding it, you will end up with more starter.  Therefore, when you have all the starter you want, just tip half out before adding your flour and water so that you don't end up with a giant amount.

If you don't plan to make bread for a few days or weeks, put your starter in the fridge.  It will be fine in there for quite a while.  It will separate and have a liquid on the top.  I just stir it back in and then add flour and water and put it back on the bench when I'm ready to bake again.  Some people choose to pour it off for a milder flavoured bread.  The starter has a good sour, fermenty smell.  It doesn't smell off.

I wash my pot whenever I make bread before putting the starter back in.

Final words

Sour dough is kind and forgiving.  Please, even if my description sounds overwhelming, just try it.  It will make so much more sense when you are actually doing it. 

I am assuming in this post that you can get some starter from someone.  If not, google it.  Mine was given to me and I don't know this step in the process.

Oh, and you're not supposed to cut a loaf until it cools but I couldn't care less.  Straight from the oven, when it's hot, tasty and aromatic, I spread it with plenty of butter and ENJOY!

Good luck with your bread making!  Following are some photos of this week's workshop.




how we rose our bread quickly



a quick spot of gardening



the amazing oven we got to play with



Ta daa!

How to open chook bags and Plastic Free July

Firstly, Plastic Free July!  Liz asked me recently if I was taking part and I had one of those 'Aargggh!' moments!  I intended to post about it in June in the hopes of encouraging you all to join in.  Life's been a bit busy around here.

Plastic Free July is an initiative of Western Earth Carers.  They aim to encourage people to reduce their rubbish.  Yay!  The idea is that you keep track of the single use plastic that comes into your home during the month of July.

It's not to late too register.  I know that because I only registered this morning!  You can choose to just do a day or a week if you think the whole of July is daunting. 

I encourage you to take part.  It is a very educational process.  I was feeling quite cocky about it and looking forward to telling you all about how little plastic we use.  After all we're a very careful family when it comes to producing rubbish!  Hmmm!  Not so!

We're into the fourth day of the challenge and I have a little stash of single use plastic already!  Yesterday I shopped.  I needed scissors desperately because my little crafters have lost my scissors yet again!  This time they've been missing for a couple of months, so I assume they're not coming back.

I felt no guilt buying my new pair.  After all, it's a sensible, practical purchase!  Didn't occur to me that they were encased in a plastic sleeve until I got home.

I also bought a couple of DVDs for the kids.  Of course they had a plastic wrapping.  We hardly ever buy DVDs but if you'd been at the supermarket with my whinging, misbehaving children you would have been racking your brain for a way to keep them occupied too!  The silly thing is, they've been wonderful at home - it was just the supermarket that was boring them to the point of misbehaviour.  I really shouldn't have bought the videos.  Mind you, cooking dinner last night was a lovely, peaceful affair because they were all in the other room watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I also bought a bag of oranges.  Duhh!  Why didn't I buy them individually?!  I usually do.  Of course the mesh bag is some sort of plastic. 

The final plastic was the packaging from some mozzarella we used for a broccoli lasagne last night.

My stash on day four!

I'm keeping all of my bits of plastic so that I can see exactly how much we have created when the month ends.  I'm keeping them in an old bread bag and I soooo hope it will be big enough.  I think I will get better at stopping to think before every purchase, not just the ones I make regularly, by the month's end.  What a great concept Plastic Free July is!!! 

Now!  Chook bags!  You know the bags you get at the produce store?  They might have chook food, chaff, wheat, horse food.... 

Well these bags are frustrating!  You cut the string at one end and cross your fingers!!  Sometimes the entire row of stitching just unzips before your very eyes, leaving you with a feeling of satisfaction and smugness!  Other times, try as you might, you cut one end and pull.  Nothing!  Cut the other...  Nothing!  Argggh!  In the end, in sheer annoyance, you just cut the top of the bag itself while fuming that you wasted five minutes on trying to find the Secret String!

Well, during the course of  splitting up our bulk buying we had to open a few of these bags.  The conversation of the Secret String came up and Cynthia thought she knew the answer.  Something to do with which way the stitches ran.  You pull it in the same direction as the arrow created by the stitches.  We tested a couple and sure enough........

 Can you see the arrow formed by the stitches are pointed toward the right?

 So cut the strings close to the left and pull toward the right!  Sometimes it doesn't work as easily as others.  Just tug harder until it comes loose or cut again a little further up.

Ta Da!!

How to make Citrus Cleaner

Has anybody discovered Greenhaven now has a Face Book page?  Just click on the Face Book symbol on the right hand side bar to visit.  It might take me a week or so to fine tune the page management but I'd love you to pop over.

Now for the cleaner........

I want to revisit this natural cleaner because I recently realised not everyone knows about it. 

I kinda assumed everyone else was using it but when I was speaking about it to friends I realised this isn't the case.

It's the easiest cleaner to make!

Every time you eat a piece of citrus fruit, peel it with a potato peeler first and pop the peel in a wide-mouth jar.  Fill the jar with white vinegar and just keep adding citrus to the jar until it's fairly full.  (I just use the cheap vinegar from the supermarket)  Leave for two weeks.  The vinegar infuses with the oil from the peel.

Half fill a squirty bottle with strained citrus vinegar and top with water.


Orange peel on the left, grapefruit peel on the right (I'm still filling this jar)

I use mine for everything from benches to showers.  I find if I'm using it on something difficult to clean like the residue on the bench after I knead my sour dough, or I'm cleaning greasy cupboards or stove tops, I leave the spray on for a minute and then it just wipes off easily.

I recently read a post by Kirsten from Sustainable Suburbia and she raises the point that, if you aren't going to use it quickly, you probably should use distilled water.

So there you have it.  Better than just vinegar alone, cheap as chips, quick to make!!!  Let me know what you think of it.  Maybe you already use citrus vinegar?

How to make compost tea

Gee I was battling with the light to get these photos tonight! But there I was, the day nearly over and I remembered I hadn't made a new batch of comfrey tea. I want a to share it because it's so easy to make.

Absolute first is to plant comfrey!

When it grows (and it grows like a weed) get a bucket, cut some comfrey leaves.....

shred it and put it in the bucket. (I got a bit fancy this time and put it in a stocking first.) Usually I just put the leaves straight in the bucket but floaty bits clog up the watering can when I do it this way!

At this point of the proceedings I remembered I was running the kids a bath and had to run back into the house but I imagine you will be able to skip this step!

Then I placed the stocking filled with shredded leaves in the bucket and filled it with water. Now place a lid on the bucket and wait for two weeks.  I had a couple of nappy buckets left over from our baby days so I always have one of these on the go.  They are good and sturdy and have good lids.

To use, just put about a litre of the tea into a ten litre watering can and fill with water. Water the garden with it. The soil should already be moist before you water so that the plants take up the fertiliser and it isn't just soaked away into parched soil.

And there you have it! Free fertiliser!!!

Be warned.  It stinks when it's ready.  So when you smell it, don't think something's gone awfully wrong.  The garden will love it.  Below is a picture of the bucket I am currently using.  You can see how sludgy it gets.

Have you made comfrey tea before?  How about weed tea?  It's just the same but you make it with weeds.

How to make a no-dig garden

Our veggie garden was built on the top of an exposed hill.  There was no existing topsoil and more mud-rock than dirt making it very hard to dig.  So I thought I was very clever when I built my no dig gardens and they were successful.  Under the circumstances, it was the only option we had at that time.

Well!  I couldn't believe the miracle of watching soil develop at the bottom of the no-dig garden.  After the first year, if you parted all the mulch, there was a definite layer of dirt.  But then I made some big mistakes.  After a couple of years, rather than rebuild the no-dig layers of lucerne straw etc., I just added manure and blood and bone to the soil.  I was feeling pretty cocky because I had caused soil to be created!  Not bad hey!  No soil brought onto the property - just existing dirt turning into good gardening soil.  I thought that was wonderfully sustainable.

our own garlic and broad beans at the end of last year

This year my mistakes became obvious.  We are having a terrible year of drought.  Not only are we getting no rain but the heat is relentless.  If we do get a break from the heat, it's in the form of horrible, soil drying wind!


a bed that I had to let go due to the poor soil

Now it has become quite clear that I should have either rebuilt my no-dig garden beds year after year (not very sustainable because the straw is not produced on our property) or I should have put more effort into improving the soil that had begun to form.  Because I only had a shallow layer of 'good garden soil' the extreme conditions have quickly dried it out.  It looks dry and dead and is completely unproductive.

So if you like to learn from other people's mistakes, rather than go through the disaster of proving it to yourself through your own mistakes, this would be my advice:- Either make a no-dig garden and rebuild it each season or make a well dug garden bed and incorporate lots of compost, manure etc.  If you have a deep layer of well structured soil and keep it covered with mulch, it will be able to retain much more moisture.

a bed that is doing better, but still not as good as I would like

Keep in mind that the above is just a realisation I have come to.  It is not tried and tested yet because I am still madly building my soil.  I won't be able to really prove myself correct until I grow a good crop of veggies next summer.  But I reckon I'm onto something!  ;-)

If you've never made a no-dig garden, they are pretty amazing and so simple! They are a good option if you are not up to the task of digging a bed and probably a good start for a beginning gardener if you're excitedly impatient to have your own veggie garden and want to see it done in one day!

my own coriander seeds

Just cover the area where you want to make a bed with thick layers of newpaper.  At least a half a paper thick.  I just ask at the newsagent and they are happy to give them to me.  Wet them down well and put a 15cm layer of straw.  Spread a layer of manure over the straw and sprinkle a couple of handfuls of blood and bone on top.  Add another layer of straw and more manure and blood and bone.  Water the whole garden thoroughly.  Part the straw to make a little hole, add some compost and plant a seedling!  Water it well.

That's it!  It's that easy!  The better the quality of your straw, the more nutrition your veggies will get.  I tend to use plain straw for the bottom layer because it's cheaper and then I use lucerne or pea straw for the top layer that the plants grow in.  If you have good soil around or some compost you could put it in your little hole in the straw and plant straight into that instead of buying potting mix. 

Don't forget to fertilise with an organic liquid fertiliser or add some blood and bone every couple of weeks.

In my next post I will tell you about the efforts I've made this week to improve the soil in my garden beds.

So to the wonderful people who read here - do you dig............. or not?

How to Dry Lavender

Okay!  The first thing I need to say is, "Do as I say, not as I do!".

I nearly always have some dried lavender on hand.  I use it in lavender bags to scent our drawers, to give to friends, to put in heat packs etc.  Lavender can be sewn into stuffed toys or pillows to scent a child's bed.  I like to pop a lavender bag or sprig of lavender into things I'm returning to people.  You know... the things you end up with like clothes the children borrow on play dates or tea towels people accidently leave behind when they visit.  Launder them and pop into a bag with some lavender.

Years ago I volunteered on a working bee at a local hall.  They ripped out a lavender bush, which really distressed me.  I took some cuttings home and struck them.  About five years later I am the proud owner of a very strongly scented lavender hedge!

Now, to pick lavender for drying you should pick it early in the day while all the oils are still in the plant. Later in the day the oils tend to evaporate to an extent, especially on a warm day.  (I picked mine in the late afternoon - Do as I say, not as I do!)

Simply select the best flowers, which translates to the prettiest ones.  What a hard task, hey?  Go pick beautiful and fragrant flowers!

Tie the flowers in bunches and hang them with enough space around them for air to flow.  They should be hung in a dry, dark spot to dry without going mouldy and to retain their colour and fragrance.  (I hung mine over the kitchen bench where there is often a lot of moisture and is usually well lit because I like the added benefit of them being decorative as they dry - Do as I say, not as I do!)

I hope you enjoy your lavender as much as I do!  Please tell me, what do you do with lavender?

Home Afresh

We've been away.  A family member lent us a fantastic caravan and Rosie and a friend of mine took turns feeding the animals to make it possible!

The children were amazingly well behaved - especially Belle who insisted on helping, even with the boring jobs!

We parked at a road side stop and a total stranger gave us oranges, grapefruit and mandarines off the back of his truck.  Look at my kids!  You'd think they'd never had fruit before!

The road side stop seemed as though it had been set up by permaculturalists.  It had native plants, long drop loos, water tanks and just look at the bins!  Aren't they great?!

We went on paddle steamers....

found toboggans in a park in a very rural town.......

 and saw some very heavy frost!

These lovely people (whom my children referred to as "The Lovely People") allowed me to take this photograph.  I was fascinated to see the extent that technology has infiltrated become a part of people's lives.  They are retirees on holiday and were all using their technology at the caravan park.

We travelled to Mildura and through South Australia to Adelaide before heading back to Victoria.  It was my first time in South Australia and I loved it.

But do you know what?  Holidays are amazing for perspective.  It was so good to come home and see our messy but productive home through fresh eyes!

Check out my rhubarb!  It's grown since we left.

I immediately set about weeding the garden and gave the weeds to the chooks to turn into compost for me.

Buddy Boy and Pumpkin were so glad to see their animals again........

and Belle went to work building a little bonfire under her Dad's supervision.  Every one was content, busy and happy all weekend.

Rosie is starting Uni this week and needs to live on her own because it's too far to travel.  She is really looking forward to setting up house for the first time and I had fun making these canisters for her.  I saved some coffee jars and filled the lids with some dried lavender and dried marigolds.  I plan to make some more soon.  I think dried citrus peel would look good.  I filled the empty jar with citrus cleaner (recipe here) and Rosie was delighted with her gift.

The friend that helped feed the animals had popped dinner in the fridge for us just before we got home, so we had time to chill and unpack.  I was amazed at her thoughtfulness!  Ahhhhhh......... life is good!

Today at our place...

The soup is on, (recipe below)

yes, the cat is comfortable,

there's a lamb at school (the little orphan just wanders around the playground with the kids) and my children are loving it!

I'm mending the elastic in some pyjamas

and throwing together some re-usable make-up wipes (workable but slapdash) with two layers of flannelette and zig zag around the outside.  Just right for absorbing some rosewater or witch-hazel.  I'll just throw them in the washing machine when I've used them.  No need for disposable wipes!  I made them in a rush because....

I'm going away for my annual girl's weekend today!!!  It's freezing and, of course, we're of to the Macedon Ranges where it will be even colder!  Thank goodness for my knitted socks!


Lamb Shank and Vegetable Soup


This is how I made my soup today but it is very flexible.  Throw in whatever you enjoy in a soup.

Brown two lamb shanks to bring out their flavour, remove them to a plate and saute one onion, some celery and a red capsicum.  Rinse half a cup of pearl barley and add it with 1 cup red wine, 2 litres of water and two tins of chopped tomatoes (or your own bottled tomatoes if you are better at the gardening thing than me).  Return the lamb shanks and add a couple of diced carrots, two bay leaves and some rosemary.  Bring it to the boil and then simmer all day long!

I just made do with the vegies I had on hand today but this soup would be yummy if you added parsnip and/or turnips as well.

Stay warm and cosy this weekend.  I'll see you when I get back!