I am concentrating on the little things in my life, living the slow life and trying to make our place a little greener every day, year in and year out.
So here are a couple of my latest little discoveries...
Time to get rid of the plastic sticking plasters, although not quite so easy to keep other family members on track yet. I gave it some thought and came up with this alternative...
Paper Tape and Calendula Petals
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| Calendula petal dressing |
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| It's barely noticeable |
It is fairly simple, and although I think I created this myself, I'm sure someone somewhere would have already tried it. The paper tape is biodegradable, and onto it I stick a couple of calendula petals, which prevent the wound from sticking to the tape. You could add a little square of cotton gauze if you need extra absorption. It works a treat, wounds heal well and the dressing can then be thrown into the (non-food garden) compost at the end.
Clothes - Saving Grease Stain Removal
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| Grease mark before treatment |
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| Grease mark has gone! |
I don't know how many clothes items that I have discarded in the past because they got a grease stain on them that I couldn't get out - but now I have the answer! Even old stains that have been through the wash!
I read online that one solution is to use dishwasher foam on it - but we don't have that product here.
The one I used was to spray CRC on the old stain to rewet it then scrape chalk dust onto it, which really took up all the oil. Make sure you put a layer of cardboard in the teeshirt to stop the CRC from going through to the back. I then rubbed a little dishwashing detergent into it before throwing it into the wash - now no stain!
As you can see by the little hole in the teeshirt that I tried it on something old (and not mine) first.
To take out a more recent oil mark that hadn't gone through the wash, I just used the chalk and detergent and that worked.
I don't think CRC is probably that earth friendly, but we already had it in the shed. Maybe coconut oil would work in the same way on an old stain.
The Tomatilloes are Ripe.
I was all excited to find that I could grow tomatilloes here, even though I had never tasted one, I was certain from all the recipes I saw that they would be useful.
I tried my first one yesterday...and I didn't like it.
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| The one on the left is perfect, on the right - over-ripe |
I then went online to check, as I suspected it may have been over-ripe, and sure enough I found instruction there on when to pick them. So I needed to pick them when the pods were full and still green, instead of waiting for them to drop off like a Cape Gooseberry. Eaten like that they are tangy and pleasant.
My plants were supposed to be purple tomatilloes - I think I will need to talk to the seller on Trademe about that.
Woohoo - making salsa (as soon as I can lay my hands on some lemons or limes).
I love green salsa, made with tomatillos. I usually grow some just for salsa for the freezer. I don't really know of any other way they are used here. Never eaten raw, though, I'm sure. I'll have to try it!
ReplyDeleteHi Cynthia, they can be added to Guacamole instead of tomatoes, and I've sneaked them in to spaghetti bolognese sauce to try and that was fine, and a raw salsa with corn,red onion, tomato and tomatillo worked well too, with a bit of home made mint sauce through it as we are out of lemons.
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