Animal Repellant, Wool Wash

Just another day at the office..

The Office - Matakohe Quarry

Derek found this great office shack on his work travels - love it! I can't imagine there would be a lot of high tech in there.

Repel those pesky animals from your garden
Quite some time back I posted here about Wormwood that I had planted, with the fact that it was supposed to repel rabbits, possums, deer etc.

This year I broke off some huge branches and hung them in the peach and apple trees. If you have followed my blog, you will know that last year possums ate nearly all the fruit on our peach tree. I don't know if it was coincidence, but they didn't get one peach this year, and they only ate the apples that had fallen on the ground. As a disclaimer, we had also trapped a lot of possums, and I did put a wire netting deterrent around the base of the peach tree (but not around the apple). I feel like the wormwood may have helped too. 

Wool wash mix
I'm always on the look out for things that I can make so that I won't need to buy another plastic bottle. When my wool wash ran out a while back I went searching in some of the vintage householding books from my grandmother's era. Here's one that I found and it works just fine.

The cloudy one, I shook before using

Whisk together:
2 cups of grated soap (I used Sunlight)
4 cups of boiling water
Add 1 Tablespoon of eucalyptus oil 
1/2 cup of methylated spirits
Whisk again.

Use 1 Tablespoon in warm water to handwash woollens. Leaving them to soak for about 10 minutes, before gently rinsing twice. It is recommended that you turn garments inside out before washing, to protect the outer surface, roll them in a towel to remove water and lay them flat to dry.

About the methylated spirits - it turns out that this is an environmentally friendly product (apart from the plastic bottle), distilled from natural substances rather than being a petroleum product. We already had some of this so I didn't need to buy it,  as I am trying to not buy more plastic.
I think the methylated spirits is in the mix to boost the cleaning power. 

Guavas and Guava Jelly

Over a year ago I posted about tropical guavas, but I didn't mention the guavas that are more common here in the north. Other places might know them as a pineapple guava or strawberry guava. 

Guavas ripening

They are a small, tangy tasting fruit with seeds inside that you just swallow. 

Guavas are a fruit loved by our native wood pigeons (Kukupa, Kereru), they can get quite drunk on them. I don't mind sharing anything with woodpigeons.

NZ native wood pigeon Photo credit

This year we are starting to get enough of a crop that I was able to make that old childhood favourite - guava jelly. I wasn't going to bother, remembering how my mother used to make it by hanging a bag of the cooked fruit and letting the liquid drain into a bowl, before adding sugar to it and reboiling - it seemed like a bother. I remember her telling me not to squeeze the bag because it would make the jelly cloudy.
Well I just squashed the pulp in a strainer using a masher - and it turned out perfectly fine. It probably wouldn't win a prize at the Womens' Institute, but it looks good enough.
So this is how I did it:-

Guava Jelly
Trim the guavas and cut them in half. Add enough water to cook them, but not covering them. Cook until stewed and soft, then push the juice out of them using a masher and sieve (or a hanging muslin or calico jelly bag if you want to be correct about it). Discard the pulp.
For each cup of juice add a cup of sugar and boil gently until a blob on a saucer wrinkles when pushed (about 25 minutes).
Bottle into sterilized jam jars.
If you are too snappy and it doesn't set, just reboil it and get to to wrinkle stage (Wrinkles are good here).

Back to the Turmeric Bomb/ Gummy saga
For anyone who read my post on turmeric bombs for inflammation and wants to know how they worked? Well after finding that I was unable to take much of them due to their laxative-like effect, I tried making turmeric gummies, using gelatin, however they still require some coconut oil in the mix to get the turmeric to work efficiently, and I have found they give me the same digestive problem, with no greatly noticeable result. They may work better for other people.

Turmeric gummies

Bags to Market

Last weekend was the first foray into the Grower's Market for our group who are working on (hopefully) having plastic shopping bags phased out of the market.

Whangarei Growers Market  Photo courtesy of nz farmers markets.co.nz

We set up with signs at both ends of the market explaining our aim, alongside which we gave away reusable shopping bags. The bags were a combination of recycled, handmade and new ones, donated by the local council, with "Whangarei, Love It Here" printed on them.
The market was thronging with people. We were curious to know what the response to us would be. 

Whangarei Growers  Market   photo courtesy of farmers weekly.co.nz

I was heartened to notice that probably 70%+ of people brought their own bags anyway. Remaining people were mostly pleased to be offered a bag. We did ask for a koha (donation), or that people return the bags next time when they have their own. We received a few donations, which are being used to fund more bags.
We ran out of bags far too quickly, so this week I have been trying to source more and make more. 
To speed up the construction process, I decided webbing handles were the way to go, so have been buying webbing belts from the charity shops to cut up.

Bags made with the donated material from the curtain shop

Two things we noticed were that people still ended up with plastic bags - even though they had a market bag, due to stallholders automatically putting items into bags before handing them over, and people buying more than their one bag could hold.

We have work to do, changing peoples' habits. It will be interesting to see how well we fare. We plan to do this every week for several months yet before we can hopefully ask stall holders to stop using plastic bags altogether.

Easter, Waiheke Island

It was beautiful weather here over Easter. The days were hot and the beaches crowded on Waiheke Island where we went to catch the Jazz Festival. Not bad for Autumn.
Just a few more mailbox pics, as Waiheke has the greatest selection of arty letterboxes of anywhere I have seen.

Not so easy to see, but it has plants growing on top

We came home with a carload of "stuff" from Waiheke, including a bag of seaweed for the garden and these two items that we found dumped on a side road.

The winch will replace the one on our boat trailer - being of superior quality, and the frame, which came with hinges attached, was originally the canopy of a swing seat we think. It will be put to use as a wall-attached drying frame. It annoys us to find people have dumped things carelessly in such a beautiful place.

As an aside, I recently came across these clips of the motion picture about a beachcomber on the Cornwall Coast, which if, like me, you love that kind of thing, you might find interesting - The Wrecking Season, part one and The Wrecking Season, part two



As a follow up to my earlier post about Turmeric Bombs, I have been unable to take the therapeutic dose of turmeric, due to the somewhat laxative effect of the coconut oil, so today I will be making Turmeric and Honey Jellies - little jubes, to see if that will work. I'll keep you posted!

Greening Floristry, Women in Clothes

Not long ago we received a basket of flowers, which was a lovely gesture. But when the flowers had all died, we were left with all of this "stuff" to dispose of. (Of course I didn't throw it out, but will use it to gift flowers from my own garden, except for the foam)

The disposables from a flower arrangement

Oasis foam is a pet hate of mine - it is a single use item that is used massively throughout the world. It is made of  formaldehyde foam! You would think that, being all about nature, floristry would be a bit greener. Well hopefully that day is coming - hooray!
I have just read about a product called Floral Soil created in the USA that is totally biodegradable, that is a replacement for floral foam.

Floral Soil        

You can read about it here. It's not available here in New Zealand yet, but hopefully it won't be long.
Now they just need to replace the plastic floral tape, the plastic cellophane (even though ordinary cellophane is biodegradable), and all the other plastic sh#*t that goes into arrangements at present.

Women in Clothes
I just love the local library! Recently someone on the Facebook group No New Clothes For A Year recommended this book - "Women In Clothes" - so I requested that our local library might stock it, and within a few weeks it was there!

I'm totally enjoying this book - it is full of interviews with women from around the world about their attitudes to their clothes, and it is seriously unconventional. For example some women send in photos of their mother before children and comment on their look, there is one part about perfume and the smell of clothing, there is a series of conversations where women compliment others on their clothes and the responses, and some short stories involving clothing with meaning. Even the photos are not what you would expect.

               This section had six strangers wear each others favourite outfits.

And a quote to help you feel better.....

'Sometimes I think to myself "Drop the book and get things done." Then I laugh and turn the page.' Unknown

Turmeric Bombs for Inflammation

I don't know about you, but I get joint aches. 
A while back I posted  here about Golden Yogini Drink, as a way to get turmeric into the system, given that turmeric is being hailed as a great anti-inflammatory agent that is known to reduce joint aches, and also helps with sleep.
Well and good, but it wasn't happening on a daily basis, and I read that the therapeutic dose of turmeric is about a teaspoonful/day.
My friend Di told me she had great results with turmeric capsules - but I'm not good at taking supplements and they languish in their bottles.
So good old Pinterest to the rescue. I found a recipe from Empowered Sustenance.com for turmeric bombs, which will deliver the required dose.

Turmeric Bombs

I have altered their recipe a little - leaving out the quercetin powder, because I don't have any, and because I read that it is found in many fruit and vegetables anyway.
Their recipes used either honey or coconut oil to bind the turmeric powder - but I thought it made sense to use half of each.
The ground black pepper (piperine) has been shown to increase the availability of curcumin (the beneficial part in the turmeric) by 150%..facts from the above mentioned site.
The bombs are palatable enough to eat, almost like an Indian sweet.

Turmeric Bombs

1/3 cup turmeric
big pinch of finely ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons each of coconut oil and honey.

I mixed it all in a cup. At this point I needed to put it in the fridge to harden up enough to roll into balls of about half a teaspoonful each. 
I then put them into the freezer on a baking tray, and when frozen, into a jar which I store in the freezer.

I'm taking several per day - it is possible to have too much, but I'm hoping this will be enough and that I will keep remembering to take them. "Too much" is much bigger doses than this and there can be a toxic effect. There is also some warning around people on diabetic or blood thinning medications, as turmeric can alter their effect.
 I hope that they do the trick as it is early days yet.

Eco Friendly Papers and Cotton Wool.

Some of you who read my blog will be way ahead of me on your journey to reduce your environmental impact, and others may have just begun. The thing is that we are working on it - it's quite a journey back when we realize just how far we have fallen into the habits that produce so much waste.

This week's improvements: 
Starting to buy from Greencane paper, which is couriered to me by the carton load. This product is made from  plantation grown bamboo and sugarcane waste. The packaging is totally biodegradable (a big tick there). I bought a mixed box with tissues, toilet paper and paper towels. 

Yes I know it is greener to do away with paper towels, and honestly we don't use many, and tissues - well we have allergy sufferers here so they are non-negotiable. I figure at least they can be environmentally friendly ones. 
I did a little price comparison, which wasn't very scientific, but there is not a lot of difference in the price for me.
Oh, and it's all good quality - you would think it was top of the line soft tissue.
If you haven't tried them - have a look - www.greencane.com, they are all around the world. That is totally not sponsored by the way.

Cotton wool balls! I tried to get our teen to use cut-up old tee shirt cotton squares to remove her nail polish - but this is obviously totally uncool and she is still asking for cotton wool balls (which only come in plastic bags). I would have bought plain sheets of cotton wool in paper wrap like you could in the old days, but I can't find any. 
Well it turns out that old life jackets are full of shredded wool - who knew! So instead of throwing them away, I have removed some of the fluffy wool and rolled it into balls, along with some of that old cotton wool that I inherited.

But will the pretty packaging do the trick?

I suspect that this too could be seriously uncool, but we'll see.

A-Gathering in the Garden in Autumn
Honestly my garden looks terrible and I didn't really think there was much in it, but a wander with my trug has produced all of this! 

Rhubarb, cucumber, tomatoes, aubergines, cape gooseberries, windfall apples, peaches, silverbeet, basil, passionfruit and beans. Also it has been a great year for wild blackberries, they are still going.
I had better get a move on - I have pesto and blackberry&apple pies to make.