My clothes washing detergent is nuts

Inspired by this man, I am pushing our 'green thoughts' even further this year. I hate using detergent now - on anything and for anything. We were still using a washing powder detergent until a week ago, when these lovely nuts arrived in the mail. I have used them five times since and our washing seems clean and fresh - and we're not using anything nasty to get it there! Plus, these nuts are completely organic (of course), so they can go straight into the compost when you're finished with them and they're super cheap compared to supermarket detergents.

To read about them (and purchase) visit here.

Well, that was embarrassingly easy....

Today I decided to make my first ever batch of homemade cordial. Cordial is an 'every now and then' drink in this household - the kids love water and milk, but the occasional cold 'cordy' (as our youngest calls it) does hit the spot.

So I bought me some fresh oranges at a local market, squeezed the life juice out of them (one litre), took the rind off two of them and then gently boiled one litre of water with one kilo of raw sugar to make the sugar syrup. Then it was all mixed together, allowed to cool and then strained into a bowl before being bottled. It keeps for a month in the fridge AND you can replace orange with any fruit you like - mango, lemon, raspberry etc. It is such a rich, deep orange colour -and the cordial is more like a light syrup than that stuff you buy in supermarkets. I have come to the conclusion supermarket cordial is just flavouring and colouring, even if I have bought stuff that is apparently loaded with reconstituted fruit juice. Nothing beats today's effort, that's for sure...

New vintage fabric arrivals and what I've been up to...

I have been busy photograhing 35 fabrics today - they're the next lot to go up onto the website. Most are 1940s to 1970s cottons, with some kitsch 80s thrown in for the 'youngins' who love 80s design...

These are some of my favourite photos...

Other things I have been doing away from the business include:

Making damper, scones and bread on the same day - yum...
Gathering eggs from our chook coop - three pullets are laying!
Admiring our eight pea pods that have appeared on our climbers...
Drooling at the rhubarb sprouting up, even though I know we can't eat them for a season...
Planting lots of seeds for our vegie patch...
Planting pumpkin and zucchini, with their own 'coke bottle' green houses...very funny...
Doing homework with Mr Seven and thoroughly enjoying myself...
Joining Pip's book club and getting Anne of Green Gables to revisit my childhood...
Getting frustrated at the housework that is never ending!
Enjoying the sun...

xNess

Ginger beer, chocolate requests and the cost of the common cold

The weekend was all go go and more go! Which is hard, as I still have this dreadful virus. Seven weeks now - I have resorted to Googling virus remedies, sore throat remedies, how to build up my immune system etc. While I was searching I came across the WWII poster above. Amazing, isn't it? So sad to sell health that way...

We have been on Pip's ginger beer making odyssey. Yesterday was bottling day after two weeks of cultivating and feeding the 'plant'. We collected bottles from family and friends (we needed 12 of them) and Justin washed them all in the bath yesterday. We now have 12 bottles sitting in the shed (just in case they explode!) and we're looking forward to tasting fizzy ginger delishessness next Monday...

I also did a lot of baking over the weekend - school term is back today so I wanted to get some treats in the pantry and fridge...and it all had a chocolate theme! I made a yummy chocolate custard tart with a rich chocolate base...


A batch of chocolate chip cookies were also requested. I keep them in my Nan's old cannisters - I love using the cannisters as not only do they remind me of my younger years in Brunswick, Victoria, but I also like using things the way they should be used, instead of being thrown out as they're old, not 'in' etc.


And I made my first ever batch of cupcakes - yes, I know, I can't believe I haven't baked them before, either! I made orange cupcakes with chocolate icing. Delish!


It's back to work for us today - and there is so much to catch up on! So I must get back to work - have a lovely day, peeps!

xNess

The true cost of our bread and yoghurt

Can you believe we all have a virus again? True. Not good. Me no likee being sick. So we're all holed up today and I will only be working part of the day. We're working on making our environment warmer - that's a hint from our doctor. Keep the heating going, as much as you can afford, even through the night. If you don't, coughs linger like they are for us at the moment!

We finally bought our second pack of strong bakers flour yesterday - so I can give you a rough idea of how much our bread is costing us per week now. It lasted nine weeks and we made an average of four-five loaves a week. The flour cost AUD$27 and the yeast cost $4 - the salt we put in is negligible. I still have 3/4 of the original salt pack left and it was less than $1. The oven is cranked twice a week to 450F for 50 mins - not sure how much that costs. But, on face value, our bread is now costing us around AUD$3.50 per week. We're amazed - so much cheaper, tastier and better for you! The flour I buy is pictured below - I am sure it would be available at most bulk stores.


The yoghurt has been a hard ride - one that I have succeeded in, finally! It is a delicious set - so much nicer than store bought or EasyYo yoghurt. It is rich and creamy. I have been putting in sugar-free fruit on the bottom of the bowls before the yoghurt sets - what I would prefer to do is be using my own fruit and stewing it...but this will have to do until I master that part.

Today I am doing one bowl of pears and another of peaches. The flavour goes throughout the yoghurt (slightly) and the fruit sits on the bottom. Our homemade yoghurt is no cheaper than the EasyYo or store bought varieties as I use the fresh cows milk that is AUD$7.50 x two litres. So, each litre of yoghurt costs at least $3.75 in milk, plus a little milk powder, sugar, $0.7c worth of culture and whatever flavouring/additions you put in. The massive bonus is, of course, it is all natural and you have made it yourself...no packaging, no additives, preservatives etc. It gives you a good feeling! It's only taken three weeks of making my own yoghurt to start 'going off' that fake sugar the manufacturers pop in everything. Before I made my own I loved the EasyYo vanilla, sweetened. But now I can't eat it (I still make it for the tot)...amazing how quickly our taste buds change!

Definitely progressing forward...

I feel like I am slowly getting into a routine - and our teamwork is coming along nicely since I joined our little hamlet full time. It's been eight weeks of wonderfulness...truly! While I go to Retro Age during the day, sometimes the 'digging team' focuses on our backyard dreams and they play in the dirt to create things...like a big strawberry patch (above)...a new, sweet home for our strawberry seedlings...

We also had to buy chives already grown for some dip I was making...and they still had all their roots, so we've popped them into the garden to see if they'll take...

And, last but not least, yesterday our rhubarb patch was born. Don't you just love our ye olde rock walls?

And then, as the light disappeared later in the day, three rhubarb crowns were planted...we can't wait for homegrown stewed rhubarb and apple and rhubarb pie....yum!

It is raining here today so there is very little to be done outside - we are focusing on getting the remainder of our orders out and I'll also be putting some stock on the website. The usual stuff :) - and getting ready for a little birthday party for a boy who is turning seven tomorrow...wow wee!

Building the sustainable garden...

I had a strangely productive day yesterday after completely losing my motivation. The cold is getting to me this year, I think. Overnight we're falling to 0 degrees and the mornings are tough - hard to motivate oneself when it's a little on the cold side, I think! So I decided to go out in the afternoon and tick off some other goals we have.

A trip to the local nursery was in order - I wanted to start our strawberry patch and, as you can't buy strawberry seeds, we had to purchase the seedlings. We bought three lovely punnets of healthy seedlings - hurrah! While we were there we purchased other lovely things we needed for our sustainable garden:

A bag of disease free garlic to restart our garlic bed. We already had one but we ate all of the garlic instead of sowing it - so we need to start afresh!

We also got three huge, ugly-as-anything rhubard crowns. They are beauties and will certainly grow into large plants. We love stewed rhubard and rhubarb pies - and I want to try rhubard yoghurt now that I have mastered making my homemade yoghurt.

Lastly, we purchased two established blueberry plants. I must learn how to strike a plant from a cutting - I wanted more plants! But two is good to start with, I think...

And then it was a quick trip to the local farm supplies store for some fresh straw - we bought a bale for the chickens and to line the strawberry patch. If you line your strawberry patch in straw you'll get clean fruit...

So - even though I was completely unmotivated in other areas - for the garden, I achieved much! Everything shall be planted today...can't wait for the fruit!

Can you believe all of this cost just $60?

Our days are spent focusing on what really matters to us. Yes - there is each other etc - but our health and happiness are major priorities. One of our goals this year is to plant our own vegie garden and grow as much as we can. We are growing lovely mushrooms inside, as well - and we bake around four loaves of our own bread a week. I'll average out the cost for you for the loaves, if I can - but I think it's less than $1 a loaf!


I bought some of our vegies from Eden Seeds last night - all of this was only $60! We'll buy other things from the nursery as they become available - potatoes, sweet potatoes etc - but for now, this is a good start! Have you thought about buying vegies with family members or friends, too? There are loads of seeds in a packet so it's even cheaper if you share the goodies around!

Bean, Climbing - Climbing Princess

Broccoli - Broccoletti

Capsicum - Californian Wonder

Carrot - Danvers

Cauliflower - All Year Round

Celery - Tendercrisp

Corn, Popcorn - Ontos Oval

Corn, Sweet - Golden Bantam

Cucumber - Lebanese

Leek - Musselburg

Lettuce - Butternut

Pea - Greenfeast

Pumpkin - Waltham Butternut

Radish - Early Scarlet Globe

Rhubarb - Glaskins Perpetual

Salad Greens - Cress - Extra Curled

Salad Greens - Rocket

Spinach - New Zealand

Tomato - Grosse Lisse

Zucchini - Cocozelle

Must get to work now - lots to do today! I finally updated all of the sold fabrics that we had more stock of - so all of those bolts are now live again on the site...

12 month list of vegetables...sustainability

Every day is full at the moment - we are working towards so much. A lot of it is business - but we are also working towards being as sustainable as possible.

Our top priority is to use as much of our back yard as possible to grow our own food, create a worm farm, caretake two compost heaps and look after a brood of chickens for eggs and organic manure.

I'll take pics of the garden tomorrow - sorry I didn't take any today. As it is now, we have two large vegie beds, one of which is fully fertilised, mulched and strawed and just awaiting seedlings - the other is new and needs to be built up. Justin retrieved an old massive fowl pen from a local produce/farm seller and he is setting about turning one bay of it into a spacey chicken coop and the other two bays will be a large cat cage to meet the requirements of new local Council laws.

We have mushrooms fungii now (not activated yet) and have a list of what we'd like to grow over the next 12 months. We'll be planting:

Onion
Cabbage
Spinach
Strawberries
Blueberries
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Carrots
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Celery
Tomatos
Capsicum
Corn
Rhubarb
Garlic
Leeks
Peas
Beans
Lettuce
Radishes
Cucumber
Zucchinis
Pumpkin
Asparagus

And there is sure to be more! I also want fruit trees, if I can fit them in - we already have a lovely plum tree, but I'd love an orange, an apple and a lemon tree. Some of these you can get in miniature - we'll have to investigate those...

This blog will follow our garden (so if you live in the Southern part of Australia and interested in doing your own/have your own vegie patch keep in touch!) over the coming 12 months - but it won't be the priority of the blog. The drive is still to keep you all informed of Retro Age - and to see what we're up to on the side. And there is so much we're up to!

The Good Life

Justin has been telling me about The Good Life - a BBC series produced from 1975-1978. It's about a couple who leave the rat race to try and live their lives as sustainably as possible...

I loved the idea of it so he got the first series and we settled down to watch the first couple of episodes last night. It's a wag - I love it. It's funny - and it hits the right nerve for us at the moment. In episode two they waited for their chickens to lay their first eggs - I think I'll be exactly the same...

I have tried to Google the script for the first episode, as some lines were very pertinent. The main character - Tom Good - realises what the 'it' is that he has been yearning for. He realises the 'it' is getting out of life's circle - to work to live instead of living to work (and living more than working). Love those lines...they are very true in 2010, I feel.

Green cleaning...

Sunday is my day to get up early and let the man sleep in. I quite like Sunday mornings - I grab the Sunday papers off the lawn (ahem...weeds), make a vanilla coffee, get the kiddies their Weetbix and toast and settle down to have a read. Then, while the boys are amusing themselves, I catch up on a little tidying, washing and cleaning...

Today the games room shag rugs are out on the line getting some fresh air and sunshine. I love watching them in the sunlight. That room has a double later of shags - I put the red one on top of the slightly larger white one for a la retro effect. But I think the red one is just about to make it's way into our bedroom...it's my favourite...

Cleaning is easily done in this household - we use one product only. 100% pure eucalyptus oil is my cleaner of choice. We clean benches, baths, mirrors, floors, toilets - everything - with it. You can get it at any supermarket in Australia (not sure about overseas) for not much more than those horrid chemicals in the cleaning aisle. The versatility is amazing - put on cuts, scratches, soothe muscles...I love eucalyptus oil, as you can tell. I would highly recommend using it instead of any other cleaner - and it sure does beat having a billion cleaners in the laundry cupboards...

Bah - the website is down - sorry, peeps! Oh well - I can control cleaning products but I can't control servers...

The sun is shining here - off to enjoy a slow Sunday. Have a great day, all!

xNess

Sustainable Monday - make your own deodorant

One of my fave blogs - and fave bloggers - posted a great little piece on making your own deodorant. As you know, I got stung with the 'must do it now!' bug, so I purchased the two ingredients to make my own.

Those two ingredients are as simple as pie to find - bicarb soda and corn flour (corn starch in the US). I made the one part bicarb, six parts cornflour mix....

We've been using it for three days and thus far it's great. It's quite refreshing not to lather your armpits every morning - dabbing on powder is so much nicer. You perspire a little but you don't have an odour - and you're doing the right thing by your body!

I have been shampoo free for a week now (only using bicarb soda and the occasional vinegar rinse) and my hair feels fuller. It's not as shiny at the moment as there is an interim period where my body accepts that it has to make my own hair oil again (the glands are kick started by the no shampoo method!) - but I have read to give it time to adjust. So far, so good...

You can tell I'm a fan of bicarb soda!

Ahem....my favourite vintage pillowcases

Part of being sustainable - or being as sustainable as you can be - is using things from the past (new or unused) and not purchasing new. We live by that ethic in this household...we counted four new things in our main lounge the other day - the rest is vintage.

These are my all time favourite pillowcases. I hope these don't offend anyone! We use these all of the time and they never fail to give us a little smile. They are very much showing their age, but we don't mind. We got them in an estate sale years ago and just couldn't bare to part with them via Retro Age. Sometimes old linen just needs to be kept, don't you think?

My sustainable ethic is becoming stronger and stronger the older I get. But it still amazes me how little people know about reusing, recycling and being sustainable. I couldn't believe it when my own sewing teacher laughed at my pins as they were ancient and I should get some new ones. I told her these were from an estate sale and were just as good as new ones, albeit with a little more personality. It makes me feel good to reuse old things that have previously been loved by other people. I love reusing old stuff...do you?

Coco Chanel glamour

I read this post on Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op with much interest today. Homemade deoderant - ooohhh eerrrr. I couldn't wait to skip to the supermarket to buy the corn starch (here in Australia it's corn flour) and mix the bicarb and corn flour into my new oh so special deoderant.

And then I got to thinking...what to keep it in? I needed something special - something that would make the ritual of putting on deoderant something lovely again. I instantly thought of my Grandmother's Chanel No 22 bath powder I had in our ensuite. She had given it to me a long time ago and I had stashed it away. This is the perfect vessel, I thought!

I got my homemade deoderant ingredients ready and went off to hunt for the Chanel container. I yipped when I found it. And then I yipped some more when I realised there was so much powder left in it. I couldn't throw Chanel out just to make my new deoderant! So I have popped some on my body, I have luxuriated in the scent and the sparkle on my skin...and I have stashed away my new deoderant supplies until this gorgeous loveliness is finished. It is just divine. A pure joy...as I am sure my new environmentally friendly aluminium free deoderant powder will be when I make it...

Sustainable Monday - on Tuesday

I have my sewing class on a Monday so my usual Monday posts have been out of whack. This is Sustainable Monday - on a Tuesday. Today I would like to introduce the shampoo and conditioner I am currently using.
Bicarbonate of Soda is my current shampoo. I lather a load up into a paste and scrub it through my hair. I leave it for around a minute (use the time to wash yourself if you're water conscious) and rinse it off.

Vinegar is my current conditioner - you can use any vinegar, but I am currently using apple cider as I had it in my pantry. I pour some through my hair and then rinse it out. Yes, I smell of vinegar for around 5-10 minutes but then the smell disappears.

Apparently my hair is brighter (more colour - and I don't colour my hair) and it is definitely softer. I feel great doing it - better for the environment, better for my body (no chemicals) and better for the hip pocket! I'll see how my hair fares in the coming weeks...

Sustainable Monday - on Tuesday

Time has gotten away from me this week. I missed both Sunday's and Monday's blog thingies - oh dear! Never mind...

The first of our vegie patches is going in, as you can see above. This is quite a mammoth plot, but it's hard to tell in that photo. Every worm we come across is lovingly being immersd in the soil - every snail we find goes...ahem...over to the neighbours....

Our first compost heap is around a week old - it's amazing how much it has already grown! We have turned it over once or twice to keep the air going through it and have already found so many good little critters breaking everything down.

We have put in layers of kitchen scraps (no bones or meat - or dairy, if you don't want vermin), shredded paper (all of our mail with our names and any other personal details on it) and dried garden leaves this week. It already smells like soil. Next I'll be adding some straw - and then it's basically back to the start (manure) again. Easy so far!

And we have been keeping a watchful eye on our community of late - keeping an eye out for local produce and other handmade goodies. I am now buying local free range eggs and lettuces (before I grow my own!) and picked up three beautiful aloe vera plants from a lovely lady selling them in her trailer in her front garden (in her dressing gown). I was wrapt when I drove past and spied them - I love the soothing relief the aloe vera gel brings...

And don't forget Earth Hour is on Saturday 27 March at 8pm. We're making it a fun night with the kids - I am enjoying teaching our sons about our earth and reusing and saving what you can.

PS. I am keeping up with my decluttering goals - the house is now 50% done! Gee it's feeling good :)