Book Review: Living Organic

I have read so many books over the past couple of years and some of them have been really useful so I wanted to start sharing these with you and doing a bit of a review. I am going to intersperse the review posts with other posts.

So here we go. The first every book that I read around the topic is:

Living Organic

This book provides a clear and sensible introductory guide to a complete organic lifestyle. It explains how you and your family can tackle the toxins that surround you and take a healthier, holistic approach to everyday living. Organic food - what's it all about? What's in season and how to cook organic meats and vegetables to get the best out of them (and find out what to do with those nobbly vegetables at the farmers' market). In the home, you'll be amazed at the simple alternatives there are to chemical cleaning products and toxic toiletries that you can buy or make for yourself. Whether you want to grow your own vegetables or just look after the pot plants on your verandah, the organic garden explains everything from the lowly compost heap to natural weed control. Contains information on how children can lead a low toxicity life from conception through to childhood and beyond. Whether you live in a flat in the city or a house in the country, the low toxicity lifestyle is the essential choice for the future. 

I had heard quite a lot about organic living but wasn't really sure what it was all about. I picked this book up whilst on holiday in a bargain bucket but you know what, it has been one of the most useful books I have. There is lots of really useful information inside that will transform your life and the way you look at the way you live. I read it really casually and dipped in and out not really reading it on a continuous basis but it was really easy to do so. I read snippetts at a time and it was easy to pick up and put down. The information was really clear and a real eye opener. I was shocked actually to read about how toxic our everyday lives have become.

If you want to kick start yout eco, organic and ethical lifestyle this is certainly the book to get you started with. There are small easy steps that you can put in place to get you started and believe me after reading this book you will want to get started and let go of those harsh chemical induced cleaning products.

Read, enjoy and implement!

The Day Chip came to stay

The day that Chip came to stay with us was a lovely day, a scary day, a happy day and an emotional day.

Little Chip is a duckling, a little tiny urban duckling who lives with his Mumma behind shops. Normally he is with his Mumma but on this particular day his Mumma decided for some reason to leave him. So there he sat on his own, in the cold all day and into the evening. Chip chipping away calling for his Mumma.

I am a bit soppy person with a big heart and a lot of love for fluffy things. I had two choices.

1. Leave it there in the hopes that it will make it through the night and that Mumma will come back
2. Take it home and see what happens.

I decided on option 2.

I know most of you reading this now and are tutting and mumbling that you should leave it to nature as it is a wild animal but I just couldn't do that. I mean just look at that little face. When I got home I called the RSPCA and sought their advice. Little Chip stayed in a box full of hay in our bedroom and he was as good as gold. He chipped for a bit until he settled and he was quiet all night until the alarm went off at 7.30 this morning.

As soon as the shops were open I drove into town and bought duck food I also checked to see if Mumma duck had come back and she had not. So we went home and got settled. It was a lovely day. We had snuggles where he curled up on me and went to sleep, he ate like a trooper, had a play and splash about in water (supervised), had a run and a play around the house and all was very lovely. In fact I was really getting used to the little one being around and following me everywhere. It was really very sweet.

The RSPCA gave me a call to see how we were getting on and said that I was to keep doing what I was doing and then when it got to about 4 weeks to call them to discuss either releasing it into the wild or to an animal sanctuary. I was happy with this. I have always wanted a duck! Just after lunch though I had a phone call, Mumma had returned to the scene and was sat looking depressed. What was I to do? Chip had clearly gotten attached to me and I to it. It was now my Baby. Of course I had to take away my emotional feelings and do what was right for little Chip and not for me. So I popped him in his box and drove back into town. As soon as I opened the door and Mumma could hear Chip she started quacking. They couldn't wait to be reunited. So reunited they were. They had a little play in the puddle and then they waddled off towards the road. This is where I couldn't bear to look anymore.

I just hope my little Chip and his Mumma are going to be OK.

And as for me. Well I now have empty nest syndrome! Whilst I have the menagerie of animals I am really missing that cute little ball of fluff but I also have deep in my heart the knowing that I kept it safe all night ready to return to Mumma the next day so I think I did the right thing even if other people have tut tutted at me!

Forraging - Saltmarsh style

For the bank holiday we decided to have an impromptu break and go to the coast for a couple of days. Camping of course. You knew the weather by the seaside really was very pleasant and we were certainly warm and cosy in the tent. I love Norfolk. We stayed in Stiffkey and went along the stretch of coast from Wells to just after Blakeney. I do love the area and whilst it has become a lot snoottier over the years it has meant that a lot of small independent shops have opened up in the area. Far far more than we have here which is lovely. I do agree with Nicola though, when she wrote on her blog about local Farm Shops...

It’s the kind of place where all of the customers seem to drive immaculate 4×4’s, wear pristine hunter wellies and gilets and be incredibly well-groomed and manicured, as if they want to present the image of country living without actually coming into contact with real country life.  http://thegoodlifechallenge.wordpress.com/

Why is it that farm shops are more like posh chutney shops than actual grown produce? Anyway back to Norfolk...

So we were staying in Stiffkey which if you know the area you will know that the campsite is right next to the saltmarshes..

Our love of self sufficiency and our love for nice walks has lead us to forraging for our tea.

Armed with a bucket, pen knife, waterproofs and a sense of humour, we had a lovely walk along the salt marshes. It is a verritable buffet of lovliness it really is. On this trip we settled for Samphire and Mussels, a lovely combo! Some books and even some critics would probably say that it is too early in the year for such forraging. Well by the book yes it is, but remember before all the rain we have had of recent days it was unseasonably warm and everything was growing like crazy!

Below you will see the greyish area on the sand - these are all mussels and lots of them, oh and a windswept looking me!

My advice to budding forragers is to read good books. We reccommend the following:

River Cottage Handbook - Edible Seashore
Seaweed and Eat it: A family foraging and cooking adventure
The Camper Van Cookbook: Life on 4 Wheels, Cooking on 2 Rings

They tell you what to look out for, identifying your finds, safety, the law, and how to cook your finds.

And then of course have fun!

The books will tell you everything you need to do but make sure that the mussels are all still alive (OK that bit chokes me up!) and that they have been soaking in fresh water that has been changed several times. You need to make sure that they are nice and clean so give them a good scrub. Any floaters are dead so they need to go. Pop all your ingredients in a pan and they are ready to eat when they have opened up!

BUT PLEASE READ MORE ABOUT THIS.... I don't want you to get food poisoning!

We cooked our mussels in cream and garlic and served them over sauted samphire. It really was a scrumscious meal and almost FREE!

Natural Cleaning - will you take the challenge? #NatClean2012

Please note: This blog post is not my writing, I read it on their blog and because I thought it was a jolly good thing, I have copied and posted it here too. Looking forward to following you all on Twitter!

So from the blog of Bath Bomb Biz.......

With the advent of shops such as Poundland and The 99p Store, buying cleaning products has never been so cheap. Add into that the millions of pounds that manufacturers throw into their advertising campaigns, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that you had the best bargain in the world with a £1 toilet or kitchen cleaner from a well known brand.

But most of us know life isn't just about money or glamorous brands; it's about being eco-friendly, about staying healthy and about avoiding the chemicals and additives that most modern cleaning products contain.

So, with that in mind, we at Bathbomb.biz are issuing a challenge - a natural cleaning challenge!

Over the next few weeks we're going to challenge you to replace one of your cleaning products a week with a natural alternative. Even better than that, we're going to give you the recipes and guidelines you need for that alternative, using things you probably already have around your home.

Think about it; currently you probably use a lot of the following:

• Chlorine
• Phosphates
• Caustic cleansers
• Hydrocarbons
• Benzisothiozalinone

Without even thinking about it - they're found in toilet cleaners, oven cleaners, kitchen sprays, detergents and more. And that's just the start.

Yes they make things clean and sparkly. Yes they make things smell good. But these chemicals (and more) are also linked to a  variety of health and environmental problems, due to the way they are manufactured as well as the impact they have once they're washed down the drain.

We owe it to ourselves and our environment to avoid them.

So we're going to show you how to use:

• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Essential oils
• Salt
• Olive oil
• Bread
• Walnuts
• And more

to make your home shine, smell fresh and most of all BE CLEAN.

No more toxic chemicals, no more fabricated smells that don't last, and we'll even bet that our natural cleaning challenge recipes are cheaper too!

So are you up for it?

Let us know in the comments if you're in, and look out for our next post or watch Twitter for the hashtag #NatClean2012

Baking Day

I am adopting a bit of an old fashioned approach and having a baking day once a week. I figured that if I am cooking something and it takes me half an hour a day, I may as well spend longer in one hit and bake loads to last. I also thought that this was a sound eco choice as it takes a good deal of energy to heat the oven up to temperature. Why do this every day when you could just do it the once.

On my baking day this week I made a mushroom lasagne which will do us two meals, three pizzas which will do several meals / lunches, rolls and a big 'ol cakey. I was plum tuckered after but it feels so satisfying when you look at the mounds of food that I have made. I am really starting to enjoy cooking and am seeing it as a pleasure activity whereas in the past I always saw it as a chore. I think having a small kitchen makes it seem more chore like as I am always tripping over myself. I need to be more organised which I am not!

I am slowly getting the hang of the domestic Goddess thing. I still don't look cute in my little dress and pinny. I am still filthy, covered in flour, kitchen a mess but I am getting there and improving all the time. Except my cake sunk in the middle but then as a friend said to me on Facebook "more room for cream".

The recipe that I use for my cake is Jon's Grandma's that was handed down to my Mother in Law who has since handed it down to me. I hope to be able to do that with my children someday, there is something so lovely about hand me downs. I like modern recipes but sometimes I think the oldies are the best. The good old tried and tested ones really do stand the test of time. I like modern cook books but I do find that they try and zazz the recipes up with extra ingredients that aren't really needed just for the sake of it.

If you would like to have a go at Grandma Freda's cake here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

100g Margerine
150g Caster Sugar
150g Plain Flour with 3tsps of Baking Powder, although if you prefer you can use 150g of Self Raising Flour instead
3 Eggs
Flavouring: Either a few drops of vanilla essence or for a lemon cake add the zest of one lemon.

Method:

Cream the margerine and sugar together in a bowl. Add your eggs and flavouring and mix. Slowly add your flour. Once everything is all mixed together, transfer to your tin then bake in the oven at 180 degrees C for approx 30-40 minutes.

Finishing:

I made a victoria sponge so filled my middle with strawberry jam and butter icing (butter and icing sugar creamed together), however if you wanted to make it into a lemon drizzle cake just add the juice on one lemonwith 3 tablespoons of caster sugar and drizzle it over the warm cake as it comes out of the oven.

Yummy scrummy!

Coping with the strain. The over the shoulder boulder holder!

Now my bras bless 'em do have to take a lot of strain. I am not a skinny minny that is for certain.

The other day I heard and felt an almighty SNAAAAAAAP!!! There goes one of the wires in me bra again. This happens alot which is a real shame as the rest of the bra is in really good condition like new really and it seems such a shame to throw it away because that is all it is good for, landfill. It's not as if you can give it to the charity collection.

Well that is what I thought anyway until I put a post on a forum asking for advice on what to do with used bras. One of the ladies suggested that I repair it. I didn't think you could buy new underwires but oh yes indeedy you can.

Here: http://www.sewing4u.co.uk/47-bra-underwires this is just the underwire for approx £2
But here: http://www.thebraangel.com/#/the-bra-repair/4541283568 is a kit for £2.99 which for the not so good at sewing as me is the perfect solution.

Brilliant.

Not only a few pennies saved but also an environmentally friendly answer to a throw away culture.

Death of the Domestic Goddess

Whilst writing the blog post for my chutney and knitting and searching for info on Domestic Goddesses, I came across this article on the Daily Mail website. 

Death of the Domestic Goddess! Baking and sewing skills dying out as modern mothers claim they are too busy to learn - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2114842/Death-Domestic-Goddess-Traditional-baking-sewing-homemaking-skills-dying-new-mothers-busy-learn.html

Image credit: H Armstrong Roberts, Getty

I have for a while now thought that some of the old skills are dying out. For instance I am 31 and at school in Home Economics classes we were only taught to cook. That is fine but learning other domestic skills like sewing and knitting would have actually been quite useful. I am all for equal opportunities and learning new things and it was great to be able to do wood work at school but actually the pencil pot I made is just sitting gathering dust somewhere where as I would have no idea where to start with darning socks but it would be handy to know.

Are these skills dying out for a reason? Well quite frankly yes.  As sad as it is, it is easier and possibly cheaper (especially when you take hourly rate into account) to just go to the shops and buy a new pair of socks than it is to sit and darn them. It goes back to one of my other rants that people go to work to buy stuff so that they can go to work.

In fact I am going to let Tom from The Good Life say it (from series one episode one):

"You know that ‘it’ business I was talking about? I think I’ve defined what 'it' is. It’s breaking the cycle: Going to work to get money to translate into things which you use up which makes you go to work again etc etc; in other words, the norm. What we should be doing is working at the job of life itself!"

The same is true for say jam making. You can go to the supermarket and buy a jar of jam for the same price or less than you can the fruit to make it. That is before you factor other ingredients and time in. In the olden days people made jam and chutney from the stock or surplus they had grown thus making it cheaper or free and very economical and actually a necessary way of preserving your crop. That just isn’t the case anymore so making your own has become a nice hobby or leisure activity rather than a must have or a part of everyday life. 

I can totally emphasise with that though, I mean I am really lucky that I work from home so I am flexible over the hours I work. I can fit nice things into my day because I don’t have to waste two hours a day in a car and an hour for lunch sitting at my desk. I already therefore have three hours to play with that is without working in the evening and using the daylight hours when I am more energised for kneading bread dough. I can make time for chutney making or baking. I used to work full time in an office and had no inclination for pursuits of this sort when I came home. I wanted to do it for the nicety but was just too blooming knackered mentally and physically.

Am I trying to make a point? I guess so but I don’t know what the right answer is. I think you just need to do what is right for you and your circumstances, your budget etc.

You may also want to read "The Good Life Challenege" blog that is written by my friend Nicola. She has a take on this subject too.

http://thegoodlifechallenge.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/make-do-mend/