Feed The Bees

This week I was moved enough to finally take the plunge into organic gardening. It may not look much or be done to gardener’s perfection but it means a lot to me. Out came the spade and reclaimed wood.

With the rapid decline in Bees continually rising it would be wise for us all to do everything we can (or at least something) to help stop the crisis.
This week I managed to find some awesomely priced seeds from a Southern retailer.

I chose Crimson Clover.

Bees love clover, I love Bees so the front garden is now dedicated to keeping the buzzies happy.

I hope the soil can drain adequately and that I mixed it up right. It will be joyous time to see some flowers growing in one of our gardens.

Peace.

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Organic Anti-Candida Spicy Springtime Recipe

This plate of food tasted amazing, like a vegetable curry and I just totally winged it so excuse the quantities please!

This dish is to keep Candida overgrowth at bay in a delicious way as well as being great for promoting weight loss.

Swede (Rutabaga) is known to help combat candida as are spices so feel free to add amounts to your taste. Bear in mind that too much swede will write of the weight loss factor in this recipe.

Main dish:

1″ thick small Swede
Small bunch of Purple Sprouting Broccoli (leaves removed)
A few leaves of Spring Greens or 1 small head (depending on the wildness of the crop)
5″ of Leek
2 sticks of Asparagus

Sauce:

1/2 a Cauliflower’s leaves
All the leaves from the Broccoli
A sprinkle of Turmeric
A sprinkle of Cayenne Pepper
A sprinkle of Black Pepper
A sprinkle of Cumin
Approx. 1/2 Ounce Water *non-organic

All vegetables are from Riverford Organic Farm – please visit their site Riverford.co.uk for the freshest food the UK has to offer.

Method:

Wash all the vegetables.
Cut away the leaves for the sauce and put to one side.
Chop the swede, spring greens and leek into small amounts.
Half the asparagus.
Steam all the veg for about 7 minutes.
Remove the veg and drain.
Add the leaves for the sauce, the spices and the water to the blender.
Blend until smooth.
Arrange the vegetables on a plate and decorate with the sauce.
ENJOY!

I really hope you enjoy this dish. I was so happy it tasted like a curry! 🙂

 

Local Organic Farm -Fruit & Veg from Riverford in Hampshire

I buy a veg box and a fruit box each week from my local Hampshire Organic Riverford farm and I wouldn’t want to live without it!

Riverford is an award winning farm offering Fruit, Vegetables, Herbs, Spices, Meat, Dairy, Bakery Goods and Refreshments for all in the South of England. Riverford is privately owned by Guy Watson, it has always been owned by his family and I can feel quite confident in saying it always will be.

The farm’s friendly team have been distributing organic produce for nearly 25 years. There is an extensive range of fruit, veg and drinks available to consumers, providing healthy produce through ethical farming to provide families with the best food our Earth can bring. They do certainly provide the freshest and most delicious fruit and veg I have ever tasted and their selected juices and wines are simply divine!
I totally recommend Riverford to all that are in reach. Save yourself and your family today from the poisons and GM that occur with non organic farming and join the society of people striving for righteous change.
Upon joining Riverford Farm you are gifted a ring binder folder and each week Guy writes an interesting and often very humorous newsletter that not only stands for good reading but gifts free recipes on the reverse side. Not only do you get free recipes to collect each week, you get a monthly recipe book gifting wisdom into how to use the seasonal stars that are grown.

Throughout the year upto 90% of all produce is homegrown. It is totally understandable that if you want a Banana or a Kiwi for example that it is going to need importing right? While Riverford do import such goods they do in a remarkable and impressively ethical way, they never use air freight and nearly all the imported goods come from a family run collection of farms in Spain and from France and these people have been working with Riverford a long time. All other imported produce is clearly labelled as to exactly where from and how it is sourced. For more information on ethical and responsible importing of goods and for how Riverford is helping protect the planet please visit their Environmental Website.

Riverford have several organic farms, the original is in Devon and they branch out regionally to Cambridgeshire, Hampshire and Yorkshire. They also encourage smaller growers and support them in converting over to organic growing. How lovely is that!. We all need to encourage and share the awareness behind this method of farming.

I am a vegetarian and I cannot pass judgement on the meat. In regards to the fruit and veg and drinks; each week You can select a veg and / or fruit box at whichever size suits your family, you can see what will be coming in it and you know you are buying the seasonal produce selected by the farm. By getting a regular box you are saving quite a bit of money in comparison to comprising an entire list yourself (which you can also do). If your box for that week doesn’t contain exactly what you would like you can add on items still at a very reasonable price by popping over to the required section, fruit & veg, meat, bakery, dairy, meat or drinks using their impressive website and make which ever additions you wish. I highly recommend the red wine 😉

Riverford provide flat pack boxes which can be easily stored and are well designed to carry the items. They also re-use them which is a wonderful idea. The friendly drivers collect the boxes from you with next weeks delivery. There is a set delivery day for each week and they usually arrive by 9.30am in my area.

For delivery in Basingstoke our delivery day is on a Monday morning.

If you would like to purchase a box, buying it through my recommendation entitles you to a free cookbook and your 4th box for free. Please email me or leave a comment in this post and I will get back to you.

For further information please visit Riverford Online or call 01803 762069.

I could talk about Riverford all day. Please, do, check them out for yourself.

Drying Herbs – Rosemary

Freshly picked Rosemary dried out properly can bring much happiness to one’s life.

Find a bush to pick from and make sure there are others there too so the supply can still thrive, carefully pick some branches off and carry them home. Rinse off with water then soak in ACV or white vinegar for a few minutes then rinse again. Shake the Rosemary well to help it dry quicker. Take some hemp cord and tie it firmly around the branches bunching them together leaving a length of cord to hang it from. Hang it high up in an airy place until it has dried right out and use as needed.

As mentioned in Rosemary Tea Now the health benefitsit gifts are wonderful.

I also carry Rosemary dried in my bag for a quick antiseptic mouth cleanser and Breath Freshener, it is way healthier than chewing gum and it really works!
I adore this herb and luckily for me it is abundant where I live.

This post also connects to The Daily Post Photo Challenge – Shadowed

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me while taking these shots, the Rosemary kept changing shape and size until I realised it was a shadowed effect.

Natural Breath Freshener

A wonderful discovery that really works in that time of need!
Fresh or dried Rosemary will completely transform you in under a minute.
Take a small amount of Rosemary and chew on it, move it around the cheeks and across the tongue until the taste in your mouth changes. It can then either be swallowed (preferably) or discarded.

This method is far healthier than and lasts as long as, if not longer than, conventional breath mints or gum.
It is pure and free of dangerous and artificial additives. Simply carry a small amount around with you and it will freshen your breath leaving a great taste.

If you are new to Rosemary or already love it I highly recommend getting yourself a Rosemary Tea. Enjoy

Upcycled Hanging Wooden Aeroplanes

How sweet is my friend! She truly is my Soul Sister, the best girlfriend anyone could ask for. Love!

As a gift idea Natalie used her creative flare and thoughtful love to turn a wooden coat hanger into two Aeroplanes for my Sons!
I was amazed at how they had turned out and at the originality of creativity in looking at a coat hanger and thinking “that’s an aeroplane”!

I absolutely love the idea of reusing and upcycling and would rather this be the eco friendly ethics behind any toy gifted to my children and she knows it so I was overjoyed when I saw how much effort herself (and partner) put into making her idea a reality.

To make these beauties Nat used:

* 1x wooden coat hanger
* A couple of pens
* Sticky tape
* Glue
* Cutting device
* Hanging wire

Her method was somewhere along the lines of:

* See it
* Believe it
* Create it!

Super frugal friendly love 🙂

I just had to blog this idea albeit not my own! I am also keen to try this out with the boys as the satisfaction in the upcycle seems very rewarding, the kids will love it!

HOMEMADE NATURAL LAUNDRY WASHING POWDER

Yes, yes, yes, I did it…finally got it right 🙂

My fabrics are clean and smell awesome. Yay! More importantly the powder is safe and free of dangerous chemicals!
The recipe below is homemade and all natural and it’s definitely been worth the wait.
After months of trying I have found the perfect laundry detergent recipe and I am so happy to share it with You!
Upon discovering how dangerous the advertised store bought washing powders and liquids actually are, with their harsh chemical ingredients that are ridiculously hard to pronounce, I got really upset at the thought of what I was allowing next to my children’s skin and decided enough was enough. How cool is the notion of home-crafting your own anyway? Very cool and really very satisfying knowing you know exactly what’s being used and the fact that it works just rocks! Ok so the store bought brands have a high potency of fragrance and are really really really cheap but they are not natural and far from eco-friendly, in my eyes it’s just not worth it, that is my babies skin I am putting those deadly chemicals on. The system over time has lured us in to just buy whatever is mainstream and has some how numbed our minds to not even question what we are buying even though the list of oddly named ingredients is plain to see, people just do not seem to care, playing ignorance and some people really are that stupid to not even think twice, only caring about price. Not this Muma.

If we think about the impact we are having on earth and the water supply by flooding it with these poisons then we are able to see how we are carelessly destroying the only place we have to live, our true source of life. Do we want to live on a totally poisoned world? That is the way it is heading unless more people wake up, quick. Eventually we will have corrupted our Mother Earth so much we won’t have grass to stand on.
One by one we can stop this mass destruction and try to create a natural clean and green world. It may take a while but why would we want to pollute our planet when we really do not need to. Eco-warriors need to lead the way by example, reaching out to others and through guidance, helping everyone to understand the damage we are actually doing and how easy it is to make these changes. You don’t need to be a wacky scientist or have a state of the art laboratory (that would be nice though), just a few natural ingredients, a grater, a spoon, a cup and a tub!

To have the pleasure and satisfaction of making your very own washing powder you will require:

Ingredients:

1 cup Organic Lavender & Chamomile Essential Oils infused Soap Bar
1 cup High Grade Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)
1 cup High Grade Sodium Carbonate (Washing Soda)
1 cup High Grade Citric Acid
1 cup High Grade Dead Sea Salt
½ cup Organic White Wine Vinegar

Once you have acquired all the ingredients you will require:

The method:

1) Acquire a cup for measuring, a cheese or soap grater, a bowl to mix it together in or an airtight tub to mix / store it in and turn on the washing machine
2) Simply grate a bar of soap to fill your cup using the grater
3) Measure out the Sodium Bicarb, Sodium Carbonate, Citric Acid and Sea Salt into equal parts to each other and to the soap (1 cup)
4) Combine these all together in the bowl / tub and mix very thoroughly being very careful not to gust the powders up your nose or you will sneeze (every time!)
5) Use 1 cup of finished mixture to add to the laundry in the machine
6) Add the additional ½ – 1 cup of white wine vinegar to further freshen and soften
7) Set the machine and move on to your next job!

Tips:

– You can make your own Sodium Carbonate from Sodium Bicarbonate by popping it in the oven for 30 minutes and baking it at around 200 Celsius. You must mix it regularly whilst its baking or it will harden and although the lumps can be broken down its better to keep it as fine as possible so it will mix well in this recipe once it has cooled. Alternatively you can buy it ready-made (purchase at great prices from Intralabs.co,uk).
– I recommend using a richly infused with essential oils soap bar. You can use a plain base soap and then add oils afterwards although using a scented bar helps the oils to be distributed evenly through the mixture. Adding oils to the mix afterwards makes it difficult to ensure you get the oil in each dose you add to the fabrics as it clumps up and may only reach one load leaving all the other loads scent free (not good!) + it requires a lot of drops
– When grating the soap I used a grade size that would give me a larger consistency of shavings (there is just something I like about the idea of large slithers of soap knocking into my fabrics). Next time I will attempt a smaller grade so the soap is distributed more.
-The soap tends to ‘run off’ together in the tub and separate from the powders so it is essential you stir thoroughly before using the mixture each time to gain maximum even distribution.
– Before I was stupidly using borax as a main ingredient from a recipe of unreliable source, cross reference is very important. I DO NOT recommend using borax. Just because it’s natural it does not mean it’s good for you! Borax is a major irritant to skin, it causes nappy rash and it can choke you up in an instant if you use it without a mask. I would recommend you keep it away from contact with skin. It is great for abrasive cleaning though i.e. the toilet or the sink!
– Don’t be under the impression that the vinegar will hold its potency through the wash taking over the scent of the oils. This is not the case; you cannot smell it at all in the final product. It is added for softness!

I’m so glad I can finally post this article, seriously so happy to have done this. Bring on the Lab! I hope you enjoy this recipe, good luck and thanks for reading my posts 🙂

Organic Raw Chocolate Natural Homeschooling Cooking Lesson

Monday morning’s class this week began in the most magical of ways. The Sun was booming in through the kitchen, the whole family was happy and the love was strong.
After a most healthy breakfast my children and I set about our homeschool for the day. The topic for the morning was cooking and as my children are young toddlers this was going to be our first real encounter with using the oven and quite a daunting one at that!
Nevertheless we began. Making raw Cacao Chocolate was to be the first set of culinary skills my children would acquire. Great start right!
As i had never done this before either it was a new, paleo technique i was to master also! How, simple, quick and easy it was, not forgetting to mention how deliciously potent the aromas are.
The kids got stuck right in and loved stirring the butter until it melted, this was a little lesson in patience and how to stir at the same time. As soon as it started to melt my eldest knew ‘chocolate, chocolate, chocolate’ was coming testing the virtue of patience further! Further through the process they both loved being in control of the spoon, minding not to touch the hot bowl and pan.
Their favourite part of making the mix was tasting it from the spoon and bowl and covering their hands and faces in it. It was a extreme chocolately mess and we all loved it! It was definitely a hit in this kitchen and one to be practiced  much more often as the list of ingredients that can be added is almost infinite. Such fun! We loved health-packed superfoods!

Nowadays when we think of Cacao, where the reality of our western culture has been so far obscured, its all too easy to fall under the influence of chocolate being full of sugar and not very good for our health but this is far from the raw truth and actually only has any connection to the readily available, heat treated, sugar laced / artificially enhanced types!
Natural Organic Raw Cacao Chocolate is nutritionally beneficial to our health and deeply satisfying  for our system holistically in so many ways, all you need to do is ingest a small amount to truly feel the full effects of its divine power.

Benefits of Raw Cacao Chocolate:
+ High Magnesium (happiness & stamina booster)
+ High Sulphur (known for healthy nail and hair growth whilst being cleansing to the liver and pancreas)
+ High in antioxidants (disease prevention)
+ Diminishes appetite (perfect for snacking / sees you through hunger gaps)
+ Tantalizes taste buds (joy for the mouth!)
+ Combines with every other food you can think of

As well as being totally amazing for your mind and body Cacao Chocolate is an awesome party piece and a brilliant talking point. Since learning just how easy it is to make I vow now to spread the word to all I know, gifting my dearest friends and family with starter kits to create their own so the love can truly be felt and cast far and wide.
We bought a beautifully made, simple, basic, standard, organic Chocolate making kit and added a few of our own ingredients from the cupboard to give added yum.

Requirements:

Heatproof Bowl
Saucepan
Spoon / Spatula
Oven top
Moulds
Cocoa Powder 100g
CocoaButter 100g
3g Vanilla Powder
100ml Agave Syrup

Optional / additional:

1tsp Acai Berry Powder
1tsp Blueberry Powder
2tsp Hemp Flour

Method:

• First put about 1/3 saucepan of water on to heat, no need fr it to boil. Place in your glass / heatproof inside the pan to flaoat and there you have created your own bain marie if you don’t already have one.
• Next add all the Cacao Butter and gently stir until just melted.
• Then add all the vanilla powder and keep stirring until totally blended. You may add the additional ingredients if desired, mixing until blended.
• After this add all of the Cacao Powder and mix until smooth.
• Last ingredient to be added is the Agave Syrup, using the full bottle mic for around 101 stirs hen you shall see it totally blended.
• Pour out the molten chocolate into your desired molds and allow to set in the fridge for around 15-30 minutes depending on fridge temp and depth of molds. I recommend using a high quality rubber mold as it will be easier to pop out and wont leave as much of the chocolate behind.
• Enjoy! (Compulsory)
  

Once you try this method and understand how simple and beautiful it is crafting your on chocolate snacks you will never look at chocolate the same again!

By creating your own blocks, bars or slabs you can be truly as diverse as you feel in that moment using whichever additional ingredients that you like. Using superfood berries really makes these chocolate bars very, very healthy for you! Really. Body and mind, a whole feeling of well-being is achieved from just a small amount. Now i know how, there is no stopping me making homemade chocolates for our family every time they are craved!

I hope yours turns out as amazing as ours 🙂