Lemon Honey Sugar Scrub

Amazing lemon honey sugar scrub!! - my skin feels delicious and soft.  Phoebe is yet to trial her share of scrub but I imagine she'll experience the same bliss.  Feeling inspired by the recent workshop - I've been looking at some recipes online for various eco-body care products. The scrub we made was a combination of a few recipes I came across ---

Lemon Honey Sugar Scrub
- 2 cups of sugar
- juice of 3 - 4 lemons
- rind of 2 lemons (delicious scent)
- 2 heaped spoons of honey
- 1/4 cup of olive oil (ish)
- 5 tablespoons of coconut oil (ish)

The recipes also suggested lemon essential oil - 4 drops, but I didn'thave any. I also didn't measure the olive oil/ coconut oil very closely -I think if you just add whatever oil you like (grapeseed/ avocado/ etc) until the scrub reaches a paste consistency.

Beautiful Bike

My bike is together - and beautiful.  Everything is second hand, bought at around again cycles or salvaged from Tauawhi's garage.  She is just in need of a wee basket on the front - and some lights for night excursions. Riaan is planning on repainting her at some point - we've agreed that the maroon red she currently is better then pale pink. And I've been biking everywhere! It's a very comfortable
ride.... Yay! :)

sexy 'new' old bike

 - Cassie

Gardening - and coffffeee! Yum

We've got busy in the garden last weekend - built a couple more beds - filled with delicious leaf mold, manure and coffee grounds. I've been collecting some coffee grounds from the cafe I work at - it's apparently great in the garden for balancing/increasing nitrogen levels in the soil - the plants love it! They also, if spread on the topsoil around plants, will  deter some plant pests.. -  never throw out coffee grounds! They are great in the compost or straight in the garden. And I'm sure most cafes would be happy to give their coffee grounds away - as most I know, ends up in the rubbish.  Read more here: Coffee grounds

Let There Be Light (eco-styles)

We have changed all the lightbulbs to ecobulbs now.

8W bulbs were used in hallways where the lights tend to get left on. 13W bulbs were used in bedrooms because they are brighter for reading and detail work but not too glaring. 15W bulbs were used in the bathrooms.

We now have a bunch of non-eco bulbs to get rid of. I might put them on Freecycle but if you want them you have only to ask.

From Gabby

Bokashi Bonanza!

We decided to use the bokashi method to breakdown the things that are not suitable for our worm farms instead of putting them into the green organics bin. The unsuitable food scraps are: the onion family, citrus fruit and cooked food.

Bokashi is a composting system that uses Effective Microorganisms (EM) to break down the foodscraps.The bokashi mix is a grain that is inoculated with EM. It is a fully contained system, so it has no smell and thus can be kept indoors. Another benefit of bokashi, as opposed to other compost methods, is that you can put dairy and meat in and not attract pests. As food scraps break down in the bokashi system a liquid is released and collected in the bottom bucket. This liquid is very good for feeding plants and also is has cleaning uses, such as cleaning drains.

Instead of buying a $56 bokashi bucket system I decided to make my own. A $56 bokashi bucket system usually consists of a bucket with holes in it stacked inside another bucket to catch the bokashi juice, along with a packet of bokashi mix.

The buckets I got from Bishopdale KB’s. The bakery buys jam in the buckets because they need large quantities for tasty treats. They then sell them on at for $6.70 each, which is awesome recycling and reusing.

2 make a complete system, so the cost of buckets is $13.40.

To make the holes in the bottom on the bucket I drilled pilot holes with a small drill bit and then went over them again with an 8mm drill bit.

Finished! The bokashi mix I bought from Smith’s Mitre 10 at Church Corner for $12.
So to make a bokashi system cost us $25.40, along with 15 minutes to drill some holes and the time to fetch the buckets :)

And here is one we prepared earlier!

The Farming of Worms

Our tyre worm farms have now had their 4th tyre added to the stacks. They have been in use for at least 3 months.

Tyres are ideal for worm farms because they are:
· Black and so attract heat to keep the worm warm and active
· Stackable so the bottom tyre can be removed when the vermicast is ready (vermicast is the wonderfully rich substance that worms turn foodscraps into).
· Cheap or free. Get them from around the neighbourhood, tyre shops or car fixing garages.

How to make a tyre worm farm:
Tear newspaper that has been soaked in water into strips the width of your thumb-nail. Stuff the strips into the tyre rim along with some soil. Continue until the tyre rim is filled up. Repeat for more tyres to stack on top.
Put a few handfuls of newspaper and soil into the bottom of the stack. Cover with something that will keep the water and the flies out.

A gorgeous black cat lolled in the sun and kept me company during my worm farm mission :)

From Gabby :)

Fooood !

So, today - for the first time in aaaaages I (Cassie) had some eggs. It was an amazing, semi-orgasmic experience. I wandered over to Tauawhi, and happily collected 3 eggs from their happy chickens. And then I made Phoebe and I an amazing omelet. Shanti wandered in to the kitchen (he should have been writing his essay !) and glared as only an animal rights activist can (with a mixture of flatmate love and devilish delight at making me feel guilty-he only does this out of affection). I still managed to enjoy my omelet - but it did get me thinking about food again. There are some great blogs around and articles about - one I stumbled on today ---organic foods - worth it? Very interesting read.

The expense of organic is still an issue! However - we have are own semi-organic produce (not sure if we would make certification ;) ) growing in our garden! Yay!  - next weekend we are attacking the garden - and going to make a new vege-bed in preparation for spring! Whoop - spring.. mmm cherry tomatoes.....

Transport - Pink and pretty please! ;)

Compared to the rest of my flatmates, I (Cassie) am a bit slack in the environmentally friendly transport department. Most of my flatmates bike everywhere - with the exception of Shanti  who walks because he is a bit of a hazard on a bicycle. Gabby also uses her car occasionally, mostly when transporting many people to go op-shopping or when doing our bulk-shopping.

I have been car-pooling to school (CPIT) with a classmate, usually 3 times per week. I bus other places and I usually bike to work. My ambition is to bike more in the coming semester - this ambition is being helped along by Riaan (b/f) who is putting together a comfortable, second-hand bike. Yay, I've requested that it be pink - but that may not happen.

I do feel a bit nervous on a bike, especially on some of the busier roads, so I plan to get thoroughly equipped with lights and glowing neon.  I've already done some 'trial' biking to places that have scard me in the past - down bealey ave! - and was pleasantly surprised that I survived. Will let you know how I progress :) ------------- Cassie :)

Beer Bread

An exciting development in the baking department here is beer bread. Gabby or Tessa bake fresh bread in our bread maker most days - Yum! But recently, thanks to my Mum, we have discovered beer bread - which is a fast easy way to have some delicious bread without kneeding and letting the yeast rise etc..

beer bread and little bread muffins

 Beer Bread Recipe
3 Cups of Flour (white - or a combination of white and wholemeal)
3 tsps of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
400mls of beer

Mix together and cook in a 200 degree oven for 20-30 mins (depending if you make smaller
bread muffins or a larger loaf) - check for golden brown colour and hollow sound when you
tap the bread. Feel free to add to the recipe - poppy seeds are yummy - or grated cheese
sprinkled on top. Enjoy !

Sharing is Caring

Mischievous Tim from Tauawhi has been around, he has tidied and sorted through our freezer, which mostly consists of frozen peas. Yes, Tessa loves peas.  Tauawhi has decided to turn off their freezer and have put all the contents in our freezer.

Go Community love ;)