meat free week

From the ages of 18 to 36 I didn't eat red meat or chicken.

I found the hardest place to be a vegetarian was in Europe. And the easiest place was Asia!

I not only survived but thrived on my vegetarian diet. I produced three large, healthy babies (including twins) with only minimal iron supplement in my late pregnancies.

After I had children I found it harder to avoid meat. I didn't want to restrict the kids' diets, and their Dad occasionally cooked and ate meat. I started to feel like I was missing out, that I couldn't cook and eat all the wonderful dishes of the world and share them with my family.

I missed ham and mustard, bacon and eggs, beef in black bean and roast chicken. The foodie in me railed against my self imposed restrictions. So I gradually allowed meat back into my diet. I'm still not a meatie eater, but I do love the fact that these days I can go anywhere and eat anything.

These days as a family we are committed to eating well sourced, humanely raised meat in moderation. We only buy free range chicken and eggs and pork and pasture raised beef and lamb. We don't eat veal. Luckily those decisions become easier every day with mainstream suppliers catching up with a groundswell of consumer feeling, but we still have ways to go. It makes my heart ache to think of the conditions some animals endure in the name of food production.

Sometimes the amount of meat we eat creeps up, and so the year before last we had a healthy week and gave up meat to try and reset ourselves. Last year about the same time we tried the 5:2 diet and ate mostly vegetarian low calorie dinners twice a week for six weeks. I do think a mainly vegetable based diet is healthiest.

This year our healthy week coincides with an organised meat free week which starts next Monday.

I think this is such a great idea. Not only does this inclusive movement support eating less meat for health and sustainability reasons, it's about animal welfare. Its about ending factory farming and working towards more ethical food production. Something we can all embrace whatever our personal diet. Read their guide to Ethical Meat choices here. And if you haven't got the sustainable seafood app on your phone its a great help at the supermarket or fish shop.

At our house we are going to cut out meat (and alcohol) and also cut down on sugar and electronics for the week. The website has some great recipes to go with our old favourites.

Funnily enough my kids aren't big meat eaters, and they are always keen for healthy week. We try to make it fun and they particularly love the fruit and nut plate for dessert and the different healthy unprocessed options in their lunchboxes.

And the best thing is the effects roll on to see us eating healthier and eating less meaty for weeks after.

I'm going to post some different recipe ideas starting tomorrow to help inspire anyone who wants to join us on our meat free time. I'm going to post some old and new favourites and I'd love to hear yours!

homemade eco laundry detergent

Exactly a year ago I decided to try making my own clothes detergent. I saw people doing it online and thought I'd try it myself.

I liked the idea of making my own eco-friendly detergent without nasty additives and I'd read that it was easy and much cheaper than buying it. On top of that I was sick of dragging home heavy bottles of detergent and hated the packaging waste.

And is it good?

Yes!!

Truth is I haven't bought any premade detergents since February last year and I figure I've saved myself a lot of money in that time. (To see how much I've made a price comparison for you below between bought and home made.) I also love that when I run out (invariably on the weekend) its a simple thing to pull out the ingredients and make another batch rather than having to drive to the shops and buy more.

All the recipes are very similar but I think I based my measurements initially on this one. This batch makes a bucket full, about nine litres. You can also make dry powder but I've always found that makes my sensitive skin itch.



Ingredients
1 and a half litres of water
1 cup soap flakes or grated soap (I use Lux flakes because its quick and easy.)
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda
10mls eucalyptus oil (optional but I love the smell and I guess I'm used to scented detergent)

Equipment
Bucket, containers for finished soap, pot, wooden spoon, measuring cup, funnel if you have one. I keep my ingredients together in the pantry and in the washing soda container a copy of the recipe so its there when I need it.

 

Method
Put one and a half litres of warm water in a pot and put on the stove on medium to high heat.
Add 1 cup soap flakes or grated soap and stir till it dissolves (above).
Add 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup washing soda and stir to combine until the mixture thickens (below).
Pour mixture into a bucket and fill with warm water.
Stir to combine.

As it cools the mixture thickens so keep stirring or the top will harden and you'll have to stir it to break it up again. I keep the bucket in the bath and stir it when I walk past.

When the detergent is cold decant it into bottles. A jug or a funnel makes this process easier because the mixture is quite thick by this time.

And that's it! How easy is that? Once you get into the routine its a pinch and much easier than dragging it home from the shops, paying ten times as much and now you know exactly what goes into it, all eco friendly ingredients.

 

Price comparison
The other day I was in Woollies and noticed the price of the detergent we'd been using (photo below). It was a nice reminder of the money we are saving. The five of us go through a lot of washing detergent, what with sport and school and work and everything.

I sat down and made a price comparison based over ten litres for the basic ingredients. And even I was pleasantly surprised. My homemade detergent is 15% of the price, each two litre bottle saves me over $8. Times that by two or three bottles a month and the savings mount up.

Homemade per 9L
Lux flakes ($7.19/700g) - 1 cup, 123g = $1.26
Borax - Glitz Green ($7.98/kg) - 1/2 cup, 107g = $0.85
Washing Soda Lectric $3.86/kg - 1/2 cup, 133g = $0.51

Hurricane Top Loader ($8.99/2L) $4.50/L or $45/10L
Homemade ($2.62/9L)                  29c/L or $2.91/10L

Edited to add
* according to Lisa on instagram you can even lower the amount of borax, which helps make it friendlier for her husband with psoriasis.
* there are no foaming agents so it is initially quite disconcerting because it doesn't foam.
* I have been meaning to further thin it because it can come out in a bit of a glob because its quite thick.
* All the ingredients I found in the soap powder aisle at my local supermarket.

green

After many dry weeks Sydney finally got rain last week, lots of it! It didn't take us long to start complaining about the drenching though, but I saw one suburb got 150mls in 24 hours so it was a lot! And there was lightning, thunder, wind and hail in some places to add dramatic affect.

This week the sun came out and the sea breezes blew onshore. It is perfect Sydney spring weather, one of our finest accomplishments, days that are so beautiful it puts a spring in your step.

I can hear the garden growing today. The plants are taking that drenching, mixing it with the bright sun and warm soil and reaching for the sky.

So it seems apt that all my recent photos seem to be green!

The garden is full of happy discoveries, I'm very excited that the Thompson seedless grape which I planted along the fence five years ago is finally happy and covered in grapes! The new fig in a pot has little figlets too and the lime which has been stingy with its harvest since we planted it is covered with a mass of baby limes. Add to that a new lemon tree and ripening blueberry crops and it almost counts as a mini urban food forest.

Down the side hydrangea cuttings gleaned from friends' gardens are heavy with fat blooms in beautiful pastel colours. I love this old garden plant and from the reaction on instagram when I posted this photo, I'm not alone. A couple more favourites of mine are the echinacea and zinnia plants I grew from seed, the unflowered echinacea plant which is two years old has the most wonderful architectural buds.

Yesterday I went to pick up more pots and glaze the last bisque fired pieces from my course. I have also booked in to do a nine week course next year at a closer venue. It seems ceramics is more than a fling and I'm really looking forward to learning some more.

I took the chance of being at the Uni to have lunch with my sister who works there now, it is a real luxury having her in Sydney now and not thousands of miles away in Vietnam.

This week too I have finally accepted that Christmas is round the corner and its time to get organised, I'm thinking about my shopping list, about a destash, and also about some handmade Christmas. I saw this wonderful simple idea for homemade celery salt over on Jo's blog the other day and couldn't help trying it when I found myself with a new head of celery. It's delicious. Whether it lasts long enough to be gifted I couldn't say, but in the meantime it does suit the smallest of my new handmade bowls perfectly. Not sure I can gift that either!

For another homemade gift - for the people I'm not meant to give too - I'm also eyeing off this bread and butter cucumbers recipe I saw on Louise's Garden Glut blog. Sounds like the perfect thing.

product shoot

Green Filigree

Sky Filigree

Ink Filigree

Ocean Filigree

Chalk Filigree

Do you remember I restyled one of my tea towel product shots back here?

I loved it so much I always had it in the back of my mind that I'd do the others, styled according to their colours. The Filigree design has been with me since the first days of my Flower Press shop so it feels good to be refreshing and renewing the product photography.

Speaking of those first days, it is six years ago next week that I started my little venture!!

As with many things that happen round here it wasn't scheduled in, nor written on a to do list, but the fancy struck me the other day, the light was right, I pulled the couch out of the way and put our coffee table in the sunny spot from the window with indirect light and stood on the table to take the photos. So professional!

I'm sure I'm not alone in taking my photos in funny situtations. In fact one of my favourite spots is the kitchen bench, which has just the right light!

Which is your favourite shot? I'm a bit torn but I'm loving the green most I think :-)

exhale

I've been meaning to come back and post these extra photos of our trip down south. It seems a long time ago now, but I wanted to have a record here on my blog of our week in that magic place.

I love Ms A's collage of the corners of this sweet house, trapped in time, just the way we like it! Check out too the amazing queen sized flannelette doona cover and pillowslips I thrifted. They were virtually unused. I'm just worried now that I won't be able to get out of bed when they're on!

Happy weekend peoples. I am back next week with some new things (about time I hear you say!). Some stuff I have been working towards for a while now. I'm really looking forward to sharing it with you.

my creative space - busy bee

Before Mr F left on his annual fishing trip with his brother and brothers in law last week (five days on the hawkesbury lucky duck) I got him to help me finish this project I've been dreaming of for a while. I've wanted to make one since seeing some online. This funny little house of home grown bamboo and recycled wood is actually a bee house!

If you are interested in the whys behind this idea there is a lovely pdf I found here (the 'attract bees' one). Its full of great information and tells you everything you wanted to know about our native bees, including the solitary bees. These natives are actually important pollinators of native flora, garden and agricultural crops so the perfect residents for an organic garden.

Some of the solitary native bees we have already in our garden are leaf cutter bees (top above, see their handiwork here), blue banded bees (the second bee pic) and teddy bear bees (as cute as their name suggests!). Each year about this time the blue banded bees start searching out the loose mortar between our bricks and the teddy bear bees start buzzing the clay at the base of our house looking for nesting sites. The occasional one gets lost on the way and ends up buzzing round the house while I try to herd them out the door again. The bee population has grown with our garden and we want to keep them happy, hence the nesting house.

The idea behind the house is to provide solitary native bees somewhere to lay their eggs. This one is mostly set up for leaf cutters. The others prefer different types which we intend to make this weekend, by drilling holes in blocks of wood and making clay bricks.

The bee house is a quick easy project but it makes me smile every time I see it, and I'm just crossing my fingers that someone will want to call it home!

I am as always, joining in my creative space over here.

Happy Easter to everyone, I for one can't think of anything nicer than four quiet days at home, pootling in the garden making bee homes and planting my autumn crops!

my creative space - pink and green

I had a great time in my creative space this week, on Tuesday I had a sewing day with my friend Marg. We talked, we lunched, we chatted, we drank tea, and we even sewed a bit, just a bit! By the end of the day we'd made three pillowcases with my tutorial and some flower press fabrics. Our three daughters got one pillowslip each in these lovely spring colours. And they loved them.

I didn't get many photos of Marg's pillowcases but that's one of hers with the Bloom flowers, I made mine with the Trileaf pattern. And we both edged them with my Daisy dots fabric (back in stock, free postage!).

Kirsty is asking everyone for their tips for staying creative today.

One of the things that helps me stay creative is to try and keep a sketchbook handy, and take notes when inspiration strikes. I like to buy these cheap A5 sketch books and when those thoughts float across my mind I quickly jot them down before they disappear. I take down a motif or a pattern or write a list, draw a design, write myself a note. Sometimes I just doodle for a while and one thought leads to another.

When you leaf back through your sketch book you are reminded of those ideas and the ones that still inspire you slowly grow and improve and some of them, like this trileaf design which I found an original sketch for, become reality!

I'm looking forward to reading other peoples tips for creativity, are you sharing some today?

worm tower

One of the clever things I saw at a local Permaculture garden recently was a worm tower. I'd never seen this idea before and I think its great! The idea is basically to put a simple worm farm directly into your raised garden bed. The worm farms are then fed with kitchen scraps by the handful, straight into the top.

To make the worm tower you simply take a wide pipe, pvc in this case, and drill lots of holes into the lower half which then goes underground. Bedding materials like compost or aged manure are introduced into the bottom of the pipe, allowed a day or so to settle and then the worms are added to the pipe. Once they are settled you should be able to feed compostable worm food, i.e. vegie scraps into the top, the worms will then consume them and leave wonderful worm castings in return, which they also distribute through the bed, coming and going through those handy holes you made. You can cover the new worm hotels with a pot base or an upside down pot, like I have with one of mine, or a plant pot as I've done here.

Here are a couple of good local videos explaining how to make and use these towers.

I love my garden which is full of favourite plants, but its mostly been ornamental. I've always been jealous of people with big vegie gardens. The Mr did make me a wonderful wooden raised bed a couple four! years ago which is  working quite well since it was moved into a sunnier spot, but once a feral tomato plant and a self sown rocket plant take over there isn't much room for anything else. After my garden visit, I realised its something I really want, to grow more of my own vegies, so I had the idea to change a garden bed where plants never thrive due to root competition and poor soil into raised garden beds instead. This space gets sun in winter and summer and there should be room for a few more crops.

It was council chuck out here over the weekend and we managed to find and use salvaged timbers for both surrounds. The PVC was also being thrown out. We filled the beds with the contents of an old disused compost bin and an ancient and smelly bag of rotted chook manure to give them a headstart. Each bed then had its own worm tower installed and today I brought home the new tenants from the local garden centre. I also bought seedlings and seeds, and there are those garlic bulbs in the mail!

I'm thinking of this as a 'before' post in my mind, and hoping I will be back in time with a positive progress report. Fingers crossed!

Also new is the side garden where we've pulled out the concrete and the fly ash fill at last, a big job, and put in drainage and soil with a paver path. This once hot sunbaked area is hopefully going to become a shady green oasis with camellias and climbers on one side and perennial planting on the other, with a few ground covers growing around the paving path and the poor lemon tree which had to move a few metres along espaliered and thriving in its new lovely soil. It hasn't died, so that's a start!

Do you vegie garden? Have you got worms(?!)What are you growing and do you have any great advice for me?