A nice hot drink of tea is the perfect pick-me-up on a chilly day – and a glass of iced tea is refreshing on a hot one. The benefits of using green tea for detoxification and for general health are well known, and even good old plain black China Tea as found in your cheap pack of PG Tips is natural with no added artificial this and that – and it has been shown to have a good amount of antioxidants as well. Coffee, too, isn’t all that bad and if you stay away from decaf and instant coffee, it’s not over-processed or full of artificial this and that –or excess sugar.
However, if you want to live naturally and sustainably, herbal teas are another option. Not only do home-made teas reduce waste (and air miles – you can’t grow tea or coffee on a viable scale in England), you can also take advantage of the medicinal benefits of herbs – as well as enjoying the taste.
Making any herbal tea is simple. All you need is about a teaspoon of your chosen herb or herbal blend (dried) per person, or three/four teaspoons of the fresh herb. You also need some way of straining out the dried bits and pieces from the boiling water so you don’t have bits of, say, dried rosemary floating around in your teacup. You can use an ordinary teapot and a tea-strainer in the same way as you would make loose-leaf tea, or you could use a coffee plunger. You can also use those little tea strainers that look like a cross between a perforated steel egg and a pair of tongs – these are perfect for single cup serves of tea.
If you’re really keen, you can make up your own “tea bags”. These have one advantage over regular tea-bags: the bag bit is reusable. A square of muslin or cheese cloth (maybe a small, delicate handkerchief bought and saved for this purpose?) is all you need for the actual bag part. Spread out the square of cloth and put about a spoonful or so of dried herb(s) into the middle. Then gather up the corners and tie securely shut with plain cotton cord. Don’t use plastic string (it may melt) or rubber bands (they melt and taint the flavour – ick!) to tie the bag closed, but metal twisty-ties are possible. When you have finished making the tea, open the bag, shake the contents into the compost heap, then wash the square of cloth for re-use.
But if you use a single sprig of fresh herbs, leaving the sprig whole in the cup looks quite elegant for serving at a tea party. You (and your guests) have the option of scooping out the sprig at the end and eating it. Parsley, mint and rosemary work well this way.
Most of these methods use boiling water. However, on a hot summer’s day, a “sun brew” can be used to make a cooler herbal tea that is perfect for iced tea. Simply fill a clear glass (or plastic, if you must) jug with plain water and add a tea bag. Stand this in a nice, sunny place and leave it for an hour or so to let the flavour of the tea seep into the water. This is excellent for more delicately flavoured herbs, as the aromas are not denatured by the hot water. Dried herbs are best for this.
Purists say that herbal teas should be drunk without milk or sugar, with honey used as the only sweetener for the more bitter herbs. However, milk can be added to non-acidic herbs (acidic ones will curdle the milk), and a milky herbal tea can make a good bedtime drink for children. You can use sugar instead of honey – I won’t tell on you if you do!
Any combination of herbs or spices can be used to make herbal tea. Experiment to find your own favourite blends. Here are a few good combinations to start you off:
* Winter spice tea: 3 parts cinnamon, 1 part ginger, 1 part cloves. This one is best in a tea-bag, as a regular tea strainer can’t remove the ground spices. Or just don’t worry about the powder in your cup.
* Summer refresher: a sprig of mint and a slice of lemon. Peppermint is the best type of mint to use, but any will do.
* Almost liquorice: A sprig of fennel and a bit of aniseed seeds.
* Bouquet Garni: Parsley, thyme, rosemary sage and oregano.
* Tonic tea: raspberry leaves, nettle leaves, blackberry leaves.
* Floral tea: a generous amount of rose petals from a scented rose (unsprayed, of course), a hint of cinnamon and a little lavender. Have a few rose petals spare to float on top of the tea.
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If you can sew, fashion mishaps such as a popped button, a fallen hem or even a hole aren’t the end of the world. What’s more, a world of possibilities opens up when you realise that you can make your own clothes, whether you do this for a hobby just for fun, to save money or to be able to have clothes in styles, sizes and colours you like. Whether you’re doing some serious dressmaking to the point of drafting your own tailor-made patterns or whether you just need to take up a hem or sew on a button, there are some sewing basket basics that everyone needs.
Let’s start with the basket itself – any decent bag, box or basket will do. A toolkit will work nicely to hold your equipment, and stop things getting muddled up. A pincushion or a tin for holding tins is a must – a pincushion that comes with a little sand-filled cushion for sharpening pins and needles is very handy.
What goes into the sewing basket?
* Pins. You will need plenty to hold patterns on paper, hold edges to be sewn together in place and to hold up a hem before you sew it in place. A sterilized pin can also do double-duty as a first aid tool for removing splinters or lancing blisters (hold it at the bottom of a candle flame to sterilise it). Pins with bright heads are easier to find against fabric.
* Needles. Get several sizes of needle. Ones with small eyes and fine points are good for general everyday use, but a darning needle is one tool I would never be without, and a curved needle is also very handy for mending soft toys. To stop needles getting lost in a pincushion, put them in threaded. It will also stop needles getting stuck in you (needlestick injury) if you stand on one or somehow get one buried into your flesh – the thread means you can pull it back out again.
* Thread. Good quality cotton or nylon thread is best to start with. If you can only have a few basic colours, get black, white and grey, as these will blend with most fabrics. Further than that, choose thread to match the sort of fabrics in your wardrobe. If you wear a lot of blue, buy blue thread. If you wear pink, buy pink thread. You get the picture!
* Spare buttons. Buttons with 1 cm diameter, 1.5 diameter and 2 cm diameters are good basic sized to get. Black, white, brown and clear are good basics to buy. If you are buying buttons for making a garment, buy more than you need. One will get lost at some stage! Some garments also have spare buttons on the care label. Cut these off and store them in your sewing basket – you may like to add a tag that you pin on to say which garment it came from.
* Elastic. Worn elastic is the cause of more than one disaster involving fallen down trousers or slips. If the old elastic is in a casing, pull it out (you will need to cut a small slit or open the seam to get at it) and replace it.
* Safety pins: Use these for holding buttons together, threading elastic through casing and short-term fixes in emergencies.
* Scissors. Use proper dressmaking scissors and do not use them for any other purpose so they stay sharp. A small pair of scissors like nail scissors is handy for trimming threads short to save biting them.
* Quick-unpick. Everyone makes mistakes, so you will occasionally need to unpick what you have sewn. They are also good for unpicking seams that came with the garment. They are sharp, so keep them capped.
* A tape measure. Used for measuring fabric and yourself. Don’t use a carpenter’s retracting tape measure – they’re too stiff and harsh.
* A darning mushroom. You will not be able to darn without one. Well, not easily, anyway. In emergencies, a tennis ball or even an orange can substitute, but there’s nothing like the real thing.
* Wool. Basic black and white wool is very handy for darning. Buy other shades to match the garments you own.
* Patches. Keep a selection of stick-on patches, leather patches, decorative patches and plain old squares of material for covering over holes.
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Houseplants are a wonderful way to soften a harsh space and to bring life and colour into your home. Even if you don’t have a garden, keeping a houseplant or so can keep you in touch with nature. Some houseplants can help to purify the air. In a study conducted by NASA, spider plants and philodendrons were shown to be excellent at removing formaldehyde from the air, while gerberas and chrysanthemums were best at eliminating benzene. According to this NASA research, the best plants for eliminating pollution from the air in your home or office space included peace lily (Spathiphyllum “Mauna Loa”), gerberas (Gerbera jamesonii) and English ivy (Hedera helix).
However, it is important to keep your houseplants looking neat and tidy – and healthy –if you are to benefit from their beauty and health-giving properties. First of all, a diseased plant looks terrible. Make sure that the plant has enough water and light to meet its needs. Some plants need plenty of water; others, such as cacti, need less. The same goes with sunshine: some plants (such as ferns) prefer shady conditions while others prefer sunshine. Also make sure that your plants have enough nutrients in the soil – you can add commercial fertiliser or make an organic liquid fertiliser to them.
A houseplant is a living and growing thing. This means that it will eventually grow too big for the original pot it came in. This is especially the case for ferns, which will need to be split up periodically. If a plant cannot be split up, it will need to be re-potted. This will also be a good chance to replenish the nutrients in the potting mix. Care in selecting your plant can prevent you ending up with something that gets enormous. In my house, I have a fruit salad plant (Monstera deliciosa) that looks like a small tree and requires pruning to stop it taking over half a wall – given the right conditions, a fruit salad plant will do this to you!
Watch out for insect pests, as these can completely kill your plant or leave it covered with unsightly moulds (scale insects are the worst offenders for causing mould). You can use a proprietary spray to kill pests, but if you want to eliminate chemicals from your household, using an organic insecticide works better. Derris dust is a common organic choice, although this should never be allowed to get into fish tanks. You can make your own spray by boiling crushed garlic; this, however, is rather pungent.
Plants live. And because they are alive, some of their leaves will eventually come to the end of their life cycle and die off to be replaced by fresh young ones. To keep your plant looking attractive, trim off dead leaves and branches periodically. This will also help to prevent plant diseases attacking your plant.
Plants grow towards the light. To prevent the rather lopsided look that can result (and has been used as a clue in many a children’s short mystery story), rotate your plant frequently so you get even growth on all sides of the pot.
Plants with large leaves can collect dust. Use a feather duster or a very soft cloth to remove this. Never spray a domestic cleaning London chemical onto a plant or use a vacuum cleaner. Also be gentle if you wish to remove cobwebs – though personally, I don’t mind small spiderwebs on houseplants, as this is proof that I have a tiny ecosystem thriving in one little pot. Spiders and ladybirds also eat aphids.
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If you are trying to live naturally, you sometimes find yourself in something of a quandary. You want to buy, grow and eat fresh vegetables and fruit that haven’t travelled hundreds or thousands of miles to get to you, and you want to eat thing that aren’t laced with artificial this and that to preserve the shelf life. However, you are going to run into a problem: winter is the time of year when not an awful lot grows, and early spring is traditionally known as the “hungry gap” when even the few things that do grow over winter have been pulled out so the next season’s crop can go into the ground. What are you going to do to stick by your principles but not get run down and out-of-sorts during these tougher times of year?
What you are going to have to do is find some way of preserving or storing food so you can have your fruit and vegetables even when nothing’s growing in the garden.
Storage: Even commercial operators know the benefits of cold storage to preserve fruit and vegetables. Stored correctly, many vegetables stay good for a long time. The secret is to have a place that is cool and dark but isn’t damp – bacteria and mould don’t like cold, dry conditions. Most houses, new and old, usually have a corner of a garage, a corridor or a cupboard that fits these conditions. One method that has been tried with some success is to string a hammock under the roof of a darkish shed or garage – the air circulating underneath helps keep the vegetables dry. Suitable vegetables for storing in this way include marrows and pumpkins. Potatoes can also be stored in a cold, dark shed, but they have to be kept covered from the light, as this prevents greening. Onions and garlic are more robust – once they have been dried, they can be hung up in nets or bags or on strings nearly anywhere – those strings of onions hanging up in old-fashioned cottage kitchens aren’t just for decoration.
Freezing: If you grow your own vegetables or want a good store of fresh vegetables and fruit over winter, you need a good freezer. Freezing does alter the nature of the vegetable or fruit in question, so this doesn’t work for anything you’re planning to eat in a salad. It’s a great storage method for anything that you plan to eat cooked. Frozen items should be blanched to kill any enzymes before freezing for best effect, although this writer has frozen beans and berryfruit successfully without prior blanching. Chop items to be frozen up into chunks suitable for stir-fries, etc. before freezing them – the only thing you can freeze whole is sweet corn on the cob. Vegetables and fruit suitable for freezing include green beans, peas, corn, berry fruit of all types, fruit purees, chopped rhubarb, stir-fry mixes (which can include carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini), tomato puree and sliced zucchini. Potatoes, cabbage, silver beet, spinach and lettuce don’t freeze well, but soups made from these vegetables can be frozen for later thawing and re-heating. Freeze items in airtight bags or containers – save zip-lock bags and icecream containers for freezing.
Pickling: Vinegar kills bacteria, so saturating vegetables in vinegar keeps them good, although it alters the flavour. To make pickled vegetables, chop and blanch them first (beetroot will need to be boiled so they are soft enough). Then cram the items to be pickled into a clean screw-top jar and fill up the gaps all the way to the top with vinegar. Then screw the lid down hard and leave the jar in a cupboard for a month or so before opening. Vegetables suitable for pickling include zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage (slice it finely first), beetroot, onions, garlic, capsicums, chillis, green beans, broccoli, nasturtium seeds (these taste like capers) and snow peas. Spice the vinegar with pepper or chilli (or some other spice you fancy) for extra zing. Pickling in brine is another option, and is the only way suitable for preserving olives, but the process is complicated and fiddly.
Bottling: This is the method that everybody’s grandma used, involving clouds of steam and a huge pile of apple cores and peelings in the middle of the table. This works with acidic fruits and vegetables – tomatoes, apples, apricots, pears, plums and peaches are the classics. Apples, apricots, sour plums and tomatoes can be bottled without sugar, as they have enough acid to preserve them. Other fruits will need sugar added as a natural preservative. The fruit must be put into the jars while boiling hot, and the lids crammed down to form an airtight seal so the germs don’t get a chance. Glass jars, lids and seals must all be hot and sterile before the fruit goes in – boiling fruit will crack cold glass, and the metal rings of the seal must contract as they cool to form the airtight bond. Heat the jars to the right temperature by putting them in the oven before you switch it on – set the oven to 100°C. An option for bottled tomatoes is to bottle them as a puree with boiled spaghetti or cooked beans stirred in.
If you’ve tried any of these methods of preserving food, use common sense. If something has gone mouldy or smells funny, don’t use it. Given the choice between food miles and botulism, I’ll take the food miles.
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Many people who design, build and furnish their homes using natural materials with low toxicity often choose natural wood. Not MDF or something laden with noxious glues covered by a nice-looking veneer, but the real thing: real wood. Whether you find an old piece of real wood furniture in an antique shop (or even a second-hand furniture shop – you can often strike it lucky), whether you buy a new item made from recently cut wood or recycled wood, or whether you’ve inherited your grandfather’s old chest of drawers, real wood is hard to beat for natural beauty. And you just have to look at the typical Swedish pine-panelled interior to see how warm and cosy – and stylish – that natural wood used in the visible parts of your house construction can be.
However, wood needs a bit of TLC. Unlike vinyl and ceramic, wood is a bit more vulnerable to scratching and staining. Hot cups of coffee put down on a wooden table can ruin the finish and put an everlasting white ring on the top. Water can make wood warp – and excess dryness can also damage wood.
You can, of course, protect wooden furniture, especially tables, by covering them up with throws, tablecloths, doilies and the like. However, this hides the beauty of the wood. Yes, you won’t have the toxins put out by MFD and glued-together bits, but you won’t get the full advantage of wood. One tip that allows you to have both the protection and the beauty is to get a large sheet of glass cut to the same size and shape as your table. Put this glass over the top of the wood, and you’ll be able to see the wood but won’t damage it. The glass is easy to wipe down with a damp cloth and a little vinegar, and you can put hot coffee cups down on it (or even spill a bit) without damaging anything, but avoid putting dishes straight from the oven onto the glass unless you get heat-resistant glass. With ordinary glass, use mats to insulate the glass from hot saucepan or casserole bottoms.
Wood needs to be polished to keep it protected from excess moisture in the air and to keep it looking glossy. What you don’t want to use is some commercial cleaner that puts a fine spray of silicone into the air where you will breathe it in (cough, cough, lung irritation, eye irritation and more). And don’t use pour-on polishes that don’t tell you what’s in them: harsh chemicals can be as bad for the wood as they are for you. A beeswax based polish is best.
If you have used a beeswax based polish and then use a silicone based one, you may find the two polishes react and turn whitish. Remove the offending silicone with a cloth soaked in vodka or white spirit, and try again with beeswax.
You can make your own beeswax polish for all wood furniture and decor fairly easily, as long as you can get hold of beeswax (candle-drippings from beeswax candles aren’t the best idea, but you could cut the bottom off a beeswax candle if you can’t find this natural wax elsewhere). Melt a dollop of beeswax in a double boiler (or in the microwave on low power) until it goes runny. While the wax is liquid, add in a little turpentine – natural turpentine if you can get it, otherwise, you’ll have to make do with artificial – and a bit of essential oil. Lemon essential oil is traditional to add to polish, but cypress or pine work just as well and are appropriate to use with wood. Let the mixture cool, then apply it to the wood with a soft cloth. Leave it for a bit to soak into the wood, then buff with another soft cloth.
You should beware of over-polishing wood, as the wax polish can build up and make the finish of the wood look dull and drab.
Wood should be dusted frequently. Be careful with dusting – rub too hard on dust that is too thick and you will scratch the finish. Damp dust with a cloth that is too moist (a slightly damp cloth is all right – think a rag that has been on the washing line for ten minutes rather than one that has just come out from the washing machine) and you will get the wood wet. An old-fashioned feather duster is ideal, but any soft cloth will do – recycle old sheets and T-shirts as dusters; they’re perfect.
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Stop right there! Are you reading this article because you are looking for a natural environmentally-friendly way of making sure that you don’t have your perfect English lawn covered with little brown worm casts? Do you want to eliminate, discourage or eradicate worms from your lawn so it can become a perfect, even shade of green and so that your paths aren’t covered with little wrigglers when it rains?
Well, you’ve come to the wrong place. And no matter where you turn, you will go to the wrong place. Yes, some gardening books – even modern ones that ought to know better – list earthworms as a “pest” that needs to be dealt with, often alongside real pests like slugs, snails and aphids. These books (and I’m not making this up; I own one) even list methods of discouraging earthworms.
Getting rid of earthworms is probably one of the worst things that you can do within your garden cleaning London if you want it to stay healthy. If you get rid of worms, you’re going to have a harder job getting that perfect green lawn. Earthworms are a vital link in the chain of turning compost and other fertilisers into nutrient-rich soil. After a little trip through a worm’s gut, humus (that means leaf litter, compost and rotten vegetable material, not the Middle Eastern chickpea and garlic dip) becomes perfect soil. You know all those worm casts on your lawn? They’re gardening gold, so if you absolutely have to rake them off, make sure that you put them somewhere useful, like in your vegetable garden or in your compost heap.
If you do not have earthworms in your garden, it won’t be as productive as it could be. This often happens with raised gardens or no-dig gardens that have a mat (or even concrete) underneath them to stop weeds getting up. If the weeds can’t get through the mat or whatever, neither can the worms.
You have two main options for making sure that you get earthworms into your garden soil. The first way, and the most publicised way, is to start a “wormery”, a special compost heap or bin filled with one particular species of worm (usually the tiger worm). You put the kitchen waste in at the top and strain off the liquid manure at the bottom. The second way is more straightforward: you make sure that you add worms into your compost heap and into your garden soil.
Where do you get the worms from? Well, you can go out and buy the special tiger worms. Or you can buy in (or otherwise obtain) topsoil that’s got a healthy complement of worms and other little beasties in it. However, there is another way. Simply go out and find worms, and put these in your garden and/or compost heap (preferably both). Drop them in – they’re hermaphrodites and if you get two worms of the same species in your garden (not hard to do), they’ll go forth and multiply.
Where do you find worms for free? Go for a walk on a rainy day, or better still, a rainy evening. The worms will be wriggling over the wet concrete on the footpath. Take a jar or other container with you as you walk, and stop to pick up worms. Many of these worms will die otherwise – they’ll be stranded on the concrete and shrivel up like prunes, or they’ll get squashed by cars, bikes and people’s feet. You may get a few odd looks from passers-by, but if they ask what on earth you are doing, you tell them: you’re collecting worms for your garden and compost heap. If they still think you’re a king-sized nutcase, ignore them. You will be vindicated by the great vegetables and your conscience.
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Water is a precious resource, even in Britain where we enjoy quite a moist climate! Having clean water for drinking, bathing and washing is a real benefit and one of the things that, if the truth is told, separate developed from developing nations.
However, even though we’ve got it quite literally on tap, we shouldn’t squander our water. At certain times of year, finding enough water for everybody’s needs becomes more difficult. This is especially the case in big cities like London: enough water needs to be found for all the millions of people, and this water has to be clean enough and safe enough to bathe and wash in without any risk of diseases like cholera and typhoid.
Other places, of course, have to be even more careful with water, especially if droughts are common. And if you have metered water where you have to pay for what you use, you probably want to save all the water you can as a way of saving money.
What you don’t need to do is limit the amount of water you drink or switch to using bottled water or, what’s worse, soft drink. Instead, look at using greywater creatively. What is greywater? Greywater is water that you probably don’t want to drink but is perfectly safe to use for other purposes. For example, old bathwater, the water from the washing machine and water used for washing dishes are all greywater. However, what gets flushed down the toilet is not greywater – this is “black water” that should not be reused (you can, of course, limit the amount of water flushed or even switch to a composting toilet, but that’s another topic).
What can you do with greywater? Generally, this depends on the amount of soap or other substances there are in it. Very soapy water, such as the water used in the wash cycle (as opposed to the rinse cycle) of a washing machine, probably isn’t the best to use for watering the garden, as it may burn the plants if used in quantity. It may, however, be used to spray roses for aphids or for washing other things, such as floors, driveways or cars. Catch it in a bucket. This water can be diluted with less soapy water (e.g. bathwater, water from the rinse cycle) and this is suitable for use from your garden cleaner London when doing the garden.
Here are some quick ideas for catching and reusing greywater:
Bathwater: if you have an upstairs bathroom, use a hosepipe to siphon water directly into the garden for watering plants.
Dehumidifiers: the water can be used for washing by hand, watering plants or even for flushing the toilet. Don’t drink it.
Hot water bottles: This water is tainted by rubber, so don’t try to drink it, as it tastes vile. Use it for watering houseplants.
Final rinse: catch it in a bucket and add it back into the machine to wash the next load. Some washing machines may do this for you.
Serious environmentalists construct their houses so the greywater is piped specially for irrigation. This may or may not involve the use of “bladders” where the water is held until use.
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If I only had a small amount of space for growing my own vegetables, one of my must-haves to plant would be beetroot. Beetroot is brilliant for home gardeners because it grows fairly easily, usually produces well and has the advantage that you can eat the leaves and the roots. It’s a good winter vegetable that you can grow year round – beetroot might grow only slowly over winter, but it will grow. In many ways, it can’t be “beeten”.
Beetroot is a relative of silver beet (also known as Swiss chard) and sugar beets. The seeds and the leaves of beetroot look very much like those of silver beet, and the two can grow side by side quite nicely. The main differences between the two are the colour – beetroot has crimson stems and veins – and the roots, beetroot having the characteristic big bulbous root.
Growing beetroot is pretty easy. Simply take well dug over bed with a good dollop of compost and plant your seeds. The “seeds” in the packet are corky-looking things that contain four or so actual seeds. Soak them first to help them germinate more quickly. Once the little plants come up, protect them from snails and water regularly – like most plants. Over winter, you may also need to protect them from birds, as birds will raid the leaves to provide them with greenstuffs.
Once your beetroot plants have a healthy-looking amount of leaves above ground, you can start using the beetroot for food. In the early stages, the leaves make good eating. Just don’t take too many, as the plant will need some to create the sugars and carbohydrates it will store in the root.
How do you serve beetroot leaves? Very young leaves can be used whole in salads, and even older leaves can be chopped fine and mixed with other salad greens. Beetroot leaves are very rich in beta-carotene (Vitamin A) and are very good for you. Older leaves can be boiled lightly (like spinach or silver beet), or mixed into an omelette. For a healthy dip for a party, try mixing chopped beetroot leaves (lots of them) into a roux sauce with cheese and/or curry.
As your beetroots get older, the roots will grow and crowd each other out. You will need to thin some out. But don’t throw out what you pull up. Wash them and use them as baby beets – in salads or in juice, or just raw as a snack.
Mature beetroot can be roasted, boiled, grated raw into salads or bottled. Bottling beetroot is pretty straightforward. The easiest way is to boil sliced beetroot, strain off the liquid then press the slices into jars. Top up with vinegar, then screw the lids on tight and leave the jars for a month or so. Other recipes call for vinegar that has added salt, pepper, sugar and other spices, but these are optional.
Beetroots can be stored unpickled and uncooked if they are clean and they are kept in a dry, cool location. However, beetroots can be left in the ground until needed, and they will be fresher and contain more nutrients this way.
The juice of beetroot is very vivid and gets everywhere. To prevent beetroot juice from staining, soak the item in cold water, then wash as normal. Unfortunately, you cannot dye items red in beetroot juice – the items will turn a dull grey colour which will wash out after two or three washes.
The strong colour in beetroot flushes out of the body. If you have eaten a large amount of beetroot and you later notice that your urine looks like blood, do not panic. It isn’t blood; it’s just the colour from the beetroot. However, if you haven’t been eating beetroot, see your doctor straight away!
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Cut flowers and houseplants are easy and cheap ways to bring a bit of nature inside your home (or office). They brighten the room up, often smell delicious and, in the case of houseplants, freshen the air in a room. However, you will need to care for houseplants and for cut flowers to get the most out of them.
Obviously, the two things need different care. The houseplant is alive and growing, while the cut flowers are dead – even though they don’t really look it.
Cut flowers only have a limited shelf life. However, you can make them last longer with a few simple techniques:
* If you’re picking the flowers from your own garden, pick them early in the day before they lose much of their moisture. They will also retain a lot of their volatile (scented) oils if picked at this time of day. The best time to pick them is before the dew has evaporated.
* Once again, if you pick your own flowers, choose those that are fully open in the case of single blooms on a stem. If a flower has several blooms per stem, then choose one with some buds still closed and the majority open – the closed ones will open in the vase.
* Whether you have picked your own or whether you are using a bought bouquet, get the flowers into water as soon as you can. The end of the stem seals itself off after a while, so unless you have put the flower directly from the garden into the vase, you will need to snip off the bottom end of the stem – not too much. Harder stems can be crushed lightly – classic home advice writer Shirley Conran recommends striking rose stems with a hammer. Also get rid of any leaves that will be underwater, as they will break down and taint the water (and stink).
* Once you have arranged the flowers to your liking, add a flower preservative to the water. You can use a bought preservative, or make your own from 1 t sugar, 1 t ordinary chlorine bleach and 2 t lemon juice in 1 litre of water.
* Change the water frequently – daily if possible – and keep the arrangement away from fruits that give off ethylene, especially bananas.
For houseplants, you will need to make sure that it has enough sunshine (but not too much – some, such as ferns, can be harmed by too much direct sunlight) and enough water. You will also need to fertilise it from time to time. To do this, use a liquid fertiliser, a slow-release fertiliser (these look like little balls) or fertiliser spikes. You could try making your own liquid fertiliser from seaweed and/or compost, but this can be a bit smelly for indoors. Some plants need more water and fertiliser; others, such as cacti, need a lot less.
Check your houseplants for pests such as mites, aphids and thrips. You may need to spray against these – a pyrethrum spray is the best solution, as it is organic but is very effective. Don’t use flyspray – use a proper plant spray.
Periodically, your houseplant will need repotting so that its roots have room to grow. Most plants will not be very happy if they are pot-bound and the roots are cramped – but some plants won’t flower unless they are pot-bound, so ask when you buy your plant.
To repot a houseplant, you will need to transfer it into a new container that, obviously, is larger than the original. After you have chosen a suitable new pot, put it in its water-saucer and put a bit of potting mix into the bottom. Some potting mix contains some slow-release fertilizer capsules. If yours doesn’t, add some. Water the plant. This serves two purposes – it minimises the amount of water loss the plant will suffer while being transferred, and it will also provide lubrication for getting the plant out of the old pot. Let the water soak in thoroughly. Then, holding the plant very carefully, hold it pointing slightly downwards (on an angle) and tap the bottom of the pot. Squeeze the sides if necessary and shake the pot slightly until the plant – roots, dirt and all – slithers out. Put it into the new pot as soon as possible and fill up the gaps with potting mix. Then water the plant and put it in its new location.
As we all learned in school, pot plants grow towards the light. This can give them a very lopsided appearance that has been the clue in many a child’s detective story. To prevent this happening, rotate the plant weekly or ask your regulsr domestic cleaning London lady to do that for you when she visit you.
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Birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, any occasion at all… Gifts are always welcome with anybody at any time. However, as your mother probably told you the very first time you set off to a part with a gift, having pretty wrapping is part of the etiquette of gift-giving. Not wrapping a gift or (even worse) presenting a gift still in the shopping bag takes some of the excitement and pleasure out of receiving something special (the exception here would be if you are presenting someone with something fabulously expensive – the contrast between gift and wrapping makes for an excellent surprise).
We’ll take it for granted that you already know the basics about removing (or blacking out) any price labels and in making sure that the paper is appropriate for the occasion and/or the receiver (e.g. that you’re not sending a birthday gift wrapped in Christmas paper – take note if you’re giving a birthday present to someone who, like me, has a birthday very close to Christmas Day).
If you’re environmentally conscious, the extravagance and (let’s be frank) waste involved in wrapping paper can make you feel a bit guilty. But with a bit of creativity, some of this guilt can be avoided.
First of all, make sure that you use paper wrapping, not cellophane or plastic. There’s not much you can do to re-use plastic/cellophane wrapping if it gets ripped, but paper has all sorts of uses. Having said that, remember that the gifts that others give you are a good source of gift wrappings, provided that you don’t tear or crumple it, and that you take any labels off. With a particularly durable piece of wrapping paper, you could do what my family has done and start a tradition of seeing how many Christmases the piece can last. My family has been doing this and now, ten years on, I still have a few tiny bits left, barely big enough to make curly paper ribbons, but they’re still going!
Incidentally to make curly paper ribbons to decorate a parcel (or a card), cut the paper you want to use into thin strips. Carefully drag these across closed scissor blades or the edge of a ruler, curling the ruler/scissors as you do so. This will put a curl into the paper, and the more times you drag the ribbon across the hard edge, the curlier it will get. Always make sure you drag the ribbon in the same direction – the inside of the curl goes against the hard edge.
Old wrapping paper can be re-used for a number of things. Some examples include collage activities, scrapbooking, making cards and making envelopes (not as hard as you might think). When I was at school, my mother used to cover my exercise books with old wrapping paper – much cheaper than the plasticised covers that kids these days seem to demand. Once you have used and re-used the paper as much as you can, it can always be recycled, composted, used for lighting fires, lining drawers, etc. etc.
You can also find some good wrappings that aren’t bought on a roll at the local stationer’s shop. Old calendars have considerable potential and look quite striking (I tried this with a gift my seven-year-old daughter took to a party and had a number of the other mothers exclaiming what a good idea that was). Also try fabric, or even a nice wooden box to present a package.
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