down to earth

I haven't written about our garden much lately but it's still here, happily bubbling away in the background, providing much of our fresh food. It's getting towards the end of winter here so we'll be planting a few more summer vegies now - increasing the number of potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums (peppers) and cucumbers. We have a wonderful crop of Portuguese cabbage, grown for the first time this year from seeds sent to me by a permaculturalist in Melbourne. It's fast become my favourite cabbage. Hanno does a wonderful job in our garden. I love that he feeds the gardens so well between plantings and the quality of the food that comes out of that garden is a real credit to him and the work he puts into it.

These Pontiac potatoes were dug up last week.

The basket is usually filled with what we'll eat that day but I often grab the tomatoes to ripen indoors.

No matter what we do in the garden, the chooks are always watching, hoping for a bug to be thrown their way.

Two of our chickens died in the past week. They were old girls and we'll miss them. The rest of them - I think we have about six or seven chooks left - are keeping us in eggs, even though a couple of them are too old to lay regularly. Soon we'll start looking around for a few more ladies to join our family. After 30 years keeping chickens in the backyard, I can't imagine living without them now, and it would be impossible to live happily without good eggs. Whatever we give them - a safe home, good food, fresh water and love, they always give back more.

The empty spaces don't stay empty for long. To successfully plant for the table, you need to have seeds on the go most of the time, know how long they take to grow to maturity and keep on top of the bug population.

This garden has been weeded, raked over and had manure added. It's ready for planting.

Corn, Colossal tomatoes and lettuce.

Radishes, Welsh onions, kohl rabi, potatoes, Portuguese cabbage, tomatoes and silverbeet (chard).

The black kale plants (Cavolo nero) have grown really tall this year and as they've been harvested from below, they're started to look like palm trees.

Chillis

The last of the turnips.

Bok choy, Daikon radishes and brussel sprouts.

It's always peaceful out there wandering down the green pathways between garden beds. Gardening, particularly vegetable and fruit gardening for the home is such a satisfying way to spend time. Plunging my hands into fertile soil connects me back to the natural world in a way nothing else can. We're lucky to have such a wonderful climate here and can produce food year round. It can be hard work, but as we get such wonderful harvests, we wouldn't have it any other way.

New lettuce beside lettuce waiting to be harvested. Such is the look of a productive garden.

Speaking of gardens, I received a gift from my editor at Penguin - Kitchen Gardens of Australia by Kate Herd gives a wonderful account of 18 local kitchen gardens, complete with garden plans, photos and the stories of the gardens and the people who work in them. It's interesting and inspiring and I can't wait to dive right into it. There are a number of people we Australians recognise - Jeremy Colby Williams' wonderful garden at his home, Bellis; the beautiful Gay Bilson's country kitchen garden as well as a self-sufficient garden on an historic Tasmania farm and a locavores' garden in the Red Centre, and much much more. I'd been taking peaks into this book whenever I visited my local book shop, and I'm so pleased I now have a copy that I can relax with and read from cover to cover.

After water, tea is the most popular non-alchoholic drink in the world. My favourite drink is orange juice made from our backyard oranges, but I live many days without drinking organic orange juice, I never go one day without tea. I drink it for breakfast and lunch, and often have one or two more cups during the day. Tea is part of my ordinary days.

When you think about it, millions of cups of tea would be enjoyed every day. I wonder how many of them are made using tea bags. Just think of all those one-use, "disposable" bags and all the string that makes those bags dangle. Then there are all the staples that attach the string to the bag and the label. It makes me shudder to think of all that waste. Every day. For tea.

I grew up drinking tea made in a tea pot. I still prefer pot-brewed tea now, but when Hanno drinks coffee, I'm make one cup of tea and make it right there in the cup. No, not with a tea bag; I use a tea infuser or tea ball. They're like sustainable tea bags. I have several - those I use in cups and one for the tea pot. Spooning tea into an infuser and making tea in a cup takes slightly longer than using a tea bag to make tea, but it saves all that waste. When you multiple one tea bag by millions - every day - it doesn't take a genius to know we should be moving away from tea bags and towards tea infusers or tea pots. I know tea bags - minus the staple, are compostable, but that doesn't make up for all that paper, string and staples being made in the first place.

Loose tea makes a better cup of tea. The tea that goes into tea bags is called fannings or dust - it's low grade tea that is left over at the bottom of the barrel when all the loose tea is removed. Many tea bags are made using paper that has been bleached. A tea infuser will cost you a few dollars, but it will last a lifetime, or close to it. And speaking of the economics of tea, high quality loose black tea is much cheaper than tea bags. With tea bags you don't pay for the quality of tea, you pay for the packaging. And then you throw it all away.

This is one of those small steps I've talked about many times before. It's a way in - an easy way to start your simple journey. Or it might be the next sustainable thing you add to your simple life. It may not seem important alone - just one cup of tea - but add that cup to all those you'll make in your life. That, my friends, is significant.

I've been drinking loose tea all my life but for the past couple of years I've also been buying Aldi's organic black (and green) teabags. I'm not doing that anymore. I have found what looks like a very good organic and fair trade black loose tea that I'm going to order online from Honest to Goodness in Sydney. It's only $35 for a kilo. Sealed in a glass jar and stored in the fridge, that will keep me going for many months. I've never ordered from them before so I hope they live up to my expectations. If you've bought from this company, were you happy?

Why don't you join me in this move towards sustainable tea drinking. All it requires are some tea infusers, or a tea pot and strainer, and loose tea. Tea bags offer convenience and fast tea. I am not going to settle for that anymore. I want to slow down and I want to buy quality tea for a good price, not inferior tea and packaging. Will you take this small step with me?

A couple of days ago I made a batch of cultured cream and some chilli jam and Eclair asked if I would write more about them. We have quite a bit of fermented dairy here and I home-make yoghurt, cultured sour cream, fresh cheese, and sometimes hard cheese. I will be making cheddar when I get fresh milk and the spare time. If you've never tasted fermented foods before, you're in for a real treat. Not only are they delicious, but they contain probiotics and will do you the world of good.

I live in a very good dairy area so I couldn't go past our local Guernsey cream from Maleny Dairies. It's a soft yellow colour and sometimes it's so think, you can stand your spoon up in it. Good sour cream starts with good fresh cream. It must be pure cream, not cream thickened with gelatin. There is absolutely no hidden secret to making it - it's a mixture of cream, heat and the right bacteria. You will find that bacteria either in commercial cultured sour cream or buttermilk, or in a starter that you can buy online. I do both. I buy starters, and have them in the freezer, but I generally make small batches and make the new batch with some of the old batch. When I want a break, or there is no old batch, I use a starter. You can use the same starter to make cultured butter milk. There are details on where to buy them below, with links.

METHOD

Put 500 mls/17oz pure fresh cream in a saucepan and heat to 30C/86F. Take the cream off the heat and stir in half a starter pack (or whatever the instructions for your starter say). Usually it's a sachet to one litre/quart but I only make up half that amount at a time; the leftover half sachet can be refrozen.
Pour the warm cream into a pre-sterilised warm preserving/canning jar and put the lid on. I then wrap the jar in a fleece and a towel and leave it on a warmish bench or in a warmish oven, overnight. The next day it is ready. Instead of using towels to keep it warm, you can also make it in a yoghurt maker, slow cooker or Thermos. The cream will continue to develop in flavour while it is stored in the fridge and will keep for two weeks, easily.

If you use commerical sour cream as the starter, you still need to warm it up to 30C/86F, remove from the heat, add ½ cup of sour cream and mix it well. Place it in a sterile warm jar and keep it warmish for 24 hours.

A FEW CREAMY FACTS

If the fresh cream you buy is very thin, add ½ cup powered milk to it and mix it in when it's warming in the saucepan. That will give you thick sour cream.
If you beat this sour cream, it will make cultured butter.
It's not cheaper to make sour cream (or butter) like this but it tastes MUCH better and you know what's in it. Often commercial sour cream contains stabilisers.
You can make cream sour by adding lemon juice or white vinegar to it, but cultured sour cream is either made this way - with a starter, or by using raw milk and cream that is left unrefrigerated till it goes sour naturally.
If you leave pasteurised cream or milk out, they will go bad because all the good bacteria have been removed. Raw milk will turn sour - not bad - and it's perfectly fine to drink.

In Australia, you can buy these starters online from Country Brewer (cheaper) and Green Living. In other countries, Google "sour cream starter" and choose one from your country.

CHILLI JAM

I have been trying to replicate the delicious Maleny Clean Cuisine Chilli Jam that I buy for $5.95 a jar. This is my first attempt. It's useable but it needs refining. I'll do another post about making chilli jam when I've got it to the stage I want it. That will take some time because I have to get through the two small jars I have here - I gave one to Sunny - before I start a new batch. What I made this time is more a sweet chilli sauce, rather than a thick jam.

This sauce is made up of:

1½ cups good vinegar - any type
½ brown sugar
½ white sugar
10 cayenne chillis, sliced finely
¼ cup of dried chilli flakes and seeds
2 cloves garlic - finely crushed
1 pack pectin, about two tablespoons

It's all placed in a saucepan, boiled, then simmered for 15 minutes.

It is much too hot for my taste, but I'll be able to use it in cooking. Next time I'll halve the chilli portions, add mustard seeds and water, and a bit of fish sauce. I don't want any tomatoes or other vegetables or fruit in it. It needs to be red, but almost transparent; not opaque as it would be if it had tomato or sweet peppers in it. What I'm after is a thick, but runny, jam consistency. I'll get there, like many things, it just takes time. This is the opposite of fast food.

Once upon a time, suburban homes were showpieces where the smartest appliances, the largest screens and latest furnishings combined to place the home owners on a pedestal alongside their neighbours - pillars of the community and working hard to pay for every new thing that caught their eye. Often the king and queen spent long hours working away from the castle so that whenever a new sparkler appeared, it could be bought straight away and added to the trophy house.

Times have changed. A breath of fresh air sweep through and now many people are more concerned with self reliance than acquisition, and along with the smell of home cooked meals, we hear the click of knitting needles and the buzzing of the sewing machine. People have returned home again. Many are discovering the joy of cooking for the first time and along with that, gathering their family to the table for meals and the significant connection it brings. Gardens are being dug, nesting boxes for chickens being built, fruit trees planted. Garments are being mended instead of replaced with something new. Shopping in second hand stores and op shops is no longer looked down on - it's cool now. And the wonderful thing that has come hand-in-hand with these new (old) ways, is a feeling of contentment and something close to pride in building self reliance and working towards sustainable lives.

Who would have thought a few short years ago that the sale of DIY and craft supplies would soar as people take to doing things in their own homes again. And it's not only that - home cooking is popular now, chemical cleaners are being ditched in favour of soap, bicarb and vinegar, jars of food are being preserved, and hand made knits, made with luxurious pure wool, alpaca and cotton yarns, are on our backs again. Household savings rates in Australia have gone from negative figures a few years ago to positive again. There is a very interesting article about world wide household savings rates here, as well as a chart of rates for many countries from 1992 to 2011.

I've been really surprised at the interest in the life skills workshops I'm currently presenting in my local town. Each one is booked out as soon as it's announced and a waiting list started for the next. Just yesterday someone in the next town asked if I would do a Frugal Home workshop for his sustainability group. These are ordinary people opening up to change the way they live. They want to know now about budgeting, reading electricity meters, cooking from scratch, shopping for groceries in different ways, vegetable gardening and green cleaning. I am going to take advantage of this trend and show as many people as I can the true wonder of living a simple life - that it's not just about a list of life skills that are ticked off, it's about personal growth, self reliance, independence and sustainability. It's empowering, and if two ageing hipsters in rural Australia can do it, anyone can.

I regret it's taken an economic crisis to bring us to this point but it seems nothing else was strong enough to change us. Worries about global warming didn't, neither did peak oil. Even drowning in debt didn't stop us. But the good thing is that when this changed was forced upon us, we discovered it was a healthy and sound way to live. It's not mean, it doesn't deprive us - having less gives us a richness we can only see when we step back from the excesses of the past to really see, and understand, that less is more.

I wonder if you see the same signs I do. Do you see a change happening in your neighbourhood? Or am I reading too much into what I see. Maybe I'm living in an area that is leading the way, or maybe I'm living in dream land.

Last week I received a sad email from Sophie in New Zealand, she wrote:

"I just wanted to write you a wee note to tell you of my experinces in the last month. I was away in the US with my daughter having a new baby (she paid for me to go over to her) and my husband was killed in a car accident. He was 52 years old, and I am 51. We had been married almost 32 years and were very happy.

The main reason i am writing to tell you this is that while I have followed your blog for several years now and posted sometimes I am on my own now and am very unprepared. We have some debt, a mortgage etc. my income for the next five years is going to be about a third of what he was earning. I have never worked outside the home. After 5 years my payments will cease and I am not sure what I will do then. We had no life insurance but do have a little savings which will help with funeral expenses etc. I have learnt so much from your blog and I know I can do it, but I do somewhat regret that we were unprepared. We never thought anything like this would happen to us and that we had time to get into a better position. I am grateful that the government here in New Zealand will help me for the next five years as I know in other countries there would be no help for me. There is no use in looking back and I will go forward and do the best I can."

Although Sophie didn't specifically ask for help, I asked her if she would like me to show this email on my blog, open it up to helpful comments, and for me to put in my two cents worth. She was happy to do that. I think the major help Sophie will have will be from people she knows, but sometimes people who are are further removed, especially people who live in a similar way, can come up with suggestions that others may not have thought about. That was the reasoning behind my offer, as well as offering the hand of friendship and support to someone going through a sad and difficult time.

My first thought was that Sophie is lucky to have that buffer provided by her government - five years financial support. We have a similar payment here in Australia for widows born before 1955. My second thought was that, depending on how much equity you have in your home, Sophie, you probably have a sizeable asset you can use. If there is not much to pay off the mortgage, I would suggest selling the home, paying off the mortgage and the other debt and buying a smaller house or unit. That would be a huge burden lifted and would open up the future for saving and living frugally. No matter what happens, your debt will have to be paid off somehow. Now that you're on a pension it will be difficult to pay off that mortgage. If it was all paid off using the house, and enough left over to buy a smaller property, you would be in a much better financial position. Did your husband have any superannuation? You say there was no life insurance but if he has been working all his life, there has to be superannuation.

When your five years is up, you'll be 56 years old - still nine years away from retirement. If I were you, I'd use those five years to build up skills so you can get a job. Hopefully, you can get a job doing something you enjoy. Five years will give you a good amount of time to think about what you could do, then the experience or training you may need.

Overall though, if you've been reading my blog for a few years, you have probably been doing a lot of the things I do. You may already be living frugally, you may already have a vegetable garden and cook from scratch. Keep doing all those things because the lower your weekly expenses, the better off you'll be. It might be a good move, when you can, to sell off anything you no longer need - like a second car, and to pare down on mobile phone, internet and pay TV accounts, if you have any of them. Do a little bit at a time, not all at once, and start with the most expensive things first.

I can't imagine how stressful this time must be for you, Sophie, but if you can pay off that debt, I'm sure you'll worry less and feel better. Moving from the family home will probably be a wrench for you but remember that you carry your memories with you, they do not reside in any one place. I have no doubt you developed the strength to get you through recent events and I hope that strength and resilience continue to support you.

Now, as a reader, you can offer some wise words to Sophie? And hopefully our New Zealand friends will be able to give very practical, relevant and sound advice about the local things we in other countries know nothing about. Thank you.

Another weekend - another mix of work and sitting back with our feet up. I did some knitting and reading, presented a blogging workshop at Maleny on Saturday, spoke to loved ones on the phone and did a lot of cooking. Maybe cooking isn't the right word - I worked in the kitchen with food. I made a beautiful thick cultured sour cream - the best I've ever eaten, and made yoghurt and set it into a sieve to drain to make fresh cheese. I couldn't resist taking a cup full of it to mix with homemade strawberry jam for a treat later in the week, and I made three small jars of chilli jam. So much for swearing off jam making for a while.

Last night we had corned beef, cabbage and potatoes for tea. I dabbed some sour cream, with green onions mixed through, on the potatoes - wow. The cabbage was wonderful too. About 6 months ago, a reader sent me some Portuguese cabbage seeds. Well, they grew this season, and were harvested just before being cooked last night. What a great cabbage it is. It's the first time I've tasted it but it won't be the last. It will be part of our yearly rotation from now on. Thank you Richard. I love it when what we eat comes together so well - a small portion bought at a local shop and the rest produced by our own hands and hard work. There is nothing like it.

I made up the last of the soap orders too. They're now ready to send off and we can get back to our version of normal again. I am really happy some of you got to try our soap, and many people said they loved it, but I'm happier not selling it. I know that doesn't make sense to some people - to stop doing something that brings in money, but I'm more focused on quality of life rather than acquisition, and we have enough - of almost everything. I've had to explain our decision to quite a few people and even though a few may not have understood my explanation, it makes perfect sense to me.

This week I'll be concentrating on knitting and sewing. More of Vivian's Eco Yarns are arriving this week and I'm so excited waiting for them. I love this part of knitting - when I choose yarns and patterns and try to work out if I have the time or if I am deluding myself. I always think I have the time and the skills, and usually, even though it might sometimes take longer than I expected, I get my projects finished. I like to pick simple patterns that stretch my capabilities, dotted with little things that I can pick up and put down several times a day. Oh, I finished a little orange and blue bamboo hat for Alexander on the weekend too. Tick! another little garment for my sweet boy. My sewing will involve a couple of aprons for the shop, including yours Lusi, and some table runners.

So here we are headed for another week. I hope mine is full of productive work and the satisfaction that comes from that; I hope yours is too. There is so much that goes into a happy home; it takes time and effort and sometimes we might feel overwhelmed by it. Always remember there is no need for perfection, you can take breaks when the chance arises, and if you work steadily at your own pace, you will get through your work. And if you don't, it will wait for you, you can start again tomorrow.

The way food is prepared now is changing. It's more styled and has to look great whereas when I was growing up, food was judged more on taste and smell. I still cook the way I always have and if you ever see a tower of food or a collection of foam on a plate I've prepared, you can hit me on the head with a mallet. I am also game enough to re-introduce the salmon rissole.

Salmon rissoles or fish cakes are a cheap and healthy old fashioned staple that deserve another 15 minutes of fame. If you've never had one before, a salmon rissole is a mix of potato cake and fish cake, made with tinned pink salmon, a common stockpile favourite. They are easy to make, will get you through a mid-week meal nicely and can be premade, then cooked quickly when you get home in the same amount of time it takes to make a salad. In Australia, they would cost less than $6 to make. This recipe could also be made using tinned tuna or any pre-cooked fish.

RECIPE - will make 6 rissoles

about 2 cups of mashed potato
1 tin pink salmon 420 grams
1 small onion, chopped
about ¼ cup parsley or chives
1 egg
salt and pepper
breadcrumbs
Olive oil for cooking

Combine the mashed potato with the salmon, onion, herbs, salt, pepper and egg. Mix together thoroughly so the salmon is broken up and combined with the potato. You can crush and eat the bones of tinned salmon - it is an excellent source of calcium. Form into little round cakes and coat with breadcrumbs. Cover, and let them sit in the fridge for an hour to firm up. If they fall apart when you cook them, add ½ cup of breadcrumbs to the mix. That will glue them together.

Heat oil in a frying pan and cook the rissoles on a low-medium heat. They should cook for about 10 - 15 minutes to make sure the onions are cooked and when they're golden brown, they're ready. Serve with a fresh garden salad.

This will do Hanno and I for one meal and we have two rissoles leftover that we eat for lunch the following day.

Meanwhile, out in the backyard, Hanno was cleaning the chook house. This snake should be in the middle of its winter hibernation but there it was, wide awake behind the nesting boxes. Hanno took it down to the creek, but I have no doubt it will be back. Luckily it's a juvenile and not able to eat the chooks ... yet.

I have tried to make this process and the explanation of it as simple as I can, but you must be aware that soap making is not cooking, it is chemistry. Rules apply and when they're not followed, that is when you have failures. I have never had a failed batch of soap and I'm sure that's because I researched, read AND UNDERSTOOD what I read and what I had to do. If you are going to make soap, research and read and make sure you understand what you're doing. Hopefully this post will help with that understanding.

There are two things I want to highlight:

No matter what you read or what people tell you, there is no way to make soap without caustic soda/lye.
You HAVE to weigh your oils - you will notice that the oil measurements are in grams and the water is in millilitres. This is because water has a specific gravity of 1 and therefore a weighed litre/quart of water will be the same as a measured litre/quart of water. Oil is not the same. Oil is lighter and therefore a measured litre/quart of oil is different to a weighed litre/quart of oil. If you don't understand that, maybe soap making is not for you.

WHY YOU HAVE TO WEIGH YOUR OILS

Water and oil do not weight the same - oil is lighter, which is why oil floats on water. If you pour one litre of water into a jug and one litre of oil into a similar jug, the oil would weigh less than the water. Therefore if you pour one litre of oil into a one litre jug and think it's the same as 1000 grams, it's not. You must weigh your oil to get exactly the 1000 grams needed in this recipe.

MOULDS

I use silicon moulds that were probably made for small cakes. I can't tell you what moulds to use because I have only used these and you probably wouldn't be able to buy them where you are. Suffice to say you'll need either a large mould - and cut the soap when it's set, or you can use smaller shapes similar to mine. The pink ones I use are from Kmart but I don't think they stock them anymore.

GREASING MOULDS

I have found that the silicon moulds don't need greasing. If you do need to grease your moulds, use a cooking oil spray.

COCONUT OIL

Coconut oil is getting to be quite expensive and sometimes it's hard to find. If that is the case and you're in Australia, you can use copha, which is available at the supermarket in the butter section. Enough copha to make this soap recipe will currently cost you around $2.66. Coconut oil solidifies when the temperature is 24c/76F. It's fine to use it either way; if it has solidified, just melt it with the other oil.

SOAP MAKING OILS

Each oil used is soap is used for a certain quality it has. For instance, coconut oil help soap lather well; olive oil is a good oil to base the soap on as it will nourish the skin and make a beautiful mild soap. Low grade olive oil is the best olive oil to use, not extra virgin. Take the time to learn a bit about the different qualities of soap oils here. Once you know what you want and the oils that will give it to you, find out what's available in your neighbourhood and go from there. When you decide on the oils you would like to use, and know they're available to you, go to this soap calculator, put in your oils and the calculator will tell you how much water and caustic soda/lye to use.

ESSENTIAL OILS AND COLOURS

I never use these so I can't advise you about their use.

RECIPES FOR SOAP

The recipe may change every time you make soap but the method of making it remains the same.

EQUIPMENT
You can use your kitchen equipment for soap making. Make sure you clean it thoroughly when you finished.

Stainless steel saucepan
Spatula
Scales - oils and caustic soda/lye are measured by weight, not volume
Jug - for holding oils
Measuring jug - for measuring water. It's ok to measure the water by volume
Thermometer - you can use either a milk or candy thermometer
Stick blender, optional but it's the easiest way to stir
Newspaper to cover your work area
Moulds

DON'T use aluminium pots, bowls or spoons.

SOAP RECIPE

My new recipe for a good cold pressed soap is:

450 mls * rain water, spring water or distilled water
172 grams caustic soda/lye
1000 grams olive oil
250 grams copha or coconut oil

* If you don't have rain, spring or distilled water, collect enough tap water the day before you make the soap and leave it on the bench to sit. That will allow the chlorine in the water to evaporate off.

If you don't operate in mls and grams, there is an online conversion calculator for liquid here and for weight here.

WARNING

If you are new to soap making, be warned, it should never be attempted when children or animals are around. The lye (caustic soda) you will use, burns, and if you spill it on skin you need to wash it off immediately under running water or vinegar. If you drop it on the floor or bench top, wipe it up straight away as it will burn a hole. When you mix the lye with water, even though it's not on the stove, it will heat up considerably and burn if you drop any on yourself or splash it in your eyes. There are also fumes. When you mix the lye with the water, fumes will come off it. Make sure you mix your lye in a well ventilated room. If you're asthmatic, be very careful.

Many soap makers wear latex gloves, goggles and a mask. Please use these safeguards while you're learning to make soap. When you're experienced, you might be able to dispense with them.

Are you still with me after that warning? Soap making is a simple process that is made difficult by using lye (caustic soda). There is absolutely NO WAY to make soap from scratch without using caustic soda/ lye. If you make sure you're alone when making soap, if you have all your ingredients measured out and have a clean and clear work area, you shouldn't have any problems. The entire process should take about 30 minutes. BTW, the process of soapmaking - saponification - neutralises the lye and by the time the soap is cured, no lye remains in the soap.

IN A NUTSHELL

Basically when you make soap, you mix the water and caustic soda/lye together and they will heat up without you doing anything to them. That is the first chemical reaction. Then you combine the oils and heat them on the stove. Now you wait till the lye and water solution cools to around 50c and the oils heat up to 50c. You need them to both be at the same temperature and when they are you mix them together and start stirring. When you reach "trace" and that is explained below, you pour the soap into moulds and wait for it to set.

HERE'S HOW TO DO IT IN DETAIL:

METHOD

Lay out the newspaper over your work area.
Grease your moulds.
Put on your safety gear.
Open the windows for good ventilation.
Measure out the water into your measuring jug.
Measure out the caustic soda/lye into a small bowl.
Carefully pour the caustic soda/lye into the measured water.
Stir the water with a spoon until the caustic soda/lye is completely dissolved - about one minute.

Caustic soda/lye and water - mixed together.

Weigh your oils and place them in a saucepan.
Clip the thermometer onto the side of the saucepan and place on low heat on the stove. Slowly heat the oils to 50 degrees Celsius (122 F).

Copha and oils heating up.

Wait until you have the oil heated to 50C and the caustic soda/lye cooled down to 50C (122F). When they're the same temperature, carefully pour the lye water into the oils and avoid splashing it.
Start mixing. You can either use a spoon and stir for about 20 minutes or use a stick blender and mix for about 5 minutes, making sure your blender doesn't overheat. Don't use a hand beater and it splashes too much and the soap is still caustic at this stage.

TRACE

Trace is the sign you look for that the soap has become stable and is ready to be poured into a mould. Before you reach trace, the surface of the mixture will be smooth, like pouring cream. When you reach trace, slight ripples will form on the surface and remain there, like thick custard. The mix should be thick, but pourable.

This is what the mix looks like when you've reached trace. Notice how there are ripple staying on the surface.

Once the soap is in the moulds, lay a sheet of parchment or grease-proof paper over the top and cover with a two towels so it cools down slowly.
The next morning, or about 15 hours later, release the soap from the mould. If it's a large mould, cut it into whatever shape you desire.
Place the cakes of soap on a drying rack in an area they can stay in for a couple of weeks. Turn the soap over every day to allow it to dry out evenly. I cure my soaps for about six weeks before using them. The drier they are when you use them, the longer they last. You could use your soap after a week or so, but when it gets wet it will go soft and won't last long. It's better to cure them for a few weeks. This batch made 12 hefty blocks of soap.

TROUBLE POINTS

You will have trouble with your soap:

if you don't weigh your oils
if you don't measure your water
if you don't weigh your caustic soda/lye
if you don't have both mixtures at the same temperature
if you don't stir long enough

Remember, soap isn't just a solid bar. It must lather well, clean and nourish your skin.

Phew! That is the last post about soap I'll do for a while. I do want you to make your own soap but if you're not prepared to read, understand and follow the process exactly, then maybe this simple living task is not for you. If you get past the first soap making session and it results in good soap, I'm sure you'll go on to make it many more times. This is good soap, it's worth a bit of time, planning and effort. Good luck!

You may have noticed that I stopped taking orders for my soap last Friday. I will honour the orders I have, but take no more. This may seem strange to some of you because I'd only just started selling the soap when I opened the Corner Shop. Well, I thought I'd sell a few bars, definitely not as much as I did. I didn't think it would be so popular that soap making would take almost all my spare time. I will still be selling things I make with my own hands, like aprons, a few dishcloths, tea cosies, table runners and few other bits and pieces - these are the easy things and are part of my relaxation.

It's important that I have a good balance in my life. In the past, balance did not enter the equation. Now it's everything; that elusive sense of stability between having enough and knowing it, and blindly wanting more. I'm not interested in having more than I need now. I am satisfied with enough. As long as Hanno and I are comfortable and have an emergency fund in the bank, I'm fine. I want us to retain our independence and to live the freedom of our days, without having to worry about "what if..." We have that without selling soap.

Don't get me wrong, we are not rich people and this is not about doing less work. It's about doing productive work that helps Hanno and I live well without worrying about work that will make money. If we're careful with what we have, if we look after what we own and are frugal with our purchases, we'll be fine. I believe it's far better for us to save money than to earn it. A saved dollar is 100 cents; an earned dollar will have about 30% tax removed, so it really is only 70 cents. I prefer now to spend time doing things that will save us money instead of working to earn it. Cooking from scratch, shopping wisely for groceries, growing food, making our soap and laundry liquid, using green cleaners - all these take more time to do but they save so much money and give much better quality, it's worth the effort.

I also want to continue working in my community helping people, teaching what I know and returning a little bit of the goodness I've received over the course of my life. I want to show others that earning more money isn't always the key; sometimes saving more, through creative ways of working and being prudent and frugal, is. Modelling how we live at this stage of our lives has been a wonderful teaching tool. We are ordinary folk, so if we can do this, anyone can. But don't think you should be living like we do if you're at a different stage of life. How we live is a pay-off, if you like, for being debt-free and having long lives of hard work behind us. If you're at the other end of the age spectrum it's all ahead of you. But work is not the enemy, it will help define the person you become, and if you think about your life you won't necessarily have to do what your neighbours do. You are free to fashion the life you want for yourself and it does not have to involve having every sparkling thing that is dangled in front of your eyes.

I love working in my home. I also love relaxing here. If I can get that balance right, I get a payoff like no other. Imagine getting up every morning knowing there will be a changing mix of productive and interesting work as well as rest and recreation; that you will make the decision about what you'll do with each hour and that you can work, rest, or go out whatever you feel like it. That is what I call independence and freedom, and balance and the freedom to choose how I spend my hours, plays a huge part in it.

So that is the reason I'm not selling soap again. But that doesn't mean you can't have this soap. Like me, you can make it yourself, and tomorrow I'm writing my last ditch effort to explain the ins and outs of soap making. I won't guarantee that everyone will be able to make it. Some people can't get their head around the accuracy of the measurements and the chemistry, but the post will be there if you want it. Otherwise I'll see you again on Wednesday when I'll have another simple recipe for you.

Cleaning mould from walls and fabrics

With all this rain around we've developed a mould problem in our home. Usually we have the front and back doors open and that good ventilation stops most moulds from establishing. However, with the house locked up for the past week, the high humidity and the rain, mould is now growing on the wooden walls near our front door and on the lower parts of cupboards in the kitchen. Most of us will find mould growing in our homes at some point. Either in the bathroom or, in humid climates, on the walls, like we have now. You'll need a safe and effective remedy at some point, so I hope one of these methods works well for you. Mould is not only ugly to look at, it can cause health problems so if you see mould growing, do something about it straight away. The longer you leave the problem, the harder it will be to get rid of it effectively. If you have asthma or any allergies, you should do this type of cleaning with a face mask on so you don't breathe in any spores. Many peopl...

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