Actually from the Garden-ish! Podcast here
Bath Salts
very easy to make
2 cups of your choice of salts – sea, epsom, dead sea, himalayan
1/2 cup baking soda
20-30 drops of essential oils , Absolute Essential make really nice blends you can readily buy at Health Food stores – please do read the data sheet that will come with.
1/2 cup per bath
Bath Milk
1 cup powdered whole milk ( you can use powdered Coconut Milk if you like)
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch
10-20 drops of essential oils of your choice
geranium, lavender, palmarosa, cedarwood, rose geranium, ylang ylang , bergamot
Body Polish
if they haven’t got a bath, you can make a body polish/ scrub
mix sea/himalayan salts with enough oil to make a paste, and add essential oils, 10-20 drops per cup of salt
or 2 parts ground whole oats to 1 part raw sugar, enough oil to clump it up a bit – essential oils, then jar it – paste that is able to be spread on the skin
or you could simply use sugar – I like to make one with 2 parts raw sugar to 1 part white sugar
in the shower, little handfuls, scrub in gentle circular motions, towards the heart.
Bath Melts
cocoa butter & castor oil!
3 parts cocoa butter to 1 part castor oil
melt cocoa butter gently over water, add the castor oil, stir it up, add essential oils and pour into your moods
refrigerate to solidify
easy as – mini cupcake paper molds, put in a complimentary essential oil – vanilla, holy basil,cedarwood, lime, lemon, mandarin
For the Kitchen
Raspberry Vinegar
600 ml red wine vinegar
1T pickling spice
450 g Raspberries
2 sprigs fresh lemon thyme
heat vinegar & p spice gently for 5 min, pour over raspberries and thyme in a non-metal bowl, leave to infuse in a cool dark place for 2 days, strain & decant into clean, sterile bottles
Saffron oil
use NZ grown saffron – it is simple to find
easy as , a big pinch of threads in 250 ml (a cup) of light olive oil or sunflower or rice bran, leave to infuse 2 weeks, shaking daily, just leave the threads in – looking pretty – and they will continue to infuse into your oil.
Preserved Lemons
have got to be one of the easiest and most impressive looking presents – not to mention how delicious they are!
wash 2-4 firm organic lemons, slice into quarters from one end, being careful to not cut all the way through – you want the lemons to fan out, so that you can then pack them with a tablespoon of salt, and close them up. In with the salt you can pop coriander seed. Next, pack them all tightly in to a small, squat jar (pick your jar according to your lemons), cover with olive oil, and leave for 4 weeks.
Some recipes use more salt & lemon juice instead of oil, so you pick your recipe – just make sure the lemons are covered.
Flavoured Salts & Peppers
commercially available blends will have anti – caking agent, even preservatives , stabilisers – we can all do without them!
Cayenne/Turmeric/Chilli Salt
2 T sea salt
50 g cayenne pepper/Turmeric/ground chilli
120 ml white wine
crush the salt with the spice using a mortar & pestle, add the wine, and pour all this in to a bottle, shake well, and leave it to steep for a week, shaking occasionally. Pour this into a wide, shallow dish, place in a low oven, until the liquid has evaporated. Scrape the resulting crystals off the base, and leave overnight for any remaining moisture to evaporate, pop these flakes in a pretty jar
Lemon Pepper
115 g freshly ground black pepper
grated rind of 2 lemons, dried
jar this, and it needs to be used within a month
Celery Salt
equal portions of celery seed & sea salt – leave whole or grind
perhaps you could make a set of these?
and then there are
Herb & Spice Mixes
Lemon Mix
2 lemons
2 T Lemon Thyme
1 T Lemon Verbena
1 T Lemongrass
peel the lemons, and leave to dry for a few days in your dehydrator
put the herbs in another tray, they will take less time than the peel, so keep an eye
when throughly dry, powder them in your mortar, or spice grinder / clean coffee grinder
Quatre Epices
7 parts freshly ground Black Pepper
1 part each of
freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon & Cloves
yum! an a six month life-span
this is used in France for flavouring sausages, terrines & pates – so a great choice for foodie friends and family!
Mixed Sweet Spices
2 parts dried ginger root
1 part each:
white peppercorns or allspice berries
cloves
nutmeg grated
cinnamon stick
grind up all but nutmeg, add that at the end
also use within 6 months
these are all best stored in opaque jars, label with a use by date along with what it is – and maybe even list uses
Being Healthy, Naturally 