The other day I spotted a jar of applesauce on the shop shelf. I can’t remember ever buying one, as it is so easy to make homemade applesauce. The first time I ate applesauce was in Germany (Apfelmus) where it’s traditionally served with roast pork or potato pancakes.

Applesauce is basically cooked and pureed apple.  It can be eaten warm or cold, served with savoury or sweet dishes. Homemade applesauce is a quick and easily digestible baby food. Use organic apples if possible, and omit sugar, lemon and spices if cooking for the little ones.

How to make Homemade apple sauce

You can use any apples to make homemade applesauce, but I prefer sweet ones: they cook faster and there’s no need to add sugar. Different varieties of apples can be mixed. You can make a small batch using two apples or a few kilos.

1. Peel and core the apples and cut into smaller chunks
2. Fill the pan to a depth of 1-2 cm with water (a bit more if making a large batch or like thinner sauce). Add cut apples
3. Cover with lid and bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low
4. Simmer the apples checking the water evaporation and softness occasionally. Depending on the apple variety and the amount, it will take about 10 – 20 minutes.
5. When the apples have cooked, remove the pan from the heat, let cool slightly and puree with a stick blender. For a chunky applesauce, use a potato masher.

Applesauce variations

Our family loves the homemade apple sauce in its simplest version with no sugar, no spices. Just pure, usually organic, applesauce. For an applesauce with a bit of a twist you can add:

• sugar if you prefer sweeter applesauce or using tart apple varieties
• ground cinnamon
• cinnamon stick (cook with apples and discard before pureeing)
• mixed spice / nutmeg / cloves
• lemon peel

Homemade applesauce will keep in the fridge a week or two. It’s suitable for freezing. For longer keeping, jar the applesauce in the same way as jam. Sterilise the jars in boiling water or in the oven, pour hot applesauce into hot jars and close the lid immediately. Store at room temperature.

Serving suggestions

Homemade applesauce tastes equally good warm or refreshingly cold from the fridge. Our favourite way of eating applesauce is spread on bread with tahini (ground sesame paste). We also love it on pancakes, with rice pudding or mixed with whipped cream. Applesauce goes well with pork or duck roast. And of course, it’s a nutritious and tasty apple puree for babies!

Is there anything less appetizing then drinking from a coffee or tea stained cup? Have you ever come to an organisation, school etc, wanting to make a cuppa, but couldn’t find one reasonably clean cup? In such situations I have the urge to roll my sleeves up and clean them all properly.

Cleaning tea and coffee stains form cups is really easy. There is no need to use abrasive chemical cleaning products or cloths, no soaking or other tricks. Just plain old BICARB SODA (bicarbonate of soda, baking soda)!

On the photo above you can see eco cleaning in action. On a damp dishcloth sprinkle some bicarb soda, then rub the cup. The stains will disappear effortlessly. Rinse and voilà: a sparkling clean cup below!

Make your Easter a bit greener and more sustainable by colouring the eggs naturally.  Brown Easter eggs are my favourite for two reasons:

1. the colour is natural and so simple to make,
2. brown is strong enough for our chickens’ brown eggs.

Here in Australia,  I rarely see white eggs.  Our chickens’ eggs range from cream to medium brown.  Singapore, our black chicken lays the lightest coloured eggs – she is very popular around Easter time .

How to Colour Easter Eggs Naturally

Here are step by step instructions with photos for colouring your Easter eggs naturally.

You need:

• hard boiled eggs
• old stockings, washed preferably , cut into several 15 cm (6 inches) pieces
• lots of brown onion skin (outer layer only)
• large pot
• herb leaves like parsley

Instructions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil together with the onion skin.  Boil for about 10 min.

2. Place a chosen leaf face down on the egg.

3. Tie a knot on one end of the stocking, carefully put the egg and tie the other end.

4. Stocking should be very tight to press the leaf so no colour gets under it.

5. Place the eggs into the pot with onion skin in it. The water doesn’t need to boil, but should be hot.

6. Leave the egg in the onion water for at least 5 min or longer depending on the colour of the egg and desired colour depth.  Check after a few minutes.

7. Once happy with the colour, take the egg out, cut the knot with the scissors, remove stocking and the leaf and let it dry.

8. Rub some oil to give the egg nice shine.

These eggs are safe for eating.  Happy colouring!

Do you have a natural egg colouring method you would like to share?  Please do so using the comment form below!

Seeing all the chocolate Easter bunnies and eggs immediately after Christmas made me instinctively block anything to do with Easter till recently.   Now that there are less than three weeks left, I can put my guard down.

My first post on the Easter theme is this simple floral centrepiece.  No, I’m not soooo organised this year, this photo is from previous Easter .

Instructions

You’ll need:

• container
• wet floral foam
• glass or jar
• grass with roots
• flowers, cut or potted
• coloured eggs

1. For a start, you need a container of any size and shape you like.  I chose a rectangular stainless steel box.
2. Soak a piece of wet floral foam in water and place it on one side.  If your container isn’t waterproof, put the foam into a plastic bag and secure sides with a rubber band leaving the top free.
3. In the other corner put a glass or jar for your flowers.
4. Take a bunch of grass together with roots from your garden, mondo grass from the nursery or any other living grass or plant you wish and place it on top of the floral foam.  Water it regularly.
5. Place the flowers in the glass or jar filled with water.  You can use potted flowers instead.  Tulips are my preferred Easter flowers.
6. To finish, place a few coloured Easter eggs on the grass.  And this cute wooden ladybird made a great finishing touch.

This gorgeous Easter centrepiece is really easy to make and will last for several weeks!

Seeing the photo above, some might ask:  what on earth are we doing here?  Making hay.  But why?  In an inner city backyard?  There are no big meadows or cows close by!

Well, we are using it as the chicken coop bedding for our pet chickens!  Instead of buying hay or wood shavings for the bedding, we tried to make some.  It works!

In our bid to live more sustainably in the city, making hay is one little step towards greener living.  It reduces waste and saves money.  It might seem insignificant, but all the little things do add up.

How to Make Hay

Hay is basically cut and dried grass.  It’s usually made on farms to feed stock during the winter or dry season, but also as bedding and/or food for pets.  Straw on the other hand is a byproduct from grain production like wheat.

Although you can’t make haystacks as above form suburban lawn (you’ll need taller grass and lots of it), grass clippings are excellent for making hay in smaller amount. The two most important things to check are:

1. Lawn shouldn’t be chemically treated: no weed killing solution or chemical fertiliser used.
2. The weather: do it on a sunny and wind free day.  As the saying goes: Make hay while the sun shines!

The first point is obvious and if you have kids playing on the grass area you probably don’t use chemicals anyway.  When asking the lawn moving guys to leave some grass clippings, I always remind them not to put any from the nature strip between the pavement and the road as it might contain dog’s poo or cigarette buts.

A perfect day for making hay is when it’s sunny and calm.  Spread the grass clippings in a thin layer on the ground, preferably on the concrete.  Turn it and mix it around a few times during the day.  It shouldn’t take more than half a day or so until it’s completely dry.  Before night time, gather it on a pile and store in a box or another container and leave in the dry place.

On a rainy day I don’t bother making hay, even in the sheltered area as it’s too humid.  I can’t choose the day as the grass is always cut on Tuesday.  Instead, I give a portion of freshly cut grass to our pet chickens to eat (only on the first day!) and the rest goes in the veggie garden as mulch.  The grass breaks down into organic matter enriching soil.   It is also beneficial to leave some clippings on the lawn.   Alternatively, toss it into the compost bin, but no thicker than 5-6 cm.

If you have rabbits or guinea pigs, you might like to try making hay for your pet as food.

Hay as Chicken Coop Bedding

Here you can see our pet chicken Sunflower, the boss, inspecting the fresh hay layer in the coop!

As said, we use hay as bedding for the chicken coop.  We have 3 backyard chickens and they use the coop only for sleeping. At daytime they are in their chicken run.   Fresh hay has a lovely smell, at least until the chickens go to sleep (yes, chickens poo during the sleep, too!) .  The coop is cleaned once or twice a week and the whole hay bedding and the chicken poo goes into the compost bin and makes great fertiliser for the veggie garden. Grass clipping recycling at its best!

Here are some ideas for recycling grass clippings:

• Make hay for pets’ bedding/food
• Feed it to the chickens (freshly cut only)
• Leave them on the lawn as a fertiliser
• Mulch the garden
• Incorporate into the soil in the garden
• Compost the grass clippings
• Put them into the green waste bin, anything but…
• Just don’t throw the grass clippings into the rubbish and add to the already full landfills.  Only…
• In one instance trow the grass clippings in the bin:  If the turf was treated with chemicals!  That grass has been killed long before it was cut!

In my previous post on butter, Butter vs. Margarine, I wrote about why butter is a better option.  As I mentioned at the end, there is one thing about butter that isn’t so handy: it’s solid and hard to spread directly out of the fridge!

Types of butter

Butter is mostly made form cows’ milk.  In the past, cream was collected from the raw milk and then churned.  This was and still is the best butter, also known as raw cultured butter.

Cultured butter in the shops isn’t made the old-fashioned way.  It’s rather made with pasteurised cream and cultures are added to finished butter.

Unsalted (also called continental) butter is made as above without bacterial cultures added.  Salted butter as the name says, has salt added.

Organic butter is made with organic cream without any additives.

The best choice would be homemade organic raw cultured butter. However, unless you have your own cows or access to organic raw milk, it’s hard to get it in the shops.

How to make your own butter

As said above, to make butter from scratch you need raw milk (lots of it!).  Alternatively, you can buy cream and make your own.

Use cream with the highest fat percentage, 35% plus.  Pour it into a deep bowl and using a mixer beat until stiff.  Continue beating until some liquid starts to separate and cream turns yellow.   It will take some time.  When butter forms, press it together to expel liquid, put in a container and refrigerate.

In my opinion, this method isn’t worth the time and money.  When you calculate the cost of cream + time, butter is cheaper.  Though it is good to know the method in an emergency:  you need butter for a cake let’s say, the shop is closed or too far to drive but you have some cream in the fridge!

Soft Butter Spread Recipe

I’ve seen in the shops some butter spreads claiming to be spreadable.  They have oils added or water content increased.  So I decided to try it at home hoping that butter and oil won’t separate– it worked!  Butter naturally contains lecithin.  Lecithin is emulsifier – a substance that binds water and oil.   The first time I made soft butter spread was about 2 years ago.  Since then I’ve played with different oils and ingredients.

For the basic recipe you need a quantity of softened butter and oil of your choice (try to use good quality cold pressed extra virgin oil).  Also, I like to add water – it makes the spread a bit brittle, but there are fewer calories.

• 250g softened butter (or 2 sticks of butter for our US readers, that equals to 227g)
• ¼ cup oil
• ¼ cup water

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix using a handheld stick blender, mixer, food processor or a whisker until all the ingredients are blended together.  The spread will be shiny but turn dull when refrigerated.   This recipe yields about 370g butter spread.

One of my experiments was to mix yoghurt instead of oil – to make a sort of soft cultured butter spread.  The result was interesting: instead of combining together, it started to separate a bit and to form little pockets of liquids, as when you make butter from cream!  Nevertheless, the taste was really good.

Note:

• You can omit water and add ½ cup oil only
• On the photo, it looks like 1 cup of liquids added, but the level increased when butter was added
• Water doesn’t only produce the best result, but it’s possible to make it as well
• Use this recipe as a guide only: increase or decrease the liquids to have firmer or softer spread
• While butter spread is still soft you can add herbs, garlic or other flavourings.

Nutritional Values of butter and butter spread

Here are nutritional values of each, butter and butter spread compared, per 100g using macadamia oil and above quantities:

You can see the change in decreased energy and saturated fat fields.

I predominantly make soft butter spread to have a spreadable butter in the morning, rather than out of worry about the saturated fat or calorie counting.  Long before we found about nutritional panels and kilojoules, people knew that  foods rich in calories shouldn’t be eaten by kilos.

My favourite soft butter spread is the one made with extra virgin olive oil and with yoghurt.  Our kids like milder tasting oils like macadamia.

Please share with us your thoughts about soft butter spread!

It’s December the 23rd!  Where did all 22 days disappear all so suddenly?  It feels like yesterday when I filled the advent calendar for the kids and took the picture below to post on the 1st!

Nevertheless it was a VERY busy period.  Not only there were numerous Christmas parties, concerts, picnics, functions etc at school, kinder and work, but also I’m working on my new business Make Bread – Melbourne.  A busy but exciting month!

The Christmas Tree dilemma

Our Christmas tree hasn’t been decorated yet.  Today’s weather forecast is 36 C (Christmas in Australia!) and we’d rather spend the afternoon on the beach.  We’ll do it tomorrow on Christmas Eve as it was done traditionally in many European countries in the past.  As kids we were allowed to decorate the tree once all the preparations and baking was done.  It was seen as the icing on the cake.

This year my husband and I had a discussion about a real Christmas tree and the decision was made to pull the plastic one again.  Cutting a beautiful tree that costs $60+ and throwing it two weeks later isn’t something that appeals to us.

A few years ago, we bought a lovely potted Christmas tree as this is in my opinion the greenest option.  Once the Christmas passed, we took the tree outside and on one 43 C (109 F) day, it was completely scorched!  The poor tree ended up in the compost bin.  My grandpa would go to the forest and cut a Christmas tree in order to thin out overcrowded pines, then chopped it after Christmas and us it to smoke the meat during the winter.  But that was in Europe.  In Australia, it makes more sense to decorate a eucalyptus tree

So rather than destroy another tree this way or that, we’ll fake it yet another year.

Christmas Baking

Christmas baking is something I really enjoy.  However, this year I didn’t do a lot of it, just a few batches of cookies.  November was unusually hot, I was focused on Bread Making Classes and December came all too suddenly.  After so many years Down Under, summer Christmas surprised me again.

The above cookies are made using the same recipe: for the crescents I used almonds, the round ones are made with ground walnuts.  They are my old favourite -  quick, easy and could be prepared long before Christmas.   Here is the recipe:

• 280 g flour
• 200 g cold butter cut into cubes (or cooking margarine for dairy free option)
• 80 g sugar
• 100 g ground nuts (my favourite are hazelnuts)
• 1 egg white (for egg free cookies, add 2 tablespoons of water and/or vanilla essence)
• icing sugar mixed with vanilla sugar

1. Whiz flour, butter, sugar and nuts in the food processor.
2. Add egg white or water and pulse till the dough just comes together.
3. Tip onto lightly floured surface and knead quickly .
4. Rest in the fridge for about 1 hour.
5. Shape into crescents or your preferred shape and bake on the tray 15 – 20 min on 180 C.
6. While still warm, dip  into icing sugar.
7. Keep cookies in the airtight container.

I couldn’t resist but make these Choc-cherry cupcakes: cherry season coincides with Christmas and they are a part of the Australian Christmas tradition.

Forget Cherry Ripe!

This year I skipped making chocolate truffles or anything chocolate coated or decorated: in Melbourne we can have anything between 18 and 40+ degrees Celsius on Christmas.

Christmas Presents and Wrapping

Each year we try to buy less presents.   We’ve agreed with friends not to buy presents for each others kids.  For our children it will be something small (I can’t tell what as our son usually reads the posts).  Maybe I could post pics of our presents next year .  At my husband’s work Kris Kringle was scraped in favour to giving a donation to a charity.

I like to give homemade presents that are consumables like cookies, soaps, preserves etc. This year being so busy I’ve skipped this tradition and bought a few little presents for teachers.   For wrapping I used recycled copy paper and warping paper.  Instead of ribbons I used raffia and paper twine.

Handmade Christmas Cards and Tags

Making handmade Christmas cards and tags takes time, but  I really enjoy making them and feel they are so special. I tend to recycle cardboard, old Christmas cards and pressed plants to make them.

Here are my simple Christmas gift tags, made from pressed fern and recycled old cards:

This handmade Christmas card has been made using homemade glue and all natural parts. The bonus: when Christmas is over, toss it into the compost bin, its fully compostable!

Hope you’ve enjoyed a snapshot of Sustainable Eco’s Christmas!

To all our readers that celebrate Christmas now or in January we wish you a happy and safe festive season!  If you aren’t celebrating Christmas, we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year 2010!

We are taking our summer break and will be back refreshed in January.

Pumpkin seeds are truly nature’s wonder food.  They are full of vitamins and minerals including zinc, iron, magnesium, copper and potassium.  Half a cup pumpkin seeds provides us with our daily requirements of magnesium.  The health benefits of eating pumpkin seeds are well known.  High content of zinc makes them beneficial for prostate.  They are also good in fight against the parasites in the intestines, have anti-inflammatory properties and can help lower blood cholesterol too.

Many people buy them and include them in the diet, mostly already peeled, green in colour known as pepitas.  However, when cutting pumpkins, the seeds are very often thrown away.  In terms of nutrition, it is a waste of real gold.  So, how to use and eat them?

How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds

This kent pumpkin in the picture above was cut up and roasted for the warm pumpkin and fennel salad.  Whether your pumpkin is destined for pumpkin soup, pie or Halloween, pumpkin seed are usually not needed in the recipe.  But don’t throw them away!  Roast them and turn the byproduct into a healthy snack.  Here is how:

1. Separate pumpkin seeds from pulp and remove strings
2. This step is optional: place seeds in colander, rinse and pat dry.  I don’t wash them, they are more flavoursome with traces of pulp on them.
3. Spread seeds on baking tray.  No need to add any oil or salt (see note at the end).
4. Bake at 190 C (375 F) for 20 min or until golden and crunchy.
5. Cool before eating.  Delicious!

How to eat roasted pumpkin seeds

Up to this part things are straight forward.  But, how to eat roasted pumpkin seeds?  You could eat the whole thing with the shell if you like.  But pumpkin shells might be a bit tough, preferably it is best to remove them.  Doing it by hand takes some time and it’s quite fiddly.  The best way to do it is to crack the shell with the teeth (see pictures below).  It might sound quite an effort, but it makes perfect sense: while being much more flavoursome than already shelled pepitas, it also slows down the snacking.  There’s no way of eating a bowl of toasted pumpkin seeds in the first 15 minutes of the movie !

Speaking of snacks I should mention that roasted pumpkin seeds were our family’s favourite winter time snack.  My grandparents have always grown big pumpkins to feed the pigs during the winter, so there was a good supply of seeds, indeed.

Here is the technique that works well with a bit of practice:

Hold a seed like in the picture below.

Gently crack the shell up to the half:

The shell will open and reveal the seed.  Just pull it with your teeth or fingers.

It might be frustrating at first, but practice makes perfect .

Note:

• If you prefer salted pumpkin seeds, sprinkle some salt on damp seeds in the tray just before baking.
• For the spicy pumpkin seeds season them with cayenne pepper, curry or the spice of your choice the same way as above
• To roast the seeds later, rinse, dry and keep in a container till you collect more seeds or have the oven to bake other things
• Larger quantity can be baked at once.  Allow longer baking time and mix occasionally.
• Save a few rinsed and dried pumpkin seeds, keep them in the fridge and plant them in spring.

Vanilla is my all time favourite spice!  There’s something luxurious, exotic and warm in the vanilla scent.  This might be why: vanilla plant belongs to the orchid family growing in tropical regions and is the second most expensive spice (saffron is first).

I used to by a single vanilla bean only when cooking for a special occasion.  At $6 plus a pod, it is really expensive for everyday use.  But NOT any more! I turned to the Internet in search for more affordable vanilla beans and wish I did it earlier.  If you use more than 2 vanilla beans per year, you would be nuts to buy it in shops: for the price of two you can have at least 10 or more online!

I found eBay to be a really good place to buy vanilla beans. While searching for vanilla I came across the recipe for homemade vanilla extract on one of the vanilla bean eStore.  Now that I buy in bulk and have plenty of fragrant plump beans on hand I make my own vanilla essence.  For our Australian readers, I would recommend to buy at Australian eBay (as I do) to avoid possible customs issues (food import).

Homemade Vanilla Extract Recipe

There are only two ingredients you need:

1. Vanilla beans and
2. Alcohol, eg. vodka, rum, brandy or spirit of your choice provided it’s at least 40% alcohol and the aroma doesn’t overpower vanillin

The ratio is 3 vanilla beans per one cup of spirits.

I prefer to use rum or vodka. Rum complements vanilla flavour perfectly.  It’s best in cakes or muffins. Vodka on the other hand doesn’t have as strong aroma as rum and won’t compete with the vanilla flavour.   Vodka based vanilla extract is good for cream and cheese based deserts.

The Method

• Prepare a clean glass jar or bottle.
• Split vanilla beans lengthwise and then in half
• Put vanilla halves into the bottle and pour the alcohol
• Close the lid or bottle top and leave in a dark place like a cupboard for at least 1-2 months
• Shake occasionally

With the time, colourless spirits like vodka will develop lovely brown colour.  Rum colour will deepen further and become cloudy and less transparent.  So will the flavour: the longer it stands the stronger and more aromatic your homemade vanilla extract will become.  The picture below is rum based vanilla extract on the day I made it:

The first time I made vanilla extract I couldn’t wait longer than one month!  Once you’ve used half of the homemade vanilla extract, simply top up the alcohol or add vanilla beans halves that you’ve scraped the seeds out or cooked with (just wash it thoroughly). Topping up can be done indefinitely.  If the aroma becomes too strong or the jar too crowded, simply divide the vanilla extract and beans into two bottles and pour more alcohol.  The second bottle would make a lovely present!

The homemade vanilla extract and the shop bought are worlds apart.  The latter one can contain sweeteners such as sugar or corn syrup, thickeners, artificial colours, caramel, stabilisers etc.  Especially bad is imitation vanilla essence that contains artificial vanillin made from wood-pulp by-products – give it a miss.

So get in action and make your own lovely vanilla extract.  It will take you only 5 minutes and you’ll know exactly what is in it!  Did I mention that I make my own vanilla sugar, vanilla ice cream and vanilla scented body deodorant too?

Recently I’ve found a new use for skateboards.  Not only are they great for spider hideaways and dust collecting in the garage but also very useful for moving heavy objects!

Necessity is the mother of all inventions. Well, here I’m not claiming to have reinvented the wheel; I’m pretty sure many came up with the idea.  But there I was, filling the wooden box with soil and compost on one side of the garden and trying to lift it and carry to the other end.  I didn’t stand a chance! Even if my husband was at home, I don’t think he would be too enthusiastic about lifting such heavy objects.  He had seen his chiropractic far too many times recently.

I went to the garage hoping to somehow find a way to do it and: bingo!  I saw the skateboard.  Wheels, of course!  Well, maybe I reinvented them .