Fruit Rolls

I have always hated to throw out any left over mash from making fruit or rhubarb gel, syrup or drink so I was quite happy to find a recipe for fruit rolls.  I jumped on the chance to make some,  first I used the left over mash from making Red Currant (Ribes) jelly and then I tried to use Rhubarb mash.  I liked the former much better, it tasted really good, fresh an fruity.

They are relatively easy to make.  I used about 1 liter (4 cups) of fruit mash for one baking sheet.  For the Redcurrant mash I put the mash into a pot and pour a little less than 1 cup of water over it.  I then added sugar to taste.  Since I was using leftovers from jelly making, the mash was already slightly sweet, so I didn't need a lot of additional sugar.  Just start with 1 tablespoon and let that dissolve at a low heat and then taste it to see if it needs more sugar.  I've seen recipes without sugar, so I guess it all depends on taste.  I also like to squeeze a little lemon juice in there to give a little tang to the taste.  I let this simmer for 10-20 minutes making sure all the fruit was well mashed and the whole thing has thickened.  It's good to give it a last taste to make sure that it's neither too sweet nor too sour.   Then I strained it.  I did that with the Red Currants because I had all the little branches and stuff in there.  When I used Rhubarb mash I didn't strain, but that makes more of a cloudy fruit roll.  It can be good to use a stick blender on the fruit mash to make sure it is well pureed.

This is then poured on a baking sheet lined with baking paper or silicone.  The thickness is 1/2 to 1cm (1/4 to 1/2 inch) thick.  This is put in the oven on a low heat 60C (140F) until it has dried and can be peeled off.  This can easily be overnight in the oven on that heat.  I don't have a dehydrator, but this would be perfect for that.

When I do the Rhubarb mash fruit roll I also add an apple to give it more substance.   In fact most fruit can be used and I think Blueberries would also make a very nice fruit roll and those probably wouldn't need any additional sugar.

More Shabby than Chic - The Allotment

I've been spending some time in the Allotment garden lately.  I managed to get some  timber last year to make a raised bed and then I found some more this spring.  They may not be the prettiest raised beds, but I've done my best to compensate by decorating a little bit.  To be truthful, I'm a lazy gardener.  I've always believed that gardening should be fun and not a chore.  One part of that is to be able to sit down, look over your work and contemplate the next steps, while sipping a cold drink and munching on something chocolate.

One of the first things that I did when I got the Allotment was to scrounge a few pallets to make a deck of sorts.  I stapled some dark material on the underside so that weeds wouldn't get through and then I put some old deck chairs on there.  The deck chairs were nice, but my mom couldn't use them, she chouldn't get up.  So I tried to find a pretty table for next to nothing, but just found a battered, ugly Ikea one, but it had to do.  My mom had bought a folding chair and I brought one of mine that wasn't in use at the moment.  I think I may need to put a tablecloth on that table and then the whole setup will be very nice.

When my husband and I were clearing out the garage the other day (I didn't actually throw anything away :) I had to do something with this monstrosity of a candle chandelier that had been hanging there (and regularly falling down) on a nail.  It was left over from the garden decorations for the wedding and I didn't have the heart to throw it out.  It really is kind of cute, but I don't have any place for it at home.  The perfect solution, of course, was to take it down to the Allotment and hang it in a nearby tree.  Just to make things a bit more homey.  I would have loved to be able to build a shed, but the Allotments aren't big enough for that and we don't have permission for it anyway.  So I'm doing the next best thing: Decorating nature.

I also do some more serious gardening.  I spent the national holiday down there building a compost heap out of pallets and wire hangers.  It actually took all of fifteen minutes to put it together.  The rest of the time was spent cutting up perennial weeds (minus roots) and shoveling shit (sorry...manure).   And then watering everything and covering it, hoping to start a turbo compost factory.  And I dug up a lot of weeds, some of which I'm going to use for dye.  And then I watered the plants.  We have had a long dry spell with sun.  It's been wonderful to have to water.  Sometimes June is very wet.

I allocated a part of the space to some dye plants that I sowed this spring.  I have japanese indigo, woad and weld and madder and one rather lanky coreopsis.  I should sow some more.  I also need to sow a bit more salad and stuff.  I always make the mistake of not sowing regularly.  But lettuce, spinach, radishes and even beetroots can be sown quite late and it's often better to sow a little every week or two than to sow a lot at one time.  Or so I prefer to think when I'm running a bit late with everything.

Of course I could buy new things for the Allotment, but there is something extremely satisfying in reusing stuff that is destined for a landfill.  And, please, if anyone knows of a good way to use wire hangers, pass it on.  I really hate to throw them out but I'm not ready to iron his shirts either.

The Elusive Green

I love the colour green.  Didn't realize it until quite recently, well, a few years back.  If asked I would have said red was my favorite colour.  I don't wear green much, but when we bought our home eleven years ago all the windows, doors, fences and roof were a dark green colour.  I guess that's when I discovered that I like the colour.  Then I bought green drapes for the bedroom.  Mostly because they were on sale and that was the only colour available.  And I like those green drapes in the bedroom.  They give a nice green glow into the bedroom in summer.  With the nights so light, it's an advantage to tone the bright light down to a calming green.

I thought I had found the solution to the problem of getting a green colour naturally in soaps.  It is one of the most difficult one to get from plants, both in soap and as a textile dye.  Which is counterintuitive since most plants are green, so what happens to all the green?  Well, it turns either yellow or brown because the Chlorophyll is not water-soluble and therefore can't be extracted in a water bath.  And furthermore, as I understand it, it does fade even if it is used in it's oil soluble form as a soap colour.  Apparently Chlorophyll is a combination of Chlorophyll a and Chlorophyll b and the a is a good dye and can be bought and used in soap.

I thought I had found a shortcut when I was given some very green tablets that were to be used as a nutritional supplement.  No way was I going to eat those pretty green things.  I had to try them in a soap.  Well, you've guessed it.  It really was a nice, nice green for a little while and then it faded.  I knew that!  Of course it faded.  I really knew that was going to happen.  It always does.  I just have to give up this naive hope that somehow I will find a perfect green that says green and doesn't turn olive and brown, or disappears.

But the soap was the Rosemary shampoo bar, slightly changed.

Olive oil         40%     280g / 9.9 oz
Coconut oil    30%    210g / 7.4 oz
Castor oil       20% 140g / 4.9 oz
Sunflower oil 10% 70g / 2.5 oz

Water 30% 210g / 7.4 oz
Lye 99g / 3.5 oz
3% SF.
 
I added a lot of Rosemary essential oil and shredded some soap on top to make it slightly more interesting, but it didn't really work.  I used too fine a grater and I like the look better without, but now I know that.  It has been curing for quite a while, actually 3 months now, but I finally tried it and it has a very strong and refreshing smell, a nice generous lather lather and my hair loved it.  I also really liked the first recipe, but this one may be an improvement, if only slight.  I probably needed more of the green tablets to give a strong lasting colour.  As it it the soap is a yellow green that's not really special.  But I'm getting ready to start dying yarn again.  I'm  going to do it very methodically this time and I'm starting with one of my favorite weeds, Rumex.

It's Rhubarb time again

I have been making everything Rhubarb in this past week.  My Rhubarb plants are doing so well, probably because I covered them in loads of well rotted manure last fall and gave them some seaweed as well.  They are growing like maniacs, which is nice because I didn't expect to be able to get any crop this year since it's only been two years since I got them and I even replanted them last summer.

Rhubarb rewards it's owner handsomely if treated properly.  It's not very complicated.  It should be divided every 10-15 years, or when it stops being productive.  It's a big plant and it needs plenty of nutrients.  Manure is perfect, or some other form of organic fertilizer like chicken manure and seaweed.

There are many cultivars of Rhubarb, some are completely red through the stalks, others have red on the outside of the stalks and then some are completely green.  The reds cultivars tend be give less crop than the others.  The taste is also different between the cultivars and apparently is is malic acid that determines the taste, if there is too little it tastes of little, and if there is too much it is too sour.  There is no correlation between the colour of the stalks and the amount of malic acid in the Rhubarb.

This year I have already made Rhubarb syrup, Rhubarb heels, Rhubarb drink and Rhubarb muffins.  And of course Rhubarb soap!  I wanted to try to make a gradient colour with Rhubarb oil.  Maybe an Ombré type effect. I didn't quite succeed, its more stripes than Ombré, but it's nice anyway and I had fun.

I just eyeballed the amounts of Rhubarb oil (chop up some pieces of root into oil of your choise and let it infuse until you see a good colour) into the soap, so it wasn't very scientific, but the recipe is here:

Olive oil 49% 360g / 13oz (out of this 20g was Rhubarb root infused)
Coconut oil 25% 190g / 6.7oz
Rapeseed oil 17% 107g / 3.7oz
Cocoa butter 9% 70g / 2.5oz
Castor oil 2% 14g / 0.5oz

Water 33% 250g / 8.7oz
Lye 106g / 3.7 oz

I divided the soap into four approx. 200g /7oz each and colored the first part with about 2 tablespoons of Rhubarb oil.  The second with just over one tablespoon.  The thirds with about half a tablespoon and the last with about a teaspoon.  I tried to pour very evenly, over a spatula, and slammed the mold down to even it, but there are still valleys in the colors bands.  I put the soap into a cold oven when it started to gel, because I wanted it to gel evenly and it seems to have done just that.

The intensity of the colour surprised me a little bit.  The darkest layer is really dark red.  Quite beautiful and a blueish tint to it.  The cut surfaces are more of a yellow red, but they turn more blue as the soap ages.  The scent was a combo of Rosewood and Rose Geranium and it smells lovely.  I still leave a lot of Rubarb left to harves and I just may need to try some of the hair colour recipes next.  On myself.  That could be interesting...