Learning and learning and passing it on.

I looked at my blog the other day and thought: What the he.. happened to my soap blog?  No soaps!  I would blame ADD if it wasn't for the fact that I just have so many interest that I just don't have time to tend to them all.  But I have to admit that soaping hasn't been high on my list of things to do recently.  I have made soaps, but just some of the ones I keep making again and again, like shampoo bars.  And I figured that repeating recipes probably isn't all that exciting.  Unless I learn something new.  Which incidentally, I did the other day and didn't post about it.  So it's coming up.

But that's what this is all about.  Learning something new.  I am insatiably curious about a lot of things and I research stuff to the death.  Lately I have been chasing down books about natural dyes, especially lichen and mushroom dyeing.  I found one old Norwegian book in a used bookshop in Leiden in Holland, ordered a book from the Faroe Islands (in Faroese and yes I can read it) and also found some books in Sweden that I'm interested in, but they don't accept credit cards or PayPal.  Which they didn't in the Faroe Islands either and that was a lot of bother.  So I didn't order any Swedish books, but I found a very old Swedish book (or a series of booklets published in 1805-1809) in electronic format in a New York library active (which was really good because the last time it sold, it sold for almost 1500 dollars).  Another interest that I have been nurturing is spinning.  I don't know how these things come to me, but I have developed an intense interest in learning to spin.  So I watch videos about that.  And bookbinding.  I just know that I'm going to be making my first book very soon.  I love the Internet and how it makes getting information so easy.

I get very excited when I learn something new and I always need to tell someone.  I'm compelled to.  Even if I think it would be smart to keep things to myself, like a business secret, it's really hard for me.  I tend to just blurt it out, really to whoever is standing next to me.  Can't keep knowledge to myself, I have to share.  I think I am a teacher at heart.

I used to teach part time and I loved it.  Through teaching I discovered that I'm quite good at public speaking.  No nerves.  On the contrary, I can't stop talking.  I never speak from a script, just straight from the heart.  My recent talk at the Horticultural Society about Rhubarb came about as a result of my sharing some of my Rhubarb recipes in a newspaper insert a year ago.  Then they asked if anyone had articles about visits to Botanical Gardens for this years annual publication.  Since I had recently visited four gardens in the US with my mom I promised to write about that.  Not very exciting, but they like to have some articles like that.  And then I was asked for some more short articles and recipes for this years insert and I did the Dandelion recipes that I blogged about, the Dandelion coffee, the Dandelion pesto and the Dandelion honey.  I skipped the one about Dandelion dye, thinking gardeners may not be interested in dyeing wool.

I did make a new soap tonight.  I was inspired by the soap challenge that Great Cakes Soapworks has been doing.  Even if I haven't been that creative with soaps lately I read all the blogs.  The soap I did was a graduated Rhubarb soap.  I'm really looking forward to cutting it to see if I managed to make a nice ombre effect.  That would be cool.

Cheese - call it Ricotta or something else

I made a real cheese the other day.  With rennet and everything.  It was the type that many people call Ricotta, but technically is a fresh cheese.  I don't really care.  It's a soft cheese that is really easy to make and all it requires is some milk and rennet.

I have some rennet in my fridge, since my younger sister gave me some along with cheesecloth, some milk and a book about cheese making.  She packed everything separately so I got many packages.  The first package contained cloth diapers, the next one a yellow liquid in an unmarked jar.  I have to admit that I wasn't thinking cheese at that point...  We have  a bit of a love/hate relationship, it's a long story, I love her, she hates me!  But anyway, the present was great and I've been meaning to try my hand at cheese making.  Like everything one hasn't done before, it was a bit scary, but also when it came down to it, it was really easy to do.

It is as simple as making yoghurt and I do that every week now.  I really, really like my yoghurt and miss it tremendously when I travel and can't have any.  But back to cheese.  The most complicated thing about making cheese is that most recipes call for a gallon of milk.  I guess 1 gallon of milk makes about 1 pound of cheese.  But I don't do large recipes.   Not in soaps and not in food. I prefer small batches, so I scaled it down to 1 liter (about a quart).

1 liter milk (I always use full fat milk, both for yoghurt and this cheese)
1/2 tsp salt
A little less than 1/4 tsp rennet.

Heat the milk in a pot to about 80C / 180F.
Take off the heat and put the pot in ice water to cool down to 50C / 125F.
Stir in the salt.

Now, the rennet needs to be diluted in some water before being mixed into the milk.  Add it to 1/4 cup cold water, stirring it in.

Then add the rennet mix to the milk and let it sit for 10 minutes and don't disturb it.

The milk will get thick.  Get a knife and cut into the curd to facilitate the separation of the whey from the curds.  Carefully, with a slotted spoon, ladle the curds into a sieve, lined with cheesecloth and let it drain.

Tie a string around the cheesecloth and hang it up and let it drain overnight and there you have it.  Wonderful fresh cheese.  I flavored mine with freshly pressed garlic and Chives and used it on my sourdough bread.  It was a wonderful robust flavor.  The cheese is also very good as it is.  My dogs loved it too.

I used the whey in the next sourdough bread recipe.  I can't say that I noticed that much difference in the taste, but I'm sure that it is very healthy to use it that way.

Of course the irony is that real Ricotta cheese is made from whey that is left over from other cheese making.  So it is a bit strange to call this Ricotta.  I did think about trying to make real ricotta by using the whey to make cheese again, but there wasn't that much of it so I imagine that there would have been very little cheese from that.  I may make cheese again.  I've read about making hard cheeses, but those are a bit complicated to make since one needs to store them and cure them at certain temperatures for a number of months.  I don't think I'll be making any hard cheeses soon, but I just might make another, maybe even bigger, batch of cheese.

Or you could liquidize - Dandelion coffee

I have found the perfect way to eradicate dandelion from the lawn.  In the past I used a special tool that was sold in Garden centers, but all it did was to guaranty that the root would break and the dandelion would happily continue to grow.  Then I tried that plant hormone stuff, but if that is to work it has to stay dry for a few days and that requires a minor miracle in Iceland in summer, so not much luck there.  But then I figured out that a big shovel or spade is best.

But I don't really dislike dandelion.  It's a wonderful plant, full of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D and vitamin B complex, as well as zinc, iron and potassium.  It supposedly can regulate blood sugar levels , is a liver tonic and a diuretic.  Last year I made the dandelion honey from the flowers and recently I tried the dandelion pesto made of the leaves (which contain calcium, magnesium and vitamin K) which was very nice.  But this recipe is probably my favorite.  It's dandelion coffee!  Yes, I was sceptical too.  But it's really surprisingly good and remarkably like coffee, except it doest irritate the stomach and is supposedly good for you.  The taste is nutty and mild, at least with cream added to it.

You need a few roots.  Wash them thoroughly and dry them.   I had some roots that were already dried, so all I had to do was to break them into pieces and roast them.  This I did in the oven for 30 minutes at 200°C / 300°F.  If you need to dry the roots as well as roast them, then you should chop them up into similar sized pieces and put them on a baking tray.  Then they will roast equally.  You don't want to burn the roots, a nice mid to dark brown is what you're aiming for.  Apparently, the more the roots are roasted, the less bitter they taste.  I haven't noticed any bitter taste in mine, although some of them were fairly light in colour.

The washed and chopped roots are put on a baking tray evenly spaced and put into an oven at 120°C / 250°F for 2 hours with the oven door open so that the moisture escapes.  Turn occasionally and keep and eye on the roots for the last half hour to make sure it doesn't burn.  If the colour it too light then raise the heat to 200°C / 300°F and roast until the roots are a nice brown colour.

Let the roots cool before you grind them in a coffee grinder.  Those who do not have one, can use a mortel and pestle to pound the roasted roots, or simply wrap them in a clean dishtowel and whack with a hammer.

I use the coffee just like instant coffee, one teaspoon in a cup and I add coffee-cream.  Some people let the coffee steep for up to 30 minutes and then strain and reheat.  It's just a matter of taste.  Try this, it really is quite good.  Although I have to admit that my husband doesn't like it at all.  But then again, he's in the hospital and I'm not.  So, I just have to say, how many people can say: Oh, I've given up coffee, but can I offer you a cup of Dandelion coffee.  How cool is that.

Eating your enemy - The sweetest revenge

I have been a member of the Horticultural Society for some years now.  Gardening is one of my passions, although I haven't really blogged about that a lot.  I used to be interested only in ornamental gardening:  Perennials, bulbs and shrubs.  Vegetables - not so much.  Didn't really eat them and and therefore I wasn't interested in growing them.  But that was back in the days when I had a cigarette in one hand and a can of Coke in the other.  Always.  Some people thought I had been born that way.  But, for some reason, I started to eat vegetables, quit smoking, took up Pilates and stopped drinking Coke.  Many times.  Damn that stuff is addictive!  But I haven't had a Coke in over a month now and I'm very proud of myself.

But back to gardening.  I did a public talk about Rhubarb last summer and recently repeated it for the Horticultural Society, which was fun.  The lecture addressed the whole of the plant, the leaves, the stalks and the root and what to do with it.  Some of that turned into blog posts last summer.  When I was asked for some short articles for a newspaper insert, I thought I would do the same for the bitter enemy of many gardeners, the dandelion, Taraxacum officinale.  Isn't the thought of digging up your enemy and then eating it, just the sweetest of all?

The plant is a medicinal plant and has many benefits.  It is an excellent source of vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, as well as minerals such as iron, potassium, and zinc.  The root has traditionally been used to treat liver problems, the greens are diuretic and the flowers have antioxidant properties.  All parts are edible, the leaves often used in salads, the root as a coffee substitute and the flowers for wine, textile dye or dandelion honey.

Dandelion leaves have the mildest taste before they flower. After flowering their taste is more bitter.  I used greens from a plant that hadn't flowered for this recipe, that is the perfect taste for a pesto.  This recipe is rather small, but can easily be multiplied for a bigger quantity because it can be a bit small for large equipment.  I used the leaves of one large dandelion that I just dug up from my garden.

Dandelion pesto

60 grams / 2 oz dandelion greens
1/4 cup Olive oil
1 clove of Garlic
1 tbsp lightly roasted Almonds (could also be hazelnuts or pine nuts)
1/2 tsp salt
10 grams / 0.4 oz Parmesan cheese

The process is easy.  Put the dandelion greens and olive oil into a food processor/blender and whiz together.  Add the garlic, almonds and Parmesan cheese.  Blend until it is smooth.  Add salt to taste and use more olive oil if needed to get the desired consistency.  Put in a jar and pour olive oil on top so it covers the pesto.  Use the same way as you would regular pesto.

Gardening soap

I had decided to make a really pretty soap and I thought it would be such a great idea to use Cochineal to color it pink.  Enough of Rumex oil already.  Enough of subtle shades.  Lets go for gusto.  Cochineal is a bug that had been used for centuries to dye pink and red.  It gives vibrant colours and is soluble in water.  I've used it to dye wool and got a beautiful strong pink.  So I thought I'd try it because sometimes I would like to try some really strong colors for a change.  And I thought I would use the little aluminum tart forms that I have, but line them with cling film, even if it shows.  And then I thought I'd use some of the Poppy seeds that I collected last fall and make it this bright pink flower shaped gardeners soap.

Well, apparently the universe likes me to stick to soft and natural.  I prepared the Cochineal by grinding up a few bugs and adding them to water until the colors was really saturated and way too strong for what I intended.  When I added the lye the water turned to purple, as was to be expected, but when I added the oils and started to stir, the colour simply disappeared.  I had this happen once with Logwood, a beautiful purple that refused to participate in a soap making adventure.  Since I really didn't want as wishy-washy nondescript soap I grabbed my bottle of ... no not Rumex oil, but Rheum oil (that's Rhubarb to you and me).  As I poured it into the soap I could see great red color swirls and they soon turned the soap pink and I was quite happy.  Usually Rumex and Rheum oils turn a tan colour at first, changing overnight to pink.  But this was fine with me.  Immediately pink.  Great.  So I put some Lavender, Lemongrass and Rosewood essential oils into it and then my poppy seeds, poured it into the little moulds and went to bed.

I made a really small recipe, only 260 g. / 9.2 oz, the smallest batch I've ever tried.

Olive oil 33%  

Coconut oil 33% 

Soybean oil 10%

Sunflower oil 10%

Cocoa butter 14%

The next morning this surprising result waited for me.  Exactly what I hadn't wanted:  A rather insipid, undecided, plain, dull, nondescript, wishy-washy colour, if it even deserves that noun.  And to make matters worse, it had a really really thick layer of ash.  I don't mind some ash, but this was really thick.  I don't know how the colour managed to change from a lovely, and yes soft, pink to a really weird blueish-in-some-places-pinkish-in-others-and-no-real-colour-at-all-in-between.  But it did.  And after looking at it for a few weeks (and a hard day of gardening in the allotment garden) I used it and decided that it wasn't a miserable failure after all.  It was a nice size, it smelled lovely, it had a nice lather and the Poppy seeds gave it just the perfect scrub without being too rough.  Just perfectly natural and slightly irregular like the life I live, the vegetables I grow and the raised beds that I built.

Happy summer

Today is the First day of summer and the sun is shining even if the temperature is 6C or 43F. But that is usual for this time of year and is actually quite warm for the time of year.  Today is an old traditional holiday and we give gifts on this day.  I received a gift myself yesterday when I found some timber that was being thrown out.  I got permission to salvage it and took it to my Allotment garden where it will become more raised beds.

Last fall, well it was November actually, I built some raised beds out of very similar timbers that I also salvaged from a skip.  Since I had some more wood I also knocked together some frames to use as covers.  I just need to get glass or plastic to cover them and then I have the perfect cold frame.  I have also made a primitive deck out of pallet wood, so  mom and I can sit in the sun and admire all our hard work.  I just need to find a good small table.  Or I could build one.

I wish I could say that I have a green thumb, but to be honest I have quite a few miserable failures.  I did sow some seeds about a month ago and although most of them sprouted I tend to leave them to long before I prick them out.  But "better late than never" so today I'm salvaging the rest .  I have pricked out about half of my seedlings, the Sweet Peas (Lathyrus odorous) and the pretty pink Morning Glory (Ipomoea), also an annual of which I save the seeds from every year.  They are doing well and need to go into larger pots.  I also managed to pot the Lily bulbs I bought, Lilium regale, and also the Sarah Bernhardt Peonie which I don't already have in my garden for some strange reason.  I'm going to keep her in a pot for the time being.  I don't want to loose her to the cold.  I was also given some Foxglove (Digitalis) rosettes which grow like weeds in a friends's garden.  I have tried to sow its seed, but never had any luck with getting the plants to flower, so now I'm excited.

I haven't really started the vegetables yet, although I sowed some basil, lettuce and spinach, but I killed some of them off with neglect.  So I need to start those again pretty soon.  This year I'll sow the regulars, carrots, broccoli, beets, cauliflower, lettuce and kale.  I bought seeds of the dark green Italian Nero di Toscana, which tastes amazing.  I want to grow a few plants of this and make chips from it.  And I think I'll try turnips this year.  I had never tasted them until I decided to try them recently and I really, really like them.  Not to forget the most Icelandic of crops, the rutabaga, or swede.  I've only grown it once before, they take up a lot of space, but they are so good when homegrown that it's worth growing a few.

I also sowed some dye plants, and I plan to dedicate a portion of the allotment to those.  Some are perennials and the rest tend to be invasive annuals so I should have plenty of materials in years to come.  I have Madder (Rubia tinctoria), Woad (Isatis tinctoria), Japanese indigo (Polygonum tinctorium), Calleopsis (Coreopsis tinctorium), Dyers Chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) and Weld (Reseda luteola). I need to plant these on and perhaps sow a few more seed.  I may live to regret this, but I don't think one can have too many dye plants.  Oh, by the way, it it a pretty good indication that a plant is a good dye plant if the second part of the latin name is "tinctoria" (or similar) in the same way that "officinale" designates medicinal plants.

Homemade Mascarpone for Easter's Lemon cake

Yesterday I made Mascarpone.  I've been wanting to try to make cheeses for the longest time and had some cream.  Mascarpone is one of the easiest things one can make in the cheese department.  So I went ahead and made some.  I also made Lemon cake for desert on Easter Sunday (which is today - Happy Easter :) and thought I could try the Mascarpone with that.  I always serve whipped cream with it and there will be some of that too because my family aren't really as adventurous as I am.

Everything tastes better with whipped cream and when in Italy last year, I looked for cream in the Italian grocery stores, but could only find Mascarpone.  I bought it because I had to have something with my strawberries.  I hadn't really tasted it that much before.  I knew that it is used in Tiramisu, but that was about it.  I got used to it after a while, it's very, very creamy.  But yesterday I used Google to find recipes, although I have two books about cheese making which I could have used (I need to find those).  I found many recipes for Mascarpone, the blogs Baking obsession,  Not without salt and Make it from scratch all have recipes and lovely photos.  Another website that I found which is excellent is Fankhauser's cheese page.  It's just a wealth of information about cheese making of all sorts.

But the Mascarpone is really easy to make.  I used:

2.5 deciliters whipping cream (that is 250 ml or about 1 cup)
1/2 tbsp Lemon juice

Just heat the cream in a water bath.  I put it into a saucepan which I put into a larger pot containing water.  I could have used a bowl in the pot.  Doesn't matter, but it's best to heat the cream gently and stir regularly.  Heat until it reaches 85C / 190F then add the lemon juice and continue to stir for 5 minutes while holding the temperature constant. The cream will thicken somewhat.  Don't worry if you don't notice a massive change.  I didn't and I've read many comments about that.  Just make sure you reach the right temperature and hold it for 5 minutes and follow the rest of the instructions.  It should turn out just fine.

Now, I followed the advise of Dr. Fankhauser and covered it and put it in the refrigerator overnight.  But some people just let it cool on the counter for 20-30 minutes.  I will prbably try that next time.  Just make sure that you don't disturb it while it's cooling.  It's the same as with yoghurt, which hates to be disturbed while doing it's thing.

But the next step, either way you choose to do it, is to line a sieve with a moistened cheesecloth.  And the moistened part makes a difference, I think, because then it drains a bit better.  I failed to do that.  But anyway, put the future Mascarpone into the lined sieve, then gather the corners and let it hang, preferably in the fridge, for a few hours.

I just had to taste it even if it isn't quite ready and it was very nice, thick and creamy with some mashed strawberries and honey that I had left from breakfast.  Yesterday I also made a cottage cheese/Ricotta type cheese from milk and I chopped up some Pineapple peelings to make enzyme cleaner and then I made a little soap.  It feels good to be back in the swing of things.

Just because I thought you'd like it.

The mailman brought me a package the other day.  It was a gift.  Just because she thought I'd like it.  That is just very nice.  It's actually incredibly and absolutely wonderful that she would do that for me.  Just out of the blue.  It came at just the right time to cheer me up and give me the warmest glow of gratitude.

The Usnea lichen is the most wonderful lichen and it doesn't grow here.  So receiving a thickly padded envelope was just fantastic (not to forget the Bay leaves that have been flavoring my dinners - lovely:).  I have been holding it and touching it and suppressing the thought that I can't possibly use it.  So I did use a part of it, precisely because I felt so reluctant.  I decided to put one third of it into alcohol for a tincture and I actually managed to do that.  The tincture will take about 6 weeks and then I have a wonderful medicine.  Usnea tincture is antibiotic, antibacterial, antifungal, astringent, antiviral, and diuretic.  I just finished a dose of penicillin to get rid of a constant fever.  No high temperatures, but just a little bit that didn't go away and made me lethargic and disinterested in everything.  So now I have to suffer the consequences of killing off every friendly bacteria in my body.  So lots of yoghurt.  I look forward to trying the Usnea next time I need to treat an infection.  No nasty side effects.

I had been blaming my genes and winter for my low.  I am inordinately proud of being a quarter German because here most people are just Icelandic.  Icelanders can trace their ancestry back to about 800 A.D. and sometimes even a bit further, usually to Norwegian kings.  Of course, wouldn't you know it, I'm really a princess!  And we are all pretty much related.  If you take any two Icelanders, you'll usually find a common ancestor in the 8th or 9th generation.  My husband and I are really far apart, only with common ancestors in the 10th generation.

But all that aside.  Americans were of course, when I moved there, not very impressed since everyone there is originally from somewhere else.  And I do not think the British, that I met when I lived there, were too impressed either.  But I enjoy being a bit different from my countrymen.  And it is with a bit of pride that I point to my German genes as an explanation for my dislike of cold weather and intolerance for the dark.  My German grandmother was very brave to marry my grandfather and move to Iceland in the 1920's.  They met when my grandfather was studying electrical engineering and working in the Siemens factory in Berlin.

She was a factory girl and she was poor.  Her father had shot himself in front of his wife and three young children after gambling, probably not the family fortune, but pretty much all they had.  So my grandmother, despite protestations from her family, who naturally didn't want her living amongst eskimos in igloos, left Berlin and moved to Husavik, a small village where my great grandfather was the owner of the local store and fairly well off.  My grandparents soon moved to Reykjavik and had three children, my mother being the youngest.  My grandmother did get to travel back to Germany and her family (tante Lotta and onkel Walter) came to visit her.  My grandfather was a senior civil servant, so they were comfortable.  But she died of bone cancer at 59.  I was four, but I have a few precious memories of her.  She was beautiful, she loved pretty things, and at the same time she was wonderfully thrifty.  I like to think I got that from her too.  My mother has the same reaction to winter as I do, but my father, who was from a very remote area far north, never seemed to feel it.  Of course that makes sense, it's just survival.  I'd have withered away and died in the middle ages up there.

But back to the Usnea.  The rest will go to dyeing wool.  A part will be used for dyeing some Alpaca wool in a water bath and a third (and what is left of the water bath lichen) will be fermented in ammonia to see what comes out of it.  I'm really feeling an excitement for dyeing now.  So much so that I was inspired to order a book about lichen dyeing (called Lichen dyeing) that I've been wanting, but has been out of print for the longest time.  And just magically it was available on Amazon.

And then the casing for my duvet arrived from Germany.  And it looks really good.  I love it and really, really want to get a new duvet soon.  Which will not happen since my recent bout of inertia has been rather all-encompassing and I haven't touched the Eiderdown, so still 200 grams.  Only 800 to go.  But I'm back in the swing of things, thoroughly fed up with doing nothing.  And Cocobong - thank you :)

More on Eiderdown

I have been trying to find out as much as I can about Eiderdown.  There really isn't much information around, certainly no books or magazines or website dedicated to the subject.  So I've been left with a few websites of manufacturers, Wikipedia, interviews in newspapers and such to try to gather knowledge.  And I do know that there are probably only about 3 other people in the world who are interested in this subject.

Most of the production of Eiderdown is from Iceland, between 70-90% and I've read that my countrymen are not eager to share the methods of working and cleaning the down with the rest of the world.  That kind of goes against my grain, but it is understandable that people want to protect trade secrets.  But I'm a still curious and I have planned a visit to the fairly new Ederdown museum in Stykkisholmur this summer to try to find out more.  The National Museum also seems to be researching old methods of cleaning down and I want to get those results when available.

Canada, Norway and Greenland also produce some Eiderdown but if Iceland produces about 3 tons every year, that would make the total world production at most around 4000 kilos.  That's not a lot.  It would only take one small truck to transport that.  Apparently the Japanese sell about 20 tons of Icelandic eiderdown a year!  Since the yearly production in Iceland is much less than that and not all the down is sold to Japan, the conclusion is that most of the eiderdown sold in Japan, isn't eiderdown at all.  That might also be an explanation as to why I saw a statement in some ad that eiderdown is always white and that is how you know you have pure eiderdown.  What nonsense!  The eiderduck is brown (the male is black and white) and since it's the female that plucks it's down the down is brown specked with white.  Very easy to recognize once one has seen it.  Just in case someone is interested.

So my advice to anyone interested in buying an Eiderdown duvet is to buy directly from Iceland, preferably directly from the farmers.  Several Icelandic Eiderdown farmers sell them directly and the price is quite reasonable, around 300-400.000 ISK (which makes it about 2.500-3.000 US$) for a single duvet.  It isn't a custom here to have one big duvet for a couple like I've seen in the UK and the USA.  I can't imagine sharing my duvet with my husband.  It's not because I dislike him or anything.  It's just that here everyone has their own duvet, starting with the tiny crib duvets and going up in size as kids get older.  Couples each have their own single size duvet.  That means there is no awkward gap and no tug of war during the night.  And, no! There are no problems in cuddling, you just overlap them (or throw them off - it all depends on the mood :)

I also saw that in the UK eiderdown seems to be a word for duvet or comforter and not refer to the actual material.  Rather confusing!

The reason for all of my information seeking is to try to figure out the best way to clean the eiderdown I have.  It isn't dirty as such, just mixed with straw and plant material and really fiddly work to separate it.  I have tried various things.  One of them is to make a kind of a harp, like I've seen the Norwegian use.  I used a something that I bought in a junk shop and have little idea what to do with.  I think it may be something to do with weaving.  But anyway, I used some fishing nylon to string it and then I weave the down clusters in and out and then use a wooden pestle to vibrate the strings and it makes the stuff fall out.  It's best done outside in little to no wind because the stuff just flies everywhere and also some of the down.  I chase it, can't bear to waste any.  It does help a lot in getting some of the straw and plant material out, although I still have to use my fingertips to pluck out the small stuff.  But I am pretty sure I have the best cleaned eiderdown anywhere.

I did read that the down is alway heated to a 100-120C, probably to kill any pathogens that might be present, but I was also told that it makes the straw more brittle and thus easier to remove.  I have heated a small amount and it didn't damage the down in any way.  And it smelled lovely, just like lichen.  So I assume that some of the plant material is Cetraria Islandica, the Iceland moss.  So now I have to start baking my down to see if that speeds me up.  I almost have 200 g. of cleaned down, so that is 20% of the duvet :)

Little luxuries

The horizontal rain pelted the windows last night to the point where I thought it would break them.  There was a puddle on the kitchen counter because somehow the roof over the kitchen leaks in eastern winds.  This truly is not my time of the year.  By January my body has finally succumbed to the oppression of the dark, refusing to wake up and generally behaves like a teenager.  I have learned to give it space and wait it out patiently.  I don't expect to be as energetic as at other times and find that this time is more bearable if I try to pamper myself.

One of the things that I like to do at this time of the year, apart from sleeping late, is to use all the herbs and plants that I collected over the previous summer.  I have a lot dried herbs and I make my own herbal mixtures and put them in capsules.  I make up my own mixes in attempts to inject some herbal goodness into my body.  Some of my dried flowers get used on top of soaps, at least before Christmas and my infused oils get used in creams and lotion.  But since I haven't had the energy to do much more than my weekly yoghurt and sourdough bread I started to use the oil as they are.  And I really like them like that.

I am especially thrilled with the Rumex oil that I infused late last fall.  It is the most perfect dark golden yellow and smells lovely.  I use it at night on my face and neck.  The yellow colour is very strong and even if I spread it out there is a bit of a yellow tinge to my skin.  I am convinced that it is an excellent anti oxidant and it really does make my skin feel very nice.  Remarkably my pillow doesn't get stained and my husband hasn't made a comment yet.  I have never had dry skin, so I was a bit surprised how much I like to use the oils on my face.

For the daytime I tend to use the Yarrow oil.  Yarrow is one the traditional medicinal herbs and is wonderful for the skin.  Even if the oil is slightly green, it doesn't color my face at all.  Both of those are infused in Olive oil.  I find that it just glides on my face really smoothly and absorbs quite quickly.  I use mineral make up and find that occasionally it can sometimes look a bit dry when first applied.  Now I usually mix it with oil to make a kind of make up and apply it that way.  It gives a nice dewy finish.

The last of my oils is the Rose oil.  I actually have a Rose oil infused in both Olive oil and Peach kernel oil.  Infused three or four times, the oils really get a good rose scent.  The one I'm using now is the Peach Kernel oil and I like that as a body oil after bath.  It really makes spring seem just around the corner then I emerge from the bath all dewy soft and smelling like a bed of roses in the dead of winter.

The last of the Special Blends

I can't believe that I forgot this one.  The last of my Special Blend soaps that I made for Christmas.  I never got round to doing the blue.  I had intended that for my mom, with some sort of a fresh blend of oils (I'm sure I wrote that down somewhere) and Shea butter.

But back to this one.  I had to do a pink soap for Christmas and used... Yes Rumex oil.  I do love the stuff.  But as all my Special Blends, this one had to have that one different ingredient and I found Lanolin.  Lanolin is wonderful stuff.  It is the oil that is on sheep's wool, so it couldn't be more local.  We have more sheep than people here and I love them.

I know that some people are allergic to Lanolin, but for the rest of us, it's a wonderful moisturizer.  So I used a bit in this soap.  I haven't tried it.  I can't believe that I admit that, but I have so many soaps to try.  I was thinking that I should start to pick out my all time favorite soaps.  I still remember the ones I particularly like and it would undoubtedly be interesting to see if there is a common denominator.  I have a feeling about he recipes that I live, but I use so many different one that I should do this in a more scientific way.  But back to the Rosewood Special Blend.  Because it had to be rose something and I can't use pure rose oil, it's just too expensive so I thought Rosewood would be nice.  The recipe was:

Olive oil  40% - 200g / 7 oz.
Coconut oil 30% - 150g / 5.3 oz.
Cocoa butter 15% - 75g / 2.6 oz.
Rapeseed oil 10% - 50g / 1.8 oz.
Lanolin 5% - 25g / 0.9 oz.

I used about 25 g. of Rumex oil.  Part of that was deducted from the Olive oil, but 5 g. were extra.  I guess I thought is wouldn't be dark enough, so the recipe really should be for 5 g. more of Olive oil.  But anyway, I also used both silk and sugar in the water.  

As the picture shows, the soap seized on me and the soap has that characteristic look of being pushed and shoved into the mold.  The scent was a nice blend of Rosewood, Sandalwood Amirys, Bensoin, Ylang Ylang.  It's quite nice, not oppressive at all but rather mild and feminine.  I actually am glad that I haven't tried it yet.  I have something to look forward to this spring.  I can't wait for spring.  This winter has been dark and oppressive and I want more light.  It's getting better.  I can always tell by my Ficus benjamin a who always has a tantrum at this time of the year, just before it starts to get light again, it's leaves turn yellow and trow themselves on the floor.  I feel the same, but I know from years of experience that just as the two of us are about to give up, the sun reappears and spring will be here eventually.