The best way to cook both silver beet and rhubarb is by steaming it. Silver beet can be steamed over any strong flavoured vegetable, carrot for example, without affecting its flavour. The stalks can be cut into 6mm wide, 50mm lengths and sprinkled on the bottom of the steamer to let the steam in easier […]
Here is a recipe for cleaning and softening fabric. I use a 2L clean milk bottle to which I add 1L white vinegar and 1L of boiled cold water. Mix together and let stand for a week. Cindy from Matamata comments: “The recipe entered by Lorraine of Hamilton to make white vinegar is incorrect […]
Here’s a tip to freshen up a smelly mattress (it works on carpets also). Mix a few drops of essential oil with one cup baking soda. Sprinkle on mattress and let it sit for 1 hour before vacuuming. Baking soda will absorb any dirt, moisture, odours, while the essential oil will leave things smelling fresh.
Silver beet leaves are the only part usually consumed, but…if the stalks are cooked separately and thickened with whatever flavour you like,(cheese, Maggi onion/mushroom etc.) you have another vege for the table. Cook stalks in minimal salted water for about 10 minutes, and drain some of this water over the leaves in a separate pot […]
Those with apple trees will have codling moths around causing damage. Shake the tree every day and those apples that will fall and rot on the ground can be harvested fresh and frozen until it is juicing time. Also, pick those fruit that have major moth damage showing and add those to the frozen stock. […]
A reader recently wrote to us all wound up about the cost of a spring washer. The problem was that he was being charged $6 for a washer on a mower repair job and he was not at all happy about it – especially when he checked out the price elsewhere and found another company […]
To soften hard sugar in your pantry, place a slice of bread in the jar and seal it up overnight. The moisture in the bread softens the sugar. Mine was so hard I couldn’t chip it out with a knife so I put a slice from the deep freeze in the jar. The next morning […]
Oven cleaner: I haven’t tried this one but perhaps someone would like to. I once tried siting a dish of cloudy ammonia in the oven overnight but all it did was stink the kitchen out. Oven cleaner: 3 parts cloudy ammonia to 1 part water. Fill spray bottle. Preheat oven to warm then switch off. […]
Buttermilk costs approx $4 for 600 mls. Here’s how to make your own. To 1 cup of whole milk add 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice (acid). Stir in and let stand for 5-10 mins. It will thicken. Other buttermilk substitutes are 3/4 cup plain yoghurt and 1/4 cup water mixed together or sour cream […]
We have 2 Feijoa Trees, 2 Crab Apple trees,1 pear tree, 1 apple tree, and 1 loquat tree. To use these with minimum waste, we harvest as follows.:- Loquart. Harvest in Nov-Dec. Skin and clean, stew for eating or make jam or freeze. Feijoas. Scoop and eat or freeze. Save skins in bread bags and […]