REDUCING PLASTIC PACKAGING
I’m a big fan of grazing platters as there’s always something to appeal to everyone. There’s so many flavours and colours and textures. Cheese, crackers, nuts, grapes and strawberries, cold meat and of course, dips! Dips are packed with flavour but usually they are packed in plastic, too. I’ve made dip using fresh ingredients and cream cheese packaged in foil wrap, but I really like the variety of dips you can buy so easily but not the plastic packaging.
So a big surprise for me at the supermarket this morning. A good surprise, too. I found a dip called NUFFIN Chive & Onion Dip made from natural ingredients and packed in a biodegradable and compostable tub with a kraft paper label. It’s made in Australia from 99% Australian ingredients, so ticking all the boxes. Pretty keen to try it. It was really good. So good it was all gone by evening.
Just fresh ingredients.
Dip is really versatile, too. Not just on crackers but also in baked potatoes, on toast and even stirred through pasta. I’ll be looking to see if this product comes in other flavours, too.
Rinsed out the tub the dip came when it was empty and poked holes in the base using a skewer. Why? Instant seed planter.
Filled it with potting mix. added stock seeds, covered the seeds with more soil then watered them in.
Added a label using a recycled bamboo fork. Eventually the tub will end up in the compost.
RIPENING ORANGES
A few weeks ago I tried ripening not quite ripe lemons by putting them in a bowl next to a window so they got the morning sun. The lemons with yellow on them ripened, the two which were mostly green didn’t change at all. So I picked two nearly ripe oranges and put them in a bowl in the sun, too. I picked them because a cyclone was forecast and the orange skins split in heavy rain. We had massively heavy rain!
After two weeks both oranges looked ripe, so I made an orange cake. Like the window ripened lemons, I felt there was less juice, but enough to make the cake and icing. I also grated peel to add to both.
The peel felt quite thin when I was trying to grate it to put on the top of the cake so I grated leftover Crunchie solid Easter eggs and scattered that on the icing. I only thought to take an ‘after’ photo of the cake when I was cutting it! It tasted very good.
Lovely orange cake with orange flavoured icing and grated leftover Crunchie Easter eggs.
PROPAGATING BAY TREES
My son wants a bay tree so when a friend mentioned she grown one for her son I decided to try it, too. I snapped five small branches from a tree. I prepared them by stripping off all but three or four leaves, cut the ends and squashed them before putting them into rooting powder.
Then I poked them into well drained soil, watered them and covered them in a little greenhouse. Actually, the greenhouse is a thick plastic bag held up on recycled chopsticks which needed further tethering when the cyclone came down the coast. No signs of growth but the cuttings are still green and healthy.
Bay leaves feature in so many recipes from all over the world. To dry them, pick leaves in summer and discard any with holes in them. Choose the best then wash them in running water. I dry them on baking trays lined with paper towel left somewhere well ventilated for about seven days then turned over and repeat the process. When they are dry the colour will be faded and the leaves feel brittle.
The leaves can also be dried in the oven. Place them in a single layer on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and put in a slow oven. Turn them over after about 20 minutes and check again after 20 minutes. They may take longer, just keep checking until they are brittle and fragrant.
Although I have only ever air dried bay leaves they can also be dried in a microwave oven. Place them in a single layer and cook for two minutes, then turn them over and cook again in 30 second bursts until they are brittle. Store the dried leaves in an airtight jar.
In other gardening news, the gardenias are beautiful. I have several gardenia bushes and they are covered in blooms. What’s blooming in your garden?
