It’s been a while, but once again, life keeps me busy like a bee

I’d like to talk about gardening, as a new year holds the promise of yet another opportunity to grow a beautiful garden. Over here, in Belgium, we are getting close to the right time to start some seedlings and to care for gardens yet again ! I’d like to share some of my ideas for this year, in the hope that they will inspire you, if you too are planning on a garden, with very little room or garden pots.
I am slowly stashing seeds, gathering ideas and thinking about interesting plants I could put in my small roof-top garden… Here is just a quick list of what is getting me inspired right now : parsley, baby tomatoes, rucola, sage, radishes, lettuce, lavender, coriander (cilantro), dill, mint, thyme, and rosemary, on top of keeping all my inside plants alive.

At this stage of Winter, I must say some plants from last year are still in incredibly good shape, and I feel quite lucky to still have a little strawberry plant, some lavender, a vine, a few sage branches, rucola, mint and other greens fighting hard to remain lively through the cold and frost. I was meant to use straw to keep many of these away from the temperature changes, but I must admit to having been taken a little aback by how fast the snow arrived. Snow can also be a good insulation against very low temperatures, perhaps it was luck !

My first step into planning my new garden is in regard to pots : give bigger spaces to already available plants when the weather will permit, replace what has been broken, create draining holes where required, so that excess moisture can leave and not make roots rot, gather more pots for new plants etc… Proper room is very important to allow plants to grow in their perfect space. Proper ground is also just as important, I consider mixing some of my home-made compost at the bottom of my new containers, a little at a time is good, as rich compost might just burn young and fragile greens. I have also been thinking of reusing the pots where I grew clover and other butterfly plants, as cultivating the ground tends to keep it fertile, I am planning on “mowing” the leftovers of last year’s plants before growing new greens, in order to bring in decaying organic substances, and the new growing clover will make a protection to the ground of the new, younger plants (in accordance to Fukuoka‘s ideas of “do nothing”), really curious to see how this little “balcony” experiment will turn out, as it is a pot garden I care about.

I intend on “cheating” a little too : for harder plants to grow, I shall sprout them, and add them slowly to their final growing grounds, as to maximise my chances to grow lovely greens and herbs.
Sprouting is dead easy, I have been sprouting seeds for my own culinary recipes and the results have been amazing ; last year’s seedlings came about the same way. To sprout plants the easy way, here is what I do : soak the seeds for at least 12 hours and then rinse the seeds every few hours until I have tails growing. At this stage, I may want to slowly transfer the plants into some earth, still inside my home. As my plants will grow and develop proper stems, they will be stronger and ready to be transferred into their final pots. Bear in mind that some plants will require longer soaking times, last year’s basil and tomatoes did. So, always adapt and keep a regular eye on sprouts.

This will be good enough to get going with this garden of mine, the rest will be hard work and time investment. You might actually be amazed at how little time you will need to devote, and how little hard work gardening takes. The most time I have spent was watering plants as last year’s Summer was quite arid at first.

If you want to know how to best start your garden too, go for easy to grow plants such as flowers, basil, rucola and other herbs requiring little attention.
The first step will be to choose proper seeds. Preferably go for organic, untreated seeds, as they are more natural and will bring better results. Local varieties are also best adapted to your local climate, rain and sunshine, and are usually loaded in flavour ! As you become experimented, you will be able to gather seeds from your own vegetables or plants and use them the year after. Seeds need to be kept in a dry, preferably dark place (a little paper bag is perfect), and can keep for a few years, depending on the sort.

For full earth plants, and getting the best out of your greens outdoor, you need to check the proper season according to your hemisphere and location, this is very important for the development of your plants and the growth. You will notice that plants need a lot of daylight, and that the longer the days will get, the more your seedlings will grow.

Here is a small list of plants and their Winter/Spring months for seedlings in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the North of France :

* February :
Plants with early Spring blossoming
Sage (in pots)
Peas
Parsley
Cosmos flowers
Coriander

* March :
Cherry tomatoes
Rucola
Lettuce
Plants with Summer and Autumn blossoming
Bulbs and tubercles plants
Lavender
Sage
Thyme
Basil
Fenel

* April :
Plants with Summer and Autumn blossoming
Bulbs, tubercle and rhizome plants
Dill
Thyme
Rosemary

* May :
Bulbs & tubercle plants
Tarragon

As you can see, you are not late yet if you are now thinking about gardening the coming Spring ! So, get those seeds and shovel ready, it is still time, more than ever to work the earth.

Here are a few extra links :
- Calendar for veggies (French)
- How to successfully start plants from seeds (English) on about.com
-  The biology of plants
-  WikiHow : growing a plant garden from seeds

Make sure to check when it is the right season, where you live, to plant seeds and if there is special care for what you are trying to grow. Most plants need a lot of love, a little attention and enough water to grow

I hope you too will show your green thumbs by caring for a little garden of your own !
Until next time,

Angie

“Vegetarian Gourmet’s Lair” – All about the cooking and the tasty stuff !

I hope you enjoy and find it inspiring !

Angie

I hope you are doing great, long time with no updates, it seems little twists of life have kept me super busy !

Today, I am going to give you a recipe for a great, quality liquid soap, the simplest and most fragrant thing you can get. This one is allergy-free, does not contain coloring, preservatives or artificial fragrances of any kind and can be made in the quantity you’d like.

To make your own stuff, you will need :

* For the soap :
-  A high quality soap made of the purest ingredients, fragrance free. (I used “savon de Marseille”, as it was easily available to me – please, be very demanding about the quality of the product you will select for this. I used the original recipe, the one which is palm oil free, like the real Marseille soap is meant to be)
- Decorative dried vegetation, according to the scents you are going to put in your recipe, I used laurel leaves, juniper bays and lavender branches. (organic vegetation is good because it is pesticide free)
- A few drops of essential oils to mix into the hot soap preparation. (use simple oils in very small quantities – preferably oils that can come in contact with the skin. I used lavender oil because I love lavender, it has a lot of interesting properties, can come in direct contact with the skin and it is very fragrant)

* For the preparation itself :
- An apron, to protect yourself and your clothing.
- A pan large enough to contain a few liters of preparation.
- A wooden spoon and a soup-ladle.
- A few clean glass recipients, or other containers of high capacity, able to withstand high temperatures.
- A cheese grater.
- At least one or two side dishes : one for the grated soap, another one for the left-over soap from your saturated solution.
- A funnel.
- A lot of attention during the making process.

Once you are all done with the ingredients, read this section carefully as there are a few precautions to take and some information it is best to know about when preparing liquid soap.

The quantity of soap you will obtain depends on the type of soap you will use. I cannot give you exact quantities, but to give you my example, I used about 450 Gr of my Marseille soap and ended up with about 6 L of liquid soap, which is a lot !!! so, I recommend you to grate slowly as you go, or grate it all, and dissolve the soap until your preparation reaches a saturation point.
Soap gets properly dissolved at very high temperatures, on a stove, so please, attend to what you are doing, and to your preparation, this will avoid unnecessary cleaning and burns. The soap solution gets VERY hot, so please, watch where you put your hands and handle with a lot of care !!

So now, you have gathered all your ingredients and you have read the advice, good, let’s get start then !

The first step is to grate your soap, just like you would with cheese. I recommend leaving it in a side dish and add it as you go along, or if you feel adventurous, throw it all in, and remove it from the solution as it gets saturated.

In your large pan, heat your water, on a high temperature, and add your soap, slowly as the solution saturates quickly. If you have put too much in, do not worry, this is why I recommended an extra side dish : with your spoon, scoop the top of the solution which will let the excess soap floatting, you can use it later, in another batch.
You know your liquid soap is ready when the solution is saturated, the excess soap removed, and the preparation has slightly boiled and gained a very translucent color, you can add some extra water, because believe me, once it cools, it will become jelly-like and if it is too viscous, you won’t be able to get it out of your jar ! Be extra-careful, at this stage, your liquid soap is dead hot !!

With care, remove it from the stove, and put your pan on a safe area such as a kitchen sink, and using your ladle and the funnel, start filling your recipients with the boiling liquid and allow it to cool. You can, at this stage, add your decorative laurel or anything else you want to add in. You now have a basic liquid soap you can use for the dishes, in the shower, or wherever.

For the fragrant version, when you are ready to fill your recipients, add a few drops (a small amount, you are using essential oils, do not toy around !!) to your preparation, stir well and then transfer the liquid soap into the jars.

A tip I can give you is to stir well your soap preparation as you are transferring it into the jars, as the bottom will get denser then the top, this way you keep an homogenous liquid solution all the way…

Once your jars are filled, allow them to cool before closing them, this will avoid condensation in your soap. You can label your bottles/jars with the date and what they contain, and now your soap can be kept for a little while… For preparation without essential oils, it can go up to a few years, for the others, from 6 months to a year.

This soap will probably be more liquid than your regular thickened soap, but watch it as it cools : shake it once in a while, else, it will go into a jelly-like state and you won’t be able to shake it out of your bottle !

Enjoy your lovely liquid soap and create preparations that will put you in a good mood under your daily shower to start your day, yay !  :D

If you have tips, tricks you’d like to share, feel free to post !
Have a pretty recipe !

Angie

I hope life is good & that you are enjoying your Summer/Winter, wherever you are !

Today, I’ll be explaining to you how to get practical, recycling an old piece of fabric or leather into something else. Yes, we’ll be upcycling giving a new life to something that has become useless !

What I have used here, in my own making process, is a piece of leather, not that I’m fond of animal products, but it’s basically a leftover from some shoes that fell apart a long time ago, before I became a vegetarian. And I certainly did not want to let it go to waste ! So I had kept it, in the hopes of recycling it into something else sooner or later Which is now done !
You can use whatever fabric you have, whether it be cotton, synthetic material, leather, or whatever. Note that leather will be hard to manipulate in this process, so you might as well use something not too thick, and if you use a soft fabric, it may not have enough strength of its own to stand in place. A good choice is something slightly rigid, so that it holds into place once you have sawn it.

What you will need :
- Leather, or any other kind of slightly rigid fabric, enough of it to cut out the petals (see below),
- A needle to sew, something strong enough to go through your material,
- Some thread, choose a color close to your fabric, it will look nicer,
- A simple piece of fabric to cut to the shape of your final work, to hide the back stitching,
- Some linen (or equivalent) laces, at least 3 meters (about 10 feet),
- Some beads, you can use semi-precious stones if you like working with pretty materials, I have used amethyst.
- Some good mood & energy to get going

First, start by cutting out the petals you will need, to the correct shape and size. Use a pair of quality scissors, as to not damage your fabric. I have created an example, here on the right, you can click it, enlarge it (scale is 1:2) and print it out to use as a model, if you need it.
The  petals have been disposed together in the way they will need to be arranged for stitching. There are two rows and a center petal. To work on your petals, be careful to place the “nice” side of the fabric upside.

Once you have gotten the petals ready, you can attach them all together. The easiest way to do so is to start with the big back petals, you will attach them together at their base, doubling your thread and slightly pulling more than needed, as to make the fabric a bit wobbly. They will be all attached, without space, at their center, forming a 5-branches round star. Make sure that your thread is tightly secured in your creation and finish your work.
Start sewing  the smaller petals together in the exact same fashion than the bigger ones. Once you are done, place and rotate them so that one smaller petal appear in between two larger petals, on your work. Once you are satisfied with the positioning, you can then attach the smaller petal flower to the bigger one. Make sure, again, that everything is tightly holding together. Your work needs to be steady and solid, as it will be worn and will have to stand body and neck moves.

The next step is to fold and stitch the petals together, so that they finally get to look like a rose, and not just a cartoon flower with round petals. The diagram on the right shows more or less what it should look like.

For this final step, fold the petals back, and attach them to the core of the petal. By now you should get something that looks very much like my first picture. You can now use the one small petal you have left over : fold it, stitch it together like the others and attach it at the center of your creation, as it is the center of your flower.
Once you are done with attaching all the petals together, cut the piece of fabric to the size of your whole flower, slightly smaller, so that it does not show on the front, once it will be sewn to the back. Put it in place. Make sure to attach it in the middle as well, as some laces will be attached in that very place. So, it is better to make sure every piece of the work is interdependent.

We are now almost done : take your laces, cut about 4-5 strings that are roughly 50 cm long (19,5 inches), tie all your threads together on both ends, to ensure they’re not all going to go all over the place. Attach the center part on the back of your rose, make sure it is solidly stitched into place.
Now, turn your rose around, and add the final touch : on a small piece of linen thread (10 cm / 4 inches), tie a knot, then thread a bead, tie another knot slightly above, and thread another bead. Keep on doing so, until you have about 4 beads on your lace, and now, create at least 2 other such laces. Once you are done, assemble them together at the base of the center petal and attach them tightly.

Voilà, you now have an upcycled rose necklace, all made by you !!
What a fine piece it is, wear it with love & think about all the other things you can now create

I hope you enjoyed this Do-it-yourself article ! I will try and make more of these
Lots of love,
Angie

Hope you are having a fine day !

As it is Summer in my hemisphere, it means it now is the proper season for veggies and fruits. As I have been growing a small garden of my own, I had to “prune” some of my plants and remove the excess of fruits, else there would have been too many on the branches of my small trees, and this would have either given small fruits or broken the branches themselves. This is how I found myself with a whole bunch of “baby” green tomatoes… Not wanting to waste them, I thought to myself for a while about how to keep those : first I wanted to let them mature in the sun, on my window sill, but I quickly realized they were slowly drying up. I had to do something with those, and fast !! So, I remembered how I got explained by a chef that making “confits” with fruits and veggies was dead easy !

Confit is French and means something has been slowly cooked. The French jam word “confiture” comes from there : fruits that have been slowly cooked. It is an interesting means of preserving or flavoring food. But when it comes to tomatoes and small veggies, you don’t have to go out of your ways to actually prepare them in such a fashion. What you need is to have them cook very slowly in/near an oven for some time.

So, how do you actually bake the stuff ?
Well, you need an oven, preferably, and if you want to be “green”, you might want to use a cooling oven, for example, after you have baked other goods, as you need not exceed 90° C [194 ° F], and it might be worthless heating a whole oven just to dry up your veggies. (most ovens heat up at higher temperates than 90° C anyway). The way many cooks do it, is when they leave the oven to cool, they put the tray in, and leave the door slightly open, or they’ll put the tray of veggies on top of the oven while it is functioning, in this fashion, no heat is lost !

If you have the oven, then, you only need to get your veggies ready. Rinse them well to get them clean, cut them in chunks (halves or so if you work with round fruits), if you want to prepare tomatoes, and if they are too juicy, take out the seedy parts. Throw your chopped veggies in a bowl, then add herbs, a pinch of salt and pepper (I used whole grains for the pepper). I added a branch of thyme, a few shredded basil leaves, a branch of rosemary, a small shallot, cut into thin slices, some garlic, minced into thin bits, then a little olive oil to my mixture (enough to keep the veggies wet as they will dry up, this will make sure they don’t burn). Then, at this stage, I let it all marinate for about 20 minutes, so that the flavors get blended together well. After that, I use sulfured paper (the kind you use when baking torts and other yummy pastries ), put it all over the bottom of my tray, and delicately arrange the vegetables, one by one, and make sure they do not touch one another, and I’m done, sprinkle the herbs and oil on top of it all.
As my tomatoes were still green, and probably a bit bitter, I added a small teaspoon of raw cane sugar to the preparation, in order to make it all a bit more agreeable.

They then need to be place by/in the oven, and be left off to dry for about 1h30-2 hrs, depending on their sizes, and after that time, they need to be turned the other way around, so that both sides get to dry up evenly. Then again, same amount of time for the other side.
When all of this is done, the “confit” veggies can be left off to dry for a while. Then, for storing, they can be placed in a glass jar, and be covered with some olive oil, and voilà, you have it ! all we are left to do with is enjoy
After eating them all, you can keep the oil and use it for cooking, as it has been flavored by the veggies. And naturally, you can get creative and try this with about anything you like : eggplant, courgettes, onions, pumpkin, you name it !

I hope you find this little recipe tasty and that you enjoy it as much as I have !

Lots of love,
Angie

Hope life is good & generous. Thought I’d share with you some posters I saw glued around town this morning. They were posted on ads and had a political/economical/ecological connotation to them. Some are simple and efficient (and in French). But I still felt it was worth sharing with you, as it is rather done on a humorous tone, and in a friendly way that harms no one. Yes, there is still a resistance !

Lots of Love
Angie

This one reads “Do you not have anything more original ?”
“PROGRAMME : Car, work, consume, sleep” – “VOTE FOR US – V”
” Imagination to Power !”

As you can only guess, this poster points out to the fact that most political parties in place actually defend an unfair system which only feeds the economy and not the human needs : as long as you consume, you fit into the mold and all is well.

This one here says “State is the hand man of finance” (Hand man means here a person that does dirty deeds)

What is depicted here is the fact that instead of protecting the widow and the poor, States are now being slaves of the economy and of multinational companies who are blackmailing them, threatening to remove their interests from countries if they don’t get fiscal advantages, in order to make even more profit. Governments are promoting consumerism instead of showing what the alternatives are.

“Necro-carburant” – “Necro-fuel”, guess this one doesn’t need explanations

There were many more posters but I only got to see the ones which decorated my path !

I hope you are having a lush time, whether  it is Summer or Winter, wherever you are !

Today I will be writing to you about composting, when you only have a little room available : many of us want  to do our bit for Planet Earth, but living within cities isn’t always easy for initiatives. As long as you have a tiny space with fresh air available, on a balcony for example, composting is still possible ! There are other ways of composting, which are just as easy to put into place, within plastic bags, in a closet for example, but I won’t talk about those today. (you can refer to this French book or the original English version for more info)

Today, I’m going to explore an easy type of compost, which is dead easy to put in place and to get going, as it only requires a tiny amount of interaction, apart from feeding it your rubbish and eventually watering i. Decay time takes in average 6 months. It’s a “live your own life” type of compost, which means you might just as well leave it alone to mature.
So, before we begin, why should you compost ?? Well, all organic substances end up decaying to produce humus, or earth, ground, a rich substance that can be reused for cultivating plants or veggies, or simply to dispose of in a garden, as a way of giving back to nature. So, instead of letting it rot in a  massive, overfilled bin bag, you might use it for your plants, which would give them nutrients to grow and become even more beautiful, while at the same time, reducing the amount of garbage you produce each year. I halved my weekly amount of rubbish simply by composting all my organic stuff.

And how does it work ?
For more ease, I use 2 big terra-cotta plant jars, pierced down the bottom, this lets my compost aerate easily, and lets any extra “juice” or liquid seep through and exit (you can use a terra-cotta plate down the bottom, to not let that drip on the lower balcony if you have downstairs neighbors, else else, I’m not certain they’d appreciate). The reason why I use two jars instead of one, is that while one is decaying, the other one can be used and filled, and when one is full, the other one has been emptied by then. Two terra-cotta jars are also easy to fit on a small balcony as they take almost no room.
To make your compost, just throw your stuff in, let it decay, turn the mixture upside-down, or around, with a stick, once in a rare while, to blend your compost, and to aerate all the parts, so that you don’t get one big mass down the bottom and stuff which has a harder time breaking down up the top. If the weather gets too dry, you might want to sprinkle a bit of water, just to make sure your friendly bacterias and fungi aren’t too dry, thus, you keep the compost environment friendly for your guests
Once your jar is full, set it aside and start working on the empty one. You know your compost is ready when the content looks like earth. You can then empty the compost jar on existing humus in a garden, blend it with earth or use it in other plant jars. If you give your fresh batch of humus to plants, you might want to mix it with a little standard “earth”, as it might be very rich and could burn your plants.

What can I put in there ?
- Basically, everything organic.
- Plants,
- Dead leaves,
- Flowers,
- Bits of fruits, veggies,
- Rotten veggies or fruits,
- Mushrooms,
- Coffee residues (I throw pads in, as the envelope is made of paper),
- Bits of paper and cardboard (it is necessary for the  carbon),
- Seeds,
- Tea bags & leaves
- Vegetable oils …
- !!! You should avoid citrus peels, as often, the fruits are covered with pesticides, those are harmful for the living substances and bacteria of your compost. You can only if the citrus is fully organic.

What should not go in ? and why ?
You should avoid the following :
- Citrus peels, unless they’re completely organic.
- Bones, because they take a long time to decay, if they do decay, at all. They might also bring rats and other nuisance to your compost.
- Egg shells, those are only proper in worm compost, not in this kind of mix.
- Plastic, because, duh, it won’t obviously decay unless it’s one which is corn-starch based (but they still take a long time [over 6 months that is], I have tested)
- No glass, for the same as above reasons, and because you might cut yourself when handling the obtained humus.
- !!! No animal litter [cats & dogs that is, as they are meat eaters], it brings rats and other pests and won’t be easy to decay.
- No chemicals, as you want to preserve your compost biodiversity.

I always keep a smaller jar in my kitchen, which I fill as I cook, cut, or make tea… When it is full, I go and empty it into my bigger jar, this way, I avoid unnecessary trips ; and when it is warm outside, you may want to have that small kitchen jar emptied as often as you can, in order to avoid flies and maggots, just saying… Rinsing it once in a while with water is a good method to keep it clean.
Another concern you may get about the compost is insects, flies, and ants… I personally just let them be, because I do not see the point of driving them away, I already got the best out of the food, and if they want to get their share, it’s here for them as well, I won’t be using anymore of it, and anyway, those insects are just doing their jobs : making the Earth “clean” for you, by removing ‘leftovers’…

As you can see, it is all very simple and requires very little intervention on your behalf. So why not ?
There are also other types of compost you can put in place if you have the time and space. The best known ones are probably the worm composts, the closed bag in the closet, the “Japanese” type of compost, and many others that I can’t think of right now… It’s dead easy to get started, and it surely guarantees a reduction in your home-waste, without any smelly odor or disagreement.
So, why not get started today ? I could surely help you if needed, as all this has been tried and tested by my good care !

I surely hope this article gave you plenty of ideas, and if you have any questions or want to share comments, feel free to post !
Lots of love,

Angie

References & Ressources :
- “Petit Livre du Compost” – ed. Larousse (FR) – English Version here “Little Book of Compost”
- Wikipedia : Composting [FR] : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compostage
- Wikipedia : Composting [EN] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost
- Garden Organic : Making your own compost [EN] : http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/composting/index.php
- WikiHow : How to make your own worm compost [EN] : http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Worm-Compost-System
- Région Wallone : Compostage [FR] : http://environnement.wallonie.be/education/compost/index.htm
- Ecoconso : Composte [FR] : http://www.ecoconso.be/spip.php?article189

The book seemed promising, as Mr Ariès is an inspiration for many, and for Serge Latouche amongst others, but I got a bit deceived because it was VERY slow at getting to the core of the topic, and first, I had to sort out the vocabulary used by the author, as he introduced notions that I wasn’t familiar with, such as “consum-actors” (consom-acteurs in French) and a few others. The book analyses the origins of consumerism and gives advices about how to become a user again, instead of just a consumer.

Consumerism is a reaction to the industrial era and appeared in Europe and in the United States around the same time, though the history is a bit different for both continents, they ended up with similar results on each side :
- At first, in Europe, workers created syndicates to help one another, and they also made groupings, “Cooperatives”, where people would team together to live, buy and educate children via communities. These communities grew and got out of control, slowly. (or local authorities felt they were losing control and looked for stronger grips) Rules changed, adapted, laws were made, and the emphasis of many theorizers of these days, was put on the act of consuming itself. It was seen as a solution for the construction of a better world, and as the best way to boost the economy after the wars.

In the United States, it started and developed as means of protesting : buying became the way to act, and say no to the British government, which was oppressing the colonies through numerous taxes that were added to many imported goods. It saw the appearance of boycott : from tea to other British imports, and soon enough, this new reaction was seen as patriotism, as people bought local produce and manufactured items. The United States gained their independence from Britain, but this “buying idea” was not given up.
As this tactic had been quite successful, it was reused over time, again and again, with syndicated industries, as people wanted more solidarity through their needs and what they chose to buy. Labels started to appear, they guaranteed products  made under certain conditions ; by syndicated workers for example. Slowly, this way of thinking and buying got its way into women groups, associations and consumer groups became bigger.

An interesting part of the book analyzes so-called “ethical” labels such as Max Havelaar, AB (in France, for biological agriculture), Fairtrade… and looks at the meanings these labels have come to represent. We are being manipulated by the use of words, which give us the impression that we are good, smart consumers because we have the feeling we buy “political” value. Is Max Havelaar really fair trade when the producers have to pay a fee to “buy” the label ? Is a fruit fair trade if the worker is under-paid, in direct comparison to our salaries and social conditions ? Is a product truly biological when it comes from the other side of the Earth and had to be shipped ?
Many questions are raised with the aim of making us think deeper about the way we buy and consume. The best way to be eco, or to be wise, to be bio, or to be fair trade is to deeply think about every single condition linked to a product.

Mr Ariès’ aim is to make us think about what we have become, and what we can now do about it : do we want to become users, once again, or do we want to simply stay, as such, as consumers ?
Through series of examples, we are then given practical ideas about what can be done. When buying new items, we should ask ourselves “do I really need this ?”, “is this essential ?”, “how was this made ?”, “how was this shipped ?” and so forth. When we want to distinguish ourselves from plain consumers, we have to do the math about what we are about to buy and why.
The best way of escaping consumption is through sharing, through communities, through buying local goods and food and through the promotion of better values that consumerism simply took for granted and destroyed.

This book is not a “must read”, but it certainly brings light on plenty of useful facts and ideas. If you are looking to escape consumerism, you will see some mechanisms exposed in plain daylight.
I will try and find a more “practical” read for my next review.

Hope you’ve all been doing great, and enjoying the lovely sunshine we’ve recently had over Europe (hope you didn’t get too hot if you live on this hemisphere )

Today, I’m going to be talking about “Kefir”, as I believe it may hold many interesting properties linked to dairies, minus the milk !

So, what is kefir ?
I discovered kefir over 15 years ago, an aunt came from Belgium to visit us in Australia, with a jar filled with these funny-looking grains ! She used to cultivate them in water back home, but the ones she arrived with, were milk kefir ! It made a yogurtish flavored drink that I found too sour to my taste, and that I got given to drink on a daily basis ! I was glad the day kefir disappeared from home
Kefir is a culture of bacteria and yeasts that live together in a symbiosis. Together, they form little grains that look like cauliflower and when put into milk, or in sugary water, they transform the substance into an interesting refreshing pro-biotic drink !

Kefir probably appeared thousands of years ago, as an accident : when milk was added to leather pouches, for keeping or transporting it, the milk would go “sour” after some time, much like yogurt, and those little kefir grains would appear. Since then, they have been cultivated and widely consumed in lacto-fermented drinks throughout Europe, North Africa and Asia (and later spreading to the rest of the world). They are believed to bring interesting properties such as pro-biotics mainly, and a better immune system, along with a lot of other health-related advantages.
Kefir has many different names, depending on the regions where you go ; and it is very similar in the working to kombucha and other fermented drinks.

Most people tolerate kefir quite well, though careful if you are not lactose-tolerant ; and for the water version, I have recently discovered that not every one reacts well to it either ! Side effects may be quite disturbing in many cases, ranging from gases to bad digestion ! Another cause of non-tolerance can be stomach issues (such as an ulcer for example).

How do you get kefir, how do you make it, what is there to know ??
You can’t “grow” kefir on your own, out of nothing, and certainly not from today’s leather pouches, as leather is now, most of the time, treated with harmful chemicals. Kefir grains are lively, fragile matter and can be obtained as gifts, as purchases or anyhow, from someone already owning/caring for a culture. I bought my grains via snail mail from a person in France. Though look out when you buy from someone remotely, make sure that the price is correct, and that the grains get sent in a proper plastic sleeve, inside a bubble-wrap envelope, else you might get the misfortune of seeing the envelope torn and get no content when it reaches you (can you tell I’m speaking from experience ? :p )
The grains reproduce as you use them to make the fermented drinks. (I have found out, from my own experience, that letting them soak at room temperature and feeding them at least one or two tablespoon of brown cane sugar a day boosts their growth in no time ! almost doubling your batch of grains in just a mere few days…)

There are many ways of making fermented drinks from kefir, you can use milk, or soya milk to make lacto-fermented kefir drinks. Or you can make a “lemonade”-like beverage with water kefir, my favorite, as I do not like or drink milk. Although the grains are almost the same in both cases, to use them with water, milk kefir grains will need to adapt first. You can do so by letting them rest for a few days (at least 5) in 1 L of water with some cane sugar.
- To make the drink, in all cases, you pour grains into 1 L of liquid, either in a 1 L glass bottle that you will seal with a very light fabric, allowing the kefir to breathe, as carbonic gas is produced (you might want to let it escape, else you might just pop your container…), and at the same time, keeping small insects and flies out of it (they seem to be very fond of the liquid, as it’s all natural, even ants as my BF could tell you ! ) ; or you can either use a large 2 L jar, that you seal with the lid. (as there is enough room remaining for the needed air)
Why glass ? simply because the environment of the kefir is a bit acid, you might not want to use plastic, which might get deteriorated and exchange harmful particles with your drink…

If you make milk kefir, use preferably whole milk ; and if you use water, there are different ways and ingredients for making it : some people use sugar, other fruits, and some others, both fruits and sugar. My personal preference goes for fruits alone : I add one fig (it is the source of sugar, to be digested by my grains) and a few slices of lemon or orange. The citrus slices are used to keep the environment acid. It is better to use organic fruits as the pesticides might kill your grains, or poison you in the long run. For the water, it is also more interesting to use filtered water, to avoid chemicals which may counter-act the benefits from the bacteria and yeasts.
The reason why I avoid sugar, is simply because it does not bring any more taste, all it does is increase the degree of alcohol produced by the yeasts (it is a very low level, barely 1%). The fruits are more than enough to make it bubbly and tasty.
I let the grains and fruits sit in the water for about 24 hrs (if you leave it longer, it will start getting bitter, but will be richer with folic acids) ; and then use a plastic sieve to separate the beverage from the fruits and grain. (note : NO METAL, ever with kefir, all contact with metal is to be purely avoided, else you’d destroy your grains !!).

Once I have filtered my grains, I rinse them well with water, let them sit in a ceramic bowl while I squeeze the lemon or orange slices and put their juice in the liquid. I then rinse the container properly with clear water (NO SOAP !! – being clean is important to avoid contamination of the culture) and add the kefir back in there, with 1-2 tablespoons of organic cane sugar, new and fresh filtered water, and either let the grains at room temperature (for fast reproduction), or if I am not going to use them for a few days, I let them sit in the fridge, which will slow their metabolism down. You can start a new batch right away if you feel like it, but make sure to give it some rest and feed it with sugar after at least 2-3 batches, I have found mine to be a bit weak if I don’t do that, perhaps because I do not use sugar when preparing the drink…
The filtered drink can be cooled in the fridge, it is even better when it is slightly cold. And it will keep for 2-3 days at most.
You can get creative as you make the kefir : use cool tea instead of water, add other dried up or fresh fruits : raisins, dates, fresh apple or pear slices… Or even add slices of ginger to flavor it all. These little extras will be removed when you will strain your kefir to gather the then ready liquid. Getting creative with your kefir is the fun bit, and the variations can be amusing and just as tasty !

If you intend on giving grains away and send them through the Post, make sure you strain them well, and let them sit in the fridge for a few days to slow their metabolism, be careful to send them at the beginning of a week to make sure they do not suffer from staying stuck somewhere hot over a week-end. If you give them directly to someone, simply put a small culture in a small glass jar with at least a tablespoon of cane sugar, water and a cover that lets them breathe (a light fabric), or if you cover them with a lid, make sure to let them breathe as often as possible…
Share and spread the kefir love as much as you can, kefir is cool and I got nicely surprised at all the goodness it gave me

Well, that is it for now, I hope you get a lot of pleasure from making your own if you do so, and if you are in Belgium or come by Liège and would like some grains, I have some to give away for free, almost on a permanent basis, simply get in touch and we’ll work out something !
Nice day to you !

Lots of love
Angie

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Extra info & links of interest :
- Wikipedia : kefir [EN] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir
- Wikipedia : kéfir [FR] : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kéfir
- Wikipedia : water kefir [EN] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibicos
- Wikipedia : kéfir de fruits [FR] – not much but links : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kéfir_de_fruits
- Dom’s kefir making site : kefir d’acqua [EN] : http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html#Kefir-d-acqua
- Raw goddess Ani Phyo talks about kefir [EN] : http://aniphyo.com/blog/archives/1272
- Kéfir de fruit à l’eau [FR] : http://www.cfaitmaison.com/kefir_fruits/cuisine.html