Non toxic cleaners

Making bio-enzymes

  Mix three parts fruit peel (preferably citric, like lemon, oranges or sweet lime), with one part brown sugar and 10 parts water.

  Store in an airtight plastic container for two to three months. (Plastic because glass containers may explode.) Stir the contents every day, to release gases formed by the fermenting peels.

  In two months, a multi-purpose liquid cleaner is ready. (It has a very long shelf life, and can be kept at room temperature, but away from sunlight.)

Great cleansers IN THE KITCHEN

  Lemon juice with salt

  Besan with bio enzymes/orange peels powder

  Coffee grounds

  Vinegar and baking soda

  Dosa batter

  Sour buttermilk, after removing the butter (works well with salt water stains)

  Wood ash with shikakai powder

  Gooseberry juice for hair (Soapnut soaked overnight in an iron vessel, also makes hair strong and shiny)

Ditch those chemicals

Clean up your act with non-toxic cleansers that are good for you and the environment

I remember my grandmother using soapnut to wash her nine-yard silk saris that she would then fastidiously hang on the clothesline. I also remember weekly oil baths with a robust hair wash made of shikakai (acacia concinna ). Coconut shells with besan (gram or chickpea flour) would be kept handy to be used as soap in the bathroom where a wood-fired copper drum yielded piping hot water.

Those memories and practices were elbowed out by detergents in colourful packaging, shampoos and conditioners that promised me Rapunzel hair, and geysers. Funny, I was now back at a workshop after all those years trying to relearn what my grandmom already knew and practised.

“Even now it is not too late. Learn the old practices from the elders in the community, before they are lost to us,” urges Gauri S of the Seeragam Native Store, Coimbatore, where she has invited Sangeetha Subhash to speak about natural cleansers. Sangeetha will share how she has made the crossover from commercially available, chemical-riddled detergents and vessel/floor cleaners to home-made, toxic-free and economical alternatives for a clean life. Gauri introduces Sangeetha as someone who walks the talk about green living.

“I took time to get used to the idea myself,” starts Sangeetha disarmingly. Unlearning old habits is the hardest thing, she admits. But concern for her children persuaded her to make the change or at least try to. Pointing to the table laden with bottles and jars, she says, “It is not difficult at all. Five years ago, a friend introduced me to soapnut and there has been no looking back. Even if I was convinced, there was resistance from the family. So I decided to have a toilet competition at home.”

Sangeetha said she decided to clean her toilet with natural cleaners while the other toilets continued to be cleaned with the usual strong chemical cleaners. Everyone was surprised to see her toilet cleaner and fresher than the others. “I used besan to clean my toilet,” she says.

Sceptical, I look around me and, to my surprise, many present are nodding in agreement. There are other people here who have also cleaned their toilets withbesan ! “From just besan , I graduated to adding powdered orange peel and soapnut powder to my cleaners,” continues Sangeetha, who decided it was a good time to banish chemicals altogether when she and her husband built their own home and moved into it with their children.

So how tedious is the process of making all these magic cleansers, I ask her. If it means going on interminable hunts to procure the raw material and then slaving over them instead of just snipping open a package or unscrewing a lid, I am out. Sangeetha asks me, “Have you ever stood in a line at the beginning of the month at a supermarket? It takes at least an hour to buy stuff, bill and pay for them. I spend that same hour at home making the cleansers and have enough for a month not just for myself, but also for my friends and family,” she says. There is great satisfaction that she is not adding to the landfill. She wants no part of that guilt. “When I walk into a supermarket today I look around me and I know for a fact that I do not need over 90% of the items on the shelf.”

A perfect cuppa

Drink your way to good health

A tea lover once said, “Life is like a cup of tea, it’s all in how you make it.” A perfectly brewed cup of tea is the ideal way to begin a day. While a tea lover swears by the health benefits of this ‘must-have’ morning energiser, studies too prove that a cup of tea can do wonders for your health. Natural tea is a wonderful concoction that helps the body by bringing internal systems back in balance. If you are trying to shed those extra kilos, boost your immunity, strengthen your heart, cleanse your body or simply stay awake at work, tea is the solution.

Drinking tea is a habit and drinking the right kind of tea is a good habit. We suggest you enjoy the monsoons with these varieties of tea.

Oolong tea is a partially oxidised tea with characteristics of both green tea and black tea. If you are looking at maintaining a healthy weight, a cup of Oolong tea is what you need. Oolong tea is known to boost metabolism and help burn fat. In fact, regular consumption also helps you get glowing skin. Pu-erh is a fermented tea made from Camellia sinensis. In traditional Chinese medicine, Pu-erh is said to be helpful in reducing internal body heat, while maintaining a balance between stomach and spleen. It’s a delicious way to detoxify and improve blood circulation. Last, but not the least, Pu-erh has anti-ageing oxidants and studies show that it has helped improve vision too. Tea is a delicious way to stay healthy. If you are a tea veteran, keep drinking your way to good health, but if you have not yet embraced the tea-drinking habit, it’s never too late. Make the switch now!

How to get that perfect cup

Loose leaf tea can produce wonderful aromatic complex infusions, but how you brew the tea matters. Tea consists of four basic components: tea leaves, water, temperature and time.Infusion is the most common method for brewing tea. Place the leaves in a teapot or a cup. Boil water to the correct temperature (check the package for the information) and pour over the leaves. Allow the mixture to steep for a couple of minutes.If you want strong tea, do not steep it for a longer time. Increase the quantity of tea but steep it for the same time. 
The writer DR. RUPALI AMBEGAONKAR is CEO of Tea Culture of the World.

http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/drinking-the-right-kind-of-tea-is-a-good-habit/article6324048.ece

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