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El Naturale
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25.01.2022 Some beautiful gentle cleansing balms packaged up this week. Scented with luxury frangipani essential oil and containing finely ground pumice stone for gentle exfoliation, this balm balm lathers slightly when massaged into damp skin. A 100g pot of this will give you many days of use, with a pea sized portion being enough for most people per application. As with all our products, no synthetic colours , dyes, pigment or fragrance. The addition of loads of shea butter is such a treat for your skin! We will be adding more essential oil options for this balm soon, so stay tuned.
21.01.2022 Kurrajong seeds become 'coffee'. Brachychiton populenus. A beautiful tree which is often used in ornamental / streetscape planting. Seeds are in hard boat shaped pods. Once the irritating yellow fiber coating is removed, the seeds can be roasted.... When dark roasted and ground a hot drink can be brewed, and tastes a lot like coffee. Seeds reportedly contain 18% protein, 25% fat and 1.8% caffeine. Other traditional uses for this tree included eating the roots of young trees, using the wood for shields, and the bark could be used to make a twine which was then woven into nets for bird catching. See more
19.01.2022 In the soapy kitchen tonight.... Beautiful liquid castile soaps being bottled up. True castile soap is a soap made from olive oil. No other oils. No surfactants. Gentle enough for regular use on the hands. Available in pump top bottles, both unscented, and scented with essential oils.
18.01.2022 A preview of my new soap line featuring locally wild harvested botanicals. Wild fennel soap. Lovely and gentle earthy scent. Vegan, gippsland foraged, handcrafted. Gentle olive and castor oil blend.
18.01.2022 February is all about foraging! If your garden is anything like mine, at this time of year it is full of this wonderful little edible weed; Purslane. Portulaca oleracea is one if the most common weeds which you will find in the summer heat, due to its tough survival abilities. This little weed grows without needing watering, in sunny or partially shady spots, and is so easy to identify that it makes a great weed for beginner foragers to utilize. Purslane is a succulent weed.... Its thick pink stems are easy to spot, and its leaves; around the size of a fingernail are edible raw or cooked. There are so many ways to use this weed in cooking, with a taste much like spinach when it is cooked. Tonight I collected about a cup full of the plant tips, and sauteed them with onion, garlic, olive oil, and a hint of chilli, then served alongside some fresh grilled fish. This plant has the highest omega 3 fats seen among plants, contains high amounts of vitamin A and vitamin C, and significant amounts of potassium, magnesium, and calcium. This 'weed' actually contains higher nutrient levels than many cultivated vegetables, and you can get it for free! Like most foraged greens, purslane contains high amounts of oxalates, so should be avoided if you are prone to kidney stones. (Its oxalate levels are quite similar to spinach). Stay tuned for lots of purslane recipes coming soon! See more
17.01.2022 Piles of beautiful rustic castile soap balls, hand rolled and scented with lemongrass essential oil. I could smell these all day!
17.01.2022 Kurrajong seeds become coffee. Brachychiton populenus. A beautiful tree which is often used in ornamental / streetscape planting. Seeds are in hard boat shaped pods. Once the irritating yellow fiber coating is removed, the seeds can be roasted.... When dark roasted and ground a hot drink can be brewed, and tastes a lot like coffee. Seeds reportedly contain 18% protein, 25% fat and 1.8% caffeine. Other traditional uses for this tree included eating the roots of young trees, using the wood for shields, and the bark could be used to make a twine which was then woven into nets for bird catching. See more
16.01.2022 Beautiful little gift hampers, including 4 assorted vegan soaps and a vegan body scrub or balm. Presented in lovely raw wood gift boxes which can be repurposed in so many ways. No synthetic fragrances, micas, oxides or dyes. Scented with essential oils and coloured with botanical ingredients. Love these!
16.01.2022 Vegan soap order heading out to a wonderful customer. Star anise essential oil, which smells just like licorice. Olive oil and organic coconut oil, rice milk. No synthetic colours or fragrances. Kind to your skin and the planet.
16.01.2022 Wild blackberries are plentiful at the moment around gippsland. A weed and a nuisance to farmers. I always do my bit to help clear them out by collecting some. Make sure to check with your local council on when and where they spray them with poisons. Seedless jam simmering on the stove now.
14.01.2022 Beautiful gentle moisturizing lotion packaged up. Currently in stock are lemon myrtle, frankincense, and lavender essential oil infused. Containing shea butter, your skin will love this!
14.01.2022 Experimenting with wattle seeds, since they are abundant and ready to be harvested now in Gippsland. It is easy to incorporate ground wattle seeds into any recipe by substituting a little of the flour for some ground seed. This attempt at a gluten free brownie with wattleseeds was delicious. Buckwheat flour combined with wattleseed and cacao make a winning combination. To make it a vegan friendly recipe you could use an egg substitute, which I will try next time I cook it.
13.01.2022 Orange and poppyseed soap. Smells good enough to eat. An all vegan oil blend of of coconut, olive, rice bran, castor, hemp, sunflower, shea butter, and cocoa butter, plus almond milk for a silky texture. Poppy seeds aid in exfoliation, and orange essential oil scents the soap. No micas or pigments, the light orange colour is created with turmeric.
13.01.2022 Handmade cucumber peppermint vegan soap. A luxury oil mix; castor, hemp, sunflower, olive, rice bran, coconut and cocoa butter, plus kaolin clay. Added to real pureed cucumbers and peppermint essential oil, this soap leaves the skin with a tingling cool feeling, and smells so refreshing!
08.01.2022 Fabulous scrubby vegan soapy goodness. Ginger and lime coffee scrub bars. With the coconut oil, olive oil, rice bran oil, castor oil, shea butter and cocoa butter, plus scrubby ground coffee, this is my go-to soap after a day of gardening. Scented with ginger and lime essential oils.
08.01.2022 Beautifully simple handmade soap. Ingredients include some home grown Calendula infused in oils, and coconut milk, plus some shea butter. A little sprinkling of coconut on top which makes me want to eat lamingtons. No fragrances or colourants.
06.01.2022 A wonderful wild edible: dandelion weed. Common through most peoples backyards, and parks / open grass areas. I eat some of this most days. The leaves can be utilised anywhere you would normally use spinach. The leaves are a little bitter raw,cooking removes this. I slice or chop finely and sautee to use in omelettes, risotto, savoury beans, as filling in ravioli and with other greens in pesto. A cupfull (around 55gram serving) has around 25 calories, more than your daily rdi... of vitamins A and K, plus 10% of your daily rdi of calcium and 9% of the rdi of iron. As far as identification, there are other weeds which look somewhat like dandelion, the most common is catsear or false dandelion. True dandelion weed will have flowers growing on single stalks coming from the centre of the leaf rosette. There may be many of these stalks, however only ever one flower per stalk. The leaves are pale green and soft, a bit like butter lettuce, and always have jagged edges like teeth (hence the origin of the name lions tooth). The flower stalk, when snapped, will show a hollow centre, and most of the plant can leak a milky/ latex fluid when damaged. Due to this, people with latex sensitivity should avoid this plant. There are many medicinal/ herbal uses for dandelion, and parts of the plant can also be used as a natural dye. Truly a wonderful weed. Free, in a garden near you. See more
04.01.2022 Wild blackberries are plentiful at the moment around gippsland. A 'weed' and a nuisance to farmers. I always do my bit to help clear them out by collecting some. Make sure to check with your local council on when and where they spray them with poisons. Seedless jam simmering on the stove now.
01.01.2022 Went out in the sunshine to forage some dandelions. The bees had the same idea.
01.01.2022 This truly is a labour of love. Cleaning hand harvested wattle seeds ready to roast and grind. So many uses for these, cooking and making new face scrubs.
01.01.2022 Pure vegan simple soap goodness. Small batch Castille soap. Saponified olive oil, Water. Handmade. Gentle.
