Coffee Grounds as Body Scrub

Adapting an idea that Mark shared with me and making good use of some Essential ingredients, I rescued four days' worth of used coffee grounds from being thrown into the compost bin at Plot 66 and made use of them as a body scrub.

The moisture from wet grounds will go mouldy after a while, so the first thing was to dry them out on a baking tray in the oven (over a low heat so they don't burn - the kitchen smelt good enough to drink).

Once dried, they went into a plastic container with olive oil (most people might use sweet almond oil but my skin doesn't like it), a good few drops of lavender oil because it's my favourite ever smell and for its antiseptic properties and a glug of tea tree oil, also an antiseptic.  You can gauge for yourself how much of each ingredient to add, altering the essential oils to suit your own olfactory pleasures.

I had a shower with it this morning.  I'm ever so smooth

Wild at Springtime

We collected a good crop of wild garlic from Dragon's Hill in North Wootton, Somerset.  Closer to Weston, Cat says there is an abundance around the Brockley Coombe area.  And then, there's always loads up at Leigh Woods!  If put in the fridge, this stuff keeps its flavour for about a week and is great as a simple but fiery salad or as a substitute for onion/garlic in most one pot dishes.  But after 5 days of constantly eating, there was some left, so ...

On Sunday, I picked a few handfuls of wild nettles from near Plot 66 - definitely putting gloves on to grab a hold, otherwise these buggers really sting.  But once submerged momentarily in boiling water back at home, they are easy to handle, though they shrink to a tenth of their original size so pick loads more than you think you'll need.

I took a 2 litre bowl of each wild garlic and nettles (realistically, I could have used three times the amount of nettles.  You know, that blinkage shrinkage thing!), a cup of sunflower seeds because we had no pine nuts and a good swig or several of olive oil.  Oh, and a touch of seasoning.


And blitzed it all with a hand blender.

I got 2 jars worth of bright green pesto. I topped them up with olive oil, to help preserve it.  Tasty tasty with pasta n Parmigiano and salad.