Sustainability: looking at what's around you...

So much about sustainability is meeting your needs with what is available naturally around you. The state plant for New Mexico is the Yucca plant. We are in the northeast, where it is too cool to grow it without  greenhouse, but it is easily available from other areas of the state and can be bought in farmers markets.

I have just read these amazing instructions on how to make soap and shampoo from the Yucca root. Just HAD to share these links!

How to make soap from Yucca roots

Yucca root powder shampoo

Natural Gnashers, Choppers, or in plain talk, TEETH!

One of the major issues in personal care is dental health. While we have striven to avoid commercial toothpastes containing SLS, chemical, and artificial ingredients, it is only this past year that we switched to making our own toothpaste and tooth oil. As we are living in Madinah, Saudi Arabia for 10 months out of the year, we are limited in what we can obtain. I have come up with these recipes, based on what is available.

Tooth oil:

I used a tooth oil years ago that was excellent, but very expensive. It was simply a sweet almond oil base with spearmint and peppermint essential oils, in a specific proportion. Well, I decided to make my own tooth oil, obviously at a fraction of the cost, and after experimentation, changed the recipe to this. Please note that I make this in a small essential oil bottle - 10 ml I believe.

Base:

Coconut oil (this has proven benefits for oral health and we found it preferable over the almond oil)

Additions:

20 drops each of spearmint and peppermint essential oil
40 drops of sweet orange essential oil
5 drops of thyme essential oil
5 drops of 4 thieves oil (or the equivalent blend - we use Germ Killer)

These amounts can be adjusted to taste, and the oils can be changed to others that are also beneficial to oral and dental health. Simply put two drops of the oil on a wet toothbrush and brush teeth, gums, tongue, and roof of mouth thoroughly. Although this is perfectly safe to swallow, you will have brushed the toxins off your teeth and mouth and you will be swallowing those as well, so it is best to rinse your mouth out thoroughly afterwards. You will have wonderfully smooth teeth and fresh breath, inshaa Allah.

Our homemade toothpaste:

This is a real mix and match of recipes I saw online and what worked for us.

Baking soda (fill 1/2 of a 4 fluid ounce container)
Essential oils: 50 drops sweet orange oil, 20 drops peppermint, 20 drops spearmint, 5 drops 4 thieves/germ killer oil, 5 drops thyme...or oils to your needs/taste.
Raw honey - add honey up fill the 4 fluid ounce container to 3/4 full (in other words, 1/4 measure of the container/`1 fluid ounce)

Stir up and add a few drops of water (or coconut oil) to the desired consistency.


Other recipes:

I plan to make this once we can obtain the ingredients inshaa Allah.

http://thepaleomama.com/2013/12/diy-remineralizing-toothpaste/

Also:

http://healthylivinghowto.com/1/post/2014/02/ditch-your-toxic-toothpaste-10-diy-toothpaste-recipes.html

Toothbrushes:

As for toothbrushes, we still haven't given them up (old habits die hard) so since last summer we made a conscious decision to buy sustainable, good toothbrushes. We all use Radius Source toothbrushes -

even the baby, maashaa Allah.

That said, our goal is to become totally comfortable with the full time use of miswak, thereby having a totally natural toothbrush from the twigs of the neem or arak tree. This is, by far, the best toothcare option as we know the Prophet Muhammad - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - said he would order us to use them before every prayer if it wouldn't be a hardship.

Oil pulling:

I have practiced oil pulling before and am looking into resuming it. While it is controversial as to how much it really does, aside from cleansing the mouth well, it certainly does cleanse the mouth well! You can find many resources on oil pulling, but one is here:

 http://pulling-oil.com/

Tooth healing:

We have looked at these reports and others like them:

http://thepaleomama.com/2013/11/how-im-healing-cavities-without-dentistry/

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2013/01/the-diet-that-heals-cavities.html

and plan to get these books this summer, inshaa Allah.

The Healing Scents of Nature

Without repeating the same information that anyone can find on the Internet regarding the dangers of  artificial fragrances, we have eliminated such things from our home and lives maashaa Allah. This paragraph provides a brief summary of why.

"Synthetic musks, for instance -- widely used in perfumes, deodorants, and detergents -- have been linked to cancer. They can bioaccumulate, or store themselves in the body, and have been found in breast milk, which means that nursing infants ingest them. Research indicates that these musks don't biodegrade; they've been found polluting watersheds and the plants and animals that live there. Another worrisome class of chemicals, phthalates, are often used in fragrance because they allow the smell to last longer. They have been linked to changes in the reproductive and endocrine systems as well as in the liver, kidneys, and adrenal glands."

( http://www.wholeliving.com/133573/replacing-your-artificial-fragrances)

So for laundry we use ground soap nuts, which smell rather like pineapple, and grated Castille soap, which has only natural essential oil and plant extract fragrances. We wash with Castille soap, unscented or scented with essential oils. We make our own shampoo, boiling herbs suitable for our specific hair type, color, and condition, and using complimentary essential oils. We make all our own dishwashing liquid and household cleansers, using essentials oils of lemon, orange, or lime for grease-cutting properties and fresh scent. We also make our own toothpaste using essential oils.

Have you noticed a common ingredient in most of those things listed above? Yes, essential oils! So, when it came to finding a healthy and beneficial replacement for personal fragrances, we automatically started looking at natural essential oil blends. To start off, I ordered this set for hubby.

We have since seen this lovely set as well:

  

These blends were the perfect way to transition to natural scents without going through a lot of trial and error coming up with our own concoctions. The blends can be chosen on any given day or occasion for their therapeutic properties. For example, when hubby wants to feel energized, he puts on Energy and when he has a potentially stressful day ahead, he puts on Tranquility or Relax. Once these blends proved themselves to be a wonderful replacement for the synthetic fragrances, it gave me confidence to start making my own blends with similar base notes. I ordered a wider range of organic essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs and the Amber and Aphrodite oil blends for hubby for Eid.

Of course, in the long run, once we grow our own herbs, plants, and trees, we plan to distill our own essential oils, inshaa Allah. It is actually an easy process with fairly simple equipment maashaa Allah. In the meantime, we will make flower waters and infusions, inshaa Allah.

All Around the Mulberry Bush about Deodorant

Years ago we eliminated anti-antiperspirant from our lives; it is both unnatural and unhealthy. However, deodorant still has an important role in our lives, especially as we are still currently living in Madinah, Saudi Arabia and it is boiling hot here. Over our summer at Healing Earth, while the temperatures were pretty moderate we worked hard, so still sought an effective deodorant. We bought natural, eco friendly, safe, and healthy deodorants - all with variable and limited efficacy.

To address the issue, I went online and made one of the paste deodorant recipes with baking soda, cornstarch, coconut oil and essential oils. I later added some ground crystal rock and it worked well. However, it never lasted for a whole day.  So back I went searching for ideas for an improved deodorant.  And what did I find? That I wasted my time and should have just remembered my old friend who was allergic to all deodorant. She used baking soda. I rubbed a little under my arms and never looked back.

Next, we put it to a real test. My husband and the rest of the family used it during Umrah. 100+ degrees fahrenheit, crammed in the tawwaf with a few hundred other people, dripping with sweat, we went around the Ka'abah at 11:00 a.m. under the blazing sun. Seven rounds and then seven trips between Safa and Marwa holding a baby, before a long walk back to the car. We went back to our apartment and I immediately stuck my nose into my husbands sweaty armpit (yep, that's love) and it didn't smell like anything. I mean NOTHING. Amazed, my husband set out to test it in all manner of situations and even after a long day in the heat and sun, he was odor free at night. Baking soda, cheap, natural, renewable, and extremely multifunctional...the best deodorant we have EVER used, maashaa Allah...and we can brush our teeth with it (another post is due on our natural dental care),  wash our hair with it, clean with it, use it for laundry, deodorize the fridge and shoes, and make soda bread, too!

Sustainable Laundry

Washing clothes is a process that required careful thought when transitioning to life at Healing Earth. The factors that needed to be considered were:

Power: A washing machine would require some form of power supply, which we want to eliminate as much as possible. While we are purchasing some solar generators for running essential things, we are not simply setting up solar arrays to cover living a conventional energy and appliance based lifestyle.

Longevity: A washing machine has a limited life, uses many resources in its manufacture, and does not biodegrade back into the earth without harm. As it is not a necessity (like a freezer, which for practical purposes is) it is not a good or viable option for us.

Water management and washing detergent: Water management is critical and washing by hand uses far less water than a washing machine. In addition, by ensuring that the products used for washing the clothes are totally harmless to the earth and plants, we can use all the greywater for watering plants or washing dishes, with nothing going to waste.

With all this in mind, we have gone from a washing machine to these, purchased from Lehmans:

We have the large galvanized steel board and the large glass board. The glass board is amazing for tough stains and making those dirty tube socks white as snow!

These plunger style washers are very effective for forcing the water through the clothes. We use them in the soapy water before scrubbing on the washboard and also in the rinse for a really good clean!

As for detergent, we use soap nuts very successfully. However, we have found that the ground up soap nuts work much better as the powder. The beauty of these...they grow on trees, a wonderful renewable resource for washing and cleaning! We have used Sals Suds in the past, although now we simply grate a bar of Castille soap mixed with water and use it for more challenging loads. We also have eco wash balls, which work nicely, but in the long run we will focus on growing soap nut trees, which will eliminate spending any money on laundry detergent while benefiting the earth and air!

We grind our soap nut shells, but the ready ground powder is available here.

Homemade Salves

Bism Illah.

For the past few months we have been making our own salves. It takes about 10 minutes to melt the oils with the beeswax and pour it into the jars. It is child's play; after one try you may well wonder why you didn't do it before...and feel like you want to make salve for all your loved ones!

In general, you will find that the Camp Wander website is a good resource for learning about essential oils for your daily needs. There are many other wonderful recipes on there for homemade personal care, however for now I am just giving links to the salves that I made.

- Homemade All-Purpose Healing Salve
We use this for everything from moisturizing to first aid for cuts and scrapes to rashes to hair pomade! You name it, we slap some on and call it "Mother's Love!"

- Anti-Aging and Eye-Health Salve
This has the same ingredients recommended to stroke around your eyes for better eye health and anti aging properties for your skin. Smells great and makes great gifts if put into nice little pots. Inshaa Allah, I will take a photo of my salve in jars and in little gift pots and add it to this post.

Oatmeal Skin Scrub....

Bism Illah.

A dear friend made some orange, almond, and oatmeal skin scrub while house sitting for us one summer, maashaa Allah. The recipe is below.

Orange peels, Almonds & Oatmeal scrub

A fresh smelling and skin rejuvenating scrub

What do you need:

• 1 cup dried Orange peels
• 1 cup Oatmeal
• 2 tablespoon finely ground Almonds
• 1 teaspoon sweet Orange essential oil

How to do it:

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and mix them well Take some of this mix in your hand and add some warm water to make a paste

Rub it onto your clean skin and gently massage to exfoliate in circular motions. Then wash it off with alternately cold and warm water and end with a splash of cold; pat your skin dry with a clean towel. 

[http://www.natural-homeremedies-for-life.com/oatmeal-scrub.html]

That scrub is very soothing and moisturizing for the skin, but I found a few other uses for it.

As it is simply ground orange peel, oatmeal, and almonds - all perfectly good food - I threw some into muffins one morning. When asked what kind of muffins they were, I said, "Face scrub muffins." That really turned heads, LOL.A few months later I was on a soda bread making binge and thought to myself, "Oooh, an orange, almond, and oat soda bread might be lovely with a bit of butter and cream!" So out came the face scrub again...and as the children were tasting the fragrant, warm soda bread they asked, "What did you put in this soda bread, Mummy?" to which I answered, "Face scrub!"


Well, it just so happens that their father was not present on these occasions. However, this morning when I had the idea to make some orange spice oatmeal for breakfast, hubby ventured to try some and looked rather discomfited when I told him that I used face scrub to flavor it.

That's the beauty of natural living; you can eat your beauty products! That's why I didn't panic when my then 9 month old baby bit into the honey and orange lotion bars I recently made...
 

Household Progress

Bism Illah.

On our return to Saudi Arabia, things didn't just go back to the "normal" life we lived prior to our summer of sustainability on Healing Earth. We brought one of our washboards back with us and a plunger-style breathable clothes washer. Just as we established over the summer, we still do our laundry by hand here. Not only that, but the girls continue to do their own laundry - the 7 and 10 year old as a team. They take pride in showing me how good their socks look once they've done their washboard scrubbing!

Knowing that we will not be able to grow rice, we have made more adjustments to our diet to incorporate grains that we will be able to grow and more potatoes. This is really a health boon, because super-foods like quinoa are easy to grow and yet expensive to buy. We have eliminated the need for crystalline sugar (albeit organic) in our baking and cooking, with great success. We have also transitioned deliciously to using all wholewheat flour - whether hard red, hard white, or soft white - for our baking.

As for making our own, I am now whipping up all the things the hubby was missing - the crunchy stuff and the yummy treats. We have mastered honey graham crackers, organic wholewheat cheese-its, hard pretzels, homemade "Grape Nuts" type cereal and granola, pop tarts, soft pretzels, bagels, our own pasta and noodles, and even our own chocolates (imagine being able to eat homemade Bounty/Mounds/Almond Joy and call it medicinal health food! Whee!

We have found Azure Standard, an organic food co-op, that could provide us with a year's worth of organic wheat or flour (600 lbs) for around $220. Buying bulk from them for the things we cannot grow or won't have during the first year or two, will at least half our food bills. It could even provide organic foods and produce for resale in our farm stand.

We have started making our own all-purpose healing salve, lip balms, lotion bars, and hair pomades to add to our homemade staples of shampoo, deodorant, tooth oil, laundry soap, and household cleaners. No more plastic and foam sponges for cleaning, we now use cotton dish cloths (we can knit them), loofahs for soft scrubbing, and stainless steel for pots and pans.

The lifestyle we live is becoming closer and closer to the lifestyle we wish to live, and that is a great feeling, alhamdul'Illah.