FLOWER POT KITCHEN: HOMEMADE ORGANIC DEODORANT BAR

31 Mar 2016

HOMEMADE ORGANIC DEODORANT BAR

This is a really simple and easy make and gives you that feel good feeling of natural living and loving your body and mother earth, not contributing to land fill and the best bit is no chemicals on or in your body.

This homemade deodorant bar that has for my family and friends worked better than any store brought deodorant and other natural options I have ever used, and believe me I think I have tried them all with little success, until I suddenly started to think outside of the box and back to time with my Nan and Grandad and days gone by where people, family relied upon themselves and local producers for what they needed and I found this recipe on Wellness Mama and have never looked back.

Prep Time 10 minutes / Ready to use in 3 hours

Equipment: 1 mason ball glass jar for this job only

The Wrap: 30 x 30cm cotton / 50g solid bees wax / buttons / twine

It was not a hard decision to go organic in fact it has been liberating and the further my family travels this path the more clearer the obvious becomes, when I am asked why go organic my simple answer is WHY NOT? When you realise that all the man made chemicals are harmful long term and that mass produced products are about profit for the manufacturers and nothing to do with your personal well being or with any respect or regard to the environment it is a simple easy answer.

If we all had to use our gardens as our own personal rubbish dumps/tips it would not be too long before people started to want to reduce that pile and to stop adding to the pile that would eventually take over their garden, so with this thought in mind we pre-cycle, up-cycle and re-cycle.

Ingredients

(makes 1 bar)

3 tbsp organic coconut oil

2 tbsp organic shea butter

2 tbsp baking powder (3 for a stronger protection)

(I found 3 tbsp irritated me, 2 perfect protection and no irritation)

2 tbsp organic arrowroot

40 drops organic essential oil tea tree or chamomile

Bring a tall pan 1/4 filled with water to a gentle simmer, in a ball mason or glass jar add the coconut oil and shea butter, place the glass jar in to the saucepan, in effect a bain marie, when the mix has virtually melted remove for the pan and add the baking powder and arrowroot, stir well until all dissolved, add the essential oil and stir in and that is it done!

I use a small single portion cake tin to set my bar in, pour in the liquid and place in the fridge until set around 3hrs. If you want to make a wax proof cover the instructions are below, It is just a nice touch to finish off your deodorant and great if you are giving them as gifts to friends and loved ones.

Bee's Wax Cover

Ingredients

1 organic bees wax bar

1 sheet of cotton 30cm x 30cm

2 buttons

30cm natural twine

Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees C, 290 F, line a baking tray with baking paper and place the cotton on the paper, grate the bees wax and sprinkle over the cotton sheet, pop in the oven for 3-5 minutes until the bees wax has melted, using a pastry brush that will now only be used for this job brush the melted wax evenly all over the cotton sheet. I now pick up the cotton sheet by the corners and just hold it in the air for about 3 minutes, this just allows the wax to cool and set, you can peg the cotton sheet to a string washing line if you were making multitudes, this I have done too!

Now for the folding, as you can see in the photos above fold the sheet in to three equal sections, like a menu, you can work this out by just gently bringing over the left and right side of the fabric loosely without making any creases in the stiff fabric until you feel you have a equal measurement.

Next measure the length of your bar and fold the bottom of the wax cloth up to just short of equal of that measurement, now I sow on the two buttons, these buttons for me are so personal as my nan collected all buttons from any garment that was past its day over her life and I have all of these in my care, in fact I know I can name some of the garments they were removed from, such memories, such up cycling, it really is not a new thing, it really is a lost gift to the slow western greener world.

Place your set bar in your cloth and wrap up as you folded the cloth, left to right then bottom up, tie the natural twine around in a figure of eight the buttons to secure the pouch, as you use the deodorant just move the bottom fabric up, scoouch the deodorant bar up the fabric holder and re tie the twine.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.