Pepper Joins the Family

Last week I spotted a sign free rabbit and hutch. Well we'd been thinking of getting the kids a new pet. I stopped in and checked out the little fellow. His owners were moving and were unable to take him with them. He's 2 and has been spoilt, used to being handled and as friendly as anything.

I arranged to pick Pepper up on Friday. We went to the library and both kids read the books they picked up on how to look after rabbits. We picked Pepper up on Friday and the kids are over the moon about him.

Pepper

Cuddles and pats

Yum, runner beans

Exploring

Home. sweet, home

Finished exploring I'm tired

Just relaxing

My indigenous garden — familiar but not quite the same

Australia has a lot of very unique plants. But we still have a fair range of those that would seem familar to overseas visitors.

Native forget-me-nots

Some that I have in my garden that occur locally are native forget-me-nots. Believe me the seeds are a thousand times more annoying and sticky than the common garden variety. It is also as tough as anything in a dry garden.

Pelargonium australe

Another family we have a few of in Australia is Pelargoniums. This one is currently flowering in my garden. It's Pelargonium australe Austral stork's bill.

I also have the outrageously bright pink Magenta Stork's Bill Pelargonium rodneyanum but it's not out at present. It is a small rockery plant that survived the 10 year drought here without any added water.

Native jasmine

I've also got the tiny little scrambling local grassland jasmine. It's flowering right now and has a sweet delicate scent rather than the absolutely overpowering heady scent of some jasmines.

Common everlastings

Some of the other things flowering now are the common everlastings.

Clustered everlastings

The clustered everlastings which are taller and have smaller flowers.

Scaevola aemula

Other locals that are well worth having is the Scaevolas (fanflowers). I've both the Scaevola albida and the Scaevola aemula in the garden. The Sceavola aemula is my favourite but the both flower for months in my unwatered indigenous area of the garden. They are also the easiest thing to strike from cuttings as well. I'd recommend this as they need replacing semi-regularly as they are inclined to be a bit shortlived.

Vegetables can have pretty flowers too

I haven't blogged for a while as I'd picked up some paid temporary work and life was just too busy. I'm finished now so I can get back to all the things I was running out of time for. Including getting ready to have 16 over for Christmas Day.

Naughty chickens on the lawn.

My dear husband built my permanent escape proof chook run for me. Did you know leghorns can scale 6 foot fences even with their wings clipped.

 I finally got my summer garden going a month later than I usually would.

scarlet runner beans

Lots of the vegetables and fruit we grow has quite colourful flowers if we look closely. I put these scarlet runner bean in, just for the flowers it is often too warm for them to set beans here. So they are sharing a frame with purple king beans (yet to flower) which are predictably productive here.

Pepino flowers

The pepino flowers are attractive and I find the plants themselves as tough as old boots and productive in dry conditions. They don't however like frosts much.

Purple tomatillo flowers

Another one from the tomato family purple tomatillo. I haven't tried this one before so I be interested how it goes. The flowers are a really bright yellow.

Chinese celery in flower

These aren't as pretty but are often covered in beneficial insects like ladybirds. 

This is Chinese celery. It is much hardier the normal supermarket stem one requiring less water by far. But it is still very useful to produce that celery flavour in soups and other cooked dishes or to slice a little very finely in a salad. It has the added bonus it self sows in my garden.

Black passionfruit

A couple of fruiting plants flowering in the garden at the moment. 

Black passionfruit, this one is a seedling plant on its own roots. The grafted Nelly Kelly's rootstock is a pain as it suckers a fair bit here.

Pomegranate

And a pomegranate this bush is just starting to flower now. So tough, with such bright flowers that they should be grown as ornamentals alone.

Tree onion

Not a flower but I still find them fascinating. Tree onions, these little ones can be replanted next year and produce pickling size onions with good flavour and a bit of a bite.

My indigenous garden

Olearia sp Twiggy daisy bush

Just a few photos of what's out at the moment for Jo. This daisy bush is very pretty in flower and a fairly neat grey mound out of flower.

Hibertia serica 

The silky guinea flower is in full bloom at the moment. I love their bright sunny flowers. It is also extremely drought tolerant.

Indigofera australis - Native Indigo

I love this indigo it needs tip pruning as it is a bit straggly but it is forgiven every year when it flowers. Besides not much else tolerates dry shade and looks as pretty.

The productive garden

European plum - Coes Golden Drop

It's early spring here so lots of new growth and flowers coming out. Here is one of the European plums. I have two young plum trees last year I had one plum this year they were covered in blossom so I'm hoping for lots more. The rate my kids are eating and growing I need as much as possible.

Garlic

The garlic is growing much better this year. Last years very wet winter rotted out most of it. This year it looks like will be a good harvest.

Variegated sage

The variegated sage I planted out last year is doing extra well. The spot it's in is hot and dry in the summer but is shade all winter. So far from ideal growing conditions. I love this with pork or chicken. Later in the spring it's covered with pretty purple flowers as well.

kale

The kale has done well it's not a family favourite and a lot gets fed to the chickens but I like its looks in the vegetable garden.

Baby figs

I've a small fig tree that I was given that just sat there for years in the drought but has finally taken off in the last couple of years. It's growing on a steep north facing slope that is baking hot and dry in the summer. The slope is a batter on the drive so it's growing in the subsoil and gets no supplementary water. Look at the baby figs. We are not sure what variety it is my Dad gave it to me and thinks it may be Brown Turkey.

New growth on the pomegranate

Who says that fruit trees have to be boring I love the orange new growth on our pomegranate. It's growing in the same conditions as the fig so it is as tough as old boots.

Climbers, Prickles and Parasites at Ocean Grove

Male Superb Blue wren
in hedge wattle Acacia paradoxa

I found all sorts of things on my walk in the reserve yesterday. Some of the Spring flowers are starting to come out. This little wren caught my eye the contrast between his bright blue feathers and the yellow wattle was so striking.

I'd love to take more shots of some of the birds here but my camera is not ideal for it unless they are still and relatively close.

Acacia paradoxa closeup

The Hedge wattle he is sitting in looks pretty with its glowing golden mass of flowers. But look closer and see the mass of prickles hidden in the foliage.

We've had some unseasonably warm weather for the time of the year lately. But I was very surprised to see this butterfly out so early in the Spring.

Twining Fringe Lily Thysanotus patersonii

There are a few different climbers flowering at the moment from the tiniest little Twining Fringe Lily away down in the grass.

Love creeper Comesperma volubile

This is my personal favourite Love Creeper it is almost leafless and is covered with a mass of tiny bright blue flowers.

Small leaved clematis Clematis microphylla

This Small Leaved Clematis is every were and covered with a mass of small white flowers.

Small leaved clematis Clematis microphylla

A close up of it's flowers. The true beauty of this clematis unlike the showy garden ones is not in the flowers. But rather later in the year when it turns into a cloud of fluffy seeds.

The new growth of the leaves on this mistletoe are a rather attractive rusty orange. It will be interesting to see the flowers later in the year some of the Australian mistletoes have very attractive flowers.

Echidna rush Chorizandra enodis 

The common name of this rush is Echindna Rush you can see where it gets its name when you look at its one sided flowers up close. They look like tiny little echidnas climbing the stems.

Early Nancy Wurnbea dioica

The tiny but appropriately named Early Nancys announcing Spring is on it's way.

A Batch of Patch.

I made a big batch of Patchouli soap as I have quite a few customers who love it and buy multiple bars of it. I thought I'd take a few shots of the soap as I made it. I forgot to take a shot of the patchouli oil but it is a thick tan syrupy oil that smells the whole house out when I have it open.

Patchouli essential oil is distilled form the patchouli plant which is a herbaceous plant from the tropics which grows a bit like mint. For more see here.

Oil and caustic just mixed

First I weigh out the oils including the patchouli into a large pot (8kg in this batch). I mix caustic soda with water very carefully and stir until clear. The caustic is added to the oils. This is then mixed with a stick blender until it starts to react and gets very thick like a thick custard. Saponification is an exothermic reaction so once it starts it produces enough heat to keep the reaction going until finished.

Freshly poured logs of soap

At this stage I spilt a little of the batch into another bowl and add some cocoa for colour. These are poured into lined wooden moulds and the tops textured with a spoon.

Insulated soap in the moulds

These moulds are then covered to keep in the heat and left to react for about 6 hours. My soap I let gel which basically means it gets hot enough to melt the soap. After the reaction finishes the soap gradually cools down on sets hard.

Cooling soap

Then I take out the logs of soap and allow them to cool down further. The lining material is then removed and the soap cut.

Cutting soap

I use a cutter I imported from the USA to cut my soap AKA the "tank". It basically uses strained stainless steel guitar strings to slice through the soap rather like a cheese slicer. The soap is then lifted out of the cutter.

Soap produced from 8kg of oils

The soap is then carried downstairs to shelves where it cured for a number of weeks. This cure allows extra water to evaporate out and produces a harder bar of soap that will last longer in use.

And yes I do have genuine bright yellow laminex from the 70's on my benches.

Why read the labels? and what are the requirements?

Why read the labels on your soap? For information of course! 
So you or anyone else can check for allergens. I work with natural ingredients but these can still be allergenic I've had customers allergic to dairy, avocado, lavender and tea tree to name a few.

It also lets you compare different products that you might be looking at. Does it have any of the more expensive oils like olive, almond or some of the butters or are they using lots of cheap oils like soy or canola. Do they use cheap fragrance oils (there are expensive ones too) or some of the more expensive essential oils? This will give you an indication of whether you paying for pretty packaging or good soap.

Front label

I was browsing though the rack of soaps at a gift shop and this one left me shaking my head. According to the label on the front it was moisturising olive oil soap. A bit expensive as you can easily pick up olive oil soap for $5-6 depending on what else is in them but I was in a gift shop.

So while a little expensive it seems reasonable until you turn it over and look at the ingredients. The main oils it contains palm oil and palm kernel oil, no olive oil in sight. This soap would in no way feel like a conditioning pure olive soap. Oh and don't get all excited about triple milled, almost all commercial soap is milled these days so it is nothing particularly special it just sounds good.

Back Label

So just what are the requirements in Australia?
One of the most confusing things I found when I was first looking at selling soap was trying to determine what was required for labelling ingredients here in Australia. Why was I confused you might wonder? Have a look at what is around next time you are out shopping.

I went and walked through the local gift stores and found a multitude of possibilities. Nothing at all, the scent, the ingredients listed as scent and all vegetable oil, saponified oil of xyz, common names ie olive oil, sodium hydroxide, water or full INCI (international nomenclature of cosmetic ingredients) listing.

Anyway I researched and found out that soap is covered by a wide range of different government agencies, so as usual in Australia nothing is straight forward.

To start with soap is considered a cosmetic here and therefore it's labelling is covered by the ACCC

In simple terms all ingredients need to be listed in descending order of quantity at point of sale. Ok, got that one it seems simple enough but that meant that approximately 70% of the soap I saw on my walk around the shops weren't being labelled as required legally in Australia.

Oh another thing for you as a customer to consider is where the ingredient is listed. If it is listed below the sodium hydroxide you are looking at there being less than roughly 12% (it depends on the exact soap recipe) of it in handmade soap.

To make and sell home made soaps we also need to be registered as chemical introducers through NICNAS. Why? Because the reaction to make soap alters it chemically to new compounds and anyone who manufactures or imports chemicals into Australia must be registered. You can check out more here NICNAS . In the long term NICNAS is supposed to be ensuring chemicals in Australia are assessed for their safety. If you just make home made soap and don't sell any you don't need to be registered with NICNAS

OK so we've listed the ingredients and have registered ourselves with NICNAS. Is that enough? Well......... yes but you also have to be careful about any claims you make about your soap as some of these can potentially land you in hot water with the regulators.

You can't claim it is an insect repellant (soap being a wash off product wouldn't work well anyway but I've seen claims it is). If you do it is then covered by  APVMA and you would have to have it tested to prove it's effective and register it. Make those claims without doing this and you are likely to face a whole lot of expensive trouble.

You also are not supposed to make any medical claims like it cures eczema, cancer, insomnia, hives or anything else you can think of. Do so and you need to be dealing with the TGA and registering products through them.


You see why it confusing ;-). After all how hard can it be to just make a bit of soap to sell. Well, more than you would expect it seems.

Oh and while I don't on sell any of my essential oils I know a few who do. Another list you'll need to look if you want to do this is the poisons schedule as some of the common essential oils are covered by this and as such require special labelling and packaging. http://www.tga.gov.au/industry/scheduling-poisons-standard.htm

Cheers. I just hope I haven't confused you even more.

Spring is Coming

We've had unseasonably warm weather here the last week. Reminding me it is time to hurry up and get the first of the spring seeds in. So today was it.

I put some tatsoi, purple mustard, mitzuna, coloured silverbeet, radish and bok choy seeds straight in the garden. I've got my fingers crossed that the escape artist chooks don't get out and scratch them up.

Punnets of seeds

In the glasshouse-I planted Siberian tomatoes nice early tough bush ones with egg sized red fruit.
-Tomatoes we've dubbed Ed's Red that a friends FIL has been growing for years which grow to around 4' and have lots of big red tasty tomatoes for slicing and bottling.
-Three different capsicums a long sweet yellow one that eventually turns red. Mini Chocolate coloured ones and mini orange ones that were loaded even in the toughest years of our drought.
-Bristol Rock snapdragons, just because I love the cute stripes they have.
-My sons Striped parasol marigolds he loves.
-Leeks
-Asparagus seeds, Argenteuil.
-Broccoli, Calabrese sprouting
-Field carnations.

I'll put some more seeds in a couple of weeks different tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini.

Then later again things like cantaloupe, pumpkins and watermelon.

I'm happy with the chooks as since I last wrote I now have 4 out of the 6 girls laying. So it won't be long until I'm inundated with eggs and end up handing them out to anyone who visits.

Purple cabbage

My purple cabbages are starting to set hearts. Did you know you can use the colour out of them as a natural pH indicator. If you have kids let them try it sometime they can have lots of fun.

Broad beans

I've got broad beans and snow peas flowering we are looking forward to more  garden fresh vegetables.

Potatoes

These are my feral potatoes I throw all the potatoes that have turned green or started spouting in the corner under the plum tree. I can't get much to grow there later in the year as it gets too dry. However, I still usually manage to pick several buckets from these potatoes every year.