With the summer holidays behind us and the children back in school this is an excellent time to get some projects underway.

There is an abundance of cheap soft fruit in the shops as the season draws to a close, or maybe you are lucky enough to have your own fruit bushes, this makes it an excellent time to make jams or prepare fillings for pies. Tomatoes, even tomatoes which have failed to ripen, make excellent relish which can be bottled and stored for use in the holiday season.

In this month’s Newsletter I will be sharing some recipes for Relish and for a healthy option to fruit pies. So sign up for our Newsletter at www.itsecotime.com

Research has shown the following amazing health benefits that can be achieved by drinking a few glasses of water every day:

• A Glass of water will stop hunger pangs, thereby helping all of us currently on our New Year/New Me diet
• Lack of water is the #1cause of daytime fatigue
• A 2% drop in the body’s water can affect your short-term memory, cause problems with basic math and make focusing a problem
• Studies show that drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day could ease back and joint pain significantly for 80% of sufferers
• Drinking 5 glasses of water a day decreases the risk of colon cancer, bladder cancer and breast cancer

But remember there is no evidence to show that bottled water is in any way better for us than tap water!! In fact the truth is that bottled water is often tap water in a bottle. If you are concerned about the quality of you home water supply then there are a variety of good affortable home water treatments available. You can get a water report for your area from www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo.htm

Peter and I are still in our home in Shotley Bridge.  It’s very cold (for the UK), -10C and we have had snow this week. As you know from our blog and articles we are committed to saving energy wherever possible but that doesn’t mean I want to be cold!! So it was with interest, while doing some research, that I came across DIY home energy audits and home water heating audits so I thought I’d share the site with you. These audits are helpful in providing a check list of likely heat loss points around the home. The site is http//apps1.eere.gov/consumer/your_home . After all it really doesn’t matter how many energy saving devices we install if the house is not properly insulated we are still wasting not only heat but money as well. And, just a reminder for those of you purchasing new appliances.  You can check out the most energy efficient models and makes at www.energystar.gov

I have just been reading an article that made a request for readers to offer a solution to the problem that often occurs after cleaning the oven - how to get rid of the taste of the chemicals that is often transferred to food the first couple of times the oven is used after cleaning.  This appears to be a problem no matter how well the oven has been rinsed out.

So, I am sharing the reply I posted with you. The answer is DON’T use chemical cleaners!! There really is no need to use anything but store cupboard based products to clean your home. For the oven all you need to do is:

For spills: Let the oven cool and then sprinkle salt on the spill. Wipe over after about 10 minutes.

To scour: Let oven cool. Sprinkle baking powder over the area to be cleaned and rub vigerously with half a lemon. Rinse off with a wet cloth.

To clean without scouring: Let oven cool. Sprinkle baking soda liberally over the area to be cleaned. Dampen by spraying water over the baking soda. Leave for an hour, dampen down again, for best results I leave this on overnight, but a couple of hours will do. Rinse off with warm water.

If you would like more green cleaning solutions then contact me, helen@itsecotime.com. Or, if you have recipes/tips etc that you’d like to share then leave a comment.

In just a couple of days Peter and I leave the lovely warmth of Arizona to join our family and friends in the UK for Christmas and the New Year celebrations. As you kow from our web-site Peter and I promise NOT to obsess about “your carbon footpint” but look to focusing on what we can do on a day to day basis to lead a green, healthy, cost effective lifestyle so it was with huge interest I have been following the “100 mile meal” idea. I think it’s fantastic and so I decided to adopt this for all my holiday meals in the UK. However, given the size of the UK, I decided to reduce the 100 mile radius!! I started by looking at my menu for Christmas and at first thought I could get it down to 25 miles. Then the fish proved a problem! While the coast where they are actually caught is probably less than 25 miles from our home, the fishmonger from whom I would buy these fish is 35 miles from the coast. So I got confused and decided I could do it in 50 miles (we”ll see how this works!!) This should be possible for our Scottish New Year as well. The only product we will have to avoid is flour, in neither location would flour be processed within 50 miles, so we will have to look for alternatives, I’ll let you know how this works!!
We’ve dealt with the food but what about the booze!! It’s limited in our Newcastle home,if we follow this plan, Newcastle Brown Ale is produced locally but it’s not the sort of drink you serve up for Christmas cocktails. unless you can count lemon chello brewed at home with lemons from Spain? We have no locally produced wine. Now this is NOT a problem when we go to Scotland for the New Year Celebrations. We are right on the Whiskey Trail and so we can make hot toddies, Egg Nogg or just drink it neat!! All well within the guidlines of the project. I’ll let you know how this goes. Have a Very Happy Christmas and a safe healthy New Year.

Yesterday I wrote offering to do some research for you. I don’t know if anyone tried to contact us via the link I posted but you certainly wouldn’t reach us if you did! If you’d like us to research the most energy efficient products for you then just go to http://itsecotime.com/contact-us. Again, apologies for the error, I don’t know whether these blips are caused by being blond or 50+ probably a combination of both. Be assured there are some reliable, sane people at Its Eco Time.
Helen