Homemade Toothpaste

I've been playing around with making homemade toothpaste for a while now. I did a lot of blog reading and wasn't quite satisfied with any of the recipes that I found so I cobbled a few together, experimented with quantities, and came up with this.

I've noticed that the bentonite clay can cause a slightly drying mouth feel after using this toothpaste so you might need to rinse a couple of times after brushing. My kids don't seem to be bothered by this though. 

I didn't think to take photos until after I'd done the first couple of steps so you'll just have to use your imagination. :) 

100g xylitol

2.5g Himalayan (or other unrefined) salt 

130g boiling water 

120g calcium bentonite clay powder 

20g coconut oil, melted

2 drops food grade tea tree essential  oil 

10-15 drops food grade peppermint essential oil

10-15 drops food grade wild orange essential oil 

Dissolve xylitol and salt in water. 

Add bentonite clay to the water and beat until combined (I used an electric hand held mixer - make sure any metal you use is stainless steel and avoid prolonged contact with the clay). 

 

If required, adjust the consistency by beating in small amounts of water or clay. You're after thick whipped cream or mousse consistency.

Beat in the melted coconut oil. It should look nice and creamy now.

Beat in the tea tree essential oil.

Divide the mixture into 2 batches (it works out to just under 200g per batch for me).

Stir the wild orange essential oil into one batch; and the peppermint essential oil into the other. 15 drops of each makes for a fairly strong tasting toothpaste so adjust amounts to taste. You can use other essential oils too, just make sure they're safe to take internally (lavender, lemon, cinnamon, could all be nice I think). Make sure you use a reputable brand of food grade oils.

  

I put the finished product into BPA-free Malibu tubes but you could just use glass jars (do not use metal).

I place a snaplock bag into a glass, top of the bag folded down; then add the toothpaste into the bag. I then seal the bag, cut off a small section from one corner, and pipe the toothpaste into the tubes.

Recipe makes a bit under 400g, depending on how much clay and water you use to adjust the consistency. Adjust quantities for smaller families. 

Coconut Milk Kefir

About a year ago I had a go at making milk kefir. It worked well but I just didn't like the taste of it.

Then I started hearing about coconut milk kefir made from milk kefir grains. I tried it out and we love it! It's so much more palatable than the cow's milk version.

I use Ayam brand coconut milk as the only thing added to it is water. And, like with any kefir, stick with using plastic, wooden, or stainless steel utensils; and glass jars to ferment in (I like Fido jars because they're anaerobic).



I put 3 tins of coconut milk in a large container of warm (blood temp, no hotter!) water. I only do this because I live in a cold climate and always get that solid layer of cream on top). After 5 minutes I take them out, give them a good shake, open them up and tip the contents into a 1L Fido jar.

I rinse the grains off with water only when changing mediums -  going from cow's milk to coconut milk or vice versa.

Check the coconut milk isn't too hot and plop in the grains (the jar pictured here is really too large but I've run out of 1L jars at the moment). I put it in the pantry, out of direct sunlight, for 24 hours, giving it a good swirl every now and then.

After 24 hours I strain the grains out and put the coconut milk kefir in an airtight container in the fridge. Sometimes the kefir is so thick that it won't go through the strainer so I need to fish through it for the grains with a spoon (or clean fingers). I rinse the grains off lightly and put them in some fresh cows milk (the grains feed off the lactose so need to be kept in cow's milk between coconut batches).

We've been having the coconut milk kefir in our probiotic smoothies. Yum!  

Lacto-Fermented Garlic

Garlic in a 2% Himalayan salt brine; 500ml Fido jar; Pickl-It lid and mini-airlock

My first go at lacto-fermented garlic! It's off to the pantry with it for the next month and then into the fridge for another month or 2 after that. Fermentation is a lesson in patience I think! (I may have slightly over-filled the jar - I just couldn't help but squeeze all of that 4th head garlic in. Hopefully it won't fizz over too much.)

Inspired by Delicious Obsessions. 

Tips For Making The Best Water Kefir

- Start with clean hands and equipment. There's no need to sterilise but, as with any kind of fermenting, very clean is good. You don't want to be breeding bad bacteria.

 

- The ratio of 2-4 tbs sugars : 2-4 tbs kefir grains : 1L water seems to be good.

- If your kefir's not working or your grains aren't looking too healthy, try something different. Try a different unrefined sugar, a piece of egg shell, dried fruit, fermenting in a warmer or cooler place (a friend of mine could only get hers to work by fermenting in the fridge). Google 'how to make water kefir' and see what you come up with.

- Remember that it can take a few batches for kefir grains to adjust to new ingredients or a different water source. 

- If you're fermenting in an 'open' jar or with just a normal screw top jar lid and it smells a bit funky, isn't as fizzy as you'd like, or just doesn't seem right, consider changing to an anaerobic ferment. You'll need either Fido jars (not very expensive to buy) or a proper pickling airlock system for better and more consistent results.

- There are a few airlock systems around these days. Pickl-Its are popular and are just fancy lids on Fido jars, so if you are in Australia and already have Fido jars you can just get a lid conversion kit.  Kitsa's Kitchen also has a lot of fermenting equipment so check out her product list.

For more posts on water kefir...     

Water Kefir Picture Tutorial - Part 2

This follows on from Water Kefir Picture Tutorial - Part 1.


When the water kefir has sufficiently fermented it will have changed colour slightly and no longer be clear.
   

If you wish to flavour it, pour your flavouring into your bottles (I use 1L swing top bottles). Go to the bottom of this post for flavouring ideas.

Open up your water kefir. Mine is fizzy and pleasant smelling at this stage. Discard lemon slices.

Strain your grains off, funnelling the water kefir into your bottles. I leave a little room and then pour clean water over to rinse the grains, using the water to top up the bottle. Set aside grains.

Close up the bottle. It's at this stage that you can leave the bottle out at room temperature for 12-24 hours for a second ferment but I put mine straight in the fridge. It's best refrigerated for a day or two before drinking, if you can wait that long.

In a heatproof jug: 2 tbs white sugar, 2 tbs jaggery, 1/2 tsp bicarb soda, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1/2 tsp blackstrap molasses. This is the 'resting solution', with a higher ratio of unrefined sugars for extra minerals, that I use when keeping my grains in the fridge (I only make a batch once a week). If you are making smaller batches you might just use your usual recipe to make kefir daily.

 
Stir in just enough hot water to dissolve the sugars. Top up to about 500 ml with cold water.

In a 1.5L Fido jar: 2 cps cold water and 2 lemon slices.

Pour in the sugar solution. Make sure it's cool before adding 3-4 heaped tbs kefir grains. Top up with cold water to the neck of the jar. Refrigerate until required for another batch.

Want some other tips for making the best water kefir? 

Water Kefir Picture Tutorial - Part 1

Everyone seems to have a different way of making water kefir. This is the way I've been doing it for nearly 2 years and it makes about 6L of plain water kefir. For a more detailed version, check out this post. Adjust quantities and ingredients to suit your preferences.


1.5L Fido jar of kefir grains straight out of the fridge after a week of resting and growing.

Discard lemon slices and strain off the liquid. Pour a little clean water over the grains to rinse. Drain and set aside.

In a 1L heatproof jug: 9 tbs white sugar, 2 tbs jaggery, 3 tsp maple syrup, 1.5 tsp bicarb soda.

Stir in enough hot water to dissolve the sugar.

Top up with cold water and stir. Set aside for a few minutes (this will allow any impurities from the jaggery to settle at the bottom).

2 x 3L Fido jars. Into each place 2 unpeeled lemon slices and about 1L of cold water (the cold water is just so the glass jar doesn't crack when the warm sugar solution is poured in).

Pour half the sugar solution into each jar. Discard any impurities left at the bottom of the heatproof jug. Check the temperature of the water in each jug to make sure it's cool. And more plain, cold water if necessary.

Add 6 heaped tablespoons of water kefir grains to each jar. Top up with water to the neck of the jar (leaving 2-3cm). Close lids. Leave in a warm (20-25 deg c) place, out of direct sunlight, for 18-24 hours or until fermented to taste.

Water Kefir Picture Tutorial - Part 2, Bottling

Shmoo

Making gluten free blueberry and lemon friands for a picnic in the park with friends.

Thrilled about the Dyson DC02 that The OH found at the dump for him. 

Update

   

Finding beauty everywhere

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Loo Bear has been enjoying the puzzles in the CSIRO's Double Helix magazines.

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Shmoo has been perfecting his gluten free raspberry and lemon friands*. He has now made them several times, including a batch for our homeschool monitor. We had our review (and Loo's initial monitoring visit) in August and it went very well.

*We made the friands with Nuttelex a couple of times so that they were dairy-free and whilst they were okay, they're definitely much better with real butter.

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I'd given up on our cauliflowers and hadn't checked on them too closely for a while. While collecting herbs one morning I glanced over and noticed a huge head of cauliflower. We've had 3 more since and we're also still getting lots of yummy silverbeet, parsley, kale and beetroot.  Shmoo has taken to helping me weed the beds and keep an eye on the developing cabbage heads.

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The last few months I've been getting back into making our own yoghurt and have even branched out into making labneh. So easy and yummy.

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We had fun making some bird feeders recently. The OH poked a hole in the bottom of 5 plastic cups. We then used a length of kitchen string to tie 2 craft sticks in an 'X' shape and threaded the other end through the hole inside the cup and securing to the outside with sticky tape. Repeated for all 5 cups. We mixed 1kg wild bird seed mix with 250g softened lard. The boys packed the seed mixture into the cups; removed the tape; and pulled the string tight so that the craft sticks rested snugly against the top of the cups. We froze the cups for a few minutes until they had set and then removed the seed mix from the cups and hung them up outside.

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Baby Bear had a cardiology review a while ago. At 18 months old he was not impressed with being stripped down in front of strangers in a strange environment, attached to strange machines, and poked with strange equipment. He put up with being weighed (9.29kg with a nappy on - below the 3rd centile line still) and then cracked it. He was very vocal about his displeasure. I breastfed him through the ECG and that somewhat distracted him but by the time we got to the echo he was totally over it. He wouldn't feed anymore and refused to be distracted by the apps on my mobile. They couldn't really get a good view of his heart because of his screaming and squirming around but it looked like there probably wasn't anything 'significant'. The cardiologist was happy enough to schedule the next review for 2 years time, when Baby Bear should be old enough to be a bit more cooperative and allow us a better look at his heart.

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It's been a tough winter with us seeming to catch a cold or flu every 2-4 weeks for the past 3 months. The last cold has left Baby Bear with a mild chest infection and a horrible case of oral thrush. His mouth is causing him a lot of pain and I haven't been able to brush his teeth because he screams and his mouth and gums bleed so much. Our GP has just put Baby Bear on antibiotics 3 times a day for the chest infection and to make sure nothing nasty has gotten to his heart through his mouth. He's also on nilstat 4 times a day for the thrush. Poor baby. He's terrible at taking meds and I'm also giving him probiotics, kefir grains, xylitol and coconut oil so it feels like I'm trying to coax him into opening his mouth all day. Fingers crossed that it all clears up very quickly! 

The Apple Thief

Baby Bear has taken to stealing apples from one of our local fruit and veg shops. When shopping I wear him on my back in the Ergo and while I lean over, filling a bag with (super yummy local Jazz) apples, it seems that Baby Bear sneaks a hand around and snaffles an apple for himself.

Today we reached the other side of the shop before Beanie, horrified, said "Mama, B stole an apple again!" (the older boys all know they're not allowed to eat or open anything until it's paid for). Sure enough, I looked over my shoulder and there was Baby Bear contentedly putting all 6 of his teeth to good use.

And yes, we did pay for an extra apple once we reached the counter. ;)

Catch Up - Pigs, a Birthday, Teeth and More

  

 

We've visited Mount Gnomon Farm for their Rare Day Out. In between the rain, wind and hail we enjoyed some delish food and took a tour of the farm, seeing the Wessex Saddleback pigs and Belted Galloway cattle.

We celebrated Loo Bear's 7th birthday with our traditional jelly cups and bubble bath. This year Loo requested a chocolate cheesecake with berries on top so I had fun making and decorating a simple but very yummy Toblerone cheesecake.

The Burnie Arts & Function Centre hosted the Da Vinci Machines exhibition. We all thoroughly enjoyed the fascinating and hands-on displays, as well as the more in-depth explanations that one of the workers gave us. We also took the opportunity to turn it into as mini study on Leonardo Da Vinci.

Last year, when Baby Bear and I were at the hospital in Melbourne, the OH took the other 3 boys to the Devonport community gardens. He discovered that we were eligible for the Youth & Family Focus Inc.'s Veggie Patch Project, so he signed us up. Recently the team came out and installed 2 awesome raised garden beds as well as a compost bin.

We've discovered samphire at a local beach, so have gone foraging while collecting seaweed for the garden. Samphire has the saltiness of olives with a nice freshness and crunch. We ate it after blanching and it would go well in salads.

Meeting lovely new people while out and about...

 

After years of watching our tooth fairy visit his older brother, Loo Bear finally got his first wobbly teeth. One fell out recently and we popped it and a note into a 'Tooth Jar'. Bramble Ravenwing, our boy-tooth-fairy, exchanged the tooth for a letter and a dinosaur candle (he doesn't do money).

And speaking of teeth, we've started using xylitol. I dissolve it in water (about 1.5g of xylitol per 20ml dose) to make a mouth rinse that we use after eating. I chose a mouth rinse over substituting it into our diets so that we don't have to worry about how much we're consuming and possible side effects. We also have some Epic gum and mints that we use, mostly for when we're out and about. The kids love the fresh fruit 'mints' as they're not actually minty - they have a cool, tangy, fruity flavour. The OH and I like the spearmint gum. We are occasionally using the xylitol toothpaste too but I'm currently researching making my own toothpaste with a betonite clay, bicarb soda, coconut oil and xylitol base.