They're Reproducing Now, A Whole Family Of Sandals

Latest Works

Earlier I posted about a pair of Hurrache style sandals I made a few weeks ago. I've been testing them out, in the country and the city, and they have done amazing, the leather has molded to the shape of the foot, and they've help up pretty well to concrete and water. I've even gotten used to walking in them, I found at first they confused my feet. You're walking as if you're barefoot, but the feet are protected from all the stones and rough ground. Eventually my feet understood and just went with it all.

Lately I've been working with rubber soles on these latest pairs, and trying slight variations in the way they are put together. These photos are pairs 2, 3 and 4 for me, made for one of my favourite families here in Winnipeg.'They're going to test them out, and let me know how they go. I think they're starting to look pretty cute. Still a ways to go before I can start selling them, but I'm getting there.

So, this post isn't about something of my own, but one of my favorite foraging websites went to a festival featuring many dandelion delights. A post after my own heart. A recipe of my own should follow this weekend once i'm near my freezer full of dandelion greens. For now, this bloggers post should provide inspiration to cook with our lovely dandelion friends; http://the3foragers.blogspot.ca/2012/05/dandelion-festival-2012.html

ciao for now...

Happiness Is.... Honeysuckle Flowers

Found some of these on my walk home from work. Munched on their honey sweetness and it made me smile all the way home. I always love little foraging treats in the city, especially bushes which (hopefully) won't be too polluted.

Also, I tried to find the exact type of honeysuckle bush this is on the internet, with no luck... We always called them honeysuckle growing up, I wonder if they actually are? If anyone knows, please share with me.

:-)

Sugar Sweet Legs

First off - I should say I am all for body hair. It grows there, why not let it stay? I usually leave my legs and armpits to grow to a certain length. (I do keep my armpit hair trimmed, but I find I really prefer hair there). However sometimes, the smoothness of hairless legs can be so very sensual and pleasant to the touch. So every now and then, I do get my legs professionally waxed. This might happen once or twice a year, and the last time was around new years eve, or 5 1/2 months ago. I've been feeling that smooth leg urge again. But, when I started looking up waxing salons on the net, up came up the sugar wax method. New to me, but now much loved! I find this method is easier, cleaner, more effective, and less painful than waxing. Even more, the ingredients are incredibly cheap and common, and this can all be done at home!

Sugaring (or Sugar Wax)

All you need is, well, sugar, lemon juice (or vinegar), and water. Plus some cornstarch to prep the skin. The most common recipe on the net is this:

2 cups white sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup water

I had all of these things in the house already, so straight away, I gave it a try. First, to make the sugar wax, this is what I did...

1) Mix the ingredients in the pot, and place over high heat on an electric stove element, stirring occasionally. Check out this site Part 1 and Part 2 for a video of the cooking process.

2) When the mixture starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low/medium and stir continuously.

3) Every now and then, take the pot off the heat, let the bubbles subside, and check the colour of the sugar. When done it will be a rich golden amber colour.

***I also kept track of the temperature, you're meant to bring the temperature

up to 250 deg F, at that point the sugar should reach the right consistency when

cool. I didn't have a thermometer that went high enough, so I brought the 

temperature to at least 200F, and kept it on the stove for about 5 minutes more.

4) After 5 - 10 minutes of bubbling, I noticed the bubbles became less bubbly, and more a heavy froth, with a golden colour. (Here I stopped the first time, and had to put it on the heat once again). I would recommend leaving it on the stove for about 5 more minutes once it reaches this point, making sure it does not burn.

Almost there...

*** you can test the sugar, by running a spoonful of the mixture under warm 

water, and then take the sugar glob and stretch it between your fingers. 

It should stick and have a firm stretchiness.

The Finished Sugar Wax - Cooled

5) Once done let cool - completely - or at least until it is almost room temperature. I find the sugar heats up in your fingers, so as long as you can get it from the container, it is best cooler than warmer.

Sugaring Time!

Once cool - you can start to sugar. Here is what I did...

1) Rub cornstarch over the skin to be sugared. This makes sure the surface is completely dry (important since the 'wax' is water soluble), and that the sugar won't stick to your skin.

Kneading the Sugar

2) Take a ball of the sugar wax, about 2 tablespoons, and knead it between your fingers until it get a golden/white candy sheen.

3) Rub the sugar wax onto the skin against the direction of hair growth.

4) In a sharp, quick movement, pull the sugar wax parallel to your skin, I found the closer, and more parallel this movement, the better the hair removal was. This Site has a great video to show the proper technique.

5) repeat steps 3 and 4 on the next patch of hair, continue until done, or the sugar becomes unworkable. 

Rubbing the sugar onto the leg

It will after a while, for me half a leg or so, become too soft and sticky, and stopped pulling away from the skin. At this point, just get a new ball of sugar, and continue...

After a while, I started to get into the rhythm, and it became very fast and kinda (tho still very sticky) easy. I know I will get better technique over time. And its nice to know, if I ever have a hairless urge, I can just walk to the kitchen and go from there.

Super Smooth, and Freshly Hairless Leg

***much thanks to all the websites which gave me great info on this project, 

and to my Mom for the providing of the materials and photography :)

websites used; Video; Sugaring for Hair Removal - Nina's Technique (You Tube), Beauty Woo Me DIY Sugar Wax, Oriental Epilation (You Tube), Making Sugar Wax and Using it (You Tube), Fox TV review of Alexandria Sugaring, Sugar Waxing with strips and remedies for sticky wax (You Tube), Sugaring Hair Removal 101, Do It Yourself Salon, Wedding Bee DIY Sugaring, Wikipedia - Sugaring (epilation)

Beautiful Birds

These mourning doves have been visiting the last few days...

Happy Feet, Happy Foraging

In my last post, I was collecting some dandelions, in this post, I'm going to show the shoes I was wearing while collecting the greens.

I made these last night from some fairly stiff, thick leather. I found the tutorial for them on;

http://www.invisibleshoe.com/how-to-make-huaraches/

I think they are now my favourite footwear. Within a couple hours of wearing, they had formed to the shape of my feet. They feel secure and comfortable. And they give the joy of walking barefoot, with protection against all the stones and prickles.

The leather bottoms will wear quickly on city concrete, so now I plan to experiment with adding a thin rubber bottom as well. However these will be great for out in the country.

I've had a couple of failed leather sandal/shoe designs recently, now its so nice to have one that turned out really well!

Spring's Wild Salad

Fresh Picked Dandelion Greens

The name of this blog, comes from the fact that when I created the blog address, I was eating a dinner of pasta with a blanched dandelion leaf sauce. Dandelions are a pretty amazing plant, containing high levels of vitamins and nutrients. From nutritiondata.self.com: 

"This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Folate, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Iron, Potassium and Manganese."

I had intended for the first post to be on how to collect and prepare dandelion greens, but alas, my camera did not cooperate for the photos. Today I went collecting for the second time this spring. Dandelion greens are best collected when they are young, between late April and mid-may. Afterwards the raw greens get quite tough and bitter. They can still be okay cooked throughout the summer, but the spring greens are best. (Different parts of the plant have other uses, such as the roots and flowers, at other times of the year, I'll cover this in future blog posts.) Ideally you want to collect your plants where there have been no pesticides sprayed, and the ground is fairly clean, no concentrated livestock or pets, or not so nice run-off. I am lucky, I have a huge farmyard, in which the lawn is not maintained, to gather from. That means no sprays and lots of 'weeds'.

This is today' harvest. Now that I have gathered the leaves, I prep and store them for quick and easy use in meals. First I wash the leaves in ice water, then snap off any stem that goes past the leaves, and transfer to another bowl.

I bring some water to the boil, drop the leaves in to blanch, turn off the heat, let sit for a minute or so till the leaves are soft, and strain, keeping the liquid (see below). Then I place the cooked leaves into an ice cube tray. This freezes them into easy to use blocks. Once frozen I take the dandelion cubes out of the tray, and store in the freezer in a zip lock bag. This way I can easily add this nutritious veggie to my dinners any time.

Frozen Single Serve Portions
Great to Pop Into a  Pasta or Stir Fry

As for the juice left over from cooking the leaves, add a generous amount of honey, a touch of lemon, and serve over ice for delicious dandelion lemonade.