I was obviously quite mad.

I came to this realisation as I read through the final manuscript of this book
which updates and adds a lot of material to my 2010 book A Home Companion: My Year of Living Like
My Grandmother. There I was one minute cooking a casserole in a box of hay, then I was roasting green
cofee beans in a frying pan, oh and then I was making soap in the backyard and helping one of my hens
expel an egg by rubbing her bottom with K-Y Jelly.

I can only describe that period of my life as one of immense joy and discovery, and deep down I was very
strongly motivated to live a diferent life. One without chemicals cluttering up my cupboards and
polluting my home. One without additives in my food which meant growing and cooking a lot of it myself
and eating like my nana did. And probably most importantly one where for the first time in my life I felt
in control. When you have five kids, several dogs, cats and chickens in a villa in the middle of Auckland
city, you need an element of control.

Since I wrote that book I have been on many more voyages of discovery. I went back to editing
magazines, spending some time at the helm of the Australian Women’s Weekly. I’ve written four more
books— one a novel (scary time that was); I’ve set up and run an online business selling the mad natural
cleaners I had invented (that business is now sold, as it turned out I’m no entrepreneur). And more
recently I’ve leapt into the role of broadcaster, hosting my own daily show on RadioLive appropriately
called The Long Lunch.

But more importantly my husband Paul and I bought the country property I was longing for when I wrote
A Home Companion. The caravan in the Bay of Plenty where I spent so much time writing and
experiment¬ing with recipes now sits at the top of a paddock with a splendid view of the Hokianga
Harbour. We now have five acres with an orchard, productive vege gardens and 10 chickens who were all
rescued and are a bit odd.

We started of living here part time but are now almost full time with an old cottage in Auckland where
some of our children live and where we return when we need to for work or, most often, family
celebrations. And my parents, Cedric and Elis, live with us in the cottage at the end of our house in the
Hokianga. They are in their mid-80s and just need a bit of extra care so I’m learning a lot about that.

I’ve changed a lot in the eight years since A Home Companion.

The other day I walked into our Auckland kitchen and my 20-year¬old daughter, Pearl, who has known
nothing but chemical-free cleaners made to her mother’s recipes was cleaning with a bottle of
supermarket-bought spray cleaner. I could smell the chemicals before I saw the bottle.

The old me would have had a blind fit, grabbed the bottle and chucked it out. Instead I watched her
clean and was grateful that she’s grown up to be such a good little cleaner. And then I asked her why.

‘I like it,’ she replied, grinning.

I took a breath.

‘Well I know you know what is in that bottle and what it is doing to you. So I guess that’s your decision,’ I
said.
I’m not interested in evangelising a new way of living anymore. But I am interested in sharing everything
I know about how easy it is to lead a much healthier life just by making some small changes and
remembering how we used to live, when my grandmother was 20 years old.

I hope you enjoy this book which includes all my favourite recipes— discovered and tested over the past
10 years of my life—and, like any book I write, I hope that it finds a special place in your heart and gets
to live on your bookshelf for many years to come. My family rarely sits down to a meal at our table
without me proudly pointing out which veges have been ‘sacrificed’ for their pleasure. I’ll never forget
my daughter’s boyfriend helping himself repeatedly to the salad bowl, exclaiming that he’d never tasted
lettuce as good. Personally I’ve never tasted cauliflower or broccoli as good as the ones we’ve grown,
and tomatoes are always better home-grown. But, to be honest, it took me several seasons to work out
how to be a good gardener. My parents never had a vege patch, but an early boyfriend’s mother would
send us home from visits with huge pots of vege soup made from her garden and it was an inspiration.

This chapter is designed to get anyone growing anything. I’ve waded through too many gardening books
and magazines unable to grasp even the basic terminology, and I know what it is like to be a novice.

Get started, any way you can

I tell people who are interested in gardening to simply go to the garden centre, buy a bag of potting soil
and lay it on the ground flat, like a pillow. Poke some holes in the bottom for drainage, cut a hole in the
top and sprinkle a packet of mesclun seeds over it. Keep it watered and within weeks you will have
wonderful salad greens sprouting up, which you can pick each week for dinner. If you want to pick every
night then get a few more bags to keep you supplied. I suggest this because it’s a quick and easy way to
get the gardening bug. For something a little more appealing to the eye, you can fill a large pot or make a
small raised garden. The secret is to get started.

Find the gardener in you

When I started gardening, I was very much a once-a-monther. I’d get out there for a weekend every
month and weed furiously, plant fanatically, water it all, stand back with a glass of wine on the Sunday
night and feel very proud of myself. Then I’d forget about the garden for a month and do it all over again.
I knew I’d become a real gardener when I found myself out there most days just checking, pulling weeds,
tying up plants, keeping a close eye and constantly maintaining my patch. Jeanette Fitzsimons, the
former co-leader of the Green Party, told me in an interview for the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly that
spending time in her garden is a solace: ‘Once you’ve got a garden set up, it’s not a lot of work to keep it
going. I do it in small bursts. When I’m stuck at the computer for a while, I’ll take a break and wander
down into the garden and do 20 minutes of weeding, which is as long as it might take to have a cup of
cofee with a friend working in an ofice.’

You don’t have to look far to find a study telling you that gardening is not only good exercise but also
good for the head. I have some of my best ideas for my writing while pulling weeds.

Keep a notebook

This may sound a little precious but when you start a garden, write everything down in a notebook. I do
sketches of what is where in my garden, simply because after a mad day’s planting I tend to forget which
plants went where—which is fine until you are harvesting and realise that one sort of bean did so much
better than the other and you really like the tomatoes of the plant in the middle. That is when you
consult your notebook so you can grow that variety again the next year. It also helps to keep track of
solutions that might have worked to control pests, how often you’ve fertilised and other tips and tricks
you learn along the way.

Soil

For years I would simply dig a shallow hole, throw a plant in, put the soil back and expect it to grow,
regardless of the fact that the soil was mostly clay and the hole not nearly deep enough for the roots to
develop. So here’s a lesson on soil:

` Most living things need the right mix of nutrients to grow strong and resistant to disease. Plants are no
exception. Pests and disease tend to attack weak plants; if a healthy plant is attacked, the negative efects
are most often minimal. So if you want to grow organically or use as few sprays and chemicals in the
garden as you can, then you need to give your plants a good start. For plants to thrive they need to
develop a good root system in friable soil. Sometimes a plant’s root system can be bigger than the plant
itself.

` Preparing the soil for a small garden will take you half an hour. Firstly, choose the site for your garden.
Make sure it gets sun all day if you want good results.

` Dig a trench along one length of it, one spade deep, shovelling the dirt into a pile or a wheelbarrow. Dig
the same trench another spade depth again, shovelling all the dirt onto the pile.

` Now do another trench, putting all that soil into the hole you have left from the first trench.

` Work your way row by row along your garden site until you get to the last trench, then fill that with the
soil from your first trench which is in your wheelbarrow or in a pile.

` Your soil should be all flufed up and friable and just in need of a going over with the garden fork, but
first invest in some organic blood and bone, lime, compost and sulphate of potash. Tip it all over the
garden (read the instructions on the bags for

16

17

the amounts). Fork it all through and leave it to sit for two to three weeks.

Warmth

Gardening is seasonal. If you are a beginner you’re best to start planting in spring, around late October,
so that you get fulsome and fast results. Unbelievably, I used to plant out in August and wonder why
everything took so long to do anything—or died. Labour Weekend is traditionally the time to start
planting, although I prefer to put in tomatoes a few weeks later and certainly never plant basil until, to
quote Simon Farrell, my former colleague at Newstalk ZB who taught me much about gardening, ‘you are
in shirt sleeves’. If you are a beginner don’t worry about trying to sow seeds—it’s actually a lot harder
than it looks. Invest in a few strong-looking plants at a local market or garden centre. Some of the best
beans I ever grew were from seedlings I bought at the local dairy in Rawene one weekend for 50 cents
each. The garden will be absolutely rewarding between now and the long dry heat of February, so it’s a
good time to have a go.

Planning

You can just throw everything in if you like and, believe me, I’ve done that in the past with good results.
But there are a few advantages to planning where you put things. Companion gardening is another old-
fashioned device that makes a lot of sense. The idea is that certain plants like to grow together, and
protect each other from diseases and pests while providing good nutrients. It’s not hard to find a
companion gardening chart, but my favourite companions are tomatoes and basil; marigolds and
anything, because they disinfect the soil and look gorgeous; lettuce and radish; peas and beans; and
carrots and radishes, because you can plant a row of them both and by the time the carrots need the
room to grow you’ve harvested the fast-growing radishes.

It is also a good idea to plant in rows from east to west to get the most out of the sun and give
everything plenty of space. I do tend to cram my plants in a bit closer than advised, because if your soil is
good they will have plenty of food and their leaves form a covering that prevents weeds from growing.

Also think about successional planting. It’s great having all 10 lettuces doing well but you won’t want
them all maturing at once. Leave room for sowing younger plants to give you a continuous supply. I don’t
have much room, so instead I grow lettuces that you can pick from, such as cos lettuce. That way you go
along the row picking a few outside leaves of each and have salad every night until finally they have had
enough and decide to bolt. You’ll get about four months’ supply.

Choose your plants

It might be fun to grow radishes that are white on the outside and red inside, or purple carrots, but if
you’re a beginner it’s best to go with tried and true. When choosing seedlings, look for varieties that say
‘disease

resistant’ or ‘hardy’ and have common names you are familiar with, like scarlet runner beans, Sweet 100
cherry or Beefsteak tomatoes, sugar snap peas and iceberg lettuce. These plants have been bred to
survive, and even the most novice gardener will get results. Specialist plants can be tackled later, when
you are an expert. Also don’t buy tiny seedlings from the garden centre. Chances are they have only just
been planted out that day and are unlikely to survive your beginner’s handling. Make sure they are at
least 10 cm tall and looking robust.

Also think about what you are growing and how to get the maximum nutrition from it. When I planned
my garden I found a list of the top 10 vegetables delivering maximum vitamins and minerals:
` broccoli ` spinach

` Brussels sprouts ` butter beans

` peas ` asparagus

` artichokes ` cauliflowers

` kumara ` carrots

When times are tough it makes sense to put your efort into growing the vegetables that give you the
most benefit.

Plant carefully

It’s tempting to dig a little hole and shove your seedling in, but be aware that they are babies and need
careful handling. Water thoroughly so they are easy to remove from the punnet, and then dig a nice
deep and wide hole—about three times the diameter of the punnet. Hold the plant gently by the base,
place it into the hole and carefully push the soil in around it. Always water gently once your seedlings are
in. Sometimes I will make seedlings a little greenhouse by cutting the bottom of a soft

drink bottle, removing the lid and placing it over the plant. It gives them a kick-start and protects them
from snails and birds.

Organic, non-organic, or just a litle bit

I have little time for an all-or-nothing approach to organic gardening. If I come out one morning and
some bug or fungus is annihilating a plant I have lovingly cared for every day for four months, I’m the
first to hit it and hit it hard. However, these days I’m less likely to reach for a pesticide and more likely to
employ alternative methods, like shaking the plant to dislodge the green vegetable bugs that raid my
tomatoes every year and pick them all up, mixing them up in an old blender and spraying the plant to
deter other bugs (see recipe page 66). I’ll also get out the secateurs and clip away foliage to create more
air for my tomato plants before spraying with copper oxychloride for blight. And I’ll harvest a cabbage
with a few slugs in it. So what? There’s plenty left for me and just a few holes here and there. But I do
have one rule: if it goes in our mouths, then nothing chemical goes on it. Every time you spray a pesticide
you kill of the good bugs like ladybirds and praying mantises, which do us a favour by feeding on aphids
and other pests, and there are now very strong studies proving that pesticides are killing of our bee
population as well as many other beneficial insects.

To be truly organic you must make sure every piece of compost or fertiliser you add to your garden is
certified, and every seed and plant you grow is certified; for many of us, that’s not possible and more
expensive. I believe that if you make your own compost, raise your own seeds and don’t spray then
that’s organic enough.

I also believe that no one should use pesticides; instead, accept that sometimes a plant will die and
sometimes you might have to spend time picking of bugs or brushing them of with a toothbrush but,
eventually, the good bugs will take over and your garden should be fairly pest-free.
If you do have to spray, then opt for one of the nature-friendly varieties that are widely available—but
do remember that pyrethrum, while it is a natural product, is still toxic to other insects, like bees.

Pest control

I prefer to stick to a few basic rules when it comes to pest control. I don’t use chemical pesticides or
insecticides on my plants and I fertilise with organic liquid seaweed fertiliser and blood and bone. This
means that by the time we eat our garden produce I can be sure that, for the most part, no chemicals
have been added to it or used to kill of beneficial insects like bees, ladybirds and praying mantises.

But when my lemon tree was attacked by lemon-tree borer I went out and bought a can full of poison
and injected it into the tree. I had tried natural methods like poking the holes the borer had formed in
the trunk with a bit of wire and pouring some turps down it, but they returned. So I did use the poison—
and six months later the tree died. I planted another one in a diferent spot and it took of and is still
giving me heaps of lemons.

I also work hard to encourage birds into my garden by putting food out on feeders and providing large
trees at the front of my house for them to nest in. At last count we have a pair of blackbirds who nest
every year in a tree around the side of the house, and a pair of wax-eyes who produce a loud bunch of
chicks right outside my bedroom window where I can check on them every morning in the spring and
watch their babies. There’s also another pair of wax-eyes in the puriri tree. In the evenings they make a
circuit of my property and pick insects of my vege patch as part of their nightly routine.

Crop rotation is also important as a way to eliminate disease and insects, because during the cold
months fungal spores and insect larvae overwinter in the soil and plant litter, ready to emerge and attack
the same plant in the spring. But if the same plant isn’t there because you’ve

planted corn instead of cabbage, they will not thrive. At the first sign of blight on my tomatoes I whip
out the copper oxychloride and spray them every few weeks—some organic growers frown on using this.
As a guide for spraying plants, if the container you’re holding has a label that advises a withholding
period before harvesting, don’t use it. There are chemicals in it that can be harmful, which is why they
don’t want you to eat the vegetable until the chemicals have dispersed.

I have many recipes for various sprays, some of which you will find at the end of the chapter, but my
favourite find is neem oil. It is used in India in soaps, toothpaste and cosmetics, is non-toxic to mammals
and beneficial insects, and is also biodegradable. You can buy neem oil at some garden centres and it is
fantastic in the garden because it has so many uses. It makes plants unpalatable to insects, but if they
still attack then it has a growth regulator that inhibits their ability to moult and lay eggs. It is great on
your roses for aphids and elsewhere in the garden for leafminers, mealy bugs, thrips and whitefly. I
recently sprinkled neem oil granules around the base of all my fruit trees to kill any harmful insects that
might be overwintering. You do need to apply quite a lot of it, though. I recommend spraying with it in
the morning and the evening every few weeks.

Diatomaceous earth works well as a dust to control crawling pests like slugs and snails, and on plants it
will kill aphids and caterpillars. It is a naturally occurring silicon powder that you can apply around the
base of seedlings and lightly dust on foliage. Do avoid inhaling the particles, as the silica can aggravate
lungs—wear a dust mask. It can also be used to control mites and fleas on our animals.
And for slugs and snails, no natural garden is complete without a slug trap. You can buy these at garden
centres, or you can simply use a saucer submerged in the soil. I fill the trap with stale beer and am
rewarded with dead, previously drunk, snails and slugs, which I then feed to my appreciative hens.

Another way to keep your garden healthy is to view it as a living, breathing community. If one of my
plants just isn’t keeping up or is

obviously in poor health, I dig it up and burn it. It may sound harsh, but spending money on fertilisers
and sprays probably isn’t going to help. By eliminating weak plants and their weak genes from my garden
I am encouraging a stronger strain of plants.

There are some common-sense things you can do in your garden to discourage pests and disease:

` Keep an eye on it. If you check your garden daily (like I do with a glass of wine in the evening), you can
stop pests before they get a hold on your plant.

` Plant a big range rather than just one kind, so that you don’t get a build-up of pests on one type of
plant.

` Be a tidy Kiwi. Just as you shouldn’t leave pools of water around the place to encourage mosquito
larvae, it is a good idea to remove old leaves and rotting wood that slugs and snails can hide under.

` Every time you spray to get rid of one insect, you are also endangering ladybirds and praying mantises,
which in good quantities can be very efective bug-eaters. See if you can physically remove the unwanted
insect first.

You can also use the power of plants to discourage bugs with some careful planting:

` Plant garlic around your roses to deter aphids.

` Mint will keep white butterfly away from your cabbages.

` Yarrow, with its fern-like leaves and clusters of white flowers, attracts good insects like ladybirds,
hoverflies and parasitic wasps, which prey on aphids.

` Tansy, which looks similar to yarrow but with clusters of yellow flower heads, is also an insect repellent.

` Nasturtium grows like a weed at my place and I leave it because it not only deters aphids, bugs and
beetles but you can also eat the flowers, make a great pesto out of the leaves (see page 124), and it
looks gorgeous.

` Rosemary will also deter pests and is particularly good planted near cabbages.

Sea power

I regularly spray with a product called Aquaticus Glow, which is organic and made out of fish oil. It’s a
really good maintenance spray to control insects and fungal diseases.

Weed killers
Instead of buying a toxic spray, boil the jug and pour it straight on to the weeds, or spray neat vinegar on
to them.

Compost

There’s a reason they hold classes on how to make compost at my local city council. It’s damn hard. I
naively thought you just threw anything you didn’t eat into one of those black bins and you ended up
with compost. Not so. It is a fine balance to get it right, so I suggest if you are just starting your garden,
stick with the bought stuf until you’ve mastered the basics. But when you’re ready to try your hand at it,
the benefits of composting are huge, because you get to recycle your kitchen waste.

Here are my tips gleaned from reading far too many books on the topic.

` Position the compost bin in a warm place. Heat speeds up the decaying process, so putting it in the
shade won’t work.

Worm farms

The perfect solution for someone with limited space, but who wants to recycle kitchen scraps and have
something to fertilise the garden, is a worm farm. It’s worth spending a bit of money on a really good
one like a Hungry Bin. Ours has been running successfully for years now, but do make sure you keep it in
a cool place and don’t forget to feed it. If you go away it’s a good idea to get a neighbour to pop their
scraps in.

If you want to make your own, here’s how to get started:

` You should have three layers in your worm bin. The bottom will collect the liquid, which you drain of
and dilute 1:20 with water before applying it to the garden.

` The other two levels are where the worms live and gradually move up the farm, allowing you to scrape
the worm castings from the other bin and use these as you would compost, spreading it around your
favourite plants or as a general top-dressing for the garden.

` You start the worm farm by wetting 7 cm of bedding (such as torn-up newspaper or cardboard). Throw
the worms on—about 250 g—and feed them about 250 g food a day.

` They will eat leftover vegetable and fruit scraps, tea and cofee, vacuum cleaner dust, hair, torn-up
newspapers, egg, milk and pizza cartons (soaked) and crushed eggshells.

` They don’t like citrus peel, onions, fat or oils.

` Keep the worm farm warm, but not in direct sun.

Bokashi

Another small-scale method of composting is bokashi. I started with this method and found it a good
way to get myself into the habit, as you keep the bin under your sink and layer your scraps with a helping
of bokashi mix, which looks like sawdust and contains all sorts of beneficial microbes. Once the bucket is
full you drain the juice at the bottom and dilute it with water to fertilise your garden, burying the rest in
a hole in the garden.

Other fertiliser

You don’t have to buy fertiliser, you can gather it.

` Seaweed. After a big storm, get to the beach and gather up kelp to make seaweed tea. We do this
regularly up in the Hokianga and have a 40-litre black rubbish bin with a tight-fitting lid filled with tea. To
get started, fill it with water and throw a few big bits of seaweed in (I often throw some comfrey leaves
in, too, as I have it growing wild). Leave in a warm place for about a month, then use the tea diluted 1:4
with water (to the colour of weak tea) on your plants. Just get a watering can and pour it on. Top the
rubbish bin up with more water and some more seaweed. It’s also great to throw seaweed in the
compost bin. Or follow my old friend Tau Henare’s advice—he swears by planting it under potatoes. I
just dig a hole and throw it in anywhere I feel like.

Horse manure. Look on the roadside outside your local pony club and you’ll often see it bagged up for
free or a small donation.

Vinegar. Acid-loving plants like azaleas, daphne and gardenias will benefit if you pour on 1 cup vinegar
diluted with 4 litres water.

Keeping seed

Once you have mastered the basics, a rewarding part of gardening is keeping your own seed. There are
two very good reasons for doing this. The plant you grew adjusted to your soil conditions and its position
in the garden, and finished its life passing on that knowledge into the seed. So when you plant the seed
next season it has a head-start, because it is acclimatised to your garden. Amazing. And it makes for an
easy garden season. The other reason is, of course, savings. Why pay for lettuce when you can grow your
own, over and over again, even in the winter if you live in the right area of New Zealand? All you have to
do is let one plant go to seed. Rocket looks amazing and has beautiful little scented flowers. When it has
fully formed seed pods, pull it out of the ground, put the head of it into a paper bag and hang it upside
down somewhere dry. After a few weeks have a look, and if it all looks nice and dry, shake out all the
seeds or pick them out of the pods and store until next year, making sure to label them. I store mine in
old envelopes.

This method works for most plants, but tomatoes need a bit of extra treatment because their seeds are
encased in a special film that you have to rot of. Scrape the seeds into a small bowl and add water. Let
the whole lot sit on the windowsill for a while, and a film of mould should form. This is the sign to tip it
out into a fine sieve, wash away the mouldy gunge and then spread the seeds out on some paper to dry
of.

I’m always amazed the next season that my seeds grow for me. It just seems too good to be true.

Space

Many people complain to me that they don’t have the space for a garden. I used to be one of them
before we bought our 5 acres in the Hokianga. My old house, where I taught myself to garden, was
situated towards the
back of the section, so the back garden was actually quite small and the much bigger front garden was
planted out in trees and palms. But you’d be amazed at how much you can grow in a small space and in
containers, providing your soil is good and you water often.

Watering

I’m not a big fan of watering systems in gardens, because their timers go of every day and they merrily
water away when the garden doesn’t need it. Also, they discourage plants from sending their roots deep
into the soil where there is more moisture. The plants then develop weak root systems. In Auckland
there are hectares of watering systems in the ground for a climate that only gets dry and hot for one
month of the year, in February, so all that water is being wasted.

Here are my ideas for successful watering in your garden.

` On your daily check of your garden, see if it needs a water. Often there will be one plant that really
packs a sad if it doesn’t get enough water, like a Busy Lizzy, also known as an impatiens. If that’s falling
over, then you need to water. Otherwise, stick your finger in the ground to about 5 cm depth and feel
the soil. Is it damp, or dry and crumbly?

` If you need to water (and you won’t every day), buy a cheap timer that attaches to your hose, and set it
for no longer than 15 minutes, which is more than enough time to get your garden damp. You are better
to give your plants a good soak every few days than a light watering every day. And how many of us have
set the sprinkler going intending to come back and turn it of only to forget and discover, full of guilt, that
it is still going the next morning? Which is a major bummer when you live in the country and are
dependent on tank water! A timer will ensure this doesn’t happen.

` Get a sprinkler that aims water at the roots, not at the foliage—

that way you are sending the water where it is needed most.

` If you hand-water, which I do a lot, invest in a water wand so you can point the water down at the base
of the plant. And make sure it has a water-breaker head so that water is spread evenly for maximum
impact.

Get hard

When I first started gardening I spent inordinate amounts of time and money on plants that weren’t
thriving and never would, but I couldn’t bear to give up on them. Pull the buggers out and start again, is
now my motto. Some plants just aren’t going to do well, so let them go. I also began to look at which
plants in my garden weren’t doing anything. I had a huge fig tree which gave me some figs, but really no
one eats them in my house except me, and the tree took up a big chunk of my garden and provided too
much shade for anything to grow successfully under it. I chopped it down, and the lemon tree, which I
saved from a stick in the ground five years ago, is now going great guns with the extra light available to
it.
Similarly, my lime tree would produce hundreds of little limes then drop them all before they got
anywhere, every season. In the end it was Simon and a couple of radio listeners who told me to chop it
down after I’d been moaning about it for three years. I don’t even miss it and in its place is a whole new
vege patch, which gives us food.

Increasingly I think it’s important to make garden space work for you by providing pleasure with food, or
gorgeous smells (daphne, gardenia, queen of the night), or physical beauty such as a dazzling rose,
although I think we should all be planting old varieties which smell gorgeous too. Or plant something
that feeds native birds, like flax and kōwhai for tūī.

Do a garden inventory. Think about getting rid of anything hanging

33

around and wasting space and replacing it with a feijoa tree or two, a lemon tree or a flax.

Along the ‘get hard’ lines is also the need to prune. I hate pruning because I feel sorry for the plant,
which has done so well to grow such nice things for me. But I’ve since realised that grapevines and roses
love a good prune, even if you do insist on saying ‘sorry’ every time you make a cut.

Growing a picking garden

There are so many advantages to picking vegetables just before you are about to eat them. There is the
flavour that is so fresh and crisp—nothing like the limp oferings you buy pre-washed and prepared in
bags at the supermarket. There is also the fact that you know what has been sprayed on them, used to
fertilise them and what they have been rinsed in, which in our case is absolutely nothing. The salad you
buy in those bags will often have been fertilised with chemicals or sprayed with chemical pesticides, and
some are even soaked in chemicals before they are bagged in gas to make them last longer.

Then there is the fact that the minute a vegetable is harvested it starts losing some of its nutrients and
vitality. Fruit and vegetables that are transported to supermarkets around the country are usually picked
before they are ripe, which gives them less time to develop vitamins and minerals. They may look ripe,
but they will never have the same nutritional value as they would have had if they been allowed to ripen
naturally. They are also exposed to heat and light, which degrades some nutrients.

I recently saw boxes of ‘fresh’ veges sitting outside my local supermarket in the sun, waiting to be taken
inside. You can only wonder what condition they were in by the time they reached the cooling sprays in
the vegetable aisle. Picking a fully mature vegetable or fruit as close

35

as you can to eating it has to be the best use of your garden. Sometimes I grow iceberg because it is my
favourite lettuce and my daughter Pearl loves it too. There is nothing better than a crisp fresh iceberg
leaf thrown in the mouth and crunched to your heart’s content. Occasionally Pearl and I sit with an
iceberg chopped up and dip the leaves in our favourite feta and spinach dip. But when you grow them
you do have to leave them be until they are fully formed, and I lack the patience.

The closer I get to nature and self-sufficiency, the more I realise that being patient is not a waste of time
where you hang around and nothing gets achieved, which is how I used to view it in my former high-
stress life. Now when something doesn’t happen when I think it should, I see it as an opportunity to do
something else while I wait.

Gardening by the seasons

SUMMER

The combination of warmer weather, plenty of spring rain and longer days means that by summer,
plants are thriving.

At this time of year, the tomato plants are laden with ripening fruit and need regular watering, my corn is
easily the same height as me and growing fast, and the cucumbers are nearly ready for picking. The
strawberries are producing full tilt, as are the salad greens.

Unfortunately, these conditions also help bugs and fungus to thrive. I am always on the alert for early
blight on my tomatoes and work hard to keep lower growth trimmed to allow plenty of air circulating
around the plants. (See pages 65–7 for pest control recipes.)

I spend most evenings in summer in the garden harvesting. It is best to harvest your produce at the end
of the day when the nutrients are at their strongest, so I do the rounds of tomatoes, corn, salad greens,
cucumber, beetroot, beans, capsicums, chillies and herbs for dinner.

AUTUMN

By the time March rolls around I am usually fairly grumpy with my garden. It is the one month of the year
when I look at it and just can’t be bothered anymore. It’s like the end of a love afair that started in the
spring full of hope and expectation, wore itself out over summer and is now just hanging around making
a nuisance of itself. Usually the plants are exhausted from their crop, the soil is drying up and the bugs
have taken over. I don’t see any point in wasting water on plants and we have a standof for about a week
where tomatoes rot on the ground, corn gets massacred by bugs and the only thing standing tall and
strong are the chillies, which seem to thrive on neglect.

After a week of ignoring the garden, I get out there with my husband Paul and some buckets and we
harvest everything of the plants. We take our harvest inside and spend a weekend bottling up the
tomatoes and freezing anything else.

Once all that is done, I let the hens out on to the now-depleted garden for a week. They are my clean-up
crew and it takes them the whole week to go over all the garden beds, digging and scratching and leaving
the soil nicely turned over and aerated. Then I fertilise the garden with my compost taken from one of
the huge bins I have. The hens go wild looking for any grubs or larvae in there, and once again spread it
all out and dig it into my garden.
Then it’s time to get the brassicas in before the weather gets too cold. My friend Lynda Hallinan says get
them in by the end of March so they have a good few weeks of warm weather to get started. I’ll also
refresh the salad-picking bed, which I do every month or so. We’re lucky that in the far north salad veges
like rocket and cos lettuce will grow all year round.

WINTER

During the winter, I always grow some broccoli, cabbage and silverbeet, because veges can be expensive
and good ones are hard to come by during the winter. There are also two particularly hardy edible weeds

that not only thrive during the cold weather but are also much better for you because they normally
grow wild. Purslane (known here as miner’s lettuce) and lamb’s lettuce are both wild greens or weeds,
which means they are more bitter than their sweeter cousins, the iceberg and cos, which have been bred
and cultivated by humans to eat for hundreds of years. When I was in Spain recently I noticed you could
buy bags of lamb’s lettuce that was harvested quite young, and it tasted delicious. Because these two
have had to defend themselves against predators and disease with no help from human hands, they
have more omega-3 content and higher levels of phytochemicals. Nutritionally you get more bang for
your buck growing them than the pretty, domesticated frilly lettuces you find in garden centres or buy at
the supermarket—and they are incredibly easy to grow. You will need to buy seeds—try
www.kingsseeds.co.nz—as you are unlikely to find them at your local garden centre, but I recommend
you give them a go during winter to get the best nutrition you can.

During the winter, food becomes scarce for visiting birds, so if you are fond of avian visitors (and, like
me, have cats that make simply throwing bread out on your lawn unwise), you may like to put up a bird
feeder. Your local garden centre should stock kitset feeders that stand of the ground, safely out of
harm’s way from cats. Experiment with diferent foods—you might try bread for the sparrows, apple
halves for the blackbirds and lard for the wax-eyes. Tūī love sugar water—and if you put it in a red bowl
or cup, this apparently makes it even more attractive. I set up a tūī feeder a few years ago and absolutely
nothing happened for two weeks. Then one day I was sitting outside in the sun eating my lunch, and
watched absolutely spellbound as two tūī popped by for their lunch. It was so rewarding and they visited
every day for a week or so. (See bird-feeding recipes on page 64.)

SPRING

If you haven’t grown your own tomato seedlings, get down to the garden centre and buy some.
Tomatoes traditionally go into the ground on

Labour Weekend and you’ll want to get some basil to plant around them as they make perfect
companions in the soil as well as on your plate.

My best tip for planting tomatoes—which I got from Bill Ward’s Edible Garden—is to put 1 tablespoon of
milk powder and a little potash under each tomato plant when planting—they will taste amazing. It
seems to improve the flavour and the plants get of to a good start. I also like to get ones that have been
grafted onto disease-resistant stock—they are not that much more expensive. And it might be an old
wives’ tale, but I always stick a copper nail through their stems to help ward of fungal diseases. Ever
since I started doing this I’ve never had blight hit my tomatoes.

If you really want a wonderful-flavoured tomato, go for the Black Krim heirloom plants. Every year they
give me by far the best-flavoured tomatoes, which are wonderful on Vogel’s toast for breakfast. And
such a lovely colour.

Try to use the seeds from last year’s crop (see page 31 for how to do this) as your plants will already have
the genetic code to survive in your garden, passed down from the parent plants. I notice that plants I buy
from garden centres often come down with early blight, whereas plants grown from my seeds seem to
withstand it.

A great tip for transplanting any seedlings or cuttings is to add one drop of Rescue Remedy per litre of
water in their first watering. Rescue Remedy is a homeopathic formula made out of certain flowers,
which many people use after an operation, a shock, a bump on the head or just to calm themselves
during a stressful time.

The wonderful thing about warmer weather is that salad greens start growing so quickly that if you have
a good bed-full you can take a leaf or two from each plant for a fresh, nutritious salad at lunchtime and
dinnertime and the next day they seem to have miraculously been replaced. The plants can go on like
this for months before they bolt to seed in the hot weeks of January.

42

Keeping chickens

Picking up our first three hens Marigold, Yoko and Hillary was an event that changed my life. I had
wanted chickens for a couple of years, but after researching poultry-keeping I was put of by disturbing
stories of eggs getting stuck in hen’s bottoms, prolapsed uteruses, and other nasty diseases. Then, one
day we were at our caravan and I’d been talking to the camp owners about their hens, which roam freely
around the place and represent just about every poultry breed I’ve ever seen. They had just produced a
batch of chicks, which got me thinking, and I said to Paul, ‘Imagine making our own food and knowing
what went into it from the beginning and eating something entirely created on our own property?’

‘We already do that,’ he replied. ‘We have an organic garden.’

‘Yes, but what if we could create our own protein, keep our own hens? Everyone used to do it in the old
days. They all had a couple of hens out the back.’

‘No,’ was all he said.

Half an hour later I used my latest weapon for getting what I want. ‘Lila would love them.’
‘She would, wouldn’t she?’ he smiled, thinking about his grand-daughter growing up and chasing hens
around our Auckland backyard, like something out of The Darling Buds of May.

‘I’ll just look into it,’ I nudged.

‘Mmm, okay, just look into it.’

Two weeks later the hen house arrived, beautifully made by a man I found on Trade Me.

Two weeks after that we picked up our pullets from a lovely woman in South Auckland who had hand-
reared them. They were very tame, which was great—as a first-time hen keeper I wanted to make sure I
could catch them easily.

We named them in the car on the way home, each getting to name one hen. Pearl immediately chose
Yoko, enjoying her wit and humour all

43

the way home. I chose Marigold because it seemed like an old-fashioned name my nana might have used
for her hen. Paul chose Hillary, after Hillary Clinton, enjoying his wit and humour all the way home.

‘They’re all yours,’ announced Paul when I released them from their cages. ‘I’m having nothing to do
with them.’

I proceeded to fall in love with them from the moment I got them home. It wasn’t long before I was
sufering from hentionitis, as it became known in our household. It’s related to ‘mentionitis’, the disease
that inflicts a woman who finds a man so fascinating that she insists on mentioning him in every
sentence, much to the irritation of her husband.

I found myself wandering out to the garden to watch them; a habit I still find more soothing than the
deepest meditation. It also helps you realise the true meaning of the commonly used phrases ‘hen-
pecked’, ‘pecking order’ and ‘hen party’. As I watch them scratch the ground, peck about and generally
have a very busy day raiding the garden for snails, slugs and green edibles, I marvel at their natural
instinct and how that is denied them in battery farms.

Initially my self-sufficiency plans didn’t quite come to fruition because of my insistence on feeding them
only organic feed, creating a unique blend that cost the equivalent of Angus steak all round for a week.
Then there were the frequent hand-fed treats of grapes, sultanas and corn.

Once they were 20 weeks old, which was time to start laying, they seemed to show no indication of
producing protein, preferring to chase each other around the garden and feast on the range of herbs and
greens I had grown especially for them.

‘When these eggs finally arrive they’ll work out at $17 each,’ grumped my husband as he gently stroked
Hillary’s neck.

For a man determined to have nothing to do with the chickens he was showing a lot of afection towards
them, and I’d often find him out the back chatting with Marigold, Yoko and Hillary.

‘No I wasn’t,’ he’d say. ‘I thought there was a lost child stuck in the tree.’
He’s still the first out in the morning to let the cackling gaggle of hens—who at that time are pressed
against the henhouse door, doing a very good impression of ladies waiting for the Smith and Caughey
sale to open—out of their coop.

And he’s the last one out to have a chat and close them up safely for the night in their coop.

By the end of that October we knew that eventually, of course, they would have to start laying. But what
we didn’t know was that within months I would be thinking dark thoughts about wringing their necks.

Amidst the deadlines and the planting, I almost forgot to worry about our time-wasting, non-laying hens.
Then one morning I poked my head in the hen house and there it was. Our first egg. I let out a whoop of
joy and cradled it in my hands, immediately christening it ‘Our First Egg’.

Paul came rushing out to the garden and we stood there gazing at it. A miracle to behold. When Pearl
got home from school she picked it up gently, marvelling at its brown colour, its elliptical shape, its
perfection.

‘Who’s going to eat it?’ she asked.

‘Oh, you can,’ I volunteered generously.

‘No, you have it,’ she said.

‘Paul, you have it,’ I responded.

Having finally received our much-awaited first egg, it turned out we were all a bit squeamish about
eating it. The delivery mechanism was just a little too close to home. Actually, it was staring at us from
just outside the kitchen door.

‘It came out of her bum,’ Pearl reminded us, casting a wary look at Hillary in the backyard.

We were having our first lesson in the realities of self-sufficiency. Here were three people accustomed to
buying their food hygienically packaged in sterile bags with pretty and informative labels. We put these

The

Natural

H
Introduction

In t r o d u c t Io n

In t h e Ga r d e n

I find it dificult to get a park

at my local garden centre,

even on a weekday, which is

testament to the increasing

trend to grow your own veges.

It makes sense for several

reasons. You save money after

an initial investment in soil

conditioners and seed, but

once you get into the swing

of keeping seed and making

compost you can keep growing

veges for free. You can also

ensure that the veges you grow

are pesticide- and chemical

free by growing organic. And if

you do need to spray, at least

you know what is on them. And

home-grown just tastes beter.

13

packages in our car, drove them home and stored them in our fridge. We had nothing to do with the
slaughter of the animal that provided our steak, or the milking of the cow that provided our milk, or the
shelling of the oysters I had secretly stashed at the bottom of the trolley. Just the smells involved in all
three of those processes would probably send this suburban family running for the hills, and we certainly
weren’t used to getting our food out of a bird’s bum. I could see that someone had to lead the way.

‘Right, I’ll have it,’ I said and charged out to the garden to gather the ingredients for what would become
a frequent lunch dish from there on in, using a recipe I remember my dad cooking for me when I was a
child. I sliced of a few leaves of silverbeet from the garden and brought them inside. I lightly steamed
them while I poached the egg, which turned out to have a yolk the colour of safron. I toasted some
freshly baked wholegrain bread, threw the drained spinach on top and sat the lightly poached egg on top
of that.

My husband and daughter watched eagerly as I broke into the yolk and let it run all over the silverbeet.

‘Well?’ they asked in unison as, with only a little rumble of nausea in my stomach, I raised a forkful to my
mouth.

‘I’ve never tasted anything so gorgeous in my life,’ I grinned, yolky silverbeet poking out from behind my
teeth.

I wasn’ttelling fibs. That egg—and allthosethatfollowed—consistently tasted better than any egg I have
bought, even from a farmer’s market. Each egg contains some of the purest protein you can find, along
with a range of vitamins and important fatty acids, which contribute to the health of the brain and
nervous system and help prevent heart disease.

It is nature’s perfect food. And we know exactly what goes into ours, because it is us who feeds our hens
grains, lots of leftovers, alfalfa sprouts, slugs and bugs, weeds and their favourite green, silverbeet. They
are created by hens that spend all day in the sunshine, scratching and digging, dust-bathing, chasing each
other and the cats, planning yet

another escape mission and drinking clean water. I regard them as our little powerhouses of clean,
unadulterated nutrition and we eat every egg our chickens provide, which is usually three a day. In the
months to come, however, there would be a week when I was unable to look at an egg. It was after a
near-disastrous encounter with the thing that had put Pearl of trying Our First Egg: Hillary’s bum.
`

While we were getting back into the routine of school and deadlines after a summer at the caravan, we
welcomed a new addition to the family, called Matilda.

She was found hiding under a trailer at the campground. Newly hatched, a black flufy chick, she was held
up to me in a little box and the next thing I knew she was mine. I gave no thought to the two years it had
taken for me to persuade Paul to agree to us getting three chickens; I just knew instinctively that he
wouldn’t mind a fourth. And I was right.

Initially she was named Chanel by fashion-conscious Pearl, then Blanche after our favourite character on
Coronation Street; finally, Paul named her Matilda because she hatched on Australia Day. What I didn’t
realise was that adopting a day-old chick meant more than just keeping her in a box and throwing some
food in. She screeched constantly, she had to be taught how to eat, how to drink, hot-water bottles were
needed night and day and the only place she was truly happy was snuggled into my neck where she liked
to poo . . . frequently.

By day three I resorted to putting her in the car so that we could have a little peace in our caravan for an
afternoon nap.

‘Sick of her already?’ asked the woman in the next caravan.

‘Not sick of her, just need a break,’ I replied, full of guilt but tripping over myself with exhaustion. ‘It’s as
bad as having a new baby.’

‘Did you put them in the car as well?’ she inquired, before giving a bit of advice: ‘You don’t want her to
cook in there.’

‘It’s a Prius,’ I said rather smugly. ‘It has a solar panel in the roof that operates a fan which keeps the
temperature in the car at just the right heat for a tiny chick!’

I stomped of safe in the knowledge that the temperature was automatically controlled.

Then we had to bring her home to Auckland. Pearl sat grim-faced as Matilda—in a cardboard box at her
feet—screeched all the way home.

‘How does one introduce a baby chick to three established hens?’ I googled, I emailed, I posted on
Twitter and Facebook, expecting the usual straightforward replies such queries have always received.

Turns out one doesn’t. Horror stories came flooding in of baby chicks being pecked to death. Apparently,
they start at their bottom and the sight of blood sparks a frenzy of pecking. The worst story came from
someone who thought she had successfully integrated her new chick: all went well for three days and
then the chick was found dead. The storyteller advised getting another chick for safety in numbers.

‘We don’t even know if Matilda is a Matilda,’ said Paul, quite correctly pointing out that she might be a
rooster. ‘The last thing we need is another chick who might turn out to be a rooster as well.’

Back to the computer. ‘How do you tell if your chick is male or female?’ I googled.

Turns out you can’t.

‘We’ll hire a chicken sexer,’ said Paul, who thought they might be listed in the Yellow Pages.

‘Oh great, so you’re going to drive out to Tegel or wherever they work and thrust Matilda at them in
their tea break?’

I then pointed out that the sexer can only tell the diference if the chick is a day old.

‘We’ll just have to wait and see if she starts crowing,’ I said. ‘How long will that take?’ he asked,
reasonably.

‘About five months. But apparently some roosters never crow,’ I said. ‘And some people in cities bring
them inside at night and put them in the

bathroom covered up to keep the light out so they don’t know to crow.’ ‘Not us,’ is all he said.

Meanwhile, Matilda made my office her home. And in an efort to get the other hens used to her being
around I put her in the coop when the others came out in the morning, safely locked up but able to run
around and have frequent dust baths (more proof in my eyes that she was indeed a hen). Then, at the
end of the day, she came back inside for the night when they went to bed.

‘I think I’ll do supervised visits with Marigold, Hillary and Yoko,’ I proposed. ‘Surely that will work.’

I fell in love all over again with Matilda as her feathers grew in. I marvelled at her black-and-white
plumage and was secretly chufed that whenever I sat anywhere near her she would run over to me, and
she was never happier than when she was perched on some part of my body, grooming herself and me.
As she grew she began to resemble a bald eagle, prompting a momentary panic from myself, wondering
if perhaps that little chick found under the trailer was actually a hawk, and then comforting myself by
going online and seeing similar pictures of geeky, weird-looking eight-week-old chicks.

I did pause to wonder why I had taken on yet another animal needing my attention when I was already
fairly busy with the other seven (at this point we had two cats and two dogs as well as the first three
hens). Then, one fine Saturday afternoon all hell broke loose.

‘Do we have any K-Y Jelly?’

It’s a question I don’t usually ask Paul on a Saturday afternoon, but he was in an awkward position.

He was holding our hen Hillary backwards and I was peering at her

back end. She was in a bit of trouble. Actually, I’ll re-phrase that. Her

insides were coming out of her bottom. I think, in midwife terms, that is

what you call a prolapsed uterus. She was also eggbound, which I think,

in midwife terms, is what you would call ‘can’t push the bloody thing out’.

We were officially having an animal emergency and my usual source

of poultry-keeping wisdom, the internet, advised a delicate rubbing of K-Y Jelly.

When we first got our hens we made the decision, rather wisely, that if one of them got into a bit of
trouble we would not call a vet. They only cost us $20 each, so why would we pay $1000—our last vet
bill for an animal emergency—to get them fixed up? Better to do like the farmers do and have a cull.

I gloved up and tentatively rubbed Hillary’s bottom, technically called a vent, with sex lubricant, thinking
rather ridiculously that olive oil might have been a greener option.

‘Oh God, this is so disgusting,’ I managed to screech before Paul yelled: ‘We’re losing her,’ in his serious
voice. The one Dr McDreamy uses on

Grey’s Anatomy.

Hillary’s head was hanging low, her eyes were closed. She looked just like the dead chickens you see
hanging in Asian markets overseas.

I rang the vet. He wasn’t in. I scribbled down the emergency number. I dialled.

‘Phlopp,’ said Hillary’s bottom.

An egg sped past my leg and landed triumphantly on the kitchen floor, smashing and spreading in all its
yolky glory.

The K-Y had done the trick. Or Paul had squeezed her in his panic. We’ll never know.

We put her back outside and played TV doctors and nurses with high-fives and a modest ‘it was nothing
really’, letting the adrenalin wash over us in a post-emergency high.

I looked out the back. Hillary’s eyes were closing again, she was straining, she was not looking good.

‘We’re losing her! Again!’ I shouted in my television nurse voice.

‘Look what’s hanging out of her now,’ said Paul as he reluctantly picked her up and pointed her bottom
in my direction for round two.

I gloved up, I gathered what was hanging and attempted to shove it all back in, closing one eye and
squinting through the other, as if somehow

that would make the whole nauseating experience more palatable to my retina.

‘Phlopp.’

Out popped another egg, narrowly missing my ear before landing on the deck.

I gathered and poked what was hanging out back where I presumed it belonged, then doused it all down
with warm salt water.

‘I think I’m going to throw up,’ I muttered as I collapsed into the deck chair, wrung out like a television
surgeon after an all-night brain operation.
‘It wasn’t really that bad,’ ventured Paul, who to this day claims it was his gentle squeezing that snatched
Hillary back from the jaws of death.

‘You’ve obviously never been in labour,’ I snapped back. ‘My uterus is in turmoil.’

Meanwhile, Hillary had returned to the garden where she sat down for a second, had a think and then
popped up to resume her normal activities of terrorising the cats and ripping the soil to shreds.

‘Isn’t she marvellous,’ Paul chuckled, like a new father freshly emerged from the delivery room.

I made a cup of tea with a teaspoon of sugar for the shock and kept a close eye on Hillary. I guess I hoped
she might give me a thank-you peck, or I might catch a soft, grateful look in her beady eyes rather like
the lion who had the thorn removed from his paw by Androcles.

Neither was forthcoming.

Paul bustled around cleaning up the eggs and the two pairs of discarded gloves. He held up the K-Y Jelly
cautiously between two fingers. ‘I told you that would come in useful one day.’

Our hen baby Matilda was half grown and had to be separated from Hillary, Marigold and Yoko because
the moment they saw her they

attacked her. It seems that chickens, unlike most other animals, have no maternal urges or the ability to
accept strays and orphans.

I fashioned a sleeping box out of an old wooden cat cage we’d used to transport one of our cats back to
Auckland from Sydney. Then I gave Matilda free rein of part of the garden, safely fenced of from the
others. This seemed to work well, so then I had supervised visits where the other hens were allowed to
come in and hang out with Matilda. I reasoned that if there are any dramas she would make such a noise
that I could come running from my office to save her.

They spent a couple of days like this, happily digging and scratching with Matilda, who was only
occasionally chased away if she got too close to the older hens’ food source.

‘I think she’s ready to join them,’ I announced to the family one morning after a week of happy
visitations. ‘It’s about time she became a proper hen.’

I plonked Matilda over the fence and made sure there were two sources of food and water, as I have
read that older hens will deprive the younger ones if forced to share.

All seemed to be going well with Matilda at one end and the hens at the other, so I retired to the front
deck with Paul for a cofee in the autumn sunshine.

Ten minutes later Pearl appeared, pale-faced. ‘Something’s happening and it doesn’t look good,’ she said
in a low voice.

I ran down the hall and out into the garden to find poor little Matilda cornered against a fence at the
back of the garden with three huge hens running at her and pecking her. It reminded me of those terrible
cock fights you see on old movies. Feathers and dust were flying everywhere. I rushed in and grabbed all
three rather ungraciously by the feet and threw them into their coop, where I locked them up. I’ve never
been so rough with them, I usually pick them up gently, cooing and stroking, but I was in no mood for
pleasantries. I followed the trail of black-and¬white feathers until I found a clump of them, obviously
pecked out in one

go, and a petrified Matilda who was no longer my cute, tame pullet-in¬training. She was very hard to
catch and would only come near me after much coaxing with raisins.

Only then did I notice that no one else in the family had come out to help. Paul and Pearl had shot of, far
away from the drama.

‘Everything okay?’ asked Paul, peeking around the corner of the deck. ’Bloody hens, I hate them,’ I
ranted. ‘What kind of animal doesn’t look after their young? Madness.’

The awful thing was that Matilda hadn’t made a sound. The only reason Pearl had been alerted was that
Kitty, our matriarch cat, had run in and meowed at her persistently until she looked out into the garden,
wondering if Kitty had caught a bird or a rat. Instead she had seen the beginnings of certain death.

When the dust had settled, I noticed that Kitty never left Matilda’s side. The two of them would spend all
day together on their side of the garden and seemed to have formed some kind of cross-species alliance.
Kitty had taken a close interest in Matilda ever since she’d arrived, but I always thought that the hunter
in her was simply casing out her next prey. But three months later I had to admit that she could have
killed Matilda from the first day we let her out into the garden, and perhaps in her old age she had just
taken a liking to the black-and-white hen.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if we came out here one afternoon and found those two cuddling up in the sun,’
I said to Pearl.

‘Matilda even lies down in the sun like a cat,’ she said, pointing towards the lemon tree where Kitty and
Matilda were having a nap.

And there was Matilda lying on her side with her feet stuck out just like a cat—something I’ve never seen
the other hens do.

For a time our baby hen/cat lived a rather feline existence where she shared food, groomed and dozed
with the cats all day while the other hens, who I still haven’t forgiven, gazed through the fence, no doubt
planning their next attack.

I know there are at least three ways to kill a chicken. I just wasn’t sure which one I’d use when the time
came—which could have been just a matter of days away. Before Hillary, Yoko and Marigold arrived, I
lived in a lovely old villa with lush, albeit a little overgrown and disordered, gardens front and back.

Seemingly overnight my home felt like it had been transported to the most war-torn and arid parts of
Baghdad. Only the trees survived amidst the desert-like dust that now pervaded the garden. Three birds,
each the size of a small bucket, were consuming 10 times their weight in plants and bugs a day.
I had become a prisoner in my own home, surrounded by green chicken wire and several makeshift
gates, which involved hooking bits of wire around nails in a haphazard manner. Our outside living space
was confined to a small deck and a veranda out the front. The rest had officially become chicken land. It
gave me a new appreciation of just how the Palestinians feel.

When it comes to escaping, our hens are regular little Hogan’s Heroes, compiling coded intelligence as
they check out the perimeter of the fence for gaps while masquerading as chickens merely carrying on as
chickens do. They’ve also trained the cats to squeeze under the fence thus creating a convenient
chicken-sized gap, the location of which they record in their notebooks for later use.

‘You wanted them to be free-range,’ my husband quite rightly argued as I wondered aloud how far you
actually have to stretch a hen’s neck before it would break.

‘I had no idea of the sheer force of their destructive abilities and quite frankly I want my garden back.’

This would be the garden that now lived permanently under siege, protected only by some chicken wire
and a series of mini-greenhouse tunnels. Tomato plants bravely produced fruit under fire, basil plants

56

57

cautiously put out leaves, lettuces wilted gratefully in the heat of the tunnel. What used to be my lush
garden now resembled a seed-trial laboratory.

‘Wow, the flies are bad this year,’ was a statement made by everyone lucky enough to get through the
makeshift gate and out on to our deck.

‘It’s the chickens,’ I would respond, reaching for my homemade fly repellent and spraying it forcefully
over their food, their drinks and their babies.

‘Don’t worry, it’s natural,’ I assured them. ‘Nothing but black tea and citronella.’

They would exchange looks that I now believe to mean ‘they’ve totally lost the plot over those chickens’,
then politely leave clutching the fresh eggs that they didn’t really want.

Eventually Matilda went broody—which means a hen sits on eggs in the hen house all day, which is a
natural thing to do. She just wanted to raise babies. So I bought her some fertilised eggs of Trade Me and
we soon had seven adorable chicks running around. They too grew and laid eggs until one tragic day a
Jack Russell walking past the house of its lead found them.

We were overseas at the time, and by the time our daughter Hannah, who was house-minding, got
outside he had murdered most of them. I didn’t blame the Jack Russell—it is in their DNA to chase and
kill small animals—but I did blame the owner, who never returned to our street or stuck around long
enough to help the injured and dying chickens. It was a lesson for us about the type of people who were
moving into our Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn. They were paying big money for their houses and
obviously felt there was no need to restrain their dog in the city.
The chickens that were left were so jittery they stopped laying and were basically too terrified to do
anything. So I had a long, hard think about trying to keep chickens in a suburb that had fast changed
during our time there from a relaxed hippy-type place to what was now very upmarket and one of the
top-selling real estate areas in Auckland. I decided it wasn’t

going to work with the ‘new Grey Lynners’, as I called them.

So I rang my friend Lynda Hallinan, who has a lot of land in Hunua, and begged her to take them—which
she did, bless her. One day she turned up with her car already filled to the brim with plants—a common
occurrence for Lynda—and somehow she squeezed the remaining chickens in. They are still alive and
enjoying a very happy existence on her farm.

I took a break from poultry keeping until we moved north to the Hokianga and my parents moved in with
us after a few years. I could finally get chickens again, and when I was in Auckland my dad would keep an
eye on them for me. So we now have four Barred Plymouth Rocks—just like gorgeous Matilda—and six
reds. All were rescue hens and so are past their laying best, but they still manage to keep us well
supplied in eggs and, most importantly, when I look out my kitchen window I see them mucking around
on our property and it makes me very happy.

A quick guide to keeping hens

THE HEN HOUSE

In this country we don’t have to worry about foxes taking our chickens at night, so for free-range hens a
hen house is really just somewhere out of the rain and wind where they can sleep and lay eggs. Even
when they have a hen house, they will usually end up making a nest somewhere in the garden where
they prefer to lay.

There are many hen house designs available on the internet. Whatever you choose, you need to make
sure it has perches up high as hens like to sleep roosting on these. Some hen houses have a little door at
the back which opens into the nest boxes for easy egg collection. Ours just has two boxes that are easily
reached from the door.

Make sure it has adequate ventilation and no draughts as chickens hate the damp.

It is also important that the hen house is easy to clean out. I give my hen house a good squirt with the
hose once a week, then change the hay in the nest boxes and pick up any droppings of the floor. Once
you have done all this, spray the whole place with neat white vinegar to kill any lingering germs. Your
hens will put themselves to bed at night because they are really blind in the dark and need to know they
will be safe. All you need to remember is to shut the door to the hen house before you go to bed in case
some rabid tomcat decides to have a go at the hens in the night.

CHOOSING YOUR HENS

If this is your first adventure with hens, I strongly advise that you get them from someone who has hand-
raised them so that they are reasonably tame. Good breeds to choose for egg production are Red or
Brown Shavers. As pullets—hens aged around 20 weeks—they will still be quite light on their feet, so
expect them to fly quite high until they put on weight and can only leap a bit. Your hens should start
laying any time after 20 weeks old.

OTHER PETS

Hens can hold their own against cats, and most dogs will leave them alone, but if you’re worried you can
fence the hens in. Our dog Rosie is actually quite frightened of them. But there are some breeds of dog
that just can’t leave a hen alone, so check that out with your vet before you bring hens home.

one if you want to breed your birds, otherwise hens will happily ovulate (make an egg) every day without
a rooster around to fertilise them.

FOOD

You can buy commercial chicken feed at most supermarkets, although I prefer to buy mine from a
supplier who opts out of using meat by-products. The good thing about a commercial laying formula is
that you can be sure the hens are getting all the nutrition they need. However, if you plan to free-range
your birds and feed them kitchen scraps they will get plenty of everything they need from your leftovers
as well as slugs, insects and garden weeds.

You can make your own feed using my recipe if you want to spoil them (see page 65).

The hens will also need a supply of grit, to keep in their crop where they grind up grains and grasses, and
some calcium for egg shell production. Fresh, clean water replaced daily is important, too. Hens drink a
lot of water in hot weather, so do keep an eye on it. I also give mine regular feeds of milk products like
the whey from my cheese making, or yoghurt and cottage cheese to ensure they get enough calcium.

LEFTOVERS

Our hens will eat everything from leftover cereal and toast, to salads and stale cake. The only thing they
won’t eat is citrus fruit. Don’t feed green potato peel, dried beans or avocado skins, as they contain
toxins. Too much sugar or salt is bad for them, too.

URBAN RESTRICTIONS

Most city councils will have a ruling on how many hens you can keep on your property and most will not
allow roosters. The council where I live allows six hens. It is important to have more than one as they like
to be part of a social group—three is the best number to start with.

Some people are confused about the role of the rooster. You only need
ADDITIVES

Feed your hens linseed as this supplies fibre and omega-3, which means your eggs will be even more
nutritious. Alfalfa sprouts and corn will both give their eggs deep yellow yolks.

TREATS

When you first get your hens, encourage them to eat treats from your hand so that they get used to you.
This way they will always come when you call them and they can easily be led away from the vege patch
they have invaded.

Our hens’ top treats in order of preference are sultanas, grapes, corn, silverbeet and bugs from the
garden.

TONICS

Add a clove of garlic and a teaspoon of cider vinegar to their water bowl. This will boost their immune
systems and help their digestive systems.

Also add a teaspoon of colloidal silver, which is a liquid suspension of microscopic silver particles and is
well known in alternative medicine as an antiseptic and disinfectant.

CUDDLES

Hens enjoy a cuddle and, as they get older, most will crouch down on the ground to make it easier for
you to pick them up. Hens are very reactive to anything that drops a shadow on them for two reasons.
The first is as an instinctive reaction to a rooster that might loom over them to initiate sex. The second is
in case of attack by a predator such as a hawk. Because we are dominant, when we cause a shadow over
them they crouch down obediently.

Pick them up so that you are holding their wings tightly against their body on both sides or else they will
squawk and flap all over the place. Pull them into your side and hold them reasonably tightly. They love
to be stroked around their head and neck very gently. And if you need to calm a hen, just tip it upside
down. I’m not sure why this works, but they go very quiet!
In t h e KIt c h e n

To me the kitchen of a house

is more than the place where

you heat up convenience food,

make cups of tea and do dishes.

It is the centre of my family,

where we meet several times a

day, sit around the big old kauri

table and touch base. I like to

think of it as a sanctuary of

sorts: a place where everyone

is welcome, there’s always

something to eat, something

to discuss, and a good cup

of cofee or a chilled glass of

wine are always on ofer.

71

My view is in stark contrast to a previous generation’s attitude to kitchens, which were always hidden
away behind a breakfast bar so that people ‘couldn’t see the mess’. Cooking was something done away
from guests and brought out as some miracle of culinary sorcery. This was all part of the abundance of
modern conveniences of the 1960s and 1970s; the emphasis more on glamorous hostess and cocktails
than slaving over a hot stove.

I like the old way, when women sat by the fire holding babies and people cooked and ate in the same
room. But of course, in my kitchen men and women cook and clean and chat. My kitchen is not of the
spotless variety some of my friends have—for what I’m not quite sure as they never seem to cook in
them. Mine is messy, has two cats and two dogs in it most of the time, and sometimes a chicken. But it’s
reasonably clean and, equally importantly, it’s comfortable.

Here are some ideas to get you started on making the kitchen the heart of your home, and make smart
choices about the food that passes through it.
De-clutering your kitchen

The biggest problem with kitchens is that space is used badly and food is wasted because you can’t see
what you have. Kitchens also become appliance junk-yards.

` Set aside a large table or put a sheet on the floor and unload everything into piles of similar items, such
as breakfast cereals, spices, beverages, boxed food, canned goods. Then pots, cups, plates, bowls,
glasses.

` Have a box for things you will give away and bags for rubbish.

` As you sort, look at each item. If it’s past its use-by date, throw it out. If you’re never likely to use it,
donate it. Ask yourself: ‘Have I used this item in the past six months?’

` Then do the same with appliances—how many do you use every week, and how many could be stored
elsewhere or donated?

` Go through your plastic containers and throw out any that don’t have lids, etc.

` Go shopping. Group all your baking stuf in a big plastic box which you take out only when you’re baking.
This also helps things stay fresher. (Put a couple of bay leaves in your flour to stop weevils.) Invest in a
can riser, which is a little shelf set that helps raise up the row of cans at the back of the cupboard so you
can see them, a turntable to put sauce and oil bottles on so you can easily see them and use them, cup
hooks and extra shelves. Take measurements before you go shopping so you buy the right sizes.

Energy eficiency in the kitchen

I always remember my mother admonishing me for cooking with a pot on the stove without using a lid to
save energy. There are many ways we can reduce the amount of power we need to cook our food in the
kitchen, and my latest joy is cooking in a ‘hay box’ (see below), which I discovered in

The Aunt Daisy Cookbook: with Household Hints. You won’t believe how good it is.

Here are ways I cook more energy-eficiently.

` Cook in big batches, because it takes less energy to reheat meals than to cook a whole new one. When
a good friend broke her ankle, I spent a Sunday afternoon cooking up a week of meals for her family and
realised the economies of time and energy achieved by devoting a few hours to what would otherwise
be seven nights of planning and preparation.

` Match the pan to the food. Why cook one egg in a huge frying-pan when a smaller one will do, or a
casserole in a huge pot when it will fit snugly into a smaller one?

` Match the pan to the burner. If it doesn’t completely cover the burner or ring, then you are wasting
energy. And use flat-bottomed pans on electric elements to ensure maximum conduction.
` Raid the op shops for the pots our mothers used, which have stacked steamers so you can cook on
several levels—potatoes in the bottom, and veges on top. Or buy steamers that fit over your existing
pots.

Don’t preheat the oven. There really is no need, unless you are making something twitchy like pastry,
cakes, bread or souflé.

Don’t watch the pot or oven. Heat escapes every time you lift the lid or open the door, which not only
slows down the process but wastes energy.

` Turn of the heat and leave the food to continue cooking from the residual heat for the last 10 minutes
or so.

` Invest in a nana oven. We have a huge six-burner gas oven, which we need when we have the 12
people who make up our family over for dinner. But during the week we use a small electric oven that is
quite capable of roasting a chicken (ours even does rotisserie), baking a cake, or grilling bacon and
cheese on toast. It not only heats up quickly but uses much less energy.

Smoking

I grew up with my dad smoking snapper in an old dryer on our holidays, and smoked fish is still my
favourite food. So I was delighted when my husband bought me a stainless steel smoking box, which you
can buy at fish shops or on Trade Me. This is a great way to cook and eat fish on a budget. Here’s why:

` You can take a mullet, kahawai, mackerel or trevally, which are easily caught or bought for as little as $5
a kilo, and smoke them into gourmet fish in a matter of 15 minutes.

` Kiwis need to eat more oily fish such as the ones above to get essential fatty acids and omega-3 and -6.
It is also great for mental health, may help prevent cancer, lowers the risk of heart disease and helps
develop nerve and brain cells in infants. And it’s low in saturated fats and carbohydrates yet high in
protein.

` Nutritionists recommend we eat two or more servings of seafood every week, and I’ve never met a
child who doesn’t like smoked fish.

` There are some fish you should not buy because they are caught by gill netting, trawling or dredging,
which put dolphins, sea lions and albatrosses at risk, but if you download the Best Fish Guide from
www.forestandbird.org.nz, which I encourage everyone to do, mullet, kahawai, mackerel and trevally are
all high up in the list of best sustainable fish to buy.

` You can make great fish cakes with any leftover smoked fish. ` Salmon, though pricey, is also great done
this way.

On page 141 you’ll find instructions on how to make gorgeous smoked fish.

77
Foraging, harvesting and preserving

A lot of time and energy used to be spent gathering food from our surroundings, preparing it and then
putting it away to eat later. With the advent of supermarkets, we no longer eat seasonally or preserve
harvests because we can buy what we want, whenever we want, even if it means eating snow peas from
Zimbabwe. I watch with envy as TV cooks like Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall roam among
paddocks selecting wild greens and mushrooms for dinner. I once hauled home a bag full of mushrooms
from my local park, but after a morning on the internet trying to work out if they were edible or not, I
decided not to take the risk, which is a shame because I liked the idea of eating from nature. But I do
gather watercress from a stream nearby, make a mean nasturtium pesto, and I’m learning to preserve
things in the vast collection of Agee jars I add to every time I visit an op shop. You’ll find recipes for
arrabiata sauce, nasturtium pesto, dried herbs and basil ice at the end of the chapter to get you started
on the foraging, harvesting and preserving habit.

As you wander around most neighbourhoods, you can see citrus trees groaning with fruit in the backyard
of an old lady who can’t possibly eat them all by herself. After five years of staring hungrily over the
fence I plucked up the courage to ask my neighbour if I could pillage his grapefruit, and encourage you to
try knocking on your neighbours’ doors to ask, too. Most people are more than happy to let you grab a
bag. It can also be a nice way to get to know some people in your community, you can perhaps ofer to do
something in return for them, and it stops waste. Just think: a bag of lemons squeezed can make a very
good cleaning bleach. And if you are one of those people with plums falling all over the ground, then why
not bag them all up and put them out the front with a card saying FREE. Think of the children you are
providing valuable nutrients to.

Preserving tips

Preserving food is such a lovely old-fashioned way to make sure we get the best out of produce while it is
in season.

Before the days of freezers, our nanas would bottle and preserve all their garden produce while it was in
season and bursting with goodness. Then for months on end their families would be nourished and
nurtured by it. These days it’s a wonderful alternative to freezing fruit and vegetables because I think the
flavours are nicer. If you don’t have a garden you can buy produce at good prices in season and save a lot
of money for just a little input of time.

Here are some hints and tips for getting the best out of preserving.

` The principle of preserving is to heat the food up to a high heat which then destroys any bacteria that
might be present. You then need to get it into a sterilised jar, which then seals under a vacuum, meaning
no bacteria can grow.

` Everything has to be clean, clean, clean, so wash your hands often and make sure your boards and
utensils are washed and ready.
` Don’t include any rotten parts of the fruit or vegetable—cut them out to avoid bacteria getting in the
mix.

` Adding lemon is a great idea as it makes the mix slightly acidic and therefore less likely to harbour
germs.

` It is best to sterilise your jars at the same time as you are cooking up your recipe so that they are both
hot at the same time. To sterilise your jars, wash in hot soapy water and rinse clean with hot water. Place
the jars in an oven heated to 110°C and leave for five minutes. You can also place the metal rings in the
oven but leave the seals out as the plastic will melt. Wash them thoroughly and pop them in some
boiling water for a few minutes.

79

` For sauces and jams the easiest method to use is the hot method where you cook the food, pour it into
hot sterilised jars, place the lids on and seal. As the food cools, a vacuum will be created causing the
metal seal to pull inwards to form a concave shape. This is how you know your preserving has been
successful.

` Another more old-fashioned method is called the overflow method. You place the food in sterilised jars
and fill to the top so that it slightly overflows the jar. You then wipe the rim clean and seal the jar.

` If you are just wanting to pack fruit into a jar without cooking it first, you can do this using the water
bath method. Simply pack the sterilised jars with raw fruit such as tomatoes or plums and cover each
layer with a sugar-syrup solution, wine or juice.

Seal the jar with vacuum seals, loosely screw on the metal bands and then place in a large saucepan or
roasting dish filled with water so that it comes three-quarters of the way up the jars. Bring the water to
the boil and cook for about 30 minutes. Once the syrup is bubbling and the fruit looks cooked, remove
from the bath and screw the lids on as tightly as you can. When they cool a vacuum should form.

` You can also seal with paraffin wax, but you have to make extra sure there are no gaps left for air to
enter and that the wax comes right to the top of the jar so that it is easy to get the wax of when you
need to.

` When you have poured your food into the jars get a skewer and run it down inside the jars to release
any air bubbles that might be in there, or alternatively thump the jar on the bench a few times.

` You can find second-hand jars and preserving equipment like pans in second-hand stores and op shops,
but do buy the rings and lids new as they are most likely a bit rusty and could contaminate the food.

` If you are making a pickle or chutney, some people like to pour

vinegar over the jars before filling to prevent fermentation.

` Be aware that you are preserving, not mummifying! Your jars will have a shelf life. Most jams and
pickles will last for a year; chutneys and relishes for about 18 months. So make sure you date all your
preserves, and if you are at all unsure about a jar discard the contents rather than take the risk.

` Try to use stainless-steel cookware as other metals can afect the flavour.

` Most recipes call for sugar in vast amounts and there’s a reason for this—it is a preservative. Don’t be
tempted to replace it with another substance to save on calories.

` Keep all preserves in a cool, dark place. It’s tempting to have them all on display but you will only
shorten their shelf life if you do.

` Make sure you are in a good mood. If you are rushing or don’t really feel like cooking your preserves,
you will miss out on the joy of a few hours spent in the kitchen.

Reducing your grocery spend

One of the biggest expenses in our budget is the stuf that comes into our kitchen every day. And then we
throw a lot of it out at the end of the week, after it has sat at the back of the fridge, forgotten. The first
step to saving money in the kitchen is to reduce waste.

Here are some ideas.

` Don’t buy or cook more than you will eat. Do you always throw away salad, cooked vegetables, bread?
Only buy what you need, even if that means stopping of at the supermarket on the way home from work
a few nights a week.

` Use it up. When planning dinner, first look in your fridge to see what you can use up. Bubble and
squeak is an old favourite, in which you fry up everything together; Asian chicken soup can be made out
of leftover noodles, chicken stock and vegetables; stew fruit; bake banana cake and bread and butter
pudding.

And always serve your salad dressing in a separate jug so that any leftover salad won’t get soaked and
can be returned to the fridge for a later meal.

` Store things well. Fruit lasts longer in the fridge, so every morning bring out enough fruit for the day
and put it in a fruit bowl. Wrap celery in aluminium foil so no air can get in, and it will last for ages. Keep
mushrooms in a paper bag, cheese in air-tight containers, and fresh herbs, such as parsley, in a glass of
water in the fridge.

` Understand the labels. The ‘use by’ date means to use it by that date, but ‘best before’ means you can
use it after the date—it just won’t be as good. My first mother-in-law taught me always to pick your
products from the back of the supermarket shelf because they put the oldest at the front.

` Keep basics that team well with leftovers on hand so you can easily create a meal. Pasta, rice, canned
tomatoes, stocks, onions, garlic, oil and eggs will always match up with other ingredients in the fridge.
` Cooked leftover veges may not be very appetising, but when you throw them in a soup or make them
into a quiche or frittata you can give them new life.

` If you do have to throw food out, make sure you keep it out of the rubbish. Start a compost bin or
worm farm, or feed it to the birds, or, better still, get a couple of hens in your backyard to squabble over
it.

Roasting your own cofee

Paul used to be the cofee roaster in our house. We must have saved hundreds of dollars over the two
years he bought green beans online and roasted them on the stove in a frying pan. The only time I have
tasted better cofee was when we were in Mexico, where I became so addicted to the local cofee that I
filled a suitcase with the stuf to bring home.

Cofee so often gets a bad rap, with conflicting studies coming out every month. If you type ‘cofee health
facts’ into Google you will get 7.5 million responses.

But cofee has been used for hundreds of years by people wanting a stimulant. In folk medicine it was
used to treat snakebites, asthma and headaches. The reason it is ofered at the end of a meal is to
stimulate digestion and it also purges the bowels for people prone to constipation. You can also use the
wet grounds as a poultice for bruises and insect stings.

I drink one cup a day to get me kick-started as I sit down at my computer, so I make sure it’s the best cup
it can be both in terms of how it was grown (sustainably and fairly traded, free of chemicals such as
herbicide and pesticide sprays) and in terms of taste. By the way, if you drink decafeinated or instant
cofee, do be aware that petroleum-based solvents and other chemicals are often used in their
manufacture.

We make our cofee using a moka pot, which Italians use to make espresso cofee at home. I find it makes
a perfect cup compared with the

expensive espresso machines some people have in their homes.

When I came back from visiting Morocco, I began to make the Turkish-style cofee that is commonly
served there (see the recipe on page 131). It is a delightfully spicy, sweet, short kick of cofee. You can get
it made beautifully in some restaurants, but I love making it myself. The hard part is finding the very
finely ground, almost powdery cofee, which most home grinders, including mine, won’t be able to grind
fine enough. Thankfully, you can usually buy it at Middle Eastern food shops or online.

The combination of cardamom with the sugar and cofee is divine and I often make this at the end of a
dinner party for my guests. I serve it in tiny demitasse cups and remind them not to drink the grounds!

Roasting your own cofee is a great way to save money on one of life’s must-haves: a decent cup of cofee.
Buy green cofee beans online for about $15 a kilo and you have already saved the $25 you were paying
for the equivalent amount of roasted cofee beans from the supermarket. And I can guarantee that the
cofee is much, much better. There are directions on page 131.
Making your own bread

I once read an article by Julia Child in which she asked, ‘Why is French cooking so good?’ Her answer: ‘It
is love that makes it so.’

I think the same can be said of making bread. The mechanics of making a loaf of bread are not difficult, if
you have the time to leave the dough to rise and a warm place to put it. But if you try to make a loaf
when you are in a stinking bad mood, in a hurry, or feeling put upon, it always turns out to be a failure.
You have to love making bread, or at least know you’re making it for those you love. It’s one of the most
ancient rituals you can perform in your own kitchen, knowing that for hundreds of years women have
been doing the same thing all over the world most days.

My ritual starts with the kitchen. I usually make bread in the morning

so I’ll wait until I have the kitchen to myself and the dishes have been done, leaving me a nice clear work
bench. I take of my rings and place them in my little blue bowl on the windowsill, put on my apron and
then on goes the music. Van Morrison is the most successful bread musician so far, closely followed by
Joni Mitchell—although she’s better for when I’m making preserves. You will find your favourites, but
remember it needs to be someone who calms your pulse and sends you into a more relaxed state than
you were in when you entered the kitchen.

Preferably, for me, there will be a ray of winter sun gleaming through my kitchen window and there’ll be
the hungry blackbird who lives in the tree around the side of our house on the fence waiting to dive
down and finish up any scraps the hens have left over from their morning feed.

I then do the yeast. I use dried yeast and always buy it in sachets, which are just enough for a couple of
loaves of bread. Yeast is a living organism, so you don’t want it sitting around in a jar for months going of.
In sachets it remains fresh and ready for you to open. I run the tap until the water is the right
temperature, which is just warmer than blood temperature— you should just feel the heat when you dip
your finger in it.

Then I add the sugar and the yeast and set it up on the windowsill in the sun so that the sugar can wake
up the yeast and the warmth can do the rest to get it fizzing.

I then reach for my bread-making bowl, which is a big old earthenware darling called ‘The Easimix Bowl’
made by T.G. Green and Co. Ltd, who make the popular blue-and-white striped Cornishware. My bowl
looks a lot like a traditional Mason Cash earthenware bowl, but inside it has a wonderful bright green
stripe around its perimeter and a big green polka dot. It immediately appealed to me in the antique shop
where I found it as it has pockmarks and stains from years of use by other women mixing cakes and
bread. It also has a splash of white paint on its side—perhaps put there by someone’s errant husband
using her best bowl to mix up paint. Into this lovely old thing goes my flour and any other ingredients,
then it too gets placed in the winter sunlight to warm.
When the yeast is frothy and smells like a strong beer I add it to the flour mixture and gently, always
gently, knead the dough in my bowl before turning it out on to my board for further kneading. The art of
kneading is something you learn with experience, but to me the most important thing is that you get lost
in the repetitive pushing and rolling. I push the dough away from me, then roll it, then push on the other
side, and then roll. I never hit or punch the dough, just knead and enjoy the 10 or so minutes I spend
with my hands in the mix, pushing it around the board until it suddenly goes all elastic and shiny. I then
wash out my Easimix with hot water to warm the bowl, dry it out, rub a bit of oil around its surface and
put the dough back in it to rise.

Winter is not a great season in which to encourage bread to rise, as the dough really likes to be warm
and cosy. If I have the wood burner on I will pop it in front of that, or perhaps in a strong ray of sunshine
out the front on our deck, which is the only suntrap we have during the cold months. If I’m feeling
especially loving towards my dough I’ll fill a hot-water bottle with warm water and sit the Easymix on
that.

I wash up and go back to work in my office, patiently waiting the hour it will take my bread to rise. Then
we usually have another kneading session and then another rise.

And then it’s the oven. Back in the day if I could, I used to time the cooking of the bread to coincide with
Pearl returning home from school.

‘Bread!’ she would announce as she walked down the hall inhaling the most comforting, cosy smell of
home that she knew.

‘How long?’ she would ask, peering into the oven.

‘Just a few more minutes and then you can take it out.’

Pearl knew that if your bread is cooked you can tap it on its top and it will sound hollow.

Half an hour later we would sit at the kitchen table and devour hot fresh bread with butter. The rest of
that loaf got finished at dinner, leaving one more loaf for breakfast the next day and for Pearl’s school
lunch.

I have several favourite recipes I use, which range from highly

complicated and time-consuming to really very easy. I usually make a basic white, which is steam baked,
and a wholegrain at the same time, so I end up with four loaves, two of which go in the freezer. It is
economical to do both at the same time, as the white goes into a cold oven which heats up and then the
wholegrain goes straight in afterwards. You will find that natural, homemade bread without additives or
preservatives is really only good on the day it is baked, then for toast the next day and after that it’s as
hard as rock, so freezing is a great idea to keep extra loaves fresh. Pumpernickel is so damn easy and
such a wonderful, healthy, filling loaf, great served with salmon and cream cheese or salami and pickles. I
find that on any given day I’m happy to make one or all of the loaves you’ll find recipes for at the end of
this chapter, depending on how much work I have on. And I find that at the end of making bread, I feel
like I’ve had a little sleep and a foot massage and loved a little.

I can make bread easily because I work from home and can keep an eye on the rising. But there’s nothing
to stop you doing it in the weekends, and your family will love you for it. There are numerous recipes
around, and the key is trial and error until you understand the process of the yeast rising then the
release of kneading. The most successful loaves of bread I bake are when I’m feeling relaxed. For some
reason yeast and stress don’t mix.

Breakfast—the most important meal

Breakfast is the meal I look forward to most. I’ll often go to bed thinking about what I will make for
breakfast. Will it be my cereal mix of unsweetened wholegrain muesli topped of with goji berries, a Brazil
nut, a tablespoon of flax-seed fibre and a swirl of homemade yoghurt? If I’m feeling virtuous and feel I
need a meal with so many nutritious super-foods, which is most days, I’ll go for this so that I can at least
know I started the day right.

Or it might be fruit toast with homemade ricotta and the lemon curd I whip up from our eggs and lemons
of the tree. Or maybe a few freshly poached eggs on some wholegrain toast with Marmite. It usually
comes down to how much time I have, so if I’m in a hurry it has to be cereals. There are a few things we
need from our cereals, in my opinion, for optimum nutrition. We need them to have wholegrains to
provide the most nutrition and high fibre, some fruit and nuts perhaps, a bit of yoghurt or milk for a
morning protein boost, and we need no added sugar. Good luck finding that.

We should aim for at least 4 grams of fibre per serving, but I’ve seen cereals labelled as ‘wholegrain’ and
‘source of fibre’ with only 1.6 grams per serve. Distressingly, our cereal manufacturers are also following
the Americans in loading their product with sugar. You would think that a cereal that has on its packaging
the words ‘nutritious energy cereal’, ‘wholegrain’, and ‘fibre’ would not be made up of nearly a third
sugar. Some manufacturers have also become very clever at hiding the sugar content of their foods with
words like corn syrup, cane sugar, dextrin/ dextrose, lactose, maltose, honey, fruit juice concentrates,
molasses, maple syrup, corn sweeteners, evaporated cane juice, malt, fructose and high fructose corn
syrup.

One muesli that’s been around for a while and isn’t loaded with sugar is Nicola’s Organic Muesli
(unsweetened). It has 2.3 grams per serving and that sugar comes from the dried apricots, raisins and
dried apple in it. But by far the best cereal, with only 0.8 grams of sugar per serve and nearly enough
fibre at 3.3 grams, is good old WeetBix. It seems that it really is best for Kiwi kids and adults. And then
there’s good old nana porridge. If you have the time there is nothing more nutritious, low in fat, with
great fibre and no added sugar. My first choice, if I have the time in winter, is a big bowl of porridge
cooked with raisins or goji berries in it and served with a sprinkling of chopped up nuts and yoghurt.

At one stage during my search for a decent cereal, I tried boiling up brown rice with sultanas and some
spices, to which I added yoghurt. It

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tasted quite nice and I figured I could just keep it in the fridge and scoop some into the bowl with
yoghurt every morning. I lasted about three days, because despite the fact that millions of people in
India and Asia start their morning with rice, personally I just couldn’t do it. In my opinion, rice is for lunch
or dinner, not for breakfast. I have included the recipe on page 138, though, if you’re interested in trying
it yourself. These days I’ve reverted to toast (often gluten-free if my guts are feeling a bit dodgy) and a
cup of tea.

Hosting a dinner

Part of my old-style way of living—as if growing my own veges, having chooks and cleaning with nothing
but baking soda and vinegar isn’t enough—is having people to eat in my home. I grew up in a house
where dinner parties were frequent, and I learned early on the wonderful energy and togetherness that
can be created when people eat and drink together. Unfortunately, these days too many people are too
concerned with how their home will look to others or worry that they don’t cook well enough. When I
am asked to someone’s house I never care about anything except the good company. And you can also
have four people at your house for next to nothing. Here’s how.

BUDGET DINNER PARTY OPTIONS

` Go vegetarian and dairy-free—a potato and onion frittata with fresh herbs, for instance, works out at
about $1.14 a serve.

` Choose tuna—a tuna fish bake will cost about $1.99 a serve.

` Make an Asian slaw—grab a bag of herb coleslaw, throw it in a bowl and add ½ red onion, finely
chopped, a sprinkling of sesame oil and the juice of 1 lemon. This works out at about $1 a serve.

Eating ‘nose to tail’

When I’m up north on my own for a while, I always pack nice food just for me because I don’t have to
cook for an army and can indulge myself in the meals I really love, which are often the healthiest ones for
me.

You’ll be thinking I eat fresh salads accompanied by poached white fish and cleansing mineral water. But
what I really crave to eat when I’m on my own is liver. I’ll say it again . . . liver. In my opinion it is a highly
under-rated health food, low in saturated fats and cholesterol and high in vitamins A, B6, B12 and D, as
well as being a great source of protein. There’s also iron, zinc, copper, manganese, riboflavin, thiamine,
niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, phosphorus and selenium.

Research shows that—possibly as a result of our determination to beat skin cancer by keeping out of the
sun—around half of New Zealand adults don’t get enough vitamin D and 4 per cent of women and 2 per
cent of men are vitamin D-deficient. Our main source of vitamin D is sunlight, but you can also get it from
foods like liver. There is growing evidence that having an adequate level of vitamin D can prevent or
improve the outcome of many diseases, including breast, prostate and bowel cancer, cardiovascular
disease, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. There is even a possible association between low levels and
obesity. So liver is more than a health food—it’s a bloody tonic!
After a long winter I often feel a bit run-down, so a course of liver once a week—yes, just like Nana used
to eat—is a great pick-me-up. In May when tamarillos are in season, I throw them in with the liver, fried
onions and some of my homemade Worcestershire sauce and am immediately transported to my happy
place.

Eating liver also honours the killing of animals by eating every part of its body and not wasting anything.
There’s a reason that wild beasts like lions go straight for the liver when they’ve killed an antelope—it’s
the most nutritious part of the animal. My house up north and I have shared many happy liver nights
together far away from the ‘yucks’ and ‘ew, how

can you?’ reactions I get at home. If you too are a liver lover, or are willing to give it a go, there’s a recipe
on page 140.

Diets

A few years ago, Paul and I discovered quinoa after we both decided to go on the Sonoma Diet, an eating
plan that concentrates on ten power foods: whole grains, almonds, capsicums, tomatoes, broccoli,
grapes, spinach, blueberries, strawberries and olive oil. It uses many ancient grains and lets you drink
wine after week one, which is why we chose it.

We learned a lot about the power of grains, but also a sage lesson on why Paul should never diet. After
the first week he came into my office.

‘I can’t see,’ he announced as he stumbled in doing a very good impression of a blind man.

‘Nonsense,’ I replied, engrossed in a piece I was writing. Ten minutes later he returned.

‘Seriously, I can’t see,’ he tried again.

‘Why is it that whenever I need to write, you crash in here with some tale of woe?’ I grumbled, refusing
to look away from my computer screen as my story approached the finish line.

Five minutes later he returned.

‘Can you at least have a look at my glasses?’ he pleaded. ‘Maybe they’re broken and that’s why I can’t
see.’

It wasn’t the glasses. It was the diet. A week into our new diet and Paul was a blind man.

Fortunately I am the daughter of a diabetic and was able to diagnose a symptom of low blood-sugar on
the spot and administer high doses of bananas, barley sugars and fruit juice.

Paul meanwhile wandered around the house alternating between banging into walls and looking dazed
and confused.

‘How could this have happened?’ he wondered out loud.

‘A few words spring to mind, such as “dogged”, “determined” and “bloody stupid”,’ I responded.
Paul had launched into his first ever diet with evangelical enthusiasm which, combined with his annoying
habit of following the letter to the law and exercising for two hours a day, meant that by my calculation
he was living on about 800 calories a day. And all this for a big man who should probably take in about
3000 calories just to function correctly.

‘You need to lighten up on yourself,’ I had commented the day before he lost his sight. He had run into
an old friend who was setting up a baking stall and had made him a gift of a very plump ginger kiss.

‘I palmed it,’ he told me. ‘I can’t be eating that stuf, it’s pure sugar.’

‘Everyone on a diet cheats, it’s just a ginger kiss,’ I reasoned.

‘Nonsense. Why would you go on a diet and not follow it exactly?’ he replied, pufed up with rectitude.

It took about five hours for his sight to return to normal. I watched him like a hawk, only too aware that
at any moment he could keel over in a coma. But the drama of losing his eyesight wasn’t enough to say
goodbye to the diet.

‘I’ll just add a fruit serving,’ announced the manorexic-in-training.

The next day he lost an entire story he had been working on for two days, forgetting to save to his hard
drive as he was writing. I thought he was going to cry, then he went to bed at 11 o’clock in the morning. I
kept nudging him awake and asking him what day of the week it was and who our prime minister was.
Then I went to the wine shop.

‘Get this down you and then you’re having a proper meal,’ I instructed. ‘Are you drinking again?’ Pearl
asked, eyeing up the wine glasses. ‘Yeah, Daddy needs the sugar,’ I reasoned.

‘Oh thank goodness for that,’ she said. ‘You guys have been so weird all week.’

One bottle became two.

Later that evening our daughter entered the lounge to find her parents behaving entirely normally for
the first time that week. Her father was

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blissfully asleep sitting upright on the couch, and her mother was sobbing her eyes out because Juno had
just given her baby away in the movie.

‘Bedtime!’ she informed us before switching of the TV and putting the dog out. ‘I’m so glad you two are
back.’

THE WORLD’S BEST DIET

I really hate the word ‘diet’ and when I edited women’s magazines I actually banned it, making all my
writers replace it with ‘healthy eating plan’. Here, however, is one ‘diet’ I approve of.
` Eat local and organic foods. Don’t buy fresh food sourced from overseas, and do shop at your farmers’
market and freeze produce when it is in season and cheap. Food with pesticides and chemical fertilisers
takes energy to make and contaminates the soil and groundwater. Food flown in uses carbon miles.

` Wean yourself of the bottle. Plastic water bottles are bad and we use tonnes of them. Get a reusable
stainless-steel bottle and fill it from the tap. If you want something more pure, get a water filter—then
you’ll save money as well. And if, like me, you have an addiction to sparkling water, ask for a SodaStream
for your birthday.

` Drink organic—wine, cofee, beer, cocoa. Non-organic cofee is often grown on land where rainforests
once thrived, and pesticides and chemical fertilisers pollute land and water.

Eat sustainable seafood. Go to www.forestandbird.org.nz to download a wallet guide or app for good
fish varieties to buy.

BYO bag. Get into the habit of carrying a sturdy bag everywhere you go, to pop in your groceries and
various bits and pieces. Learn to say no to a plastic bag when asked at the counter. I find the good old
string bag takes up no space and holds an awful lot.

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` Grow your own. Start with mesclun and rocket in a tub or a bag of potting mix. It’s really easy and you
can have fresh salad every day of the year in most parts of New Zealand.

` Be takeaway savvy. Decline paper napkins, plastic utensils, condiment packs and chopsticks. Some
people take their own container. Take your own mug for your daily cofee from your local café.

` Become whole. Avoid processed food. Shop on the outer rims of the supermarket—that’s where all the
fresh food is. Replace processed breakfast cereal with porridge, make your own muesli bars and eat nuts
and dried fruit rather than salty snacks. You might lose weight as well.

` Eat less meat. The production of beef and pork pollutes water, and don’t even think about the methane
emitted by cow farts. We eat too much meat in the West, so aim for one meat-free meal a week and see
how you like it. And source your meat from local farmers whose farming practices aim not to pollute.

` Just eat less. We have an obesity epidemic. Look at your portion sizes and remember that all food takes
a toll on the environment through production, packaging and transport.

Eating like a nana

A few years ago, I set myself a ‘nana challenge’. For a month, I wouldn’t eat anything with more than five
ingredients on the label. I wouldn’t eat anything my nana wouldn’t recognise. (These are not original
ideas and they are both open to some very logical disputes.)

Here are some tips for eating more like your nana did.

` Swap white rice for brown rice.

` Swap white bread for brown bread with grains in it.

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` Swap anything made in a laboratory for a natural product, i.e. margarine for butter.

` Eat fish twice a week. Even mullet tastes great if smoked or grilled, and tinned salmon and tuna make
fabulous fish cakes.

` Buy fruit fresh and often from a local greengrocer—not a supermarket.

` Shop every few days and buy just what you need. Not once a week when food is bought but often
thrown out.

` Make the most of leftovers in pies, sandwiches and soups. Don’t just feed them to the dog.

` Talk to your neighbours and swap produce or start a community garden. Don’t just nod politely every
time you see them.

` Make the most of seasonal fruit and veges at good prices to bottle or freeze, instead of buying tinned
fruit or paying good money for out-of-season fruit flown in from overseas.

Understanding what’s in your food

For a long time now, because of my rejection of chemicals arriving in my house through the use of
commercial cleaners, I have come to regard food with the same suspicious eye. Just because it has a
label listing its ingredients or the words ‘natural’ or ‘healthy’ doesn’t mean it is good for

me. A while ago I read both The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, written by American
journalist Michael Pollan, and his discoveries about the over-processing of food made sense.

When it comes to advice, I am always very ready to take it from a journalist like Pollan rather than a
nutritionist, scientist, government agency or doctor. Primarily I am biased towards journalists because I
am

one, but also because the good ones look into a topic from an objective position and reveal all the
information for you to consider, from both sides of the argument.

In Pollan’s case he goes in, gets the information and then summarises it. Good journalists also write in a
style the average person can understand, unlike scientists and government agencies. Pollan is of course
not the only person out there saying that when health experts and government agencies tell us what to
eat, they are not always right. Governments are targeted by large industry lobby groups and major food
producers, such as farmers and growers. Imagine what would happen if tomorrow our government put
out a recommendation that as a nation we should vastly reduce our red meat protein intake to half of
what we eat? This is what is advised by most nutritionists—eat less red meat, more fish, more plants. But
we are a nation of farmers—someone has to eat all that meat they are producing when exports aren’t
going so well.

I’m also not sure when it became okay to feed our children ingredients we don’t understand because
they are listed in code. Three numbers tell us nothing about an additive unless we sit down at a
computer and look it up or carry around a long list with us when we shop so that we can interpret the
codes on the go.

Food additives are usually added to food to make it last longer on the shelf, taste diferently, look more
appealing or to keep it crisp, dry and crunchy. The main food in the package may be a natural product,
such as potato in potato chips, but surrounding it can be dozens of chemicals simply to make it do things
it wouldn’t be able to do naturally.

In my opinion, we have a right to know what they are without having to learn a new language of coded
numbers, so I am the one with my reading glasses on holding up the aisle in the supermarket as I
exhaustively examine labels. Not many people know how to do this, so I am going to tell you.

The order in which the ingredients are listed tells you how much of each food is in the product you are
about to buy. For some potato chips

it will be potatoes, oil, salt, because most of the food you are about to eat is potato, followed by the oils
they are cooked in, followed by the salt they are seasoned with. I will eat those potato chips. They have
three ingredients I understand and thankfully they are still available.

For ingredients you don’t understand, I urge you to get on your computer and do an analysis of the most
common processed foods you and your children eat. Be careful with your research on the internet,
though. There are thousands of websites claiming that various ingredients cause cancer, diabetes and
allergies, which aren’t substantiated and the sites are often pushing a particular cause or belief which
means the information you are reading is not always true. There are also hundreds of websites claiming
that all additives are safe. I encourage you to seek good information and make your own mind up. I use
Wikipedia, which I regard as a well-monitored and reasonably non-biased information source, but even
then be aware of possible biases.

If you type in ‘list of food additives, codex alimentarius’ (Latin for ‘food code’ or ‘food book’) you will find
a list of every code number assigned to food additives, and the name of the chemical it stands for. You
can look up the code number, e.g. 621, and find it stands for monosodium glutamate or MSG. You can
then click on that name and it will take you to a full description of the substance.

Read through and look out for subject lines such as ‘Sensitivities and Allergies’ and ‘Possible Health
Efects’. This information is produced by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which was established by
the World Health Organization and is recognised by the World Trade Organization as an international
reference point for the resolution of disputes concerning food safety and consumer protection.

The irony is that you, as a consumer, have all the information at your fingertips in the form of an
ingredients label with lots of codes on it. You then have to go home and look them up to find out what
they represent. I doubt many people have the time to do this.
But I did one afternoon when I brought home a pack of ‘Succulent

Roast Lamb & Mint’ flavoured potato chips, with the rather ominous statement on the front of the
packaging ‘They said we couldn’t make them taste like the real thing’. And on the back were the words,
‘These kettles have the most sensational crunch and damn fine flavours I’ve ever tasted! So tuck in . . .’

I have no idea who they are quoting with any of these statements and feel sure that they have simply
made them up and put them in quote marks to make me feel like the package is talking to me.

I was about to find out how that roast lamb and mint—a dish about as nana as they come and a
traditional meal for decades on Kiwi tables— could be turned into a flavour.

I opened the bag and peered inside. A strong smell of something meaty came up to meet me and I
turned the bag to face the wall as I read the ingredients.

` Potatoes. That’s good—the biggest ingredient in the bag is potatoes.

` Vegetable oil [antioxidants (319, 330)]. I’m not sure what the oil is, which is a shame, but it does tell me
that there are two preservatives in that oil to stop it going rancid. Antioxidant 319 is tertiary-
butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a synthetic preservative. In very high doses, it is thought to be acutely toxic
to lab animals. Antioxidant 330 is citric acid. It prevents bacteria growth and gives the citric/sour flavour.
If produced naturally, citric acid is fine. If artificially produced, the production process can involve
sulphuric acid, which could leave sulphites that some people are allergic to. I reach into the bag to take
out a chip for further investigation. It looks good, and before I know it I have put it in my mouth where I
crunch down on the thin chip and taste something salty, yeasty and meaty, but not really lamb and mint.
I try another one and there is the lamb and, yes, a sort of slightly acidic aftertaste

you could compare to mint sauce. That’ll be the citric acid. I take another one . . . these chips are very
moreish.

` Flavour [salt, milk solids, yeast extracts]. I can live with that, all natural products I know. Another chip
goes in and I really begin to get a stronger flavour of that lamb and mint. I’m not sure if it is just that I’ve
convinced myself of the lamb/ mint combo or whether I really do taste it. My mouth is full of meaty,
salty, acid explosions as I crunch away happily.

` Flavour enhancers (621, 635, 631, 627). Additive 621 is monosodium glutamate or MSG. This substance
has had a troubled past and is used commonly in takeaway food. There is anecdotal evidence that it can
cause asthma in some people and the New Zealand government requires it to be labelled. Additive 635 is
disodium 5'-ribonucleotides. According to Wikipedia, this has been linked with skin rashes (ranging from
mild to severe) up to 30 hours after ingestion. It is recommended that no food containing disodium
ribonucleotides be consumed by gout or asthma suferers. Neither of these statements on Wikipedia
have citations, so I take them with a grain of salt. Additive 631 is disodium inosinate, which doesn’t
appear to have any health concerns listed. However, I read with interest that both 631 and 635 are used
in processed foods to give the taste of umami, which is a Japanese word for flavour or taste, and is
commonly referred to as savouriness. It is a basic taste of broth or meaty flavour. So the meaty flavour I
am experiencing as I munch on the succulent roast lamb and mint chips is probably just the flavour
receptors on my tongue responding to the reaction caused by chemicals hitting my tongue. I begin to
feel a little ill, but I still reach for another crunchy chip from the bag. Additive 627 is disodium guanylate,
which is naturally derived from fish. Great news. But it is recommended that it not be

given to babies under the age of twelve weeks, and should also generally be avoided by asthmatics and
people with gout. I munch away wondering why anyone would give a baby under three months old a
chip, but I guess it happens.

` Hydrolysed vegetable protein. This is basically boiled-down maize, soy or wheat.

` Lactose. This is sugar derived from milk.

` Sugar. This is most likely to have come from corn syrup.

` Acidity regulator 262. This is sodium acetate, which is a chemical often used in salt and vinegar chips to
get the vinegar taste—in this case the vinegar in mint sauce. It is also used in heat pads.

` Vegetable oil [antioxidant (306)]. This seems to be Vitamin E and in there as a preservative. I’m not sure
why vegetable oil is listed again under flavourings.

` Herbs.

` Anticaking agent 551. This is silicon dioxide or silica, which is not a food. It passes through the digestive
system and I can only presume it is in there to stop the ingredients clumping.

I pause for a moment and realise that during my investigation I have managed to munch my way through
half a packet of chips and I’m not feeling so good. The initial buzz and crunch of flavour has given way to
a dead weight in my stomach and I am reminded of how I have felt at parties when I’ve sat too close to
the chip bowl and eaten more than I needed. Is this a feeling of too much rich food? Too many potatoes?
Or too many chemicals? I don’t know the answer, but I know I don’t want to eat any more. Those thin
slivers of potato that were so delicious half an hour ago now taste awful.

Perhaps it is just that I have found out too much about them. I continue

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researching, realising that I am now getting to the tiniest ingredients, the last on the list, the ones that
make up the least of the contents, and finally we are finding a few things apart from potatoes that Nana
might recognise.

` Malt extract. A sweetener usually derived from barley. ` Maltodextrin. Sugar derived from corn starch. `
Spice.

` Starch [wheat tapioca].

` Flavour. No numbers or explanation provided, so this could be pretty much anything.

` Spice extract. Again no numbers or explanation provided. And that’s the last of the flavourings—quite a
few of them.

I have just spent two hours eating and researching a packet of chips. Had I just bought the packet of
chips with three ingredients—potatoes, oil, salt—I would have saved myself 25 additives and flavour
enhancers put in the bag to make them taste like roast lamb and mint. As well as avoiding feeling
uncomfortably full and not very well.

I am reminded of a chapter in Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, where he visits a facility where
scientists referred to as ‘flavorists’ create flavours out of chemicals for fast-food producers and food
manufacturers. What he found in that facility did not in any way resemble food, yet it’s part of a US$1.4
billion a year food industry.

Later I conducted the same research on another packet of flavoured, but supposedly more healthy,
potato chips and find similar results—with one addition that I mark in my notebook with the three letters
OMG!

I find listed ‘mineral salt 508’, which is actually potassium chloride. It is often used as a salt substitute in
reduced-salt products. The irony is that it tastes so awful they end up mixing it with regular salt for the
taste. What really catches my interest, though, is that it is also used as an

ingredient in the lethal injections for executions. Hence the OMG! Oh. My. God. Of course no one is
going to die from eating a packet of potato chips, but it does beg the question: ‘Why do you have to put
it in there? What is wrong with plain old salt?’

A few weeks later I find myself munching on a packet of Twisties. This is the one processed food I haven’t
been able to give up with my nana diet. These crunchy cheesy morsels send me straight back to my
childhood and sometimes—about once a month—I just need a fix of Twisties. I put on my glasses and
prepare to do another investigation, as I did with potato chips, expecting the worst.

By now I’m starting to recognise a few of the codes, such as 621 for MSG and 330 for citric acid. I am
delighted to find that despite having 19 ingredients, 18 of them are naturally derived with my only
concern being the aforementioned potassium chloride and the oil preserver TBHQ. It would appear that
the yellow tick on the front and the words ‘no artificial flavours or colours’ is pretty accurate and I will
continue to have my Twisties treats occasionally, empowered by the knowledge that I have checked
them out.

I think I have just proven that anything with more than five ingredients is over-processed and therefore it
is probably better for you to pick the one with three ingredients over the one with 28.

The yoghurt I buy is unsweetened and lists skim milk, milk solids and cultures (including lactobacillus
acidophilus). The cheese I buy lists pasteurised milk, salt, cultures, rennet. The bread I buy lists water,
wheat flour, kibbled soy, linseed, wheat gluten, kibbled wheat, baker’s yeast, vegetable oil, vinegar, salt,
cultured whey, folic acid. Now that is more than five ingredients, but I know what they all are and so
would my nana, so I’m going to eat it.
I get a lot of flak from my family and friends about my ‘nana diet’. They point out that Nana wouldn’t
know what an avocado is, or a pawpaw, or sushi, or most ethnic foods. All healthy foods. To that I say, of
course, but I have a brain and the point is that by asking myself ‘Would Nana

recognise this food?’ I am filtering out things like foods created in a laboratory by some multinational
cashing in on reducing fat or sugar for ‘healthy’ eating. The jury is out on artificial sweetener, but I won’t
go near it. For a start it tastes like poison and that’s enough for me.

SUGAR ALTERNATIVES

Studies have shown that people wanting to lose weight by swapping to ‘diet’ drinks loaded with artificial
sweeteners don’t lose weight. No one is sure why, but that is the sad fact. If you are watching calories,
then a good natural option is using stevia instead of sugar.

Stevia is a herb from South America that looks a bit like lemon balm or mint. It can be up to 300 times
sweeter than sugar, and has no calories. You can buy it in some supermarkets and health shops as a
white powder, or as a dried leaf. It is becoming popular as an alternative to chemical artificial sweeteners
as it has fewer health risks associated with it. I encourage anyone who is watching their weight or cannot
tolerate sugar

because of diabetes or other complaints to switch to stevia and stay away from aspartame or similar
chemicals. I have never forgotten my brother using saccharin by the bucketload on his WeetBix when we
were kids and developing these weird skin growths, like warts. As soon as he stopped using the
sweetener, they went away.

Even though these sweeteners are approved by government agencies, I don’t trust the fact that they are
essentially a chemical that my body wasn’t designed to digest. I have noticed that stevia is now
appearing in diet drinks, which is a good move forward. I also saw a study a few years back from the
University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, which looked at 1550 people over eight years
and found that people only drinking diet soft drinks had a higher risk of obesity. This might be due to the
fact that they rock up to McDonalds and order a Big Mac, fries and a Diet Coke. Or it might be that
artificial sweeteners create some other reaction in the body. I don’t care, I just don’t use them.

One of my favourite drinks in summer is gin and tonic, and I used to try to save calories by using diet
tonic, which has artificial sweeteners 951 (aspartame) and 950 (acesulfame potassium). In order to avoid
these, I invented my own tonic mix to go with gin and it’s not bad—you can find the recipe on page 136.
Some people like to add a bit more stevia (I don’t have a very sweet tooth), but it’s a nice, natural
alternative.
Nasturtium pesto

Nasturtiums grow everywhere in this country, and some gardeners even regard them as weeds. I always
let them have a section of my back fence because they are great pest deterrents and I recently
discovered they are great to eat. This is a recipe of Lynda Hallinan’s that I’ve adapted.

Put all ingredients in a food

processor and blend until smooth. Season with salt to taste. Store in the fridge and serve with pasta as
you would basil pesto or as a great dip.

You can also use nasturtium pods as a substitute for capers. I haven’t tried this yet, but I found it in one
of my Aunt Daisy books, if you want to give it a go. Spread ripe seeds on newspaper in the sun to dry for
two days. Place in a clean jar, sprinkle with a little salt, then fill the jar with hot vinegar. Let cool before
sealing and leave for two months before using. You could also flavour the vinegar with pickling spice if
you like.

4 cups nasturtium leaves

6 cloves garlic

1½ cups extra virgin olive oil

2 fresh chillies, finely chopped, with seeds

1 cup walnuts

salt, to taste

124
Spritzer

My neighbour introduced this to me using white port, but it’s equally good using sweet or red wine. It’s
gorgeous, refreshing and saves money as a great way to start the night.

Turkish gin

If you don’t feel like making the rose syrup for this, it is available in many Asian and Indian food shops.
And if you’re not a gin fan, this works equally well with vodka.

Fill a large jug with one-third wine and two-thirds tonic water. Add ice and chopped mint.

ice cubes

1 tbsp rose syrup (see page 112) juice of ½ lemon

a shot of gin

soda water

G and T mix

juice of 2 lemons

¼ tsp stevia powder

1 tsp honey

10 drops Angostura bitters

Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour over the rose syrup. Add the lemon juice and gin and top up with soda
water. Stir vigorously until all the rose syrup is dissolved and the drink is an intoxicating pink colour. Sit
back, look at the view and enjoy.

Mix all ingredients together and add to a litre of soda water. Use as a mixer for gin or vodka. Sometimes I
even use it with whisky and add more lemon juice for a whisky sour.

136
c l e a n In G

People are always surprised

to hear that I clean my house

with not much more than

baking soda and vinegar.

There are three reasons I

do this. One is political, one

is environmental and one

is financial—it’s cheaper.

147

I grew up watching TV commercials that not only told women that their homes must sparkle and shine,
but also that they must compete with each other to win the prize for the most gleaming house. Who can
forget the woman racing around her house to get it clean in time for her mother-in-law? And who cared?
I know I didn’t. Commercials like this still run today, and you have to wonder if feminism did us any
favours. The movement taught us that girls can do anything. So we did. We got dual careers of work and
families and then sat down exhausted at the end of every day just in time to be told that our homes
were not good enough unless they were blinding us and everyone else with their clean credentials. Many
a time I’ve wondered if my energy levels at the end of a modern working mother’s day were any diferent
from the old-fashioned mother, who tended the garden, sorted out the chooks, boiled the washing in
the copper and beat the rugs on the line.
I just don’t see that sparkle equals contentment. Or that running a finger over a friend’s mantelpiece and
finding dust is something women really do. Nor do I think that bubbles equal clean. My natural cleaning
products don’t sparkle and most of them certainly don’t bubble, but they do clean.

The bubble factor in any cleaning product is produced by phosphates, which act as ‘builders’ to reduce
the hardness of water. The problem with phosphates in our wastewater is that they act as fertilisers and
encourage algae to grow, eating up the nutrients in the water and choking lakes and streams. Many
detergents are now labelled phosphate-free and have replaced the builders with other substances such
as aluminium, silicon and oxygen. I think it would be easier if we just rid ourselves of our addiction to
bubbles.

I’m also concerned about the chemicals that are being introduced into our homes through commercial
cleaners. Our grandmothers didn’t go to the supermarket to be dazzled with an aisle of chemicals in
brightly coloured bottles. Nor were they familiar with names like Easy-Of Bam, NapiSan OxyAction Max
and Toilet Duck. Nor did they think throwing

some purple, lime-green or pink gunk on the floor was a great way to clean. Or that they even needed
‘hospital grade’ products. They simply made cleaners out of what they had in their pantry, from baking
or washing soda to vinegar. No chemicals were flushed down the drains to pollute our oceans and no
chemicals were left lingering in the air to set of allergies and other reactions in our children. New Zealand
has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the world, and we all know children who sufer from
eczema. It seems logical to reduce any possible allergens in our homes, and one simple way is to get all
the chemicals out.

Everyone also knows the headache caused by using an oven cleaner, which contains some of the most
toxic chemicals known to man. So why use it? I am astonished that makers of commercial cleaners can
still get away without listing the ingredients contained in their bottles. Most (and this includes the ‘eco-
friendly’ products) simply list the ingredients as ‘surfactants’ or ‘alkalis’ or ‘cleansing agents’. People
spray, splash and even wash their children’s clothes in these formulations without giving it another
thought, yet all these products contain bright and vivid warnings about what to do if swallowed—the
same advice given for poisons. I’m not saying there aren’t some good surfactants, but there are also
some pretty horrific ones. How do you know which is in your cleaner?

As for air-fresheners, you won’t find the chemicals in them listed on the bottles—at least, I couldn’t
when I examined five diferent brands in my supermarket. So ask yourself why you are voluntarily
spraying unknown substances into the air your family breathes. One chemical often used in air-
fresheners is dichlorobenzene, which is banned in California as a carcinogen. How would you know if it is
in your brand? As consumers we have a right to know what is in the products we buy, use and disperse
into our air and waterways. And if you are making the efort to buy environmentally friendly products,
you should do more than simply purchase the dishwashing detergent that perches on your sink for
everyone to see.

One product I use that can be described as harmful is borax, but I use

it in small amounts and keep it out of products that come in contact with the skin (see page 153).
I also have to confess that I’m an occasional user of bleach, but I use an oxygen bleach otherwise known
as sodium percarbonate, which breaks down to water and oxygen in our drainage system. You can buy it
at homebrew stores or online. And some supermarket oxygen bleaches will use it—check the ingredients
label.

The recipes in this section have been tried and tested by me and are used regularly in my house. I have
sourced them from books ranging from Household Discoveries published in 1908 through to those of
Aunt Daisy and Radio 1ZB’s ‘Gran’ and more modern collections of cleaners with a green focus.

You need to combine these with old-fashioned elbow grease. Dirt only magically disappears in TV
commercials and when industrial-strength chemicals are in action. Buy yourself a good scrubbing brush
and use it well; you’ll also get a work-out.

Please do not write to me and say your floors don’t shine and your dishes don’t sparkle. You know how I
feel about sparkle. If it’s clean, it’s clean, and you won’t die of the plague. Most of these products have
great green credentials, however Sunlight soap uses animal products so is not as good as Castile soap. I
give both options. Borax is toxic in high doses, but it is enormously useful as an emollient and stain
remover and adding a little to recipes is far better than the high concentrations of other chemicals found
in commercial cleaners.

Do remember this is all about making your own choices—not having them foisted on you by commercial
manufacturers, me or Nigella bloody Lawson, so try it and see if you like it.

The owner of one eco-friendly range of cleaning products called me one night after I had been sharing
my cleaning recipes on April in the Afternoon on the Living Channel. Apparently, I didn’t know what I was
talking about, and he needed to take me out for a cofee and ‘fill me in’ on what was good and bad in this
area. I didn’t have to talk to him for long

to realise that these simple recipes were causing him some angst. My response was to tell him that I
would leave it up to women to choose what they think suits them best. I’ve never bought his products
again, nor have I recommended them. If he were truly eco-focused and determined to save the world,
then surely that phone call would have been to congratulate me for spreading the word. Instead I felt
bullied.

Do try the recipes at the end of this chapter. You might want to make just one of these cleaners and see
how you go. When I started making them I made the spray cleaner first, then I got hooked and started
researching and testing old recipes until I had the whole house set up with natural cleaners. Mixing up
the recipes takes some time, but I have deliberately chosen ones that don’t take too long; in fact, just as
long as it would take to get in your car and drive—or better still, catch the bus or walk—to the
supermarket and purchase a commercial product. And once you have your store-cupboard set up you
won’t need to go searching for ingredients all over town. I hope the recipes will bring you many years of
satisfaction.

Why you should make your

own cleaning products

Recent years have seen the advent of ‘greenwashing’, with manufacturers making unproven
environmental claims in an attempt to make you believe that their product is green and safe for the
planet and your family, when in fact it is anything but. Of most concern were items claiming to be free of
controversial chemicals like BPA and phthalates, especially baby and toy products. Others gave no proof
of environmental claims, using vague or poorly defined marketing language such as ‘all natural’, and fake
labels designed to imply that a product had third-party certification or endorsement of its claims.

The sad fact is that even if you think you have found a cleaning product

which lists the ingredients and seems natural and harmless, you can’t be sure.

So I want you to go to your cleaning cupboard and open the doors. Look at the cleaning products you use
and see if you can find a list of ingredients on any of them. Unless you buy eco-friendly products (and in
some cases even if you do), you won’t find anything listed there. What you will find is detailed
information on what to do if someone ingests the product, in which case you are usually advised to call
an ambulance because you are being poisoned.

Throw them all out.

Now.

Out with the furniture polish, the air-freshener, the purple toilet cleaner, the spray cleaner, the cream
cleanser, the bright green floor cleaner and the disinfectant. Then go and take a look in your laundry. If
you are using a laundry powder or soap that has a fragrance, it will contain chemicals. It may say
‘lavender’ on the front, but there is no proof in the form of an ingredients label that there is any lavender
in there. Instead there is probably a cocktail of chemicals that imitate the smell of lavender and are much
cheaper to produce then sourcing lavender essential oil. Many of these synthetic fragrances are
engineered to stay in your clothing even after its final rinse and can cause skin irritation.

Add that to the optical brighteners or whiteners in commercial laundry powders that attach to fabric, are
absorbed through your skin and can afect your immune system. They are thought to cause allergic skin
reactions in babies and older children. All the more reason to try making your own cleaners.

CLEANING STORE-CUPBOARD ESSENTIALS

` Baking soda: This is a slightly alkaline mineral made from soda ash. You can buy it in the supermarket,
but for the quantities you’ll be needing get to a bulk food store and buy a kilo.

152 153

store. For cleaning I mostly use tea-tree, eucalyptus and lavender, which are all relatively inexpensive.

` Glycerine (sometimes sold as glycerol): This is a sugar alcohol and a great old-fashioned stain remover
used on its own. It has amazing moisturising properties as it is a humectant, which means it attracts
water to the skin. It is a by-product of soap making and can be produced from animal or vegetable fats.
` Lemon juice: This is a great alternative to bleach, so if you have a lemon tree, juice a few lemons next
time you need some bleaching power. Also slice one in half and rub it on anything that needs a major
bacteria bust, like your chopping boards and work surfaces.

` Rags: Get into the habit of using rags to clean with, or microfibre cloths that can be washed and reused.
Not reaching for a paper towel takes a bit of getting used to, but after a while it becomes second-nature,
and I think old towels do a better job of cleaning.

` Spray bottles: Stock up at a plastics store and while you’re at it get some squeeze bottles. Get a
permanent marker pen also, because your cleaners are all going to look similar. Write the recipe on the
bottle so that you can quickly re-make as you go. Also recycle any bottles that you have from your bad
old days using commercial cleaners.

` Sunlight soap: I use this as a base for lots of my recipes. It is strictly not a brilliant choice for the
environment, despite its old-fashioned values, as it is derived from animal fats and contains a few
chemicals such as tetrasodium EDTA and etidronic acid, which don’t scrub up well environmentally.
These recipes use small amounts, however, and I reason that it is a huge reduction on the high doses of
chemicals you would use if you used commercial cleaners. And it is cheap.

` White vinegar: This is very acidic and very historic, dating back to Babylon in 5000 BC, when it was used
to disinfect and clean, as it is in this book. For cleaning purposes, don’t get fussy and buy the good stuf. I
get 5 litres from my bulk-food store for $12 and it lasts six months.

` Washing soda: I regard this as baking soda’s bigger, tougher, gruntier brother, and it doesn’t contain
phosphates, enzymes or bleach. It is much more alkaline than its little brother and can be quite caustic,
so wear rubber gloves when using it. You’ll find it in the laundry aisle of your supermarket. I’ve also seen
it in hardware stores.

How the costs stack up

Let’s talk price. For the basic outlay of about $15 on baking soda and vinegar I can clean my house for
about three months. I might also buy some other products like borax ($10.90 for 1 kg, of which I use 50 g
every three months), 1 kg washing soda ($3.89), glycerine ($5.50), Sunlight soap ($3.99 for 500 g; I use
100 g), Sunlight liquid ($2.50) and various essential oils ($12 for 50 ml on Trade Me, of which I would use
a maximum of 25 ml in three months). This comes to about $35.00, which works out at about $12 a
month.

The equivalent in commercial products, using eco -friendly ones where available, is:

` laundry powder $7.99

` toilet cleaner $3.99

` spray cleaner $5.99

` oven cleaner $4.99 (but there is no eco oven cleaner)

` furniture polish $5.99

` floor cleaner $4.99

` liquid scourer $2.99

` Sunlight liquid $2.50

That’s $39.43 for a month—a saving of $27, which over a year is $324. And of course you’re saving the
environment, too.

The kitchen

After one of my Green Goddess shows I came home and invented a cleaning paste for kitchen (and
bathroom) sinks. I used to just sprinkle baking soda and mix it with a bit of water, but a woman who
called up said she liked to have a paste already made, like Jif. It got me thinking and I mixed cream of
tartar, baking soda, some liquid Castile soap and peppermint oil to make my own cleaning paste. It
smells amazing and works well.

I love the recent TV commercial that depicts the act of cleaning a surface with a dirty dishcloth as
equivalent to wiping it down with a chicken! Are we really that stupid? A very easy way to keep your
kitchen cloths clean is to boil them, or put them in the bottom of the sink, put the jug on and pour the
boiling water over them to soak for a few minutes. Add a dash of vinegar and they’ll come up beautifully.

And to polish up your stainless-steel fridge or oven, simply wipe it with some baby oil. It’s not eco-
friendly because it is a petroleum-based product, but, hey, it works really well.

CLEANING POTS AND PANS

` Copper: If you have copper cookware, then you will have so much fun cleaning it this way. Simply cut a
lemon in half, dip it in some salt and start scrubbing. You will be amazed how quickly it comes up to a
really nice shine. When you have

156 157

finished, give it a rub with a cloth and some olive oil. Or use tomato sauce.

` Cast iron: To remove rust, rub with the cut side of half a potato dipped in liquid detergent. Rinse, then
wipe with oil to seal.

` Burnt-on food: Sprinkle with baking soda, add a little water to make a paste and leave overnight. If that
doesn’t work, ramp it up with washing soda, a little water to make a paste and leave overnight. If that
doesn’t work, throw it out.

ESSENTIAL OILS FOR THE KITCHEN—WHAT DOES WHAT Rosemary: antiseptic

Lemon: antibiotic, antiseptic, antifungal

Eucalyptus: antibiotic, antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal Tea-tree: antibiotic, antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal
Lavender: antibiotic, antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal Lime: antibiotic, antiseptic
Orange: antiseptic

The bathroom

PREVENTING MOULD AND MILDEW

We spend a lot of time wondering what to do about mould in our bathrooms, when it can be really easy
to prevent it from growing in the first place. Next time you are in your bathroom, look at ways you can
ventilate it to stop a build-up of moisture and warmth, which mould spores love.

Here are some tips to reduce mould growth in your bathroom.

Keep windows open as much as possible. Opening them while having a shower or bath and leaving them
open allows much of the steam to escape.

Leave your bathroom door open so that the damp air can be exchanged with the rest of the air in the
house.

Sunlight dries and airs, so let as much of it in as you can by opening windows and pulling back curtains
and blinds.

` After a shower, leave the shower door open to allow the shower to air out.

` By all means get a dehumidifier, but please run it on a timer, not all day.

` If you have heated towel rails, throwing your damp towel straight onto them just creates even more
damp air. Wait until your bathroom has dried out before placing towels on a heated towel rail. Better
still, do what Nana did and take your towels out into the sun to dry.

` Wipe down showers and walls after your shower. It’s really easy to remember to do if you leave a cloth
hanging in the shower. You also have to clean the shower less.

` Every week after cleaning the bathroom, spray the walls, ceilings and floors with Wendyl’s mould magic
(see page 192).

The laundry

I stopped using commercial laundry powder years ago when I visited a naturopath about my daughter’s
eczema, and she immediately recommended choosing a perfume-free powder. So I switched to that but
then started wondering what was in these powders and liquids. Again I couldn’t find out, so I started
making my own.

My lavender laundry liquid is being made by lots of people all over New Zealand—I know because they
email me to say how much they love it. You can make it with Castile soap, which is the green option, or it
works really well with good old Sunlight soap. The problem is that Sunlight has beef tallow and
ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) which is a known pollutant. That said, I was relieved to find out
from the company that makes the soap that their palm oil is derived from a sustainable source. The
recipe (see page 173) calls for half a bar of Sunlight soap and makes about eight litres, which is enough
for 128 machine loads. This level of dilution means that the amount of nasties the recipe uses is a lot less
than used in commercial products.

Despite the popularity of my lavender laundry liquid, I was still keen to make a laundry powder. I sourced
some liquid Castile soap and fiddled around for a day or two with my old favourites baking soda, washing
soda and lavender oil. The result was a laundry clay. It looks just like white clay, so that is what I’ve called
it (see page 315). My first test washes with it astounded me. Paul’s dirty jeans came out as clean as a
whistle. It has continued to impress me as it passed the ‘no white powder marks on black clothes’ test
and the ‘no foaming, so it can be used in front loaders’ test.

One of the things I loved about Paul when I first met him was that he was a crisp-white-sheet man. Paul
had a 100 per cent cotton, gorgeous-weave, beautifully made bed complete with hospital corners, unlike
most of the men I knew who still slept between the polycotton print sheets their mums had given them
when they went flatting and whose idea of clean sheets meant you washed them once a month. My love
afair with white

161

sheets—and Paul—has meant a desire to keep the sheets crisp and white, which gets difficult after a
while. Constant washing with commercial laundry detergents leaves white sheets clean but with a
grey/yellow tinge to them that no amount of soaking or bleaching can get rid of. There’s a reason for
this.

Commercial laundry powders and liquids have been developed to leave a residue in your clothes and
linen, which they call optical brighteners or whiteners. These attach to fabric and when hit by ultraviolet
light they change the light’s wavelengths coming of the clothes. The optical whiteners stay in your
clothes, are absorbed through your skin and can afect your immune system as well as potentially causing
allergic skin reactions in babies and children. What they also tend to do is leave our white sheets grubby.
And just in case you didn’t know, most commercial laundry detergents consist largely of washing soda
with variations in the types of artificial fragrance, colour and additives mixed in.

I remember my nana used a product called Blue, made by Reckitt’s. The label on it was a beautifully
designed piece of Kiwiana with the catchphrases ‘Clothes always snowy’ and ‘Clothes always fresh’. Blue
came in a little netting bag and you threw it in your washing during your final rinse. It could also be used
to treat bee stings and insect bites. You could even clean windows with it.

The blue pigment corrects the yellow/grey pigment and returns the material to ‘brighter than white!’

You can’t buy Blue here any longer, although you can still get it in Australia, so I set about creating my
own Blue equivalent. The blueing powder is created out of Prussian blue pigment, which is the most
extraordinary thing. The deep blue colour is astonishing and has been used for centuries by painters. It
was even once used in some armies during the Second World War to reduce sexual urges. Apparently
they would slip it into the soldiers’ cofee and all desire would be diminished, which I’m sure made things
a lot more peaceful in the barracks.

You can buy Prussian blue powder at art shops. We source ours directly

from the US, though Paul is determined to get some from Germany so he can say we get our Prussian
blue from Prussia.

I mix the blueing powder with baking soda and then add it to the final rinse. While I was trying to get the
recipe right I ruined about three sets of our beautiful, expensive white sheets, which to this day have
blue blotches on them. When I finally got the mix right, I then hung the sheets out in blinding sunshine to
dry and Paul, who hadn’t been aware I was even making the blueing powder, came in from the line
holding up a sheet and saying: ‘Did you bleach these, I’ve never seen them so white!’

I sometimes hear from people who have made or bought my blueing powder and have not waited until
the washing machine bowl is completely full for the rinse cycle before adding the powder. They also end
up with blotches on their sheets. I now know that you simply throw them back in, washing them as
normal with warm water and my laundry liquid, and the blotches will wash out. Don’t let them dry as I
did! By the way, if you have a front loader, just put the blueing powder in the fabric softener container—
I’m told this works well.

I always wait for a bright sunny day before I wash my sheets, which is why I love November when the
heat of the sun returns. It’s a great time to take the opportunity to go through the linen cupboard and
freshen everything up.

Sunlight is a fantastic bleaching agent; it’s free and it’s efective. I’ve often hung a stained piece of
clothing out, disappointed that I couldn’t quite get the spot out, and then collected it at the end of the
day only to find the mark completely gone. If the stain is harder to shift, try the lemon and sunshine stain
remover recipe on page 172.

I’ve had hundreds of enthusiastic emails from people who tell me stories of old sheets and articles of
clothing they had given up on and then managed to revitalise with a bit of blueing. And one story I wish I
hadn’t heard was from a woman who emailed me to say she used it on her elderly husband’s undies. ‘He
has the occasional accident so it’s nice to be able to get them white again,’ she shared.

I will stress that the blueing powder is not a soaker like NapiSan or bleach. It won’t get stains out, it just
corrects the overall pigment. I try not to use bleach, even though Nana used heaps of it. If I need to give
something a good soak I tend to use an oxygen bleach such as sodium percarbonate. It avoids many of
the harmful chemicals associated with other soakers and works really well.

To get your sheets, shirts and tablecloths nice and crisp, try adding the cooking water from pasta or
potatoes into your final rinse.

You can now buy soap nuts in New Zealand. They are dried berries from the soap nut tree (Sapindus
mukorossi), which grows wild in Northern India. They contain saponin, which is released when wet,
creating mild soap suds. They also have antibacterial properties. You can use them about six times and
then throw them on the compost. I’ve used them and have no complaints, so why not try them?

TREATING STAINS

Here are some stain removal ideas I recommend, but the key to stain removal is to act fast. The longer
you leave a stain, the harder it is to treat it.

` Blood: Cold water and soap if you get on to it straight away. Otherwise, soak in a bucket of water with
½ cup washing soda overnight. Or spray directly with soda water. Or try my borax stain remover (see
page 175).

` Butter, grease, make-up: Dab on undiluted glycerine as a pre-wash, then soak in a bucket of water with
½ cup washing soda overnight. If that doesn’t work, try some eucalyptus oil or, if you don’t have that,
some turps and dab it on with a cotton ball to try to dissolve the stain.

` Chewing gum: Eucalyptus oil dabbed on neat. You can try freezing the gum and pulling it of, but it’s
never worked for me.

` Chocolate: Washing soda soak (see page 175) or borax stain remover (see page 175).

` Cofee and tea: Washing soda soak (see page 175) or borax stain remover (see page 175).

` Crayons: Try a paste of baking soda and liquid soap. Glycerine helps as a pre-wash.

` Grass: Dab on white distilled vinegar or glycerine.

` Ink: Dab on milk, white distilled vinegar or cut a lemon in half, dip in salt and rub on. Also try soaking in
vodka.

` Mould and mildew: Borax stain remover (see page 175).

` Perspiration: Washing soda soak (see page 175), or use borax stain remover (see page 175). If it’s an old
stain, try white vinegar. I’ve had some success using methylated spirits. Or you could try glycerine.

` Wine: Washing soda soak (see page 175), douse with soda water or make a paste of baking soda and
water and rub onto the stain. White wine poured directly on to red wine will also work if you do it
straight away.

Lounge and living areas

The main cleaning issue with these areas is the carpet. I got rid of carpets long ago, simply because they
attract dust, dust mites, dirt and pet hair, and when I clean a floor I like to know that I’ve got everything.
Also, many modern carpets are treated with chemicals and pesticides. Instead, I have floorboards with
rugs that can be taken outside and given a good beating, and washed or vacuumed thoroughly. At the
end of the chapter are some great ideas for those who do have carpets, though.

Remember Nana swooping under the table after Christmas dinner

with the carpet sweeper? The idea behind the sweeper is genius. It doesn’t use power, it’s an efective,
quick cleaner and doesn’t blow a whole lot of dust around. And you can drive your grandchildren nuts
with them.

I can never quite decide whether you should dust before or after vacuuming. I tend to go with after, once
the dust has settled. When it comes to natural products, there are some gorgeous things we can use and
there should be no excuse for rushing of to the supermarket for a can of Pledge.

Beeswax is gorgeous just smeared on with a sponge or rough cloth and then polished with a soft one.
Also great for rubbing on drawers that are sticking. For furniture scratches and heat marks, grab a Brazil
nut (which you should have handy, because one a day is a good for you) and simply rub over the mark or
scratch. Or try rubbing gently with a piece of steel wool. You can’t beat the Merry Wives’ polish for
floorboards, but another really easy polish is jojoba oil, which is a wax that has some sealing properties
for floorboards and doesn’t go of. Unfortunately it’s a bit pricey, but I get 50 ml for about $11 on Trade
Me and it lasts well. There’s a recipe for a very simple floor polish on page 184.

Most couches and armchairs will last years with the odd spot wash with soap and water. Leather couches
will benefit from a rub with lanolin, which feeds the leather and brings it up to a nice shine.

Cleaning windows

Keeping windows clean is easy if you have white vinegar in the house. At the end of the chapter are ideas
I love to use. The vinegar one is particularly good if you have a film on your windows left by an old
window cleaner as it breaks down. The trick is to wipe one side of the window up and down and the
other from side to side so that you can easily spot any streaks. Also use a cut lemon for dificult spots.

166

Dealing to bad smells

All kitchens and bathrooms sufer from lurking bad smells at some stage. For most smells you can’t go
past baking soda. Here are some great uses.

` Cutting boards: Sprinkle on some baking soda, spray with water and let sit for 10 minutes. Wash of.

` Rubbish bins: Sprinkle a good coating of baking soda in the bottom and any unknown leaks or spills will
be absorbed.

` Urine, sour milk, vomit: Make a mixture of 2 tablespoons baking soda and 2 cups hot water and spray
on generously.

` Refrigerators: Use a paste of ½ cup baking soda mixed with a little water to clean out your fridge. The
paste not only gets it clean but also takes away any odours that may be lurking around.

AIR-FRESHENERS

If you can’t find the ingredients on that can of air-freshener or gel deodoriser, why would you use it?
These recipes use essential oils that not only perfume your home but also carry mood-enhancing
benefits and can treat symptoms of fatigue, stress and depression. When I’m making up a mixture, I snif
the bottles and use whichever ones appeal to me at the time. Here are some alternatives to keep your
kitchen and bathroom smelling good and let the essential oils get rid of any bugs and germs at the same
time.

` Vanilla essence: One of the simplest ways to make a room smell lovely is to leave some bowls with
vanilla essence around the place. Great to give your house a welcoming smell if you are expecting people
over.

` Light bulbs: Dab a bit of essential oil on your light bulb before turning on your lights for a great
fragrance, or you can buy rings to hang on your bulb that warm up and disperse oil.

167

` Oil burner: An oil burner that holds water with a tealight candle under it is a great way to disperse
essential oils around a room. Just add a few drops to the water and top up as needed.

See pages 182 and 183 for some alternative air-fresheners.

Saying goodbye to unwelcome

household guests

It occurred to me that I had so successfully stopped bringing chemicals into my home by making my own
natural products that the only chemical which still made it through my front door was flea treatment for
the pets, because you can’t be having fleas. That’s just unsanitary even by my standards.

Yet paying $69 a month to de-flea four animals and bringing a slow-acting poison that is highly toxic to
bees, fish and birds (fipronil) and a growth-retarding hormone (methoprene) into my home and then
happily squirting it onto our beloved pets and exposing the whole household to it just didn’t make sense
to me anymore.

For the animals I have found several natural methods that do work against fleas, but the secret is to keep
using them. If you’re not using the power of chemicals, then you have to be vigilant. Just as I say with my
natural cleaners, if you’re not using chemicals that magically make everything clean the minute you
spray them on, you do have to combine natural cleaners with some elbow grease. With fleas you have to
combine all natural remedies and repeated application to see any results.

Instead of dripping chemicals on the cats, I get busy with a flea comb. Cats love being combed every day
and if you get into the habit then you are physically removing the fleas and their eggs.

I spray the dogs with neat cider vinegar and leave it on for 20 minutes.

Then I rinse it of. I do this every three days, three times and then do a maintenance dose every two
weeks.

For the dogs (Rosie and Flo) and the two cats (Lucy and Sassy), I also fight fleas from the inside. It is well
known that fleas hate blood tainted with the taste of garlic and yeast. These two products also happen
to be very good for animals, so I make up some flea biscuits for the dogs and flea powder that goes in
with the cats’ biscuits.
‘I’m not sure the flea biscuits were a huge hit this afternoon,’ Paul suggested as I was enthusiastically
packing them into a cake tin.

‘People who come around for a business meeting don’t normally expect their employee to grab pongy
yeast- and garlic-smelling dog biscuits out of the oven and shove them under their noses,’ he continued
the lecture.

‘I was testing them out,’ I ofered weakly.

You also have to be aware that fleas actually spend more time of your animal than on them and they
make their homes in pet bedding or in the cracks of your floors. So for that I sprinkle food-grade
diatomaceous earth, a naturally occurring chalk-like rock, which I also use on the hens.

It is safe to everyone except insects, which get coated in the powder. It cuts their waxy coating and they
dehydrate within 48 hours. You can also sprinkle it on your pets.

When all these remedies are used together you will keep fleas at bay, but—and this happens to me
every year—if you stop combing, sprinkling, spraying and baking biscuits for a week or two, you can
expect the fleas to make a comeback, especially in March, when it is hot and humid and the breeding
conditions are perfect. That is when I disappear up north and Paul secretly flea-bombs the Auckland
house without telling me. So much for chemical-free living, but each year I try, fail and am determined to
try harder next summer.

We have another consideration, which is that Pearl and Paul both have an allergy to flea and mosquito
bites and for Pearl this means that her skin has difficulty healing. By March she is covered in itchy, sore
bites— the culmination of a summer’s attacks. She has to go on antibiotics, the

only time in the year she needs them, as she never comes down with anything else. Each time I get more
and more frustrated that this has to happen. One year we are all hoping we will get through without the
flea bombs, without the antibiotics and without the fleas!

Flies drive me absolutely nuts and, unfortunately, with hens come flies. Up north the flies are especially
bad in the heat of March and I must confess that after putting out bowls of lavender oil and slathering
myself in it, they still come back for more and I end up, shamefully, spraying the little buggers with fly
spray. But I only do it twice a day: once first thing in the morning and then at night when they have all
retired to the ceiling. I know how not-nana that is. I also use a really cool chain fly curtain on my front
door, which really helps keep them out of the house.

I do know that certain essential oils repel flies—citronella is one, as are lavender and eucalyptus. But you
have to put a lot of it out and get it into the air somehow. Oil burners are one way, spraying it around is
another or you could leave it in lots of little bowls around the house. You can wipe it on surfaces, or light
incense. In my experience it takes a hell of a lot of essential oils to make a fly think twice. I know this
because one hot summer’s afternoon the kitchen was full of flies and Paul and I were making a huge
batch of my lavender laundry liquid. When we do this the whole house takes on the odour of lavender oil
and it’s actually very soothing.

‘Look, no flies,’ I said to Paul after about 10 minutes.

They had all disappeared. But we had also gone through about 100 ml of lavender oil while making our
laundry liquid.

I’ve had marginal success with soaking ribbons in lavender or citronella oil and then hanging them up
from lampshades and in open doorways, but they last for about half an hour and then the flies come
back.

I do have a recipe for an outdoor fly trap (see page 194) that seems to keep them away, and there’s good
old fly-paper like Nana used to make. When I tried it the flies got caught alright but I found myself just a
little bit too much of a modern miss to enjoy seeing bits of sticky paper stuck

with dead flies hanging in my kitchen. You can buy rolls of fly paper at the hardware store and they do
work a treat, but it is up to you whether you can bear the sight of dead flies hanging about in your
kitchen.

My mother tells me that when she was a child they had a gecko that lived in their kitchen on a string
suspended across the ceiling. His job was to catch flies and that’s what he did. A great old-fashioned idea
for those of you who are game. My house is mad enough already with chickens, cats and dogs running
about, I just don’t need a pet lizard—especially one that might climb down and into my bed.

Nana also would have used a fly swat. I can remember as a child watching adults who were rather adept
with the old swat and then feeling vaguely ill as they hung it back up on the wall, still smeared with the
remains of dead flies.

I’ve also bought one of those electric tennis racket fly swats that zaps the fly when you hit it, but who has
the time to run around swatting flies? I had hoped the kids might like it, but after one day of fly killing it
was discarded into the cupboard.

In recent years, pyrethrum sprays have come on the market and these do work. They are aerosol cans
that you set and they spurt out a spray of supposedly natural fly deterrent every few minutes. I used one
for a while until I realised that while pyrethrum is natural, it is still a toxin. It’s toxic to flies but also bees,
fish, pets and us. Then I looked at the chemicals they add to the pyrethrum to get it to spray and suspend
in the air. I came home from that research trip, walked into the house, picked up the can and threw it in
the bin, much to Paul’s annoyance.
h e a lt h a n d Be a u t y

For many years now, I have

not put any commercial

cosmetics on my face or body.

Well, that’s not quite true.

I do wear a litle make-up,

and I am sent products to

try, so I do, but I inevitably

feel a tingling sensation or a

reaction to the perfume and

return to my natural products

within days. I don’t think I

have particularly sensitive

skin; I used to use pricey big

name products all the time.

I just think that my skin has

become so unaccustomed to

the chemicals in these products

that I notice them more.

201

My mother was brought up in an age when women splashed their faces with water in the morning and
that was it. They might have put on a bit of cold cream, or, in my mother’s case, Oil of Olay, but the
whole drama of cleansing, toning and moisturising that I grew up with was never a part of their daily
routine, and as my mother reasoned all that tugging and rubbing at your face was bound to cause
wrinkles. I am also waiting for someone to tell me what toning does. To me it just adds another item to
the list of skincare products a woman has to buy. Today, my mother has fantastic skin for an 85-year-old,
and I follow her example.

It is interesting that beauty products in this country are self-regulated, which means the manufacturers
can put anything they like in them, unlike food manufacturers who must submit to rigorous testing and
regulations.

The beauty-product manufacturers might list their ingredients on the labels or they might not. But any
locally made product that is exported must comply with other countries’ much stricter regulations that
require full disclosure of all ingredients. If you do find ingredients listed they might hide some under a
chemical name you won’t understand. I have become accustomed to cosmetic companies liberally
throwing herbs and nuts around on their packaging with words like ‘botanicals’ and ‘marine’ to give the
impression they are a natural product despite listing in their ingredients methyl, propyl, butyl and ethyl
paraben, toxic mineral and petroleum oils, the controversial and potentially carcinogenic sodium laurel
sulphate and a bit of a synthetic fragrance and artificial colouring to top it all of.

The single best thing you can do for your skin is free and couldn’t be simpler: stay out of the sun from the
moment you are born. I once asked a top Auckland skin specialist what else he advised for anti-ageing
and he said nothing, except maybe to drink a lot of water. It would seem that protecting our skin from
the sun provides many anti-ageing benefits, but apart from that, being well-hydrated seems to be the
key. Nevertheless, women spend thousands of dollars on little jars of miracle creams

that promise to ‘reduce’ wrinkles in weeks.

It has only been in the past few decades that governments and regulation officials have come to realise
that our skin absorbs everything we put on it. Prior to that, it was widely believed that our skin was
waterproof, like a raincoat, so there was no need to worry about what was in beauty products.

But our skin is an organ; the largest in our body, in fact. It covers our entire body and has a surface area
of around 2 square metres. And it is permeable, absorbing toxins that come into contact with it, and
transporting them into the bloodstream. So my rule is pretty much this: If I wouldn’t eat it, then I won’t
put it on my skin.

I don’t for one minute believe that because I use a certain shampoo or moisturiser I’m going to end up
looking like Scarlett Johansson ‘because I’m worth it’. And I don’t think any of us truly believe that a
celebrity advertising a certain beauty cream actually looks that way because of the cream. Suzanne
Somers takes 60 pills and submits to several injections a day to keep herself beautiful. Kate Moss zaps
herself with micro-electric currents, Jessica Simpson reportedly spends $25,000 a pop on beauty
preparations just to get camera-ready and apparently Nicolette Sheridan is addicted to her La Prairie
cream at $1000 a jar. Then there are the Botox injections and the cosmetic surgery. I don’t want to look
like any of these women, do you?

I regard the body’s immune system as a big bucket. As your body fills up with chemicals and toxins from
the food you eat, the cleaners you spray and the beauty products you put on your skin, the bucket fills
up. And then your body must go to work to clean it out bit by bit to get it back down to empty again.

If your bucket is nearly full to the top because you just love that processed food, those cleaning
chemicals, those fullerenes in your face cream and those dairy products to which you have a sensitivity,
then when a bug does come along, requiring the attention of your immune system, it’s a bit busy and
your bug might have to wait in line—a bit like

turning up at Accident and Emergency at the hospital and waiting while the urgent cases get seen first.

Since I started ensuring that my bucket was as empty as I could get it by rejecting chemicals in my life,
I’ve had many years (touch wood) of a few sniffles which lasted a few days, one rather dramatic tummy
bug which lasted two days and a nagging breast infection, which disappeared a year after my newfound
chemical-free status. My family have been even healthier. Instead of regarding winter with the dread
that pharmaceutical companies promote through television advertising, I regard it as a perfectly normal
season we experience every year. I prefer to just get my body in order and know that my immune system
will take care of things.

Let’s take a minute to focus on how we view ourselves in terms of beauty. Do people really find us
attractive simply because we have no wrinkles, a tight body and a Brazilian? Of course not. Beauty is also
about personality, humour, intelligence and having that inner glow that comes from a life well led and
fed. I think those women who spend hours being injected with Botox and collagen and submitting
themselves to endless treatments with each new form of chemical snake-oil should spend the equivalent
amount of time feeding their brain and making themselves interesting to talk to, not just to look at.
Which is why I’ve included a guide to enhancing the looks you have naturally on page 226.

Harmful ingredients

I recently read a survey which found that the average British woman hosts 515 chemicals on her body
every day once she has applied deodorant, body and facial moisturiser, and make-up.

I love a good red lipstick, but a recent study found that two major cosmetic companies had levels of lead
in their red lipsticks that exposed women to the harmful neurotoxin. The EU bans lead in all lipsticks. Yet
here in New Zealand they aren’t required to list it on the ingredients,

and the two manufacturers concerned claimed that there were only trace amounts included and that
they believed there was no health risk to consumers. Most disturbingly the only action taken for New
Zealand women was advice from the National Poison Centre suggesting that as lead poisoning occurs
over time, the only way to know how much harm regular small doses of lead causes is to get a blood
test! Which hammers home the message that when it comes to caring for our health, we need to do it
ourselves and not wait for a law change or even a ban by our government to protect us. These cosmetic
companies use lead oxide to get the red colour in their lipsticks, but some natural cosmetic companies
like Living Nature use cochineal or carmine, which our nanas probably used, although it is extracted from
the insect of the same name. So we might not be getting poisoned by lead but now we are squashing
insects for beauty.

Parabens are a concern because some studies have found that they may mimic the hormone oestrogen,
which is known to play a role in breast cancer. You will find all sorts of conflicting evidence on the
internet, but I prefer to opt out while there are multinational cosmetic companies keen to create
confusion.

Another cause for concern is the use of fullerenes or nanoparticles in products that are on sale here but
have been removed from shelves in Europe and Australia.

Fullerenes are found mainly in anti-ageing creams, but also in hair products and face masks, and are tiny
ingredients there to make the products stronger and more resistant to bacteria. They are also highly
toxic. Australian research has indicated that they could deeply penetrate into the skin, possibly staying in
the body for as long as 40 days, posing a health risk. In New Zealand the cosmetics industry is required by
law to declare to our Environmental Risk Management Authority any use or importing of these products.
There have been no reports. New Zealand now has legislation that requires make-up and sunscreen
companies to list the ingredient by placing the word nano in brackets next to it. Distressingly,
nanoparticles were recently found in baby formula.

Natural skincare products

When it comes to beauty products, we are lucky in New Zealand that we have independent companies
such as Weleda, who manufactures products out of Havelock North that are organic, synthetic and
petroleum-free, and other companies like Antipodes, Living Nature, Comvita and many more boutique
ranges that have popped up in recent years. Admittedly, some of them are pricey but you are paying
about the same amount for high-quality natural products rather than something created in a lab and
then packaged and marketed to make you believe it has miracle powers.

I’m more than happy to spend the same amount of money—but usually a lot less—than I would on
L’Oréal, Clarins, Lancôme or Chanel on a Weleda, Living Nature or Dr Hauschka product because I can
understand what is on their labels, and I know that as exporters they have complied with EU standards
and have given full disclosure of their ingredients.

The biggest issue for ‘natural’ cosmetic manufacturers is preserving their products so that they can be
transported around the world and then sit on shelves for up to two years—cosmetics that use synthetic
ingredients last for years. Finding a natural preservative is very hard because something that is
completely natural will always have a lifespan, just like yoghurt or bread.

Living Nature, which operates out of Kerikeri, in Northland, has managed to harness the preservative
qualities of manuka oil blended with other ingredients. That meant some of their early formulations
smelt strongly of manuka oil, which wasn’t great, but they have recently reformulated their products to
smell a lot more feminine. I use the Living Nature nourishing night cream with a few drops of their
radiance night oil mixed in and go to bed smelling like a gorgeous red rose.

A few years ago, I spent a few days with Living Nature to try to understand how you can make natural
cosmetics without resorting to synthetics and was really impressed with the efort that the company

puts into ensuring their products stand up to the highest scrutiny. They use native plants from the bush
for many of their formulations as well as white clay from a nearby mine and honey from local hives. Their
bottles are made out of a special plastic to lessen environmental impact and all of their packaging is
recyclable.

You might be surprised how many supposedly natural products are still using synthetic preservatives and
you have a right to ring the manufacturers up and ask them why.

The irony is that some ‘natural’ cosmetic producers have taken out synthetic parabens, which is great,
but they’ve simply replaced them with another synthetic preservative, most commonly phenoxyethanol,
which is listed by the EU as harmful and an irritant. A good test to see if your product contains natural
ingredients is to take some of the product you are using and expose it to light and air on a windowsill.
See what happens to it. If it is a natural product it will grow mould or start to break down in some way. I
did this with my favourite Weleda rose and calendula moisturiser and within a few weeks it was growing
a healthy film of mould.

Making your own skincare products

It is very easy to make your own beauty products, especially moisturisers and body oils, but do be aware
that you need to keep them in the fridge and out of the light so that they don’t go rancid. I regularly use
my magic night cream (see page 231) if my skin is especially dry, and it’s very cheap to make.

I’m not a big fan of body creams, simply because oils are so much more nourishing and leave your skin
with more gleam and shine than the most expensive body shimmer. They also hold a scent well all over
your body, so that you smell gorgeous all day—and night. They are also very simple to make by adding
some essential oils to a carrier oil, such

as sweet almond or apricot kernel oil. And when you grow tired of one scent, you can simply whip up
another or have several: one for day, one for night and one for weekends. The other advantage of
essential oils is their ability to alter your moods. Feeling down? Why not mix up an oil using ylang-ylang,
geranium and sandalwood. Never combine more than five essential oils, as the scent will be lost—a bit
like mixing too many paint colours and ending up with that dull brown. You’ll find some of my favourite
combinations on page 233.

Although a little more expensive, a simple bottle of rosehip oil is all you really need for a one-ingredient
night-time treatment on your face. Or perhaps just use a little around the eyes as an extra special anti-
wrinkle treatment.

For a little bit of indulgence, there is nothing quite like sinking into a hot bath with your hair tied back
and some gunk on your face. You will find various homemade face masks on page 234.

I love a good nail polish, and all my daughters do, too. I’ve gone through the black phase in my punk
days, and the bright reds of the 1990s, and now I still like a dark red if it stays on long enough. But I must
kick the habit. Commercial nail polishes use toluene and formaldehyde, both of which are highly toxic
and can cause headaches, nausea, asthma, rashes and throat irritation. I hate the smell, as does
everyone I know. There are alternatives to nail polish, such as bufing your nails with a bufer you can buy
at the pharmacy.

Nail polish addicts will know that all those chemicals can take their toll on your nails and cuticles, so it is
important to give them polish-free days. On those days apply the nail treatment on page 239 to make up
for the drying efect of the polish and remover.

For Paul’s birthday one year, I decided I was going to see if I could bring him a little closer to nature with
a gift pack of natural solutions for the metrosexual. I made a very good hair gel, after-shave lotion,
mouthwash and foot deodoriser and he pronounced them all a great success (you can find the recipes on
pages 242, 244, 245 and 246). And last time I looked in

the bathroom cupboard it was almost bare, apart from a few old samples he was hanging on to and a
deodorant.

There has been a lot reported about the dangers of commercial deodorants and antiperspirants because
they contain aluminium, which has been linked with breast cancer. Also, antiperspirants operate by
preventing the pores from sweating, which is a natural process. You can buy alternative deodorants
made of mineral salt crystals at health shops. But you could also consider whether you need one. There
is no doubt that some people sweat profusely and smell foul. But there are many others whose body
odour ranges from mild to non-existent, and they could probably get by without rolling chemicals on
every morning. I’m still one of those people who uses deodorant, but only because I think I’ve grown up
with advertising that has conditioned me to believe that if I sweat my workmates and friends will shun
me into oblivion and I’ll be Nelly No Mates. I’m working on deprogramming myself and there are some
alternatives I’ve tried. Cider vinegar or white vinegar dabbed under the arms not only keeps you
incredibly clean but neutralises the pH levels, and a cut lemon rubbed under your arms is great. There’s a
deodorant recipe that uses essential oils on page 247.

The recipes at the end of this chapter are concoctions my daughters and I use regularly, and we hope
you enjoy them. Some of them are a little technical, involving melting things in double boilers, but I’ve
tried to choose ones that are simple to make and use ingredients you can find easily.

Fragrance

Another problem for cosmetics is the fragrance they add. It is rarely natural and most likely a synthetic
copy of a natural smell, such as rose. Rose oil, is very expensive and is the most commonly used scent in
perfumes and cosmetics. It takes 2000 flowers to get a single gram of pure

rose oil, so you can see why it is cheaper and easier to make a synthetic chemical rose scent in a
laboratory.

One way to check the toxic status of products you use is to type them into the website
www.cosmeticsdatabase.com. They rate the toxicity of products on a scale of one to ten. They are very
rigid in their rating systems and regard some essential oils as being toxic because they are known
allergens. But if a product I like rates in the mid-range and most of that is because it contains essential
oils, I am happy to use it.

The power of essential oils is well documented and they are used extensively in Indian and Chinese
medicine. Way back in ad78 the Greek physician Pedanios Dioscorides published a book listing 600
medicinal plants. Many drugs we commonly use today were derived from those plants—such as
morphine, which came from the poppy and was named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams.

The perfume I use and have used since my early twenties is Chanel No 5. I love its rose/jasmine smell,
but it rates a massive 8 out of 10 on the cosmetic database site. Much to my horror I discovered that the
only thing natural in it appears to be water.

So I have embarked on a new role as experimental perfumer, determined to replicate the world’s most
legendary fragrance, whose top-secret formula is no doubt locked up in a bank vault somewhere in
Switzerland.

Fortunately, over the years I have amassed many books on aromatherapy, and after rifling through them
all I found one in which an enterprising author had made a stab at the essential oils that might be used to
replicate the scent of Chanel No 5. There were nine essential oils and one powder, which was orris root.
She didn’t go so far as to give me a hint as to how much of each one I should use, which was completely
vexing but didn’t stop me in my quest to re-create my favourite scent.

First I needed to buy the essential oils of the following: bergamot, lemon, neroli, jasmine, rose, ylang-
ylang, vetiver, cedarwood and vanilla—total cost about $180.
I worked out that I could buy two bottles of Chanel No 5 for that. But then I realised that I would only
need a few drops of each, so essentially I was investing in potentially bucket-loads of eau de toilette.

What a lovely gift it would make, I thought to myself.

Into a glass jar I poured 70 ml of vodka and gently stirred in my oils, which I dropped in at random. I think
rose got four drops, and jasmine two. The rest just went in one drop at a time. I then added a pinch of
orris root, which has a lovely violet smell, and put on the lid. I left it for two days, during which time the
smell seemed to change dramatically every time I snifed it. Finally I added 30 ml of spring water and left
it for another two days. Once it was ready, I filtered it through a cofee filter. I had 100 ml of eau de
toilette that smelled extraordinarily gorgeous—but nothing like Chanel No 5.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Pearl. ‘No chemicals is what matters. Give it another name. Bouquet de Wendyl
perhaps, or name it after one of the hens.’

Chanel No 5 was named by Coco Chanel because she always launched her collections on the fifth day of
the fifth month and believed the number five brought her luck. This would certainly seem to be true, as it
is estimated that around the world a bottle of Chanel No 5 is sold every 55 seconds.

My creation simply disappears after 55 seconds and needs constant re-application to achieve the
strength of floral odour of my former perfume.

‘Nothing’s perfect,’ said Pearl. ‘At least you can be safe in the knowledge that it won’t kill you.’

Today I use mainly rose-based perfumes. A simple bottle of rose absolute essential oil is great to dab on
and Weleda does a very nice natural rose perfume.

When I’m making up recipes for cleaners I always consult my list of essential oils and their properties. It’s
amazing how powerful tea-tree, lavender, orange and clove oils can be at fighting bacteria while at the
same time altering your mood. I’ve been using aromatherapy for years

as an alternative to drugs when someone in my family has a cold or a headache. It’s good to see more
and more people catching on to how useful these oils can be in everyday life.

A GUIDE TO CHOOSING ESSENTIAL OILS

` To reduce anxiety: basil, bergamot, geranium, lavender ` To calm: sandalwood, sage, lavender,
chamomile, neroli

` To combat depression: bergamot, clary sage, neroli, chamomile, juniper, lavender

` To energise: rosemary, pine, lemon, orange

` To encourage intimacy: sandalwood, patchouli, jasmine

` To soothe mental fatigue: basil, peppermint, rosemary, pine ` To treat mild shock: chamomile, melissa,
neroli, peppermint ` To reduce PMT: rose geranium, bergamot, jasmine ` To relax: neroli, lavender,
vetivert

` To uplift: geranium, orange

If you think back to Nana’s era, eucalyptus oil in products like Vick’s VapoRub was a common cold
remedy, and they used oil of cloves for toothache. In the past decade it has become popular to use oil
burners and essential oils to make a room smell nice instead of spraying around chemical-based air-
fresheners, which is a great step forward. But the commercial cleaner manufacturers have responded by
just adding tea-tree, lavender, rose, rosemary or eucalyptus to their highly toxic mixtures.

Have a look on the label. You won’t see the words ‘essential oil’ used anywhere. What you will see is
‘fragrance’ or ‘perfume’ because what the manufacturers have done is simply add a synthetic concoction
of chemicals that matches the smell of the essential oils. These synthetic

versions don’t have any of the natural healing powers these oils contain. I believe part of the reason they
won’t use extracts of essential oils is because they would have difficulty patenting remedies that have
been known for years.

Natural health remedies

You’re also unlikely to find your doctor recommending natural remedies, because drug companies can’t
make money out of a remedy you can extract yourself from a plant. Better to mix a cocktail of chemicals
created in a laboratory, convince the medical profession that this is the only cure, and get half the
world’s population reliant on them.

When I am ill, I always seek out a natural remedy if it can be found. And I am realistic that natural
remedies need time to work—they won’t have you up and about in three days like a strong course of
antibiotics will.

A few years ago, I had a nasty breast infection that no amount of antibiotics prescribed by the breast
clinic could cure. They ended up sending me away with the message that this particular infection was
difficult to treat and I would just have to live with it. It wasn’t life-threatening or dangerous, it was just a
little tender and annoying.

So I turned to natural medicines. I tried kawakawa leaf poultices, an old Māori remedy for ulcers and
sores. I tried aloe vera gel, which actually cleared it up for a little while. And finally I tried turmeric. While
I was visiting my friend Paula Mason in Bali I discovered raw turmeric being sold in the markets over
there as a root, similar to ginger. I read that the locals use it to heal everything. Turmeric is a natural
antiseptic, preservative and anti-inflammatory. The Balinese mix it with coconut oil to treat skin diseases
and fungal infections. They also drink a tonic of it, called jamu, every morning. The Balinese say it helps
prevent cancer, aids the digestion and clears up respiratory infections.

I came home, searched high and low for the fresh root and finally found it in an Indian grocer’s shop in
Mt Roskill where it had been imported from Fiji. I grated it up, made a poultice and kept it plastered to
my breast for a week. The infection, which I had lived with for two years, disappeared and has never
returned. I now try to include turmeric in my diet every day, and if I’m feeling a bit poorly I make up a
jamu drink every morning until I feel better.
I thought about writing to the breast clinic to tell them of my discovery, as they had told me that other
women also sufer from this same infection, but I knew that they were not likely to call all their old
patients in to give them some turmeric roots. I’m sure, however, that if a new antibiotic arrived care of a
drug company, with a price attached, we’d all hear about it.

Please don’t get me wrong: if I was seriously ill, I wouldn’t be a zealot about my natural therapies. But I
would combine modern drug therapy with natural therapy and give my body what I consider to be the
best of both worlds.

One product we both discovered after Paul gave up smoking is an oil that heals just about everything on
the skin. When Paul stopped smoking he developed an itchy skin condition that treatment from the
doctor wasn’t really helping. Obviously there were some pretty nasty toxins trying to get out of his body
so he learned to live with it, knowing that one day it would clear up.

Then he was at the acupuncturist for a sore neck and she spotted the rash and dabbed some tamanu oil
on. It went away within days. We now use it for everything from wound healing to rashes and even
fungal complaints. It is my go-to oil when skin flares up. Tamanu oil comes from the nuts of the tamanu
tree which grows throughout the South Pacific. Polynesian people have used it for centuries for
everything from insect bites, sunburn, as a deodorant and for nappy rash. It has a strong, sweet nutty
smell and is quite pleasant to use.

Stevia has become a fairly well-known sugar alternative in cooking,

and I use it in my tooth powder recipe (see page 244) because I found some Japanese research that
showed it can help fight dental disease. Combine that with baking soda—which has highly alkaline
properties and therefore neutralises plaque acids and eliminates bacteria that cause tooth decay—and
you have a pretty fine teeth cleaner. Baking soda also helps stop the major cause of tooth loss, which is
gum infection and inflammation. My tooth powder stops me using something that has unrecognisable
ingredients on its label and it is so nana, it’s 10 out of 10. When I was a child and we ran out of
toothpaste Dad would tell us to use salt or baking soda. All my tooth powder has in it is baking soda,
stevia and a few drops of essential oil, and I can guarantee your mouth will never feel fresher.

Why not put this book down and go have a look at the toothpaste you are using. I looked at one I bought
while travelling in the United States and it had a warning that said: ‘If more than used for brushing is
accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Centre right away.’

Each year I have usually involved myself in a few mad fads for some reason or other. One year I took a
teaspoon of cinnamon a day for a month as I’d read that it was good at balancing sugar levels and could
help weight loss. I just added it into my cofee and made a really nice tea out of it with honey; but like
most fads, I got sick of it after two weeks.

Then there was the apple cider vinegar that Paul and I both got into. I read that it was good for weight
loss, as well as a million other things such as aiding digestion, providing potassium, cleansing the blood,
helping the kidneys, and preventing urinary tract infections. The list goes on. If you are interested just
type ‘apple cider vinegar’ into Google and you will find a huge following. We drank a teaspoon of cider
vinegar in a small glass of water before meals and kept it up, for two weeks, until I decided that my first
taste of the day had to be better than vinegar. A lot of people swear by it, though, and if I’m ever a bit
poorly and feeling unwell I will give myself a few days on it just to help clear things out.

I’ve been through a significant fermentation stage where I made my own sauerkraut and ate heaps of it
to get the good bacteria into my gut. I’ve also done the FODMAP diet, which I recommend to anyone
who has gut issues. It’s an elimination that focusses on a group of foods known to cause allergies in
people. FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides and Polyols. These are a group of
short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed. In people with gastrointestinal symptoms, a diet
high in FODMAPs can induce diarrhoea and/or constipation, bloating, wind and abdominal pain. It can be
hard to do but Monash University has a great app you can use. The result of doing this was that I found I
need to avoid onions and garlic and while I can eat a little wheat I have to keep it to a minimum. It was
great to finally have the knowledge to avoid gut upsets, which for me can be pretty dramatic.

One fad I have stuck with is meditation. I did a Transcendental Meditation course a few years back and
now I do it most days, using a great app on my iPhone called Headsp ace. I find it really has helped keep
me on an even keel and on my busiest days it helps me to find some calm.

My latest fad is using kava for anxiety. I had only ever had kava once, while visiting a friend in Vanuatu. It
was a fairly grim experience involving sitting in an old hut and sipping a liquid that looked like mud and
tasted awful. Then my lips went all numb and tingly. As I’ve got older I seem to have become more
anxious and my daughter Hannah put me on to kava tablets as a way of easing that. I find it is a healthy
alternative to pharmaceuticals and the tablets taste a lot better!

Every June, families all over New Zealand brace themselves for the onslaught of colds and flu. When my
two eldest children, Daniel and Hannah, were younger a simple cold always brought on asthma attacks
and we would be in the car and of to the local clinic to get them on the nebuliser. It was just something
we got used to, and I would often turn up at work having spent a few hours in the middle of the night
cradling a child who was struggling to breathe while nurses were kind and doctors attentive.

I started looking at alternative treatments back then in the 1980s, deeply uncomfortable that my kids
were receiving daily doses of steroids to keep their asthma at bay. I figured if I could just keep the cold
bugs from coming into the house in the first place, we would stay one step ahead.

My favourite immunity booster is a combination of echinacea and olive leaf extract. You can buy these
combined in tablets with zinc, vitamin C and garlic, or I prefer getting both in the liquid form from a
naturopath or a health store. Vitamin C is a great scavenger in the body, cleaning up virus trash—you
need about four doses a day of 500 mg if you are sick. Zinc can work to limit the virus multiplying and
garlic is well known as a folk medicine for just about anything that ails you.

I know there are no ‘clinical studies’ proving the efficacy of some of these products, but I also know that
as soon as someone in my house shows any signs of sniffles, they get put on a course for two weeks and
the cold will soon be over. I also drink lots of good-quality orange juice if I am feeling poorly, limit
anything that I know I have slight allergies to, such as dairy products, and drink lots of chicken soup, a
folk cure used since the twelfth century that actually does have a study supporting its healing properties.
Researcher Dr Stephen Rennard at the University of Nebraska found that the ingredients can prompt a
flu-fighting reaction in the body.

If you do any research into both echinacea and olive leaf extract you will find many difering opinions. I
believe it is unlikely you will ever find an endorsement by any official agency because of the power of
drug companies who stand to lose millions if everyone stops getting flu vaccinations, or needing
antibiotics and cough and cold medications. Imagine a world where everyone fed their immune system
with good-quality food, regular exercise, less stress and a few herbs and hardly ever had to go to the
doctor to get a prescription?

Sunscreen

One thing I never see mentioned in the old books like Aunt Daisy’s is sunscreen. Obviously the link
between sunlight and skin cancer had not been made, but at the same time the idea of sitting out in the
sun to get a tan was ridiculous. In my nana’s day a peachy white complexion was sought-after.

In fact, pictures of my nana in her heyday show her to have gorgeous clear, white, rosy skin. Old Box
Brownie pictures of that era show people picnicking in the shade of leafy trees, wearing big wide floppy
hats, with no salacious skin showing, it was all long skirts and blouses.

Things have changed since those times. The depletion of the ozone layer has meant we are exposed to
more UV rays than is healthy and we are happier to expose our skin.

I am one of those children of the sixties who sunbathed until I burned to achieve a dark tan. I remember
lying on the silver roof of our carport and coating myself in vinegar and baby oil to get a great tan from
the reflection of the roof.

Being tanned was a great look and as my mother often said, ‘A tan makes you look so healthy and much
slimmer!’

It was hardly surprising when, at the age of 30, my doctor looked at a couple of moles on my leg and
asked, ‘How long have you had those?’ I had no idea.

They were both melanomas, one deeper than the other, and I had to have them cut out. I had a lucky
near-miss, and from that day on I have never sunbathed or sat in the sun without some form of
sunscreen or cover-up. I also think my skin is better for the years out of the sun. Initially I missed that
sun-baked feeling you get after a day at the beach, that lovely warm glow which tingles all over. But I
found if I covered up with saris and loose cotton kaftans I still got that feeling, just without the sunburn.

Studies are now beginning to show that our slip, slop, slapping has led to

vitamin D deficiency. This is compounded by the fact that the very lotion we use to protect ourselves
from cancer contains some of the nastiest chemicals around, which really shouldn’t go anywhere near
our skin. Especially not babies. No baby under six months should have sunscreen put anywhere near it.
I’m not advocating a return to sun-baking, but some sensible exposure to the sun is important for your
health.
My nana-natural attitude to sun is to avoid it during its strongest hours. I just don’t go out on the beach
between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Those are not the best times for gardening either, so I usually
just stay inside and work. If I do go out I cover up with loose shirts and long skirts and a good hat and
sunglasses, and if I do need to use a sunscreen I use a natural product or one I make myself. There are
many natural substances that will screen UV rays, including sesame oil, black tea and zinc oxide cream.
Natural sunscreens can be made without using chemical sun filters, artificial preservatives or synthetic
colours. The problem is that most of the natural brands you buy give you a deathly white pallor as the
cream acts as a physical barrier sitting on top of the skin rather than soaking into it. I just had to resign
myself to the fact that I’d rather look like death than be dead.

I usually try to sit in the sun for at least 20 minutes a day, arms and legs uncovered, either side of the 11
a.m. to 3 p.m. hot time to soak up some of that vital vitamin D.

By the end of summer I inevitably take on a golden colour because I spend a lot of time outdoors in the
garden, walking or at the caravan, but I never get sunburned. My skin simply colours up naturally. And
my regular skin checks, which I’ve had since my first moles were discovered 18 years ago, show no return
of melanomas.

If you want to try my sunscreen recipe, it’s on page 243. I love it because it leaves the skin supple and
oiled at the end of the day, but be sensible and patch-test it first. On my skin I think it has an SPF factor
of about 15 but it will difer on other skin types. It should also be re-applied frequently, but I can’t and
won’t ofer any guarantees. Please use it at

your own risk. This is safe for children but I also recommend using zinc oxide cream from the pharmacy.
The cream will usually have some castor oil, paraffin or lanolin mixed in with it. You’ll remember in the
1980s we used to put zinc on our noses in five fun fluoro colours. It is an excellent natural sunscreen for
all children, especially babies, but I do encourage you not to rely solely on a sunscreen but also opt for T-
shirts and hats, big sun umbrellas and the shade of trees whenever your children are out in the sun.

If you do get sunburnt, aloe vera is a great natural soother. I keep an aloe vera plant in a pot for the
amazing healing properties of the gel in its leaves. Simply cut a leaf of, run a sharp knife down the centre
of one side and open it out to reveal the gel. This is great for kitchen burns but also rubbed on sunburn.

Hair care

I have been trying to make shampoos for years, but they always turn out to be awful and incredibly hard
on the hair. So I just don’t bother and instead I buy natural products, which are pricey but no more so
than the products your hairdresser pushes on you, and they have fewer chemicals. The big nasty in the
shampoo business is sodium lauryl sulphate, which is a foaming agent. There have been claims it can
cause cancer, skin rashes and eye damage. I have yet to see a compelling study, but I do try to avoid any
chemical that has a question mark over it, and I have yet to find a commercial shampoo that does the
business without sodium lauryl sulphate.

For a great conditioning treatment, get down to your local Indian food supplies store and search for hair
oils. They will usually contain jasmine, smell amazing and are great for your hair. If you can’t find them,
then invest in some jojoba oil or coconut oil. Warm the oil gently and pour on to your dry hair. Wrap
your hair in plastic wrap and then in a hot

towel. Leave on for as long as you can, then shampoo out and condition as normal. I used to leave it on
overnight. There are some recipes for my own hair treatments on page 241.

NITS—THE INEVITABLE FATE OF SCHOOL KIDS

When Pearl and the rest of the kids were younger they would come home from school in March with
nits. Every parent has to deal with this at some stage in their child’s schooling—on the first day of school,
you can almost mark on your calendar that four weeks later those nits will re-appear after you’ve had a
great six-week holiday without them.

Nits are like fleas: you can treat them naturally but you have to keep at it. I can remember lining up all
four of our older children in the kitchen and combing them all every other night. At the time I was editing
a women’s magazine and doing long hours. I had better things I could have been doing as soon as I got
home from work, but the first rule of nits is to get out the comb and use it every other night for two
weeks. You must also wash the bed linen every few days in hot water and add a dash of tea-tree oil in
the final rinse water.

One night while I was combing Pearl’s hair I was drowning the nits in a glass of water next to me as I was
finding them. We were both watching television and I was obviously engrossed in the programme
because I took a long drink out of the glass next to me.

‘Mum,’ said Daniel in shock, ‘I think you just drank the nit water.’

I was out of the lounge so fast and reaching for some fresh water to drink and then had to sit there for
the next hour trying not to think about all the nits fighting for their lives in my stomach.

There are many natural nit shampoos and treatments available now and I urge you to use them in
combination with the combing, but you can make your own. I would buy a cheap, preferably unscented
shampoo and conditioner and add tea-tree oil to it (see the recipe on page 242). I’d also drip tea-tree oil
on our children’s brushes, so that when they brushed their hair a light coating would penetrate it and
deter the nits.

Beauty from within

It’s worth noting that there is a lot you can do for the quality of your skin, hair, eyes and nails with your
diet.

In New Zealand our soil is lacking in selenium, magnesium and zinc, so we don’t get them through the
vegetables and livestock. These minerals are essential for healthy hair, nails and skin. And an easy way to
get the minerals is to eat nuts. Recent research showed that just one Brazil nut a day is enough to raise
the average New Zealander’s selenium intake to internationally recommended levels, and eating two
could lead to added health benefits.

So grab a nut or two. Here’s the nutritional information for almonds (which I prefer) and Brazil nuts.

` Almonds: 100 g almonds contains 16.9 g protein, 4.2 mg iron, 250 mg calcium, 20 mg vitamin E, 3.1 mg
zinc and 0.92 mg vitamin B2.

` Brazil nuts: 100 g Brazils contains 12 g protein, 61 g fat, 2.8 mg iron, 180 mg calcium and 4.2 mg zinc.

You can get goji berries in health shops, Asian supermarkets (where they are called wolfberries), or at
some supermarkets in the bulk-bin area. They look like red sultanas and taste very similar, but their
super-food power is incredible. They have been grown in China for more than 600 years and they are
said to enhance the immune system, increase antioxidant levels, increase red blood cell levels, reduce
cardiovascular disease, inhibit tumour growth, lower blood sugar levels and reduce neuronal decline.
Historically, they have been used in China as a mild tranquilliser to relieve insomnia, enhance weight
loss, treat sexual dysfunction and for menopause symptoms. And the good news is you only need 10–15
grams a day to receive their benefits.

I put flax seeds (also known as linseed) in my hens’ food to give them and their eggs omega-3, but I also
put the seeds in our bread. You can

also buy flaxseed fibre in health shops, which is flax seeds ground up into a powder to put in cereal. Flax
seeds are a great source of fibre and you can also buy flaxseed oil, which is really good used in salad
dressings. Flax seeds help remove toxins from the body and regulate blood sugar, oestrogen and blood
cholesterol. They also have lignans which have powerful immune-boosting efects, folate, omega-3 and
are rich in antioxidants. Linseed oil, which goes through a refinement process and may contain additives
that improve its paint-cleaning properties, is not to be consumed—it is best saved for oiling furniture.

By the way, oysters also have good quantities of magnesium, zinc and selenium, if you find some on
special!

For too long, women have starved themselves of fat even though fats act as carriers for the important
fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and are needed for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A and for
mineral absorption.

Butter is no longer to be avoided since studies have shown that saturated fats are not the artery-
clogging, heart-attack-causing poison we were told they were.

Personally, I’d rather eat something that originated in a cow than something that was created in a lab by
scientists. And I believe that humans have been eating animal fat for thousands of years, so we are
designed to process them. We are not designed to process vegetable oil, which has been chemically
altered (hydrogenated), flavoured, coloured, preserved and emulsified into margarine. And up until
recently the process of creating margarine created trans fats, which are even worse for you than
saturated fat.

I also believe in some fat for cosmetic reasons. After all, we all have a layer of fat underneath our skin. A
study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2010 looked at the elasticity of the skin of 716
Japanese women and found that those with higher levels of fat (saturated and mono-unsaturated) in
their diet had increased levels of skin elasticity.

As you age, I think it makes sense to include fat in your diet by eating

avocados and dipping fresh bread in olive oils and maybe even having a little bit of butter.

One of my colleagues in my magazine editing days used to look at a very skinny woman and mutter, ‘Eat
more pies.’ I look at women who have great figures but faces that are wrinkled and drawn and think ‘Eat
more fat.’

I find it incredible that women will ban fat from their diet but be happy to let a cosmetic nurse inject fat
deposits into their faces to iron out wrinkles that would probably not be there if they ate enough fat.

In particular, omega-3, which is found in foods such as oily fish (like salmon), nuts, seeds and flaxseed oil,
is known to promote supple skin. Still, I’m just not sure if an ‘eat fat and stop the wrinkles’ message will
ever take of.

Enhance the looks you have

Every woman does it: the face gymnastics in the mirror where your hands pull and scrape away at your
flesh, pulling it back at the cheekbones, up at the brow, imagining yourself post-op after an age-saving
facelift. I do this, and then I just accept myself for who I am, even if there is a new wrinkle on my top lip
and a few bags and sags that weren’t there last year.

I feel the same way about ageing as I do about size. If I meet a woman for the first time I’m interested in
her smile, her eyes and her personality. Later I might notice what size she is, and perhaps that she has a
few wrinkles around her eyes, but I firmly believe that no one seriously judges someone by how they
look. So I try to make sure that I’m as interesting as I can be as a person so that I can hold a decent
conversation. I try to make sure that I’m happy so that I’m always smiling. And I try to live an honest life
full of good karma so that you can see that behind my eyes.

Here is a no-pain, totally free and chemical-free way to give yourself a facelift in your lunchtime. Try it—I
can tell you it works.

SEE YOURSELF

Women spend far too much time critiquing their bodies: ‘I hate my stomach’, ‘If only I had straight hair’.
Imagine what would happen if you replaced those negative thoughts and images with a great body
striding confidently about looking happy. Don’t compare yourself with others, especially that model you
just saw on the cover of Vogue. Be realistic about your image and accept the unique person you are and
work with it.

WEAR IT

Yes I know it is red and you never wear red. I know it is more revealing than you are used to. I also know
that you feel fabulous in it, so put it on, celebrate the experiment and be confident in it. Break free from
the expectations you imagine other people have of you and allow yourself to be whoever you want to
be. Pink, purple or, in my case, a lighter shade of black.
BE AMAZING

Beauty is not about being classically pretty like Reese Witherspoon. It is about having a point of
diference, a fascinating conversation or take on life. Learn to like that thing about yourself that everyone
relates to, and you’re already beautiful.

MAKE A DATE WITH YOU

When I talk to groups of women, I encourage them to work towards getting one hour a day alone. A
bath, a run, a walk, a lie on the bed with a book. One hour with no one but yourself. Only then can you
learn how beautiful you really are.

CARRY THE BOOK ON YOUR HEAD

Remember when you were a kid and you’d all practise walking up and down the hall with a telephone
book on your head? Do that every day (obviously imagine the book is there). First impressions do count,

228 229
ta KIn G c a r e o f Ba By

New mothers are bombarded

with remedies and advice

for everything from curing

wind to changing nappies,

and much of the advice is

contradictory. In the old days

you asked your mother, and

she told you what to do. If

you didn’t have a mother, you

might read a book and take the

advice from that, or talk to a

friend. But new mums never

had to process, analyse and

make a decision based on 25

diferent pieces of information.

It can be overwhelming.

253

I believe that the chemicals we have allowed into our food, houses, beauty products and even our
clothes are having a detrimental efect on our health and wellbeing, and many health workers agree with
me. And I believe that raising a baby in an environment as free of these harmful chemicals as you can
manage is a wonderful thing to do. What is one of the first things we do to our newborn babies? Wipe
their bottoms with commercial, chemical-laden baby wipes and then pop them in a bath into which we
squeeze commercial chemical-laden bath wash.
Under current laws, chemicals are considered ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and chemical companies
have no responsibility to perform pre-market testing or post-market follow-ups of the products that they
produce. Yet there’s growing evidence that children face real harm from chemicals in their homes,
schools and communities. Three studies, for example, found that children exposed to the highest levels
of pesticides before birth had lower IQ scores than other children. Other studies have found that boys
exposed before birth to the highest levels of phthalates— chemicals widely used in plastic—were more
likely to be born with anatomical defects such as undescended testes.

A study from the American-based Environmental Working Group found that babies are born ‘pre-
polluted’ with more than 200 chemicals, including flame retardants, lead and pesticides banned 30 years
ago.

Many children’s advocates say they’re concerned that toxic exposures could be fuelling the recent rise in
early puberty in girls, as well as a variety of chronic diseases such as autism, allergies, asthma and
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). No one knows exactly what the long-term efects on
humans and the environment of exposure to toxins will be. Most of these chemicals found in our
environment are relatively new and it could take many years before we start to see their efects.

I am not about black-and-white thinking, and would never take an all¬or-nothing approach. But I think if
you change just one product you use and swap it for a natural, old-fashioned alternative, then you are
already

ahead of someone who hasn’t even done that. That’s one less toxin in your life.

And I am also not a chemophobe. After all, some of the most basic things in our lives, such as water
(H2O) and salt (NaCl), are chemicals. I just suggest that we don’t use chemicals that we don’t need, that
are possibly dangerous and that are put in our food, our beauty products and our homes without our
knowledge or consent.

I know that a large proportion of the people who bought my natural cleaning products were new
mothers and I know that a large proportion of the people who read my email newsletters were too.
There is a huge hunger for knowledge of the old-fashioned ways and I love nothing better than finding a
recipe or piece of advice in an old book, experimenting with it and sharing it with my readers. None of
this information is new; it’s all out there in various places, but it does take time to find it, so I’ve done the
hard work for you and collected it here.

In this chapter I’m going to give you some ideas about clearing your decks and making sure that
everything that goes into your body or touches it is as real and healthy as it can be. I’ll also help you
clean your house out of nasty chemicals lurking in your cleaning products.

I’m also going to do my best to explain why you need to avoid things like parabens, colourings and
fragrances because while there is good awareness of the need to avoid these things, not many people
understand why. And I think you should know.

So, you’re pregnant

I’ve never met a woman who can’t remember the day she found out she was pregnant. For some it’s a
complete surprise, for others it’s simply a confirmation of something she already instinctively knew, and
for others it is a long-awaited miracle. The one thing I believe all women feel when they see those
double lines on the test stick or are told the news

by their doctor is an immediate change in their sense of self. The way we were as a woman yesterday has
no bearing at all on the woman we are today, because today I am woman, hear me roar. There is nothing
as rudimentary and primitive as growing a baby, and we are immediately connected down the line,
through the ages, back to the caves and into the forests with all other women who went before us and
did exactly what we are about to spend the next nine months doing. Being pregnant is that natural. We
need to remember that.

These days, pregnant woman are given screeds of advice about not smoking, not drinking cafeine or
alcohol, avoiding fish with high levels of mercury and foods like raw seafood and packaged meats that
might harbour listeria.

But not many newly pregnant women come home from their doctor with advice about limiting their
baby’s exposure to chemicals in the home environment, in processed food, cleaning products and beauty
products.

From the moment you are pregnant, and even before if you are trying to conceive, I want you to think
about these three things:

` Most of what you rub on your body will go into your bloodstream and therefore your baby’s
bloodstream, so although a body cream laden with artificial fragrance, colour and preservatives might
smell nice, your baby can live without it.

` Most of what you breathe into your lungs goes into your bloodstream and therefore your baby’s
bloodstream. So that lungful of air-freshener loaded with artificial fragrance and phthalates (see page
268) might smell nice, but your baby can live without it. The same goes for fly spray and second-hand
smoke.

` Everything you eat goes into your bloodstream. So, that slice of frozen pizza you heated up for dinner
which has 50 ingredients in it including artificial colours, flavours and preservatives as well as sulphites,
your baby can live without.

What you put in your body

I’d like you to imagine that you are in a science fiction movie and you are an absolute genius scientist
who has managed to work out how to make babies outside of the womb. You have a little embryo in a
see-through cocoon and you are responsible for nurturing it as it grows. Here’s what you probably won’t
do in your laboratory: pour a glass of wine into the cocoon, blow smoke into it or mash up fast food and
highly processed, packaged foods and throw them in the mix. Yet every day babies in the womb are
subjected to these substances. Instead, as a genius scientist you would be more likely to seek out the
best-quality foods you can find in their most natural states, to give your growing baby the maximum
nutrition it can get.
In my nana’s day, the food people ate was locally grown. There were no supermarkets that imported
lemons from the US or pork from China. Instead Nana went to her greengrocer and bought fruit and
vegetables that were in season and grown locally. Her meat came from the butcher, who sourced it from
nearby farms or abattoirs. Her bread was baked locally by the baker, or she made it herself. She also
grew a lot of her own veges and swapped them with neighbours when she had a surplus. And she was
given strict instructions for the foods needed to grow a baby, which were referred to as ‘protective
foods’ because they protected the body from common dietary deficiencies of the time.

Here are some tips for eating like my nana did when she was pregnant, adapted for the modern world.

` Eat organic food if you can aford it. Research conducted at the Columbia Centre for Children’s
Environmental Health has shown that exposure to pesticides during pregnancy harms the healthy growth
and development of babies in the womb and adversely afects development in early childhood.

ta KIn G c a r e o f Ba By

` If you have the time and space, grow as many of your own vegetables as you can to get the maximum
amount of nutrients from them. Vegetables start to lose their nutrients and vitality as soon as they are
picked, so eating straight from the garden is better for you than a week after they have been harvested
and transported to a supermarket. And try to grow them organically.

` If you do buy vegetables, buy locally grown, not imported; and wash them thoroughly in a mix of 1
tablespoon of white vinegar to 2 litres of water to disinfect and clean the produce.

` Don’t eat salad pre-packed in bags. In the summer of 2010, listeria was found in bagged salads and
some were recalled. Listeria happily exists in the soil, so when it is put in a modified atmosphere in the
plastic bag that is used to extend the life of the salad, it also gets plenty of time to grow. Listeria is a
dangerous bacteria for pregnant women to be exposed to, as it can cause miscarriage and stillbirths.

` If you must eat processed food from the supermarket, such as chips, pasta sauces or baked goods,
check the ingredients panel. Don’t eat anything that has more than five ingredients listed, and even then,
only if your grandmother would recognise the ingredient. Any more than five ingredients will usually
mean additives such as chemical flavourings, colourings and preservatives. For example, a packet of
flavoured potato chips like Roast Lamb and Mint has 25 ingredients, compared with a packet of ready
salted chips which has three ingredients: potatoes, oil and salt. Choose those ones if you need to eat
chips.

` Try to eat food that is presented to you in as natural a state as it can be. Brown rice is what rice looks
like before the husk is taken of to make it white. It is much more nutritious than

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white rice and just takes a bit more cooking. White bread is made from whole grains of flour that have
had the husk taken of them and been processed to make them white. Wholegrain bread is more
nutritious for you. Potatoes cooked with the skins on are better for you than peeled.

` Make like a vegetarian. I’m not for one minute suggesting you become a vegetarian, as only very
experienced vegetarians and vegans can manage the nutritional needs of a pregnancy. But thinking like a
vegetarian and experimenting with some alternative protein sources, such as the ancient grain quinoa or
a barley risotto, can be an interesting way of mixing up your diet while giving you and your baby
maximum protein.

` Discover sprouts. A really easy way to boost your intake of greens is to grow sprouts which you can
throw in sandwiches, soups, casseroles and stir-fries. They are very easy to grow, as I explain on page
112.

` Eat lots of fish. Aim for three times a week. It is rich in protein, zinc, iodine, omega-3 and vitamins B12
and D, and is very low in saturated fat. Avoid fish that is likely to be high in mercury, such as shark,
swordfish and fresh tuna. Shellfish is great too, but must be cooked.

` Don’t make the mistake of eating for two, like I did for my first three pregnancies. Fat mothers and fat
babies make for dificult deliveries, and a lot of excess weight for you to get rid of afterwards. Most
women don’t need to eat any more calories for the first half of their pregnancy, and after this they only
need an extra 200 calories—or half a ham sandwich—a day, according to a recent British study.
Although, our Ministry of Health recommends 340 calories extra a day in the second trimester and 425
calories in the third. Rather than eating for two, concentrate on eating for maximum nutrition. Your body

knows what it needs, and if you need more of a particular nutrient, such as iron, you will find yourself
craving foods that are rich in iron. Trust your body to tell you what’s right.

` Most doctors recommend taking folic acid supplements, because our diets no longer rely on food rich in
folic acid, such as liver. Folic acid is important because it can prevent spina bifida in unborn babies. One
120 g serving of liver will provide you with 860 mcg of folic acid and most doctors recommend a daily
intake of between 400 and 600 mcg when pregnant, so having liver once a week is a good idea. But don’t
have it more than once a week, as the Ministry of Health is concerned about too much vitamin A in
pregnancy. See pages 294 and 295 for some fun nana ways to cook liver.

` Talk to your doctor about taking supplements, but do remember that your body is designed to get its
vitamins and minerals from good food. Supplements can be unregulated, in which case you have no idea
what goes into them, so provide your body with real food and let it get the vitamins and minerals it
needs from a reliable source that our bodies have been using for thousands of years.

` Drink lots of water. It helps with constipation, which is often a problem in pregnancy, and also flushes
out any toxins and bacteria in your system. Buying bottled water isn’t a great environmental choice,
because you are sending plastic bottles to the landfills. Instead, buy a water filter jug, fill up your own
BPA-free drinking bottle and, if you must have sparkling water, invest in a SodaStream machine. It has
been found that exposure of the placenta to low doses of BPA may lead to pre-eclampsia, intrauterine
growth restriction, prematurity and pregnancy loss. See page 283 for more information on BPA. Also take
a look at the jug you use to boil water for your tea and
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cofee. If it is plastic, it is possibly leaching chemicals at high heats, so swap it for a glass or metal electric
jug.

One thing our nanas didn’t have to worry about too much was food-borne illnesses. All of their food was
prepared in their homes, and therefore the chance of bacteria spreading was slim. They never ate out,
never ate takeaways or fast food that was prepared by others, and picking up a pasta salad or quiche at
the supermarket and heating it up in a microwave was never an option.

So much of the food we eat is prepared outside our homes, and what food we buy raw, such as battery-
farmed, mass-produced chicken, can be infected with salmonella which can only be killed by thorough
cooking. So, for the duration of your pregnancy many foods will be of your list simply because they carry
the risk of infecting you with listeria or other illnesses. Your doctor or midwife will be able to provide you
with a list of foods to avoid.

Additives are put in food to make it last longer on the shelf, taste diferently, look more appealing or keep
it crisp, dry and crunchy. You can think you are eating guacamole from a jar but the jar may only contain
4 per cent avocado.

Additives that are banned in some countries because of serious health concerns, such as cancer, asthma
and eczema reactions, are allowed into our foods, which is horrifying. But while you have an industry
worth trillions of dollars worldwide, trying to get an additive banned is a classic David and Goliath battle.

I am now able to pick up any product in a supermarket and immediately interpret the three-number
codes that prevent consumers from seeing the chemical names of what they are consuming. Most
people have no idea what those codes represent, or have the time to go home and look them up on their
computer. Thankfully, journalist Michael Pollan, who has written several books on the subject of what is
happening to the food we eat, realised that people were probably not going to analyse every bit

of their diet, so he came up with a great little book called Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. In it he lists
several rules you can use to help you make sure you are eating good-quality, real and well-produced
food.

Two of his rules I have already mentioned in passing: only eat items that contain fewer than five
ingredients, and make sure your grandmother would recognise those ingredients. Another rule I like is
‘Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not’, such as margarine.

What you put on your body

For most women, daily make-up application is a ritual. I know you still have half a jar left of that really
expensive moisturiser, and you can’t live without your favourite brand of red lipstick, but you are about
to throw them away or give them to a friend. If I take you back to that laboratory where you are the
genius scientist with your embryo in a jar . . . imagine rubbing a substance that is full of harmful
chemicals and toxins like parabens all over the cocoon, and knowing that up to 60 per cent of that
substance will be absorbed into your baby’s bloodstream (up to 80 per cent if the cocoon skin is wet).

A study in 2005, conducted by Greenpeace and the WWF-UK, analysed the maternal and umbilical cord
blood provided by volunteers in the Netherlands and found that suspected hazardous substances,
present in everyday household products, were entering babies’ bodies through the umbilical cord. The
chemicals include several that are known to afect physical and mental development in animals. Some of
these chemicals are found in deodorants, perfumes and antibacterial soaps.

It can be very frustrating to find that a brand of perfume or moisturiser that you have used for years is
full of chemicals, but few commercial beauty products list their ingredients because beauty products in
this country are self-regulated, which means the manufacturers can put anything they like in them—
unlike food manufacturers who must submit

to rigorous testing and regulations. The beauty-product manufacturers might list their ingredients on the
labels or they might not.

In my view, the cosmetics industry is much like the tobacco industry, which denied for years that
smoking caused cancer and emphysema. The global cosmetics industry, which is estimated to be worth
around $300 billion, will tell you that the toxic ingredients used in their products are in such small
amounts that they have no efect on your health. But that’s like saying if you only smoke one cigarette a
day you’ll be fine, because in reality few people ever smoke just one cigarette a day. As all women know
who lug around their beauty products in their handbags, we use lots of products every day, and
sometimes three times a day. It doesn’t take much to work out that you are building up toxin upon toxin
to the point where you may be harming yourself and your baby.

It can also be frustrating trying to find out which chemicals you need to avoid and why. The media is full
of stories about paraben and triclosan being found in products, but what is wrong with them? Here’s a
list of the top chemicals you should try to avoid in your beauty products, why you need to avoid them
and some alternatives you can use. I’ve taken this information from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
website. Also handy is the Cosmetics Database, where you can search for your favourite beauty product
and see what chemicals it has in it.

` Parabens: You will find these used under the names ethylparaben, butylparaben, methylparaben and
propylparaben. Beauty-product manufacturers need to make sure that their products survive on shelves
for up to two years or longer, so they use parabens as a preservative in many beauty products. There are
no definitive studies that link parabens with breast cancer, but they are known to disrupt hormone
function because they mimic natural oestrogen. The body sees them as real oestrogen, which sets of a
reaction that can lead to breast cancer. I’ve picked up so-called natural beauty products and been
appalled at some of

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their ingredients, because some natural cosmetic companies stop using parabens only to replace them
with equally nasty preservatives with other names. Living Nature, Weleda and Dr Hauschka are three
brands that contain no synthetic preservatives. If you have time during your pregnancy, you are best to
make your own fresh creams and moisturisers out of pure, natural oils, beeswax and aloe vera. If you
have dry skin, a good almond or apricot oil will work well as a moisturiser, or if you have more oily skin
you can use pure aloe vera gel as a moisturiser. Just make sure you buy the real stuf from a reputable
health shop, not the stuf with green colouring sold in pharmacies.

` Triclosan: This is used in antibacterial soaps and detergents, deodorants, toothpastes, cosmetics, fabrics
and plastics. This is another hormone disruptor that can interfere with the body’s natural hormone
system and cause illness. The main concern, if you are pregnant, is that a study found traces of it in
umbilical cord blood. The last thing you want is a hormone disruptor hanging around while your baby is
in vulnerable periods of development. Be wary of any product which states that it is ‘antibacterial’. If you
are really concerned about bacteria on your chopping boards, make up my antibacterial spray or simply
wipe over with a cut lemon. The US Food and Drug Administration found no evidence that antibacterial
washes containing triclosan were superior to plain soap and water for protecting consumers from
bacteria. Make up my natural hand wash, tooth powder and deodorant (see recipes in the Cleaning and
Health and Beauty chapters).

` Formaldehyde: This is an ingredient used in nail polishes, nail glues, eyelash glues and hair gels and it
has also been found in baby shampoo, baby soap, body washes and wipes. Its

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use is restricted in the European Union and Canada, and it is banned in Japan and Sweden. It is
considered to be a probable carcinogen, which means it can cause cancer, and it can cause allergic skin
reactions and rashes in some people. Take a break from nail polish, artificial nails and body washes.
Instead buy a bufing kit from your local pharmacy to bring your nails to a natural shine, and make your
own body wash.

` Phthalates: These are everywhere in toys, shower curtains, air-fresheners but also nail polish and
fragrances used in many cosmetics. They can cause hormonal abnormalities, birth defects and
reproductive problems and appear to have nasty efects on sex hormones. One study found that
phthalate exposure in pregnant women, as measured by urine samples, has been associated with a
shortened distance between the anus and genitals in male babies, indicating that a feminisation had
occurred during genital development. And another study found that baby boys exposed to phthalates in
breast milk had alterations in their hormone levels. You’re already avoiding nail polish to keep
formaldehyde out, but it is best to avoid anything with fragrance added to it, as phthalates are a
common component. But just because a label says ‘fragrance free’ there is no legal standard for those
words, so unfortunately you can never be too sure.

` Nitrosamines: Two substances called diethanolamine (DEA) and triethanolamine (TEA) are used
together in a product as a preservative. But over time they break down and recombine to form
nitrosamines. Both DEA and TEA are commonly used in cosmetics to adjust the pH or act as wetting
agents. The problem with nitrosamines is cancer, and they are listed as possible human carcinogens by
the US Environmental Protection Agency, among others. They are used in most personal care products,
including mascara, concealer,

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conditioner, baby shampoo, pain-relief salve and sunless tanning lotion. But because they are impurities,
they are not listed on product labels. You’ve already stopped using most of your personal care products,
so that just leaves conditioner and sunless tanning lotion. I’ll give you alternatives for shampoo and
conditioner later on, but there is no natural or old-fashioned alternative to tanning lotion. For the time of
your pregnancy, and hopefully forever, you are going to have to accept that the colour you are is your
natural state.

` Lead: I know there is lead in red lipsticks, and so do the people who make them. An independent
laboratory test in 2007, by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, found that more than 33 brand-name
lipsticks contained detectable levels of lead, and one-third of these lipsticks exceeded the US Food and
Drug Administration’s limit for lead in candy. None of these lipsticks listed lead on their ingredients label.
Lead is particularly dangerous for pregnant women because it easily crosses the placenta and may enter
the foetal brain, where it interferes with normal development. Lead has also been linked to miscarriage.
Cosmetics companies will tell you it’s such a tiny amount that it won’t hurt you, but lead levels build up
over time. I’m sure you’ve all read the ridiculous claims on the internet that the average woman
consumes kilos of lipstick during their lifetime. But I know that I eat a fair bit of my lipstick, so you do
have to be aware that you can be consuming lead with it if you like to wear red lipstick. If you’re
pregnant, throw it out and change your lipstick colour. You can make your own beetroot lip tint, which I
found quite a lot of fun but not quite as red as I needed. Or you can opt for a natural lipstick that lists
cochineal or carmine in its ingredients, which shows they are using this to colour it instead of lead. Nana
used carmine all the time.

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` Sunscreens: Most of the chemicals in sunscreens have minimal toxic efects when you first put them on
the skin, but when exposed to sunlight the chemicals heat up and reactions occur that can be harmful.
PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid) generates oxygen radicals which harm DNA strands when exposed to
sunlight, and it has also been found to increase the development of a particular DNA defect in human
cells which in people who lack the natural mechanism to repair the defect can make them more
susceptible to skin cancer.

Your first line of defence against the sun is to cover up with clothes and hats and sit in the shade, just like
Nana used to to protect her rose complexion. And remember that sunlight is a great source of vitamin D,
which is essential for growing healthy babies. A recent study published in the American Academy of
Pediatrics’ medical journal, Pediatrics, found that newborns who were vitamin D deficient at birth were
six times more likely to develop a common virus that afects the lungs and airways of infants and children,
causing pneumonia, ear infections, bronchiolitis, croup and lung failure, than those who were not. So do
sit in the sun for 20 minutes a day, avoiding the peak burning hours in summer. You’ll find my recipe for
sunscreen on page 243. I can’t and won’t ofer any guarantees so please use at your own risk.
` Deodorant: If you use an antiperspirant, then stop. They have sweat-retarding agents in them that slow
the action of your sweat glands. Your body is designed to sweat—that is how you get rid of toxins. You
wouldn’t block up your car’s exhaust pipe, so why block your own? Deodorants can have anti-microbial
agents, like triclosan, and also artificial perfumes. No one likes to stink, but the smell is the result of
toxins leaving your body and combining with bacteria. You can make up my deodorant recipe on page
247. If I don’t have time for that, I use the spray deodorants made by Weleda.

` Essential oils: I love essential oils and use them in all my cleaners and beauty products. The problem for
pregnancy is that they can be too powerful. Just as toxic chemicals can afect your unborn child, so too
can some essential oils. In those cautious first few months, I wouldn’t take any risks and avoided putting
essential oils on my skin. After the first three months you can use these oils: lavender, rose geranium,
rose

bulgar, rose maroc, tangerine, mandarin, chamomile roman. These are alright to use in pregnancy, but
only when very diluted so never use them directly on your skin. Always dilute in a carrier oil, like almond,
olive or sunflower, first. Use 1 drop of essential oil to 1 ml of carrier oil.

This might sound really crazy, but you can wash your hair with plain old baking soda. I tried this and
found that it left my hair really soft. The only problem was I needed to do it every day. Apparently a
baking soda wash removes all the stuf left in your hair by commercial shampoos, and it can take about
two weeks before things come right and your natural oils kick back in to leave your hair clean and shiny. I
had a TV appearance after washing my hair with baking soda for a week, so wasn’t prepared to do the
full two weeks. Instead I do a baking soda wash once every few weeks as a good clean-out. There’s a
recipe on page 309.

You can use aloe vera gel to condition your hair. Simply use as you would a conditioner, then rinse out.
Your hair will feel a bit ropey while it is wet but will dry up really soft. I use this once a month for a
special treatment. Argan oil is also fabulous for your hair. Simply rub a small amount—I use about half a
teaspoon—into your wet hair before you blow-dry or let it dry naturally. Most Indian shops will have lots
of lovely hair oils which smell amazing. I use these for a good conditioning treatment every so often.
Simply pour the oil on your dry hair and rub in. Then wrap your head in plastic wrap, and then a hot
towel. Leave as long as you can and then wash out.

Using cleaning products while pregnant

A study in 2005 of maternal and umbilical cord blood provided by volunteers in the Netherlands revealed
that known or suspected hazardous substances present in everyday household products are entering
babies’ bodies through the umbilical cord. The chemicals included some that are known to afect physical
and mental development in animals. So it makes sense when you are pregnant to clear out any
commercial cleaning products that may contaminate your home. It should be a safe haven for that baby
developing in your womb.

The main problem with cleaning products is that there is little or no government regulation of them.
Unlike food products, there is no legal requirement to label the contents with a list of ingredients, nor is
there any regulatory agency that tests products for consumer safety. In this country we are lucky enough
to have Consumer magazine, which will regularly test cleaning products, including so-called eco or green
products, for safety. Recently they found misleading claims on supposedly ‘green’ laundry powder labels,
with one major brand having a higher pH level than is acceptable according to the ERMA (Environmental
Risk Management Authority). Previously the same brand had to change their labelling and packaging for
their dishwashing detergent because it contained a caustic substance that could damage children’s
throats. So there is no protection as a consumer, and every product you bring home from the
supermarket has the potential to add just a little bit more to the toxic cocktail you are brewing in your
home.

There are a few recipes specifically for products that I recommend using while you are pregnant and
once baby comes along at the end of this chapter, and many natural cleaning recipes in the Cleaning
chapter.

A guide to natural therapies

The thought of my nana consulting a chiropractor or, for that matter, a naturopath is hilarious. But many
of the natural therapies we use today are ancient, and the naturopath’s knowledge of herbs and
nutrition, or the acupuncturist’s knowledge of pressure points, go back thousands of years.

I have a very open mind about natural therapies and will often consult my naturopath and my
chiropractor before going to my doctor. If I can fix it with good food and herbs and a realignment of my
spine, then that makes sense to me. Since my family began cutting chemicals out of their lives we have
been remarkably healthy (touch wood) and I put that down to our immune systems functioning a lot
better without having to clear the extra toxin load.

Natural therapies are a great option if you are serious about keeping chemicals out of your family’s life.
In pregnancy and labour, natural therapies can help with pain relief and also help with your body healing
and settling into breastfeeding. Your baby can also benefit from these therapies, and it may mean they
don’t have to take antibiotics or other drugs so early in their life.

These days many doctors and midwives work alongside natural therapists, who are often referred to as
complementary practitioners, and I think this is a good approach and gives you and your baby the best of
both worlds. Do check that any therapist you use is properly qualified and is registered with its own
governing body.

` Acupuncture and acupressure: These both come from traditional Chinese medicine, which dates back
thousands of years. Chinese medicine works on the belief that the key to health is balancing two
opposing forces called yin and yang which are passive and active. The therapy works on stimulating
pressure points on the body to release muscular tension and promote the circulation of blood and the
body’s

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concentrates on the head and involves very subtle and gentle adjustments without any ‘clicking’ of the
joints. For mothers it can help with backache, morning sickness, haemorrhoids, and swollen legs and
hands in pregnancy, and after birth it can help with shoulder and back pain. For babies, cranial
osteopathy can be used to treat babies whose heads may have experienced the use of forceps or a
ventouse. It can also treat colic, sleeplessness, reflux and glue ear as well as distressed or irritable babies.

` Homeopathy: This treatment works on the premise that ‘like may cure like’. By introducing a natural
remedy that mimics the symptoms of the illness, the body’s own healing processes are stimulated to
cure the ailment. The remedies can include animal, plant, mineral and synthetic substances. It is very
safe, as there are no side efects and you cannot become addicted to the remedies. A commonly used
homeopathic treatment is Rescue Remedy, which is used by many to relieve symptoms of stress and
anxiety. For mothers it can help with just about all pregnancy issues, such as morning sickness, tiredness
and backache. In labour it can help stimulate the uterus and deal with exhaustion and irritability. And
after birth it can help with fast recovery and baby blues, and is very useful for breastfeeding as it can
help with establishing a good milk flow, and protecting the nipples. For babies it can help with colic,
sleep problems, teething, earache and fevers. Babies can respond very quickly to homeopathic
treatment. Although many homeopathic remedies are now sold over the counter in health shops and
pharmacies, it is wise to consult a homeopathic practitioner before giving them to your child.

` Herbalist: This is a really old-fashioned therapy—in fact, it goes back to prehistoric times when herbal
treatments were the basis of medical care, as they still are in many countries

around the world. Many modern drugs prescribed by doctors were originally derived from plants but are
now produced using a synthesised form. Herbalists use plants and plant extracts to treat their patients.
For mothers, herbs can help with all pregnancy issues and also facilitate a smooth labour. After birth you
can use herbs to aid recovery and help with breastfeeding and stress. Herbs are wonderful for enhancing
your milk supply, too. For babies, they can help with colic, sleep problems, infections and digestion
issues. Many herbal treatments are now readily available over the counter, but do be careful. While
herbal teas are usually regarded as quite safe, other treatments might be too strong for you during
pregnancy and your baby after birth. Do consult a professional herbalist.

` Naturopathy: A naturopath is the natural-therapy equivalent of your GP. They train for four to five
years and are qualified to prescribe herbs, homeopathic remedies, vitamins and minerals, and flower
essences. They can also give nutritional advice and perform massage or other body therapies. For
anyone interested in trying out a natural therapy, a naturopath is a good one-stop shop to get started at.
For mothers it can treat most ailments throughout pregnancy, during labour and after birth. For babies,
most illnesses can get some form of treatment.

Building your nest

Babies are especially vulnerable to environmental irritants, allergens and toxins when they first arrive, as
they have been protected in the womb. So it is a good idea to plan your nursery so that it is as free of
irritants as possible—and also think about the products you’ll use on your baby— well ahead of time.

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BABY’S ROOM

If you are serious about keeping chemicals out of your baby’s life, it is very important that you do any
painting well before your baby arrives to give time for any harmful chemicals from the paint to dissipate.
And if you can, use water-based paint and low-odour paints that reduce the solvents in the atmosphere
of your home. If you are pregnant, do not participate in this job as sanding of old paint in old houses can
expose you to lead which is harmful for your unborn child.

With two asthmatic children I have always opted for floorboards and rugs in my homes instead of carpet.
It is a much easier way to ensure that you don’t have dust mites multiplying, so if you can do this in your
nursery it is a good idea. If you are stuck with carpet, then resist the urge to get it chemically cleaned or
to use chemical cleaners. You can steam-clean it, but if you hire someone to do it, ask them not to use
any chemical detergent. A simple clean with water and steam is all you need. And make up my simple
recipes to keep the carpet clean (see page 185).

If you want to lay new carpet, then avoid synthetic ones as they give of toxic fumes for several months
after being laid. Instead use natural fibres such as wool or cotton, and ask that the installer tacks them
down rather than using an adhesive that gives of toxic fumes.

I think a Moses basket is ideal to start with, as you can carry them from room to room, the weave means
it breathes so the baby always has fresh air, and you can swing it gently to soothe the baby if you need
to. They are also made out of wicker, which is biodegradable and sustainable. You can get cotton hanging
bassinets that stand on legs. They are great because you can also rock these gently to soothe the baby.
And you can also get cotton hammocks that hang from the ceiling or a stand and have excellent rocking
power. Many parents swear by them as a first bed, because babies sleep so well in them. These are all
natural-fibre options that won’t break the bank.

As with anything going near a newborn baby, I think as well as avoiding anything synthetic, like polyester
or nylon, it is worth the investment

to buy something organic. This is because organic fibres are created without the use of toxic fertilisers,
pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. Other mattresses can be made out of PVC or polyurethane and
may also be treated with fire-retardant chemicals which can be harmful. The last thing you want is your
baby’s nose right up against any residue from these toxins. Look for a bassinet or cot mattress that is
made out of organic cotton, wool mohair or coconut fibres. You can also get some made out of latex,
which is rubber that is plant-based and not synthetic. There are concerns that old mattresses may
harbour germs, bacteria and mould. Some cot-death researchers, such as Dr Jim Sprott, believe that
mould spores in old mattresses can be a factor in cot death. He advises covering second-hand mattresses
with a plastic covering; however, the Cot Death Association of New Zealand does not support his theory.
The British Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, on the other hand, recommends that parents buy
a new mattress for each new baby, so I think it is a good idea just to be safe.

Find 100 per cent natural cotton, linen or hemp sheets because they will withstand a lot of washing and
breathe better than polyester mixes. If you are handy with a sewing machine you can make your own by
cutting up a full-size sheet into smaller pieces, and you can sew on pretty lace as an edging. If you are
buying new, soak them first in my washing soda soaker in the Cleaning chapter (see page 175) and wash
thoroughly in hot water to make sure that the fabric is free of formaldehyde, pesticides and other
chemicals which are often put into fabric when it is manufactured as flame retardants, stain repellents,
insect repellents and wrinkle resisters. Newborn babies have very thin skin for the first three to five days
after birth, which means it’s more susceptible to absorbing toxins, so make sure everything that will
touch your baby, such as sheets, nappies and clothing, is washed and cleaned thoroughly before use.

Nana always used wool for blankets, mainly because polyester had only just been invented and wasn’t
readily available. But today wool is a great choice because it is warm, breathes and is naturally water-
resistant

and flame-retardant. Resist the urge to buy a polyester baby duvet that is synthetic and won’t breathe. I
can’t vouch for this, but during my research I found a claim that we give of 600 ml of water vapour as
perspiration during an eight-hour sleep under a blanket. As long as you look after wool blankets—use my
wool soap jelly recipe (see page 316)—they are a really good investment, so see if you can buy in a
couple, or perhaps they would be a great gift from a grandparent. I’m a big fan of air cell blankets in both
wool and cotton, because they have the flexibility to tuck in tight around a newborn baby but also
breathe so that the baby won’t overheat in their cuddly cocoon.

I find it incredible that there are commercial air-fresheners marketed for the baby’s room. No loving,
caring parent would consciously place a bottle full of chemicals right next to where their baby sleeps, yet
that is exactly what they are doing when they place one of these in the nursery. Babies have a
respiratory volume twice as large as an adult’s if compared weight by weight, so it’s important that your
child breathes the purest air possible. The problem with air-fresheners that you spray around your home
liberally, plug into a wall socket, set up to spray regularly or simply put in the room in the form of a liquid
with reed difusers that look like incense sticks delivering the odour, is that they contain phthalates. To
remind you: phthalates can cause hormonal abnormalities, birth defects and reproductive problems and
are classified as a hormone disruptor, which is especially problematic for pregnant women and babies.

NAP PIES

Despite being a self-proclaimed green goddess, I’m not about to launch into a debate about cloth versus
disposable nappies. Of course, if everyone used cloth nappies the world would be a better place,
because our landfills would be emptier and less polluted, but it is more important to me that a baby’s
parents spend time enjoying their child and working out how to be the best parents they can be, rather
than slaving over wet nappies and getting frustrated. And I would always say to new parents, if

281

you want to give it a go, do so, but don’t feel you have failed if you resort to disposables.

When I had my first baby, I started of using cloth nappies. There was a lot I liked about them—they
didn’t seem to encourage nappy rash as much as the disposables, they saved us money in the long run,
and there was something soothing about looking at white nappies flapping on the clothesline. But then I
went back to work, and keeping up the washing and drying was impossible. I never regretted buying
those nappies, though, as I’ve found many uses for them over the years and some of them have even
survived 25 years to be used again on our grandchildren.

My focus with nappies is to keep as many chemicals away from the baby as possible, and the only way
you can really do that is by avoiding disposable nappies, which have chemicals in them, and washing
your cloth nappies with natural soaps, vinegar and sunshine just like Nana did. But maybe the answer for
you is using both. It’s up to you.

BABY CLOTHES

One of the most delightful things about being pregnant is going shopping for those cuter-than-cute baby
outfits.

The best advice I got from my mum when buying clothes for my first baby was the rule of three: one on
the baby, one on the line and one in the wash. If you’re washing every day, which most new mothers do,
then this will work for you. And instead of buying six cheap polyester-mix stretch¬and-grows, why not
buy three really good-quality, natural-fibre ones instead? They will last longer and are better for your
baby.

Do try to make sure that all of your baby’s clothes are made of natural fibres so that you can be sure the
cloth breathes well and doesn’t contain unnecessary finishings and chemicals. And do soak them all using
my baby clothes prewash recipe (page 312) to wash away any additives the manufacturers may have put
on the clothes before sale. And give them a wash using the baby laundry liquid or baby laundry powder
recipes at the end of this chapter.

Knitting has to be one of the oldest and most enjoyable nana things you can do these days. In the old
days, women were encouraged to spend much of their time sewing and knitting garments for their
newborns. Baby clothes are so tiny that you finish them really quickly before you get bored. There are
also great new yarns available, such as cotton and bamboo, which still provide warmth but don’t need
the extra care that a woollen garment might need. If you know a knitter, or if you want to have a go
yourself, there are some great baby knitting patterns out there for hats, scarves, singlets and other baby
clothes.

BABY BOTTLES

In the old days there was only one type of baby bottle, and that was glass. They lasted a long time and
withstood numerous bouts of heating in a saucepan of water on the stove. These days, plastic bottles are
more common, but if I was buying baby bottles I would definitely go for glass.

In recent years there has been a lot of controversy about levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic and
especially plastic baby bottles when they are heated. There are more than 130 studies that suggest that
BPA exposure at very low doses is linked to a number of health problems, including prostate and breast
cancer, obesity, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, brain damage, altered immune system,
lowered sperm counts and early puberty.
Our Food Standards Authority (FSANZ) checked levels of the chemical, thought to leach out of plastic, in
70 everyday food items and found that about 30 per cent had detectable BPA levels. But they said
quantities were so low as to ‘not pose a health risk’. Meanwhile, many other countries are banning BPA
in products like baby bottles, and tinned-food manufacturers are reviewing the lining material they use
in their cans.

If you were going to keep one chemical away from your baby, this would be the one to avoid, in my
opinion. Growing children are particularly at risk from chemicals in their environment because they face
greater exposure per kilo of body weight and are physiologically more susceptible

to them; their adverse efects may take decades to detect.

When buying baby bottles, seek out BPA-free products or use glass bottles instead, just like Nana did.

When it came to heating our granddaughters’ bottles, we did it in a saucepan of water on the stove, like
my parents and my nana did. Some people are fearful of microwaves because of the radioactivity of
them; I simply don’t like them because I believe the way the molecules are moved to heat the food spoils
the nutritional value. You can do your own research, but gently heating a baby’s bottle using the old-
fashioned method just makes more sense to me.

Once baby is home

BATHING YOUR NEWBORN

After putting our newborn babies to our breasts, the next thing we usually do is bathe them. Sometimes
the nurse will do this first wash for you in hospital, or you may end up doing it yourself. You may be
tempted to scrub all the vernix—that waxy, white coating that covers newborn babies—of with some
good old soap. Your baby doesn’t need soap. In fact, olive oil does a better job. In the old days, they
would dip a cotton-wool ball in olive oil and wipe the vernix of with that before bathing. There are good
soaps and then there are very bad ones. Believe me, I’ve made my own. They are made by combining a
fat with a very caustic acid that causes the fat to saponify and form the soap. So some can be quite
harsh, and commercial ones have synthetic fragrances and other nasties added to them.

When my kids were young, a new product came on the market called Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Bath. On
the bottle it says it is proven to help baby sleep better, which is quite a marketing ploy as what new
parents don’t want that to happen? It used to be marketed as containing lavender, but I see they have
removed it. I did an analysis of all the chemicals listed

on the back of the bottle and these were my findings:

` The worst ingredient in it is fragrance, which represents an undisclosed mixture of various scent
chemicals and ingredients used as fragrance dispersants such as diethyl phthalate. I’ve discussed
phthalates in previous chapters, and fragrance mixes have been associated with allergies, dermatitis,
respiratory distress and potential efects on the reproductive system.
` There are five chemical surfactants whose job it is to help the soap spread out evenly in the water.
None of them has any toxic warnings against them except sodium laureth sulphate (SLES), which may be
irritating to eyes and skin. To stop eye irritation, sodium lauroamphoacetate has been added to the mix
as a counter-irritant, therefore allowing the words ‘no more tears’ to be used on the bottle.

` The most dangerous ingredients are those that aren’t listed on the bottle as an ingredient because they
are contaminants, not ingredients, which means they are released or created by the ingredients once
they go into the bottle. They are formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, which are known carcinogens;
formaldehyde can also trigger skin rashes in some children. In 2009 the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
commissioned an independent laboratory to test 48 bath products for children, including baby
shampoos, bubble baths and baby lotions, for 1,4-dioxane; 28 of those products were also tested for
formaldehyde. The lab found that 61 per cent contained both contaminants.

So even if you read labels very carefully you can’t be sure what else is lurking in these products. And
while one product might not be cause for concern, the reality is that babies may be exposed to several
products

at bath time, such as bath wash, shampoo, conditioner and baby lotion every day, in addition to other
chemical exposures in the home.

Fortunately, there are plenty of natural alternatives that are easy to use. Here are some suggestions for
what to put in baby’s bath.

` Use a very mild, unscented soap, such as Dr Bronner’s Baby Unscented soap, which comes in cake and
liquid form. It is made out of coconut, olive, hemp and jojoba oil and I’ve had rave reviews from people
with skin allergies after they’ve used this soap.

` Add a few drops of olive oil to the bathwater and swish around. When baby is older than three months,
you can also add one or two drops of lavender oil in their bath at night to relax them for sleep.

` Put half an organic lemon in the bathwater. The astringency of the lemon makes a great cleanser, and it
is also antibacterial.

` Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to make the water super-soft and soothing. Especially good if baby has a
nappy rash or heat rash.

` Add 20 ml of full-fat milk to the bath. The lactic acid in milk is a great cleanser and leaves baby’s skin
smooth and soft.

` Tie a tablespoon of rolled oats into a piece of cloth the size of a small handkerchief and tie at the top
with a piece of string. Add it to the bath five minutes beforehand, and just before you pop baby in give it
a squeeze. The oats are very soothing for skin and you can use the sachet to clean your baby by rubbing
gently with it. Also good for skin rashes.

My baby bath wash recipe is on page 310.

Babies don’t need to have their hair shampooed, and many of the baby shampoos available on the
supermarket shelves have ingredients such as
artificial colourings and fragrances that I wouldn’t put near me, let alone a baby. Instead there are many
other things you can use to keep baby’s hair clean. Here are some suggestions.

` Just wash it in bathwater to which you have added my baby bath wash (see page 310).

` Use a drop of Dr Bronner’s Baby Unscented liquid castile soap.

` Mix 1 tsp baking soda and enough water to make a paste. Use this on your baby’s hair once a week.

Many parents like to pat on baby powder or rub some nappy-rash-preventing ointment into their baby
after a bath, but a simple massage all over with almond, olive, jojoba or sunflower oil will provide a
complete protective moisture repellent. Baby powders are not recommended, as it is easy for babies to
inhale the fine particles.

Do remember that babies don’t always need to be bathed every day. You can get away with using a
damp cloth dipped in a bit of warm water with some of my baby bath wash in it to wipe just their neck,
behind their ears and their face. Then do the same with their bottom. This is a good alternative to
bathing, especially if your baby doesn’t seem fond of the bath. Eventually they nearly all love it and it’s a
great soothing sleep-inducer at the end of the day.

In the early days all sorts of weird things can happen with babies’ eyes, ears and tummy buttons, and it’s
important to keep these clean at all times. A great safe and very natural disinfectant is a simple saline
solution (see page 319). Using a cotton bud or ball, you can clean mucky eyes and ears and dab around
the umbilical cord stump—although the best thing you can do for that is to keep it dry by folding the
nappy away from it and keeping it uncovered.

(And putting a bit of breast milk in a baby’s gummy eye can work wonders, because it has powerful
antibodies. You can also use it to heal ear infections and help heal scrapes and scratches.)

CRADLE CAP

No one really knows what causes this scaly, flaky skin on the scalp of your baby’s head, but it has nothing
to do with allergies or bad hygiene. And it doesn’t bother the baby, so leave it be if you can. Or you could
rub some almond oil on the scalp, leave it for 15 minutes and then gently wash it of with the baking soda
paste I mentioned earlier. Or if you have some cocoa butter—make sure it is the pure stuf, not
something with additives—you can rub this on and it works beautifully.

NAPPY RASH

This is a common problem with all babies, and can be caused by something in their diet or simply too
much moisture around their skin. If you are breastfeeding and your baby comes out in a rash, think back
and check that you didn’t introduce a new food that might be producing the efect, and then avoid it for a
few months. Here are some simple all-natural nappy-rash treatments to try.

` Aloe vera gel: This is a marvellous substance for rashes (and burns). See if you can source real aloe vera
gel from a health shop. Or simply grow an aloe vera plant yourself. I have several and they are very easy
to keep alive. You can slit open a leaf by running a sharp knife down the centre of the flat side. You then
open out the leaf surface to reveal the clear, healing gel. Scrape it of, trying not to get any of the green
outer layer, as this can cause a reaction in some people. Use this clear gel and apply it to your baby’s
bottom at every nappy change. You can also mix up a really efective moisturiser by combining ¼ cup of
aloe vera gel in a jar with 1 teaspoon of glycerine (you can buy this at pharmacies and some health shops
and supermarkets). You only need to use a tiny bit.

` Zinc and castor oil ointment: You can buy this made up at your pharmacy. Check that it has no artificial
preservatives or fragrance added to it.

288

BABY WIPES

We spend a lot of time with our newborns changing their nappies and wiping their bottoms with baby
wipes. I would be very happy if everyone stopped using these immediately. Many of them are scented
with artificial fragrance, which by now you will know is not a great thing to have around babies. I looked
at the ingredients of Select Scented Baby Wipes, which I bought at my local supermarket, and was
shocked to find two ingredients that I don’t think should go near babies.

` DMDM hydantoin is an antimicrobial formaldehyde-releasing preservative. People exposed to such

formaldehyde-releasing ingredients may develop a formaldehyde allergy, or an allergy to the ingredient
itself and its decomposition products.

` Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate is used as a preservative. It is acutely toxic by inhalation and should not
be used in products that can be aerosolised or inhaled. The chances of a baby inhaling this ingredient on
a baby wipe are slim if the wipes are just used for the bottom area, but how many of us have grabbed a
wipe to clean up a runny nose?

When I wrote about these ingredients in a newspaper article in 2011, it turned out that iodopropynyl
butylcarbamate was banned for use on children under three and was acutely toxic by inhalation. Within
24 hours of my article appearing, several brands were removed from supermarket shelves all over the
country. Which left me wondering how many other products are on those shelves with harmful
substances in them that we don’t know about?

In Nana’s day and even in the 1980s, when I had my first two children, we simply used facecloths or
muslin cloths and some warm water to wipe our babies. It couldn’t be easier. Just using a cloth and
water also means that your baby’s skin, which, let’s remember, is very thin in the first few days and
much more absorbent than our thicker skin, is not being exposed to artificial substances. You can buy
cloths and either sew on

289

a little tag to identify one as a ‘bottom cleaning’ cloth or organise them by colour. You could buy pink
face cloths for bathing and wiping their faces, and use the blue ones for the bottom area. There is a
recipe for baby wipes on page 320.

WASHING DIRTY NAP PIES

Most parents who use cloth nappies say that once you get into a routine it’s no more difficult than using
disposables and, of course, you get to feel like a saint for not filling our landfills with plastic. The mistake
many cloth-nappy users make is that they think they have to use commercial soakers and bleaches to
keep them clean. What you are actually doing is loading up the cloth with chemicals that don’t wash out
and can cause nappy rash.

You only need to soak nappies that have had poo on them. So if you are washing every day, simply throw
the wet nappies into the washing machine or set aside in a bucket until you are free to wash them. If you
don’t want to do this then you can soak them, but just use water.

For nappies that have poo on them, you need to add something to disinfect them and get rid of any
germs. First scrape any poo into the toilet and then put the nappy in a large bucket that has a tight-fitting
lid. If you have toddlers around, make sure you put this bucket well out of reach to avoid them climbing
in and drowning.

You need to fill this up every day with warm water to which you have added a nappy-soaker formula.
You can simply add ½ cup of washing soda to a large bucket (about 18 litres) or ¼ cup to a normal bucket
(about 9 litres) and stir until dissolved. Or you can make up my ‘Wendyl-San’ (see page 316).

You can wash your nappies in cold water if you like, or warm water. It doesn’t matter. Use either the
baby laundry liquid or the baby laundry powder recipes at the end of the chapter. To the final rinse add
½ cup of white vinegar to act as an extra germ killer, deodoriser and cleanser of any soap particles that
might be lingering and could cause skin irritation.

In New Zealand we are so lucky that we can usually line-dry our clothes, even in the middle of winter.
Sun is a natural bleach, and often if there are any stains left on your nappies after soaking and washing it
will get rid of them for you. In Nana’s day, Plunket nurses used to tell mothers ‘one hour in the sun and
you’re done’, which meant that one hour of full sunshine was enough bleaching power for nappies.

FEEDING BABY

Feeding your baby solids is another of those generational controversies that can be debated down the
decades. In older times, solids were often introduced as early as three months if it was felt that a baby
needed the extra food, but these days we realise this can lead to setting up food allergies, and milk is
regarded as the best food for baby until around six months old, although some babies benefit from solids
at four months old. Ask your GP or Plunket nurse for advice on this.

Try to resist buying prepared foods if you can, although busy mothers will always need a jar of something
on the shelf for emergencies. By preparing your own food you can be sure it is the best quality and has
few additives such as sugar, thickeners or preservatives, which your baby doesn’t need. Or instead of
preparing a separate meal for baby, why not share some of yours? Take a sample from your plate, mash
it if necessary with your fork and see how it goes down.

By the age of five, most children have their eating habits pretty much established for life, so make sure
that the majority of their meals are good, whole foods, and that junk food is something they have only
occasionally. That way they’ll grow into healthy adults, too!
In the past, commercial baby foods could contain unnecessary additives, like starch, sugar, flavourings
and extra nutrients that had to be added because they were lost during the manufacture of the foods.
These days, baby food is quite strictly monitored and I couldn’t find any food items in my local
supermarket with unnecessary additives, but it does pay to scan your eye over the ingredients label.

Baby foods in jars and tins are good today, especially the organic ones. However, a new study by the
European Union found that baby food in jars could contain acrylamides, which can cause cancer and
nerve problems with long-term exposure. And babies face as much as triple the exposure of adults. Our
Food Safety Authority is urging food manufacturers to bring the levels of acrylamides down. The
chemical is formed when foods are cooked at very high temperatures, which is how they are produced
by commercial manufacturers, so one way to avoid the contamination is to cook your own baby food by
boiling and then puréeing.

This is a great thing to urge grandparents or helpful friends to do. They can make up a batch and freeze it
in ice-cube trays. Then, when frozen, they can empty into a plastic bag and put it in your freezer. You just
have to remember to take out a cube in time to defrost for baby. I used to love doing these for my
granddaughter with kumara, to which I added peas, silverbeet and a little bit of parsley. She loved it.

As your baby gets used to new foods, you can start to vary their diet with other vegetables and fruits and
mix them together once you are sure they don’t have an intolerance to them.

Good first vegetables and fruits to purée are kumara, pumpkin, apple and pear. To prepare, peel and
steam or boil until they are soft. Tip into a blender or put through a mouli (a hand mincer) until you have
a very smooth consistency, adding some of the cooking water if you need to thin it down. Store in the
fridge, or for large quantities pour into ice trays and freeze. Never add salt or sugar to purées, as your
baby doesn’t need it.

292 293
MULLED WINE BATH

Baby clothes prewash

Most clothes we buy in the shops have been treated with some sort of preservative or additives to keep
them looking good on the rack. Before your baby gets anywhere near new clothing you need to soak it,
wash it and preferably hang it on the line to dry in the sun. This pre-soak is great for all new baby
clothes, followed by a natural fabric softener in the final rinse to remove any hint of chemicals.

Make the mulled wine recipe (see page 307), add 1 cup to the bathwater and drink the rest. It’s a
wonderful soak.

CIRCULATION BATH

1 cup Epsom salts

10 drops eucalyptus essential oil

If you feel that you need to get your feet and hands warm, pour a hot bath and throw these ingredients
in.

½ cup washing soda 1 cup baking soda

1 cup white vinegar

2 cups water

Add the washing soda to the washing machine before soaking the clothes. In the morning, wash as usual,
then add the remaining ingredients to the final rinse as a fabric softener.

312
Appendices

Food numbers

If you are wanting to do a full analysis of the ingredients listed on a food product go to
www.wikipedia.org and type in ‘international numbering system for food additives’.

For a quicker idea of what you are looking at, here is a list of the category listings:

100–199: food colours

200–299: preservatives

300–399: antitoxidants, phosphates, and complexing agents 400–499: thickeners, gelling agents,
phosphates, emulsifiers 500–599: salts and related compounds

600–699: flavour enhancers

700–899: not for human consumption

900–999: surface-coating agents, gases, sweeteners

1000–1399: miscellaneous

1400 –1499: starch derivatives

A checklist for buying cleaning products

This list was adapted from one published at www.healthier-cleaning¬products.com. It outlines the
standards of green cleaning solutions that provide and promote the best health and wellbeing benefits
to people. Products should:

` be bio-based and contain no petrochemicals

325

a p p e n d Ic e s

contain no petro-dyes (no added colours such as blue, red, yellow and so on unless from natural sources)

contain no artificial petro-perfumes (no added fragrances such as pine, spice, mint and so on unless
provided by natural means such as essential oils)

be non-toxic to human or aquatic life be non-corrosive to skin or eyes have a pH level between 2.5 and
11.5 contain no chlorine bleach

contain no ethylenediaminetetracetic acid (EDTA) or nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA)

contain no phenolic compounds or glycol ether

be free of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and selenium.

Healthy home checklist

KITCHEN

` Do you cook with non-stick cookware? Replace with cast-iron, stainless steel or glass when possible. If
you need to keep using it, take care not to overheat it as it will release toxic fumes.

` Do you use plastic food containers? Use glass over plastic and never microwave food in plastic
containers as it may leach toxic substances. Use glass or BPA-free plastic bottles for baby.

` Do you filter your tap water? If you’re not sure what is in your local town water supply, then it’s best to
filter it.

` Do you drink bottled water? Stop now. Buy a reusable water bottle—stainless steel is best—and refill.

` Is there any canned food in your pantry? Try to cook with fresh or frozen whenever possible, as some
food cans are lined with plastic containing bisphenol-A (BPA), a toxic chemical that leaches into food.

` Do you use iodised salt? You should. Iodine is necessary to maintain healthy thyroid function and is
deficient in our soil.

BATHROOM

` Do you use air-fresheners? Don’t! Most contain a number of toxic chemicals that contaminate the air
you breathe.

` Is ‘fragrance’ listed as an ingredient in your personal care products? We don’t know what’s in
‘fragrance’, so it’s safer to choose all fragrance-free personal-care products. Always check ingredient lists
to be sure.
` What kind of toothpaste do you use? Choose fluoride-free for kids as they are prone to swallowing
quite a lot of it while brushing. Also pick a paste without triclosan as there are concerns about how it
reacts with the chlorine in water. Better still, make up some tooth powder (see page 244).

` Do you use liquid hand soap? If so, avoid antibacterials—the American Medical Association found that
antibacterial soaps were no more efective in killing germs than normal soap and the antibacterial
compounds used could contribute to

326 327

the threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. It recommends against using them at home. You
can make your own liquid handwash very easily. See page 245 for a recipe.

` Do you have extra products? Less is more. Not using cosmetics like hair spray and detangler, body
sprays and powder is less toxic—and cheaper. Make your own so that you know what ingredients are in
them.

LAUNDRY AND CLEANING CUPBOARD

` Are your cleaners green? It’s hard to know without a full ingredient list, which most products don’t
have. Find out the ingredients by calling the manufacturer, and if you don’t know what something on the
ingredients list is, ask them to tell you. Some green products will hide information behind loose terms
such as ‘surfactants’. Or make your own; see the Cleaning chapter and the Taking Care of Baby chapter.

` Do your product labels list all ingredients? Most don’t, but they should. Support companies that
disclose all ingredients by buying their products—you have the right to know what is in the products
you’re buying.

` Do you need all those products? Most homes can be safely cleaned with a few non-toxic ingredients:
vinegar (it’s antibacterial), baking soda, water, microfibre mops and old clothes—and some elbow
grease! Skip the laundry products you don’t need, like fabric softener and chlorine bleach.

328

Glossary

Some of the ingredients in this book are common, everyday things but others are older so you might like
to know what they are:

baking soda This is a slightly alkaline mineral made from soda ash. You can buy it in the supermarket, but
for the quantities you’ll be needing I would get to a bulk food store and buy a kilo. Also called
bicarbonate of soda.

borax This is an alkaline mineral that is a very efective antibacterial, fungicidal cleaning and bleaching
agent, which is widely regarded as being better for the environment than bleach. It can be toxic in high
doses and needs to be kept away from children and animals. I restrict its use where I can. It is valuable as
an emulsifier, as a stain remover and deodoriser, and in the old days it was used to keep pests away. I
only use it in recipes that won’t touch the skin, as I have read that when it is mined it can become
contaminated with arsenic.

Castile soap If you can aford it, I recommend this for all my recipes; however, Sunlight (see page 333)
works perfectly well. I use Dr Bronner’s Castile soap, both liquid and cake, because it is organic and fair-
trade and contains only natural, vegetable-derived ingredients.

331

Gl o s s a r y

cream of tartar This is made from grapes and is a by-product of wine making. After the grape juices
ferment, the bottoms of the wine barrels or casks are scraped for what will be packaged as cream of
tartar. It is a primary ingredient in baking powder and is acidic.

essential oils These are natural plant essences that have been extracted into oil. Unlike the synthetic
perfumes added to commercial cleaners, natural essential oils not only add an amazing smell but also
have powerful aromatherapy properties as well as being antibacterial and anti-fungal. Never use them
undiluted, and if you’re pregnant then seek advice before using them. When buying essential oils, check
that they are labelled 100 per cent pure and natural and that they haven’t been mixed with a base oil.
For cleaning I mostly use tea-tree, eucalyptus and lavender, which are all relatively inexpensive.

glycerine (sometimes sold as glycerol)

This is a sweet, clear, viscous liquid that belongs to the alcohol family. It is a great old-fashioned stain
remover used on its own. It has amazing moisturising properties as it is a humectant, which means it
attracts water to the skin. It is produced from animal or vegetable fats and is available at most
supermarkets.

washing soda I regard this as baking soda’s bigger, tougher, gruntier brother, and it doesn’t contain
phosphates, enzymes or bleach. It is much more alkaline than its little brother and can be quite caustic,
so wear rubber gloves when using it.

lemon juice This is a great alternative to bleach, so if you have a lemon tree, juice a few lemons next
time you need some bleaching power. Also slice one in half and rub it on anything that needs a major
bacteria bust, like your chopping boards and work surfaces.

r e c Ip e In d e x

Bath soaks for mum 311

herbs

Peppercorn mustard, green 118

Recipe Index

Beetroot lip and blush tint

236

Dried herbs 126

Herb salt 116

pest control, see also garden

pest control

Body oil 233

Homemade yoghurt 120

De-flea powder for cats 195

Body scrubs 239

Home-roasted cofee beans 131

Dog oil 195

Cold cream 231

Homemade bacon 118

Doggy flea treats 196

alcoholic drinks

cheese

Septic tank bacteria booster

Cold potion 248

Homemade wine for mum 306

Fly paper 194

Apple cider 133

Cottage cheese 119

189

Deodorant, rose water 309

Hot chocolate 132

Moth repellent 197

Cherry brandy for mum 307

Paul’s oregano cheese on

Shower cleaner 188

Deodorant, Wendyl’s 100%

Outdoor fly trap 194

G and T mix 136

toast 138

Silver cleaner 179

natural 247

Jam, strawberry rose 113

Wendyl’s safe fly spray 194

Homemade wine for mum

Ricotta 121

Spray cleaner 176

Dill water for a colicy baby

laundry

Pizza bread 127

306

Cherry brandy for mum 307

Toilet bowl cleaner 187

304

Baby clothes prewash 312

Pressure-cooker beef curry 142

Mulled wine for mum 307

chicken: Quinoa salad 139

Toilet bowl stain remover

Face cream 230

Baby laundry clay/powder

Quick tomato pasta sauce 123

Spritzer 136

chilli

187

Face masks 234

315

quinoa

Turkish gin 136

Arrabiata sauce 122

Window cleaner 193

Foot odour treatment 246

Baby laundry liquid for

Quinoa for mums-to-be 297

Apple cider 133

Chilli jam 117

cofee

Fruit salts for indigestion

pregnancy and baby

Quinoa salad 139

Arrabiata sauce 122

Nasturtium pesto 124

Home-roasted cofee beans

302

clothes 314

chocolate

131

Hair frizz treatment 241

Blueing powder 172

Raisin tea for morning sickness

baby skincare

Hot chocolate 132

Turkish cofee 131

Hair gel 242

Borax stain remover 175

302

Baby bath wash 310

Paul’s chocolate mousse 143

condiments

Hair mask 239

Fabric fragrance 174

rice

Baby lotion 318

cleaning products

Butter 119

Hair rinses 241

Fabric softener 174

Breakfast brown rice 138

Baby wipes 320

Air-freshener, liquid 183

Chilli jam 117

Hair wash for mum, baking

Laundry detergent 173

Rice cereal for baby 303

Karitane ointment 318

Air-freshener powder 182

Green peppercorn mustard

soda 309

Laundry spray, starch 172

Rice jelly for baby 303

Saline solution 319

Antibacterial spray 308

118

Hand cleaner 245

Lavender water 175

Yummy brown rice for

Saline wipes 319

Bathroom cleaning paste

Herb salt 116

Hand cream, White Satin

Lemon and sunshine stain

mums-to-be 296

Bacon, homemade 118

186

Nasturtium pesto 124

232

remover 172

Ricotta 121

barley

Carpet cleaner, general

Sesame-lemon dressing 116

Healing ointment, basic

Stain remover, lemon and

Rose syrup 112

Barley water for baby 304

purpose 185

Strawberry rose jam 113

turmeric 250
sunshine 172

Easy barley risotto for

Carpet deodoriser 185

Worcestershire sauce 117

Lip and blush tint, beetroot

Starch laundry spray 172

Salad, quinoa 139

mums-to-be 297

Carpet refresher 321

Cottage cheese 119

236

Washing soda soak 175

Salad dressing for mums-to-be,

basil

Carpet spot remover 321

Lip balm 235

Wendyl-San 316

Nana’s 298

Basil ice 123

Dishwasher mixes 180–181

dessert: Paul’s chocolate

Magic night cream 231

Sesame-lemon dressing 116

Quick tomato sauce

pasta

mousse 143

Wool soap jelly 316

Dishwashing mix, hand 182

Make-up remover, quick and

liver

Smoked fish 141

123

Drain unblocker 189

Dried herbs 126

easy 236

Liver and bacon for mums

Spritzer 136

Beef curry, pressure-cooker

Dusters, lemon 190

Fish, smoked 141

Mouthwash 244

to-be 295

Sprouts, growing 112

142

Floor cleaner, natural 184

Nail treatment 239

Steam-baked white bread 128

bird feeding

Liver broth for baby 305

Floor cleaner, not-at-all

G and T mix 136

Night cream, magic 231

Liver casserole 140

Strawberry rose jam 113

Incredibly expensive hen

green-but cheap 184

garden pest control

Night treatment, simple 232

Liver pâté for mums-to-be

Tea for

food 65

Floor polish 186

Aphid spray 67

Oil, body 233

294

morning sickness,

302

raisin

Seed cake 64

Furniture polish, lemon 191

Baking soda fungus spray 67

Rose water deodorant 309

Tūī sugar water 64

General-purpose carpet

Buggy bug spray 66

Sage sunburn soother 243

Muesli (low-fat version) for

Tea, sun 132

Wax-eye cake 64

cleaner 185

Chilli and garlic bug spray

Scrubs, body 239

mums-to-be, toasted 300

Toasted muesli (low-fat

Brandy for mum, cherry 307

Hand dishwashing mix 182

65
Shampoo and conditioner

Mulled wine for mum 307

version) for mums-to-be

bread

Handwash, liquid 188

Oxalis weed killer 67

for nit prevention, tea-tree

Mustard, green peppercorn 118

300

Breakfast brown rice 138

Lemon dusters 190

Powdery mildew spray 65

oil 242

Nana’s salad dressing for

tomato

Easy daily bread for mums

Lemon furniture polish 191

Rhubarb general bug spray

Sunburn soother, sage 243

mums-to-be 298

Quick tomato pasta sauce

to-be 298

123

Linoleum cleaner 183

66

Sunscreen 243

Pizza bread 127

Nasturtium pesto 124

Arrabiata sauce 122

Liquid air-freshener 183

Gin, Turkish 136

Tea-tree oil shampoo

Pumpernickel 130

Glazed ham 139

Chilli jam 117

Liquid handwash 188

and conditioner for nit

oats: Toasted muesli for mums

Turkish 131

cofee

Steam-baked white bread

Microwave cleaner 178

Green peppercorn mustard 118

prevention 242

to-be 300

Turkish 136

128

Milk cleaner 186

Growing sprouts 112

Tooth powder 244

gin

Wholegrain bread 129

Mirror defogger 193

Turmeric healing ointment,

pasta sauce

Wholegrain bread 129

Breakfast brown rice 138

health and beauty products

Arrabiata sauce 122

Brown rice for mums-to-be,

Mould and mildew

Aftershave splash 245

basic 250

Quick tomato sauce

Wine for mum, homemade

yummy 296

preventers 192

Baking soda hair wash for

Wendyl’s 100% natural

pasta

123

306

Butter 119

Natural antibacterial spray

177

mum 309

deodorant 247

White Satin hand cream 232

Paul’s chocolate mousse 143

Worcestershire sauce 117

Oven cleaner 178

Balinese jamu 249

Paul’s oregano cheese on toast

Yoghurt, homemade 120

Bath soaks 237–238

138