Tin Lizzie Food

As you can see, I have my own system at the kitchen sink. I absolutely love doing things my way . It keeps me being creative and inquisitive and the days look so much more positive if you do what is good for Mother Nature as well as yourself and others. I can't remember when last I switched on the geyser. I always boil a kettle of water and use as needed. I knit my own washcloths and make my own kitchen towels from old T-shirts. I do not use a lot of soap, which means all the water goes into the garden. The only time I will let the water down the drain is when my small courtyard garden has enough water after a good rain.

South Africa is experiencing a very dry period, and some areas are worse than in other parts. Here in Port Elizabeth, we are down to 40 to 50 Litres of water per person per day. I'm just thankful my washing machine is a top-loader, which makes it easier for me to control it. I have a small courtyard with some plants, and unfortunately, I already lost some of my plants due to the drought. The only way how I could use grey water was to work my washing machine "manually". Because I am on my own and working from home, I do not have a lot of dirty clothes (I do washing once a week and occasionally twice a week). I once took the time to measure how much water my washing machine use at its lowest setting. It came to about 25 Litres per cycle, meaning 25 Litres for washing and 25 Litres to rinse = 50 Litres in total. There was a time that I took notes on how much water I use per day and I knew that on average I only use 20 to 30 Litres of water per day. This incl

  I am renting a furnished apartment in Central, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The furniture was badly neglected and when the owner of the furniture immigrated to America mid-2018, I went on a cleaning spree. By now you know that I practice Apartment Homesteading, which means I am trying to solve a problem or use the things available before purchasing any products. When trying to revive the wooden furniture, I turned to the internet. I came upon a recipe on how to make wood shiny and full of life again. The recipe I used: ~ Equal parts of Olive oil and vinegar (1:1) ~ Pour into a container ~ Shake well ~ Using a cloth, rub the mixture into the wood ~ Leave to dry overnight And that is exactly what I did. I must add : make sure that the consistency of the mixture stays the same (one part oil & one part vinegar). Do not let the vinegar get less or used up. AND  shake that container continuously! Treating the wood with oil only would only make it sticky and you do

You are tired, you had a rough day and you just want to go to bed and have some well-deserved sleep. All goes well, but then you hear that high pitched sound of a mosquito (or mosquitoes) in your room. Desperate for some sleep, you turn around and pull the sheet halfway over your face. It doesn't help. You end up in slapping yourself a couple of times through the face or you start timing the pesky buzzing insect trying to hit it at just the exact moment you think it is at the right spot to hit it one-time DEAD ! I know the feeling too well and have the perfect solution. I've read some time ago about Lavender and its ability to keep mosquitoes away. It is believed that planting Lavender in your garden will keep the mozzies away. I do have a Lavender plant - cutting off some twigs and hanging it against the wall above my head (as in the image above) concluded in my test to be a success. I found that it should be fresh Lavender cuttings. If you experience an overw

I have been knitting from a very young age - in fact, I was in Primary School when I grew fond of knitting (and some needlecraft). No, not with the help of any machines, all done by hand. The grey top above was knitted a couple of years ago. Roundabout 2013/2014 I'd say, and I still wear it today. Most of the time I start knitting without a pattern. I started with 30 stitches, I remember, working from the top to the bottom, and increased 30 stitches over the bust. It is a very basic pattern with knit and purl stitches only, throughout the complete top, front and back. I recall measuring it on myself as I knitted; the chest area before increasing the stitches, as well as the length I wanted it to be. Knitting needles I used was NR 4 and the yarn was  double-knit .

I used to watch YouTube movies about the Stone Age, early humankind and how the modern man evolved. Realising how people that time used to live and eat drew my attention to find out more about their lifestyle and especially, what they ate. During the same time, I read an article in a newspaper about several celebrities and their eating habits. Among them was Henry Ford that loved to eat Wild Edible Plants (Afrikaans onkruid). Immediately I knew what to name my blog. I started the Tin Lizzie Food blog in 2017 and the whole idea of the blog was to illustrate Wild Edible Plants. It dawned on me how fascinated I was about the Homesteading and Sustainability concept. Today, with all the hype about climate change and ‘saving the earth’, I realised how close to the earth I’ve been living all my life. I truly want to do everything in my power to be a part of it - to be able to say one day that I tried my fair best to conserve our natural resources and to reduce my carbon footprint.

I am very well aware of Air Fresheners - the spray cans you buy at the local retail store, but I was thinking of taking a different approach towards making my home smell fresh whole day long. On my blog "Why Tin Lizzie Food", I mention ways how you can naturally freshen your home without buying expensive Air Fresheners. Because I love plants, I incorporated plants into my home. In my living room, I have Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) . This beautiful climbing plant with its green-white-yellowish leaves removes xylene, benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene toxins from the air. It is also believed to be one of the top air-cleaning plants for your house. A  Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum) is standing a mere reach of an arm from me when I watch television at night. When in bloom they produce the most beautiful white flowers with a bright yellow Spadix. Peace Lilies removes toxins such as benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and xylene from