The Green touch

I know it's a bit late for a Christmas article but I just wanted to tell you about the present for my 9 year old goddaughter. Same principles as last year , homemade, second hand presents or "personal vouchers", except this year I didn't have time at all for homemade. So I went for personal vouchers and it's not too late for you today. It's a great way to find a gift that will truly please your beloved, instead of rushing to the mall and buying whatever you find because you have to. This kind of gifts tend to stay in a drawer, or ends up on ebay... I sent my goddaughter a nice postcard, wrapped in gift paper. The card was saying: this year for Christmas, I take you to the movies! I saw her yesterday, she's really excited :)!

We have had a lot of snow lately in Tromsø and since we are kind of in a twin season, that snow does not behave as it should: that is to say, not melt before a few months! After waiting (a lot - bus chaos!) and walking (a lot too) in that 10 centimeter melting snow slightly solid water, my feet, socks, inside of shoes were really really wet. This is what to do to make your shoes dry (I didn't want to try the hair dryer because I don't think it's good for the leather/it consumes electricity/it's not very efficient): - put crumpled newspaper in the shoes; it definitely absorbs the water. - replace the paper as often as necessary. I thought it was OK after three times but the paper was still slightly wet after 5-6 times.

Not that it makes them more environmental-friendly, not at all, but it's healthier. New clothes contain a lot of chemical, toxic substances. Whether they are pesticides used to grow cotton or  used later as pigments or to give the cloth some properties (make them wrinkle free or prevent mildew during shipping for example), these substances can be responsible for allergies, irritations, nausea. In the worst case it can even affect reproductive systems. This is why you should always wash new clothes, especially children's, underwears and bed sheets. This is also the reason why second hand clothes are definitely safer and cleaner : because they have been washed so many times that chemicals are gone. Definitely a good option, at least for children.  Another one is to buy organic clothes, also because their carbon footprint is far less important than clothes made with conventionnally-grown cotton. I guess I will have to write an entire article about that too. By the way good...

When you live alone, buying food tends to be more expensive - than when you're two or more - because you have to buy smaller format of everything. Not only the price is higher for an equivalent quantity of food but especially it produces more waste. On the other hand, if you buy larger amount, there is a risk that the food will go bad before you have time to eat it. One option is to buy - rather - large amount and to freeze what you're not going to eat right away. I do that especially for grated cheese: I saved 2-3 bags so I can divide my 500 g cheese and can eat it little by little. Same thing with bread, not that I don't know when i'm going to eat it (every morning, toasted) but it would get dry before I even have time to finish the whole loaf. This trick works pretty with anything you need to warm up anyway, and you don't even need to use the micro wave. One onion if often too much for me for one meal (but, hey, you can't buy smaller amou...

I know I haven't posted in a while. I've had a busy summer working and no internet most of the time. My summer job ends soon so hopefully (or not hopefully) I'll have more time to write after that. A message especially for my Norwegian readers: There is a documentary at 20:15 tonight on NRK1 about reuse of electronic waste in Africa. Gjenbrukslandet by Håvard Fossum Short extract here. More info in Norwegian here.

Text by Fremtiden i våre hender The first "feast against famine" (Matgildet mot Hungersnød) took place in Oslo last year. This year the event will be organized nationally in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Tromsø, and Stavanger. We make food that would otherwise have been thrown away into tasty food which will become money which will be used towards food for the Sahel area (in West Africa). One billion people today suffer from chronic starvation. At the same time 30 procent of the food produced in the world is thrown away. Domestically in Norway we throw away close to one thousand tons of good food every day. Through the project ”feast against famine” we shine a light on this tragic paradox and try to help solve the problem. In this way we grasp onto two of the largest - and inextricably interwoven - challenges that the world faces today: poverty and environmental destruction. In the week before the event takes place, we will collect perfectly usable food that selected stores o...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions 3 - Using caustic soda: the online calculators 4 - Superfatting your soap 5 - Oil and other ingredients you may use in a soap Vegetal oils and animal fats Fat is the basic ingredient in soap; you can use anything as long as you know the amount of lye that is required to saponify it. Fortunately, most online calculators are very complete. So you can use any oil/fat but it's important to choose them carefully. For example, I once tried a recipe with only rapeseed and sunflower oil... not a good idea. I decided to make soap in order to reduce my carbon footprint. So I use mostly oils that are from Europe (rather a common kitchen oil), easy to find, and not too expensive (but this is still Norway...). Organic, cold pressed, refined? Organic: no pesticides or other chemicals are used to produce it; organic oil is most often col...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions 3 - Using caustic soda: the online calculators 4 - Superfatting your soap Superfatting your soap means you will use excess oil, i.e. more oil than necessary for saponification. Consequently, not all the oil used will be turned into soap; some of it will remain as oil. When you use any detergent, shower gel, or even homemade soap, it destroys the skin's protective film, which takes a few hours to reconstitute. Washing too often will weaken your skin. When your skin is dry for example, it's actually better not to wash - with soap or gel - the dry and sensitive parts every day rather than trying to fix them with cream afterward. The oil contained in superfatted soap temporarily replaces this natural film by leaving an oily (but not greasy) film on the skin. This and the natural glycerine contained in cold process soap make homemade soaps very good ...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions 3 - Using caustic soda: the online calculators The process of saponification requires a precise quantity of lye; this quantity varies depending on the oil(s) you use. So always use a lye calculator, even if you reuse a recipe seen on the internet (check twice!).  The Sage I mostly use The Sage calculator  Make sure to choose the right weight measurement.   Sodium hydroxide (already checked) is the lye we use for solid soap. Potassium hydroxide is used for liquid soap. If you're using lye flakes/beads, just fill in the oil information. In some countries, at least in France, you can buy water and lye already mixed, that's what "liquid lye solution" is for. The concentration that you have to write in the box must be around 30%.   *** Enter the amount for each oil you w...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions Sodium hydroxide is very corrosive; its pH varies between 12 and 14 (FYI, water has a pH of 7, skin around 6, and hair around 5). Making soap requires you to mix caustic soda with water (or another liquid, for example, herb tea), which will significantly increase the liquid temperature. To avoid dangerous splashes, it's very important to POUR THE CAUSTIC SODA INTO THE WATER (not the water into the soda), and this lye mixture into the oil. Pouring water into caustic soda would provoke a "volcano effect". The same thing will happen at this point if you use objects made of materials that react with lye e.g. metals (except stainless steel) and wood. Using glass containers and a stainless steel spoon to stir is a good solution. And you don't want the volcano effect to happen because:            ...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap?  1 - How: the saponification process    Soap is the result of a chemical reaction between fatty substances (oils, lard, vegetable butter) and sodium hydroxide also called lye or caustic soda (NaOH). Caustic soda is a dangerous substance and is to be used very carefully, but it is totally transformed through the process: none of it remains at the end of the chemical reaction...if you used the right quantity of lye. If you use more lye than required your soap will be "caustic" and irritating. Therefore it's recommended that you use less soda and more oil than the exact amount required for total saponification. Firstly, it's a safety precaution: using more oil than necessary for the chemical reaction is a guarantee that the lye will be entirely transformed through the process. And more than that, with extra oil (nonsaponified - remaining oil), your soap will be even softer on the skin. This extra oil is called "sup...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions 3 - Using caustic soda: the online calculators 4 - Superfatting your soap 5 - Oil and other ingredients you may use in a soap 6 - How to make soap: equipment 7 - How to make soap: tutorial  1 - Choose your oils, build a recipe and calculate online the amount of lye required. 2 - Weigh : your oils , all in the same container. If you happen to put a bit too much of some oils, just recalculate the amount of lye online. the water in a glass /Pyrex jar the caustic soda with your gloves on. 3 - Now that's the tricky part. You have to pour theCAUSTIC SODA INTO THE WATER, not the other way around . Stir continuously with a stainless steel spoon while you do so. You may have to scrape the caustic soda out of the container. The liquid will get cloudy and very warm; don't breathe the emanations, it will make yo...

0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions 3 - Using caustic soda: the online calculators 4 - Superfatting your soap 5 - Oil and other ingredients you may use in a soap 6 - How to make soap: equipment - Safety equipment , specifically gloves , is absolutely necessary (read this about caustic soda). You should also use safety glasses, a mask, and old newspapers to cover your workspace. - An electronic scale . A kitchen scale with 1g precision is fine if you make batches over 400 g of oil. - A hand blender ; without it, it could take hours for the saponification to start. It's up to you ;) - Containers ; at least 3.  One to weigh caustic soda and one to weigh oil and in which you will pour and blend the lye solution with the hand blender. For these two, I just reuse large yoghurt pots (or crème fraiche pots) that I then throw away. It’s fine to have a simple, thin pot to weigh...

As I explained it in a previous article, I came to home-made soap because I wanted to control the ingredients (no palm oil) and their origin (as few kilometres as possible), so as to use the most ecological soap for my laundry liquid . But there are other valid reasons to make soap for yourself: some oils are naturally soft and good for the skin, others you will choose because they give extra lather and foam to the soap, or even because they just give a special colour you like. In a word: home-made soap is very good for the skin (also because it naturally contains glycerine, which is otherwise removed from industrial soaps) and it's even better because it's customized to your needs. Another good reason to make your own soap is the price. Finally, it's a very creative (and addictive!) activity, which may explain why soap makers make more soap than they can use. Soap making is a complex and very rich art. It’s a great hobby, and you probably won't offer anyth...