Selfsufficientish.com

Refined sugar is definitely bad for us and certainly not necessary in our diet. However, natural sugars found in fruit are fine as long as you don't go mad with them. I removed sugar from my diet a few months ago, and now the only sugar I consume is from fruit. For as long as I can remember I have h...

Yup, corn starch is the same. I actually used arrowroot instead as I had no corn starch. Arrowroot is a good alternative if you are sensitive to corn starch.

For the past 10 years I've been using Lush aromacreme deodorant which was great, until it was discontinued. Now I use this recipe for deodorant; http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2008/07/homemade-deodor.html I'm also going to strat making my own sunscreen as I hate having to use stuff fu...

Hello there, I'm also in Edinburgh :)

Don't collect watercress unless it is growing in fresh running water. As Casper says, Liver fluke can be very nasty. Also, if you do find any growing by running water, always cook it first. That way anything unpleasant will be killed. We are fortunate enough to have an abundance of watercress growin...

Have you tried cutting out grain and sugar? I know of a lot of people who have cured their IBS on a diet free of processed foods, grain and sugar. It seems to heal a lot of health problems.

I would love to be able to cut out sugar, but I find it so difficult! The main thing that stops me is my love for sweet tea and baking. I know I'd feel a lot better if I did, but I'm just weak.

I get it from Goodness Direct; http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-loc ... _500g.html
And thanks very much!

Agave nectar is actually pretty bad for you so is best avoided. We use Rapadura, which is completely untreated cane sugar. It's brown and has a lovely caramel flavour. It has all the nutrients intact so is certainly a lot better than normal sugar.

It has to be a hot waterbath at 88 degrees; it makes it all more sterile, possibly by creating more suction? Not sure exactly how it works.

The mint one is really nice as a summer drink, diluted in water. I've also made icelollies out of it. Might be nice on icecream too!

The recipe I used said to pound the fresh mint in sugar and leave it to macerate overnight. That could be to help preserve it I suppose, as well as bringing out as much flavour as possible.

If you put them in hot sterilised jars they'll keep for a month. If you then put the filled jars in a waterbath for 20 minutes, they'll keep for up to a year. I made some mint syrup recently, which is lovely! I put them in the waterbath so they'll keep for longer.

Annad, ours go grey through the winter, all they need is a lovely sunny day to get them looking bright again, normally, we loved it last spring when we could finally get them all out on the line again and really noticed the difference between the ones that had got out in th esun, and the ones that ...

I do a 60 degree rinse followed by an intensive wash with Bio-D laundry liquid and their Nappy Powder stuff. It seems to work well for us, although they are starting to look less white than they used to. I'm not sure how to make them whiter without using mainstream laundry liquid. But they smell fre...