No 'poo, homemade sea salt and lemon hair and head scrub.

So it's been about 3 years since I stopped washing my hair and went no 'poo (no 'poo is short for no shampoo!).  I don't really miss anything from my shampooing days, except for a salty, scrubby shampoo from Lush that made my hair soft and amazing.  

Lush's Big Shampoo contains sodium laureth sulphate which makes it unsuitable for no 'poo haircare routines.  SLS is a know skin irritant, pollutant and can permeate your body and stay in there (urgh!) so I avoid it.  Lush's shampoo also starts a nearly £7 for a little pot - my DIY version is cheap, vegan and natural.  And it smells amazing! 

You will need

Coarse sea salt

Lemon juice

Essential oils (optional) 

How to make no 'poo hair and head scrub

It's super simple, just mix the sea salt and lemon juice together.  I don't really measure it, but I'd say start with roughly a tablespoon of each then add more juice or salt as needed until the salt is soaked through but not dissolved.  If you want to add some essential oils add a couple of drops now and mix them in.  Essential oils are optional, but both lavender oil and tea tree oil have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, so if you're head is a bit itchy it could be a good idea to add them.  You can also add lime juice, or swap the lemon juice for lime if you prefer a limey smell.   

Should I add a disclaimer here to say if you have any cuts or owchie bits on your scalp perhaps give this a miss, lemon and salt will be too stingy! 

How to use your salt and lemon hair and head scrub

Make the scrub in advance then jump in the shower and wet your hair.  Scoop up a handful of hair scrub and gently massage it into your scalp.  Repeat until your whole scalp is covered and smooth the rest through the lengths of your hair.  Leave the scrub in for a few minutes then rinse out thoroughly. 

I use it about once a month or so.  It will give you a happy scalp and the soft, floofy hair of your dreams.

Do you have any no 'poo hair tips?

Check out my other 'no poo posts too, 

Wash your hair with aloe vera

1 year of no 'poo 

And more no 'poo here 

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Things I've learned and things I appreciate after 10 years of being vegan.

2017 marks 10 years since I went vegan.  It's my veganiversary! 

In February 2007 I was 22 and I went to live in Spain with my friend for a while.  She's vegan, so I ate the same food as her, found it was easy and yummy (despite the lack of convenient vegan alternatives in Valencia 10 years ago!) and cutting out dairy and eggs cleared up some health issues I was having (twice weekly migraines, tummy troubles and rashes).  Veganism was something I'd tried before but failed when I discovered soya made me super itchy and poorly, it was so good to go vegan with the support of my friend.  I'd been veggie since I was 12 and I knew veganism was the next step in helping myself, the environment and animals.  I'm so glad I took that step.

I thought I'd treat you all to some photos of me eating vegan food for the last 10 years too!

IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TO BE VEGAN NOW!

You guys, we have everything vegan now, ice cream, cheese, yoghurt, marshmallows, cheese and onion crisps, it's so good!  When I was a new vegan in Spain requests for vegan meals or products were met with a 'Que?' or more usually a 'Por que?', now there's vegan convenience food in the corner shop!  It's amazing!

You can actually eat meals in restaurants!

I no longer have to order a side salad and chips, or baked potato with beans when I'm out.  Lots of my favourite places have special vegan menus, I love Las Iguanas, Novello Lounge, Pizza Express, and even Wetherspoons, they all have special separate vegan menus with lots of nice choices.  There are also loads more completely vegan or vegetarian cafes and eating places - yey!

You can avoid being or interacting with the 'vegan police'.

I try to be pretty chill with my veganism nowadays.  I'm sure in my animal rights demo days I was a bit pushy with my beliefs, and I've definitely been on the receiving end of shouty vegans which isn't pleasant (once when I was 'just' vegetarian a guy giving me a lift to a demo said I shouldn't even be there because my doc martens were leather, I was about 18 and mortified!).  It's easier to be nice and just live in the way you think is right, plenty of people will be curious and ask you about your lifestyle without you ramming it down their throats.

Vegan cheese!

I definitely appreciate vegan cheese.  I remember when Cheezly was the only choice, and that stuff makes me shudder!  Now I'm Violife for life.

I don't wear my vegan jumper any more.
It still fits, I wear it to do the gardening, but it seems a bit to much to wander round in public proclaiming what I eat in such big lettering.  I have some awesome, slightly more discreet, vegan pin badges though!

Social media is a vegan's best friend.

As soon as a new, exciting vegan product hits the shelves you can guarantee a vegan somewhere will be Instagramming and Twittering it.  The vegan network is strong.

Vegan magazines are awesome.

Veganism can't be that much of a weird thing any more if you can wander into your local newsies and pick up a lovely, glossy vegan magazine full of recipes and articles.  I prefer Vegan Life Magazine for my monthly dose of vegan inspiration.  

Being vegan makes you a better cook.

It's true!  I cook so much more and have to cleverly substitute vegan ingredients.  In the last few years there's been loads of vegan cookbooks out too, with lots of lovely vegan recipes. 

Vegan street food is a thing now.

And that's totally fine by me!  We go to an event in Digbeth quite regularly with street food trucks, and every single truck has a vegan option.  So good!

It's possible to marry a non-vegan!

Yes, if I'd have told teenage me I'd marry a meat eater I might not have believed it, but I have married a man who eats meat, and we don't even argue about it.  We don't cook meat in the house, anything he eats out of the house I don't comment on, and he cooks me yummy vegan meals and looks up if there's vegan options on the menu before we go out.  I think he's a keeper.

Most importantly, being vegan helps the environment and animals.

Climate change isn't getting any better and animals aren't being treated any nicer.  Not eating animals is one of the best and easiest ways to help the environment and ease suffering, and that's why I've been doing it for so long!

Finally, here are some of my bestest vegan food blog posts, 

Vegan Thai spiced noodle recipe.

Graze box - for vegans.

3 ways to eat vegan yoghurt. 

Vegan buckwheat flour and coconut milk pancakes. 

What do vegans eat in Birmingham? 

What do vegans eat in Rio de Janeiro?

3 easy vegan potato recipes.

DIY vegan cheese and onion crisps.

Make your own vegan cheese, from nutritional yeast and pine nuts. 

Vegan leek, lentil and potato bake. 

Disclosure - I get a digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for giving them a shout out every month.  I only work with brands I like and all opinions and ideas are my own.  Vegan Life Mag is ace, you can subscribe here.

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Charity shopping, with Sooty and Soo in a canoe.

I haven't found anything in the charity shops for ages, and then all of a sudden there was loads to buy! 

I picked up this cute vintage glass necklace, I think it looks like sweeties, which is of course everything I look for in my jewellery.  

Retro neckalce, £1, Oxfam.

I've got to show you these beautiful piece of Hornsea Fauna pottery, even though I didn't buy them myself, they were a Christmas present from my sister in law (and brother, and nieces, but I suspect my sis in law chose them!).  I love the bunny one, and the chipped bits are inside so I can mend it once I've found my superglue!  And ain't that tortoise so cute too!
Hornsea Fauna pottery, a lovely present.

Some more Hornsea, I found this little cute thing in the charity shop last week.  I think it's a spice pot without it's lid, I've no idea what I'm going to do with it but I can rarely walk past a piece of Hornsea Heirloom.
Hornsea Heirloom pot, 50p, Air Ambulance charity shop.

And some more brown, retro pottery!  I always need plant pots for the indoor jungle I'm cultivating!
Retro plant pot, £2.49, Severn Hospice charity shop.  

Ok, I'll admit I don't really know why I bought this.  Other than it was cheap, and kitsch and cute looking of course!  And I have used it (ie. put the jigsaw together!) so therefore it is a useful purchase.
Sooty and Soo in a canoe jigsaw, 50p, Air Ambulance charity shop.

Have you had any luck in the charity shops lately?

P.S. Check out my other charity shop posts for more!  

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Garden plans and dreams for 2017.

It's the time of year when I start dreaming dreamy dreams about my garden.  It may look particularly brown and bedraggled at the moment, but I have great plans for it in 2017.

What's in my seed tin?

I have a whole tin full up of lovely seeds, some new and some that have been lingering for a while.  This is what I'll be growing this year.

Beans

Some broad beans from seed I saved, not sure of the variety.

Lazy housewife climbing french bean (Real Seed)

Peas 

Golden sweet yellow mange tout (Read Seed)

Bijou giant sugar pea (Real Seed)

Leafy things

Pink passion chard (Read Seed)

Red baby leaf bulls beet (The Herbary)

Red russian kale (The Herbary)

Green salad bowl lettuce (The Herbary)

Erbette perpetual spinach beet (The Herbary)

Salad bowl mixed lettuce (Wilkos)

Black seeded simpson lettuce (Premier seeds direct)

Kale nero di toscana (Premier seeds direct)

Little gem lettuce (Premier seeds direct)

Spinach beet (Wilkos) 

Greyhound cabbage (Wilkos)

Dwarf green curled kale (Johnsons)

Bright lights chard (Johnsons)

Pink flamingo Swiss chard (J&L Gourmet vegetable seed)

Iceberg lettuce 2 (Johnsons)

Oniony things

Lilia purple spring onion (Premier seeds direct)

Tokyo long white bunching onion (Premier seeds direct)

Chives (Premier seeds direct)

Chinese/garlic chives (Premier seeds direct)

North Holland bloodred redmate spring onion (Premier seeds direct)

Ramsons/wild garlic (Just seed)

Musselburgh leek (Premier seeds direct)

Bulgarian giant leek (Real seeds)

Tomatoes

Mortgage lifter (Premier seeds direct)

Tiny Tim (Premier seeds direct)

San Marzano 2 (Premier seeds direct)

Courgettey things

Patisson blanc patty pan squash (Real Seed)

Verde di Milano courgette (Real Seed)

Sweetcorn

Minipop F1 (Unwins)

Carrots

Rainbow mix (Premier seeds direct)

Radish 

Rat's tail radish (Elfskin edibles)

I have lots of flower seeds too!  As you can see I have waaaaay too many leafy things seeds, I'm going to experiment with growing micro-greens this year and try to use up the surplus of seed.

I buy my seed online usually, and try to buy organic.  I like the Real Seed Company and I buy from Ebay too, I particularly like Premier Seeds Direct who sell lots of organic seed, but I've bought from The Herbary and Elfskin Edibles too.

New year, new compost bin?

I've decided the compost bin I bought when we moved here was an expensive mistake.  It's way too big and kind of hard to open, I'm waiting for a dry day to empty, disassemble and clean it, then I'll try to sell it or pass it on.  I have a slot together compost bin that I've inherited from my mum, so I'll use that, and my freecycled wormery, but what I really, really, really want and kind of NEED is a Hotbin.  Have you seen them?  They hot compost garden and food waste, get up to 60 degrees centigrade and there's a vent at the top to let out steam!  It's super duper expensive, £185, I'm dithering over buying one, if I save my Christmas money and put £20 a month away until April I'd be able to afford one pretty painlessly, I just hope it isn't an expensive gimmick.  

Vegan fertilisers...

Oh maaan, I really need to do something about my soil.  I was looking back at old gardeny blog posts and my veggies grew so well when I had a little plot in Mum's garden.  Look at this photo, look at the lush, green, large leaves, nothing like what I get from my garden now.

What I get is all yellow-y, and tiny and inevitably gets eaten by slugs.  I'm going to add lots of compost, continue with no dig, polyculture gardening methods, make nettle tea, add worm compost and sow green manure in the autumn.  I hope that'll do some good. 

Garden inspiration for 2017

I've been leafing through my favourite gardening books - the James Wong and Alys Fowler ones are my favourite (Alys Fowler has a Hotbin, so I should definitely get one right?!).  I keep going back to Grow a Little Fruit Tree, I still haven't got round to giving my apple trees the chop, but I must do it soon!

I've been rewatching The Edible Garden on BBC i-player, and I like Big Dreams Small Spaces on the TV too.

There are some blogs and instagrams I love looking at for garden inspiration too,

Alys Fowler's Guardian column.

James Wong's Guardian column.  

Charles Dowding's Instagram.

Bohemian Raspberry's Instagram.

Urban Veg Patch's Instagram.

Permaculture Girl's Instagram.

You Grow Girl's Instagram. 

Bryony Willis' Instagram.

Tricia Eco's Instagram.

Do you have any garden plants for the coming year?

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Make one small change - freeze your sauce to stop food waste.

Making one small change at a time can make becoming eco friendly loads easier.  Lots of small changes add up to a big difference.

There's this one jar of sauce we keep in our fridge, we open it up, use it once or twice and before we know it, it's gone mouldy.  Because it's super spicy (it's Thai red curry paste, btw) we only use a teaspoon each time and we can't seem to get through it before it goes green and fluffy.  But not any more, I've worked out the easiest method to freeze the sauce into invidual portions, so no more wasting perfectly good sauce!

You just pour the sauce into a container (I used a little roasting tray, but you could use a pyrex dish or something similar) and put it in the freezer overnight.  Take it out the next day and cut the frozen sauce into whatever size is the correct portion size for you.  Pop the sauce portions into jars and store in the freezer, ready to chip out a block or two when you need it.  

Don't forget to check out my other small changes to help you live a greener life!

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Vegan review - all of the vegan cheese and cream flavour crisps!

One of my local shops started stocking loads of the Eat Real cheese and cream flavour crisps, and they're vegan!  It seemed the right thing to do to buy one of every variety, and then try them out.  For the blog, of course.  I'm so selfless.  I also had a bag of Ten Acre vegan cheese and onion crisps, so I've included them too.

Here we go...

Eat Real Quinoa Puffs - White Cheddar

Firstly, these puffs are huge!  They're the same length as my fingers!  They're really crispy and have a yummy, salty, cheese flavour.

Eat Real Quinoa Puffs - Jalapeño and Cheddar
Same puffs, different flavour.  I actually don't think these taste particularly cheesy, they're more jalapeño flavour, but husband has tried them and he thinks they taste of cheese.  These are my least favourite.

Eat Real Quinoa Chips - Sour Cream and Chive

Vegan sour cream and chive is a dream come true for me!  These quinoa chips have a similar texture to wholegrain or sunbites style crisps and they taste tangy and chive-y.  I don't think you'd know these were vegan if you hadn't seen the bag!

Eat Real Lentil Chips - Creamy Dill

The lentil chips are light and crunchy and the chips themselves really taste creamy and tangy, with a hint of  herby dill.  A packet of these doesn't last very long - these ones are my favourite. 

Ten Acre - The Story of when the Cheese met the Onion
 If you want vegan crisps that taste like good old Walkers cheese and onion then these are your best bet.  Crunchy little potato crisps with a strong onion and tangy cheese flavour that definitely don't taste like they're vegan friendly.  But they are.  Woohoo!

I also really, really, really like my own homemade vegan cheese and onion crisps, just take some nooch, onion powder and plain crisps and mix them all together, you can find the recipe for DIY vegan cheese and onion crisps here.

Are there any more vegan cheesy crisps I should know about?

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What I've been reading.

Here's what I've been reading recently, lovely library books and some second hand finds too,

Doctor Who Time Lord Fairy Tales

This book has the most gorgeous illustrations and it looks beautiful on the shelf.  The stories are quite simply told, in the same style as fairy tales, so it's best to leave any literary expectations aside and imagine baby Time Lords being told these stories.  I especially liked the story of Cinderella and the Magic Box and the Three Little Sontarans.

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged - Ayisha Malik

This is a typical chick lit, rom-com, but with a twist as the main character is a strict British Muslim and the focus is on her love life.  I don't think this was a brilliantly written book, but I got into it and it was a really interesting insight into Muslim culture, which it turns out I know little about despite living in an area with a huge Muslim community.  It's nice to learn something. 

The Treasure Hunters - Enid Blyton

I picked up this 1960s edition of The Treasure Hunters for 20p in a charity shop.  It's not an Enid Blyton story I've read before and it was a nice comfort read, full of adventure, picnics, and a naughty dog.  I was mostly attracted to it because it looks like it's been printed in a proper printing press, and by the cute, retro illustrations.

The Girls - Emma Cline

Evie's boring summer is dramatically turned around when she gets involved with a cult, implicated in an infamous murder.  It's set in 1969, all hippies and living in a commune, but The Girls gives a deeper look at the dysfunction rife in that kind of living arrangement.  It's told from the present day, with a grown up Evie looking back on her youth.  Although I've never lived in a commune, I did find a lot of Evie's thoughts relatable and familiar to my own as a teen and as a woman.

Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler

The Hogarth Shakespeare series sees popular authors updating Shakespearian plays.  Vinegar Girl is Anne Tyler's version of The Taming of the Shrew.  This is the first book I've read by her and I thought it was just OK, easy to read and quite sweet, it shows a different imagining of the story and is less extreme than the play, or the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor film.  But to be honest I prefer 10 Things I Hate About You.

What have you been reading?  

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Diary of a suburban edible garden, January 2017.

I made it into the garden for the first time this year!  It was so nice to be out there pottering about and doing some weeding.  

I meant to empty my compost bin and mulch the garden in autumn but I didn't get round to it.  I opened the compost bin today to see what was in there...

...composting is so magical!  I'm so happy!  I know you should mulch in autumn or spring, but I've missed autumn and I can't wait till spring so I'm going to mulch in winter!  I did a little bit today but I think I'll need a full day to deal with the compost bin, it's going to be a dirty and heavy job! 

I came up with a mulchy method to add some nutrients and structure to the soil, and protect it - I've invented it myself so I hope it works!  It seems in keeping with the no dig methods I use in the garden at least.  First I weeded by hand, then I spread a layer of fallen leaves over the soil.  After that I spread a thin layer of hay over the leaves, then a layer of my beautiful home-made compost.  

I hope to be planting veggies in the garden by the end of April or May, which gives the mulch at least 4 months to rot down, and if it's still hanging around I'll just plant through it.

Here's another shot of my compost, just because it's pretty and I can't quite believe it worked!

Do you remember by worm compost bin?  I kind of neglected it and didn't add anything to it for 2 months (sorry worms!).  I was a bit scared to check it, but I looked today and there are still live worms in there!  Yey!  I've fed them and added some shredded paper and water too.  I'll be a better worm looker afterer in future.

Anyway, enough brown composty photos, there are green shoots poking up all over the garden.  Some are weedy but some are bulbs.

Last year I planted some elephant garlic in this pot, but it didn't grow and I thought it had rotted away, but there's something growing there now, and I don't remember planting anything else in there and it looks quite garlicky.  Fingers crossed it's the elephant garlic!

There are a few flowers in the garden, some colourful winter pansies, primroses and this hebe I bought for 50p when we first moved in here has flowered for the first time.

In the front garden the raised bed still has some lettuce growing happily away, and the garlic I cleared out from my fridge and planted has sprouted up too.

For posterity's sake here's a full photo of the back and side gardens - lots to do before spring!  

I didn't rake any leaves up in Autumn, so I have a garden full of them now (there are big trees behind our garden!) - eeek!  At least they're good for wildlife!

How are your garden's doing?

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