Jam & Washing

I never imagined how impacting this journey would be, and we're only 4 weeks in, but my whole mindset has changed to so many everyday habits already.  So far it's been stimulating, fascinating, exhausting and lots more beside.  So tonight I thought I'd write about jam and washing, and a small link between the two that occured on Friday.

A couple of weeks back I bought some ecoballs.  I had come across them before, but had been very sceptical as to whether they would work for a family with young children, but I thought I should at least give them a go.  They suggest that they will last for 1000 washes, and cost £15.99, so at less than 2p a wash they are certainly cheaper than the laundry powder that I currently use.  You also don't add conditioner, and if we had a washing machine that allowed you to dodge the rinse cycle, we could save on our water bill too (a feature I'll be looking for if/when our machine gives up).  They also provided a sample of a stain remover which you rub on stubborn stains 10 mins before washing.

So I've now done two weeks worth of washing with them (you just pop all three in the back of the machine and set it running).  And I've been really impressed with the results.  We always dry our washing outside, so there is the added bonus of sun (although not a great deal in the past 2 weeks), but the clothes have come out as clean as ever.  And this week I made some jam and some of it ended up on a white tea-towel.  I put a bit of the stain remover on, and it was all gone by the time it came out of the machine.

So the verdict?  I'm surprised, impressed, and we'll continue using them.  I may even attempt a nappy wash with them (they're just night nappies, and so just wet, rather than highly soiled)...will report back later.  And yes, for those eagle-eyed amongst you, they are made out of plastic.  But you can get refills and they should last forever, I may even be able to pass them onto the next generation :-)  Sadly the packaging they arrived in was a cardboard box (fine), but then they were each wrapped in small plastic bags :-(

And now onto the jam.  A couple of years ago I started making marmalade using my stock pot, but I spotted a preserving pan in Oxfam last weekend,
so picked it up and defrosted some red and black currants that had been in our freezer since the summer from someone's allotment and added to some apples and jam sugar.  It has turned into the best jam I've made yet, even both kids love it!  And a lot less effort in the preparation than marmalde or the wild pear jam that I made in the autumn from some of the fruit on our city's street trees.  So thank you Oxfam! 

I used this recipe, although minus the cassis as we didn't have any, and I doubled all the other ingredients.  http://www.blackcurrantfoundation.co.uk/recipes_apple_blackcurrant.html  

What's this got to do with plastic?  Well not that much really, as there was no plastic involved, but it does mean I've reused jam jars, and although the glass is recycled if we don't reuse them, the lids always end up in the bin as they don't accept them, so again, one less thing in the bin.  I may have to set a new challenge and see if we can survive the rest of the year just on homemade jam :-)

P.S.  I've decided not to make butter at the moment, as you need cream to make it, and that comes in plastic cartons which are considerably bigger than the paper/plastic/foil stuff that butter comes in.  But we are converting to butter, which my husband is very happy about!