Skip to main content

Not food today but how to make your own lemon detergent at home


I always use eco cleaning products, or go for the 'home remedies' like baking soda, vinegar and methylated spirit, but I always fantasized about making some myself. I found some good ideas on Galline 2nd Life, a blog that I like very very very much! I was immediately attracted by the washing up and dishwasher detergent, but for a different reason: it reminded me of a beautiful lemon salt scrub for the body that someone presented me years ago. It smelled great and was so nice to use under the shower... it even looked like the one in the picture... So I tried!



Ingredients, as given by Lo in Galline 2nd Life

3 lemons
200 g salt
400 ml water
100 ml white vinegar

Slice the lemons, keeping the peel but discarding the pips. In a food processor blend the lemons as finely as possible with the salt and a little water (taken form the 400ml). Place in a pot, add the rest of the water and the vinegar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Once cold place in a jar.

I tried to use it for the dishes and it works quite well, unless the dishes are really greasy. For the dishwasher Lo suggests to put 2 tbsp in the dishwashing powder compartment, I did and tried at different temperatures, but I think that it works better if doing the dishes by hand.

Lo also says that it can be used for wooden chopping boards, and I used it for the kitchen sink and marble benches (very good, and with a nice lemony smell). Then I took it into the shower and use it on myself! This is where I liked it best: a mild exfoliant, particularly nice for the feet, especially if you are one of those New Zealanders who spend half of their life in jandals or bare-footed!

In a few words: a real multipurpose detergent! Thank you Lo!

Recipe by Lo and Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Comments

  1. What a neat post! Looking forward for more post from you. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing these wonderful post..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mia mamma lo faceva spesso il detersivo in casa, ma ci aggiungeva la soda...grazie per il tuo complimento...ciao.

    ReplyDelete
  4. La preparavo con il Bimby ed era eccezionale, i piatti e i bicchieri uscivano splendidi dalla lavastoviglie...poi la venditrice del Bimby mi ha proibito di farlo perchè si distruggevano le lame!! SIGH, però è una ricetta eccezionale.

    Si per decorare la torta ho usato le amarene Fabbri...ci stanno benissimo!!!BAcioni

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a great idea, have you tried with laundry?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Not yet, Medifast, but I would like to :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am a huge fan of finding home "remedies", especially ones that are more eco friendly.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That should definitely come handy sometime. Moreover I think it must be fragrant n refreshing- thanks for sharing dear..'
    Have a nice weekend!

    US Masala

    ReplyDelete
  9. This sounds cool and eco friendly too! Thanks for sharing this :)!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book  Sweet As...  where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal

Home Made Marzipan Sweets

This is another recipe from my book Sweet As , and something that I love to make for Xmas. I would like to say that for marzipan you should get the best almonds around, natural, but here in New Zealand the almonds taste different from the ones in Italy. They are imported, not sure where from most of the time, but they are not top grade almonds. Still, with a few tips, you can make your marzipan taste great even with 'regular' almonds! Buy them natural, not blanched, you need to blanche then yourself or the result will be too dry. To blanch them you need to put them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, and then add cold water and take the skin off, one by one. For this recipe you will need: 200 g almonds 100 g icing sugar 5 apricot kernels. As I was saying before, the almond here have little taste, so I like to collect the stones from apricot and get the almonds out. They are a real pain to crack! In the photo above you can see apricot stones and kernels. The apricot kernel

Kamo Kamo Maori Squash and Italian Borlotti Beans

A crop which gives me great pleasure is borlotti beans, not only for their flavour but also because I love the idea of growing protein food! I eat fresh borlotti, or I dry them and then use them to make nice soups and stews; in particular I like soups with pumpkins, but since this year I am traveling on, I will not enjoy the pumpkins that are growing in my garden. So I tried a different 'pairing'. A friend gave me some kamo kamo, the traditional Maori squash, and told me that the way to eat it is to boil it (skin on) and then cut it and spread it with butter (or olive oil...) salt and pepper, and scoop the flesh out with a fork. I had two kamo kamo so I boiled one (as a was told) and cut the other and sauted with a drop of olive oil and other vegetables from my garden: red onion, and celery. Then I added the beans and some water, salt and pepper, and cooked everything until the beans were soft. I added water little by little, when necessary, and I thought that this would be goo