This Kalanchoe Tubiflora is from one of the many easy to care succulents from my collection. It’s a type of kalanchoe that requires almost no care, except for some sun, water and soil.

My mom’s friend had given her the plant years ago. This is probably the 6th generation. Some say it’s used as medicinal tea for maintaining a healthy liver. I have not tried making any tea with it, but heard it’s very bitter.

Kalanchoe Tubiflora is also known as “Chandelier plant, Mother-of-Thousands Plant and Maternity Plant”. The names do suit it well as this plant can have many offsprings. They are the little plantlets growing off the leaves.

If the little plantlets fall off to the ground it will grow like mad. It’s a very invasive plant, so best to keep it as a container plant. It can grow almost 5 feet tall.

As for the name “chandelier plant”, it gets that name from it’s pretty pink bunches of bloom which hang like a chandelier. They seem to bloom a few times a year, usually in winter and spring. It’s probably the nicest thing about this very odd looking plant.

Check out the plantlets (babies)! Once they drop they will start growing as a new plant.

There happens to be many variety of this plant, many are listed in Plants of Hawaii.

Over the years I’ve been drinking more tea. Even in the summer I enjoy cold herbal tea such as mint or hibiscus tea. Sometimes when I’m on the road and forget to bring my bottled water or tea with me, I would chose bottled tea over soda. And that’s how I came upon these new and very neat tea.

It’s such a pretty glass bottle and the ingredients were all good and natural. Especially with only 10 grams of cane sugar compare to other bottled tea. This bottle was on sale for $2. I plan to recycle this bottle by reusing it for water or my own tea blend.

There was only 2 choices for me at the store shelf, either the Mojitea or Hibiscus Tea Sangria. I chose the fruity one and was surprise at how good it taste. Good enough for me to find out more about Argo Tea.

Argo Tea is actually a very popular chain of tea cafes from Chicago. They first started out in 2003 and is now expanding to many larger cities in the East Coast.

Even when Starbucks is closing shops, this tea shop is expanding. And it’s nice to see people can enjoy a cup of tea as much as coffee.

According to The Independent from UK, Starbucks is still any tea shop’s competitor.

“Starbucks, of course, remains the biggest threat to the relative tiddlers of tea such as Argo. When the first Starbucks opened in Seattle in 1971, the siren mermaid logo had “coffee” and “tea” beneath it. Starbucks is not just about coffee any more. Indeed, its Tazo teas became a billion-dollar brand for the company, it revealed in a recent call with Wall Street analysts.”

Argo has many selections and blend to chose from, all with clever names too. I just wish Argo Tea would open a shop on the West Coast, maybe in San Francisco or Palo Alto. I’m sure they will be a hit out here.

Photos from Argo Tea.

Fall officially arrived on Friday, September 23rd. And the weather is finally turning around. It even looks like it might rain around here.

To say good bye to summer I made one of my favorite summer salad using Butter lettuce. I’ll call it “Bye Bye Summer Salad”

It’s really easy to make.

Butter lettuce
shredded green mango
yellow & red tomatoes

Homemade Buttermilk dressing:

1 cup of buttermilk
3 tbs yogurt
2 tbs mayo

Seasoning:
1 tsp of black pepper & garlic
salt to taste

Whisk together all the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

I have not bought “bottled” Ranch dressing in years.  Mainly it’s because of all the ingredients listed.  This dressing is perfect because it’s simple and made with only a few ingredients.  It’s so good I could use it in bean salad, pasta salad, or even topped with baked potatoes.

My latest adventure in homemade yogurt.  This time using whole milk and it’s really creamy and much thicker. I’m almost done with this jar. This is the yogurt I included with this Ranch dressing.

Note: The most healthiest yogurt is probably the goat milk yogurt, although it was very thin and didn’t taste as good as this whole milk version.

Prices of vegetable oils have been going up and prices of organic oils are a bit higher too. Luckily I was able to save on shipping by getting my organic oils from a local source. Not a huge savings since I still have to drive to the next city over to get them.

I am proud to be making my soaps with these new organic oils. Especially love that the palm oil is from a sustainable farm and no orangutans or humans were harm while gathering them.

This is Organic Neem & Kelp soap. The kelp is the top portion with swirls. According to skincare experts, this slipperiness is from the gel like quality of kelp which helps to protect and restore hair and skin. It’s very hydrating and healing ingredient in skincare.

Made with all organic oils (coconut, olive, and palm), organic neem and kelp. Neem oil has a strong smell so I had to add sweet orange essential oil to make it more usable. Once you realize how good is it for your skin, you’ll just think of it as the smell of healing and good health.

Handmade soaps are gentle on your skin. They contain no parabens, sulfates, or artificial color. All my soaps are Eco-friendly and bio-degradable. All the suds going down the drain are harmless, so even the fishes are happy too.

More soaps available at Cambree Naturals Etsy Shop. Enjoy!

Everyone has probably seen these curly lights known as CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs that’s been labeled as the “green” replacement. By 2012, some traditional incandescent bulbs will be phased out of production.

Sure they last longer than regular bulbs, but are people aware of the dangers of CFL bulbs? Breaking a CFL can can be very dangerous to your health and the environment. The bulbs contain mercury, when exposed is a neurotoxin.

The EPA has the following recommendations should a bulb break:

Before cleanup

* Have people and pets leave the room.
* Air out the room for 5-10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor environment.
* Shut off the central forced air heating/air-conditioning system, if you have one.
* Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulb:
- stiff paper or cardboard;
- sticky tape;
- damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes (for hard surfaces); and
- a glass jar with a metal lid or a sealable plastic bag.

During cleanup

* Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visible powder.
* Place cleanup materials in a sealable container.

After cleanup

* Promptly place all bulb debris and cleanup materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area until materials can be disposed of properly. Avoid leaving any bulb fragments or cleanup materials indoors.
* If practical, continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken and leave the heating/air conditioning system shut off for several hours.

And to think some people wouldn’t know better and start throwing these bulb into the trash. That could be very bad news! It will break into tiny pieces and contaminate everything. Then eventually the mercury will find it’s way into our air and waterways.

Therefore, please take the CFL bulbs to a qualified recycling center where the mercury can be properly handled. In California, we can bring the used bulbs to Home Depot and Ikea.

The Chicago Tribune article also pointed out that, “CFL bulbs are made in China and India where environmental controls are lax at best and workers are undoubtedly exposed to mercury in the production process.”

For those concern with their health, CFL bulbs contributes to dirty electricity. Which can cause , dizziness, nausea, confusion, fatigue, skin irritations, and eye strain.

Health Canada issued a warning after UK Health Protection recommends you should not be more than 30 cm from the light bulb for more than 1 hour per day as it emits UV rays. Test are currently being done in Canada.

So what other choices do we have? There’s LED light which is much safer and more Eco-friendly. It does cost more then CFL light bulbs and aren’t as bright. But they contain no mercury. Right now the most affordable LED light bulbs I’ve found are from Costco. I’m going to start replacing the CFL bulbs in our home soon.

Back in spring I planted 2 Seabuckthorn (seaberry) plants. Sadly the male plant didn’t make it. And I didn’t think the female would make it either. Now this is all I have of the female plant. I was able to save the female plant by moving it into a pot.

What happen is all the leaves started to fall off over the months. Then this little branch started to grow from the side.

I’m still wondering if I should re-order the male plant. But it will cost me at least $40 to get a new plant and that is too much for my gardening budget. So I’m going to grow them from seed or cutting.

At this point I would be happy with just one plant with lots of leaves. At least I could make healthy tea with them.

I started to make some more soaps recently. And I also made a new wooden soap mold too. This one is attached together and folds up to form the mold. The only thing I didn’t add to this picture is the wooden lid.

This size suits me best since I make very small batches. The small size also makes it easier to store and pack away.

It’s a really cool design that allows me to release the soaps easily. Even with one hand. This is for a 1 pound batch which yields about 6 bars.

Wood working is kind of like sewing with all the measure, cut, and assembly. But much more of a work out to saw most of the wood myself. Unlike fabrics which are really light and easy to work with. But I did have plenty help on the tricky parts.

Note: This is the formula to figure out how much oil (volume) you need for your mold.
V = L x W x H

Sweet and ripe papayas in the summertime is a delight. When perfectly ripe it has a bright orange color. It’s no wonder in Lao it’s named the “bright fruit”.

Out here in California it seems to be very abundant this time of year. Green papayas used for salad are also very popular, but the ripe ones are my favorite. They are usually grown in Hawaii or Mexico.

The ripe papayas are full of seeds. After I peel my fruits or veggies, I take the peels and sometimes a few seeds get mixed into the garden compost. It’s not a real compost bin, it’s just gets bury in the soil. So far it’s worked out fine and makes for good soil.

This papaya seed must have found it’s way into the soil of the herb container. I would love to see this sapling survive our winter. In reality, it will fade out once the weather gets colder.

In an ideal setting it would be nice to have a greenhouse and keep it growing all year round. So in the meantime I still have this photo to remind me of my little papaya sapling. It looks almost like a 3D photo too.

Papayas are rich in antioxidant such as carotenes, vitamin C and flavonoids, folate, minerals, potassium, magnesium, and fiber. It also contains papain, which is an enzyme that helps digest proteins. The unripe papayas contain the most papain. So it makes sense to eat papaya salad (a traditional dish in Laos) with grilled meat.

After I ate all the skim milk yogurt, I decided to make goat milk yogurt next.  The process is the same as making regular homemade yogurt.

It looks more like condensed milk.  But still taste tangy, creamy and delicious.

Other people who have tried making goat milk yogurt suggest using raw goat milk for a superior quality yogurt.  But that would be difficult to find as not everyone has a lactating goat at home. And the U.S. government (at least in California) prohibits goat owners from selling their raw milk.

But it would be nice to have a pet goat that would supply me with raw and fresh goat milk.  As goat milk is expensive and a quart cost about $3.29 compare to a gallon of milk.

For those that never tried goat milk, it is really good and creamy milk. It’s also consider to be much healthier than cow milk. And for some people who cannot tolerate cow’s milk, they can still drink goat’s milk without any problems.

In 2007, Researchers at the University of Granada found that the properties of goats’ milk compared to those of cows’ milk could help prevent diseases such as anemia and bone demineralization. Goats’ milk was found to help with the digestive and metabolic utilization of minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium.

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It was exciting and really worth it to make homemade yogurt. I started off making a smaller batch than the other recipes because I didn’t think I could eat that much yogurt.

Here’s my first jar of homemade yogurt. I’ve already finished half of it and it was delicious! It’s really creamy and not as tangy or thick as the store bought one.

The usual recipe calls for 8 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of starter yogurt. I used 4 cups of milk and 2 heaping tbs of plain yogurt. I got 2 mason jars of yogurt.

For a starter I used Nancy’s organic yogurt which has billions of live cultures of acidophilus and bifidum. But any plain yogurt will be just fine.

Directions:

Using a 2 quart crockpot (which is the smaller one) I measured out 4 cups of skim milk (1% fat milk). Let it cook in the crockpot for 2.5 hours at LOW setting.

Then unplug and let it sit there for 3 hours. After 3 hours, take out 2 cups of the warm milk and add in 2-3 tbs of plain yogurt. This plain yogurt is the starter that will provide the good bacteria.

Whisk the yogurt into the warm milk thoroughly then add the it to the crockpot. Stir well, close lid. Take a towel and wrap it around the crockpot for 8 hours. If you have a gas stove with a pilot light you can always stick the crockpot ceramic into the oven for the next 8 hours. The longer you keep it wrapped and warm, the more sour it gets.

After 8 hours just transfer the yogurt into a clean sterile jar and refrigerate. It should keep for 1-2 weeks.

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