Growing wellness. Healing with HeART.

Growing Wellness. Healing with HeART.
Exploring Aromatherapy, Earth Medicine, and the creative process of Art Journaling as paths to healing and wholeness.

Friday 3 June 2016

Fresh-smelling compost

If you are like us and have a little container for organic waste in your kitchen, then you may be troubled by some odour from that compost. We use a stainless steel bucket and a biodegradable bag, but we still find that some food waste causes odour. I was playing around with some ideas for trying to neutralize the odours and came up with these cute little baking soda and essential oil pucks.  


I used inexpensive ice cube trays from the dollar store (since I am not using these for food, I am not as concerned about the quality of the plastic).  If you can find silicone trays, I think they would be ideal as it would be easy to remove the pucks, but the ones I have are solid on the sides and have silicone on the bottom and they worked just fine. I will now keep these exclusively for cleaning products and will not use them for food!



Baking Soda Fresh-Pucks 


*Safety notes* 

  • Be sure to wear rubber, latex, or vinyl gloves to avoid getting concentrated essential oils on your skin.  This is especially important if you are using citrus oils.
  • When making cleaning preparations with baking soda and essential oils I prefer to use glass or ceramic bowls to avoid reactivity with metal, and plastic or wooden spoons (craft or popsicle sticks work).  Plastic bowls can absorb the essential oils, making them unsuitable for food use afterwards!

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup baking soda
  • 1 tsp essential oil (about 100 drops) - I used 60 drops Lavender and 40 drops Lemon
  • 1/3 cup distilled water
Method:
  • Combine the baking soda and essential oils and stir until they are well mixed and no big clumps remain.
  • Gradually add the water, mixing as you add.  Stir until the mixture forms lumps that stay together.  If the mixture seems too dry, add a bit more water.  It is important that the clumps are not falling apart at this stage or your finished pucks will not stay together. 
  •  Scoop out the mixture and press into ice cube tray.  Allow to dry for 24-48 hours.
  • Once dry, pop the pucks out of the tray and store in an airtight container.  
  • Place one puck in the bottom of your organic waste bucket, under the biodegradable bag, and replace when you change the bag and empty the bucket.
  • Once used in the bucket, the puck can be put into the sink garbage disposal to freshen it!
  • These would also be suitable for putting in your kitchen garbage pail, either taped to the lid, or in the bottom under the bag.
  • Other essential oils to try: Tea Tree, Palmarosa, Orange, Eucalyptus, or Lemongrass.
I hope that you have fun making these and enjoy fresh-smelling compost buckets!