1. Remove any remaining tentacles using a tea-towel or gloves (take care, you can still get stung by these).
2. Wash with salt water.
3. Use hot and cold compresses alternately by putting with ice cubes in a plastic bag (or a bag of frozen peas) for the cold and a wet hand towel or wash cloth warmed in the microwave for up to 2 minutes for the hot (take care when removing it from the microwave as it can become very hot)
4. Apply papaya cream or baking soda.
5. If symptoms persist contact, your doctor.

You can use this treatment for your dog as well if necessary.

An alternate to the hot compress is a wheat bag that you can make (try this method ) or buy (http://www.wheatbags.co.nz/Cotton-Wheatbags or http://www.wheatbags-by-silver-pear.co.nz/two-pocket-wheat-bag.html)

There are many ideas on how to get rid of warts.  We’ve had three suggestions  for you to try.

1 Melaleuca Oil

Bev has used Melaleuca Oil.  Melaleuca is the botanical name for tea tree oil and is available from Melaleuca : The Wellness Company  www.melaleuca.com Their oil is very high quality and available in two strengths T36-C5 and added strength T40-C3

For isolated common warts, apply T36-C5 each morning and night faithfully for up to 3 weeks.  If the wart is thick and dry, shave the excess away before applying T36-C5.

For body warts you could also bathe in a hot tub with 1oz of Sol-U-Mel and 1oz of Renew Bath Oil for 30 mins – these products contain Melaleuca oil. Some warts require the added strength of T40-C3 to disappear.

An alternate solution is to apply our Renew Intensive Skin Therapy (this is the product that we have so much success with eczema).  This will be a slower process but just as effective.

Other brands of Tea Tree Oil available may not be very high quality or may be diluted so take care if you’re shopping around.  I can give you Bev’s contact details if you want to contact her to buy Melaleuca Oil

2 Homeopathic remedy

Lesley, who is a Homeobotanical practitioner, recommends a homeopathic remedy  – either Homeopathic Thuja 6c or Causticum 6c. Dosage will be on the bottle. For an even better result alternate these two remedies. Use one for 3 days and then the other for 3 days.

3 Milkweed

Jeanine says her mother used to swear by milkweed to cure her brother’s warts.  What she means is the milky sap from a garden weed commonly known as milkweed.  However there are many plants known as milkweed so you need to know which is the one that has a milky secretion that is good for curing warts.

Can anyone help us out with a photo or some more detail?  If not then, Trish I suggest stick with the Melalauca Oil or the homeopathic remedy

I’ve pointed her to this link which uses ammonia and baking soda and no hard rubbing.  I haven’t tried this so it would be great if you could let me know if you’ve used this and how it worked. Or what other method you’ve used to clean rust from your oven trays.

So go for it make your own.  It only takes a few minutes – and check out the size of your supermarket bill. If you don’t have a food processor you can use any other kitchen  equipment with cutting blades.  Or you can save electricity as well and use a fine hand grater for the soap and crush the washing soda crystals to a powder with a rolling pin or well sealed glass jar or  bottle filled with water or sand.

We’ve got some ideas for you for dishwasher powder, laundry powder, household cleaner

Trish – you’re probably aware that cats are pretty fussy about cleanliness and wash themselves over and again.  But they’re not so keen on having a bath!

However no matter how much a cat washed itself, there are times when that’s simply no enough and human intervention is necessary.

What you need

large basin or bowl  (large enough for the cat to lie down)
warm water
natural cat shampoo (herbal preferably – and if there is catnip in it the cat shouldn’t be too stroppy about having a bath)
towel or bathmat for cat to sit on
dry towels
peace offering

What you do

Before you start the bathing process, groom your cat as best you can.  Clip claws to reduce the damage from scratching and brush the fur to get rid of any knots.  You can do this ahead of time.

Fill the basin with warm water and put an old towel in the bowl to stop the cat slipping.

Have the shampoo and extra towels ready

Put cotton wool balls in the cat’s ears to keep water out of them if the cat splashes around trying to get out (unless the cat’s head is smelly you won’t want to get its head wet – but …!)

Do all this preparation out of sight of the water and bathing area.

Then the fun starts.

Put the cat in the water and wet the fur well.  Massage the shampoo well into the fur.

If you do need to wash the head and face use a soft cloth and no shampoo.

Rinse the cat well and make sure the shampoo is completely removed, especially around joints and body crevices.

Wrap cat in a towel and rub the fur as dry as you can, rubbing from tail to head.  Use another towel and continue till the fur is mostly dry.  The cat will get its tongue going to finish off.  Keep it out of draughts until it is quite dry.

If you can, give the cat another brush to get rid of any tangles.

You now have a clean but exceeding unimpressed cat.

Now is the time to offer the treat. A catnip-filled toy will go down well and probably send the cat off to sleep off the whole experience.

1. Line a deep bowl or jug with aluminium foil.
2. Add ½ cup washing soda crystals and dissolve in 1 cup boiling water.
3. Leave to cool a little and immerse silverware in the solution.
4. Remove silverware from the solution, rinse in warm water and buff dry with a soft cloth.

So just how does this work?  The blurb on the back of the Washing Soda pack says “the chemical reaction between the soda crystals and the aluminium foil generates hydrogen to remove the silver oxide (the tarnish)”.

Note – this won’t work on aluminium or plated silver, so check your metal first.

NZ grown stone fruit is in full flight – apricots, peaches and nectarines.

Vegetables in season now include:

Beans – all sorts – runner beans, butter beans (yellow) and short green beans (sometimes known as French beans)

Cauliflower, broccoli and cabbages. Red cabbage bakes a great coleslaw when sliced finely and mixed with red onion and a lemon or orange juice based dressing

Lettuce and other salad greens

So what about all the other fresh fruit and veg in the supermarket?

There are still imported plums and other stone fruit. Watch for these now our own stone fruits are in season.  The imported fruits are often picked very green so they keep till they reach our supermarkets.  They often don’t have a lot of flavour or juice and don’t keep well at home once they have ripened.

Pumpkins were harvested before last winter so best to buy small quantities as needed now as they won’t keep well after being cut.

I used to hate cleaning the brass things in our house with the commercial brass cleaner my mother used to give  me.  Everything got black – black cloths, black hands, black under my fingernails! Yuck!.

I much prefer, even enjoy, cleaning brass with this mixture – it’s so much easier than using that commercial cleaner.

Dissolve  ¼ cup washing soda crystals in 1 cup hot water and add 1 tablespoon liquid ammonia.

Dip a soft cloth into the mixture and rub brass ornaments gently then rub with a clean dry cloth till they shine.

For smaller items, pour the liquid into a small deep bowl and place the ornament into the bowl for a few minutes.

A word of warning, make sure you are cleaning brass and not brass plate. I understand that might not be so successful.  I can’t test that for you because I don’t have any brass plate around.

Citrus – lemons oranges, tangelos

New seasons’ apples start to become available, also apricots peaches, plums, nectarines – but watch for imported ones still.

You’ll also find black currants (these make wonderful jam), rhubarb and cherries

In the veg department you will find a range of fresh items, including aubergine, avocado, green beans, beetroot, capsicum, celery, chilli, cucumber, outdoor tomatoes, garlic, zucchini.

New season’s onions come in about now.  With the ordinary brown onions you can tell the difference between the new and older onions that have been stored for a while by the shape and feel.  New onions are firm to touch and are round.  Older ones are going soft and are more oval in shape as they start to send out a shoot at the top.  I try to dodge these and will only buy loose onions towards the end of the year so I don’t end up with soft onions that don’t cook well and you end up with a lot of wastage.

New potatoes are great for boiling and in salads.

Personal or family tastes are the obvious starting point.

Cost and freshness are important factors too.

So how do you buy your family’s favourite fruit and vegetables without overspending your grocery budget?

The key thing to remember is that when there is a good supply of fruit or veg, the price will be lower.  The plentiful supply coincides with the high growth season and good weather.  Have you noticed that after a period of rain or stormy weather, the price of veg will skyrocket?

To avoid paying high prices, it’s worth learning and remembering what is fresh in what season.

You won’t get that information from the supermarket shelves as fruit and vegetables are imported from other countries when they are out of season in New Zealand.  Often imported fruit and veg are not so flavoursome as those locally grown so if its flavour you want (and you can’t grow your own) check for the country of origin.

Here are some guidelines for New Zealand.

January

February