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Ecobrick

Ecobrick/ Zero Waste
Transitioning into Zero Waste: The Ecobrick

July 24, 2017

About Me

Hi, I’m Carolyn. I am a dog-loving, tree-hugging, urban farmer ‘greeny’ that is trying to figure out, how to tread lightly on this earth. Let's connect!

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Latest Posts

How to make a Dandelion Flower Crown – DIY

December 28, 2021

Easy Muesli Rusks with Oats, Seeds & Raisins

December 14, 2021

Potato and Mint Beetroot Ravioli with Sage Butter

December 6, 2021

Sweet and Sexy Roasted Radish Recipe

July 11, 2020

Simple Homemade Spinach Pasta from scratch

June 14, 2020

Dairy & Gluten Free Caesar Salad Recipe

June 6, 2020

Fresh Winter Citrus Salad with Mint Recipe

May 30, 2020

“Fish” made with Banana Blossoms

May 22, 2020

How to make Hibiscus Tea with Fresh Flowers

May 11, 2020

Homemade Flaxseed Hair Gel

April 18, 2020

How to make Baba Ganoush

April 16, 2020

Best tasting high-protein green smoothie

May 30, 2019

How to make pickled red onions

February 24, 2019

Cape Town beach covered in trash

September 7, 2018

How to grow your own PINEAPPLE plant & make a virgin Pina Colada recipe

September 21, 2017

Categories

Ecobrick
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Foraging
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Zero Waste

Latest

How to make a Dandelion Flower Crown – DIY

December 28, 2021

Easy Muesli Rusks with Oats, Seeds & Raisins

December 14, 2021

Potato and Mint Beetroot Ravioli with Sage Butter

December 6, 2021

Sweet and Sexy Roasted Radish Recipe

July 11, 2020

Simple Homemade Spinach Pasta from scratch

June 14, 2020

organicgypsy

My boy got his academic full colours. So proud. 🙏❤️

The sky was on fire tonight. 🔥 #sunset #sunse

The sky was on fire tonight. 🔥

#sunset #sunsets #southafrica #orangesky

Found an open field with a ton of dandelions (actu

Found an open field with a ton of dandelions (actually cat ears)!! It is almost the end of their season and I only picked a few… because, you know? BEES! Please be considerate and leave some dandelions for our bees. 🐝

I love making these dandelion crowns! (I’ll be known henceforth as queen of the weeds!) With all the doom and gloom in the world, playing and finding beauty feels rebellious. And breathing in all the pollen is actually good for you. We should definitely play more and find the beauty all around us. And weeds are beautiful. You just have to look.

Dandelions are so cool. They are totally edible. They know how to survive. The help reduce erosion. Their long taproot brings calcium from deep in the soil to other plants.

You can make coffee with them. Amazing tinctures and creams. Delicious to eat with so many recipes. Not to mention, they make dreams come true! When you blow on their big white puffball of seeds.

Do you love dandelions? Have you made pesto from the leaves, added some flowers to your salads or tried deep frying them? Please share if you have! 🙏

#dandelion #catearsheadband #catearscrown #dandelions #dandelioncrown #flowergarland #flowergarlands #foraging #flowers #pickingflowers #flowerpicking

I walked past this prickly pear cactus yesterday a

I walked past this prickly pear cactus yesterday and for a moment I was captivated by its beauty.

The colours of the flowers and fruit were exceptionally beautiful.

Don’t underestimate the hidden subtle beauty of prickly things.

I don’t think I have quite looked at a prickly pear cactus or appreciated its beauty fully until now.

Oh, the plants I see on my walks. ❤️

#pricklypear #pricklypearcactus #plantsiseeonmywalks #cactus #cactuslove #plants #plantsmakepeoplehappy #opuntia #cactaceae

Elderberry flowers in bloom next to a stream near

Elderberry flowers in bloom next to a stream near me.

#eldererryflowers #elder #elderberry

Summer is here and it is dandelion season! 🙌

Summer is here and it is dandelion season! 🙌

There are so many wonderful things to make with these wonderful humble weeds.

From coffee to jellies to tinctures and salads.

Dandelions play a crucial role in the health of bees, and butterflies too! So, leave some for them!

Today I enjoyed making a dandelion crown. The bright yellow flowers feel like pure sunshine and reminds me of feeling young, playful and carefree. Sometimes that is all the therapy one needs.

Do you make flower crowns? If so, which flowers do you prefer making them with?

#dandelions #dandelioncrown #dandelionflower #dandelion #flowercrown #flowercrowns #weeds #yellowflowers #weedflower

I recently made these rusks with oats, seeds & rai

I recently made these rusks with oats, seeds & raisins. Oh my! ❤️ These are my favourite yet!

I’ll share a recipe soon!

#healthrusks #oatsrusks #mueslirusks #rusks #rusksa #oatrusks #domesticgoddess #theorganicgypsy #christmastreats #christmasgifts

This beautiful passion fruit flower really caught

This beautiful passion fruit flower really caught my attention today.

I walk the same path, with my dogs every evening. I love the unnoticed edible flowers and berries on my route. I have gotten so familiar with all the trees and plants I walk by. But every now and then I see one I haven’t seen before. It always feel like such a discovery.

They are the familiar faces that greets me every day, especially after difficult days. But they also celebrate in the breeze my happier days. Joyful days. Nodding and swaying. Or reminding me wisely to stand tall. Head high.

A poem by one of my favourite poets. Mary Oliver.

‘Look, the trees are turning
their own bodies into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know. To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.’

Sunsets. #sunsets #easterncape #easterncapevibes

Sunsets.

#sunsets #easterncape #easterncapevibes

Oscie, the city slicker pretending to be a farm do

Oscie, the city slicker pretending to be a farm dog. Riding on the back of a bakkie. Jumping on and off. Chasing. Swimming. Exploring. Fun times. Freedom and open spaces.

#smilingdog #happydog #browndog #dogoftheday

Instagram post 17890766858445953

Instagram post 17890766858445953

Doggos having a good time. 🐕 #swim #dogs #dog

Doggos having a good time. 🐕

#swim #dogs #dogsofinstagram #huskador

Three inquisitive sheep at the foot of the dragon

Three inquisitive sheep at the foot of the dragon mountains.

I just love the scenery of this place. A world far removed from the one I am used to.

#drakensberg #elliot #easterncape #sheep #countrylife

Loving these orange protea pincushions. Leucosperm

Loving these orange protea pincushions. Leucospermum cordifolium (Perry’s orange)

#pincushionprotea #pincushions #leucospermumcordifolium #leucospermum #fynbos #protea #capetownflowers #capetown

Red pincushion protea. #outwalkingthedogs #fynb

Red pincushion protea.

#outwalkingthedogs
#fynbos
#pincushionprotea
#flowers
#spring

Sometimes you walk the same road and don’t see a

Sometimes you walk the same road and don’t see a damn thing. But once you realise or are aware of things, you see it everywhere. Like, these num-num’s!

I had my first num-num in Newlands forest a few years ago. And I also attended a Loubie Rusch’s course on foraging and learning about indigenous plants all around us. And I still never really noticed them.

So, Ben and I decided one eve to do some foraging of our own in my neighbourhood. We found abundant num-num and waterberries! At first I thought waterberries were just smaller num-num’s but Ben quickly pointed out that the waterberry tree had no thorns and the leaves and fruit looks very different. We then learnt of waterberries! Ta-Da!!

So, what are num-num’s I hear you ask? Well, they are called Natal plums or num-num’s (Carissa macrocarpa) and they grow abundant in warmer climates. You can find them on sand dunes and on the edges of coastal forests in Eastern Cape Province northwards from Natal to Mozambique and up to Zair and Kenya. Today the plant is also growing commonly in southern Florida and is cultivated in southern California and used widely as an ornamental in Central America and the Caribbean.

They are high in pectin and make amazing jams and chutneys (recipe coming soon).

Num num fruit is rich in vitamin C, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and phosphorus (P). But be warmed! The plant is poisonous and the fruit should be eaten when dark red and ripe.

Have you eaten num-nums before? Let me know in the comments. More on my blog.

#numnum #foraging #foragingforfood #loubierusch #kos #natalplum #carissamacrocarpa #foragingsouthafrica #urbanforaging

The beauty of nature’s carpet. ❤️ Moss swat

The beauty of nature’s carpet. ❤️

Moss swathes the forest floor, old stone walls, and creeps leisurely onward.

It drapes the trees and cloaks the ground in a jewelled garment of green.

Moss creates its own miniature ecosystem – a forest within itself.

‘There is an ancient conversation going on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the drift of continents. This is what has been called the "dialect of moss on stone - an interface of immensity and minute ness, of past and present, softness and hardness, stillness and vibrancy, yin and yan.’

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss.

#robinkimmerer #moss #gatheringmoss #newlandsforest #forest

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