Home made Toothpaste

Trying to get rid of as many chemicals as possible from our daily life has led me to give home made toothpaste a go. I researched many recipes online, searching for all the pros and cons, looking for the simplest ingredients with the most benefits and found this one works best for us.

These are the four ingredients I have gone with, most of the recipes I have seen start with equal amounts of bicarbonate of soda and coconut oil. so, if you use one tablespoon of coconut oil you will need one tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda and mix together. Bicarbonate of soda is also used in conventional toothpaste for the cleaning abilities it has and coconut oil, from what I have read, is anti bacterial, anti fungal and has some tooth and gum benefits.

This is what it looks like after mixing, at this point we added a teaspoon of ground xylitol to make it slightly sweeter but this is optional really and either a few drops of peppermint oil or extract of peppermint. Some recipes use stevia instead of xylitol, both come naturally from plants and both have some benefits. This makes a firm toothpaste and the consistency depends a lot on the temperature in the house due to the coconut oil.

Then store, at first I used the little pots you can see above as I only made up a small amount but having decided we really like it and intend to keep using it I have now made it in a larger quantity so it is being stored in a small mason/kilner jar. Due to sensory problems I have never really liked the way conventional toothpaste foams up in your mouth and this home made toothpaste doesn't foam at all. I have also found the taste mellows slightly after the first day, it was a little zingy the first day I made it.

** If you have been thinking about doing something similar, I would recommend researching both the ingredients in conventional toothpaste and the many home made recipes out there.

New Arrivals

We have wanted some chickens for a few years now and finally this week saw this dream come true when we welcomed three young chickens into our family and I thought I would introduce you to them here. My husband managed to build the coop from some new pallets he was given you can read about it here if you want to, he is currently making some minor adjustments to make the run area larger, although they will be spending some time free range in the garden.

This is a photograph my eldest daughter's boyfriend took of our girls just after they arrived, I think they are wondering what is going on and are just as curious about us as we are about them. Firstly I'll introduce you to my youngest daughter's favourite one, she has named her 'Ginger', she is an amber ranger and the smallest of the three.

Ginger

My eldest daughter and my son both like our largest chicken best, she is a bluebelle and my son has chosen to call her 'Zelda', she is quite bossy with the other chickens but a little shy with us.

Zelda

The last one is our speckledy hen, according to the children this one is mine to name so say hello to 'Dotty', she is the bravest one and was taking corn from our hands the very next day.

Dotty

We have only had them a couple of days and already they just seem to fit right in, the children appear to be new 'chicken experts' and my youngest daughter calls them 'her girls'. I will never forget the squeals of delight when she found that they would take corn from her hand and it was soon declared 'the best day ever'.

Dotty

They are point of lay chickens, which means they are young and haven't started laying eggs yet, we have a few weeks to wait until that happens, so there is enough time for us all to get to know each other better. Really cannot wait to see how excited the children are when the first egg arrives, much squealing I expect!

Here is our self appointed chicken guardian, although I suspect he is only here to sun himself as he did not look too impressed with the very large birds that are now at the bottom of the garden and has been keeping his distance. Well, that was our exciting news this week, will keep you posted when the first egg arrives.