I was peeling oranges yesterday and it got me thinking. How many times have I tossed the peel? More often than I would like to admit to!
So, I started thinking about all the things I could do with the peels and I did a google search. Here is what I came up with.
1. Put peels and water in a pot. Then put it on the stove and simmer to release a (hopefully) pleasing aroma.
2. Pet deterrent. Rub the orange peel on the leaves of your plants and animals shouldn't bother them. They don't like the scent.
3. Insect repellent. Rub the peel on your skin for an all natural, healthy alternative to commercial repellents.
4. Sugar softener. Brown sugar a bit too hard? Toss a peel or two in with the sugar and it will soft in a few hours.
5. Orange oil. This one is by far the most interesting to me. For the full details you can visit this site and it will give instructions as well. I think I'll be doing this over the next few days!!
For more ideas you can visit here and here. Or you can google "orange peels" (or some variation of that) and you'll see the ideas pop up before your eyes!
No peel will ever be tossed by me again!
edited: I needed to make laundry soap this morning (see this site for homemade laundry soap recipes) so I decided to add several orange peels to the soap/water mixture just to add a nice, natural scent. So far it seems to working pretty well. It's cooling right now so I won't really know until later on today or tomorrow. I'll keep you posted though.
I tried the orange peels heated in water as freshener about 2 weeks ago. It didn't really seem to do much,it was sort of bitter, but maybe it was just me?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could boil the orange peels (to death) and then spray the liquid onto the plants - I think that would save time, but I wonder if it would work?
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