Waste Not Wednesday

Okay, I know we were going to post only once a week, but I discovered a new tip!

Here is a natural way to give your vinegar cleaner (last Tuesdays Task) a more pleasant scent!

When you use an orange or lemon save the peel! Spread the pieces of peel out on a wire cooling rack and let air dry. Much like the bread crumbs only a sheet pan underneath is not necessary. Allow for several days drying time. Once very dry and hard the pieces of peel can be placed in a jar for future use. However, you may want the orange peel in its own jar and the lemon in its own.

Now for the cleaner scent! You will need a cutting board, the little flexible ones work great but are not necessary, and a grater with little holes, such as is used for grating spices. Take your dried orange or lemon and start grating the outside of the peel, which is the colored side :) Grate the piece of peel until all the color or, the zest, is gone. What is left of the peel can be placed in the compost. Only about one to two tablespoons worth of grated peel . You may need to use more than one piece of peel depending on the size of your peel. Put your grated peel in the cleaning solution and swish around. Each time you use the cleaner you will want to shake it to remix the gratings that have settled to the bottom. Now you have a fresh smelling cleaner without the extra expense of essential oils!

A few more ways the orange and lemon peels can be used are, in teas, in potpourris, and in apple cider. Grated they might even work in homemade soap.

The picture is of a jar full of dried orange peels.