Keep those orange peels! After enjoying fresh juice and baking ’til your heart’s content, don’t be in a hurry to throw away the skin.
Have you ever wondered about what hidden toxins may be lurking in your regular household cleaners? Often the ingredients won’t be listed. What a surprise! Some may proudly claim ‘contains no phosphates’ while others aren’t too readily willing to tell you exactly what IS in the chemical mix. There may too many to name. Eeek.
Rather than go to war on cleaners, I decided to look positively into more natural ways we can create cost effective solutions, and better still to squeeze that extra bit of joy out of our fruit rather than let it go to waste – the same ingenuity our great-grandmother’s would have done as a matter of course.
Citrus infused vinegar isn’t just for the kitchen, it’s an old wives remedy for cleaning too remember. White vinegar provides the base and citrus peel provides the delightful smell.
After all, being orange season, no guesses as to where my mind went. I’ve created lots of recipes requiring juice and zest but there always seems to be a lot of peel that vanishes off to the compost without extracting every drop of goodness out. Not any more.
While it may seem a bit of ‘a fuss’ to infuse, it is economic, you’ll know exactly what goes in it and you’ll be getting every last piece of goodness out of your citrus before it retires into the compost.
Given that a bottle of commercial cleaner costs around $4.55 already diluted ‘ready to use’ you’ll get a generous amount of cleaner for a pittance of the price with your DIY orange concoction! White vinegar can be purchased by the 2 litre from the supermarket and no doubt you’ll have some in your pantry anyway if you are a home preserver.
If you don’t feel you have enough peel to warrant a vinegar infusion, freeze them in an air tight bag and take them out when you are ready.
FYI you can either recycled your commercial spray cleaner bottle or buy a handy ‘plain’ one from your local DIY store.
How to make Orange Vinegar Household Cleaner
After enjoying your oranges, cut the skins into sixths or eighths. Flatten the skin, flesh facing up. Using a vegetable knife, slide the blade between the skin and the pith, running it flat. It will remove any remnants of orange flesh, and much of the white pith. It’s easier to do this when cut into smaller slithers than try to navigate your knifing skills on a quarter. The trick is being able to bend the peel flat.
Squish as many slithers of orange peel into an air tight container and cover with white vinegar. Allow to infuse for several weeks. Keep on the window sill or somewhere warm to help release the orange oil.
The orange vinegar can then be strained, discarding the peel for your compost pile, leaving an aromatic vinegar to use for cleaning.
It’s strong so dilute with 1 part water as required and pour into a spray nozzle bottle. Use as you would any ‘spray’ type cleaner. Perfect for kitchen benchtops, bathrooms, window ledges etc.
Happy cleaning day!
