Spring delights I- Tree sap

Spring has been here for a while now and hopefully we all have managed to enjoy the goodness it offers. One of the favorites of Spring delights on green carpet is sap from trees. Or so commonly called- birch juice.

Here in Latvia we particularly like maple that is available very early in season and birch that comes a little later. Overall Latvian season for tree sap is April.



So what is the sap?


It is a fluid that is transported in special cells of a plant -xylem cells- they transport water and nutrients through the plant. Therefore the sap is a thin sirupy liquid and slightly sweet for it is full of mineral elements, sugars, amino acids, enzymes, proteins, fitohormones, vitamins.

Birch sap must be collected during a short period of the year that lasts approximately one month, depending on the species and climate. Start at the break of winter and spring when the sap moves intensively, but definitely before first green leaves appear.


Uses of the sap- drink it!

Birch sap is best consumed fresh and it is delivering it's best at first few hours of collection, so we drink it all day long. Suggestions vary from at least 2 glasses per day to at least 2 liters per day for about 10 days . To be on the safe side, I drink about 2-3 liters every day all the season, it is a fantastic detox tour after the long winter and especially after traditionally heavy Easter treats! Just be sure you have the availability of bathroom somewhere near. I don't call it "natural therapeutic irrigation" for no reason!
If you have lots of it, try using the sap instead of water for your tea, coffee, soup and other cooking!

The sap contains water that is encoded with trees energy, so when this energy is transferred to you, you might find yourself detoxified not only from physical toxins but also form anxiety, anger and all that replaced with positive senses.

My little one developed some fever due to teething and I also gave her a little of the birch sap that I recommend it to anyone suffering ills and fevers. It has more medicinal properties than that, you can rinse the throat with sap in case of angina and similar ills. Drink it and use it on skin in cases of eczema, psoriasis, other skin problems. It's normalizing acid levels in guts and helps dissolve various stones.

Besides, she totally loved it. And what's not to love! It tastes light and sweet, it refreshes you like water but brings some extra energy and extra goodies within it. It is one of the reasons I love the Spring and I can't wait to have some of our frozen sap later on!

Preserve it!

Birch sap can also be naturally fermented and is traditionally drank on hot summer days, however, this year we opted for something new- freezing! Since it stays fresh very, very short time and you can't possibly drink all that the tree gives on time, it's better not to leave it to go off, it is a total waste. So we filled large and small plastic bottles that were left at our household by our guests or occasionally bought on the way by our family (yeah, I know, it is terrible, but my parents keep forgetting that water bottles may be refilled instead of buying new ones). A little green bonus point for giving second life to these bottles as well. We just flung them in our large freezer and will get them out when the juice time is over and hot summer days are here.

Beauty inside out!

But wait, that's not all yet.. there's not only nutritional or detoxifying qualities of this wonder juice that makes you look good after a good Spring juice tour, it has some cosmetic benefits as well. I use the easiest and most basic one- I wash my face with it instead of using bought facial toner, it increases the elasticity of the skin and moisturizes and feeds the good enzymes right into it. Just remember to rinse it off, otherwise your face will be a little sticky due to sugars of the sap.
For those that wake up feeling swollen I recommend freezing the sap as ice cubes and then massaging the face with them in the morning.

It is suggested to rinse your hair in the sap, however, I haven't tried that yet, so if anyone has, let me know on the effects!
Oh, and really, don't doubt the properties, as I have heard that already internationally known Latvian brand of organic MADARA cosmetics, is using birch sap in its latest anti-age line!
It's not only beauty treatment, but also a natural remedy for skin diseases and itches, and due to its antiseptic properties can be used to wash cuts and bruises.

How to get it?

I'm not sure how many are familiar with this process, so here's the basic detail on how we do it

• Find a healthy full grown tree and ask the permission and be kind to the tree, it is a living being and will be generous with its energy for you (full grown birch can produce even 20-30 liters per day depending on the temperature and  period).
• Use a special hand drill to make a whole and insert a wooden tube in it (I don't like the modern plastic tube ideas, we use traditional ones).
• Secure a bucket under the tube to collect the sap and depending on weather or insects nearby make some "shelter" for the bucket (some suggest plastic bottles, but I wouldn't recommend them since juicing is quite fast and bottle would be overflowing way too quickly).
• When the juicing season breaks, repair the whole in the tree with wooden peg that fits tightly, cover it with clay, say thank you to your generous birch and let the tree continue it's natural life probably till next year if you will choose it then again. 

Cheers!!! 

Another Welcome On Green Carpet!

A while ago, on sunny and hot Tuesday, 23 August, we welcomed Emily (real name in Latvian- Emīlija) in the world and also on green carpet.  This tiny, little person is now the most important part of my day and night, and I have set the task for myself to take care of her in as green way as possible..
It started with my "as green as possible pregnancy" - eating well, going outside, yoga.. I must say I bought just few pregnancy clothes, most of which are in use now for breastfeeding to make them longer lasting, and few of them- organic cotton. Other pregnancy clothes I had handed down from a friend and my mom (a dress she wore expecting my brother 22 years ago, that's a real eco-vintage!!!). Some more I bought were just regular dresses (maxi dresses for example) and tops that I could fit my bump in, but all of those are going to fit me next summer as well. So that's about my green "pregnancy -> after pregnancy" wardrobe.
I also prepared my body and mind (and my husband) for natural birth. Our choice was a birth centre that reminded just a regular house to have feeling of being at home, and we already arranged the midwife for waterbirth there. Unfortunately a week before Emily arrived my doctor sent me to cardiologist and even though I had no heart problems since the surgery when I was 2year-old, and I was in perfect shape, she put the note in our papers that we must have hospital birth. Crying my eyes out we saw the hospital and accepted the fact. Well, our little one surprised us and soon after that we had to go to hospital.
I must say- no matter what they say, the hospitals are still not very friendly to families who have their own wishes on how the birth should go on. They actually do not promote natural birth, they promote birth that is easier for doctors- using medical interventions, drugs, injections and birthing positions that are easier for doctors. So we had to fight in the hospital. Not gonna go in too much detail here and I just want to focus on positive. Even though taking 1,5 hour shower is not very green in terms of water usage, it's much greener and at least natural to my body and my baby than having an injection to reduce spasms. Breathing and exercising also has only positive effects on me and are clean in nature. So we took the showers, exercised, relaxed with massages, music, burned aroma candles (all natural origins), and drank handpicked camomile tea from our garden. With much love our baby finally arrived!

We had our Weleda Baby Calendula soap already packed in our hospital bag for washing our little one. Well, we had to ask twice for hospital staff to use it! I find it ridiculous that they would try to refuse and use their own (I'm afraid toxic) baby washing liquid. Yeak. At least I know that my child has never seen those chemicals. Also now we bathe her only in pure water with some chamomile tea added, and after bath- warming massage with Weleda Baby Calendula oil.
With baby there is usually another huge issue- diapers. We have bought Disana cloth nappy system, but our little one is so tiny that the nappies make her bum too packed, so we have left it for using a little later. So for now all her diapers have been only either Nature Baby or Moltex that are little more friendly to our planet than the regular big brands. We also do not use any baby wipes at home, best for her little bum- tap water, where she's washed at every nappy change. If we have to change on the go, we have NatraCare organic cotton wipes with organic apricot oil.

One may think that baby doesn't need much clothes.. well, with all the "skipped the diaper" accidents and million burps- she does! Part of her clothes I have bought organic cotton, most from Frugi.. Oh, I really do love Frugi! The quality is fantastic! Unfortunately the price is not always what we can put up with, so part of her wardrobe is from "regular" shops. However, I noticed, that now H&M and other lower price shops are having organic material baby clothing that makes me really happy! That means that organic clothing is more available to wider public and that middle class brands are making a change in this superconsumerism world! Another positive note- I have bought also some second hand, and we have quite few handed down clothes. Some are from myself (!!!), some from my kid brother, some from my friends baby. So we are giving them second or even third lifetime :) And my plan- either to give all of them away to another child or to save it for later - Emily might have a baby brother or sister in a while! I just wish that organic clothing would be a little more happy-priced.
Nothing too much to talk about the babyfood yet since she's living on breastmilk at the moment. But I am also preparing "milk bank" on green carpet, so when we want to go to theater or somewhere, grannies can feed our little one with my defrost breastmilk. Now I just have to continue eating well, local and seasonal myself. And it is so super-easy at the moment, when we're harvesting everything from the garden! Mmmm.. delicious goods. For extra vitamin boost I have my fresh juices- carrots, beetroots, nettles, spinach, apples, pumpkins etc. Wonderful season!
Even though she doesn't really play with toys yet, we already have quite many of them. I our tradition, everyone seeing the baby for the first time, comes with a gift.. I love some of them so much- hand crocheted dolls, wooden toys.. but then- we have received also quite a lot of colourful plastic stuff already.. Well, not really a lot, but still- I just don't like plastic toys for my little one... It just feels, smells and I bet tastes as well so plastic.. unnatural... yeak.. I just don't know how to figure out how to let others know that we are trying to not have these kind of toxic toys for our baby. Many of them know already, so we have those nice handmade toys. I hope we will have more of those.. and if there's anything plastic, let it be at least really good for developing her skills!
One of the best features of living at my parents in countryside- fresh air. Little one loves to sleep outside, tucked in wollen blanket in the pram. And the windows are still open even during the night. Love the countryside! And with the pram it's so easy- we go to garden to harvest the carrots or apples, to forest walks to pick mushrooms, cranberries and cowberries. Sometimes we also return with basket full of.. plastic bottles, cigarette packs, plastic bags, broken toys etc.. everything you can pick up in the woods...  I just can't leave it there for staying forever.. It's horrible. So we make an effort and make it cleaner and greener everytime we go by!

So that's our life so far, living in as natural environment as possible right here on green carpet in the countryside. Welcoming our little one in the greenest available life to us now!

OnGreenCarpet in the countryside and two homes

It's been very quiet on the online part of the green carpet.. but that's not because all the green things are gone, not at all. Quite contrary- the green carpet has become much more green now with the move to the countryside of Latvia, and the online silence has been so long due to many green things you can do outdoors.
One of my plans or I could even say- dreams- of life in the country has been reducing the time I spent at my computer, which was a lot when I was working in the office and doing some stuff on the internet at home as well. This was no challenge to reduce it to approximately 30min per day in total, it has been a pleasure. However, I'll try to increase it just a little bit again to dedicate some time on green carpet online as well :)

So life so far- my family has moved back to Latvia, and we are going to have two homes here- apartment in Riga and country house in, well, countryside :) First I'd like to tell more about the two homes.

Riga apartment is located in quite green area, at least down from our balcony there's a green patch with grass, trees and blooming bushes, which is nice. Another green point- it's on a 5th floor, no elevator. So we will have to get back to excersise on stairs :)
At the moment there are refurbishment works going on, we're changing the whole bathroom. Even though the tiles for it are coming from Spain, the "big" items like bath tub and sink are made locally :) We've also bought new washing machine, which is more energy efficient and uses less water. We could have done a bit better, but we had to work our budget, so we are having Samsung WF-0600NCW/YLE. However, we did not throw the old one just out, we gave it to my parents. Their household is huge and with rural tourism business the washing up is a big deal, so they needed a spare one in case something happens to the ones they have :)
We ditched the plan of changing the floors because they are still good and it's much more sustainable to take care of the ones we have till the end of their lifes. I think we can have them for couple more years. However, I will want to place some carpets in the winter here and there now with the baby coming soon. Just have to find some greener options!
We also arranged the fixing of balcony doors so that the apartment is more efficiently heated in the cold winters to come. We will also change the heaters, just have to arrange that with the company responsible for that. I wonder, what do they do with the old ones?
The kitchen will need some extra stuff as well. At the moment there's a small cooking surface using gas. As our family is growing, the plan is to change it to a bigger cooking surface using electricity. The gas is not very good for health and the prices at th emoment are closer to equal than before. We will also need an oven, but I haven't done the research on that yet. I know that all new ones are A+ on energy class, but I wonder if there's more info on other issues like resource saving on production, non-use of harsh chemicals etc.
I'll tell more on everything when we move in!

Country house we're currently living in belongs to my parents, I grew up there-it's very green and super-sustainable on one hand, and very un-green on the other. Since it's a household, we're responsible for our own water consumption, electricity use and heating. I'm not going to impose any green revolution here yet, but I try one baby step at the time. At the moment there's no heating at all because it's summer, and in winter we use wood. Some may oppose that the wood is not the best resource to use, but we use it very consciously and both of my parents are working with responsible forestry, so we put it back what we take from the nature. Water saving is also easier now in the summer as I don't take morning showers but go swimming instead. Electricity use, however, is one thing I am currently trying to work on here. For now it's turning all the lights off that are on unneccessarily. For example, my parents have got used to leave the light in the bathroom all day long. I have no idea why, but I always turn it off, when no one is there. The same with the small kitchen light and couple of household appliances. I hope they'll pick it up quickly!
My revolution here will be the stuff we use to take care of ourselves and our house. By this I mean cosmetics, soaps, washing up liquids, sprays and all the rest of the chemical stuff. At the moment we have about 25% of organic and eco-friendly stuff, mostly in body care and some washing up liquids. Every time my mom buys something, I offer an eco-friendly product instead of the "conventional". Sometimes it works, and that makes me happy. I hope it will work even more soon enough!



See you soon on green carpet again, I'll tell you more on life here!

Going countryside and four basic tasks

Hallo back on green carpet. It's been a little quiet here for a while, but it doesn't meen that nothing is going on. So I think I should start with some updates :)

First- back to the April. I went home ("my real home" as I always call Latvian countryside where I grew up) for the Easter and May holidays. I took a bus, a coach and a plane. Yeah, it's not green. Unfortunately that was the only way for that moment. But I know that the big flying schedule is going to be over very very soon, just the last flight in July left now :) So that's good.

It was fantastic.. being there in the countryside. And so green.. so I'll just start with four basic tasks for human survival and how they were enjoyed on green carpet closer to the nature..

Breathing - we all know that taking slow and deep breaths works great for you. That you shouldn't breath shallow as people usually do, especially when they are crumped at their computers. So we do yoga. But sometimes there's something else we need, and that is-

• Air itself. It was so fresh that breathing seems to make you feel free at last. I wish I could take it with me to the city, but I could just breath full lungs as long as I was there. And it did wonders-I was relaxed but full of energy.
• Open windows around the clock. That is another wish-come-true on green carpet. In the countryside you can have the open window all day and night long. I mean- you do still breath in the night! I can't express how beneficial is fresh and cool air when you're sleeping.
• Being outside. One of the top things for breathing is being out and around, and especially when you are physically active. Which we did and as much as we could!   

Sleeping - ah this very pleasant part of our lives. And the most reviving as well. We heal when we sleep and we grow when we sleep. Not just physically also in other terms. On green carpet we believe that sometimes we have to sleep over some things, they're much more clear in the morning. If you have a good sleep. But what do we need for a good sleep? -

• Total darkness. Ahh, sleeping in dark, without any light pollution from my windows- I miss it in the city. Just the moon and millions of stars. I'm not just being romantic here, it's also very unhealthy not having the proper rest in the darkness. Body can't rest and recreate enough with the light pollution. Now when I'm back in the city I'm trying to imitate the darkness hanging my black bed throw on top of my beige (bad design idea a while ago) curtains. It's not the same though. The true darkness is very important.
•  Silence and natural sounds. Silence for sleeping time was another great benefit- not a single human made noise (except my brother walking around or somebody talking downstairs). Some birds chirping, yes, but at the time I was laying my head to the soft pillow, there was silence. It is such a rest. You can hear your heart, your breath and thoughts that fade away in this quiet night. Interesting, that my husband found it difficult to sleep in such silence at the beginning. City had spoiled him too much as he's been living in cities longer than me. I just wonder, how far away from our nature we've been led if that is so. But then his body and mind adapted back to its original state, he loved the dark and silence. We slept in silence and woke up with natural sounds of birds and all nature awaking outside instead of alarm signal. That is something that's worth the world. Now back in the city we suffer a lot from the traffic noise, people shouting, partying, music outside etc. I bought some earplugs (supposedly bio silicone or something to keep ourselves as green as we could) after the first night litterally crying about not being able to sleep. Silence through your sleeping time is a bliss.
• Waking up with the light. In these two weeks not just light- the sunshine! That's another benefit- in countryside you don't have to use curtains- the night is dark, the morning- bright. So forget about the alarm clocks. The light just tells your body- time to get up, feel invigorated and start your day! 

Seasonal eating- one of other human pleasures. One of important parts of how to sustain or lives in our bodies. One of the opportunities to do good or bad to ourselves- we are what we eat. We all are at times sinners and saints in one person with this. Let's talk about the good things that I enjoyed on green carpet in the country side this spring season.

• Water. Clean and good right from the tap. Or the spring. First thing in the morning and good levels of it throughout the day. I still started my morning with hot water with lemon juice and Manuka honey, while swingin in a hanging chair in the orangery, talking to my baby, just watching the day begin. Remember- water carries your messages, so make it count :)
• Spring juice. In spring- it's time for trees. I missed the maple juice, but we made it for the last drops of birch juice. I'm not sure in how many countries people actually do that, but in Latvia, everybody does it! You pick a birch (we have our own special one that treats us every year), bore the hole in it (ask the permission and blessing to the tree!), put the wooden groove in it and a bucked to collect it. (If you're new to it, find someone to make more clear instructions for you!). And then- enjoy the sweet juice. You can drink it till the leaves spring out from their buds. It's healthy and also very good for detox. We collect, prepare and keep it also for later in the cellar, so we can drink it in the hot summer day, but it's the best fresh from the tree.
• Buds, leaves, flowers. Yes, you can eat all of them and - you don't have to grow them in countryside, they grow there themselves. So I picked my favourites this spring stright from the garden sides, lawn and trees. Leaves: sorrel, chick-weed, ground-elder, nettle, wood sorrel, ramsons, etc. Buds: linden. Flowers: wood sorrel, dandelion, cowslip. This was a nice daily mix I had from fresh leaves and flowers, and it delicious! I just chewed these as they were, but if you can't take it that far yet, just put them in the salad ;) 

Seasonal physical activities- a human body is designed to move and I think we all know the great feeling after doing something more than just clicking and typing. Physical activitie not only gives us a good cardio or strenghtens our muscles, it also improves our immunity, raises our spirits and fills us with "feel good" hormones. Well, I love yoga and walking, I can do it everywhere, so obviously I can do that in the countryside as well. But I just wanted to mention some seasonal things I can do there and then.

• Spring gardening. Oh, I just love to tell my growing bump, that she will eat these carrots and parsnips in the winter when she's born and starts to eat solid. And I love the knowledge, that I'll have these beetroots to juice in the autumn for my whole family. But to do that, we have to do some digging, sowing and watering. And believe me, it's a good workout that brings you both immediate joy and great fruits (veggies in this case) afterwards.
• Spring cleaning in and out. We all love spring- it's fresh, bright and green. So we clean. Everything. Starting from the cupboard and inside of home, to garden and all the territory surrounding your house. Which in my case was big. Reorganizing cupboard or cleaning windows might be tiring, but so rewarding. More space, everything clean and tidy, and some bags to give away to charity. Outside though it's the real deal- cutting bushes, some trees, clearing the space to make it beautiful for this year. Lovely. But you must take into account that you'll need a good dinner and a nice massage after it. 

These all things were much enjoyed within those two weeks. I wish everyone had a chance for them, it would be just fair to ourselves. I can't wait till I'm going back in July to have some Summer seasonal pleasures there in all these matters.