Part of our journey to simple living has been about using what we have and by spending money on only on the things we need.

Today I reached a particularly challenging part of this journey – what the freak to do with cumquats. We live in a house that was built in the early 1990s and obviously the first owners were a gorgeous gardening couple, as we have lots of fruit trees that up until recently have been completed neglected.

One of which is a cumquat tree. I can’t stand marmalade, and neither can any of my family.

I searched on google and YouTube, and most posts and videos were about cumquat marmalade.

Sigh.

I then used my brain – haven’t done that for a while – and discovered this great upside of simple living, where you are forced to be creative. I thought of three new uses, all of which are experiments:

• I’ve made my own essential oil – well, at least, I think I have. I put the skins of the cumquats into three small oil jars. I then filled the jars with vegetable oil, as a carrier oil, and I have put it in a deep dark place to steep and develop a scent. Who knows if this will work – I saw one YouTube video on using a similar method with grapefruit. It may take up to five months, but I’ll report back. I think in an oil burner, it will be like orange essential oil.
• I juiced the cumquats in my cold press juicer and am freezing them into ice cubes. I had a little taste of the juice and it’s bitter but delicious, like lemons. I think this will make a great alternative to lemon butter sauce on fish.
• I’ve been making my own lemon cleaner for a while, featured in many blogs – here’s one: http://www.theyummylife.com/Natural_Citrus_Vinegar_Cleaners So this time, I made it with cumquats instead. Easy. Just pour vinegar in with cumquat peel into a glass jar with a lid, and shake up once or twice a week for a month or so. Strain liquid into a squirty bottle, add water and voila! Refreshing surface cleaner for the kitchen benches, sinks and table.

I’ll let you know how this simple living experiment goes in due course.