180 handy uses for 9 items you already have in your pantry.

Looking to simplify your life, save money or cut the number of chemicals you use around the house? Chances are, you’ve already got nine natural, versatile products in your pantry that can do far more than you think. There are literally hundreds of surprising and unusual alternative uses for olive oil, wine, salt, garlic, coffee, lemon juice, baking soda, vinegar and honey. Here’s a roundup of EcoSalon’s 20 Unusual Uses series.

Coffee

Even after those rich, earthy grounds have given you your must-have pot of coffee in the morning, they can do so much more. Unusual uses for coffee include nourishing your plants, massaging away your cellulite, dyeing fabric, growing mushrooms and keeping cats out of your garden.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Coffee

Lemon juice

Using lemon wedges solely as a pretty garnish on the edge of a glass is actually kind of insulting considering all that this little citrus fruit has to offer. Its acidity enables it to preserve foods, whiten fingernails, clean glass, highlight your hair and brighten your white laundry without bleach.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Lemon Juice

Olive oil

Mmm, olive oil. Besides being the most perfect bread dip ever, it’s ultra-moisturizing, making it an ideal solution for all kinds of things you never realized. Olive oil has all kinds of beauty and household uses like conditioning your hair, removing stickers, getting a smooth shave, buffing stainless steel to a shine and removing heavy eye makeup.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Olive Oil

Garlic

This broad-spectrum antibiotic is a must-have for colds, cuts, cold sores and ear infections. And, though it may sound weird at first, garlic has plenty more uses outside the kitchen. It makes a highly aromatic yet effective cleanser for your skin, mosquito repellent and hair growth tonic. If you’re lucky, it might even turn you on.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Garlic

Salt

We simply can’t live without salt. Our bodies require it, and our food tastes bland without it. But chances are, you’ve been underestimating just how much it can do for you. Salt will sanitize your sponges, heal canker sores, keep milk fresh, preserve sliced fruit and keep your clothes from freezing on the line.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Salt

Wine

So you’re not crazy about that bottle of cheap Merlot that you got as a gift. What are alternative uses for unwanted or sour wine? Well, you could add it to your bath, use it to clean your countertops, trap fruit flies, heal bruises and maybe even slow down the aging process. Filling up that wine rack has never been more of an imperative.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Wine

Baking soda

Stop buying toxic oven cleaner, expensive fruit and vegetable sprays and special face scrubs. Baking soda can do all of these things and more. This cheap household essential is usually kept in the fridge to cut odor and added to recipes to make baked goods rise, but once you learn all of these surprising uses for it, you’ll start buying it in bulk.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Baking Soda

Vinegar

Discovered thousands of years ago when wine, beer and cider was accidentally allowed to spoil, vinegar brings out the flavor in so many foods. But this acidic condiment also has some benefits that might surprise you, like dissolving rust, cleaning crusty paint brushes, soothing sore muscles and removing those ugly pit stains from your clothing.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Vinegar

Honey

Tasting sweet is just the beginning. Honey is antibacterial, anti-fungal, nourishing and moisturizing, and its many uses are pretty amazing. Make your own luscious homemade lotion, heal your sore throat, boost your athletic performance and eliminate that hangover. It even helps heal cuts and scrapes.

Read 20 Unusual Uses for Honey

Photos: selma90, fdecomite, dailyinvention, brickvicky, visualpanic, neilconway, bgottsab, carbonnyc, rahim packir saibo, photoskate,  don hankins

Stayed home on Black Friday? Good. Here are some gifts you can buy for the comfort of your own home.

Our favorite eco-retailer, VivaTerra, is having a fantastic holiday sale, just in time for dressing your house up in seasonal, original  fun. These five gems are all 50% off, so you’re within your rights to buy two – one as a gift and, ahem (whisper), one for yourself.

With bijou desserts still all the rage, this branch pedestal server ($87) will display your mini-puds to dramatic effect. Designed as a little tree, it has two levels  – one large and one small – with a butterfly delicately perched on the edge of the upper tray. Besides, we’ve been lusting after it for a while.

Finding a unique holder for those table essentials is always a challenge, which is why we love this chirpy bird salt and pepper set ($12). Their shape is smooth and tactile, with a tiny beak and graceful body – they dispense through a discreet opening on their heads. We like their subtle color distinction.

We’re always on the lookout for new ways to present cheese. This ingenious puzzle board ($29) will make your fromage serving both fun and fabulous.

Having limited kitchen space myself, an all-in-one tower which performs no less than five functions is a winner. This minimalist white ceramic tea tower ($27) features storage and presentation for your teapot, tea cup, saucer, sugar and cream.

These glass numbers are designed to echo familiar shapes: the carton ($12) for your cream and the sack ($14) for your sugar. The Milk carton creamer and sugar sack: perfect for the surrealist tea party.

Images: Andrew Warchy; VivaTerra

Pure salt crystals hand-harvested in Oregon.

Call me a pretentious foodie, but I am going to go ahead and say it: sea salt is a game changer for cooking. It’s flaky, tastes real, and simply does things to your food that traditional salt just can’t. Think I am kidding? Then try a dash of salt from Jacobsen Salt Co.

After living in Scandinavia for over four years and falling in love with sea salt there, Ben Jacobsen moved back to the Pacific Northwest, and much to his avail couldn’t find any locally produced salts. So he decided to make his own. Fast forward a year and a half and Jacobsen is paving the way for Northwest salt, stocking local markets and restaurants. Using traditional methods, the sea salt is harvested in Oregon, and the package is marked to show where the salt comes from.

Food lovers rejoice!

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

Because salt is for more than just high blood pressure.

Diamonds might be prettier and more durable, but there’s another translucent rock that’s even more valuable to us. We may not devote songs to salt or parade around with big hunks of it on our fingers, but we need it to survive, it makes food a hell of a lot tastier and it’s got hundreds – if not thousands – of practical uses. Here are 20 unusual and surprising household, beauty and health uses for salt, from cleaning the chimney to brightening your skin.

Drip-proof candles

Don’t you hate it when candles drip down as they burn, making a mess that’s practically impossible to clean? Prevent this from happening by soaking new candles in a strong salt solution for 2-3 hours.

Clean smelly food spills

A little cinnamon in a pinch of salt will make dripped-on messes in the oven easier to clean, and prevent them from stinking up the house. Just sprinkle the mixture onto the drip soon after it occurs, while the oven is still hot. Once it has cooled, brush away the salt and the mess will come with it.

Test egg freshness

Got a questionable egg? Add two teaspoons of salt to a cup of water, and drop in the egg. If it’s fresh, it will float; if it’s past its prime it will sink right to the bottom.

Sanitize sponges

Used sponges harbor a shudder-inducing variety of bacteria. To restore them and kill some of those germs, suds them up, rinse them thoroughly and then soak them in cold, heavily salted water for an hour or two.

Kill poison ivy

Nobody likes poison ivy, the irritating vine that has ruined many an otherwise pleasant outdoor experience. Three pounds of salt mixed with a gallon of soapy water, applied to the leaves and stems of poison ivy with a sprayer, will kill this tenacious pest of a plant.

Extend broom life

Natural fiber brooms can last a lot longer if you use this easy trick: soak them in hot, salty water before their first use.

Soothe a bee sting

Remove the stinger, wet the sting and immediately shake on a paste of salt and water. Let it dry, and it will reduce inflammation and relieve pain.

Remove soot from chimney

A handful of salt thrown onto the flames in your fireplace will not only produce pretty, vivid yellow flames, it will help loosen soot in the chimney, preventing chimney fires and improving air flow.

Relief for canker sores

A saltwater gargle will take the bite out of a toothache and ease the pain of canker sores and sore throats. Dissolve two teaspoons of salt in 1/4 cup of warm water and swish it around in your mouth for at least 20 seconds, gargling if you have a sore throat. It will likely burn at first, but it works.

Keep clothes from freezing on the line

Add a little salt to the rinse water when washing a load of laundry to keep the clothes from freezing stiff on the clothesline. Soaking the clothesline in salt water will also prevent clothes from sticking to it in cold weather.

Restore artificial flowers

Who has time to clean every individual petal of a bouquet of silk or nylon flowers? There’s an easier way. Just toss the flowers in a gallon-sized zip-lock bag along with about a cup of salt. Shake the bag well, and the salt will whisk away the dust and debris.

Keep milk fresh

Sour milk is the worst, especially if you don’t realize it’s gone bad until you’ve already poured it into your cake batter or coffee mug. Keep it fresh longer by adding a pinch of salt to the carton, pinching the spout closed and gently shaking to mix.

Make coffee less bitter

Over-brewed coffee that has taken on a bitter taste can be much improved with a tiny pinch of salt, which will also enhance the flavor.

Remove blood, wine and perspiration stains

Blot up spilled wine and then pour salt on top to absorb what’s left, pulling as much of it out of the fabric as possible. Blood-stained linens can be restored in cold saltwater followed by a wash in hot, soapy water. To remove perspiration stains from clothing, dissolve a teaspoon of salt in a cup of hot water and sponge it on.

Prevent sliced fruit from turning brown

Dip sliced apples, pears and other fruits susceptible to browning in lightly salted water to preserve their fresh look. If your apple slices have withered, salt water will also perk them up.

Keep windows frost-free

To keep frost from accumulating on the windows in your home and your vehicle, dip a sponge in salty water and run it over the inside and outside of the glass, then rub dry with a soft cloth.

Deodorize shoes

Suck the stink-worsening moisture out of canvas shoes by sprinkling a little salt inside them and then wiping it out. Don’t use this trick on leather or synthetic shoes, as it could dry them out too much and cause them to deteriorate.

Reduce eye puffiness

So you caught a late-night airing of The Notebook on cable and went through a box of tissues – nobody needs to know. Obliterate the evidence by mixing a pinch of salt in a little hot water and applying it to puffy, swollen areas around your eyes with a cotton pad. The salt will help draw out the moisture and tighten the skin.

Give your skin a glow

Massage a mixture of salt and olive oil into your skin in circular motions, leave it on for a few minutes and then wash it off. The massage increases circulation to your skin, the olive oil moisturizes and the salt buffs away dead skin cells.

Brighten yellowed linens

Dingy whites can be brought back to their crisp, white best without the use of bleach. Boil cotton or linen items in a big pot of water with a few tablespoons of salt plus a few tablespoons of baking soda.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

20 Unusual Uses for Wine

20 Unusual Uses for Baking Soda

20 Unusual Uses for Honey

20 Unusual Uses for Garlic

20 Unusual Uses for Olive Oil

20 Unusual Uses for Coffee

20 Unusual Uses for Lemon Juice

Photos: Rahim Packir Saibo, derekgavey, Pink Sherbet Photography, comedy_nose

I’ve heard that, when asked what kind of salt to use for a dish, Julia Child once replied, “salt is salt”. Even though I’m not sure if she really said this or if it’s a Julia legend, it certainly sounds like something she’d say. I can relate. Sometimes, when faced with the nearly obscene numbers of salt choices on the shelves of a typical gourmet grocery store – everything from truffle salt to pink Himalayan sea salt – I become inclined to embrace Julia’s essential approach to cooking: you can’t hide poor execution under fancy ingredients. In other words, “salt is salt”.

But if I did I’d be a bit of a hypocrite. The fact is I have a small collection of special salts that make their way into my cooking on a regular basis. I have a weakness for sprinkling crackly shards of Maldon on my salads and meats, because I love the texture. Both avocados and tomatoes are greatly enhanced with a dash of Butterfly Salt, a blend of black trumpet mushrooms, pepper and two salts made by Aaron French, eco-chef, and colleague. I have less use for salts blended with too many acrid herbs and overpowering flavors like lavender, but then, I’m a rabid purist. Still, I urge you to cook out of the box (I mean the round Morton’s box) and go beyond plain old iodized table salt, and at least use kosher salt or natural sea salt. How far beyond is up to you.

Why? Even though salt tastes like salt, the texture matters, as do the additives.

Texture: Iodized table salt is very fine so when you put it on your tongue it tastes almost unbearably salty and it tends to just sit on one part of your tongue. In contrast, if you put a flakier sea salt or kosher salt on your tongue, you will perceive a more gentle saltiness that spreads slowly among your taste buds. The same thing happens when you add it to food.

And don’t forget, in cooking, it is easier to salt to taste with a flakier or coarser salt because you can actually “pinch” it between your index finger and thumb, giving you more control than you would have if you were pouring fine salt from a box or shaker.

Additives: Iodized table salt has iodine added to it because, at one time, humans who did not live near the sea suffered from iodine deficiency (iodine occurs in the soil and is taken up by vegetables and also exists seafood and natural sea salt). Today, because we get our food from a variety of areas, this is not a problem. Iodized salt should not be used for pickling because it will darken their color. In addition, fine table salt has anti-caking agents added to it to keep it flowing freely. Sea salt has nothing added but contains beneficial trace minerals.

As for the fancier salts and flavored salts, I’ll leave that up to you. Salt Works is a good place to begin your explorations.

As for me, I use kosher salt for everyday cooking, baking, and even pickling because I like the texture. I also keep a flaky salt on hand for finishing salads and crusting meats, and then maybe a smoked salt, or mushroom salt, just for fun. What type of salts do you keep in your kitchen, and why?

Image: D Sharon Pruitt

Americans are eating 50 percent more salt than they were in the 1970s, and eating too much salt is related to heart disease. The culprit? Yet again, processed food.

First it was trans-fats and now it’s salt. I mentioned the need to retrain your palette to keep from craving junk food in the Junk Food Jones. Turns out we all need to retrain our palettes to enjoy food with less salt.

The amount of salt contained in processed food has gradually increased over time and our palettes have adjusted accordingly. Apparently, three quarters of the salt we eat comes from processed food as people have become accustomed to eating such “food” as the bulk of their diet. What’s the result? We’re all eating too much salt.

The focus on salt is yet another indication that we need to start cooking again. Changing our habits isn’t easy. But it can be done. The trick is to continue educating ourselves (reading books like Food Matters) and learning how to cook and appreciate home cooked food. Instead of watching Top Chef while eating take-out, spend that hour cooking a meal with your friends and create your own drama.

Image: Daniel Y. Go

There are times when watching what my husband calls “the idiot box” is the only option for kids who can’t jump on a bike and go exploring outdoors. But it is an option with more health consequences than we thought, according to a new study on 111 children ages 3 to 8 published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

We all know kids tend to become obese watching too much TV due to the tendency to snack mindlessly, but these results found the more kids watched, the higher their blood pressure, no matter the weight of the kid. In fact, of all forms of inactivity examined by researchers in the U.S. and Spain, being glued to the tube was the worst.

“These results show that sedentary behavior, and more specifically television-viewing, is related to blood pressure independent of body fat or obesity level,” says Dr. Joey Eisenmann, a kinesiologist at Michigan State University and one of the study’s co-authors.

During the course of one week, the children tested wore accelerometers, instruments that record the body’s acceleration in a vertical plane – sitting results in a score of zero, and walking and running produce progressively higher scores.

Anything under a score of 50 per day was listed as sedentary. The children were sedentary for five hours each day, and 1.5 of those hours were spent in front of a TV, computer or video game, on average.

Researchers found when they broke down screen time by activity, TV-viewing had the strongest connection with higher blood pressure. Kids watching from two to five hours of television each day had systolic and diastolic blood-pressure readings (the two numbers that indicate pressure caused by blood pumping from the top and bottom chambers of the heart, respectively) that were five to seven points higher than those of children watching less than half an hour of television a day.

“These results show that TV-viewing really is the worst of all possible sedentary activities,” says Dr. David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, who was not part of the study. The American Academy of Pediatrics says children under two should not watch any television and that older children should limit their viewing to one to two hours per day.

So what makes TV less healthy than playing video games or surfing the Internet?

Among the explanations: children may be downing sweet and salty junk food while lying around and this can push up blood pressure readings; watching too close to bedtime can stimulate their brains, interfere with hormones and cause them to miss precious hours of sleep; missing sleep can lead to weight gain and hypertension because the metabolism doesn’t recharge and renew itself overnight; and content of commercials encourages overeating of the wrong types of food, which can be habit-forming throughout life.

In previous studies involving the same group of children, about 20% had developed prehypertension or hypertension – often because of weight gain.

So what is a healthy dose of television watching for children? Like everything else, moderation. One show after homework, a Saturday morning cartoon after a soccer game. And try to replace good movies with harmful commercial television packed with ads marketed to the most vulnerable viewers.

Image: Aaron Escobar

I grew up thinking it was completely normal to slather my skin with products featuring a complex, unpronounceable list of ingredients. Most of us probably never even thought twice about it.

But awareness is rising and many of us just aren’t tolerating toxins anymore. Smart entrepreneurs are stepping up to fulfill the growing need for skincare made of completely natural (and often edible) ingredients. If you like to feed your skin only the finest, add Naya Organics to the menu.

Stemming from a literal interpretation of the “less is more” philosophy, Naya’s scrubs and body oils literally contain only the simplest, most natural of ingredients. There’s nothing that was created in a lab.

I’ve been trying quite a few of the products. I recommend you use the coarse salt scrubs to exfoliate your skin and the lightly scented oils to protect and replenish. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a hard time deciding – go for the sample pack with a little bit of everything. And be thankful that you don’t have to “treat” your skin to strange, complicated chemicals anymore.

First up – free stuff! We’ve rhapsodized about the joys of Freecycle before, and no doubt we’ll do so again – it’s that good. But it’s also an opportunity for people to offload the craziest possessions – take these 18 items at The Daily Green.

Sustainable power is the way to tackle the imminent energy crisis head-on, but a few ground rules need to be laid down first. First, if it’s still using non-renewable resources behind the scenes, then it’s not sustainable. The recent Financial Times Energy Conference in London flagged this as a major threat to these fledgling energy technologies – as New Scientist reports.

If you’re wandering round San Francisco, you might well be lucky enough to stumble upon a studio filled with robots – the quirky, eerily human kind. Now there’s a use for all that metal we’re going to have lying around.

As the Arctic ice melts and breaks up, polar bears (you know, those creatures that shouldn’t be regarded as endangered, no sir) are finding it difficult to move around and hunt. Steven John Kazlowski’s photographs show this magnificent – and yes, threatened – animal in its beleaguered natural setting…

…while elsewhere, polar bear skins (acquired legally) are on sale from Canadian exporters. How very classy.

A common complaint about wind farms is that they’re an eyesore. So how do we feel about the idea of forests of enormous spinning advertisements, as reported by GreenBiz? Um.

As you read this, Boston will have banned drug store sales of cigarettes – following San Francisco’s lead as of last year. Furthermore, promises Dr. Barbara Ferrer of the city’s public health commission, in 10 years time all smoking bars will be consigned to the history books. Sounds like the place to be, doesn’t it?

As does Los Angeles, if you’re still going through your home and replacing incandescents with their greener counterparts. (CFLs are only a stop-gap on the way to universal LED coverage, but they’ll do nicely for now.)

It’s good to be a Brit. Our energy and climate change secretary has just announced that all British homes will receive a green makeover by 2030 (and a quarter by 2020), nicely in line with the UK government’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 80% over the next decade. Good show. (And thanks, Guardian).

If you want wood to look good, leave it out in the open. That certainly goes for the boards of Wyoming’s snow fences - as Alternative Consumer reports.

Okay, so PETA. Intentions A+, methodology D-. So what do we think of the Humane Society of the United States? Here’s Passionate Green’s thoughts on the matter.

When the snows howl down across our highways, out come the salters and gritters. Except…doesn’t salinity have a somewhat catastrophic effect on plantlife? It’s a problem Katharine Wroth examines at Grist, outlining a few friendlier alternatives. (And just in the nick of time).

Here’s a link with real value. Click here and you’ll have another hundred places to go – namely, a list of top organic living blogs featured by The Health Monitor. (But don’t click just yet – or you’ll miss all the cuteness at the end of this post!)

Oh, don’t get me started on this one. While too much of the popular media is continuing to confuse weather with climate, researchers are keen to explain how 2008 was still one of the warmest years on record. The climate charts paint a conclusive picture – as you can see in John Timmer’s article for Ars Technica.

And lastly – all together now – awww. And even more awww!

Image: zenera

Are you one of the many who reach for the salt shaker before even tasting your food?

Because you may not be particularly sensitive to the ill effects of sodium, and because there’s no way to know who might develop high blood pressure as a result of a high-sodium diet, it’s a good idea to be aware of what goes on your plate.*

Sodium is essential in regulating water balance, pH (acid balance), normal pressure in the fluids surrounding cells (extracellular) and in nerve transition. Because of these essential functions, sodium levels are tightly regulated by the body. Sodium intake can vary widely yet the human body remains healthy by maintaining relatively constant levels. But age, health conditions, consumption of other nutrients, and other variables can affect the way that the body handles sodium. Many people in the United States consume more than the recommended 2,300 mg limit as suggested in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines.

Here are the top 20 individual food sources of sodium in the American diet, which was based on the combination of frequency of consumption and sodium content:

1.  Meat pizza
2.  White bread
3.  Processed cheese
4. Hot dogs
5.  Spaghetti w/sauce
6.  Ham
7.  Catsup (ketchup)
8.  Cooked rice (the way it’s seasoned, as plain rice contains no sodium at all)
9.  White roll
10. Flour (wheat) tortilla
11. Salty snacks/corn chips
12. Whole milk
13. Cheese pizza
14. Noodle soups
15. Eggs (whole/fried/scrambled)
16. Macaroni w/cheese
17. Milk, 2%
18. French fries
19. Creamy salad dressings
20. Potato chips

Some good news: Below are 10 terrific tips from the Mayo Clinic on how to reduce your sodium intake:

• Eat more fresh foods and fewer processed foods. Most fresh fruits and vegetables are naturally low in sodium. Also, fresh meat is lower in sodium than luncheon meat, bacon, hot dogs, sausage and ham are. Buy fresh and frozen poultry or meat that hasn’t been injected with a sodium-containing solution. Look on the label or ask your butcher.
• Opt for low-sodium products. If you do buy processed foods, select those that have reduced sodium.
• Remove salt from recipes whenever possible. You can leave out the salt in many recipes, including casseroles, stews and other main dishes. Baked goods are an exception. Leaving out the salt could affect the quality as well as the taste of the food.
• Limit your use of sodium-laden condiments. Salad dressings, sauces, dips, ketchup, mustard and relish all contain sodium.
• Use herbs, spices and other flavorings to enhance foods. Learn how to use fresh or dried herbs, spices, zest from citrus fruit, and fruit juices to jazz up your meals.
• Use salt substitutes wisely. Some salt substitutes or light salts contain a mixture of table salt (sodium chloride) and other compounds. To achieve that familiar salty taste, you may use too much of the substitute and actually not use less sodium. In addition, many salt substitutes contain potassium chloride. Though dietary potassium can lessen some of the harm of excess sodium, too much supplemental potassium can be harmful if you have kidney problems or if you’re taking medications for congestive heart failure or high blood pressure that cause potassium retention.

Your taste for salt is acquired, according to the folks at the Mayo Clinic, which means that it is reversible. To unlearn this salty savoring, they advice people to decrease the use of salt gradually so taste buds will adjust. Most people find that after a few weeks of cutting salt they no longer miss it. Start by using no more than 1/4 teaspoon of added salt daily, and then gradually reduce to no salt add-ons. As you use less salt your preference for it lessens, allowing you to enjoy the taste of food itself.

*The Grocery Manufacturers Association, who represent the world’s leading food, beverage, and consumer products companies, recently released Sodium and Salt: A Guide for Consumers, Policymakers and the Media. According to Robert Brackett, chief science officer for the GMA, the paper was produced to provide consumers, journalists and health professionals and policy makers – including the Institute of Medicine’s committee on Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake – with current and scientifically accurate information and resources on sodium and salt, and to make recommendations to help consumers find ways to meet the daily intake goal of 2,300 mg of sodium in the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Source: NHANES 2003-2004 (Data analysis provided by General Mills
Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition.)

Image: kevindooley