this not only cleans, you can drink it too ........ but don't use ordinary vinegar, use naturally fermented apple cider vinegar.

How to make citrus spray

• Collect citrus peel and fill jar with peels

• Pour apple cider vinegar over peels, put a lid on and let it sit for 2 weeks

• Strain off the liquid and dilute 2 parts water to 1 part citrus vinegar (compost the peels)

• Use as a spray cleaner around the home.

The oils in the citrus peels add disinfectant properties to the vinegar and the peels contain d-limonene which is a natural solvent that breaks down and removes oil from dirty surfaces. It takes time for the d-limonene to fuse with vinegar which is why it's important to let it sit for a couple of weeks before you use it.

Extra garden ingredients...

I like to get creative with the mix too - adding extra things from the garden. You could add a twig of rosemary, a few mint leaves, sprigs of thyme, or a few leaves of lemon myrtle into the mix. You can use any of the citrus peels - they each bring a different aroma. Imagine grapefruit and mint, orange and cinnamon, lemon and thyme - it's up to you.

If I could grow apples here I would - we all love apples - then I could make my own apple cider vinegar. Perhaps I need to take a trip to Stanthorpe, the closest apple growing region and buy a few boxes. I should ask one of the farmers at the market to bring me up some boxes of damaged apples for this purpose. More on that another time....

Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar

Not all vinegars are natural. If you are buying vinegar chose ones that specifically say naturally brewed or fermented. There are the distilled vinegars made in a distillery/brewery and synthetic vinegars made from diluted synthetic acetic acid. Not all countries approve of using synthetically created acetic acid for human consumption, but Australia does and so does the USA and EU.

About white vinegar production, the US Food and Drug Administration (which Food Standards Australia seems to copy) says:

“Presently, we authorize the manufacture of vinegar from ethyl alcohol synthesized from natural gas or petroleum derivatives. It is our opinion that most of the distilled spirits used in the production of vinegar are derived from natural gas and petroleum…”

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