Potpourri

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 83, 24 January 1941, Page 46

Potpourri

Dear Aunt Daisy, Would you please give me a recipe for Potpourri, and one for Bath Salts Can sweet peas be used for Potpourri or is it best to use all roses? Would you be so kind as to publish recipes in The

Listener as it is not always possible to hear your session way down hereMrs. J. B. (Bluff). Yes, indeed, here are both recipes for you. You will notice that the Potpourri says "any sweet smelling flowers." The sandalwood oil is expensive, but you need only buy sixpennyworth. It is supposed to "hold" the perfume. You need a foundation of 1 Ib. common salt; Ib. saltpetre; Y2o0z. borax. Mix thoroughly, and add a good handful of dried lavender flowers, a few cloves or a teaspoon of ground cloves. Now take the

petals of roses, wall-flower, or any sweetscented flower thoroughly dried. Mix well together, adding about 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice; % teaspoon of cinnamon and a few drops of attar of roses. Pick the flowers when just full out, and lay on a tray to dry. Turn them two or three times a day. It may take a week or two to dry them. Bath Salts. I did publish this on December 13, but you may have missed it. Put 2 Ibs. soda crystals in a large basin, and pour over a strong solution of cold tea, drop by drop, mixing it with a wooden spoon, until all is a pale cream colour. You could also use food colouring, and make any coloured bath salts you wished. Now add six or seven drops of sandalwood oil. Mix well in. Now add teaspoons of oil of verbena, or lavender, or any other essential oil. Put in fancy jars and cover well.

E all can do better than we have done, And not be a whit the worse, It is not loving that empties the heart, 3 Or giving that empties the purse.