Don't use any wine for cooking that you wouldn't enjoy drinking. Cooking concentrates the flavor.

An open bottle of dry cooking wine keeps better if you gently drip in a little olive oil to spread and cover the surface keeping air out.

When you have an opened bottle of wine, pour the wine into a jar or bottle with a tight cover. Use it for cooking within three weeks after opening; don't refrigerate - it changes the taste. Another thing you can do with leftover wine is add it to a bottle of vinegar to have a new supply of wine vinegar. If your bottle of red wine has begun to sour, set it aside and let it complete the turning to give you red wine vinegar.

For sore throat: use 1 tablespoon vinegar to eight ounces of warm water. Gargle every hour and swallow after gargling - two mouthfuls. Start at the first hint of a sore throat.

Always add a tablespoon of vinegar to the water when you hardboil eggs. If one cracks, it won't boil out of the shell.

To treat toe fungus, soak your foot in one part vinegar to one part warm water. Repeat daily until cured.

A teaspoon of vinegar relieves hiccups.

Cut flowers last longer if you add two tablespoons of vinegar and one tablespoon sugar to each quart of water.

For a good window cleaner, use one-fourth cup vinegar per quart of water. Dry with newspapers. In winter, wash your car windshield with vinegar to repel ice and frost.

Save cat fur and human hair. Put some in the bottom of the furrow before setting in beans. Indeed, some Old Wives do this for all plants. This traps small insects and irritates softbodied critters - sort of pricks them to death. Hair supplies trace elements to the soil, too.

Plant a clove of garlic beside each rose bush to keep greenfly away.

Don't plant the same kind of herb in the same spot two years in a row. Replace "hot" herbs with "cool" herbs.

Trap slugs by putting a jam jar containing a little beer on its side. (The jar's side, not the slug's.)

Wild cats can be kept from your garden by the smoke of rue and bitter almonds. Others say you should put a length of inner tube from a bicycle in the yard; cats supposedly will think it a snake and avoid the place. Others say mix lemon or orange peel with water in a blender and spray it over the plants; cats, they say, hate the smell of citrus.

Cut flowers will last longer if the arrangement includes foxgloves; if you'd rather not include foxgloves, add foxglove tea to the water. Others say add two aspirin. (LOL: perhaps this idea came from Old Wives who are also doctors.)

Bury banana skins in the garden; they are very good for roses. Use tea leaves as a mulch for camellias.

Related Resources:

~~~ Orbit's Lytel Herball ~~~

Origin of Disease & Medicine	Materia Medica	Herb Pages	Tea Pages	Old Wives Lore
Cherokee story has truth and wisdom. go there	What part of plants to use; how to collect and prepare. go there Plants toxic to cats. go there Plants not reported as toxic to cats. go there	~Catnip & more~ Pages about herbs to use and enjoy. go there	~Tea and Cakes~ Leaves, brews, and recipes to accompany. go there	Old wives knew a lot; that's how they lived to become old. go there

~~~ My life as a cat ~~~

I am Manager of Bitsy's Whackers gurlz baseball team Click for photo of team executives. Click for game against boyz	I am happy to be a memfur of the Circle of Charms gurlz club.

~~~ Around the Web ~~~

Caring for Cats	Awards Won	Webrings
Don't be cruel to a heart that's true. go there	Recognitions that keep my whiskers alert. go there	Kindred spirits teleporting around the galaxy. go there

Go Home