Lemon Gunge: The French Alternative

Our hands are our tools and often become ingrained with dirt and grime, sometimes impregnated with stubborn stains which are hard to remove.

As an avid gardener, Jackie French knows all too well that dirty hands need a fresh and effective hand cleanser, so she invented Lemon Gunge to do the job!

Lemons are cheap and plentiful enjoying worldwide appeal for their versatility – with the leaves, peel, flesh and juice being used in numerous ways. Lemon trees are easy to grow and fruit happily throughout the year so planting one in your backyard is a wonderful and practical idea. Jackie’s recipe is fresh, fragrant and easy to prepare. Her Gorgeous Lemon Gunge does smell good enough to eat but a word of warning – it is not edible so after you bottle your Lemon Gunge clearly label it and keep it out of the reach of children.

Jackie’s Secret Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 cups of lemon peel, with as little white as possible (you can also use orange, grapefruit or mandarin peel; you can even save the old orange peels out of your children’s lunch boxes. It doesn’t matter if the peel is a bit dry, as long as it has retained some of its freshness).
• 3 cups of water
• 1 cup of sugar (any type of sugar can be used or you can substitute honey instead)
• a small squirt of detergent
• a small squirt of sorbolene

Method
1. Simmer peel with water in a saucepan for 30 minutes with the lid on (if the lid isn’t on, the lemon oil will evaporate). Add more water only if it looks like you’ll burn the pan.
2. Take the pan off the heat. Cool. Remove the peel then add the sugar or honey to the liquid.
3. Put the lid on again and simmer for 10 minutes. Take off the heat. Cool until tepid (lukewarm).
4. Pour the mixture from the saucepan into a jar and add a squirt of detergent and a tiny squeeze of sorbolene cream. Put the lid on the jar and shake vigorously until well mixed.
5. Label the jar clearly ‘Gorgeous Lemon Gunge Hand Cleanser’.

Jackie suggests keeping this lovely hand cleanser by the washbasin so that every time your wash your hands you can tip a little bit into your palms and rub it in well, then wash or wipe off.

Also, if time is limited or you want a little shortcut to create Lemon Gunge, Jackie suggests to mix strained marmalade jam with the detergent and sorbolene cream.

Or perhaps, for a home grown alternative, add aloe vera gel to the lemon mixture instead of sorbolene.

Further reading

For the full story of Gorgeous Lemon Gunge and the recipe turn to The French Alternative by Jackie French on pages 90 and 93 in our Burke’s Backyard Magazine – July 1998 issue.

Further information

For more of Jackie French’s ideas consult her new book Making Money from your Garden (Earth Garden Magazine, 1997, rrp $9.95). Available from book stores and newsagencies throughout Australia.