Good Intentions Gone Awry

Back a couple of months ago, I wrote about my efforts of making my own "orange cleanser".  I had found a recipe that said to poke a bunch of orange rinds in a jar, cover with water and add a few tablespoons of activated yeast.  The stuff had to stay in the jar for about a month and needed to be stirred every day.  Sounded simple enough, so I tried it.  I followed the instructions exactly (how hard could that be!) and was extra vigilant about my stirring!  To give the yeast an extra chance of survival in the coldness of the Little Bayou House, I kept the jar on the back of the woodburning stove.  It sat up on a trivet so it was just lukewarm not scalding.  It sat for days..weeks..and on to the required month.  While the brew smelled strong, it never smelled "rotten" which encourage me!  Perhaps this would work and I could have a supply of cleanser for free!  The peels started to slough off and form sediment in the bottom of the jug.  I assumed this was supposed to happen as the last thing I remembered reading was how it would need filtering through a cloth to be pure.  I just let it be..stirred it daily and kept it warm.

Then came the date that I had printed on the lid!  It was time to test my cleanser!  The jug was toted into the kitchen where I could first strain out the remaining wads of peels and then filter the liquid through a cloth.  Once I got rid of the sludge, the stuff did not smell half bad!  It was definitely orangey!  The bit that sloshed on my hands left them feeling a bit oily, though...hmmm?  Perhaps this was normal.  I guess...maybe?  I went back to read the article once again.  Nowhere did it say the stuff should be oily but I refused to give up hope!  To use my newly-made cleanser, I was to simply apply it to a surface, let stand for about ten minutes and then wipe dry.  Hmmm...ok...lets try this!

A nice helping was poured out on my glass-topped stove.  That seemed like a good place to try the cleanser as my stove gets used nonstop.  It never stays clean for long!  After smearing the oily stuff about on the stovetop, I set the timer and waited. (This seemed like the perfect time for another cup of coffee!  After all, I did have to wait ten minutes!)  Waiting that allotted time proved to be a waste!  When the buzzer sounded, I grabbed a paper towel and proceeded to wipe.  Ugh!  This stuff had turned to glue!  No, it had not loosened the grime on the stove..it had turned to orange glue!  The paper towel stuck to the glass top.  I tried to squish it around a bit but that was not happening!  The towel refused to go anywhere!  Hmmm....WATER!  I poured a tad of water on top of the cleanser.  Sure, it mixed with the cleanser quite rapidly but did nothing to help clean my stove! The oiliness smeared around on the glass and was nigh on impossible to ever clear.  Sopping up the mess, I came to realize that the stove looked no different than before the application of orange glue..err...cleanser!    I do believe that I was duped into wasting a month!  Granted..it does smell orangey and I probably could say I used it as a cleanser if I did not have to testify about its reliability and super cleansing powers!  So I suppose it is back to the drawing board if I want to create my own environmentally-friendly and free cleanser because this sure did NOT work!

(Hmmm?  I wonder if I could market this as a "Safe, Earth-friendly, Orange-scented Glue!  Or maybe I can convince Mark that I made if especially for him to clean the boat!  Nah..I think he is far too smart for that.  Oh, well!)