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The Great Variety of Modern Mattress Toppers

Our bed should be our sanctuary because we spend almost half our lives sleeping and resting. And that’s a good thing because our body needs the rest phases in order to be able to regenerate and recharge. Choosing the right mattress and mattress topper is therefore important.

Mattress toppers protect the mattress

But we often pay far too little attention to our beds and mattresses in particular. It is not uncommon for cheap products to be used here or the whole (but quite important matter) hardly any attention is paid. A good mattress is the be-all and end-all of healthy and restful sleep. Choosing the wrong mattress can have health consequences, such as back pain or muscle tension. In addition, the wrong mattress can cause sleeping problems.

High-quality and qualitative mattresses are often very expensive and costly to buy. It is all the more important that the mattresses are well protected and cared for so that they last a long time and do not lose any of their shape and quality. You can protect and care for them very well with mattress protectors and above all with so-called mattress toppers.

The topper on top

In the meantime, more and more is being done for the design of the bedroom. And that’s just as well. After all, we want to feel good when we go to bed and even more so when we sleep. The restful and blessed sleep is extremely important for us and accordingly the bedrooms of today are furnished and designed differently than a few years ago. The generously sized beds are what we love more and more. As in hotels, we are increasingly finding beautiful and comfortable box spring beds with perfectly selected mattresses in our bedrooms.

And these also have the mattress topper on top of the structure. They are additional aids to make the lying surface even more comfortable and pleasant. They are now available in different shapes, sizes and also thicknesses, and densities. From different basic materials and more. You can also find more information and things worth knowing about mattress protectors and toppers here.

Upgrade your mattress with toppers

The toppers can also wonderfully enhance the lying surface, although the mattress may no longer be in such a good condition. They are placed on your own mattress to improve overall sleep quality and comfort. This eliminates the need to buy a new mattress. Mattress pads can also make the hard mattress a little softer and thus extend the life of the mattress. The sleeping climate can also be positively influenced and the mattress remains free of dirt and sweat, which in this way is already absorbed in the upper area.

Many toppers are made from natural materials and are also very suitable for allergy sufferers and asthmatics. Also, note tips for cleaning the mattress effectively. But here too, when choosing the topper, it is important to focus on quality and value. This means that toppers and mattresses can be kept for the same length of time if they are bought at the same time, for example.

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Food

Acacia Honey: What Makes the Variety so Special

Acacia honey is a special kind of honey that is characterized above all by its sweet taste. All information about this unique strain can be found here.

Acacia honey: The special taste

Both acacia and black locust have a particularly high pollen and nectar content, which attracts many bees. That is why they are also called bee pastures. The bees produce honey with a special taste from the delicious nectar:
Acacia honey is characterized by its mild and floral taste. It has a particularly intense aroma, but does not taste too sweet.
Acacia honey is light yellow to golden yellow in color and clear in consistency. If you hold the honey jar up to the light, you can see a slightly greenish tinge.
The honey variety contains a particularly large amount of fructose. Glucose, on the other hand, is only present in small amounts. This keeps the honey liquid for a long time before it crystallizes. Even after a year or two, acacia honey is usually still liquid.
In addition to fructose and glucose, acacia honey contains other important active ingredients such as trace elements, minerals and vitamins.
Compared to table sugar, honey provides more nutrients for the body, which is why it can be considered a healthier sweetener. Nevertheless, you should only use honey sparingly – also because it is a valuable raw material.

Application of acacia honey

You can use acacia honey in many different ways and individually in the kitchen:
Like any other variety, acacia honey tastes most intense on its own as a spread.
It is also suitable as a topping for waffles, pancakes or daily muesli, for example.
Due to its particularly liquid consistency, acacia honey is easy to portion. It is therefore ideal for sweetening tea, milk or other drinks.
The honey can also be mixed well in salad dressings and provides a sweet note.
Honey can develop its aroma optimally, especially in warm dishes. For example, you can use it as a sweetener for baking or to refine sauces. However, keep in mind that the health-promoting enzymes in natural honey are lost if you heat it above 40 degrees.
You can also use acacia honey in many ways as a home remedy. It contains the active ingredients inhibine and serotonin and should therefore

anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial,
prevent indigestion and bronchial problems,
help against coughs and colds, and
are suitable for mild skin care.

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Food

Wild Rice: Characteristics and Peculiarities of The Dark Rice Variety

Wild rice is also called “water rice” – and that is a first indication that it is not real rice. However, the sweet grass seeds, which are considered a delicacy, also have a downside. You can find out more here.

Wild rice: fruits instead of grains

Wild rice grains look like rice, they are cooked like rice, and the name suggests that they are a wild form of rice. But botanically, wild rice is not a “real” rice variety. In contrast to normal rice (Oryza genus), which is cultivated on fields and terraces, wild rice (Zizanie genus) grows on the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds. That is why it is also called “water rice”.

Wild rice is a genus of plants in the grass family. While rice plants produce cereal grains, with wild rice we eat the fruits of some sweet grasses, which can be prepared like conventional grain rice.

Demand from Europe is displacing tradition

Wild rice originally comes from North America and East China. Wild rice has played an important role in the diet of the Chippewa, a North American indigenous people, for thousands of years. They still harvest it in the traditional way: in late summer, canoes go into the shallow water where the wild rice grasses grow. The stalks are pulled into the boat with sticks and tapped lightly, causing the fruit to fall to the bottom of the canoe. If the stalks snap back again, more fruit will fall into the water. These ensure the existence of the grasses, because they provide the basis for the next harvest.

The paddy rice is now also exported to Europe, where it is marketed as a delicacy. Growing demand has led to higher-yielding hybrid varieties being grown extensively on aquatic plantations in North America. There are also efforts to achieve a higher crop yield with a wild rice variety where the fruit no longer falls out. These industrially bred varieties have little to do with the original wild rice. In addition, the traditional cultivation and harvesting methods of the Chippewa cannot keep up with these new methods, which is why the indigenous group has to fear a loss of income.

Taste and preparation of wild rice

Immediately after harvesting, wild rice still has a water content of 40 percent and the fruits are initially green-brown. They only get their typical dark color after they have been dried and roasted. The grains are then dehulled, i.e. freed from the outer shell. Wild rice is still whole grain rice because it is not husked or milled. Its dark appearance makes it visually easy to confuse with black rice, but the latter is a real rice variety.

In terms of taste, wild rice offers a smoky, nutty aroma that is significantly heartier than the relatively neutral taste of white rice.

Here are a few tips for preparation:
Wild rice swells a lot. To cook it, you need about three to four times the amount of liquid. Salt is added at the end.
Cooking time is up to 50 minutes, or until about half the seeds have popped open.
In mixtures with other types of rice, broken seeds are often used, reducing their cooking time to that of regular rice. It only takes about half an hour to prepare.

Nutritional values ​​of wild rice at a glance

The nutritional values ​​for 100 grams of wild rice are as follows:
Energy: 385 kcal
Egg white: 14.73 g
Fat: 1.08g
Carbohydrates: 74.90 g
A comparison with other types of rice shows that wild rice has slightly more calories than types of rice such as jasmine rice (350 kcal per 100 grams) or basmati rice (354 kcal per 100 grams), but also provides up to twice as much protein. Parboiled rice, for example, only has 7.3 grams of protein.

In addition, wild rice contains many antioxidants, as well as some minerals, including iron and phosphorus.

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Food

Rapeseed Honey: What Makes The Variety so Special

Rapeseed honey is a particularly mild and creamy type of honey that can often be bought locally. Find out here what distinguishes rapeseed honey and what you should look out for with blossom honey.

Lime blossom honey, acacia honey or chestnut honey: there are many different types of honey. A variety that is particularly common in this country is rapeseed honey. Because of its mild taste, it is particularly popular with children.

Rapeseed honey: This distinguishes the honey variety

Rapeseed honey is one of the blossom honeys: it is obtained from the nectar of rapeseed blossoms. Since rapeseed is cultivated on a large scale, rapeseed honey is also very common in this country. The fact that it is so popular is partly due to its particularly sweet taste.

Peculiarities of rapeseed honey:
Taste: mild, sweet aroma with a slight smell of cabbage
Colour: light beige to white
Consistency: fine creamy, crystallizes particularly quickly
Ingredients: about 39 percent fructose, 41 percent glucose (source)
Since rapeseed honey contains a particularly large amount of glucose, this type of honey crystallizes faster than almost any other – then the honey becomes solid and tough. All you have to do is stir the honey vigorously so that it regains its creamy consistency.

Use: Since rapeseed honey does not have a strong taste of its own, you can use it in many ways – for example to sweeten desserts such as cakes.

Health: With its high glucose content, rapeseed honey supplies the body with energy particularly quickly. On the other hand, it is one of the types of honey that has the least antioxidant effect – unlike buckwheat honey or honeydew honey: According to a study, these are richer in antioxidants and therefore protect better against free radicals.

This is how rapeseed honey is obtained

Rapeseed honey is extracted from the nectar of the rapeseed blossoms by the bees. For this purpose, the migrant beekeeper usually places his bee colonies on a pure rapeseed field, which is common in Germany – especially since rapeseed has also been increasingly cultivated for the production of biofuel. It is therefore relatively easy for the beekeeper to

The oilseed rape plant blooms from April to June, depending on the weather and climate. The flowers are particularly rich in nectar

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Technology

Beeswax Cloths: A Colorful Variety in the Household and Fridge

When we cook privately with our colleagues during the lunch break or at the weekend, there are rarely leftovers. If a cup of rice or a portion of pasta has been made too much (for example, if the eyes of our dear colleague Steffi were bigger than her stomach…), the leftovers are of course packaged and stored in the fridge. But before that, the search for the right lid for the can begins. And if you can’t find it, a layer or two of cling film has ended up on the can, because it rarely really sticks with one.
In order to put a stop to the search for lids and the mountains of plastic waste, we tried out a great alternative: beeswax towels or in English Bee’s Wrap.

Benefits of Beeswax Wipes

Beeswax towels are made from a cotton muslin fabric covered with a layer of beeswax and jojoba oil. Sometimes tree resin is also mixed in. These raw materials, especially beeswax and jojoba oil, naturally have antibacterial properties and are therefore ideal for wrapping vegetables, fruit and cheese. The towels are very flexible in their handling and nestle well to any shape. At the same time, the wax gives them a certain strength, which keeps the Bee’s Wraps in the shape they are shaped into with warm hands.

The wipes can be used over and over again and have an amazing shelf life of up to 2 years. A really good alternative when you consider that a piece of cling film often ends up in the trash after less than 24 hours. After use, you can simply wipe them down with a cold, damp cloth and let them air dry.

Hot things

The all-rounder beeswax cloth is excellent at adapting to its surroundings. But even the cloths get too hot in some situations. We therefore advise against cleaning the towels with hot water, drying them on the heater or covering hot food with them. Even in summer in the sunlit car, the towels don’t like it. The heat melts the wax and the cloths can lose their function.

If they have gotten a little sunstroke, you should give them a rest and let them cool down before you continue to use them.

Caution! The cloth is not suitable for meat and sausage due to the limited cleaning options!

Buy beeswax wipes

Originally, the first towels came to us from the USA. But since we want to improve our CO2 balance with the reusable cloths, we think European manufacturers are the better choice. Finally you can also order Bee’s Wraps from us.

Beeswax towels DIY

In addition to buying the towels, you have the option of making them yourself. We tried it and after the 5th shawl we got the hang of it 😉

For the production you first need fabric remnants of pure cotton, old bed sheets, old T-shirts or pillowcases are suitable for this. The second most important thing is the beeswax, which can be ordered online as granules. You will also find what you are looking for in the local health food store, at the market or directly from the beekeeper. Good to know, by the way: Residue-free organic beeswax is also declared as such.

We also recommend that you buy a bottle of jojoba oil. We did without it in our first experiment and got very strong and partly brittle cloths.

When you have all the “ingredients” together, all that is missing is the tools consisting of an iron or an oven, baking paper, an old sheet and scissors. Then it can go!

Cut the leftover fabric to the desired size. For this you can z. B. measure typical doses. A size of 20 x 20 cm has proven itself for us. The cloths do not have to be re-stitched as the wax seals the edges.
Lay out the old sheet and set the iron to the cotton setting.
Now a layer of baking paper, the cloth, beeswax, a few drops of jojoba oil and another layer of baking paper are stacked.
Stroke the baking paper lightly with the iron and distribute the melting wax evenly.
The cloth is ready when it is evenly coated in wax on both sides. You can tell by a darker and yellowish color in light fabrics.
Carefully remove the parchment paper (caution: hot things). Often there are still beeswax residues stuck to the baking paper. These can be used for the next cloth.
You bought beeswax towels or made them yourself? Now you can start wrapping. The yoghurt bowl from breakfast, the individual lettuce leaves, half an onion, the individual rolls from the baker. The towels are versatile. At the beginning the adhesive feeling of the wipes is still very strong, this decreases a bit over time, but does not limit the function.

Already knew?

A large cloth, e.g. 30 x 30cm, is good for covering leftover cakes on a plate or for wrapping bread.
Beeswax wraps can also be used for things other than food. For example as rain protection for the bicycle basket. Just try it out.
Is your beeswax wrap no longer sticking so well? Hold it briefly under warm water or warm it with your body heat.

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Cooking Tips

Coffee – a Drink of Variety

Coffee is not only the most popular hot drink in this country, it is also the basis for many great drink variations. A treat for every taste.

Coffee with a difference

How do you like to drink your coffee? Black, with milk or maybe with egg or peppermint liqueur? Yes, you read that right – coffee can be prepared in many ways. After all, the world of coffee is full of variety and the multitude of different tastes almost calls for innovative compositions full of experimentation. So there is no boredom while drinking coffee

Coffee in all its diversity

Coffee is drunk all over the world. No wonder, then, that the diversity of cultures is also noticeable when enjoying coffee. In addition, there are always new trends and innovations that conquer and enrich the coffee market. So it doesn’t always have to be just the coffee with milk or hazelnut syrup to enjoy the coffee drink in a different way. Coffee has a long history behind it, so that people from all over the world have creatively prepared their coffee “differently”. Various ingredients and recipes were tried out, from which you can now benefit. We invite you to try out the recipes for yourself or to let your creativity run free to enjoy your coffee “sometime differently”.

The best innovative coffee recipes full of variety

The Turkish Honey is a treat for all the senses. After all, this delicacy is not only something for the palate, but also a colorful eye-catcher. The Turkish Honey is prepared with honey, pistachio liqueur, condensed milk, milk foam and espresso. The following steps must be observed:

First, heat up 4 cl of condensed milk
In a latte macchiato glass, add 2 cl honey, 4 cl pistachio liqueur and the warmed condensed milk one after the other
Then carefully pour two cups of espresso onto the condensed milk
Finally, the Turkish Honey gets a milk froth crown
First comes a stretched mocha in the bowl
This is then mixed with an egg yolk and two teaspoons of honey
The yolk gives the drink an even brown color. You are welcome to refine the Kaiser melange with a little brandy.

It gets exotic with the banana coffee shake. The preparation is really easy. You will need a banana, some lemon juice, milk, vanilla ice cream, yogurt, maple syrup and 100ml of coffee. All ingredients are pureed in the blender and best served in a latte macchiato glass. A topping of cream and cinnamon rounds off the banana coffee shaker perfectly. Who would have thought that coffee taste could be so fruity?

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