New Forest Aquaponics CIC

I am  known as The Watercress Queen online, has been teaching people for the last four years how to wash their clothes using conkers. 

Although everyone loved the idea, many people found it too difficult to be able to prepare the conkers themselves, and if they did many did not prepare enough to last the whole year till the next conker season. 

Many , many people asked if they could buy some ready to use, it seemed sensible to see if it could be turned in to a saleable product, without moving away from our core principles. 

Working out how to chop and dry conkers in bulk, took a few experiments to get right. Now with my son Robbie we have perfected our methods, and love working together intensively during 6 weeks of autumn to ‘gather the harvest’ and prepare them for sale. 

New Forest Aquaponics cic has now launched Washkers - conkers for washing your clothes. 

How do you use them? 

It takes just 40 grams of the chopped and dried conkers soaked in 500 ml of hot water for 30 minutes to provide two washes worth of liquid to go directly in the drum of your washing machine. That same 40 grams can be soaked  a further 2 times - the 2nd soaking using all the water, the 3rd for a lightly soiled wash. 

What amazing value is that - 40 grams providing 4 washes! A kilo bag lasts a very long time, and is good for the planet. 

The packaging of course is upcycled cotton bags, giving abandoned textiles a 2nd use, and when you have finished using the bag for as many things as you can think of it can be composted at home. 

Available direct from the New Forest Aquaponics website, not only do you get detailed instructions but the product assessment report which shows the positive and negative CO2 and plastic impacts from the manufacture of the washers. 

Every year Lucie personally grows 30  new  horse chestnut trees , to make sure future generations can use them and will care for them in the long term., eventually growing a forest of horse chestnut trees.  

we would love everyone to be making their own, but if you cant please think about supporting our community and the work we are doing in the waterside and wider New Forest
Find them on https://newforestaquaponics.com/rengerative-shopping-support/#!/Washkers-conkers-for-washing-your-clothes/p/421141597/category=154863771

Last autumn saw a little flurry of media interest in Washkers and how we make them.

We had media exposure on radio, newspapers and the TV.

Everything went onto my Youtube channel 

This is the video from BBC South Today 

https://youtu.be/Ah1SFPuoAfY?si=5eXx2KXoO6Fkkr35

If you have a look at the channel you will find the radio interviews as well.

And don't forget if you cant make your own for any reason you can support our work through buying washkers from us.

https://newforestaquaponics.com/rengerative-shopping-support/#!/Washkers-conkers-for-washing-your-clothes/p/421141597/category=154863771

Just because you need to use a foodbank why should you not be able to do something sustainable and planet friendly ?  

Keeping your house clean when you are going through a difficult time can be a huge challenge in itself, it can be another huge thing to deal with. Anything that helps you remember there is a community that cares can be that fleeting moment of positive that helps you carry on through the difficult stuff.  And yes I am speaking from experience. 

It is not just food that is needed, you often see cleaning products and cleaning cloths on the wishlist for a foodbank. And often that wishlist is on amazon. Encouraging you to purchase from big retail, who are one of the driving forces behind poverty and pollution around the world.

Could we do this differently?  

New Forest Aquaponics CIC runs many community projects, one of which is The Waterside Food Project, preventing  supermarket surplus  food going to waste, the sale of our Genius Cloths helps us fund our work so a double whammy of good.  Feeding people, while helping other people clean. 

That’s why we have put an option on our Genius Cleaning Cloths for you to contribute towards providing them to food banks. You can even nominate your local food bank. We will add up all the donations and then send as many packs as possible  - using our wholesale prices. And we will pay the postage.

There is no limit, but we will only send a parcel when there are 10 or more packs for the nominated foodbank. 

You can nominate any charity, foodbank, or community group you like and we will add them to the options, then get sharing so others who support them can add to the amount of Genius cleaning cloths we can send them. 

You will find them listed in our shop  - why not grab yourself some at the same time!
If you have any questions please do drop me a line watercressqueen1@gmail.com and don’t forget to share through your networks and see how much good we can achieve.