On 3 Fries Short, a podcast created by three Stargate fans, Amanda Tapping talked about one of her passions: making things herself. A relaxed hour about remedies, recipes, home decoration and the small rituals that help her feel well.
Only when the heart is in it
Tapping arrived with a black eye: after a long run of early mornings directing a season finale, she walked into a door frame while turning to greet her dog. She plays guitar, badly, she says, and loves acoustic folk. On bad days, she does not force herself to make things: as with cooking, she believes what you make with love works better. She admits to a “graveyard” of abandoned knitting projects.
What she makes
Since childhood camping trips where the family brushed their teeth with baking soda, she has made her own toothpaste. She also makes dishwasher detergent, a citrus vinegar counter spray, a magnesium spray she uses at night, hair tonics and “fire cider”, a spicy infusion she takes in winter, diluted in hot water with honey. She once drank a shot of it neat on an empty stomach and does not recommend it. She insists that what works for her may not suit everyone, and the hosts add a word of caution about some ingredients.
She also makes treats for her dog, Riley, and “date babies” for her neighbours: dates filled with ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate. When her daughter Olivia was a baby, she made all her baby food.
A home that sparks joy
A self-described “hippie at heart” who once dreamed of homesteading, she has hung bold William Morris wallpaper in her bathroom and painted her old red stand mixer white rather than buy a new one. She keeps crystals, says some places make her uneasy, especially old psychiatric hospitals where she sometimes films, a painful reminder of her brother’s time in one, and loves citrus and floral scents. Above all, she says, getting older has made her comfortable being herself: “This is who I am and you’re either gonna like it or you’re not.”