We've been busy making lemonade out of lemons here lately. A flood in the basement kick-started my Spring cleaning a little earlier than usual. ;-) I do actually love Spring cleaning and I likely would not have made as much time as needed for it this year (since this week I'll start seeding the greenhouse for the market garden and things will just keep getting busier after that) so I'm choosing to find the silver lining in the flood in this way. All the Spring cleaning upstairs is already done and, as soon as restoration work is finished, the downstairs will all be deeply cleaned as well.
Awhile ago I decided to try out the
homemade dry laundry soap that I've seen on other blogs instead of making my
usual liquid laundry soap. I used Dr Bronner's peppermint soap and enjoyed the scent so much that I decided to try making my next batch of homemade soap with peppermint oil.
The boys helped me to make it the other day and this morning I cut it into bars to cure. This is the first time I tried making an all vegetable shortening recipe (other methods
here and
here) and it came out well and will make a nice bar to use in the laundry soap recipe. I followed the excellent video tutorial on this
website (there is a fantastic amount of
soap-making info. there).
11 comments:
Is it kind of pink-ish? My first shortening batch turned out pink, too. I wonder why. It sure looks yummy though. Don't take a bite, you'll regret it.
Cool! You're cranking out homemade soap like crazy, I'm majorly impressed. Well done, Heather!
Glad you found the silver lining in the flooding of the basement. Ack. Hope things are set to rights soon and all your Spring cleaning ahead of time will leave you more time in the garden.
I love it. it's been years since I made soap with lye. I need to get back into that this year. It's alot of fun and works so good. Please consider sharing this post by linking up to my blog hop here:
http://mysimplecountryliving.blogspot.com/2012/01/country-homemaker-hop-week-5.html
AND- Farmgirl Friday Hop here:
http://whitewolfsummitfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2012/02/farmgirl-friday-blog-hop-43.html
Hi Heather
Nice post, I have been making soap since 2010 and there is nothing better..... our signature soap is Olive Oil Soap….check it out sometime....luv ur work.
Cheers
Steven
PS will be reading your post on “Favorite Curry” they are big in our house too!!!
Hi Heather,
I just found your blog and it's great! I was wondering if you would mind if I used your picture of whole comfrey leaf (from back in 2010) on my own blog--with credit of course! I'm writing a post about the basis for toxicity in foxgloves and I'd like to show how similar its leaves can look to comfrey. Your pic would be perfect...please let me know if that'd be ok.
Thanks,
Andrea
aewills@stanford.edu
Angelika, it did look a bit pinkish (altho now it doesn't) but I wasn't too concerned because I had read here that it could happen - something to do with manganese??
http://fimby.tougas.net/how-to-make-simple-soap-video-tutorial
I can't wait to try soap making. What's the best type of pot to use? I am planning to purchase one at the thrift store.
Hi Daisy,
That website I linked with the soap-making info. has lots of tips for making soap (from a way more experienced soap-maker);-). I just used one of my big stainless steel pots, I checked with a soap-making friend and she said that I didn't need to have a separate soap only pot although I do have a separate (thrifted) immersion hand blender and wooden spoon that I keep just for soap making.
Going to study all these links as I want to learn how to make soap...thanks for the info!
Any idea what i can use as a Substitute for shortening and Dr Bronners? Thanks
Hi Anon, the shortening was what I used to make homemade bars of soap and then, once made, I grated those bars of soap to make the homemade soap powder - there is no shortening added to the laundry powder. If you don't want to use your own homemade soap or Dr Bronner's soap then you can just substitute any plain soap and grate that instead. The recipe for the laundry powder is linked to in the blog post and it uses grated soap, baking soda, washing soda and borax.
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