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Post by hawkeyes on Feb 29, 2020 7:18:15 GMT -7
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Post by brokennock on Feb 29, 2020 9:25:17 GMT -7
Very interesting. I will share it with my friend at Ridge Runner soaps. He started a handmade all natural soap business after discovering he had a knack for it. He took it on as a "craft therapy" for his PTSD post Marine Corp discharge. What started as a hobby/therapy became a side business, then became his full time job. He will love this as his next addition is more traditional products, we are working on sources for ingredients for African Black Soap, to be made the traditional way, right now. Leads me to a question for you. What did Native peoples here use for soap? I know there are a couple plants that lather and foam somewhat.
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Post by spence on Feb 29, 2020 23:01:44 GMT -7
Because we in rural western Kentucky tend to be a little slow on the uptake and because I'm older than dirt, I have fond memories of my Grandmother making lye soap as late as 1939-1940. It wasn't a hobby or a retro sort of thing with her, it was a yearly ritual to make all the soap she needed for the next year. The annual hog killing took place in the late fall, and Grandmother rendered all the fat from the pig. The byproduct of that was lard, of course, cracklins, and the fat for making soap. The rendering was done outside, over a wood fire, in a large, oval, cast iron pot. I can clearly see her in her long dress and bonnet patiently stirring the pot with a wooden paddle. I don't remember, never knew the particulars, but she made a tan and a white variety. I recall seeing her cutting the soap into fat bars out of the frames/molds. I'm sure she used commercial lye, sodium hydroxide, instead of making her own lye from wood ashes. For some reason the name Mary War Lye is bouncing around in my brain, can't recall why.
Spence
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Keith
City-dweller
Bushfire close but safe now. Getting some good rain.
Posts: 990
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Post by Keith on Feb 29, 2020 23:08:14 GMT -7
Thank you for this PDF, I have added it to my collection Keith.
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Post by hawkeyes on Mar 1, 2020 8:19:26 GMT -7
I do know lily's and lilacs were used as plant soaps. Outside of those two I'm honestly not well versed in that particular area to provide any useful information.
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