I won a giveaway! Tiny Choices was having a soap nut giveaway, so I signed up and was one of ten winners!
That’s right – soap nuts. Consider me eco-overboard. Apparently soap nuts are berries from some tree (Brad will understand) that have a natural soap coating. (Don’t knock the idea – God made these.) You can toss a few of them in a little baggie and wash with your clothes (warm water), or boil them in some water and let them sit overnight to make a liquid soap.
I went with making the soak, and it was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. It was soapy! The smell of the actual stuff is a bit strange, and I’ll probably stick with my never-ending-box of cheap detergent, but it’s been a cool experiment. I’ve washed three loads with the recommended 1/4 cup amount of the liquid per load, and they smell just fine.
Someday I’ll have to make my own soap from purified lard I’ve taken from my own pig mixed with lye made by pouring water through hardwood ashes. I was born in the wrong time, I tell you. No, scratch that – pioneers didn’t have air conditioning, right?