To me, the whole idea of homesteading is making the most use of what you've got.  That means using up the scraps.  We were recently gifted with some fatty cuts of mutton.  Though I'm not a big fan of sheep meat, I don't mind it once in awhile.  Before I packaged them for the freezer, I cut off as much of the fat as I could, leaving just a bit for flavor when I get ready to cook each portion.  I piled all the fat in the crock pot, there was just enough to fill it, added a bit of water and let it heat all day on high.  I let it continue to melt on low overnight, then skimmed out the chunks that didn't melt and set them aside for the dogs.  The rest of the fat I put in a kettle in the fridge to cool and wait until I had time for the next step.

A few days later, after I got caught up with some other chores, I got out the kettle of fat and remelted it.  I heated my canning jars in the oven and got out my funnel, cheesecloth and ladle.  After cooling the fat for about 20 minutes, I strained it through the cheesecloth lined funnel into the canning jars.  Since I am not planning on using this lard for cooking, I just applied some clean, used lids and let the jars seal themselves.  I now have 3 quarts of lovely white sheep fat, with no offensive odor.  My first project will be some laundry soap, but that will have to wait until after the holidays.

Laundry soap is always a good way to use up scraps of bar soap or liquid soap and shampoo you have lying around.  I've made several different kinds of homemade laundry soap over the years, but my latest batch seems to have the best cleaning power yet.

Here's the formula:

2 pounds homemade soap ends and scraps, shredded in food processor or blender

2 gallons water

1 cup borax

1 cup sodium carbonate

Put all ingredients in a large stock pot and heat until soap scraps are completely melted.  Cool before pouring into old laundry soap containers.  If cooled mixture thickens too much, add hot water until liquid again.  I keep my mixture fairly liquid and use 1 cup per load of wash, with a little extra sodium carbonate added.  I have very hard water, and my whites are whitening back up again with this soap and no bleach.  I do add about a cup of lemon juice to the whites.

That is today's use-it-up tip from Mrs. D's Homestead.  For more on homesteading, homeschooling and simple living, please drop by the website Mrs. D's Homestead, or the blog Around The Homestead.

The practicality of homemade household cleaners on any farm makes perfect sense. As an aspiring homesteader, I have to get decisive about what we buy and what we make. For a while now, I have been purchasing 7th Generation dish detergent and dish soap for its nontoxic qualities and environmentally friendly ingredients.

But it comes at a higher cost than the sulfate laden store brand. (Initially, of course. We all know that the cost is paid long-term for putting those chemicals all over our eating utensils).

And this week, we ran out of dishwasher soap. Not a good week for the Sell household to run out of anything. We are between end of the month bills and investing a lot of up-front purchases for the farm this year; in other words, broke!

So I'm thinking to myself as the dishes began to pile up ... there must be a way to make this stuff at home. Homesteaders of the past had founts of knowledge passed on to them by mothers and grandmothers, uncles and fathers. But in our generation, our predecessors (God bless them) had been taught that buying things was much better and easier than making anything in home. So this fount of generational wisdom is now merely a trickle.

This is why having internet at my fingertips helps me on a daily basis. The collective knowledge has pooled online and I only have to do a quick search to see if what I want to do is possible.

Homemade dishwasher detergent is possible!

All it takes is two very key ingredients that we happened to have on hand: Washing soda and Borax.

These boxes were found in our local grocery store. I have to imagine they are in yours as well, since our small town grocery is no Walmart Superstore.

It's a simple one:one ratio.

Dishwasher Detergent

1 cup Super Washing Soda
1 cup Borax

Mix together 2 tablespoons per load. Close door and wait. Upon completion, inspect dishes and be in awe. You did it!

And we have enough for probably two weeks of dishwashing. (We do a load at least once a day).

But wait, there's more! A couple years ago, I got interested in making a lot of my own cleaners. I gleaned advice from a couple magazines and put together a PDF of homemade cleaners. To put into perspective, I haven't purchased cleaner (except the dish stuff) since I found these recipes. Everything in our house gets cleaned exceptionally well with these recipes! And adding the essential oils is ESSENTIAL! For one, it's fun to play with making your own scents, but it helps cover the strong vinegar smell that goes along with some of the cleaners.

My favorite essential oil to use? Grapefruit. Andy's? Lemongrass.

Click on the links below to open each page of my little booklet.

Recipe for homemade cleaner for wood and leather. 

Recipe for homemade cleaner for your bathtub and toilet.   

Homemade cleaners for all-purpose cleaner and windows. 

Homemade cleaner recipes for the oven and dishes. 

Recipe for homemade laundry detergent booster. 

Thanks for reading and I hope this really helps you in your home cleaning endeavors.

Oh, one more thing. Shortly after I began using the all-purpose spray, a 10-month-old Elly grabbed the bottle of cleaner that was sitting far too low on the table. Before Andy could react, she had turned it to her face and squeezed the trigger! She got a face full of cleaner, even in her opened eyes. She was surprised and a little annoyed to be so wet, but otherwise fine.

Can you imagine if that had been a bottle of Fantastic?! In her opened eyes? We would have rushed her to the ER. As it was, we learned a lesson about how far she can reach, and a blessing in the fact that we had just switched over from chemical cleaners.

Just a little food for thought.

Becky

The farmers’ market is one of my favorite places to go. Every Sunday we have a date with the die-hard market goers at the Coventry Regional Farmers' Market! I remember packing up the family and heading to the only place to get the freshest produce and best local products  you could ever find! I now pack up my baked goods and eggs to join the elite group of vendors, an honor to say the least. I am surrounded by the most amazing people I have ever met. They spread their tables with the most gorgeous array of fruits and vegetable’s you will ever see, they offer it to you with a smile and usually at least one way to prepare it.

I am new at the “vendor” side of the market, but the people I join feel more like family than co-workers. I have been blessed with the best neighbors, if I were asked to pick a spot to set-up every week I would without a question pick the exact spot I am in right now. I had come to love and look forward to their produce, I was a regular. We had our routine, coffee at Bean & Leaf, French pastry from La Petite France, and always, always, always something from Abby and Bruce at Bird Song Farm.

You have to get there early because they usually sell out of just about everything; with good reason it's the best – quality that shows their dedication and love for what they do. I love to see what they have when they start unloading their van each week, it is like a surprise box, each thing they take out is just as good if not better than the last! They are always full of smiles, good conversation and words of encouragement. They are a driving force behind keeping your head up and reminding you to never get discouraged. They are wonderful and are always telling customers about all the wonderful vendors that surround them.

The best part of the market is when I get to trade with them, I offer a pie or some truffle brownie bites and I get the best veggies in return.

From that moment on my mind is turning with ideas for dinner and how I will prepare my little treasures. Will they share the spotlight or will one be the star of the dish; grilled, bakes, sauteed or just they way they are?

You will never go wrong with anything from Bird Song Farm, how could you when you start with something that truly needs nothing!

Another of my absolute favorite people and vendors is Winter from Sleepy Moon Soap. I owe much of my current success to Winter, she is an incredible cheerleader. She will stand behind you from the moment she sees your potential and she will make you see that you CAN do it and do it well. When she sees your “niche,” she has an uncanny way of showing you what you are meant do.

She puts all that and more into her scrumptious line of soaps. They deserve a much better title than just soap, lets call them candy bars for your skin, because you just know that is what your skin is thinking every time you use one of her bars! You can smell the sweet aroma emitted from her booth even before you can see her, you just know when she arrives. When you finally make your choice of bars that will go home with you, after much deliberation because it is nearly impossible to choose.

Once you reach your house you are then faced with the dilemma of which to use first! They are beautiful, almost too beautiful to use.

I had the pleasure of visiting her home, which is one of the most beautiful properties you will ever see, one that just makes you feel all warm and cozy – like home. As you make your way along the stone path up to the front door you are greeted with smells of soap, fresh and clean, they make you smile and so does Winter – every time you see her.

I could not imagine anywhere I would rather be than right where I am at this very moment. I have spent so much time looking for what I have been missing, and I believe I am finding it all. I have these amazing people that have shown me to believe in myself, to stop and see that everything I have been looking for is right here all around me. I love the market and everything that comes along with it. I strongly urge you to make it a tradition to spend your Sundays with all the wonderful people that encompass Coventry Regional Farmers' Market-ville, it’s a great place to find some really good food and to find your true self!

Soap is essential to our existence and enjoys a rich history of prolonging human life (and enabling us to tolerate close quarters with one another). As with any process that dates back a few millennia, there is quite a bit of legend and myth surrounding both the origin and the manufacturing of soap. One of the best known legends is that soap takes its name from Mount Sapo, the location of many animal sacrifices by the ancient Romans. Rain then washed the mixture of animal fats and wood ash onto the clay banks of the Tiber where women scrubbed their families’ clothing and first discovered that the soapy water made the clothes much cleaner. Of course, animal sacrifices would probably not have created enough fat to make soap but “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” right?

Most experts credit the Ancient Babylonians as the first to produce soap since they carved a tablet with the first known soap recipe in 2200 B.C. While the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Mayans were bathing regularly in sudsy bubble baths, the early (and stinky) Europeans were still whacking each other over the head with wooden clubs in caveman fashion. During this time, soap making was actually quite dangerous. Soap makers boiled animal fats, water, and lye in large kettles outdoors. The only test for the strength of their lye solution was to float an egg in it. All of that changed when LeBlanc, a French chemist, figured out how to create sodium hydroxide (lye) from sodium chloride (table salt) in 1790. Thank goodness for the French, eh? Soap making practices dramatically improved and soap no longer “took your hide right off.”

So how do you make soap properly and why bother doing so in today’s world where it so readily available? Isn’t making your own soap expensive? Isn’t lye dangerous? 

Truthfully, making soap can be as expensive and complicated as you decide to make it. If you want to keep it inexpensive and simple, well… you’ve come to the right place. Here’s how (I’ll dispel the myths along the way):

The first step is to make friends with your local butcher and ask him/her to save the trimmings of fat from the steaks and cuts of beef that come in. Since those scraps are usually tossed, you can obtain the tallow for free (cha-ching!). Gather a large pot, sieve, and cheese cloth. Set them up so that you can drain the fat into the pot. Now grind up the fat with a cast iron meat grinder or food processor.

Take the ground trimmings and put them in a kettle with 1 Tbsp of salt per pound of trimmings and cover with water (the salt ensures that when you make soap – it makes nice firm bars). Let this mixture slow cook on low heat until all that remains is a gray bubbling brew with gray hamburger meat floating in it. Be sure that you keep the fan on above the stove.

Pour the contents of the kettle into the sieve which is lined with cheese cloth and let it strain out. If you have lots of trimming to process still – refill your kettle with water, salt, and ground trimmings. Continue processing until all is finished. Now refrigerate the drippings overnight.

The next morning, scoop out the solid fat on the top and throw out the brown jelly. Weigh the rendered fat and use the fat calculator to figure out how much lye and water you need. Just plug and chug with your amount of tallow and that you are using water and sodium hydroxide (lye). Need conversions? Click here.

Gather lye, distilled water (or rain water), scales, stainless steel kettle, resin cake pans or soap moulds, glass measuring cup with a handle, two candy thermometers with kettle clips, and the tallow. Goggles and gloves should be handy, too. Lye (sodium hydroxide) can be found in your local hardware store in the plumbing section. I don’t advise making it from wood ash, actually.

Measure out your lye and water. Now, pay attention!!! Make sure that you are either outdoors or the fan above your stove is on. Put on your safety goggles. Add the lye to the water. The water will get VERY hot. Watch the thermometer temperature climb. It’s amazing!

Place the tallow in the kettle and begin to melt it on low heat. Stir frequently with the fan on. Make sure that you attach thermometers to lye water measuring cup and the kettle full of tallow. As soon as the tallow has melted completely, remove from heat.  Once the lye water and the fat reach the roughly the same temperature – about 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit – add the lye water to the fat. Stir. Now keep stirring. I like to use a hand mixer (a yard sale find) but stick blenders are nice, too. I stir for a while and then take a break and then come back to stir some more. Some people will tell you that you must stir constantly and never leave the mixture alone. But I'm not some people. Stir at least every 5-10 minutes until the temperature rises 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you wish to add scents or colors, stir them in and pour the soap into moulds. I use the resin cake pans because I don’t have line them and the soap is easy to remove after hardening. In twenty-four hours, remove the soap from the pan(s) and cut into bars. Let the bars air or age on cooling racks or use produce containers. Some people will tell you that you MUST age the soap. You don't actually have to age the bars. They really are perfectly safe for use if you have followed the advice of the lye calculator – no more acidic than pool water.

How much did it cost? I purchased the lye for $1 a can (on sale) and used about ¼ of the can, got the rainwater from the sky, and obtained the fat for free. I made four pounds of soap for 25 cents. At no point did I feel that I took any health risks during the manufacturing process.

What do I do with all that soap? First, I take a bar and make a few gallons of laundry detergent. Want to know how?

You will need the following:

2 cups or 1 grated bar of unscented, organic soap (Fels Naptha, Sunshine, Octagon, or homemade soap)

6 cups water (to be added cup at a time)

3/4 cup Borax Natural Laundry Booster

3/4 cup all natural washing soda

1 quart HOT tap water

1 gallon tap water

Using an old kettle, heat soap and two cups of water (add the other four cups one at a time, stirring constantly). Don't let it boil even if you are really enjoying yourself and have begun to cackle while quoting "Macbeth." Measure & mix the Borax and washing soda. Pour the mixture into your bubbling brew. Stir. Continue to stir until dissolved and then remove from heat. Resist the urge to stick your feet in even though it does look totally inviting.

Add 1 quart of HOT tap water to the bottom of a large tub.Pour the soapy mixture (which should be thickening slightly) into the tub and stir. Pour in that gallon of tap water now. Stir some more. Your arms will hate me.

While stirring, you have my permission to add scent to your goop. I like lemon or lavender or cucumber – something refreshing. I think apple scent would be pretty nifty, too.

Now you can refill your detergent bottles and enjoy some more cackling. You savvy thing, you. Let the mixture cool before pouring it into the bottles and don't be surprised if it separates a little bit. That's normal. Really. Use 1/2 cup per load. It works like a dream.

Making your own soap really pays off. Not only do you have your very own homemade soap, know exactly what’s in it, but you can go on to make your very own laundry detergent. You'll be hooked faster than long hair on fly paper. NOTE: The homemade detergent will not create any suds (this is disappointing to many people who associate cleaning power with sudsy froth).

The historical information comes from the book Smart Soapmaking by Anne L. Watson. If you don't currently own this book and have any thoughts about making soap – I advise picking up a copy of your very own. The woman is a genius.

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