People may want to make homemade soap from scratch to suit their personal preferences or so that they can give it away as a handcrafted gift. This article looks at some different methods for making ...

Until around 1916, making soap at home was commonplace. Using wood or plant ashes and leftover animal fats, families produced their own soap for cleaning their clothes and themselves. During World War ...

SCOTT -- The first thing one learns when making soap is that there is a lot of stirring involved. And trickling. And waiting. And hoping not to blow anything up. But, boy, does it smell good. An eager ...

Making soap is an ancient practice. It is believed the Babylonians were making soap by about 2800 B.C. Egyptian papyri, dated as early as 1550 B.C., describe soap making. Aleppo in modern Syria was a ...

Even the most hardcore recyclers probably don't realize how many ways wood ash can be used around the house. You can even use them as a foundational ingredient to create stunning homemade soap. The ...

Readers, this is the fourth of 12 basic homestead skills we’ll be presenting every month throughout 2019 from Kimberlee Bastien’s new book, 52 Homestead Skills. We invite you to join Kimberlee and her ...

Soap-makers love to tell the story of how ancient Romans first “discovered” soap by burning animal sacrifices on Mount Sapo, and how the creeks at the bottom of that mythological mountain were the ...

At first blush, the counter before me has all the makings of a cooking class: kitchen scale, olive oil, Hershey’s cocoa mix, 6-pound tub of Crisco. But the latex gloves and safety goggles suggest I ...

Today I put a thin layer of wood ashes over my vegetable garden, trusting that the potash will enrich the soil with the winter rains. Our Arkansas ancestors did the same thing, but generations of ...