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Title: Granny's New Lye Soap
Article Summary: Lye Soap - the traditional way and the new crafted handmade soaps
Word Count: 784
First Published: 2001

Contact Info:
Paula Polman
paula@TheLearningCenterForEntrepreneurs.com
780-270-8146 MST
Edmonton AB Canada


Recently I had the pleasure of spending a week with my 78 year old grandmother, who is anything but 78 in looks, physical ability or mind agility. The snow was slow to leave her farmyard this spring, so I thought a break in the warmer climes of our area would help lift her winter blues. She agreed to come over to our home, a ten hour drive for her, to help me with my soapmaking business for a week.

I make natural herbal soaps from scratch and by hand. I fell into it innocently enough as a hobby and became completely addicted after one batch. Since then I have made 100's of kilograms of soap and consider myself a fair soapmaker. Little did I know what a history lesson I was in for that week.

Granny too was a soapmaker, but out of necessity. As a child I can vaguely remember her making soap and I definitely remember using it. Bars of her soap can still be found in her children's homes. It was a dull yellow soap, usually harsh to the skin, hard as a rock and one of the best laundry soaps I have used yet.

I get my oils from local grocery suppliers and specialty oil shops. Over the internet I can shop for one of a 100 different oils, both vegetable and animal, liquid and solid. These oils are used in combinations to make soaps that are moisturizing, conditioning, gently cleansing, and feature rich fragrant lather. I use mathematical formulas to calculate the exact amount of lye needed to turn the oils into soap and leave a little extra oil behind to ensure the soap is gentle and moisturizing. I can choose from a rainbow of beautiful colours to swirl in the soaps and there's exotic essential oils to scent the soaps from plants rarely heard of.

Granny, on the other hand, had no oils to choose from, no colours or fragrances. She learned soapmaking from her mother, who learned from her mother. Living on a farm she got whatever fat was collected from the latest butchering for the family table. Butchering was an all day event and in the days of her youth and early motherhood, nothing from a butchered animal was left to waste. Cutting, curing and aging the meat was only one small part of the process. The internals, skin, head and blood were prepared and used for head cheese and various sausages. The fat was collected, boiled, then rendered for use in cooking and for soap.

Pig fat was prized as the best, most consistent fat to work with. Beef fat in those days was sparse as the costs to fatten up a steer for the market was almost prohibitive; not like today's beef industry. Chickens were generally free range had little to no fat on them either. Pigs, on the other hand, ah, pigs were prized.

Her soapmaking day would begin with the raw fat, mainly from the back and belly. It was boiled as a mass to solidify it. Then she would run it through the grinder to reduce it to a mash. The mash was then put in a warm oven to melt, or render for several hours and the stench would clear the house. The rendered fat then had to be strained through cheesecloth if available, but usually it was just a clean worn out shirt. Then it was left to cool.

Soap was made not by measuring and mathematical formulas. It was made the same way these women cooked. Add ingredients until they ‘look right'. The rendered fat was dumped into a pot, water added until it ‘looked about right'. The mixture was warmed until the fat melted. Then the granular lye was added until it ‘looked about right'. The mixture was stirred off and on for several hours until it began to thicken like thin custard. Once it was the right consistency, the soap was poured into moulds and left to cool and solidify. After a few days it was unmoulded, cut into bars and left to sit for a month or two to cure.

Soap for Granny was not a hobby, not a luxury, and not something made in a few hours like I make it, from clean prepackaged oils. She was astonished when I brought her my first bar of soap a few years back and now she proudly displays my soap all over her home. After this week with the two of us making soap, she can once again use soap she made herself, but as a luxury. I have soap that I can proudly display in my home that my Granny made. Granny's new lye soap.



Paula Polman, B.Sc. ran a natural cosmetics and toiletries company for 6 years and has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years. She is now involved in offering online instructional courses for small business at The Learning Center for Entrepreneurs, supporting the growth of small business thorugh extended learning. Email her at paula [at] TheLearningCenterForEntrepreneurs [dot] com or visit http://www.TheLearningCenterForEntrepreneurs.com

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