How to Make Lye Soap

Hope this helps someone who wants to make soap as a homeschool project. Let me know if you want more information. I have many helpful links!


How to Make Lye Soap
(Part 9 of "How to Can Fruits and Veggies From Your Garden.")

The History of Soapmaking
Over the past several years there has been a renewed interest in the art of soapmaking. This form of art has been around for centuries. Long ago, soap making was not considered an artform, but a necessity. Our ancestors usually made soap in the fall after the fall butchering, when they had plenty of fat from their hogs. They cooked the fat down to make lard. To the lard, they added lye which was made from wood ash. Our ancestors then cooked and cooked this concoction outside in a large kettle over a fire until it began to harden. The whole process took a very long time, but was necessary for the cleanliness of the family until the next soapmaking day, which was usually a whole year away.
This soap wasn't just used to keep hands clean...it was used for everything. Housewives used the lye soap to wash their dishes, clothes, floors, windows, and even their babies. The soap surprisingly was not as harsh as some people of today believe.
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Getting Started

There are several things you need to know before you begin your soapmaking experience.
• Lye which you can either make yourself from woodash, or purchase at a grocery store,is very irritating to the skin and can do severe damage to eyes and throats. Use extreme caution when using lye, aways keeping it away from children. You should use rubber gloves and saftey glasses when using lye. Follow the directions on the back of the lye box on how to handle lye. Red Devil is a popular brand of lye.
You can also make your own lye by pouring water over wood ashes and saving the biproduct--lye water. The lye water is then added to fat to make soap.
• Although lard is the main ingredient in soap, one can successfully substitute other oils to use in its place. Possible substitutions for lard can be sunflower, canola, or just vegetable oil.(I have found that soap made from oil is greasier than that made of lard.) Lard can be purchased at a grocery store or a butcher shop.
• The utensils you use in soapmaking should be saved for soapmaking use only and should not be use thereafter for food purposes. This goes for the kettle you cook the soap in too, although I have used my enamelware canning kettle to can in after using it for soapmaking...I gave it a good scrubbing, of course.
You must not use metal pans and utensils,like aluminum,iron,tin,or teflon for soap making. You can use cast iron (as in a kettle, if you are making it outside over a fire)or enamelware,stoneware,wood, glass or plastic.
• Always add lye to cold water. Not vise-versa.Remember to stir slowly to avoid splashes. The water will start heating up once the lye is added, due to a chemical reaction.Afterwards, pour the lye solution into the fat, once again stirring slowly.
• Chunks in your bar soap is caused by the separation of the lye and the lard. The chunks are the fat. If this happens, melt the mixture and add a cup of water at a time, until the mixture is thick and syrupy again.
• You can make your own soap molds out of a rag-lined box or glass cake pans or casseroles. Simply slice the bars with a knife after the soap has cured for a week.

Teaching High School at Home by Karen Gaas

This was the year I dreaded. 9th grade – High School. I'm just a normal, regular Mom, I don't have a teaching degree, I didn't even go to college! Teaching the elementary and Jr High subjects was challenging enough, how was I going to get through High School?

I started out like I always do. Set up the schedule of subjects, made sure my daughter had the appropriate books, and then just Jump In! My stepdad told me once (in regards to my home business) “Jump in, learn to swim later!” It worked in business, I could only hope it worked in Homeschooling.

Sure enough it did! I jumped in with both feet. Fortunately we had Biology for science. I've always loved Biology and she does too, so we're good there. Now, math has always been a poor subject for me and we would be starting Algebra. I am deathly afraid of Algebra. In the back of my mind, I began planning how I could get a tutor in that subject.

What happened next surprised me – I began holding Algebra class in the kitchen. We got a whiteboard and hung it in the kitchen. We got the dry erase markers and I started simply reading the book – out loud - as if I knew what I was talking about. When the book gave examples, I wrote them on the whiteboard, and when the book gave sample questions, I wrote them on the whiteboard and then let my daughter work out the problems. I am actually learning Algebra all over again!

One of the other things I wanted to accomplish during these high school years was to teach my daughter how to manage a home, cook, and do all the necessary things toward running a home. Whatever you're going to do with your life, whether it's a stay at home, homeschooling Mom or a career woman, you're going to live in a home, and you're going to have to know how to manage it properly.

Just because I do it, doesn't mean I can teach it. Assigning chores doesn't do it; it just teaches how to do some household tasks. It doesn't teach how to determine when those things need to be done.

So, I found some Cooking Lessons online, some Cleaning Lessons online – both free. They are fairly comprehensive lessons; they advocate cleaning better than I do!

My plan is to tackle 1 lesson every 2 weeks, giving her time to perfect whatever method or home area we are studying, and then give a test. The test will be to follow the lesson, without having it in front of her, and then present her accomplishment to us. With each accomplishment she will receive an award. This award could be anything, but since I am a quilter, her award will be a quilt block for each lesson mastered. At the end, the quilt blocks will be turned into her own quilt. You could also do a charm bracelet or a pretty Certificate of Completion you make on the computer, or anything that fits into your family.

If you're teaching High School this year, I want to encourage you to tackle the subjects that scare you the most. Jump in... the swimming will happen!

Karen Gaas