Re: Potassium & wood ashes
Hello Janet,
Gotta love the "ancient cultures" words in your message. You can also add
"poverty" and "not all that long ago". I can remember my mother making lye soap in
large kettles in the back yard over an open fire when I was a child. It was used
for washing our clothes in a wringer-type washer. You started the day's washing
with white and ended with the dirty denims since you did not change the water.
Come to think of it that was about 50 years ago, you perhaps the ancient
culture does apply.
My favorite perennial is the one in bloom at the moment in the garden is one
of the Primula... can't decide which one. My favorite combination in bloom now are
the Virginia Bluebells (mertensia) with Bellworts (Uvularia). Got to love the
clear yellow hanging bells and the blue, turning to pink, of the bluebells.
----- Original Message -----
From: Janet N. Yang <jyang1@home.com>
Subject: Potassium & wood ashes
> In one of her novels, Jean Auel described how ancient cultures made
> lye soap. They mixed animal fat with an alkali solution, which they made
> by adding water to wood ashes. There was more to the process than that,
> but I remember reading that the pH of the alkali solution was so high,
> it could burn the skin.
>
> Janet
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