Mother

Super post, Nana. I read myself in every word, except the chocolate. I'm allergic to that and my DH likes it but would have no trouble doing without it. Everything else you brought up is right on.

These are excellent,

Mother doesn't come up either, or rather, tons of mothers come up, but not me. Strangely enough though, I was doing a search on woman's work in the past, trying to find some info I needed and ended up with coming up with an article that "I" wrote and posted several years ago....Pretty bad when you find your own information. How am I going to learn anything THAT way

Hey Westbrook.. Great article. Just a couple of suggestions though. First, the amounts she uses to make a cup of tea are pretty heavy, especially if you are not used to herb teas. You might want to start out with some less. I rarely use more than a teaspoon or two of dried product per cup. Second, Lemon balm and Bee balm are two separate herbs. Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis L. is indeed lemony flavored. But Bee Balm, Monarda didyma is a strong almost minty flavor. They are both good but both different from each other and have different medicinal values. Didn't want anyone to get a surprise in their tea!

I like JoAnna Lund. She lives near me and I've met her a few times but she also has cancer which I'm not sure didn't come from all the artificial sweeteners she has used over the years. I prefer my candy in the natural form of dried fruit and/or honey or maple syrup. I've got some recipe's I will try to post real soon.

I've been reading the back posts and find them so interesting and informative. I love making soap and have used many different recipes with differing results. It's the variety that makes if fun. I thought some of you might want to hear about soap making in the past. The pioneer way to make soap was quite different but effective none the less. Lye was leached out of hard wood ashes in the "Ash Hopper". That is a wooden squared off funnel shaped aparatus (wider at the top than the bottom that is) that was set up so that there was a screen or filter of some sort in the bottom; sometimes cloth, sometimes woven reeds, sometimes just a thick layer of grass or straw or whatever they could fabricate. It was up off the ground on legs and a wooden or crockery container was set below it. Ashes from hard woods (those like oak, hickory, maple etc)were poured into the bottom of the hopper as they accumulated and then water was added to the top. Rain water was considered best. It was usually covered with a wooden lid and the water was allowed to slowly seep through the ashes. The resulting water was lye water. When run through the first time it was often not strong enough and would be run through again and again using more ashes each time as needed until a medium sized potato would float on top of it with only about a quarter sized area showing above the water. That would indicate the strength of the lye. This lye water was used straight for scrubbing the wood floors of the cabins, for making hominy (from corn but that's another topic)and for making a cooked soft or hard soap in a big iron pot over a fire. That is an art in itself and each housewife had their own recipe. The soap was made with fat rendered from butchering and/or leftover from meat that had been saved for months. The fat was usually clarified before use. Clarifying was the process of mixing the fat with water, bringing it to a simmer and then letting it cool so the fat would come to the top and get hard. The impurities settled to the bottom with the water which was then discarded. Sometimes, if they wanted a really nice product, they would clarify the fat several times. If the soap was going to be used for laundry and scrubbing, they might only do it once. Then on a nice day, over a fire in the yard (usually it was done outside because of the smell and danger), the housewife would hang a big kettle of fat to melt and when it reached the proper temperature according to her own specifications, she would add the lye water which she had previously heated. That was a pretty dangerous moment if everything wasn't just the right temp. Many a soap maker was left with burns in the process. When all was mixed, she would continue to stir, (in one direction only if the old recipes are to be believed) sometimes for hours, until the whole thing started to "trace" and then she would remove it from the heat and either dip it into molds or put it into crocks. If she wanted it scented she might add different herbs to her soap or attar of roses which she made herself. Molds were normally just wooden boxes or baskets with wet toweling lining them. (No waxed paper or plastic for our great ancestors. And actually, when I make soap I use a wet towel lined box to pour it into, wrap the extra around it and let it set that way. Not any neat edges this way but it looks like the old fashioned kind even though I normally use boughten lye and it all uses the same). This 'cooked' soap was often more a gel than a bar though, depending on her recipe or fat and is usually pretty brown in color because of the iron pot. If it was thick enough to make a bar, she let it set a day or so and then cut it and stacked it on a shelf or in a basket with air spaces between each layer to "age". This soap often took three months to cure or saponify so they were sure to make it ahead of need. The longer these bars aged, the harder and dryer they became and eventually they could be grated for use in laundry and etc The soft gel soap could be used for cleaning or heavy laundry in a few weeks but it too got much better as it aged. That soap was often harsh and hard on the skin but cleaned better than most of what we have now. It was often used to clean and rub into leather or as a lubricant among other things. This whole process could take days depending on how long it took the lye to reach the right strength and how many times she clarified the fat, so when you are making that nice white mild soap, give a thought to your great grandmothers who didn't have it so easy and be grateful that you have learned a bit of her wisdom, but be sure to pass it on to future generations. Who knows, they might need the information more even than we do. Here's another idea for your homemade soap or even boughten soaps. You can shave or grate the soap into a container and cover it with a little water. Let it set a few days, shaking or stirring it often and you will have a gel soap to use as needed. Or, if you want to fancy up plain soap, melt it down with a bit of water and add whatever ingredients you desire. Scents, oatmeal or corn meal, even rosin for a rough scrub can be added. Pour the soap back into a mold and let it set up again. This does not have to age and is an easy way to add more scent if you didn't get enough the first time. and happy soap making....

Hi Ginger, Great link. Just thought I'd mention that domestic strawberry leaves are great dried for a tea also. Has the same medicinal properties. And rose hips, off all roses are tasty but the rosa rugosa has the largest hips on them. The larger hips make a great syrup or jelly too. For those of you who buy organic lemons and oranges (well technically you can use inorganic ones too but be sure to wash wash wash them) the peel,minus some of the white pithy parts as they are sort of bitter, can be dried in small squares and used to flavor teas. I love to put a whole clove through each piece before I dry it and then pop some into a cup of hot tea. It gives it a wonderful spicy citrus taste. While I'm on a roll....you can dry apple peels for tea also. Dry the peels in either a dehydrator or just in a warm spot on a cookie sheet until they are sort of leathery but not crisp. They will store quite well in an air tight container that way. For a unique taste, I like to take some of them and put them on a cookie sheet in a single layer in a 300 degree oven and let them 'roast' until dark brown. Watch them so they don't burn. When you cool them these will be crisp. Use about a quarter cup of peel per cup of hot water, add a bit of honey and some cinnamon if you want or stir it with a cinnamon stick. Mother