Teach Soap

My overactive mind recently made a connection between CP soaping and the "local food" movement. Disclosure: I don't necessarily live by the local creed, but have read about it. Then, it all gets mixed up with my goal of getting disaster supplies secured (we were very ill prepared for 4 days of power outage last year). Pretend the national distribution system has been shut down for some reason: no BrambleBerry orders FOR YOU if you live in Florida (OK, I also watch way too many post-apocalyptic themed TV shows as well..."Walking Dead" anyone?). What if you had to severely curtail your CP supplies to what your state or general area produces? What would YOUR truly local soap look like? (Yeah, I know it isn't perfect as lye is probably not produced locally everywhere....just pretend you had the foresight to have plenty on hand).

Now...how many of us live in an area where olive, coconut and palm oil trees grow? Those of us in the cooler, northern areas of this hemisphere sure don't! So I researched the top agricultural products of Washington State, where I live, and here is what I came up with for ingredients:

Ghee (WA is a dairy producer, so butter can be used to make ghee - very easy to do on the stove or with microwave...ghee is butter with the water and milk protein cooked out of it)
Tallow (from beef cattle...pigs were not on the list so no lard)
Grapeseed oil (WA is big wine producing state)
Corn oil
Wheat germ oil (although I don't think this is a good CP oil...?)
Apricot kernel oil (wow, did NOT know WA state grew apricots...)
Mint oil (as scent...again, who knew my home state was tops in mint oil?)
Deer tallow (all we would have to do is wait for a deer to wander into our yard..which they do...)

Ha...so "WA State Soap" would be some kind of tallow, grapeseed oil, corn oil concoction. Off to SoapCalc to see if a decent soap could be had with those ingredients.

What would your local soap be?

For my area it's coconut, palm, almond oil and jojoba. Jojoba is not available locally for purchase though. Not for a reasonable price anyway. The jojoba farm does not do wholesale on a small scale.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Not much fat on a deer.

I just bought some local sunflower oil to test in recipes. Here, it would be sunflower and animal fats, honey and beeswax, goat and cow milk. Nut oils, too, since walnuts and some other nuts grow here.
But I like olive oil!

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Love the Walking Dead...watched 2 in a row last night and did not sleep!

I'm a Walking Dead fanatic!

I live in WI, so here's mine:
Tallow (from cow)
Goat milk or cow milk
Soybean oil
Wheat Germ Oil
Honey or beeswax
Lanolin

Can I include beer since we're tops in local breweries? LOL

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Genny

I suspect the real answer for most people would be used fat from the McGroogh and K F'd 'chicken'.

There is no real calendar anymore, just "how many weeks until Walking Dead returns."

And what about zombie fat!?

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Genny

ROFL newbies will read this thread and think we're all nuts, talking about fat content of zombies! Is it bad that I can only tell what day of the week it is by what shows are on TV? I get so messed up in the summer!

As for local oils.. um. Corn, peach kernel, soy bean, deer tallow and turkey fat. OMG we have a LOT of turkeys running around! No beef or pig fat, there are 6 "cows" near here.. and they are "beeffalo" cow X buffalo. Pretty sure they are pets too. Livestock isn't big here, just blueberries and peaches and corn and tomatoes. LOL

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Lard, deer or beef tallow would be the base with soybean or corn oil added. Don't think there are any zombies around here, though...

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Genny

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts