Farm Girl Friday -25 May 2012

What's the Farm Girl got this week -I've jumped on the homemade laundry detergent bandwagon.  Wow, I love this stuff.  I think it actually works better than Tide and all the others.

This recipe comes from my friend Karen (Hi Karen!!) and it makes a concentrated detergent.  Now if you google 'homemade concentrated laundry soap' you will get many many suggestions.  Well if you check the sites out, most of the recipes start with 'get a 5 gallon pail'.  5 gallons!  That's not what I'd call concentrated.  This recipe will give you about 3 pint jars, but you only need a spoonful per load.

The assembled ingredients:

bar of soap of your choice -I used 1/2 the Zote bar because they are huge, Karen makes her own, but you can use any soap you prefer

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

hot water

Grate the soap and dump everything else into a pot.  Cover with boiling water and stir until it's all dissolved.  I had the stove on low to speed this up, but Karen says the hot water will work on it's own.  You can add some essential oil, but I really like the smell of the Zote.

Once everything is dissolved, turn off the heat (if you used it) and stir until it solidifies and stops trying to separate.  Karen failed to mention that it goes from liquid to a solid very quickly.  I was doing something else while it was cooling and almost missed the transformation  :)

Scoop your detergent into 3 labelled mason jars and top when cool.  To use I just heat some water in the microwave (to boiling) and dissolve a spoonful.  Make sure to fully dissolve the detergent or you will have white spots on your darks (unless you was in hot water).