Learn how to render fat to make soap at home from tallow and lard. This frugal use of extra animal fat produces enough soap for a family of four for one year. Our family prides itself on being frugal.

Today I put a thin layer of wood ashes over my vegetable garden, trusting that the potash will enrich the soil with the winter rains. Our Arkansas ancestors did the same thing, but generations of ...

Today I put a thin layer of wood ashes over my vegetable garden, trusting that the potash will enrich the soil with the winter rains. Our Arkansas ancestors did the same thing, but generations of ...

Area park guide Ellen Cox, knowing the many merits of lye soap, will be the first to tell you, "It's one of those old heritage crafts that we want to make sure continues." While it may take some ...

SCOTT -- The first thing one learns when making soap is that there is a lot of stirring involved. And trickling. And waiting. And hoping not to blow anything up. Photo by Sean Clancy A bar of lavender ...

Martha’s Health Foods and Herbs at 215 W. Kenosha St. used to sell lye soap produced by a family living in eastern Oklahoma until the family simply stopped making it. “About 15 years ago,” said Kathy ...

Lye soap is made by boiling a mixture of lye (sodium hydroxide) and animal fats. Lye could be purchased, but most Arkansans seem to have made their own from wood ashes. Almost all the sources specify ...