>>>>Sustainable Living PLUS Canning and Dehydrating Food<<<<

oops, guess i should of finished the thread before posting, i see tattlers have been covered...

really good advise. i'm stocking up on dried milk. does dollartree have powdered milk?

i'd buy by the case if i could find it.

They might have dry milk not sure. I don't like the taste of dry milk so never looked for it there. Dollartree.com

i've been looking online. wow, it's expensive.

i just want to have it for shtf. if there is no milk available, having powdered milk with be invaluable.

Well since were talking shtf, here is a laundry soap recipe that will save you money. This is a copy/paste of the recipe I use. I got it off the web last year but have no idea where or who to give credit to. This recipe and others like it have been posted here but until now I hadn't taken the time to break it down and determine how much I need of each ingredient. The calculations are listed at the bottom.

The Soap: The most typical type of soap to use is Fels Naptha. It is an old-fashioned type of soap usually found in the laundry aisle. The other options for soap are Ivory or another brand called, Zote. Any of these will work. If you use Ivory or your own homemade soap you will need to use the whole bar.

Washing Soda: This is not to be confused with baking soda. They are not the same thing. Washing soda is sodium carbonate or soda ash (baking soda is sodium bicarbonate). It is a white powder. Its purpose is to help remove dirt and orders. The brand to look for is Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. I find it in the laundry section of my grocery store. Many people have a hard time finding this locally. I know you can purchase it on-line, even through Amazon.com. I would also suggest asking your grocery store manager if it would be possible for the store to get it for you.

Borax: Borax is a naturally occurring mineral: Sodium Borate. It is a white powder. It’s purpose is as a laundry whitener and deodorizer. The brand to look for is 20 Mule Team. It comes in a 76 oz. box. You should be able to locate this in the laundry detergent aisle. Again as with the washing soda, if you cannot find it ask you store manager or look online.
USE THIS RECIPE
Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, as listed above
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder
~You will also need a small bucket, about 2 gallon size~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.


The finished soap will not be a solid gel. It will be more of a watery gel that has been accurately described as an "egg drop soup" look.

The soap is a low sudsing soap. So if you don’t see suds, that is ok. Suds are not what does the cleaning, it is the ingredients in the soap.


If you want your soap to have some sort of scent you can scent this with ½ to 1 oz. of essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice.

Calculations:
THIS IS HOW MANY BATCHES YOU CAN MAKE
Washing Soda - 55 ounce box
1/2 Cup = 5 ounces
Each box has 11 "servings"

Borax - 76 ounce box
1/2 Cup = 3 ounces
Each box has 25 "servings"

Fels Naptha
Each bar has 3 "servings"

You'll need:
2 boxes of Washing Soda (22 full recipes)
1 box of Borax (22 full recipes + 3 extra servings)
8 bars of Fels Naptha (22 full recipes +2 extra servings)
I keep it in an old bleach bottle and put it into an old laundry detergent bottle for daily use. Shake it up each time before putting in wash, just one or two shakes, nothing major, and give a good shake to the bleach jug when refilling your laundry jug.
Saves you a fortune. I have 7 in the family so needless to say I use alot of laundry soap. I bought the stuff, which cost me about thr price of a large bottle of tide, (about 15 bucks) and I will have laundry soap for probably about a year! The washing soda is 5 bucks, the borax is 4 or 5 bucks, and the bar soap fels naptha is a buck ( I bought 5) I also went to the dollar store and bought a 4 oz bottle of fragrance they have sitting near the incense and use about a third of a bottle in each batch. My hubby and teens love the smell. Between walmart and ace hardware you can find everything you need to make this stuff. It is also better for septic tanks cause its non sudsing.

Last Edited by flavapor on 09/03/2011 02:19 PM

oh, hell, yes!! i have been looking at soap recepies and haven't seen one yet as good as yours. and you use it so i know it's good. i understand about the nonsuds part. i used to by french shampoo that didn't suds. now i use VO5. 99cents a bottle. love it.

I have a big ass bag of the a&h washing soda on the dryer right now. 20 mule team borax also. i'm almost set to make soap!!!

i'll mos def be trying this.

you will love it.

i want to come help can!!



that's the cutest!!

it's not that hard, some cash and time investment, but if i can do this, anyone can can.

here's my kitty one, haven't gotten to use it yet.

thank you!!! not worried about the pin, but i do love that people are reading and contributing, just like on your thread.

all of us are doing the good work. as a team, we CAN change the world, one glper at a time.

this thread deserves a pin!!!

thanks so much for your support.

it's almost like an underground canning thread. the subversion of store bought food eating.

i like that people that care about providing wholesome foods are joining in to help everyone.

plus, canned bacon and butter. doesn't get better than that!!!

i should take a picture of our corn we froze. it is super delicious.

Last Edited by Tiny Green on 09/03/2011 04:23 PM

astrochik, i added your thread to my openning post.

from the ground to the table. this is what the world needs to realize.

oh, thanks I will do the same for yours - you are right - make it as easy as possible for them to find things...

thanks!. hand in hand makes the world go round. or something like that!

...can I have some more bacon?

just kidding, I don't eat pork, but that dog was the cutest thing...I want that cute dog!!

have you guys done butter? It seems like alot of work for less butter than you start with, and if making from scratch, that heavy cream is pricey.

you can totally use any of my smilies. the one with the dog is baconbro. i thought it was super cute.

edit to add: you meant you want the actual dog right? i'm so dense some times.

Last Edited by Tiny Green on 09/03/2011 07:31 PM

no i haven't done any butter. was talking to my mom a bit ago and asked her if we could can butter. she wanted to know what else i was going to make. 'canning bacon, butter and making soap' i said. she thinks i'm taking it too far.

are you going to try canning butter? if shtf, having butter would be awesome.

those tattler lids are a must have item. thank you so much for the endorsement. it's great to have people who have actually used a product speak up.

I have some of the tattler lids but havent used them yet.

I dont know if I am going to make butter, it seems like alot of work for starting out with more then you end up with.

Are you canning meats? I am in the process of doing chicken breast, 20 more mins to go. Its my first time.

I hope they turn out ok.

5 stars and a karma point! Would be nice to have it pinned too- Thanks for the information from all who have posted information.

The pictures look great! I have canned alot this year as well and plan to can some more. I want to try the laundry detergent out too.

it does look like a great deal of work to do the butter. i'm thinking that if there were no butter available it would be like gold. so, i may try it.

i've canned chicken and beef. turned out really well. i'm sure you will be really happy to have done it. tender and tasty as well. did you use buillion in it?

good luck!!

thank you so much. it's been a collabrative effort by all our contributors.

if you take pics i'll post them for you. it would be a pleasure.

i have almost all the ingredients already to make soap. i'm excited about trying it out.

can you take some pics and upload them to photobucket or tinypics? i'll post them.

no, that's totally cool. every good idea can take being stated twice at least!!

those tattlers lids are going to be part of my christmas present from santa. or my kids, one or the other.

I can take pics, but I dont know how to upload to photobucket or the other one you mentioned, if you want to post it or pm me instructions I can try tomorrow.

I just canned them in water, figured that way I could do what ever I want with them when I open them up. I only got 4 quarts of chicken breast out of ten pounds of chicken, I thought I would get more than that. There are 3.5 breasts in each jar.

are you using your phone or a camera? i only know how to do the phone uploading.

yeah, it's tough when you realize that you might not get as much as you hoped. but the chicken will be delicious and tender.

did they all seal?

i have to go to sleep now, i have to be up at 6. i'll pm you in the morning and we'll hash out the uploading.

i bet you could can hash too. omg, i have to stop thinking about canning everything!!