Soap-making is one of those traditional skills that are undergoing a huge renaissance. With many people craving healthier, more natural and more personally crafted skin products, artisan soaps have ...

Did you know that instead of discarding the ashes from your fireplace, you can actually use them to make an ingredient for a ...

It’s possible to make bar soap at home using ingredients such as lye and oils. Following a recipe and knowing which precautions to take can help make bar soap making a fun and generally safe activity.

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 ...

Soap-makers love to tell the story of how ancient Romans first “discovered” soap by burning animal sacrifices on Mount Sapo, and how the creeks at the bottom of that mythological mountain were the ...

Our Arkansas ancestors did the same thing, but generations of Arkansas women also used wood ashes to make lye soap. So far, my wife has refused to revive that tradition. Making soap is an ancient ...

Back in the 1960s one of the hottest shows on television was the Beverly Hillbillies. The Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from the Ozarks, become wealthy when oil is found on their land. This ...