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The Origin of Soap
By Summers Past Farms | October 4, 2006
A tale out of ancient Rome tells us how soap was invented. The story is as follows:
A woman was bent over a river washing clothes at the bottom of Sapo Hill. Above her was an area where animals were ritually sacraficed. She began to notice that every time she did her laundry at this spot, they ended up much cleaner than her friends’ clothes who used other areas to wash their clothes. The point where she knelt down to wash happened to be where the residual sludge from the sacrafice area mixed with the river water. She perceived correctly that a very strong cleansing agent was produced as the fat from the sacraficed animals merged with the wood ashes and finally the river water.
In the past, people would save ashes from their fires for months. When they had enough fat left over from butchering or olive oil production, they would make soap. Filling a barrel with ashes, with a layer of straw at the bottom to filter, they would pour water through the ashes and catch it in a bucket at the bottom. The “lye water” solution was considered strong enough to make soap when they could get an egg float on the surface of the solution. The fat was then rendered and mixed with the lye solution to make a hard “lye soap.” Â
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
October 26th, 2006 at 7:44 am
Hi!! I am planning a . Do u know anyone who would like to come and display (sell) their homemade soap, lavender, candle products? I would luv 2 pamper my friends w/ products like these. Thank u. Suzy
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I love this story! It is so romantic yet practical at the same time. No matter what the lore, I’m sure happy they figured something out because the soaps we make today are truly something to behold.