Soapy Soapwort

Soapwort Liquid Detergent

Sexy stockings, bah-ha-ha-ha!

• 2 heaped cups of fresh soapwort; leaves stems etc (or 1 cup dried soapwort root)
• 1 litre water

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes.  Let cool and strain.

Recipe sourced from econest.blogspot.co.nz.  Find her other recipes here.

Really, I’m very lucky, I only have one bone to pick with my body when it comes to pregnancy symptoms.  That is not a bone actually but a vein.  Varicose veins to be precise.  I have them and they ‘aint pretty.  That’s what 13 years of hospo work, two full term pregnancies and a heredity tendency will do (thanks Dad!).  And they hurt as much as they look like they do.  Sorry, can’t even bring myself to take a photo of them~ would hate to be taken as one of those grotesque medical sites!

Seen crane fly larvae? They’re pretty gross…

The wonder cure for the pain is compression stockings.  From a distance I look like I have a killer tan, up close you would wonder why the hell I’m wearing thick old ladies pantyhose on a stinking hot summers day…I wonder too then I get over myself and remember how good it feels to not have throbbing aching legs!

So, long story short, I gotta wash these puppies every night.  As thick as they are (they’re actually sheer compared to what you can get) they are delicate and what better way to wash your delicates than with soapwort (saponaria officinalis) liquid soap.

Soapwort (saponaria officinalis)

Soapwort grows rampantly and ought to be grown contained.  Hannah Zwartz and I spent a good blooming while trying to extract all the wandering roots from the Nairn Street Colonial Cottage Museums heritage garden.  (Hannah is the curator of this wonderful garden, go check it out if you’re in Wellington.  Click on her name to check out her website).

When using soapwort for soapy concoctions the roots, leaves and stems are used, you can also get dried soapwort from I don’t know where (watch this space!).

So using the recipe above I’ve made my first batch of soapwort soap.  I expected it to be slimey but it wasn’t.  It is green-ish though~ which apparently doesn’t stain clothing.  Was comforted by lots of frothy bubbles when I decanted it into my styley milk bottle!

Can you see the froth?

I also added 10 drops of lavender oil as a nicety.   I’m going to use 3 capfuls per half bucket of water to wash the stockings and we’ll see how it goes.  In any case I’m sure it will be better for my blueberries when I pour my soapy water into their bed!