818-Lanc«ster Farming, Saturday, March 21, 1992 Soap For The Needy GAY N. BROWNLEE Somerset Co. Correspondent .MEYERSDALE (Somerset Co.) Enter the home of Naomi Yoder on soap making day and the first thing you smell is the odor of rahcid fat wafting throughout her house. It’s rising from the base ment of the 149-year-old, well preserved, structure where she has old cooking fat melting to use in her soap recipe. Working by herself, Yoder makes and donates approximately SOO to 800 pounds of soap annual ly to Mennonite Central Commit tee (MCC), Akron. It is later dis tributed in economically poorer countries of the world for use in personal cleanliness and laundry. Making the soap at home is a good way to recycle used cooking fat and lard since it is a main ingredient in the soap. Yoder gets the leftover fat from officials of the Springs Folk Festival, after it is first used in deep-frying many goodies during the celebration of local history and crafts. The amount of fat she is given deter mines how much soap she can make. “You can’t let it go to waste,” declares Yoder who has been using the fat to make soap for 11 years. “Somebody has got to do it,” she says. For now, though, it seems that she is the only local person doing the job. “I wish somebody else would do it,” she says emphatically. “I’ve got some problems in my hip.” Indeed, when one observes Yoder going about the soapmak ing routine, one instantly realizes this is a very physical job. After heating the lard to strain it it is mixed half and half with beef tallow donated by an Amish farmer Yoder puts the 12 Dound combination in a big plastic Ducket. In a comer, on the cool :ement floor, sits an ice cream Micket in which is 10 cups of #ater and two cans of caustic lye. fhe water must be cold to begin with, for when the lye is added it immediately heats to almost boil ing point It has to sit and cool to a much lower temperature. When it is ready to pour into the fat Yoder adds two tablespoons of Borax to soften the water and add Naomi pours the liquid soap from the bucket Into plastic lined boxes. Naomi scores the soap block before cutting It apart. cleaning power. She pours the lye boxes, or half-gallon milk cartons, water into the fat slowly so it Clip clothespins on the box edges doesn’t separate. work well to hold the plastic in “There were times when it place. Hardening of the soap would separate.” she says, “and occurs almost instantly, before that’s a nuisance when you have to Yoder can completely scrape out heat it to gel it back together.” the bucket. If it starts to chip she Stirring her mixture with a long puts the pieces into a small con handled paddle or wooden spoon, tainer for her own laundry use. Yoder says she also has used the Later the boxes are stacked and orangish tallow from sloppy joe covered with cardboard and heavy mix. Its impurities settle on the rugs for at least 24 hours. It is then bottom of the pan as she heats it ready to be scored and cut in Yoder has found that using all blocks with a large-blade knife, lard makes a product that is too The blocks are stacked on boards soft while using all tallow pro- balanced between two chairs, duces one that is too hard. Using They must cure for two weeks, equal amounts of each makes the “After two weeks,” says Yoder, ideal soap. “there’s nothing caustic about it I The Oakdale Mennonite wouldn’t be afraid to use it for a Church near Salisbury, pays for bath,” she says, the lye that Yoder uses to make Her work area is a long ping soap. Yoder teaches Sunday pong table that is well-protected School and holds an office in the with a covering of plastic and ladies sewing group at that church, newspapers. Nearby is a small Yoder has to stir the thickening bowl with brown vinegar for bum liquid until her wooden spoon will precaution. She says the pungent stand by itself in the center of the ac i,j uke a charm to bring bucket. The color has gone from a relief from burning caused by darker brown to the shade of accidential contact with the lye brown gravy. so i ution . Then it is ready to pour into the “You don’t have to stir con plastic-lined, shallow rectangular ston Uy,” she says. “You can go and do other tilings. I can go upstairs and set the table. But I have to figure an hour and a half fra one batch,” she says. “It’s a messy job,” she adds. ‘The hardest part is with the buckets and dumping them. They are very heavy,” says Yoder. One basic recipe usually yields 18 pounds of soap, according to Yoder. She always has several batches mixing in different stages at the same time which keeps her busy. When she makes soap, it is her major occupation of the day. “What I often do is have some thing light to read like Reader's Digest or Guldeposts she says. That way she can take a breather from all the stirring. It seems rather amazing that the dark brown fat could turn into such a creamy white soap during the curing process. Yet that’s what happens. Yoder unwittingly played a joke on herself, recently, which she discovered when she found the lovely white blocks of soap decorated with imprints of green Christmasy-looking ivy. She real ized that the imprints had trans ferred off the Christmas-edition, dry-cleaning, plastic that she had used to line her boxes. Chuckling, (Turn to Pag* B 20) See your neares INEW HOLLAR Dealer for Dependal Equipment and Dependable Service PENNSYLVANIA Annvllle, PA BHM Farm Equipment, Inc. RDI, Rte. 934 717-867-2211 Carlisle, PA R&W Equipment Co. 35 East Willow Street 717-243*2686 Davldsburg, PA George N. Gross, Inc. R.D. 2, Dover, PA 717-292-1673 Elizabethtown, PA Messick Farm Equipment. Inc. Rt. 283 - Rheem’s Exit 717-367-1319 Gettysburg, PA Yingling Implements, Inc. 3291 Taneytown Rd. 717-359-4848 Halifax, PA Sweigard Bros. R.D. 3, Box 13 717-896-3414 Honey Brook, PA Dependable Motor Co. East Main Street 215-273-3131 215-273-3737 West Grove, PA S.G. Lewis & Son, Inc. R.D. 2, Box 66 215-869-2214 MARYLAND Frederick, MD Ceresville Ford New Holland, Inc. Rt. 26 East 301-662-4197 Outside MD, 800-331-9122 Hagerstown, MD Antietam Ford Tractor 301-791-1200 NEW JERSEY Bridgeton, N.J. Leslie G. Fogg, Inc. Canton & Stow Creek Landing Rd. 609-451-2727 609-935-5145 Woodstown, NJ Owen Supply Co. Broad Street & East Avenue 609-769-0308 Honey Grove, Norman D. Clai & Son, Inc. Honey Grove, F 717-734-3682 Loysville, PA 717-789-3117 Hughesvllle, Pi Farnsworth Farr Supplies, Inc. 103 Cemetery I 717-584-2106 New Holland, I A.B.C. Groff, In 110 South Raili 717-354-4191 Way, PA CJ. Wonsidtor RD. 2 215-987-6257 Pitman, PA Schrefller Equij Pitman, PA 717-648-1120 Quakertown, Pi CJ. Wonsidler I R.D. 1 215-536-1935 Tamaqus, PA Charles S.Snydei R.D. 3 717-386-5945 Washington, Smith Tractor Equip., Inc. 15 Hillcrest Ai 201-689-7900
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