Ethics Trading

Following on from Linda’s tips there are Ethics Trading’s best seller, the Soap Nut.

Essentially you can do ALL your cleaning using soap nuts. Yes, ALL.  It’s perfectly possible to clean your home, your laundry, car, curtains, children, floors, windows, patio, garden furniture, well everything really. If it gets cleaned with some sort of wet detergent, or detergent and water then soap nuts can do it.

If you need a Soap Nut Solution then the instructions for making one can be found as part of the Soap Nut Information PDF file.

They’re also good in the garden, not only for cleaning your patio and garden furniture, but as an insect repellent. Plants sprayed with a mild soap nut solution have much less green and black fly and don’t get eaten by slugs and snails. In fact, soap nut solution kills slugs and snails while it drives away the greenfly.

How much more versatile can you get?

Soap nuts, the Ultimate in renewable resources, versatile and contributing to the carbon cycle too! 

Having written a number of articles about the benefit to both the environment and ourselves in buying organic cotton. I feel that some of the benefits are negated if for the remainder of the garments life it is washed in detergents and chemicals which may be almost as damaging. So I would like to share with you some of the eco friendly non toxic methods of stain removal I have researched. Some may have been well known to your grandmother and she may have passed it on but some will be new. But please I would urge you to check labels and use your own judgment before you proceed willy nilly with some of these suggestions. One important tip to remember if you have treated a stain and put it through the wash is to check if it’s worked before you dry it. Once it has been dried it will be almost impossible to remove
For the removal of oil or fat stains even tomato sauce if it is dry try cornflour rubbed into the stain and left for about 20 minutes then brushed off with a soft cloth or brush. This may need several applications for a good result. Speed up the process if you wish by placing a paper towel above and below the treated stain and running a hot steam iron over it. Stains from fruit including wine and tomato sauce disappear when boiling water is poured over them in a bowl. Ball point ink stains can be tricky but soak in milk it may take a while and need a top up but it does work. Apparently this also works on chocolate and even blood. Rust stains can be cleared with application of a layer of salt and lemon juice squeezed over the top and then rubbed in.
Vinegar is the tops when it comes to multiple uses. For wine spots on cotton treat within 24 hours with white distilled vinegar applied directly to the stain and rubbed. Then clean in accordance with instructions on the label.
This next is not exactly stain removal but it is a good tip. To freshen baby clothes add one cup of white distilled vinegar to each load of baby clothes during the rinse cycle, it will naturally break down uric acid and soapy residue and leave the clothes soft and fresh. This treatment helps any clothes to rinse better it does not harm the fabric but will dissolve alkaline in soaps and detergents. To remove chewing gum pour straight vinegar over it to saturate this works even better if you heat the vinegar first. Another suggestion is to use basic hair shampoo (without inbuilt conditioner) on stains on washable materials, work it well into the fibres, but carefully if it’s delicate. Follow up with your usual wash. Of course one thing which is great for nappies and whites is natural sunlight which helps to bleach out stains but this is a summertime only solution here in the United Kingdom. I hope that you will find some of these tips helpful.

Of course we would add soap nuts as the gentlest laundry detergent in existence………… 

Reproduced with the kind permission of Linda Sones of Sones UK.  Suppliers of the finest organic cotton baby and children’s clothing, personally selected and endorsed by Linda Sones.

Soap nut juice kills slugs!

It does, it’s true. We’re discovering more and more uses for soap nuts and the liquid all the time.

How does it work?

The detergent properties in the soap nut solution interfere with the slug’s slime and kill the slug as effectively as salt would.

First you’ll need to make some soap nut solution. Put a handful of shells in a big pan with around a litre of water and warm gently - do Not boil! The froth is messy… You can let it simmer gently for about half an hour and then leave it to stand and steep until cool. 

When you have your juice ready, find yourself a spray bottle and fill it a third full with the juice and top up with water. Try to be gentle or it froths up and makes a mess! Only use the liquid, strain out the used shells or they’ll clog your sprayer.

Then spray the plants you want to protect. There will be a bit of foam on the leaves but don’t worry, it keeps greenfly away as well, and blackfly and whitefly. You will need to rinse out the spray part of your sprayer from time to time as the tiny bits of soap nut shell can get trapped in the tubes and filters.

However, Do Not use this on any carnivorous plants or any plant that prefers a water based insecticide. This IS a detergent and could have adverse effects on some plant species. I’d also recommend that you try not to get too much direct on the soil as it can harm earthworms if present in high enough concentrations or if sprayed directly on them.

(first published on Qassia, adapted for this blog)