用七叶树/马栗子做的DIY洗衣皂——谁知道呢?
The mission of Ecohome goes beyond providing sustainable and energy efficient home building guidance - what goes in the home matters too. The most important thing that goes in homes is, in our opinion, people. As we live in an increasingly toxic world, more people all the time are becoming chemically-sensitive or developing respiratory problems, and the rate of childhood asthma has seen a disturbingly high increase in recent years. Soprotecting indoor air quality in homes减少其中的有毒化学物质比以往任何时候都更重要。
Along with helping people findnon-toxic building materials, we are always happy to share clever natural cleaning product ideas thatkeep unnecessary toxins and perfumes out of homes. Not long ago we featuredTru-Earth eco strips with natural ingredientsand greatly reduced packaging, but for the real enthusiasts, here is how to make your own laundry soap with buckeyes, horse chestnuts or indeed conkers as they are known in the UK! Who knew it was this easy to make your own eco-friendly and effective laundry detergent using ingredients you can pick off the floor?!
Where to find Buckeyes or Horse Chestnuts for making soap
在美国中部和东部以及加拿大较为温和的地区，可以发现它们懒洋洋地躺在无柄树下。Buckeyes have little value and are inedible to humans, though you might need to fight some squirrels for them. But, if there are any of these magnificent trees growing near you, the nuts can be collected to make chestnut soap. We collect a few handfuls each day while out walking our dog, economising on time and getting some fresh air at the same time.
Note that they can also be purchased, but like some other natural medicinal plants and some ‘super foods’ like quinoa, western demand (and our ability to procure most anything we desire) is having a detrimental effect on poorer nations in the world and their abitlity to source and afford their own native plant products.
So please don’t go buy them from the other side of the world based our recommendation, for a couple of reasons - they are an invaluable and dwindling resource for poorer populations, so beyond stripping them of a resource, there is the carbon footprint reality of shipping anything from across the ocean to consider. We have access to alternative eco-friendly soaps and cleaners, but most of the world does not.
So, for those lucky enough to find some kicking around on the sidewalk in your neighborhood, here’s the skinny on how to make soap from buckeyes or horse chestnuts!
How to tell the difference between chestnuts and buckeyes?
For identifying them to be sure you’re using the right ones, note that Sweet Chestnuts have many long spikes that almost look fluffy from a distance. There are fewer spikes on Horse Chestnuts or Buckeyes - giving a smoother appearance to their outer shells, and they are much shorter, as seen in the images below.
The time to harvest them is around September and October, once they’ve hit the ground but aren’t covered in leaves or snow. Sweet chestnuts are edible (that’s why we sing about roasting them at Christmas) but horse chestnuts and buckeyes are not. As they have no nutritional value or other practical use for humans beyond soap (and likely get shot out of lawnmowers like buckshot), if you had a neighbor with a buckeye or horse chestnut tree they may be thrilled if you went and collected them, but maybe ask before trampling their grass!
How to make Buckeye / Horse Chestnut laundry soap?
Making laundry soap from Horse Chestnets or Buckeyes is easy if you follow these simple steps - this is about the number needed for 6 x 64 oz jugs of laundry detergent (200 loads appx):
- Once you have collected a few pounds or several handfuls of horse chestnuts, first you will need to cut or crush them up.你可以用布把它们包起来，然后用锤子砸碎，如果想把它们切碎，你可以把它们拧几下，然后用你不再用来做食物的旧食品加工机或搅拌机把它们搅碎。我们甚至用切肉刀小心翼翼地把它们切成小块，最好是在它们刚从树上下来，稍微软一点的时候切。其方法是将其分解成小块，然后浸泡以释放皂素。大块越小，泡在水里的时间就越短。很多植物都含有皂苷，皂苷是一种天然的表面活性剂，而七叶树和七叶树的皂苷含量尤其丰富。如果你还有剩余的七叶树，下次带着狗狗出去散步的时候，可以在当地的公园和灌木丛里撒上几颗，这样它们就有机会长成一棵壮美的树，供子孙后代享用，也可以用来收获洗衣皂!
- 在切坚果的时候，有必要决定你是打算用DIY的七叶树胶洗衣液来洗白色的棉质衣服还是浅色的亚麻布衣服。If so, then remove as much peel as possible as the beautiful brown skins will leave behind some tanins that can dull lighter fabrics. In our household we do tend to choose natural fabrics and dies, so our clothes can become a little monotone over the years. But, we don't really care as long as they are clean and suitable for the weather!
- Once you have a couple of pounds of Buckeyes or Horse Chestnuts, cut up into pieces in a clean bucket or two, give them a good soak in hot water out of the tap if you keep your tank pretty hot, or boil some up if not. Figure on a good hour or more of soak time depending on the size of the pieces, with a little stir you should see it changing to a yellowish milky liquid, which is when it's pretty much ready for straining out the nut chunks - although we tend to go for the low-labor method of leaving them in overnight so the liquid also has time to cool.
- We then use an old strainer to separate the chestnut pieces from the liquid, and put the remains in the compost.The liquid left feels soapy between the fingers and will also be a little foamy.
- Next we need to prevent this natural laundry detergent from going rancid before we use it, so we have found that adding 4 heaping tablespoons of table salt to a gallon of liquid再滴几滴薰衣草、桉树、迷迭香或百里香等精油，就会产生清新的香味。或者，我们甚至发现，用自制的柠檬、青柠和橘子皮制成的柑橘油，在少量酒精和水中浸泡，效果很好。把洗衣液充分混合，使盐溶解。
- Now we have to decide what to store our natural laundry detergent in.The obvious answer we've come up with is to ask less sustainable family and friends for their old laundry detergent jugs. The 64oz / 2 litre size is ideal and we use a funnel to fill them up.
- The best place for storing natural laundry detergent is ideally a cool and dark place, a basement or the bottom of a cupoard可以工作，并尽量存储满容器，以便有最小的空气。我们发现，大约一个月后，它会结块，在罐子里有一些黏糊糊的块状物，但我们仍然这样使用它，没有问题，我们直接把它放入洗涤桶。只有在它发霉的时候，我们才会考虑丢弃它——即使到了那个时候，我们也会忍不住用它来清洗车辆或室外甲板——我们只是不想衣服上有霉菌。
How much Horse Chestnut or Buckeye DIY laundry soap should you use per load?
Washing clothes with horse chestnut soap is an imperfect science of course, so there are no exact measures we can state definitively, but try about a third of a cup of liquid with an average-sized load of laundry (or 2 cap fulls). From there you can see how well it cleans, and whether it over-suds or not, and begin to fine tune your production process as well as how much liquid soap is required to clean your clothes.
Given that this type of laundry soap is a natural and organic product and may go a bit rancid after a while, maybe decant it a weeks worth at a time and keep it in the fridge in a clean mason jar (clearly labeled as non-consumable!)
How to make DIY laundry detergent from buckeyes - video guide
A reminder - Horse Chestnuts are toxic to eat
Very important – don’t eat them! They are safe to touch but toxic when consumed by humans.And note, that you are looking for horse chestnuts or buckeyes (Aesculus hippocastanum) which are poisonous to humans, not sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa - which are edible and delicious when roasted or pickled). So be sure to store your raw materials and final liquid mix safely away from children.
How well does Chestnut soap work?
This is a solution for light washes and delicates, you will not be able to remove deep ground-in dirt and grease the way a commercial laundry detergent will, so don’t set your hopes too high.你还会发现你的衣服闻起来很清新，没有香味，除非你选择添加一些自然的香味。如果你确实喜欢你的衣服有香味，就像我们描述的那样，你可以在液体混合物中加入少量(一开始是非常少量)精油——我们最喜欢的可能是薰衣草或柑橘。
这将是我们从七叶树中生产环保且基本“免费”的洗衣液的第三年。对于一般的洗涤用途来说，它可以用我们一年中的大部分时间，我们只有一个水壶在我们身上“奇怪”，但它仍然很适合清洁我们的甲板，当我们在热水中加入一些，把甲板好好擦洗一下时，所以它仍然被使用。玩得开心吧，如果你对七叶树皂或其他环保家居小窍门有任何其他想法和建议，请在下面的评论中告诉我们!
Now you knowhow to make your own laundry detergentandreducing the climate impact of packagingand shipping materials, findmore pages about green lifestyle choices in these pages:
Findmore about green home constructionin the EcohomeGreen Building Guide pages- also, learn more aboutthe benefits of a free Ecohome Network Membership here. |
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