They don’t write editorials like that any more — Soap making

Soap-making used to be an annual right of the changing from winter to spring, mused a nostalgic Post-Star editorial on May 13, 1919.

“Farm women in those days had a potential supply of waste fats trimmed from the beef and the pork. … Every bit of fatty scrap was religiously saved by the housewife of that generation and placed in tubs or barrels against the time when the annual soap making should come in the spring. Never a bit of pork rind or fat was wasted in those days.”

Soap-making did not rely on fossil fuels.

“Nearly every farmer had a plentiful fuel supply on the farm in those days of which we are writing. … All the farmer needed to do to secure his winter’s supply of fuel was to go out into his big wood lot and there from among the dead trees — he rarely touched a live one — secure a great pile of oak, maple, hickory, ironwood, ash and other excellent fuel material.”

Ashes — a byproduct of burning wood and an essential ingredient in soap making — were saved throughout the winter.

“Great was the strength of this soap,” the editorial concluded. “It would take all kinds of dirt and grease out of clothes. It would clean the hands. … Farmers and boys in those days must have had tougher skin than those of today, for we fear if boys were required to use this strong soap for toilet purposes today there would be little skin left on their hands after a few scrubbings.”