Soap Nuts

by Donna Schoenkopf

I stand watching the wash water flow through the clear flexible plastic drain hose coming out and over the top of the washing machine. This is the second wash I’ve done with soap nuts.

I am checking out the state of the water. It has a very different quality of soapiness to it.

Yes! I am thrilled!

I shall explain my excitement by taking you back in time.

Several months ago I became aware of my septic tank being overloaded. Because I live out here in the boonies all by myself with few visitors, Peewee and I originally decided we’d wait to see if the system I put in would handle my load. Excuse the really nasty pun. But reality is reality and septic waste includes dumps of all kinds, which is why I began my quest to see what I could do to remedy the septic system situation without expense or harm.

My first step in taking the load off was excluding the gray water from my washing machine. It seemed a good idea, with the bonus of watering my east “lawn.” Did you know it takes about forty gallons of water to wash a load of clothes? Yeah. I was amazed, too, when I found out.

So I went to Lowe’s and bought 40 feet of clear, flexible plastic drain hose so I could have flexibility in my draining options. I knew I had to arrange the hose over the top of the washer to avoid the siphon effect of water backing up into the machine. I do not understand the physics. At all. But I have seen it happen.

Still with me?

Good.

So the hose was too long and I cut it sort of in half with my loppers (love them loppers!) and bought a little plastic connector for connecting different sized pieces together. (They make EVERYTHING in the world of tools and hardware and gizmos. The mind of Man is a wondrous thing.) I got my hoses all connected, puuuuulllled that machine out from the wall, puuuuuussshhhed it around so I could see the drain spout, found a flat head screwdriver to loosen the metal tightener thingy to unfasten that black S-shaped rubber drain hose we’ve all seen hanging on the washing machine drain opening in the side of your wall, put on the new hose (IT FIT!!) and then puuuuuuussssshhhhed everything back.

Ahhhhhhhhhh ...

A successful operation, for a change.

An aside:

You know, it IS nice to have a man around the house who likes to do things like this. I find it satisfying when I’ve accomplished something; don’t get me wrong, usually I am filled with dread that whatever project I’m starting is going to be a travesty of ineptitude or require a lot of cursing.

But this deal was pretty easy.

I did my first load. All hoses worked perfectly. No leakage.

This, for me, was a MAJOR breakthrough.

I watched my waste water flowing through the hose. It had lots and lots and lots of fluffy soap suds pushing through there. In fact, even after a rinse there was still a lot of soap. And, just to make sure I was getting all the water out of the tub, I went through another spin, just to squeeze stuff out. More suds.

??????

That’s a lot of suds.

Then I watched the areas where the water drained onto the ground for a month. Hmmmmm. Not much was growing there. Uh oh.

I went on the Internet and it turns out that laundry soap is mostly salts. Not sodium chloride, but other salts. And that kills plant life.

Crap.

I then looked up salt-tolerant plants on the Internet. Mallow plants are good. Some kinds of ground cover. A couple of tree species. But I didn’t want to salt up my ground. Remember the Romans? That was pure evil.

So I went on the Internet to see if there was such a thing as a salt-less detergent. Nope. Not even Seventh Generation had one. What the hell??

I kept scrolling down and then the words “soap nuts” came up.

Intriguing. I had submitted a blog not too long ago with a YouTube video about an environmental housewife who used soap nuts. She showed them in her hand with a cute little muslin drawstring bag. You are supposed to put them in that and then throw them in your washing machine.

Now I HAD to read more ...

I got on a website where various writers wrote about their soap nuts (or, actually, berries) having a skin that produces a gentle soap (scientific term: saponin) which leaves clothes clean and sweet smelling and soft. There was a cheap introductory offer—$1.90 for that cute little muslin drawstring bag with six soap nuts in it, good for four to six loads—and another deal was a concentrated liquid that uses one or two teaspoons for a single washer load, all for $7.95.

I’ll TAKE some!

So I bought it over the Internet. It came quickly. I tried it at once. It was everything they said it would be.

My clothes and sheets came out clean, smelled sweet, and were softer than they used to be.

I LOVE when things turn out well.

Some interesting facts about soap nuts:

The soap nut comes from a pretty tree which is currently my candidate as the tree I want to plant in my east “lawn.” It grows in Nepal, Northern India, and Southern China. Many people are growing them in different climates and so far so good, they say.

A cool website had people asking soap nut questions and giving soap nut answers and I found out soap nuts are great for people with allergies, dandruff, eczema and psoriasis, and is a mosquito repellent. (Yes!)

As I read on and on, fascinated, people started writing about planting soap nut seeds. How perfect is that? I immediately thought of having a soap nut farm out here at Chigger Lake. I could sell them at the Farmers Market! It would take about ten years till harvest, though. Then I discovered a place that would ship you soap nut saplings.

Dang! How lucky can I get???

My mind ran wild with possibilities. I could see myself with baskets of soap nuts I’d sell by the pound. I’d include that adorable little muslin drawstring bag.

“What problems am I not seeing?” I said to myself. The climate might really be wrong. The soil here at Chigger Lake is undoubtedly horrible. Clay is not good for much. And even if a soap nut tree would tolerate clay, I’ll have to dig holes AGAIN in this goddam clay. Ugh!

(But I really, really want to have a soap nut farm.)

A website I found on the Internet is the sweetest website, ever.

It is a Chinese website for soap nuts. The first part of it is all about soap nut jewelry. (I told you the seeds were hard!) Just scroll on past that unless you’re captivated and want some for yourself. Then you’ll come to the family’s soap nut farm. Such beautiful trees. Their trunks are smooth and a creamy taupe color. Their branches slender and graceful. Keep going till you get to pictures of the lovely little daughter taking her bath with soap nuts and having her hair washed with soap nuts and mommy using soap nuts in a sock to wipe down the bathroom walls.

If you don’t just adore soap nuts after this, you are a harder nut to crack than a soap nut.

I think I’ll order up some liquid for beautiful daughter-in-law Casey and lovely niece Caroline to wash their new babies’ clothes.

Soap nuts. My new favorite thing.

Excuse me. Gotta go get my white cotton blanket and sheets off the line.

Time to make my soft, clean, sweet-smelling bed.

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