HERB - castile soap

[BPack55294@aol.com]

    I spent the better part of 1998 researching "castile soap," aka olive oil 
soap.  I found both European recipes and was "brain picked" a doctoral 
candidate in anthropology who was studying the history of olives and their 
uses in the Middle East.  The process he told me about, which he himself 
witness, is (according to oral history) at least 2000 years old.  
    Olive oil based soap developed in the Middle East for a couple of 
reasons.  First, olive oil was so abundant, it was an "exploitable resource," 
e.g. they even burned it.  Also, both the Jewish and Arab cultures shunned 
pork, and beef was not in plentiful supply.  Goat is eaten, but it is a very 
lean meat.  Hence, the development of an olive oil based soap.
    I have a lengthy chunk of documentation which I've been trying to pull 
together into an article to submit to TI.  If you want to see "the whole 
shootin' match," I'll be happy to send it to anyone (contact me privately) 
and I would ask $6 to cover my costs in photocopying and postage.  
(Supposedly the magaine produced by the Australian olive producers org. was 
going to publish an article by me last Fall, their Spring, but I never got my 
copy of it.  Maybe they had other things which needed to be printed instead.) 
 
    Yes, I've made it using both cold process (a 19th C. development) and the 
older hot process.  Since I do not have access to guarantee-able "clean" pure 
wood ash, I haven't tried to extract my own lye.  I do a batch every other 
month, which supplies me, my two kids and my friends who like it. 
    The remarkable thing about olive oil and the soap made from it is that it 
contains squalene, which is naturally found in hair and skin.  Hence it is 
really good for any type of skin!  When my teenaged daughter stops using it, 
we can tell!  I have three friends who have serious psoriosis, and it is very 
soothing for them to use it.  I usually make mine "plain," though 
occasionally I will re-process it, adding either lavender, or I have a 
coffee/sandalwood recipe with is a natural deoderant, and it's GREAT for 
removing cooking odors from one's hands.  
    your most humble and obedient servant,
    Lady Elissa ferch Gruffydd

Betsy Packard
Shelby Co., KY  USA
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