Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

Liquid Hand Soap
Crystal Miller

1 bar Castile soap (traditionally a soap made with olive oil only, today it is often considered a soap made with vegetable fats only. You should be able to find castile soap in a health food store)
8 cups of water
3 T glycerin (found in drug store)
Fragrance or essential oils of your choice, as much as desired


Begin by grating your bar of castile soap. You can do this by hand with a cheese grater or if you have a food processor that will grate you can use this and it will go much quicker. Put your grated soap into a sauce pan and cover with water. Simmer until the soap has melted. Add glycerin and scent oils. Let this mixture sit overnight (or all day). Then pour into desired containers.

** Tea tree essential oil is considered to have good antibacterial properties

Some helpful ideas on this website: 

http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/homemaking.htm

Homemade Natural Cough Syurp

I just found this recipe and it sounded good however because I don't have a cough and this recipe is newly discovered I can not comment on it's effectiveness. I decided to post it because we are approaching the cold & flu season and when one is living on an itty-bitty, teeny-tiny, micro budget buying store bought cough syrup hurts.  The link below will lead you to the original website:

Choosing Voluntary Simplicity

This recipe comes from a  book titled:  Herbally Yours by Penny C. Royal.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper


Mix all the ingredients together and store in the refrigerator. The book says to take one teaspoon of the syrup at intervals as needed. (We have always adjusted the dosage according to the age of the person and the severity of the cough. And of course, because of the sharpness of the vinegar, ground ginger, and cayenne pepper, and because there is honey involved, this would not be a cough syrup for very young children.)

testimony from Voluntary Simplicity:I like that this cough syrup contains only “food” ingredients, but the best thing about it is that it WORKS.