Hi @Rups they look very professional. Does Viking soap produce suds? What’s it like to use?
Morning @Rups. What’s is like to use? Does it lather? How does it get it’s soapiness? Did the vikings really make it? Too many questions for this time in the morning 
. Thank you for posting, Julia x
Shwmae @JuliaH (also @DDMH, @Loshy and @Mrs5K). Well, it’s speculation, but no conclusive evidence exists. The connection comes from the Vikings who settled in Western Asia. The Vikings had a rather strict cleaning regime which was even stricter than their Christian counterparts, so it is often called Viking soap.
Horse chestnuts contain saponins, which can be found in some shampoo and liquid soap products. These saponins lather up, not as intense or bountiful as their chemical equivalents but essentially do the same job. The horse chestnut is from the soapberry family of plants, this also includes lychees. So, these soapy nuts have been used all across Eurasia for centuries as a simple cleaning product. I use them and sell them as gardener’s soap, as it’s not the kind of soap one would use over the whole body because saponins are toxic if ingested, that’s why they are more commonly used in cleaning clothes and fabric.
If I were to refine them, I guess I could boil them down in a double-boiler until they were viscous enough to produce a smoother soap, but I use them to clean soil and other outside smudges that collect on the hands, so the coarseness suits the purpose.
Some batches I add cetyl alcohol and beeswax for selling because it holds the shape better, but on the whole, I keep it simple when making for myself.
I have a slight soap collecting proclivity, whenever I have travelled, I always buy a few bars of soap. Sometimes these are homemade, other times I’ll buy commercial soaps. I then put them in my rolled up socks to keep the socks smelling fragrant, and also put them in my clothing drawers. 
I’ve recently been purchasing the shampoo soap bars, I just prefer a bar of something rather than a liquid.
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Wow @Rups. Fascinating. Everyday’s a school day! Thank you so much for explaining 
, enjoy your soap Julia x
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@Rups that sounds like the sort of soap my hubby needs. As a builder his hands are always covered in some muck that takes forever to remove.
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Rose hip room spray. Spent yesterday, picking rose hips for a room spray that is refreshing and invigorating.
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What a lovely colour I can almost smell it 
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It will get more pink as it brews. It’s colour is due to the high water content.
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Looks great. I too can imagine how lovely it smells.
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I have recently finished pressing my apples into juice. These will store for well over a year. Next week, I will use the remaining apples to make about 250 litres of cider. A kind woman down the road let me collect from her traditional orchard, so I have taken some cuttings, and also collected a good variety to press into a dry cider.
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Pressing is a fairly mechanised process, in that it is a routine that works as a sort of harmony … sort the apples, scrat the apples, press the apples, bottle the juice, pasteurise the bottles … the scent of apples in the air is intoxicating and the whole routine makes for a relaxing few days. fatigue doesn’t set in, perhaps as I have been doing it for many years now. This year, about 180 bottles of juice. I have a conservatory that is falling to bits and leaks horrendously, but it has enough space for the kit and a tiled floor.
I am not a cider drinker, I make it for my partner and my nephew who takes bottles when his mates turn up for a session. I make some carbonated and the rest as flat, dry cider. For myself next year, I have made red grape wine and crab apple wine.
I took the cuttings because I want to graft two cultivars. One is a Beauty of Bath which I have a label for but no tree. The other is a burgundy coloured variety that I tasted on the day and it was delicious, and I want a burgundy coloured apple for the orchard as the hue is so attractive.
I look forward to Halloween because the people in the village give me all their carved pumpkins afterwards, which provides free pig food for the winter. 
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Shwmae Loraine,
I will graft the apple whips onto rootstock, and keep them over Winter indoors until Spring, when hopefully I’ll see a little bud come to life.
I have had crappy wine, I have made crappy wine 
Enjoy your weekend, it’s blustery here today.
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@Rups that apple juice looks great. A nice cold glass of it would go down a treat.
I used to love cider but it doesn’t like mecany more but i bet your home made cider is yum x
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Envy you Rups on your apple action all I’m capable of at moment is picking and inspecting and grading for storage, don’t know if I’ve got cataract problems at moment that I was warned about a few years back. But seeing the fruits of your labour has brought back happy memories when around Remembrance Sunday the Cider making gang would have pleasant day crushing and filling 25 lt fermenting barrels.Trouble is not being able to drive now and having moved locations have lost my source of apples. Have made a few new contacts so feel confident my homemade cider days are not yet over.
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Diolch yn fawr Anne, the leftover rose hips are dehydrated and used as potpourri. You must of seen the video on Facebook, they told me it was going live yesterday. I am not on Facebook but, hopefully, it will be shared and encourage others to join our forum.
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Are you able to post a link to the video. I cant find it 
thank you
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