Where Ivy, Soapwort and Horse Chestnut Meet
Let me tell you a tale from a long time ago. It began with a man with a tan on his skin and dirt on his hands. Grit in his hair, a canopy of trees covered with leaves lessened the suns glare back in those days, the days of the old growth woods. The people then knew the ways of the woods and not the way we know now. Without taking more than his keep, the slightly yet swift passing seasons weren’t a stranger to witnessing him weep.
I know of horse chestnuts whose saponins seep deep into the fibres from yarns of nettle, linen, wool and cotton, he thought to himself. No fabric left tarnished on its path. But what am I to do for the rest of the seasons? I am a travelling man…What of the times when I am near no tree of this variety? Am I to be of scent most unsavoury and look unkempt and unsightly?
Another way, whispered the woods. He looked up for answers, for clues. Over here, whispers the woods…He glanced down by his shoes…Surely not you, he thought to himself. Yes, replied the ivy, fret and wonder on this no more. Tor t’is I, the evergreen that carpets the forest floors. You and your people often mistake me for a pest, yet it is I who in all seasons provides shelter in my windy branches and leaves for life here in the wild. It is I who provides berries for birds in times of cold and scarcity. No matter what the season, nor the weather, I am here for all. Admittedly, sometimes I get carried away to the tops of the trees of inadvertently squander the light and squelch the leaves. This is surely not all the reason that you know of me?
I am rich in saponins you see...
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Ivy leaves are one of my favourite non-edible (not to be mixed up with the ingestible ground-ivy!) plants to forage. An evergreen source of saponin, a soap substance that leaves its leaves inedible but also highly purposeful in the most practical of ways.
200ml/1 cupful of it’s solution can be used per washload of clothes as detergent…
It’s safe and non-toxic to spray on plants to deter and ehh, get rid of any and all aphids that may be eating your greens, crops, flowers. It doesn’t seem to build up a resistance unlike the toxic carcogenic crap you’ll find on supermarket shelves for such a thing…
It can also be used as a hair rinse instead of shampoo, I have seen reports of this working really well with others, I only tried it once and I was consuming too much oil and the water was too hard for it to work well but I will see again with distilled water rinse and report back.
I found it leaves an earthy forest floor scent on natural fabrics. Though if washing some unnatural plastic fabrics such as polyester or nylon it may or may not have an end result that doesn’t smell too savoury or inviting.
Horse chestnuts and soap
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