Is Hardwood Ash A Soda

A short while ago i shared a blog article about victorian era leavening.

Is hardwood ash a soda.

More often it was processed into potash and then pearl ash more on that in a minute. Pearl ash pot ash and the ashery. Instead of using baking soda put wood ash into a bowl and place it in your fridge. Baking soda baking powder bicarbonate of soda soda ash and the all mysterious saleratus i touched on pearl ash another ingredient to make bread or cake rise obtained by soaking fireplace ashes in water to make lye this is so bizarre.

Therefore you can use wood ash in some diy toothpaste. Not only that using ashes in the garden also provides many of the trace elements that plants need to thrive. Most wood ash contains a good percentage about 25 percent of calcium carbonate an ingredient in garden lime. Wood ash is similar to lime which is ground limestone or calcium carbonate which also increases soil ph.

Making lye from wood ash. Some woods produce ash which can help whiten your teeth. But wood ash fertilizer is best used either lightly scattered or by first being composted along with the rest of your compost. However unlike limestone which can take 6 months or more to change soil ph wood ash is water soluble and changes the soil ph rapidly.

Wood ash is an excellent source of lime and potassium for your garden. Its ability to absorb scents should remove any foul odors. For the most part straight wood ash wasn t added directly to baked goods because it added a lot of ash flavor along with lift. Traditional colonial recipes used animal fat but you can use other types of fat too.

Lye made from wood ash is potassium hydroxide not sodium hydroxide there s 10 times as much potassium as sodium in wood ash. If your soil is very acidic 5 5 or lower amending with wood ash can raise your soil ph. The process makes lye water. The ash water method took a little advance preparation and had less impact of biscuit color but in a pinch hardwood ash could be used too although i would recommend a very fine sieve to prevent random grittiness.

Using wood ash as a fertilizer. Ash soap is made from lye derived from hardwood ash. Because of the unique type of lye used to make it ash soap does not produce much lather. Apply roughly twice as much ash by weight as the recommendation for limestone.

How to use wood ash. Once you concentrate the lye water you can turn it into soap by cooking it with fat.