i've been away for a while because of work and such. all blogging time was consumed by the election--and reading more than writing. but, rest assured, i've been cooking and eating, through the book and not. i'll try to get around to reporting on some of those adventures (hand-made mayonaisse being among the more incredible).
today's post, however, is not on the subject of edibles or anything related to my life in the kitchen. rather, i am taking the suggestion of a lady i know and writing about yet another splendor of frau: laundry. (don't squirm as you realize what kind of inanity blogs have enabled...)
so, why laundry? i have begun pondering a frau approach to laundry because of two of the concerns which have been consuming limitless quanitities of my brain power this winter. indulge me...
my first concern is philosophical. in these days of almost stunning economic distress, i find myself growing ever more uncomfortable at the way we have all become alienated from the skills that make self-sufficiency and sustainability possible. like many of you, i've been reading about the depression and the way that average people learned to "make do." in the 1930s. for ill and for good, much less tenuous linkages existed between the idea of 'modern convenience' and people's life-needs than do now. (especially in a place like kansas...). indeed, up until the 20th century, the majority of people in the world (and even in the u.s.) still relied on the same basic technologies to feed themselves (they gardened, cooked, and preserved), clothe themselves (they bought fabric or yarn, or spun it themselves, and made their own garments), and even entertain themselves (books, music, friendship).
now, i know what you're thinking. frau, you're ridiculous. you are a (relatively) well-paid professional who has well-paid professional responsibilities that leave one with little time to do all this crazy old-fashioned shit. well, don't willfully misunderstand me and assume that i'm dissing Progress or being unrealistic about my abilities to sustain myself and my family. i'm not. i'm not going off the grid. i'm not ditching capitalism. i'm not turning my back on david ricardo and the basic principle of comparative advantage. i'm just saying that in my michael pollan-reading, all things considered-listening, organic co-op-buying way, i'm trying to genuinely consider the ways in which older technologies have been abandoned not because they were ineffective or unsustainable but because they were...old. why have we turned our backs on these often-more sustainable ways of living? just because they don't come in fancy packaging? just because some advertising executive has long since put them out of his mind in favor of flashier products? i dunno about that but i guess i do have a sneaking suspicion that we, as a people, are lying to ourselves and choosing to believe the lie. that's can't be good. (maybe i've just been watching too much "mad men"...).
anyhow, my second concern, which is really far more pressing than the first, is that i freaking hate hate hate static cling. yup, static cling. the zapping, the shocking, the crackling. i hate it SOOOOOOOO much. and, i live in a windy, dry, cold place with central heat. the static cling sucks. and nothing makes it go away, including that super-gross spray that makes you smell like a car wash. and, just to drive the point home, we're not talking about the occasional sock stuck to a skirt here...we're talking about feeling the force of electricity constantly ricocheting around your entire body like you were tesla in the middle of an experiment. we're talking about this:
so, throw together an urge to re-imagine one's place in the world, a desire to reflect upon the nature of Progress, and the constant irritation of static cling, and you get yourself a little frau revelation.
as it turns out, all of these concerns can be (partly) remedied by a little research, some creative shopping, and, mr. wizard-style, a funnel, a plastic spoon, and a bucket. i'm not kidding, folks. you will be amazed.
you see, one night, on a desperate web search for remedies for the dreaded static cling, i discovered an entire subculture of do-it-at-home recipes for laundry stuff. they were just floating around on the world wide web and i had had no knowledge of them. this was the wisdom of subaltern voices who've been subverting the tide and downy paradigm for years. they have been relying on old-school, non-petroleum based, phosphate-free ingredients found in your grocery aisles (obscured, of course, by all the bright colors and sexy names on the tide and downy bottles...). they've been mixing up cheap-as-dirt home brews to clean and soften their clothing. they've been living almost static-free and completely guilt free. and, they've been breaking the chains that bind us in the state of advanced consumerism.
i was amazed and fascinated. i had to try it. i can't explain why but it just stoked the fires of resistance that have been lit as we've watched or economy crumble around us and hearkened back to the new deal days. indeed, i did extra laundry for a couple weeks just to use up the old stuff i had sitting around (rich with irony, i know. ain't green consumerism grand...). well, i found a reason to clean unused towels and sheets, to wash duvets and tablecloths. and, then, the day came. i finally got to make my own laundry soap and fabric softener.
and make it i did. admittedly, it was a little anticlimactic as a *process*. it took about five minutes. i used three ingredients to make laundry soap. THREE ingredients. all of which are environmentally friendly. and CHEAP. here are some recipes if you're interested. but, in brief, you get some old-school phosphate free soap (there's even a brand that was popular during wwii...it's called fels naptha). look at the pretty, retro advertisement...
so, you grate the soap or whazz it in the cuisinart. to this you add some borax and some arm & hammer washing soda (baking soda on all-natural steroids). you mix this stuff together, use 2 tbps per laundry load (with a little extra borax for really scuzzy stuff) and that's it. suck it, proctor and gamble!
then, today, after finally working through a bottle of that seventh generation, frou-frou fabric softener i had been buying, i got to make my own. i had been husbanding the three ingredients i would need: baking soda, white vinegar, and lavender essential oil. i mixed them up in a big bowl. the soda and vinegar (for those of you who remember this experiment from childhood) fizz in great big volcanic bursts at first. after the brew settles down, you add some essential oil for fragrance, put it back in an empty bottle, and you're done.
i did the first two loads with this combination today and, in addition to being less staticky (it's complicated but the vinegar and baking soda do something magical to defeat the forces of electricity...), i got to experience the unique satisfaction of having solved a household problem without the aid of marketers or high-paid chemists. i feel positively radical. i know that's a sorry statement about our political culture...but, hell, there it is. i subverted the dominant paradigm. and i am static free.
may you all be as lucky.
