This fall I learned about "soapberries" through this group. These come from a tree that is native to Oklahoma and Texas called the Western Soapberry tree. Here is some information I found on the web about these trees.
Note that, while the name implies the fruits are berries, I don't believe they technically are berries in the true sense of the word. However, for this article, I will refer to them as such.
As you might guess from the name, the fruits can be used to make a kind of soap. Here's a picture of what they look like up close.
They are really quite pretty. The dark centers are the seeds. The berries contain chemicals called saponins which foam when water is added. This foaming property makes the berries useful for cleaning, but also makes them toxic when taken internally. So, pretty or not, DO NOT eat these!
I ran across a lot of different recipes for making laundry detergent from the berries. Some of them called for cooking the berries. Others said to just soak the berries in tap water for a period of time. I decided to try one of the "cooked" recipes and ended up taking an average of a couple of these. Here's what I came up with.
First, I combined 20 soapberries with 3 cups of water in a saucepan.
Then, I brought the water to a rolling boil and turned the heat to medium for about 20 minutes. Notice the foam.
Next, I let it cool a bit and strained the berries out of the liquid using a medium sieve.
I then poured the liquid through a finer sieve into a glass bottle.
Most of the recipes said to keep it in the refrigerator to keep it from spoiling. Some of them even suggested sterilizing the container.
All the recipes said they made a mild, low-suds laundry detergent that only required 2 or 3 tablespoons per load. I've used it for a couple of loads of laundry and it seems to do a good job.
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