Mmm, Salty Fish Toothpaste

Remember when I said I was drying sage to mix with baking soda and make a kind of toothpaste? I made it. I've been using it for about a month now, so I thought you might like to know what it's like.

It's like brushing my teeth with powdered salt cod.

I don't know if you ever noticed this, but sage actually has a weirdly fishy flavor. I'm not a huge fan of sage, and this might be why, because I'm not a huge fan of fish. This flavor is not too pronounced in, say, a pork sauce that incorporates sage, but if you dry the sage and powder it up? That's pretty concentrated sage flavor, and then it tastes like fish.

Combine that with baking soda, and you have salty fish powder. For brushing teeth.

Then why, you may ask, are you still using it? I don't know. Because I made it and it's up there and I'm too lazy to bring the jar all the way downstairs to refill it with plain baking soda? Maybe.

I definitely don't want to start using commercial toothpaste again, though. It's kind of gaggingly sweet after getting used to the salty taste of the baking soda. I don't think the sage had any great beneficial effect, however, so after this mixture is gone, I'll just use straight baking soda.

Also from that same book that recommended sage we got a method for making soap. In the blender. Uh huh. There are all of two ingredients--olive oil and lye--both of which we always have on hand, and whizzing it all up in a blender is a lot more appealing than standing over a boiling cauldron of lye.

So we made soap. In the blender. Well, actually A. mostly did it because I'm kind of intimidated by lye. Basically, you blend the two ingredients, pour it into a cut-off orange juice carton to set, cut it into bars, and dry it for a month. And dammit all if it doesn't actually make soap.

We didn't add any essential oils or whatever for fragrance, so it smells like, well, oil when you're using it, but it doesn't leave any scent when it's washed off. And you know how I feel about fragrance in soap.

So I guess we'll be making our own soap from now on. Next we're going to try the recipe for coconut oil soap they recommend as the base for homemade laundry detergent. Which we already make, so we might as well make the base ingredient ourselves as well, right?

Right. We just get crazier all the time . . .