Scherr - The baking soda companion: natural recipes and remedies for health, beauty, and home

ALSO BY SUZY SCHERR:

The Apple Cider Vinegar Companion

THE

BAKING SODA

COMPANION

Natural Recipes and Remedies for Health, Beauty, and Home

SUZY SCHERR

The Countryman Press

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Copyright 2018 by Suzy Scherr

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ISBN 978-1-68268-185-5 (e-book)

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For my family. Always.

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You know those people who make it all look easy? Life: working, maintaining a social life, and maybe even taking care of kids, pets, or... (dare I say it?) plants. Im not one of those people. I dont juggle it all with ease. I think its hard to do all of those things at the same time! (Especially the plants part. I am a shamefully negligent plant parent.) Sure, there are days when Im just killing it! Work is good: Im cranking out great recipes for happy clients; Ive posted something pretty and delicious on social media; and my inbox is clear of unanswered emails. The headquarters are in order: laundry is done; dinner is made; bathrooms are clean; and Im wearing makeup and clean clothes. But then there are daysmost dayswhen I need all the help I can get. To that end, I rely on an arsenal of shortcuts, hacks, and secret weapons to keep my crew healthy and well fed, my home clean and welcoming, and myself looking presentable (and sane). Enter: baking soda, my genie in the bottleor, rather, in the cardboard box.

It is KFCs original recipe. Its Coca-Cola Classic. Baking soda has been around forever and is the miracle product you already own, but probably dont use to its full potential. It may make your fridge smell better, but thats just the tip of the icebox (hee hee). Im convinced that a box of baking soda will solve just about any problem you might possibly encounter around the house. For pennies an ounce, baking soda can replace dozens of products. It naturally cleans the shower, refreshes carpets, washes dishes, destroys mold, and removes stains. I use it to wash my hair, make deodorant, take the blech out of sweaty gym clothes, soothe indigestion, and polish silver. (Hahahaha. I dont really polish silver. But you could. And then you could tell me how you found the time... ) Baking soda is one of the best face exfoliators Ive ever used; its like micro-dermabrasion. And, of course, it makes its way into muffins and breads, but it also shows up in my super-fluffy omelets and as a surprise ingredient in my weeknight tomato sauce. Plus its great for art projects, crafting, and DIY science experiments; so really, you can even entertain kids with it. Talk about multitasking!

As much as I would love to take credit as the Baking Soda Pioneer, as with my previous apple cider vinegar obsession, baking sodas age-old street cred has allowed it to maintain a cult following since pretty much the beginning of time. Ancient Egyptians were the first ones to use it as a kind of soap and people have enjoyed its versatility ever since. Amazingly, it took more than 100 tons of baking soda to clean the Statue of Liberty during its 1986 restoration! Your grandmas grandma probably knew of about six uses for baking soda around the home. So, what makes it so special that we can eat it but also clean our socks with it? Beyond being a good leavening agent, baking soda, a.k.a. sodium bicarbonate, is actually a salt. (Taste it and youll see what I mean.) It acts like a cleaning agent because it is mildly alkaline (the opposite of acidic), making dirt and grease dissolve easily in water. That very alkaline nature is also what allows baking soda to neutralize odors, which are mostly acidic. It is slightly abrasive, so when sprinkled on a damp sponge, for example, it acts as a scouring powder, albeit one thats gentle, safe, and effective enough for delicate surfaces, such as glass, chrome, steel, enamel, and plastic. Because it is a pure, natural product that is also a food, it is nontoxicunlike many other household and beauty productsso its green and safe to use around children and pets.

So, get that box out from behind the container of Tuesday nights meatballs and experience firsthand this tried-and-true workhorse. Amidst the chaos of life, I use baking soda every single day to save time (and sanity) so that I can enjoy my kids, my family, and my friends. And so can you.

The short answer: Its ground-up rock. In geek speak, that means it is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. Baking sodaa.k.a. bicarbonate of soda, a.k.a. sodium bicarbonateoriginates from one of two white or colorless minerals, either of which can be processed into what we all know as baking soda. A small percentage of the worlds baking soda supply comes from a natural mineral called nahcolite, the majority of which is found in large quantities in Searles Lake, California, and the oil-shale deposits of Green River Formation in Colorado. But the rest (about 90 percent, actually) of the earths baking soda comes from a natural mineral ore called trona, which is a gray, white, or yellowish mineral (I know this because I did a Google image search and Ive got to tell you, trona crystals are pretty! Id wear trona earrings. Im just saying... ). Trona is largely mined in Wyoming by Church and Dwight Company, makers of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Wyoming alone contains 56 million tons of pure trona (plus another 47 billion tons of trona thats been mixed with other minerals). Because we only mine about 15 million tons of trona per year (?!), the Wyoming Mining Association estimates that we have enough on hand to last us a couple thousand years. So... yeah, I think were good.

Of course, to get from raw mineral ore to indispensable household staple requires a bit of a journey. Trona must first be extracted from the earth, then refined in a purification process that involves crushing the ore, heating it to drive off unwanted gases, and ultimately producing something called soda ash or sodium carbonate. That substance is then further processed through a multistep method of carbonation, centrifuges, driers, and some very cool chemistry that results in baking soda as we know it.