Do Soap Berries Really Work?

Recently, I was at Costco and I found a monstrous size bottle of Greenshield Organic Soap Berries.  I’d heard of these little nuggets before, but never tried them, so I picked up a barrel (or so).

Soap berries (or soap nuts) are technically the dried husks of the soapberry and contain saponins, which act as a detergent.  They’re imported from India, which is the main fault I find with them.  They do require a tropical climate, though, so maybe some of you Floridians could plant a mess of the trees and help us all out 🙂

The bottle I bought contains enough berries to wash 365 loads, according to the label.  I’m just starting with them, so I can’t verify that.  They also supply 4 small reusable muslin bags to put the berries in when they go in the washing machine.

It works like this:  grab a handful of berries, 5 or 6 is suggested.  Put them in the little bag and tie it up.  If you are doing a warm water load, you can just stick them in the washer at this point, but if you use cold water, it’s advised that you boil a cup of water and essentially make a tea with the bag.  Leave it sit for 5 minutes or so, then throw the whole shebang in the washer.  I’ve been doing it that way consistently, since I almost never use warm or hot water to wash clothes and it just seems like a better idea to get the berries softened up before they’re expected to do their job.

After the wash is done, pull the bag out and let it dry.  That same little batch of berries is good for a few more washes and when they turn pale and grey-ish, replace them.  You can use the same bag for as long as it lasts.

These particular berries come in an environmentally friendly container, though this is less a change for me as I’ve always used powdered detergent, so no plastic.  There are places to buy soap nuts by the pound, which might be a better idea going forward, but apparently there is a brisk trade in really old/bad nuts, so it pays to do some research.  Here’s an interesting site with more info on that.

That’s my experiment for the past few weeks and it’s been going great.  Clothes come out clean and with no scent to them at all.  That’s good for me, as I’ve had issues with allergic reactions to scented laundry soap.

(I do keep a supply of regular detergent on hand for washing really dirty rags and dog pee-pads.   At some point, I’ll give those things a shot as well.)

Doing laundry is a little more fun when I feel like I’m herbalizing at the same time 🙂