Make | Conker Laundry Soap

Gather up your champion conkers and give them a new life as a laundrette

Horse chestnuts contain lots of saponin – an organic chemical with a name that’s a clue as to why they’re useful: sapon is ‘soap’ in Latin. While it won’t zap the toughest of stains, this homemade liquid is an economic and eco way for more everyday washing.

The prep: 

• Gather your conkers (about a handful per wash load).
• Remove the outer brown layer, then quarter. 

• Blitz into small pieces in a blender or bash with a rolling pin through a tea towel (Wash any kitchen implements very carefully afterwards as conkers are poisonous to humans). 

• Leave the mixture to dry somewhere like an airing cupboard or windowsill. 

• Once completely dry, store in an airtight jar ready to use. (You can buy ready made ‘washkers’ at watercressqueen.company.site/products)

The wash

• Boil a kettle and add double the quantity of water to the mix used. 

• Steep for at least 30 mins. 

• Filter the liquid through a muslin. The used bits can go in your food waste/compost.
• Use the liquid as you would a normal laundry liquid (add a couple of drops of essential oil if you like it scented).
• Any leftover liquid can be kept in the fridge for a week. 

This Horse Chestnut Laundry Wash is just one of the fascinating ideas from our October Miscellany pages. Turn to page 117 of the October issue to read more miscellaneous things from puzzles and paperweights to turnip carving and foraging for fungi. 

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More autumnal fun…

More from our October issue…

Nature studies | Fly Agaric Toadstools

Get to know this familiar fungi a little better…

These pretty red toadstools with white spots have graced the pages of many a fairytale and greetings card, but spotting a real one in the wild is pretty special. Here are a few facts you might not know about these magical mushrooms…

1. They are mycorrhizal, meaning they form a mutually beneficial relationship with the tree that hosts them. 

2. They’re most commonly found in forests that are home to birch or pine trees. 

3. Fly Agaric take their name from the fact that they attract and kill flies. They used to be mixed with milk and left out in dishes to kill flies. 

4. The toadstools are also hallucinogenic. One of the effects of eating them is a distortion in one’s perception of size. Lewis Carrol made a nod to this in his depiction of the toadstool in Alice in Wonderland, in which the caterpillar tells Alice that eating from one side of the mushroom will make her grow bigger and the other side will make her grow smaller. 

5. The Fly Agaric often featured on Victorian Christmas cards as a symbol of good luck. 

6. Reports of human deaths from eating Fly Agaric are very rare, but all the same, we would advise against trying it. 

You can find out more about Fly Agaric at The Woodland Trust’s website.

And if you’ve been inspired, why not learn to draw one of these beautiful shrooms yourself, like the ones above? In our October issue we have a drawing workshop by Jennie Maizels, founder of Sketchbook Club. You can find a tutorial on how to draw toadstools and other autumnal things by Jennie on page 22. Jennie has run Sketchbook Club from her home and online for five years. For all the kit you need to get started, including paints, pencils and paper, visit: jenniemaizels.com and head to Jennie Maizels’ Sketchbook Club YouTube Channel for supporting ‘How to’ videos for these projects. You can also follow Jennie on Twitter and Instagram at @jenniemaizels.

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More from our October issue…

More nature studies…