North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Bruce Hansen" <brucedhansen@sbcglobal.net>]

Remembering that one must put the slop/pee pot and the ashes someplace and as in the case with hominy the old wives found a useful purpose for the byproducts of living on the land.

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Doc Lisenby
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 12:39 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Re: Hardwood Ashes

Seems like I have heard that "potash" got the name from leached wood ashes.  I believe it is Potassium Sulfate or Potassium Carbonate which is found in commercial fertilizers but I've heard "potash" used for several different potassium compounds.   I have also been told that different woods yield different amounts of desired horticultural nutrients  when they are burned which is plausible.  We used to use leached wood ash water to make hominy and "grandma's lye soap" back in the '30s.  Ashes seem to make lilacs bloom profusely, but so does emptying the slop jar/pee pot on them.

Doc Lisenby