Where does soap come from? #livelocal

This morning as we were washing the dogs I started to wonder where soap and the other cleaning supplies come from.

Again, this is not a topic I've ever pondered before. But it is not just food that we consume. We consume many other products - almost unthinkingly - every day.

It is surprising how much of the cleaning stuff in my cupboard comes from Victoria (doesn't NSW manufacture anything anymore?).

Also interesting to note was that every single product in my cleaning cupboard was made in "Australia from local and imported ingredients".  And a  surprising number of products only had "Australia" as their origin noted on their labels, with no street address and only a customer care phone number.

Anyway all of this made me remember that my mother sometimes made her own vegetable soap and we children used to help.  In fact, she made a lot of stuff from scratch.  We often made our own sweets - toffees, marshmallows, coconut ice, jubes - as well as baking bread, cakes and biscuits.  We also had a friend, an amazing woman called Maria, who taught us how to preserve olives and make granita.  It was lovely to be reminded of these two great women who've been such a strong influence in my life.