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Last year, I read this article on Survival Blog by Sarah Latimer, and found it interesting. https://survivalblog.com/household-basics-in-teotwawki-part-1-by-sarah-latimer/
Prior to this article, I had gotten some 13.5 pound pouches of baking soda for my preps, but didn't even know how difficult Sodium Bicarbonate would be to acquire in a SHTF situation and how important it could be to have. Currently, a pouch at Costco is $6.99.
Household Basics in TEOTWAWKI- Part 1, by Sarah Latimer
"...Baking Soda- Sodium Bicarbonate
Baking soda is one item that I think most people take for granted. It is classified as an acid salt, formed by combining an acid and a base, and it reacts with other chemicals as a mild alkali. At temperatures above 300 degrees Fahrenheit, baking soda decomposes into sodium carbonate, water, and carbon dioxide. It’s used as a leavening ingredient in biscuits, pancakes, and other breads. When combined with an acid, such as lemon juice, carbon dioxide gas is released. As the gas expands during baking, the cell walls expand also, resulting in a leavened biscuit, pancake, or other bread. This is how I use it most, but I also use it all around the house, in the kitchen sink, in the refrigerator, all over the bathroom, in the laundry room and washing machine, and even at my dressing table in deodorant.
Baking soda has many other uses in the home, in addition to its use as a leavening agent. I use it in cleaning, deodorant, toothpaste, laundry, medicine, and neutralizing water pH. I’ve even used it to put out a small kitchen fire, as it is a fire retardant. It’s pretty useful stuff!
It’s crystalline structure makes it a good abrasive for cleaning those hard surfaces gently without scratching them. For this same reason it is used as an ingredient in toothpaste or even used as a tooth abrasion alone with just water. I find that the combination of baking soda and vinegar left to foam and sit for ten minutes on the grime and mineral deposits on my porcelain sinks and tubs before I lightly scrub with a brush and rinse works beautifully without damaging our septic system. Remember that in TEOTWAWKI, we won’t have septic pump service so it will be more important than ever to keep our delicate septic systems working. We’ll need that bacteria alive and breaking down its contents to keep the septic draining without filling up. It is my belief that we should practice now, as much as it is practical to do so, what we will need to do then so it won’t be foreign and add to the stress.
Baking soda’s odor absorbing qualities make it good as an ingredient in deodorant, for keeping a refrigerator and carpet smelling fresh, and as a laundry additive. Plus, its mild alkalinity helps break down fatty acids contained in dirt and grease into a form of soap that can be dissolved in warm water and then easily rinsed away.
So, what I’m telling you is that I use baking soda to bake with but also as an ingredient in many of the items that I make for our family that would otherwise be purchased and in a TEOTWAWKI situation unavailable. I also use baking soda to make healthier versions of household items than what is available at the big box stores, and this is important to me right now, even though I have other options available, because our family’s health is of precious value!
Those of us living in the west and certainly in the Redoubt are fortunate that the raw material used to produce baking soda is found nearby– in Colorado and Wyoming. However, it does require processing. Baking soda is not something that you are going to find lying around in the woods, be able to dig out of your back yard, or collect from a plant or animal, even though Egyptians did find natron, which contains some sodium bicarbonate, in saline lake beds that they used for cleaning, antiseptic, soap making, and even mummification. We’re just not going to find the baking soda we are used to using lying around. Sodium bicarbonate must be extracted from mineral compounds, which are usually found deep within the earth.
Production
Today, most of the baking soda that is produced comes from soda ash processed out of a mined mineral called trona. Trona is a relatively rare sodium-rich mineral, but it is Wyoming’s main export. Wyoming is a major producer of trona, which is mined and then processed into soda ash. Soda ash is a significant economic commodity because of its use in manufacturing glass, chemicals, paper, detergents, textiles, paper, food, and in conditioning water. Soda ash is an ingredient in both baking soda and in detergents. Not only did the Egyptians use natron, but they used soda ash to make glass containers. The early Romans used soda ash as an ingredient in medicines and also in bread.
Mining in Wyoming occurs at depths ranging from 800 feet to 1600 feet below the surface in trona beds that are 8 to 14 feet thick. The trona ore is recovered utilizing dry or wet methods and then processed into soda ash.
I’m not fond of this organization, but the Bureau of Land Management has quite a lot of information about the mining of trona. According to their website, “Dry mining is similar to underground coal mining; the mine workings are developed using room-and-pillar and longwall mining techniques. The mining cycle includes shearing the trona from the face with either a longwall shearer or continuous miners and then loading it onto conveyor belts. The conveyor belts move the trona to ore skips that carry it to the surface through vertical shafts. The recovered trona ore is stockpiled on the surface to be used as feed for the processing plant. Wet mining (solution mining) is done by injecting a solution from the surface into the trona deposit using a series of bore holes as injection wells. This is done in either previously unmined ground or in the mined-out areas of active operations. In both cases, the injected solution dissolves the trona ore which saturates and enriches it. Subsequently, the saturated solution is pumped to the surface through recovery wells for further processing into soda ash. Some mine operators use dry recovery methods for primary ore extraction and then wet mining methods for secondary recovery. This technique results in maximum recovery of the trona reserve, some of which was previously considered unminable.”
The above described mining process of extracting trona and processing it just gets us to the production of soda ash, which is sodium carbonate, and that’s not the sodium bicarbonate that we are using as baking soda in our households today. From soda ash, it still needs to be dissolved in water and treated with carbon dioxide in order to precipitate solid sodium bicarbonate. This is known as the Slovay process. So, baking soda is really a natural bi-product of trona, or other minerals... more to the article that won't fit here. Click on the link to see all of it.
Prior to this article, I had gotten some 13.5 pound pouches of baking soda for my preps, but didn't even know how difficult Sodium Bicarbonate would be to acquire in a SHTF situation and how important it could be to have. Currently, a pouch at Costco is $6.99.
Household Basics in TEOTWAWKI- Part 1, by Sarah Latimer
"...Baking Soda- Sodium Bicarbonate
Baking soda is one item that I think most people take for granted. It is classified as an acid salt, formed by combining an acid and a base, and it reacts with other chemicals as a mild alkali. At temperatures above 300 degrees Fahrenheit, baking soda decomposes into sodium carbonate, water, and carbon dioxide. It’s used as a leavening ingredient in biscuits, pancakes, and other breads. When combined with an acid, such as lemon juice, carbon dioxide gas is released. As the gas expands during baking, the cell walls expand also, resulting in a leavened biscuit, pancake, or other bread. This is how I use it most, but I also use it all around the house, in the kitchen sink, in the refrigerator, all over the bathroom, in the laundry room and washing machine, and even at my dressing table in deodorant.
Baking soda has many other uses in the home, in addition to its use as a leavening agent. I use it in cleaning, deodorant, toothpaste, laundry, medicine, and neutralizing water pH. I’ve even used it to put out a small kitchen fire, as it is a fire retardant. It’s pretty useful stuff!
It’s crystalline structure makes it a good abrasive for cleaning those hard surfaces gently without scratching them. For this same reason it is used as an ingredient in toothpaste or even used as a tooth abrasion alone with just water. I find that the combination of baking soda and vinegar left to foam and sit for ten minutes on the grime and mineral deposits on my porcelain sinks and tubs before I lightly scrub with a brush and rinse works beautifully without damaging our septic system. Remember that in TEOTWAWKI, we won’t have septic pump service so it will be more important than ever to keep our delicate septic systems working. We’ll need that bacteria alive and breaking down its contents to keep the septic draining without filling up. It is my belief that we should practice now, as much as it is practical to do so, what we will need to do then so it won’t be foreign and add to the stress.
Baking soda’s odor absorbing qualities make it good as an ingredient in deodorant, for keeping a refrigerator and carpet smelling fresh, and as a laundry additive. Plus, its mild alkalinity helps break down fatty acids contained in dirt and grease into a form of soap that can be dissolved in warm water and then easily rinsed away.
So, what I’m telling you is that I use baking soda to bake with but also as an ingredient in many of the items that I make for our family that would otherwise be purchased and in a TEOTWAWKI situation unavailable. I also use baking soda to make healthier versions of household items than what is available at the big box stores, and this is important to me right now, even though I have other options available, because our family’s health is of precious value!
Those of us living in the west and certainly in the Redoubt are fortunate that the raw material used to produce baking soda is found nearby– in Colorado and Wyoming. However, it does require processing. Baking soda is not something that you are going to find lying around in the woods, be able to dig out of your back yard, or collect from a plant or animal, even though Egyptians did find natron, which contains some sodium bicarbonate, in saline lake beds that they used for cleaning, antiseptic, soap making, and even mummification. We’re just not going to find the baking soda we are used to using lying around. Sodium bicarbonate must be extracted from mineral compounds, which are usually found deep within the earth.
Production
Today, most of the baking soda that is produced comes from soda ash processed out of a mined mineral called trona. Trona is a relatively rare sodium-rich mineral, but it is Wyoming’s main export. Wyoming is a major producer of trona, which is mined and then processed into soda ash. Soda ash is a significant economic commodity because of its use in manufacturing glass, chemicals, paper, detergents, textiles, paper, food, and in conditioning water. Soda ash is an ingredient in both baking soda and in detergents. Not only did the Egyptians use natron, but they used soda ash to make glass containers. The early Romans used soda ash as an ingredient in medicines and also in bread.
Mining in Wyoming occurs at depths ranging from 800 feet to 1600 feet below the surface in trona beds that are 8 to 14 feet thick. The trona ore is recovered utilizing dry or wet methods and then processed into soda ash.
I’m not fond of this organization, but the Bureau of Land Management has quite a lot of information about the mining of trona. According to their website, “Dry mining is similar to underground coal mining; the mine workings are developed using room-and-pillar and longwall mining techniques. The mining cycle includes shearing the trona from the face with either a longwall shearer or continuous miners and then loading it onto conveyor belts. The conveyor belts move the trona to ore skips that carry it to the surface through vertical shafts. The recovered trona ore is stockpiled on the surface to be used as feed for the processing plant. Wet mining (solution mining) is done by injecting a solution from the surface into the trona deposit using a series of bore holes as injection wells. This is done in either previously unmined ground or in the mined-out areas of active operations. In both cases, the injected solution dissolves the trona ore which saturates and enriches it. Subsequently, the saturated solution is pumped to the surface through recovery wells for further processing into soda ash. Some mine operators use dry recovery methods for primary ore extraction and then wet mining methods for secondary recovery. This technique results in maximum recovery of the trona reserve, some of which was previously considered unminable.”
The above described mining process of extracting trona and processing it just gets us to the production of soda ash, which is sodium carbonate, and that’s not the sodium bicarbonate that we are using as baking soda in our households today. From soda ash, it still needs to be dissolved in water and treated with carbon dioxide in order to precipitate solid sodium bicarbonate. This is known as the Slovay process. So, baking soda is really a natural bi-product of trona, or other minerals... more to the article that won't fit here. Click on the link to see all of it.
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