Boerseep: A Labour Of Love Inspired By Ouma

Making boerseep takes hours, and the combination of ingredients and timing are crucial to the process. After years of searching for a traditional recipe, Esmarelda van der Walt of Bothaville has become an expert at making this pure, all-purpose, biodegradable soap.

- Annelie Coleman

FAST FACTS

• Boerseep is a time-honored South African heritage, started by the Voortrekkers on their treks from the Cape into the interior.

• The soap is made according to the traditional method where animal fat is used instead of oils. It is pure and versatile soap, and an excellent stain remover and whitener.

• Making boerseep requires precise timing and accurate temperature control.

Making boerseep involves science, art and more than a little muscle. It begins with collecting rainwater, then adding lye and tallow, and then stirring (and stirring and stirring) by hand until the mixture is creamy and the fat and lye have finally dissolved.

“Making boerseep is all a matter of timing, temperature and ratios, with the hot caustic soda (lye) and hot beef tallow mixed carefully once at the right temperature,” says Esmarelda van der Walt, a mother of three who farms with her husband, Fanie, on Middelspruit near Bothaville in the Free State. It is believed that the Voortrekkers originally produced boerseep (roughly translated as ‘farmer’s soap’) on their treks from the Western Cape to the interior of southern Africa. As their basic ingedient, they used animal fat, rendered in large, cast-iron pots until it separated from the bones and meat.

Van der Walt says her motivation to learn to cook boerseep came from her grandmother, Susan Potgieter, whom she fondly remembers cooking the soap on an open fire in a huge iron pot on the farm Goedehoop in the Bultfontein district. According to Van der Walt, the blocks of pure, snow-white soap were ouma’s pride and joy, and she wanted to follow in her footsteps.