Article by Jeanne Englert
Rural Life – May 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
RUTH BOWMAN’S kitchen soap and milk baths are made in Wetmore, and should be savored by us arid Coloradans.
I received one of Ruth’s milk baths as a Christmas gift, and luxuriated in it before I knew that I was bathing in coffee creamer. That milk bath was scented with patoulie oil, so my husband said I smelled like a 60s Boulder hippie after I emerged from a long, relaxing soak. But it definitely relieved the pain of my arthritic joints and carried my mind away from the evils of this world.
Ruth Bowman is a professional do-gooder who commutes from Wetmore to Pueblo to work for the Pueblo Coalition for the Medically Underserved. This 80-mile commute, she says, has its advantages in time to think.
On the long ride, Ruth has often thought about how nice a good soak in a tub would be, and that idea developed into a vision of how luxurious it would be to have a milk bath, a pleasure once reserved for the upper crust.
Yes, there is powdered milk in the formula along with the coffee creamer, cornstarch, olive oil, and fragrances. I’m looking forward to the almond one.
This experiment led Ruth Bowman to think about making soap, a hazardous occupation. I once toyed with the idea of making soap — until I learned from my mother-in-law, who had done it, that lye burns hurt mightily. Lye is caustic, and inevitably a soapmaker will experience the pinprick stabs of lye spatters.
But for Ruth Bowman, it has been a joy to figure out how to make what she calls her Ugly Kitchen Soap. “I think God was just leading me to make soap” she said.
Whether Ruth’s soap is divinely inspired or not, this is wonderful stuff. Yes, it is ugly — it looks like a turd — but this winter I used Ruth’s soap and never got any of those annoying finger cracks that I usually get.
Formulating her soap took many attempts and extensive research on the internet. Ruth used coffee grounds and honey in one of her formulas, but says “it stunk even more.”
This social worker persisted, though. Ruth learned terms like “saponfication,” and finally found lye at a hardware store. But the hardware store folks were initially suspicious about Ruth’s inquiry because lye is one of the ingredients meth labs use.
What a sad comment on our society. Forty years ago, when a middle-aged woman made inquiries about buying lye it was probably assumed that she wanted to make soap. But nowadays people fear she’s brewing methamphetamines.
The chemistry involved in making soap is difficult to master, but that didn’t deter Ruth, who has found both soapmaking information and a husband on the internet.
Ruth hails from Missouri, and came to know Arthur Bowman of Wetmore on line. She asked where Wetmore, Colorado was. Talk about the boonies. He answered that in Wetmore, he only got mail three times a week — Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
And the nearest Wal-Mart? It was 22 miles away.
But their internet romance prevailed, regardless. Arthur was the man in the aerospace program who discovered that the planet Jupiter had rings.
But now, he and Ruth both live in Wetmore, which as it turns out, boasts many elements of civilization. Wetmore has two churches, two restaurants, and a library.
BUT IRONICALLY THE NAME “Wetmore” has no connection to being wet or near the Wet Mountain Valley. It was, according to Colorado Place Names by William Bright, a stage coach station in pioneer days. William Hayes homesteaded 160 acres in 1880, then sold the site to Frances Wetmore, whose husband, William, surveyed and named the town site. For those interested in Colorado trivia, the Wetmore post office was authorized on March 9, 1877.
But three thousand years before that, soap was apparently discovered by accident in Sapo Hill near Rome — or at least that’s how the legend goes. In the ensuing years, however, people all over the globe have crafted their own soap recipes.
In North America, early settlers made soap by pouring hot water over wood ashes to make an alkali called potash. Then they boiled the potash with animal fats to make soap.
Ruth uses a crock pot to make hers.
Ruth’s husband, Arthur, patiently endured many stinky experiments in soapmaking before Ruth was satisfied, but now she has several formulas. Among the ingredients are olive oil or canola oil, lard, cocoa butter, honey and oatmeal. It takes patience to make soap in a crock pot. One must stir it now and then and watch over it until it thickens, in soapmaker terminology “coming to trace.”
In my opinion, it’s the honey and oatmeal that make Ruth’s soap so terrific. The oatmeal acts as a scrubber. The honey is a humectant which draws moisture out of the air.
Cooking the soap does not finish the job. The trace concoction must be molded. Ruth uses a flat mold that looks like a sheet cake. Once it’s hardened, she cuts the batch into bars.
Ruth’s soap eases chapped hands in the winter and her milk baths soothe tired muscles. So all of you crazy burro racers should love this stuff. What could be better than a long, warm milk bath after a grueling race?
Ruth Bowman is currently creating a website for her products, which she markets as Grammie’s Gifts. But for now they can be ordered by mail at 20728 Hwy. 96, Wetmore 81253. Her phone number is 719-784-2237, and her Email address is ruthbowman2002@surfbest.net
Jeanne Englert visits Central Colorado as time permits, but generally soaks at her home in Lafayette.
