Boerseep: a labour of love inspired by ouma

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 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 (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.