I added my Soap and Shampoo Bar to the Store, it is now available for purchase.

In December of 2013 I began using my homemade soap as a shampoo bar, and for the past 18+ months my husband and I have only used my soap for hair care as well as bathing. For the most part I was happy with the results, although some soaps worked better as shampoo than others. Some of my family members also tried using the soap as shampoo with mixed results, some people loved it and it did not work as well for others. I have now formulated a bar of soap that is especially for hair although it can be used to clean the body as well. After having positive feedback from everyone who tested the first batch for me, I made the addition of marshmallow root to the second batch I made. I like this even better and now have this for sale.

You can check out my store for a full description and email me at ruth20012001@yahoo.com if you are interested in purchasing it.

Spruce Me Up Soap This soap is made using a coconut oil/olive oil base and has ground spruce needles added to it. It is just now ready for testing, and I should be adding it to my store by next week.

Breakfast Bar Soap This soap is also made with one of my base recipes but has honey, oatmeal and cinnamon added. I made this soap last week so it will be ready in about 5 weeks. (Remember: Don’t Eat It!)

Sunflower oil is another ingredient I use in some of my soap and skin care product recipes. I chose sunflower oil after reading articles such as this one,  http://oilypedia.com/4-reasons-to-use-sunflower-oil-on-your-skin-and-6-easy-ways-to-do-it/  and discovering that sunflower oil does contain high amounts of vitamin E and offers qualities such as being anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, moisturizing and acts as a skin protectant.

Another reason I chose sunflower oil is that I have a belief that God provides everything that we need. It is this belief that leads me to search for local, natural remedies. While ingredients such as coconut oil, olive oil and shea butter are terrific for making soap and skin care products, I have absolutely no hope of picking coconuts from a tree in my back yard or going to the local orchard to buy a bushel of olives or shea nuts. These are products that must travel halfway around the world to arrive at my, Michigan, home. This link, http://sanangelo.tamu.edu/extension/agronomy/agronomy-publications/sunflower-production-guide/ , that explains everything you would ever want to know about growing sunflowers, includes Michigan and some of our neighboring states as sunflower growers. Of course I knew that sunflowers could be grown locally since we have grown them for the past few years on our farm. I have not yet identified any local processors of sunflower oil, nor have I grown enough sunflowers to process my own oil, but who knows what the future holds.

I do use sunflower oil in my Face, Hand and Body Balm. I have also used it as an alternative to olive oil, in a soap recipe, after having a lady tell me that they had a severe olive oil allergy in their family. I plan to use sunflower oil as an alternative to olive oil for infusing fragrant herbs, as it has less of a natural scent to it than olive oil, so in theory, when infused, will pick up more of the herbal fragrance.

Until next time 🙂

So on Monday, while my husband was sacrificing blood, sweat and energy (I didn’t see any tears) in the fields, tilling, then seeding next years garlic bed with a cover crop, then weeding and fertilizing all of the vegetables that we have planted, I spent my time pickin’. With apologies to my daughter Kara, the musician, who is probably wondering what stringed instrument mom has decided to take up, I’ll explain that my form of pickin’ involves harvesting plants or parts of plants.

Some of the plants I harvested will be used for food, and others will be used for teas, tinctures, and oil infusions which will then be used in my skin care products. Here is a list of Monday’s Pickin’s and how I will use them.

Stinging Nettle – Nettle is a great antihistamine and is used to treat allergy symptoms. I dry the leaves to make tea, and I also have some that I have made into a tincture. Fresh Nettle Leaves can also be added to soups, stir fries, and my sister even made a pesto with them. I always use gloves when pickin’, cleaning, and chopping nettle and I would not eat raw nettle (unless it has been dried). It is good to know, though, that if you get stung by nettle, drinking some nettle tea will take the sting away. Nettle is another “Wonderful Weed”.

Lemon Balm – Lemon Balm is an herb that is part of the mint family, and it has a wonderful lemony fragrance. I planted a couple of plants several years ago and found that it is very prolific, in fact it has taken over areas in the yard where I have not planted it. It has become a weed. As a tea or tincture lemon balm is know to aid with sleeplessness and anxiety and be good for digestion. Added to creams or ointments lemon balm is said to be good for treating cold sores and insect bites. This is the first time I have harvested lemon balm. I am currently making lemon balm tincture and will dry some, as well, for making tea and infused oil.

Lavender – Lavender is an herb that is most known for its wonderful fragrance and relaxing properties. The following link describes more about lavenders benefits http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_lavender.htm

 I discovered that one of my lavender plants, that I thought had died, was instead producing beautiful, fragrant flowers, so I decided this was the perfect plant to harvest from. The rest of my lavender plants at the farm are in full blossom and being heavily foraged by the honey bees, so I will leave them alone for now. The lavender blossoms are being dried, and although they could be used for tea, I will probably just continue to add them to my soap.

Garlic Scapes – If you have read my previous post you will know that garlic scapes are the long stem that grow up on hard neck garlic varieties. If left intact they will eventually produce a flower head on the garlic and then go to seed. Most garlic growers cut the scapes as they are beginning to form. It is thought that doing this produces larger garlic bulbs. Letting garlic go to seed is not necessary for reproduction because the bulbs can be split into cloves which are then replanted to produce next years bulb. Although most people are still not familiar with eating garlic scapes, in recent years this trend is becoming more widespread. When eaten raw they have a full garlic flavor, but this quickly fades the longer the are cooked. In the past couple of years I have made pesto with them and added them to a few dishes. This year I have made a garlic scape/dill cheese spread, pickled garlic scapes, grilled scapes, and, since they are only available for a few weeks of the year, I put the rest in the freezer to have throughout the rest of the year.

Blue Berries – It’s good to know that we don’t have to travel the world over looking for the best super foods, this one grows right where we live (Michigan). Check out this link to learn about the health benefits of blue berries http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=8  The blue berry bushes that we planted three years ago are doing very nicely and are a little more productive every year. So far we have harvested a couple cups of berries, but we will continue picking small amounts daily to get them before the birds do. If not eaten fresh the blue berries will be frozen for future use.

Wild Rose Petals – One of the wonderful discoveries when we purchased our property (the farm) were these small rose bushes that grow wild along some of the wood line. They produce delicate, pink flowers that have a true rose fragrance. This is the first year that I have harvested any of the flowers, but I have found in drying them that they retain their wonderful scent. If you visit our farm when they are in bloom it is likely that my husband or I will pick a rose and hand it to you to smell because we enjoy them so much. I plan to use these dried rose petal either in an oil infusion or directly in a soap recipe.

Not everything that needed it (currants, raspberries) was harvested on Monday, but the day grew hot, and I, not having as much stamina as my husband, opted for a refreshing swim in the pond.

Until next time 🙂

I notice that many skin care product companies give statements about animal testing, so I thought that I would add mine. Several varieties of my soap have been tested on my dogs, Scout and Trooper, but never before they have been tested on my husband. But in all seriousness, my husband and I are always the first ones to try any new batch of the soap, and probably one or two other family members sample them before I sell any. I do like using them on my dogs; I have found when bathing Scout and Trooper with a bar of my homemade soap that it is easy to work into their hair/fur because it lathers so nicely, rubbing a bar of soap on them makes it easier to control the amount of soap applied to any given area, and this soap rinses out of their hair/fur much easier than any dog shampoo that I have ever used. These truly are family friendly products

Shea Butter is an ingredient that I use in both a face, hand and body balm (Ruth’s Favorite) and in my sunscreen. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what shea butter is because my computer doesn’t know either. Every time I type the word shea it shows up as a spelling error. If, however, you do an internet search for the benefits of shea butter, you will come up with many articles about shea butter. Here is just one example  http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/best-benefits-of-shea-butter-for-skin-hair-and- health/   You will learn that shea butter comes from the nuts of the Karite Tree that grows in Africa. It can be used in cooking, but in the U.S. it is mainly used in skin care products. It has many healing qualities, antioxidant qualities, as well as anti-inflammatory properties. It is said to be a “super food for the skin.”

I have found unrefined shea butter to be very clumpy and difficult to spread on the skin. However, once it is combined with bees wax and other oils, it makes a wonderful balm. I find that shea butter adds a silky feel to the balm and a pleasant scent as well. Both of the products that I make which contain shea butter are well suited for use by the whole family including on baby’s bottom. 🙂

Many handcrafters use shea butter as an ingredient in their soap. I did a test batch of soap using shea butter as one ingredient, and although it was a nice soap, I did not find the results to be superior to the other oil combinations that I use. Thus, because shea butter is a more costly ingredient, I have decided that it is better used in balms and sunscreens.