Summer is so much fun and life is busy right now. There are many things going on that I want to blog about but will have to be written in the future. Things like getting ready to harvest about 3600 bulbs of garlic and our trial run with the old (possibly 1930 John Deere) potato digger that we hope to use to dig garlic with. Also our attempt at sun drying currants and making currant wine. I have several herbs that I have infused in oil or alcohol for adding to balms or making medicinal tinctures. I have also found mullein leaf and root beneficial when made into tea. We have harvested more honey and bees wax, and one of our hens hatched two chicks last week. (I’m not on twitter but I have two peeps) The good news is that I have purchased a camera and will be taking as many pictures as I can and add photos my posts whenever possible. So I will continue to post as often as I can, and I hope you will continue stopping buy from time to time to see what I’ve added. I will continue to check my email and comments daily so if you would like information about any of my products feel free to may contact me. I hope your summer is as fun as mine is.

Until Next Time 🙂

Here is a quick story for those of you who haven’t heard how my soap got the name Don’t Eat It!

One day while I was in my kitchen cutting a slab of soap into bars, my youngest daughter, who was then in her mid teens, walks in. She glanced at what I was doing and immediately exclaimed “OH, Fudge?” Her excitement was extinguished when I quickly replied “No, soap. Don’t eat it!” Well not long after this I sent some soap home with my dad in a bag of groceries. I told him what it was, but he called me not long after he got home. “What is that stuff in the plastic baggie?” he asked. “Soap” I replied. “Oh I thought maybe it was fudge or cheese,” he said. “No,” I said, “Don’t Eat It!” So first it became a joke, but I eventually decided to name my soap “Don’t Eat It”

The story doesn’t really end there because one day, I was making labels for a batch of soap, and as I typed, “Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Almond Milk, Honey, Cinnamon,” I realized that those were all the ingredients that my breakfast bowl of oatmeal contained. (Yes I have put olive oil on oatmeal.) So other than the sodium hydroxide (lye) that is the necessary ingredient in making soap, this and many of my other soaps (coconut, pumpkin spice, peanut butter, cocoa) are completely edible.  The ingredients generally come from either my kitchen or my garden. You may have heard the saying “If you can’t eat it, you shouldn’t put it on your skin,” and with a couple of exceptions ( zinc oxide, sodium hydroxide) I have begun to subscribe to this philosophy in making my products.  So when you read my product label, and you think “yum” that sound s good, just remember “Don’t Eat It”.

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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 🙂