This morning my mother and I participated in a local Oktoberfest celebration market. Hubs suggested I start selling all these crafty things that I do, so I filtered through boxes and found four kinds of soap, some reusable flannel hankies, some grapefruit marmalade and some plum sauce to sell. My mother had some jewelery that she made as well as her fantastic healing hand cream.
I started making soap because I read about it in a book 13 years ago and I figured I could make a better soap than you can get at the grocery store. I made small batches (20 bars or less) with vegetable oils and recently branched out into much larger batches (100 bars at a time) and adding animal fats to the recipe. I also am teaching classes for Sand Creek Farm as well as private lessons to those who can’t make it to the farm. Mostly, I would give away bars as holiday gifts and my oatmeal bar always got the most interest.
I love this soap; it really is fantastic. The new recipe with tallow makes a nice hard bar that lasts a long time. It’s nice and gentle, but has little tiny oatmeal scrubbie bits to get you clean. I make other recipes using essential oils like lavender, lemon, bergamot and mint. Sometimes I add lavender or calendula petals to the batches for fun add-ins.
I learned originally from Susan Miller Cavitch’s book The Soapmaker’s Companion. She’s got lots of recipes and step-by-step techniques. I had met Barbara Bobo from Woodspirits Soap on a trip to Ohio and just fell in love with the scents, the process, and the beautiful thick slabs of colorful, creamy soaps.
We didn’t make much money today, but we got to meet people in the community and spent some time outside in the gorgeous day. I was invited to several more bazaars coming up, as well to a local farmer’s market and to teach a private class. All in all, not a bad day!