Old-fashioned vanilla soap recipe

I haven't made soap as often as I would like since the girls were born, so some of my oils have been sitting around for a couple years. Time to use them up! I made a lovely batch of vanilla soap last week and it's creamy, lathery and reasonably sudsy. Here's the recipe...

Base fats and oils (oz wt):
28 ounces rendered tallow
7 ounces coconut oil
5 ounces sweet almond oil
4 ounces grapeseed oil
3 ounces olive oil
2 ounces cocoa butter
2 ounces shea butter

17 fl ounces distilled water
7.2 oz wt lye (NaOH)

Vanilla fragrance oil and honey added at trace.

See my basic making soap instructions in a previous post. I use the lye calculator at https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html

Here's some pretty photos I took in our backyard on the rocks. :) The vanilla fragrance is so subtle and sweet!

Growing PUMPKINS!!

Well folks, I'm really turning into a pumpkin nerd! This is the fourth year I've tried growing pumpkins and this year's patch is by far the biggest and most weed-free. By the looks of it, I'll have a nice little surplus to sell by the road. I know people stop for our sweet corn, but will they stop for pumpkins? I hope so! Here's a few little sneak peaks of the growing pumpkins and gourds...

Farm Women: Dealing with the "Other Woman"

Planting season is in full swing and you can almost hear the resounding groans coming from farm women all across the Midwest! Not that we aren't happy to see the crops going in the ground... this is our livelihood, after all! Blogs like this one are popping up in my newsfeed and it's great to know that we're in this together!

Now that I've joined the ranks of farm wife and mom, I've been thinking about an article that my father asked me to read while I was dating my row crop farmer. "If you're going to marry a farmer, you'd better read this", he said. Although it was ten years ago, I've never forgotten the message. It was a "cautionary tale" written to farm wives (or future farm wives), published in FarmWeek, which is the Illinois Farm Bureau weekly publication.

The message was this... Your farmer husband's first love was the land and the livestock. While he loves you and is married to you, he's also married to the land. You could think of the land as "the other woman". His commitment and love for the other woman runs deep, and usually she comes first; before wedding anniversaries, family vacations and birthday parties. Does this scenario sound familiar, fellow farm wife friends??

Reading this article as a 20 year old really didn't mean much, but I get it now. I think the author was spot on when he described the "jealousy" and frustration that I would feel when my husband and father of our children just. didn't. come. home. ever. But it's not all doom and gloom! While it's true nothing can prepare you for being a farm wife and mom, it helps to remember that you're playing a vital role in agriculture, whether you are directly involved on the farm or not. Farm men and women across this nation work really hard to produce food for a growing population. They might lie awake at night and worry about production and financial uncertainties. So whether you're driving the combine, vaccinating cattle or preparing field dinners, remember that you're part of something really important.

Spring, 2009. Bringing lunch out to the field.

My friend Keri snapped this and it's one of my all time favorites!

http://kerihamiltonphotography.com/

Okay I'll admit it, I haven't been handling this planting season as gracefully as I would like. Ladies, this is hard, and my seasoned farm woman friends tell me that it doesn't get easier. So hang on, we're almost through planting season, 2014! It's funny how often I think of the article that taught me that my husband is married to the land. It really was a good lesson. (Thanks Dad!) I would really like to find an electronic version of that article but I haven't been successful. If you find it, please send it my way! Thanks for reading.

Introducing...

My husband Scott and I are proud to introduce our twin daughters who were born on October 6, 2012.

Julie Anne weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces and was born at 1:13 a.m. via emergency c-section. Kaylin Jewell followed one minute later weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce. They were born at 36 weeks and 5 days and all the doctors and nurses were proud of their weights! They are now 7 months old, and I'm thinking of getting back to my hobbies!

Here they are, in front of the bare garden! Won't be long until it's full of vegetables (hopefully)! Pray that we don't have a terrible drought again this year!

Homemade Moisturizer with Cocoa Butter & Shea

Just got done making a lovely homemade moisturizer! My husband and I are expecting our first child, and I wanted to make a moisturizer I can use daily to help prevent stretchmarks. Okay, I must admit I tried making homemade body cream last winter (without researching anything) and it failed miserably! If I had done my research, I would have known that all lotions need an emulsifier (to bond the water with the oils) and stearic acid (to thicken the cream). So my first attempt was not pretty.

Several homemade moisturizers call for beeswax because it's a natural emulsifier, but I just ordered emulsifying wax and stearic acid from wholesalesuppliesplus.com, which is where I order my soap making supplies. It was much cheaper than beeswax.

A moisturizer that is less than 50% water is considered a body cream. I used this ratio:

Water - 55%
Oils - 38%
Emulsifying Wax - 4%
Stearic Acid - 3%
I believe that adds up to 100%...

I didn't worry too much about making the measurements perfect. Here's the recipe I used.

• Just over two cups of water
• 1.5 cups combined oils, consisting of mostly cocoa butter, a scoop of shea butter, and a splash of sweet almond oil (see, not very scientific!)
• ~3 Tbs. stearic acid
• ~4 Tbs. emulsifying wax

Keep in mind this recipe makes close to 40 ounces of moisturizer.

Melt all the oils in a pan on low heat, stirring continuously.

Place water in a blender. Once the oils are melted, add them to your water and blend on low for several minutes. Add a few drops of essential oil or fragrance oil if you desire. Quick note: Essential oil is natural, fragrance oil is synthetic.

It takes about an hour before it becomes a creamy consistency. As it cools, it thickens.

If you won't be able to use it up within three months, store it in the refrigerator. One final note, I'm always curious about the cost of homemade versus store-bought. Homemade doesn't always come out cheaper but sometimes it does. I compared my cost per ounce to that of Suave Cocoa Butter with Shea Lotion.

Homemade Cocoa Butter with Shea - 15.2 cents per ounce
Suave Cocoa Butter with Shea Lotion - 16.6 cents per ounce

Am I saving tons? Nope. But there's something satisfying about knowing every ingredient in my lotions and soaps.

Garden Mulch: A Lifesaver!

My garden is in full swing, and I'm going to have my hands full this summer with food preservation! Although it will be much work, I'm looking forward to harvesting and canning/freezing/dehydrating the bounty! We had a fabulous Spring, but now we are entering a bit of a drought, so we're having to water our gardens in southern Illinois. I recently heard an interview on the radio with a University of Missouri Extension Master Gardener. He said it is better to water your garden early in the morning rather than in the evening. The reason for this is so water doesn't hang on your foliage all night, which can increase the likelihood for disease. If you water in the morning, the sun will dry the leaves, which makes for a happier plant. Good to know!

I am always trying to learn new things to become a better gardener. Last year I began mulching my garden with newspaper and straw. I was hesitant to put newpaper in my garden, but boy, was it a time saver when it came to watering and weed pulling! I will ALWAYS mulch my garden from now on. Here are some of the benefits:

1.) Newspaper and straw/leaves/grass clippings help hold moisture in the soil, so less watering is needed.
2.) When the mulch breaks down, it helps contribute to a nutrient rich, organic soil. Do it year after year and watch your soil change!
3.) No weed pulling or spraying! The newspaper keeps sunlight from getting through for those pesky weeds.

So, this is my commercial for mulching. It takes a little work, yes. But I will gladly take one day of work over many days of chopping weeds and watering. Plus, I'm improving my soil!

Here is a photo of a mulched tomato plant from my garden. Simply place a layer of newspaper or magazine pages on the ground, then cover with straw, leaves and/or grass clippings. No tilling, no weeding, no spraying, less watering!

Nice Lathery Soap Recipe

Finally! A soap recipe that has a nice, stable lather in the shower. All of my previous batches didn't lather quite as well, but they were still nice. I'm a big fan of using tallow as my base fat for all my soaps. It's free and just requires a little work to render.

You will need:
Pot for melting fats & oils
Stainless pot for mixing soap
Mason jar for lye water
Spatula
Thermometer
Kitchen scale
Mixer
Soap Mold
Note: You will not be able to use your kitchen items after you use them for soap making.

Fats & Oils (oz wt)
28 oz tallow
3 oz olive oil
3 oz coconut oil
2 oz sweet almont oil
2 oz shea butter
3 oz cocoa butter

2 oz grapeseed oil (added at trace)

Lye Water
5.2 oz wt lye (sodium hydroxide)
10 - 15 fl oz water or other liquid

Combine fats & oils until all fats are melted. Meanwhile, pour the water or liquid in a mason jar. ALWAYS ADD THE LYE TO THE LIQUID. Adding liquid to lye will cause an explosion. Preferably, mix your lye water in the garage or a well ventilated area.

Let your fats & oils mixture cool to about 100 degrees F. Do the same with the lye water. Don't let your lye water cool to less than 100 degrees. I've heard that some people never monitor the temperatures, but I have always monitored the temperatures. I have found that if you try to mix your soap with extremely hot liquid, it will take a long time before it comes to trace.

While you are waiting for them to cool, prepare your soap molds. I have a wooden soap mold, but you could use a shoebox lined with parchment paper.

Time to mix! Combine the fats, oils & lye water in a stainless steel container and mix with a hand mixer. You could do it by hand, but you will be mixing for a LONG time. You will notice a change right away, but you will probably need to stir for at least 15 minutes.

Once the mixture starts to look like pudding, that's known as the trace stage. You have to work quickly once it reaches trace. Now you can add essential oils, fragrance oils, and other delicate oils. I added some grapeseed oil at trace, because I didn't want to lose it's properties once it mixed with the lye. I also added some apple fragrance oil.

Pour your soap into a mold and smooth it with a spatula. You will be able to cut it the next day, but you will need to wait a week before you use it. Enjoy!