Each week the From the Farm Blog Hop co-hosts welcome a fellow blogger to come join in the fun and guest host along with us. This week’s guest host is Kailyn from A New (England) Life! Welcome Kailyn!

Kailyn Shippee is a wife to Ian and a mommy to Matilda (the baby) and Fenway (the puppy). She loves to crochet, cook from scratch, and dream of the farm they are currently working towards. She blogs about her family, their little homestead and their journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle at A New (England) Life.

Here are the features from last week’s party:

Garden Hoses, Lead & BPA. Preventable Measures to Keep You Safe by Anna@Green Talk

Easy DIY candle: 99.9% Orange, 100% Natural! by Fresh From Home

Increasing Soil Fertility by Sew Grown

The Best Ever Carrot Cake by Jenn’s Random Scraps

Planting Station by Chores and Chandeliers

Congratulations!

Now, on to this week’s party:
1. Link up to three of your best gardening or homesteading tips, farm-themed posts, recipes, homemaking and simple/frugal living tips, decorating ideas, DIY projects, craft ideas, thrifty makeovers or repurposed items, healthy and sustainable living tips.
2. Link back to my blog, or put the link party button anywhere on your blog or post to share the love.
3. Make sure to check out some of the other links before leaving.

Photo provided by Chicken Scratch Poultry http://chickenscratchpoultry.com/

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We can’t wait to see what you share with us!
The Adventure Bite | Sunny Simple Life | 1840 Farm | Let This Mind Be in You | My Healthy Green Family | Fresh Eggs Daily

There is a generation gap that is affecting our culture in a very subtle, quiet way.  We are losing the skills that our grandparents or great-grandparents learned as a part of daily life; life skills that allowed people to thrive more or less sustainably over so many centuries.

With the development and growth of large factories, our parents and grandparents abruptly dropped the use of these skills, and even stopped teaching them to their children.  With mass food production a reality and the use of overseas labour to produce cheap products, an unsustainable culture has been created.  And now we rely on it.

Food has never been so easily accessible or so cheap.  All we need to do right now is go to a grocery store and buy it.  We don’t need to grow it, preserve it, or collect and store the seeds.  We don’t need to milk the cow, or process the food.  We are so far removed from our food that many children don’t even know where it comes from.  And our food products are so far removed from real food that we don’t even know what the ingredients mean.  Our overall health is suffering as a result, and we are now the first generation to have a lower life expectancy than the generation prior to ours.

Our clothing is mass produced in giant factories overseas so that we can get more for less.  Many of us now have no idea how to sew, much less weave or knit.  A lot of our clothing is made from petroleum products rather than natural fibers, and we all have a huge selection of unnecessary clothing and shoes.

Many people hardly know how to cook, and certainly have never made a loaf of bread from scratch in their lives.  In fact, a home-cooked meal generally means opening a can of pasta sauce and a bag of salad mix, cooking some noodles, and pouring a beverage.

Our home and body products are way beyond most of us.  It took me years before I ever tried making soap since I knew it involved lye, a caustic substance.  And homemade deodorant?  Perfume?  Make-up?  Toilet cleaner?  Not a chance!  They involve chemicals that are not only impossible to pronounce, but full of toxins that we certainly can’t get our hands on much less handle.

The difference now is not only in the lost skills, but also in the ingredients or materials that are used.  We have added so many man-made chemicals, preservatives, plastics, colors, fragrances and so on, that even if we wanted to, we have made them pretty much impossible to make on our own.  These ingredients we use are not only potentially toxic, but they are generally unsustainable beyond the immediate future.  They are also, in many cases, unnecessary.  For every product there is a safer, more natural solution that DOES work. They have worked for centuries, and can still work today. By stepping back, bridging the generation gap, and reaching out to those who still know the skills, we can relearn those basic life-supporting skills that have almost died out during the last few generations.

Have you ever had that satisfying feeling of success achieved with your own hands, and by your own hard work?  I have.  Eating a meal that was produced entirely on your property gives a very gratifying feeling.  So does making the plates you are eating from.  Or changing your baby’s diapers that you made.  Or looking at a pantry full of canned goods you canned and grew yourself.  Or knowing that, on a cold, winter night, the farm animals are snug in the barn you built with your own hands.  In a world were so many people are treated with medication for depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, perhaps this feeling of belonging, of success, and of simple gratification would be all that is needed to redirect people in a busy, winner-takes-all, world.

What would you like to learn?  I have a burning desire to learn all the life skills.  While this isn’t practical or even possible, it is definitely possible to learn some of them, and to barter your products for the rest.  There are a few basics that everyone can and should learn.  These would help each family live a more sustainable life, would improve health, and would provide a sense of well-being that comes from the satisfaction of doing something beneficial and natural.

• Cook from basic ingredients.
• Preserve your own food.
• Grow a garden.
• Raise a few chickens.
• Pick a skill and learn it.  Then teach it to your children.
• Make your own body and cleaning products from natural and basic ingredients.
• Reach back to the generation who lived this life and learn from them.
• Reach forward to the next generation and teach it to them.

I look forward to hearing what you are doing to help bridge the generation gap and provide a more sustainable future for the next generation.

This post has been linked to From The Farm Blog Hop#34, Common Sense Preparedness Link Up #3, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #73, and Wildcrafting Wednesday #89.

You might also be interested in my DIY Recipes including homemade fresh lotions, deodorant, washing your hair with baking soda, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, cleaning with lemons, vinegar and baking soda, lip balm, body butter, goat milk and tallow soap, sugar scrub, cotton beeswax plastic wrap alternative, and Faux paper towels.

Welcome to another addition of From The Farm Blog Hop! Last week we had a record 250+ articles linked up, and we are excited to see what you have to share with us this week! The winner of the Drip Watering System is Nichelle Martin! Congratulations Nichelle.

We’d like to introduce you to this week’s guest host, Colleen from Five Little Homesteaders!

Welcome to our little corner of the internet, Colleen, we are happy to have you host with us!

My favorite from last week’s Blog Hop was:

And now, for the From the Farm Blog Hop!

If you would like to join in this week, please share up to three of your best:

• Gardening or homesteading tips
• Farm-themed posts
• Recipes
• Homemaking and simple/frugal living tips
• Decorating ideas
• DIY projects, craft ideas, thrifty makeovers or repurposed items
• Healthy and sustainable living tips

Photo provided by Chicken Scratch Poultry http://chickenscratchpoultry.com/

Please grab the Blog Hop button above or somehow link to this party from your blog. We would love for you to follow our blogs, and if you are a new blog follower, let us know so we can return the favor!

Note: Linking up to this party will automatically sign you up for an invite to next week’s party via email. To unsubscribe, please reply to any email you receive and you will be removed. Linking up also allows us permission to publish one of your photos on our blogs, Facebook, and/or Pinterest pages.

Let’s see what you’ve been up to this week! Don’t forget to visit some of your fellow authors’ blogs and let them know that you found them through the From the Farm Blog Hop!

From the Farm Blog Hop #32!

Photo provided by Chicken Scratch Poultry http://chickenscratchpoultry.com/

Thank you for joining us today at our kickoff of our new blog hop name, format, and best of all, OUR NEW CO-HOSTS! For those of you who don’t know, this blog hop was previously called the Farm Girl Blog Fest, but now that we have more than doubled in size, we want to welcome you to participate in a bigger and better blog hop than before!

Please join us in welcoming:

Leona from My Healthy Green Family, Elaine from Sunny Simple Life
and Jennifer from 1840 Farm!!

We are so happy to have them as part of our weekly blog hop team! And to make the Blog Hop even MORE fun, we are excited to invite your blog to guest host From the Farm Blog Hop with us!

Beginning May 17th, you will be meeting a new blog author and their new blog each week here at From the Farm Blog Hop! If you are interested in guest hosting on your blog please email Kristi here!.

To kick off this momentous occasion, we thought we would really go all out and throw in a HUGE giveaway!

We are thrilled to welcome Irrigation Direct as sponsor of our new launch! They have generously provided an amazing automatic watering system to make one lucky reader’s summer chore list WAY easier!

Irrigation Direct is a fabulous US based small business that provides great irrigation equipment for a fraction of the price you would find elsewhere! The quality is amazing and working with them has been a phenomenal experience. If you are looking to add a watering system to your garden this year definitely check out their Drip Irrigation section….the kits make it super easy to shop too!

All entries must be logged through the Rafflecopter widget to count. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
And now, for our new and improved linky party, From the Farm Blog Hop! If you would like to join in this week, please share up to three of your best: • Gardening or homesteading tips • Farm-themed posts • Recipes • Homemaking and simple/frugal living tips • Decorating ideas • DIY projects, craft ideas, thrifty makeovers or repurposed items • Healthy and sustainable living tips      

Photo provided by Chicken Scratch Poultry http://chickenscratchpoultry.com/

  Please grab the Blog Hop button above or somehow link to this party from your blog. We would love for you to follow our blogs, and if you are a new blog follower, let us know so we can return the favor! Note: Linking up to this party will automatically sign you up for an invite to next week’s party via email. To unsubscribe, please reply to any email you receive and you will be removed. Linking up also allows us permission to publish one of your photos on our blogs, Facebook, and/or Pinterest pages. Let’s see what you’ve been up to this week! Don’t forget to visit some of your fellow authors’ blogs and let them know that you found them through the From the Farm Blog Hop!

  Your From the Farm Blog Hop Co-Hosts:   Dani from The Adventure Bite   Elaine from Sunny Simple Life   Jennifer from 1840 Farm   Kristi from Let This Mind Be in You   Leona from My Healthy Green Family   Lisa from Fresh Eggs Daily  

Thanks again for your support!  We have another exciting announcement coming in the next week.  Stay tuned!

I am honored to announce that I, along with 4 other families, have been selected to compete for The Greenest Family in Vancouver award. The voting is on now and will go until Monday, April 29th.  You can vote once a day. Anyone can vote.  Voting is quick, with no registration or identification, and there are some fantastic green families to choose from!  I would be thrilled if you would take a moment to read the entries and vote.  We are the McEachern family .  Thanks!!

Click here to vote.

Thanks to Vancouver Mom and SPUD for holding the contest!

This fresh hand lotion recipe is built from my basic lotion recipe, but also contains aloe vera gel, witch hazel and chamomile-infused oil.  It is the perfect consistency for a pump bottle, which will also help keep bacteria from entering the product.

Aloe Vera is a cactus plant that belongs to the Liliaceae family.  The gel is extracted from the thick leaves simply by cutting open and scooping out, or can be used to treat burns topically simply by placing a cutting of the plant directly on the burn.  Aloe vera has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties and is beneficial to skin regeneration.  It’s non-greasy, moisturizing qualities make it a great ingredient in fresh lotions.  Learn how to extract it from your own plants for use here.

Witch Hazel is an extract from the leaves and bark of the North American shrub  Hamamelis virginiana.  It has impressive anti-inflammatory qualities and is known to be beneficial in the treatment of, among other skin conditions, diaper rash, razor burn and bug bites.  Witch hazel is also anti-microbial and is used to heal bruises and cuts. It demonstrates some anti-bacterial and anti-viral qualities.

Chamomile flowers come from the Anthemis Eecutita plant.  They are easily harvested from your own flower garden by removing the flowering tops and dehydrating them.  They can be used fresh as well.  Chamomile has powerful anti-inflammatory properties from its natural chemical component, azulene.  It is used for healing and soothing rough or damaged skin.  Chamomile flowers can be used to make a calming herbal tea, or an be infused with oil to be used in cosmetics, providing a beneficial, soothing oil.  To learn how to infuse oils yourself click here.

Materials

• Immersion blender
• Kitchen scale
• Wide mouth mason jar
• Spoon
• Small, thick-bottomed pot
• Small pyrex liquid measuring cup

Ingredients

• 4 oz. chamomile-infused grapeseed oil (or infused oils such as calendula or green tea or plain grapeseed oil)
• 0.5 oz. pure beeswax
• 3.0 oz. distilled water (or to really treat yourself, try flower waters like calendula, lavender or rose, or hydrosols)
• 0.5 oz. pure aloe vera gel
• 0.5 oz. witch hazel (optional, helps lotion feel drier and provides healing properties)
• 10 drops rosemary extract or vitamin E oil (optional, may help extend shelf life)
• 10 drops essential oil of your choice (optional)

Directions

1. In a thick-bottomed pot melt beeswax with oil just until it is melted.  Once melted, add rosemary oil or vitamin E, and essential oil.  Pour into a wide mouth mason jar, set aside and allow to cool until room temperature.
2. The following ingredients must be at room temperature before beginning.  In a measuring cup weigh and add hydrosol or water, witch hazel and aloe vera. Set aside.
3. When wax/oil mixture has cooled down to room temperature (touch the outside of the jar.  If it is hot, it isn’t ready yet) but is still soft, begin blending with a stick blender.  SLOWLY pour your water mixture into the jar in a slow, continuous stream, while blending constantly, circling around the mixture to make sure it is all blended in. You can move the emersion blender up and down and around to help the process.  Don’t pause until all the water has been added.  Continue to blend for a few minutes to ensure your mixture has emulsified.
4. Store in a lidded container for up to 2 months.  Refrigeration will help prolong shelf life.

Notes:

• It is very important to combine your ingredients when they have reached room temperature or your emulsion will fail and your water will separate.  If this happens, drain off the water and use the lotion as a body butter.  It will be greasier but will still make a nice product.
• Always ensure your hands are clean when you use the lotion to prevent bacteria from entering your lotion.
• It is helpful to sterilize your utensils first with boiling water to help prevent bacteria from entering the lotion.
• You can interchange or combine other liquid oils.  Grapeseed oil is known to be one of the least greasy of the oils.
• If you want to add a solid oil (for example coconut oil or cocoa butter) to your recipe make sure most of the recipe is still a liquid oil so the product doesn’t get too solid at room temperature before you have combined the water and the oil.
• You can use any hydrosol or floral water to replace the distilled water. Check the ingredients first to make sure they are pure. Some people have luck using flower “teas” such as chamomile, green tea or calendula but note that this might increase the spoiling rate.
• When choosing essential oils keep in mind that citrus-based oils can be photo-toxic. Used in moisturizers on skin that is exposed to the sun can cause severe sunburns.
• I have linked ingredients to Mountain Rose Herbs, a company that provides high quality, organic ingredients from sustainable sources. Mountain Rose Herbs is my first choice in companies that provide quality ingredients.  Alternatively, most ingredients can be purchased in natural food stores.
• Here is a link to make your own infused oils.

This post has been linked to Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #25, Wildcrafting Wednesday #83, Simple Living Wednesday, Small Footprint Friday #24, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways # 68 , Small Footprint Friday and Homestead Abundance.

You might also be interested in reading:
Back To The Basics: An Introduction To Fresh Lotion and a Recipe.

What is all natural, anyway?

Let’s get this out there right away.  You cannot buy a truly all natural, truly preservative-free lotion.  Why?  Because lotions are made with water, and water is a great medium for growing bacteria.  Lotions with no preservative will not last longer than a few months.  This is completely unacceptable for commercial products that sit on the shelf for months or years before being sold.  A preservative MUST be used in commercial products.

Second, there are no true all natural preservatives.  Some oils like rosemary, have natural antibacterial properties, but none are strong enough to allow a lotion to sit on the shelf for many months.  Some oils, like vitamin E, are antioxidants and will help keep the oils in the lotion from going rancid, but they do not prevent bacteria growth.

Third, the companies that tout their products as being all natural will ALL contain SOME form of preservative that may be derived from nature, but have been changed in some way to make them actually prohibit the growth of bacteria.  The “changing” of those ingredients, or the refining or processing of them, no longer makes them truly all natural.  Grapefruit seed extract is a good example.  It sounds very natural.  It is not.  In fact, some studies indicate that it actually contains, among other things, parabens.

So, this brings me to the point of my post (and much of my life, I have discovered): if you want to make something that is really all natural, you have to make it yourself, and make only small amounts of it so that you don’t have to throw it out if it goes bad over time.  But to be honest, I’d rather take the risk of my lotion growing mold than slather myself with preservatives  that may ultimately contribute to cancer.  That is why I am sharing with you the concept of “fresh” lotions.  We have no trouble making fresh meals, so perhaps we need to reintroduce the age-old (think pre-preservative era) fresh body products too.

Before the invention of chemical preservatives, people really DID use moisturizers.  It was possible to take care of your skin back then.  Cold creams have been around for hundreds, even thousands of years.  The invention of cold cream goes back to Galen, in second century Greece and is still used now.

Take of white wax four ounces, oyl of roses omphacine a pound; melt in a double vessel, then powr it out into another, by degrees putting in cold water, and often powring it out of one vessel into another, stirring it till it be white ; last of all wash it in rose water, adding a little rose water and rose vineger.

—Nicholas Culpeper (1650), London Dispensatory

What is lotion, anyway?
Let’s talk quickly about lotion.  Lotion is a combination of water and oil to create a less-greasy, smooth product that will make a great hand, body and facial moisturizer.  Water and oil do not naturally combine.  Oil will sit on top of the water.  The only way to combine it is by emulsification, or blending it to force the water to combine with the oil, much like making mayonnaise.  They will combine easier and stay together forever if you have an emulsifier.  True emulsifiers are not natural.  Even the plant-based emulsifiers are highly processed.  Beeswax can be combined with borax to make a true emulsifier.  I am not really a fan of borax and would rather not use it.  You can use beeswax as an emulsifier on its own.  It  is more of a mechanical emulsification (ie. it might eventually separate over time) but it has worked well for me and lasts for months, which is as long as your ingredients will last anyway.

Basic hand lotion recipe:

Materials

• Stick blender (immersion blender)
• Kitchen scale
• Wide mouth mason jar
• Spoon
• Small, thick-bottomed pot
• Small pyrex liquid measuring cup
• Spatula

Ingredients

• 4 oz. grapeseed oil
• 0.5 oz. pure beeswax
• 4 oz. distilled water
• 10 drops rosemary extract or vitamin E oil (optional, may help extend shelf life)
• 15 drops essential oil of your choice (optional)

Directions

1. In a thick-bottomed pot melt beeswax with oil just until it is melted.  Pour into a wide mouth mason jar, set aside and allow to cool until room temperature.
2. The following ingredients must be at room temperature before beginning.  In a measuring cup weigh and add water, rosemary oil or vitamin E, and essential oil.  Set aside.
3. When wax and oil combo has cooled down but is still soft, begin blending with a stick blender.  SLOWLY pour your water mixture into the jar in a slow, continuous stream, while blending constantly. Circle around the mixture to make sure it is all blended in, moving the blender up and down, around and around.  Continue to blend for 3-5 minutes to ensure your mixture has emulsified.
4. Store in a sealed container for up to 2 months.  Refrigeration will help prolong shelf life.

This recipe makes a very basic hand lotion that is great to learn on.  You might want to skip the essential oils and rosemary/vitamin E oils while you practice making emulsions until you have it down pat.  Over the next few weeks I will be adding more recipes that will build off this basic recipe and provide different kinds of skin care.  Watch for the next post which will include a hand lotion with added ingredients to make a drier lotion that helps repair skin damage while soothing irritated or chapped skin.  Enjoy fresh body products!  After all, fresh IS best!

Notes:

• It is very important to combine your ingredients when they have reached room temperature or your emulsion will fail and your water will separate.  If this happens, drain off the water and use the lotion as a body butter.  It will be greasier but will still make a nice product.
• Always ensure your hands are clean when you use the lotion to prevent bacteria from entering your lotion.
• It is helpful to sterilize your utensils first with boiling water to help prevent bacteria from entering the lotion.
• You can interchange or combine other liquid oils.  Grapeseed oil is known to be one of the least greasy of the oils.
• If you want to add a solid oil (for example coconut oil or cocoa butter) to your recipe make sure most of the recipe is still a liquid oil so the product doesn’t get too solid at room temperature before you have combined the water and the oil.
• You can use any infused oil in place of plain oil.  (For example, lavender or calendula-infused oils.)
• You can use any hydrosol or floral water to replace the distilled water. Check the ingredients first to make sure they are pure. Some people have luck using flower “teas” such as chamomile, green tea or calendula but note that this might increase the spoiling rate.
• When choosing essential oils keep in mind that citrus-based oils can be photo-toxic. Used in moisturizers on skin that is exposed to the sun can cause severe sunburns.
• I have linked ingredients to Mountain Rose Herbs, a company that provides high quality, organic ingredients from sustainable sources. Mountain Rose Herbs is my first choice in companies that provide quality ingredients.  Alternatively, most ingredients can be purchased in natural food stores.
• Here is a link to make your own infused oils

This post has been shared on Homestead Barn Hop #105, Small Footprint Friday #23, Wild Crafting Wednesday #82, Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #24, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #67, Simple Living Wednesday, Joybilee Farm’s Homestead Abundance and Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday.

You might also be interested in Chamomile-Infused Fresh Hand and Body Lotion.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 8 tablespoons dry ground mustard
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. arrowroot powder (optional, or replace with white flour, used as a thickener)
• 1/2 teaspoon plus 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• Pinch of garlic powder
• Pinch of paprika

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan.  Whisk to combine.
2. Heat until boiling.  Simmer on low for 10 minutes or until sauce has reduced to the thickness you would like it.  Stir frequently.
3. Store in jar in fridge for up to a month.  For a more mellow mustard, allow to sit for a few days to become less hot.

Notes:

• Mustard is hot when first made.  Let is sit for a few days and it will lose much of its heat.
• Makes about 1 cup.

Recipe was adapted from Serious Eats: Sauced: Yellow Mustard.

This recipe has been shared on Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday blog hop.

Soap making: A brief explanation:

This particular soap I have called the Modern Homesteader soap.  I love the challenge of using ingredients I can produce myself, with ingredients homesteaders in my area would have had access to 100 or more years ago. The tallow (beef fat) which I rendered myself from grass-fed beef, and the goat milk from my own goat, satisfy this “homesteader” urge I have.  The coconut oil and olive oil in the recipe are available now to “modern homesteaders” because we have the privilege of transporting these products to where we live so we can benefit from them too.  Old time homesteaders in my area wouldn’t have had access to these ingredients, so this is the modern part.  Olive and coconut oil are both fantastic ingredients in a soap, making a nice, hard soap with a great lather.

Before you start making soap, make sure you read through the recipe and the notes.  Have all your material on hand and your safety precautions in place.  If you are totally new to soap making, you might want to use water instead of goat milk since goat milk can be a bit tricky to use at first.  But, if you are like me, my second time making soap I was using goat milk.

Materials:

Scale
Stick blender
Soap mold (even a shoe box)
Plastic garbage bag
Old towels or blankets
Rubber gloves
Safety goggles
White distilled vinegar, in case of lye burns
Long sleeved shirt
2 thermometers
1 large bowl, 1 large pot
Spatula
Stainless steel whisk
Spoon
Several smaller bowls for measuring ingredients into

Ingredients:

44 oz. tallow
20 oz. olive oil
20 oz. coconut oil
11.7 oz. lye
27 oz. goat milk, partially frozen in ice cube-sized chunks (or water, if preferred)
1 oz. essential oil

Directions:

1. Have all tools and materials ready and available ahead of time.
2. Prepare your soap mold.  You can use an old shoe box or a fancy soap mold, whichever you like.  If using a simple wooden mold or box, line it with a plastic bag, trying to keep as smooth as possible.  You will be pouring your liquid into this so you don’t want it to leak.  Keep your stack of old towels or blankets for wrapping it in, nearby.
3. Wear your gloves, safety glasses and long sleeved shirt!
4. Measure, melt and combine tallow, olive and coconut oil.  Set aside.
5. Combine lye with goat milk.  When adding lye to goat milk, do so VERY slowly, stirring VERY thoroughly to prevent scorching the milk.  If it starts to turn even the slightest bit orange,  back off with the lye, and put the bowl in a separate bowl of ice cubes to slow down the heating.  The milk will melt.  The key to adding milk to soap is to do it very slowly.
6. Measure the temperatures of both bowls.  When both are between 110F and 115F, combine the lye mixture with the oil mixture.
7. Using a stick blender, blend, in a figure 8 pattern, making sure you are blending all of the combination.  Continue to do this until the soap reaches trace. (Trace is when you lift up the blender and a drip sits on top of the mixture slightly, like pudding).
8. Add and mix in essential oil.
9. Immediately pour into prepared soap mold.
10. Cover mold completely with a board, or you can lie plastic wrap or a garbage bag carefully across the top of the soap.
11. Wrap well with old blankets or towels to prevent from cooling too fast.
12. Store in a warm location (room temperature, no drafts) for 24 hours.
13. After 24 hours are up, using gloves, remove from soap mold and cut into pieces.
14. Place pieces on an old towel, with air being able to circulate between each piece.
15. Let sit for 4 weeks, turning soap once a week.
16. If a haze appears on your soap you can simply scrape it off after 4 weeks, or just leave it.

Enjoy!

Tips:

1. Lye is caustic.  It is a powder, and is activated when any moisture touches it.  It gets very hot, very quickly.  Use rubber gloves, long sleeved shirt and safety glasses to prevent burns.  If you do get burnt, pour plain white distilled vinegar directly onto the burn.
2. You want to combine your lye mixture with your oil mixture when they are both about the same temperature.  Sometimes you will have to reheat either the lye or the oils to ensure they are at the same temperature.  That’s ok!  To reheat the lye mixture, place the bowl in a bowl of hot water.  To reheat the oil mixture, put it back on the stove and reheat.
3. When dealing with goats milk (or any milk) you don’t want to scorch your milk.  This can happen very quickly since the lye will heat up very fast.  Freeze the milk in ice cube trays, for easy measurement and a more even melting.  Allow the milk to partially thaw, being slushy when you need it.  If, when  you are mixing your milk and lye, it starts to turn orange, stop, place the bowl of milk in a bowl of ice cubes, and try again.  Add the lye VERY slowly to prevent scorching.  If your mixture is a bit orange, that’s ok… it will turn brown when it saponifies.
4. You can replace the milk content with plain, distilled water if you prefer.
5. If you don’t want to use tallow, don’t use this recipe!  It isn’t recommended to change amounts and types of oils in a recipe since each oil has a different way of reacting to the lye.  I will be posting other recipes that don’t use tallow shortly.
6. This recipe is a large one, and will produce about 7 lb. of soap.
7. What types of oils to select?  Any grade of olive oil will work.  The more virgin it is, the lighter the soap will be in color.  Pomace grade (the cheapest kind) seems to come to trace a little bit faster but may contribute to a darker, slightly greener color.  For the coconut oil, I use an RBD grade (refined) coconut oil.
8. Where to buy your ingredients?  Mountain Rose Herbs has a lot of high quality, organic soap making ingredients.  I have linked to them in the ingredient list above.  Lye cannot be mailed since it is caustic so you will need to find a local supplier.  I have a soap making supplier who is local and I pick up the lye at her store.  The oils can often be bought at grocery stores.
9. Soap-making isn’t scary. It isn’t hard. And it is lots of fun to do with a friend. These bars turned out to be about $1.30 each which is MUCH cheaper than buying quality, homemade soap from a store.

This post has been shared on Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #17, 75th Wildcrafting Wednesday, From the Farm #34, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #75 and Homestead Abundance #9