Prepping for Fall (and Winter)

Those of you who follow me on Facebook probably saw the other day that I was prepping for Fall and then I posted a bunch of pictures of soaps I was making that day.  Of course if I were you I’d think why so far in advance?  Well like fine wine, I will sell no soap before its time! 

The process of making soap involves mixing warm butters and oils with an alkaline solution (goats milk and lye) to produce a salt, that’s the soap!  The percentages of the different oils and butters use are important because they determine what properties your soap will have.  Some oils and butters make a soap more cleansing, some make it more conditioning.  After the liquid soap batter is poured into molds the process of saponification begins and bars begin to harden.  After 24 hours you can remove the soap from its mold and cut into bars but it’s really not done!  Saponification can take as long as 2 weeks to complete!  Which when you’re making the stuff is an eternity!  We soap makers are very impatient people  🙂 

So your response might be, “if saponification is done in two weeks why on earth do I have to wait 6 weeks to get a bar of soap from you?”  Well soap needs time to mellow and it needs time to become hard.  a 2 week old bar is still very new and still very moist.  By allowing the moisture to evaporate the soap becomes milder, harder, richer lather, and a longer lasting bar! 

So this past weekend I made halloween soap (scented with patchouli and anise) and sweet potato pie soap (can I just eat it?  It smelled that good).  Last night I made guest sized ghosts scented with fresh picked strawberry for the kids in the crowd.  Coming up I have mistletoe and christmas wreath, oooo and apple jack and peel!  So desipte the fact that I cursed Wal-mart today for putting out Halloween decorations in August, I suppose I am just as gulity!  Happy Fall Ya’ll!

My curing rack. Some may say it’s a little big but I like to think of it as spacious!