Skills or Hobbies-- you gather new ones while on a farm

As we live here on Serenity we are slowly learning new skills that we either saw people do or heard of but never realized we would need to or want to do. One is canning or dehydrating which as the gardening season goes on I am sure I will share my adventures there. Today I want to share one of the fun hobbies I like doing and would honestly do more often if I didn't have little ones running underfoot 24/7.

Hand Crafted Soap-

Making soap is a science, you can make yours from scratch using different fats/oils you prefer or you can buy **premade bases. Either way your getting a real natural soap in its truest form. Soap is made from fats/oils (either animal or vegetable) and a lye solution. Here at Serenity we make a majority of our soap with a Goats Milk Lye Solution meaning we use goats milk as our base liquid. All fats need to be of food grade quality. We have played with many different fats here and I highly recommend either MMS Calc or SoapCalc to get you started with since you will want to make sure you have a good mix of fats and the correct amount of lye. I never make a batch of soap without running it thru a calc first. Both calcs can also help you get the properties of each fat/oil.

If your asking yourself why:

1. Generally all commercial soaps have additives that can dry out or irritate your skin, with handcrafted soaps its all 100% natural oils with no additives.
2. Most commercial soap companies also pull out all the glycerin (a byproduct from the chemical reaction) and sell it for using in other things including lotions or even your food. Doing this causes those bars to become more of a detergent then a body soap.
3. By using or making handcrafted soaps you can have a soap designed to your skin and scent preference.

One thing people are weary of is the Lye. When I first met a friend out here on her soap she had a sticker saying No Lye No Soap. You have to use lye to make your soap and while it is dangerous if misused its not if you learn and are careful. If you read any soap makers website they will tell you that "Yes we use lye, but once the lye hits the oils and the saponification happens the lye is no more." After Saponification (the chemical reactions of the fats and lye solution) you then have soap and glycerin-- soap to clean you and glycerin to moisturise.

**Be aware that some ready made soap bases can be a detergent soap also.

Reading all ingredients or talking to your soap maker is always a good idea. Go visit your local farmers market and see if you have a soap maker that is close by, they are normally more then willing to talk about the benefits and process of their soap.

Some of my favorite websites: Bramble Berry , Teach Soap, SoapQueen or MMS

Happy Soaping!!

"For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them." Numbers 19:17 NIV