It’s been awhile but I am finally getting back to all those good ol’ homesteading skills that were suspended.
Since we are awash in radishes, I am wanting to make another batch of kimchi but waiting on some cabbage from a local Freedom Farmer
In the meantime, there’s lots of other projects to do – building another bee hive, plantings, harvesting and much more.
At the last Freedom Gardens Swap N Meet last month, we were given some goats milk from a local FGer. Thanks Theresa! I’ve always wanted to make goats milk soap and now I was able to thanks to Theresa generous goats. BTW if you haven’t joined Freedom Gardens then you are missing out. We are closing in on 4,400 members and growing by the day!
(In case you are wondering our goats haven’t been breed so aren’t producing milk just yet)
OK, moving onto the sudsy details.
Soap making is easy but you just have to be careful because you are handling lye. I like to steal Justin’s very matter of fact saying when he comes to explaining how he makes biodiesel (very, very similar to soap making) “it’s safe if you aren’t stupid.” Guy’s, they put explanations so simply. LOL
Anyhow, this was my first time making soap with goats milk. I like simple soap recipes – with no frills or huge list of ingredients. So this simple Lavender Goat’s Milk Soap recipe caught my eye. I had all the ingredients and made a batch yesterday.
After all the mixing, tracing, pouring into molds I use the handy Food Pantrie trays to cure the soap bars.
Since I still have my soap making equipment out, I’ll whip up another batch today. There’s a warning about soap making and it’s usually about handling/using lye well, I have my own – “warning soap making is addicting!”
Theresa, hopefully by this months FG Swap N Meet (mark your calenders it’s on May 24) you’ll get a bar of soap!
Like to learn to make your own. Try our all natural soap making kits with everything you need to make a batch of your very own soap.
Comments(9)
thyhandhathprovided says:
May 5, 2009 at 8:42 amIt looks amazing- great work!
Sean says:
May 5, 2009 at 11:06 amLooks like I need to add soap-making to my list of things to try. Unfortunately, the recipe you cite includes palm oil – http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6082
octopod says:
May 5, 2009 at 3:32 pmYou don’t need cabbage to make kimchi! Just cut the radishes and salt down for a little while, then add the ginger/garlic/green onions/chili and some juice from the last jar and start it fermenting — if they’re good radishes (and you grew them, so you know they are!) they should have plenty of sugar without the cabbage. If you cut them up big enough — 2 or 3 cm diameter — they get a wonderful fizzy fermented thing going on in the middle of each piece…
Can you use the glycerin byproduct from the biodiesel production process to make soap too? (I love glycerin soap.)
Lisa says:
May 5, 2009 at 3:45 pmHow cool. I want to learn to make soap sometime.
Theresa says:
May 5, 2009 at 8:19 pmBeautiful soap. I make soap too & I agree it is addicting.
Donna says:
May 6, 2009 at 6:58 amBeautiful bars! We’ve been gathering the tools and ingredients to make our own soap and had recently ordered some shea butter.
Could you substitute shea butter for the palm kernel oil?
Johanna says:
May 6, 2009 at 11:28 amThat soap sounds lovely! I love goats milk so much, I’m afraid I’d drink it all before I got a chance to make soap out of it. Haha
A friend of mine just taught me how to make soap and I am hooked. It smells so good and leaves my skin so soft, I’ll never go back to store-bought. Here’s mine: http://johannainman.blogspot.com/2009/04/we-made-soap.html
Niki Prince says:
May 12, 2009 at 7:21 amWould like to get a copy of the receipe for the goats milk soap. We hav 6 milking goats and make cheese, ice cream, pudding, etc. Have always wanted to try soap.
Thanks,
Niki
URBAN HOMESTEAD HAPPENINGS | Little Homestead in the City says:
August 13, 2009 at 3:22 pm[…] be using the lavender flowers in the goat’s milk soap (got to get around to making another batch […]