The snow might be trying to fly (again), but we are definitely ready for spring! Fresh on our soap curing rack – our 1st layered soap naturally colored with parsley and cocoa. Scented with cedarwood and clary sage for some cool, uplifting earthiness, we’re thinking of calling this one Grasshopper. What do ya think?
Rummaging through my rapidly decreasing supply of frozen-fresh-from-the-garden foods a couple of weeks ago, I came across my one remaining gallon bag of (precious!) frozen blueberries. Blueberries are my favorite fruit – berries in general are in my top 5 as far as fresh food goes – but blueberries… fresh or baked in a pie… make me a happy girl. And this is a good thing because I happen to live in a very blueberry prolific part of the country… we have festivals, and stores, and pageants all in honor of the Blueberry. So, in playing around with soapmaking the other week, my contribution to the festivities came to mind easily enough… handmade Blueberry goat milk soap.
I want to keep as much “natural” in my soap as possible, so in my first trial batch, I tried using actual blueberries – crushed and blended with my oils. Well, I was less-than-thrilled with that. The soap turned a brownish pinkish shade with flecks of dark-blue peel throughout. Not a total disaster; the flecks were cool, but the brown was all wrong.
I wanted blue blueberry soap that smelled like blueberries. The only way I found (well, the fastest way) so far to get blue is with colorants, so I succumbed to the lure of brilliant colors and perfumery and used ultramarines and fragrance oil. The goat milk definitely has a diluting effect on the ultramarines – really pulls them into the pastel tone. But with a little experimentation, I found a combination of colors that worked pretty well, I think. The fragrance is wonderful, so that will probably stay. Still, I think this soap recipe could use some tweaking. I wonder if there are natural dyes (woad maybe?) that would hold up to the high pH and saponification process and offer a nice blue in the final product? Has anybody tried this? More research and experimentation.
So, TA-DA! Here is my first batch of Blueberry soap!
Blueberry goat milk soap – freshly cut
Seeing as it has been a couple of months since my last post, there’s a lot to catch up on, but I’ll try to make this short and to the point.
The short of it: we are really enjoying caring for our goats and having fresh milk.
The long of it: in the last couple of months we have experimented with the multitude of ways to use this fresh milk. These experiments have resulted in some products that we love and will continue to make, other products that, to our great disappointment, were flops, and a couple that fell somewhere in between.
| Worked | Flopped | Somewhere in Between |
| Cold-process soap (LOVE IT!) | Hand-cream (resulted in interesting mold development) | Chevre with new rennet (to write about later) |
| Fudge (can we make more, please?) | Feta cheese (at least its edible) | |
| Mozzarella | ||
| Yogurt (finally!) |
I would love to hear what other people do with fresh milk!
One of my favorite things about keeping caprine friends, is having fresh milk… and all the good things I can make with it. When we plunged into our goat adventure this summer, we brought home one doe already in milk. Though the learning curve of the first week was a roller coaster ride in itself (that’s a story for another day), we made it through and have had a steady supply of fresh milk since August.
Right now we are getting about 2 cups of milk/day… and it takes me less than 10 minutes. It may not sound like much but for us right now, this is perfect. I’m still working on perfecting my techniques and recipes, and it’s not so much that I am overwelmed with la leche. It gives us enough to make fresh mozzarella for Pizza Fridays and fresh chevre (that is, fresh goat cheese… kindda like cream cheese… but not the plastic-y Philadephia stuff) for breakfast.
The batch of chevre I made last Friday turned out particularly splendid. Creamy texture and balanced flavor. I like to play with different flavorings, so I usually divide the batch in thirds, and have one plain flavor, one savory flavor, and one sweet flavor. The sweet option was especially delicious: Lavender & Honey. The recipe was simple. To 6oz chevre, I kneaded in:
1 tsp. lavender blossoms
drizzled honey to desired sweetness (estimated 2 Tbsp)
The flavor is… well… flowery and sweet. Spread on a slice of toast makes for a nice treat to start the day.
After 10 years of studying, planning, and saving, we have brought goats home! Four nigerian dwarves have become part of our fold – 2 adult does – Georgia & Savannah (pictured here with me) and 2 kids – Faline & Tiger. We are just delighted to begin our adventures as goat keepers!
Tuesday morning a friend and I got together to make blueberry jam. I provided the water-bath-canning know-how and supplies and she provided the blueberries and recipe, and, I must say, the results of our team effort are Delicious!
The recipe we used looked something like this:
– 8 c. blueberries
– 2 c. sugar
– 1/4 c. lemon juice
We started by heating the blueberries in a large pot until they boiled, stirring frequently. We then added the sugar and lemon juice, stirred well, and cooked to the jelling point (this took about 30 minutes). At that point, we filled the jars with the jam, fitted them with lids and bands, and processed them in the water-bath for 10 minutes.
The jam turned out delicious – lots of fruit flavor and not too sweet. This recipe is definitely going on the Favorites list.
My hubby and I have been on this back-to-the-land/ live more simply/ parent more naturally journey for several years now – since 2003, actually. (and our romantic roots go back even further to the mid-90’s when we shared a passion for recycling in our campus dorms :-). We continually meet new people who are interested in what we are doing, how we are doing it, and sharing processes and thoughts, so we’ve decided to start documenting it… here… using this hi-tech stuff. (truth be told, I am a bit of a Luddite, and I just drag my heels when it comes to using the latest & greatest, new-fangled device… so it’s taken us awhile to get this going).
A couple of things I want to disclose/disclaim right from the get go.
– Most of what we will share here is nothing new. We glean insights on the “how-to’s” from old-timers and old books. We’re not re-inventing anything.
– What we offer here are our own experiences and what has worked for our situation. Since all of us have unique situations, we recommend others to do their homework and implement the practices that work best for their situation.
We welcome feedback, insights, and shared insights. Thanks for visiting!
The Heart-driven, Handmade, and Homegrown Project 