A Soapy Obsession

It's an addiction I just can't shake. I've made soap for two decades but hadn't made any since we moved to Savannah five years ago. Writing a book, raising two kids, and being a business and finance writer took up a lot of my time. So I thought it was safe to just try it one more time. I was wrong.

As I brought my first new batch to trace, the old urges took over. I was already thinking about scoring my next batch. And the one after that. Before I knew it, I was assessing every container in the house for its suitability as a soap mold. I had a steady parade of pigments, exotic butters and oils, and other soap supplies show up on my doorstep via UPS. I started buying enough lye from Ace Hardware to concern the staff. And my house began to fill with curing batches of soap.

Needless to say, hubs is not happy that I've chased the dragon again. He's quite content with his bars of Dove soap in the shower, and doesn't really want to hear about essential oils and the benefits of fair trade shea butter. After 25 years though, he has resigned himself to my kitchen addictions. Our son is off at university, sparing me his withering commentary about how soap is actually available in stores now.

I will be sharing soap recipes and methodologies in future posts. For now, I'm off to make one- just one- batch of soap. I can stop at one, really...

P.S. for those in the Savannah area, I will be running a soapmaking course this Sunday (October 28) from 11-2. You can register here.


 

The Basic Breadmaking course on Sunday was a smashing success. We made whole wheat sandwich bread, pitas, calzones, and olive mint wreath bread (see picture). At the end of the course, it was all about the eating! We had calzones and bread slathered with the yogurt cheese we had made in the cheesemaking class. Yum!

If you're interested in taking homesteading classes, including making bread, cheese, butter, preserves, pasta, and soap, check out the "Urban Homesteading Courses" link on this blog to find out when classes are and which ones still have spaces available. It's a blast. I promise!

The thing I love most about teaching these classes is that these are skills that are being lost. While my grandmother cooked from scratch almost every day, my mother did not. I believe that these will be critically important skills in the future, as people find more ways to live sustainably and understand what they are putting in their bodies. And there's simply something incredibly satisfying about pulling a hot fragrant loaf of bread out of the oven or turning milk into delicious cheese. They may be little things, but I know these little things will be remembered by my children for the rest of their lives and will be part of what they think about when pining for home. These little things make all the difference!

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers...

Yesterday, we held our first cheesemaking course and we had a full house! Six people signed up to try their hands at making soft cheeses. We made yogurt cheese, Indian panir, and a simple mozzarella. The afternoon was not without its drama, though. Instead of buying milk to make cheese from Kroger as I normally do, I picked it up at Publix because I was running late. Huge mistake! Publix's milk is processed differently than Kroger's and is more homogenized. The milk is pressurized to break up the fat globules which makes it almost impossible to get a good break of curds and whey. We ended up with cheese that looked more like ricotta than anything else. Luckily, I had made all the cheeses earlier in the day from Kroger milk, so we were able to enjoy all of them, along with a little wine. The mozzarella wrapped around grape tomatoes was a big hit and the lemon dill yogurt cheese was quickly devoured.

Even the chickens had a good time as they were the beneficiaries of the leftover whey! All in all, a great day spent with great people. I can't wait for February's cheesemaking class. In the meantime, I have to get set up for today's breadmaking course!