10th ave. soapworks

Yesterday I had two hardworking girls join me for an afternoon of baking. We were making dog biscuits to sell at a couple of fundraisers for the Autism Service Dogs of America organization. We received rave reviews from our "testers" ;-) and the dog treats have already been selling so well we made a double batch this time and will be making a triple batch next week. According to my rough count, we made about 575 of these big and little dog-bone shaped treats.   All packaged up Sorting, counting, and packaging So if you will be in southcentral Wisconsin this Sunday, July 11, stop in at the Burreson's Foods Grocery Store in Belleville between 10-2 and buy a brat or hot dog lunch, baked goods, and of course, some of Delaney's "Woofin' Good" Doggie Biscuits. The money raised for ASDA will be used to train a service dog for a great little guy in the area with autism.

Today there was a small package waiting for me in the mail. I love mail time--each day is a potential suprise! (Most days I could do without the "surprises" I receive but I am ever hopeful.) However, I didn't recognize the address in the corner, which made me even more excited. As it turns out, my package was from a woman that enjoys using my soap and this spring, came over for a day to watch me make some. She has a business called Cute Bread and makes the most delightful dough jewelry. Loree has sold this intricate art all over the country. She made me a pin, a set of earrings and a necklace. I was so surprised! She used two bars of my soap for this pin, and copied each bar, down to the tiniest detail! She modeled these two pieces after my oatmeal soap. If you look carefully, you can see the oatmeal-like texture. Aren't they all beautiful? Thank you so much, Loree! I LOVE them!

Another scent from Nature's Garden. This was one of my favorites out of the bottle. It's taken on a slightly different scent now that it's soaped but I still like it. It is spiced peach, not obviously ginger, which gives it an almost mango-like scent to me. It's rather mild, so I think I'll increase the amount when I buy a larger sized bottle--and I do like it enough to buy it again! ....and besides the scent, I love the way the batch turned out, if I do say so myself!

Here is something that will keep me busy for awhile. A soaping friend (Holly) wrote me with an idea that she had because she knows I like to do cake decorating-type stuff and have all the equipment.  I made up a recipe and gave them a try yesterday. They are part sugar scrub, part moisturizer. I made a mixture that contains mainly sugar, soap, and cocoa butter with a brown sugar scent. They smelled so good while I was making them that I kept having to tell myself not to lick my fingers. I sent some off for her to test.  I want to modify them and try some variations on my experiment, but this batch definitely won't be going to waste!

So here are the first two soaps I made with my own rendered tallow. I love the results!! This first one is scented with mango papaya, which to me has a sweet, orangy scent. I only bought a teeny bottle of the scent but I'll be buying more of this one. The goat milk contributed to the peachy color I was hoping for, which is now turning more tan. Lilac. I'm usually skeptical about floral scents; they never smell like the real thing and are notorious for accelerating the soaping process too fast. This one really smells like fresh lilacs and behaved perfectly for me. I'll be using this scent more in the future, too. I also used some of the tallow to make bird feeders with my niece, mixing melted tallow with peanut butter and bird seed. I just hung it up last night and haven't had any "customers" yet, but I keep checking. They'll find it soon! I still have some tallow left, and hope to make some more soap tonight.

Soap has been made with tallow and lard (beef and pig fat) for as long as soapmaking has been around. While I wouldn't want to give up plant oils, like olive and coconut, there are qualities in animal fat that can't be duplicated by plant oils. Last week I thought I would try my hand at rendering, the process of purifying fat, separating it from all the other "junk." I was able to get some nice big chunks of beef fat from a local butcher shop. This is 11 pounds of fat. I chopped it up into small chunks and put it in the biggest stock pot I have, which isn't enormous. I didn't want to risk burning it so I only used about half the fat that I had for this batch. I decided that this way, I could test the whole process without getting overwhelmed. To keep the fat from burning and stinking up the house (rendering's reputation) I added water to the pot. I didn't want to risk the water evaporating, so I added a lot--probably more water than I had fat. H...

I finally bought some colors--pop micas--so that now I can begin adding some color to my soaps. This was my first attempt and I'm pleased with how they turned out. I'm excited to try this batch out in a few weeks after it cures. I've been working on making my soaps even more moisturizing. To this batch, I added cocoa butter as well as my favorite ingredient--goat milk. I also added a touch of silk, which should add a nice feel to it, too.