10th ave. soapworks

Every two years in late September my town of Monroe, WI, celebrates Cheese Days.  Regular life comes to a halt as all attention is focused on the festival, celebrating the heritage of the area with all things Swiss-- polka, alphorns, beer, and copious quantities of cheese.  And it is a Big Deal; the population grows from 10,000 to over 200,000. Happily, most of the action occurs within walking distance of my house. (Ha!  As if there would be any place to park a car anyway!) Since it occurs over the weekend, there is, of course, a farmer's market.  It's moved a few blocks from its regular spot on the downtown square, but there is no lack of customers.  After the craziness of getting all the market vendors and their wares squeezed in and set up, I enjoy the excitement of the change of pace, meeting people from all over, and the party atmosphere. So what makes a party in Wisconsin?  Beer and cheese.  (Well, bratwurst, too, but I have to draw the li...

Last spring, I had the idea of creating a soap that represented some of the variety in my town's farmer's market.  The more I looked around, the more overwhelming the possible combinations--herbs, vegetables, dairy, fruits, even fats.  I could come up with a new combination every week as I looked around.  Maybe it was because my choices kept changing that I never settled on a set of ingredients and just did it. Dehydrated ground pumpkin--it makes a wonderful addition to angel food cake I recently narrowed down some of the abundance into my first version.  It may be March, but with the snow of the last two days (and still falling as I write), fresh vegetables are just a dream of the future.  So I used honey, dehydrated pumpkin and egg--all from the market--and dried kale.  (I used my own kale in this batch, not because it wasn't available in abundance at the market last summer, but I really couldn't justify buying anyone else's with a dozen fru...

.....If I only had a sale for every time I've been asked this question! How would you respond?  Here are a few options: A)  "Love.  In every single bar."  (includes a complimentary upchuck bag) B)  Launch into a crash course in the science of soapmaking to wow/overwhelm him with my knowledge. C) Offer a personal introduction to every bar in my lineup and its unique ingredients. OK, maybe not.  When I first began selling my soaps, I floundered on this question until one customer--bless her lil ol' heart--followed the question with another.  "Do you use goat's milk?"  And that's the real question my customers had been asking. In my area, goat's milk soaps have an excellent reputation (as they should!) and it seems assumed that handmade soaps of any respectable quality should contain goat's milk.  I wonder if this is a common customer concern or just prevalent in my area?  Anyway, ...

I knew that finishing Amy Warden's soap challenge this time of year would be difficult, but I didn't realize that the pace of my life would speed up to the point of it being impossible.  But it has, although I will be finishing the challenge soaps on my own time. I've noticed that in the middle of all the glitter and faux funneling the soap itself often gets lost somewhere.  Every time I get into a foo-foo soap phase I end up balancing myself by swinging to the other side of the pendulum with simple, naturally colored soaps.  And then I wonder why in the world I ever bought that jar of glitter in the first place.... I had some oils measured and ready to be soaped about a week ago but I just couldn't decide what to make since I'm caught up on my staple soaps.  As I write, I'm pretty sure that I overlooked something, but I'll pretend for now....   I saw a mention of banana soap on Facebook (thanks Amy!) and that was just the inspi...