Herbal tea for making soap tomorrow. It will sit here and steep overnight. I also use infused herbal fats, but I like to hit it with the teas form fresh herbs, as well. This one is sage, comfrey and yarrow, one of my best selling soaps.
Herbal Tea for Soap
Herbal tea for making soap tomorrow. It will sit here and steep overnight. I also use infused herbal fats, but I like to hit it with the teas form fresh herbs, as well. This one is sage, comfrey and yarrow, one of my best selling soaps.
Making Salve for Spring
It's made with plantago, purslane, and yarrow. I collected these three last summer and dried them, ready to make salve in wintertime. I have herbs frozen, as well. I use those to make tea for soap. I also use herb infused oil for soap, giving it a double dose of herbs.
Making Soap
It's not just food that I "cook" in my kitchen, I make soap, as well! I make a LOT of soap. It's a fun and creative outlet!
These are some of the soaps that I now have for sale. Lavender, Peppermint, Rose, Honey-Vanilla, Wild Boreal Fruit, Coconut, Honeydew, Strawberry, Raspberry. I plan to make many, many more, some very creative landscape soaps and some "soap-on-a-rope" for showers. I am also making soap with tea tree and healing herbs for acne and skin problems and some turmeric soap for healing and cancer fighting. I hope to have all of these ready for the Christmas Craft Fair next month.
Soap for The Christmas Fair
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| Northern Lights Soap |
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| Part of my Aging Soap Collection |
I have two sizes of soaps: Small and Large. I plan to sell the small ones for $4 and the large ones for $5.
I plan to make more herbal healing soaps, as well. I have chamomile-turmeric and also tea tree-yarrow-eucalyptus for sale at the Farmer's Market now. It's selling well so I will be making more of the same before the Christmas Craft Fair. The ones at the Farmer's Market are "soap-on-a-rope". They can be hung to keep them dry! I don't know if people are buying them because of the rope or because of the herbs. Some of them have the rope knot embedded in the soap bar and some have a hole through the middle with the rope going through the hole and knotted. I prefer to make them with the hole in the middle so customers can remove the rope if they so desire.
I made this soap today. It's still in the mould. I'll cut it tomorrow. The inside is white with the dark rusty red and light sage green swirl. If it's red and green enough, it'll look like Christmas but I think the red will be too rusty and the green is the wrong shade for Christmas. I was originally going to make Christmas soap but I know from experience that a true red in soap is very hard to get. Mine has always turned out too orange a red to use for Christmas. I might add more fall colours to the top, just a few drops here and there when I make more soap tomorrow... maybe. I'll have to see how it looks when it's cut.
This is my large size soap mould. The next one is my small size soap mould.
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| Small Soap Mould |
This is one of my small soap moulds. I have six of these and I like them. They are a good place to put overflow soap. One of these is honey soap. I have a honey soap mould that makes octagonal soaps with a bee on top. I filled it with honey soap this morning and had this small amount of soap left over. Just enough for this one small honey soap. Perfect! Bubble wrap makes it look like honeycomb!
I have a butterfly mould, as well, and a lot of butterflies for upcoming soaps. I also have an undersea mould. Some pieces you see here. I have a few various moulds that I have collected over time from several different sources. Some from garage sales!
These smaller pieces don't always go into the small soaps. Some of them get put on top of the large soap bar. I have large soaps with the seashells and seahorses on top, as well.
I will be making soap again tomorrow morning. Hmmmm... I wonder what soap I should make next?
Making Salve with Dried Herbs
The first step is to infuse oil with the dried herbs. You can use any kind of oil that comes from plants or animals, (olive, almond, sunflower, canola, coconut - although coconut oil melts at 72 degrees F - warm room temperature, so I don't use it for salve. It would be constantly melted unless you kept it in the fridge.) - no mineral oil or petroleum products.
I have a slow cooker that I use only for infusing herbal oil. The oils leak out slightly and the slow cooker will get a coating of cooked oil with little use. I wouldn't use it for food. You can often pick up an old slow cooker at the thrift store. I have three, one for herbal oil infusion, one for making soap and one for food.
My Bug Bite Salve herbs: purslane that I grow myself, plantain, yarrow, calendula, sow thistle.
My Pain Salve herbs: willow bark, wild lettuce, peppermint, lavender, chamomile, spruce, cloves, cayenne
My Healing Salve herbs: calendula, cayenne, cedarwood, chamomile, clover, lavender, rose, feverfew, horsetail, lemongrass, peppermint, rosemary, sage, spruce, sow thistle, yarrow (You don't need all of these herbs. Use what you can get where you are.)
My Anti-Fungal Salve herbs: Usnea, Lavender, Spruce, Tea Tree, Peppermint
My Nail and Cuticle Salve Recipe: Horsetail, usnea, lavender
Processing Herbs for Salve and Soap
My next post will be "How to make your own salve". I'm just covering the herb drying and processing here. First gather the herbs you want to use. This is what grows here that I use: plantain, dandelion leaves, horsetail, sow thistle leaves, yarrow leaves, calendula whole blossoms, lavender, rose, spruce, lemongrass, rosemary, peppermint, clover (white and red flowers and leaves), cayenne (from the grocery store), goldenrod, fireweed, stinging nettle, thyme, oregano, ground ivy (also called creeping Charlie), usnea (also called "old mans beard" lichen, grows hanging from trees at the river, has elastic thread inside), chamomile (I use wild, also called pineapple weed. It grows all over my driveway.)
You don't need to use all of these herbs. Try whatever mix you have handy and can forage. All of these have healing, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial healing properties. I also use purslane and feverfew, which I grow myself. I consider the plantain important, but it's everywhere. The usnea is an important anti fungal herb, as well. You might, possibly, want to do an allergy test with some of these, just to make sure you aren't making a salve that you react to. If you are unsure of something growing, google it or take a close clear photo and ask online what it is. I enjoy gathering, drying and working with herbs. I like handling them, smelling them, sitting outside in the sun picking them. To me, it's fun. It's relaxing and my house smells wonderful with all these herbs drying everywhere. I try to leave long stems on the leaves or cut whole small branches so I can gather at the ends and hang somewhere.
I dry small pieces in a single layer on a paper towel, turning every few days. You can dry them quickly in your car on a sunny day and your car will smell marvelous. You can dry them in the oven on a very low setting. Some people dry them in the microwave, however, they need to be half dry before microwaving or it will spark and start a fire. I guess some strong herbs have too much iron and mineral content for the microwave. (Believe me, it can happen, I know...) I think it's best to just leave them out of the microwave altogether. I usually use tin ties to tie bunches to a clothes hanger and hang it up. (No, I didn't put tin ties in the microwave, lol.)
Stick a small piece of paper on the hanger with the herbs to label then. Sometimes it's hard to tell what they are when they are dry. I have hung herbs from hooks on the wall, on the ceiling fan, from curtain rods, from wires strung under the porch roof, from lamps, shelves, just about everywhere I could hang them. If you have herbs hanging, you will need to tighten the ties every day. As they dry, they shrink and fall out. If your floor is clean and you don't have cats and dogs that like to eat everything green, you can just tie them up again, but I think it's probably best to just tighten them daily at first. Also hang them high enough that your dogs and cats can't reach them. My cats LOVE horsetail. You can also tie them in paper bags, to keep out dust and insects and the bags will catch them as they shrink and fall out of the ties.
If you can score large screens, you can make screen shelves on the deck with bricks and screens. That has worked well for me in the past but squirrels and mice can get them. You can also dry them on, and wrap them in, curtain sheers instead of screens and paper bags. They catch even the tiniest pieces. Good for drying seeds, as well.
I usually give herbs about two weeks to dry very, very well and that's important. Everything that goes into the salve has to be completely dry, no moisture at all! If there's one drop of moisture in it, it will grow mold and go bad quickly. When the herbs are very dry, I crumble and grind in my spice grinder, if they need it. Some, like usnea. are so fine that they don't need it. I then put them in labelled glass jars. Any clean and very dry glass jar will do. Pickle jars work well. They will keep dry like this for years, until you are ready to make the salve.
You can spend your summer collecting and processing the herbs, then make the salve in the winter.
Growing Long Healthy Hair
Everyone likes long, healthy, shining hair full of body, but few people want to do what it takes to achieve that. I am talking about long hair here, not mid or shoulder length. If you can’t pull it altogether up into a pony tail, its not long. Long hair is considerably less trouble than anything other than very, very short and sheared off. If it is long enough to clip up or braid, it is no trouble at all and needs to be washed a lot less.This is a picture (above) of Crystal Gayle, Loretta Lynn’s little syster and a good vocalist in her own right.
I am growing long hair now, really really long, down to my waist and all one length, eventually, when it gets there. I have done a lot of research over the years on growing long hair and have been at this length a few times. Listed below are a few sensible things I have learned to get it there and keep it healthy.
The first key to healthy hair is eating right and drinking lots of water. We all know how to eat right, whether we do it or not. Leave the sugar and saturated fats alone. Ideally you should eat only natural things, REAL food (but who does that?) and drink enough water
When you have that under control here are other things you can do that make a big difference:
a) Don’t use a brush of any kind. Use only a very large toothed comb and be gentle. File off any rough spots on it. There is a wooden pin brush and a boar brush out there that are suppose to be good for long hair but its a new thing. Try it at your own risk.
b) Keep all chemicals away from your hair, including stripping or harsh shampoo, peroxide, perms, straighteners and hairspray.
c) Wash only when absolutely necessary using shampoo as little as possible. You can get away with a little shampooing at the scalp only, but very little and not often. Let it gently rinse through the length of your hair and out. A healthier alternative is to use cornmeal on your scalp when you need to remove oil and rinsing it out. It helps to remove dirt and oils if you massage your scalp for a few minutes, breaking up the deposits there, then rinse. Conditioner alone can be used to remove contaminants, especially if you have dry hair. Use a conditioner for your hair type to also remove tangles so you can comb it carefully and gently. There is a large movement out there to do away with shampoo altogether and these people have clean, healthy hair. Do some research if you are interested.
d) Keep it as tangle free as possible at all times to make the combing less damaging. It helps to comb your hair before you wash it and keep it straight while washing it. Don’t pile it on your head, let it hang down long while you gently clean it. When you wash it, treat it gently. Very gently remove any tangles with your fingers. If you have something in your hair that you carefully cannot comb out with your big comb or work loose with fingers, cut it out. Never, ever tear tangles out of your hair with a brush, better yet, don’t use a brush at all.
e) Use a slight acid rinse at each wash, after everything else, to restore the correct ph balance to your hair and help remove shampoo residues. Any vinegar mixed with a little water will work well. Lemon juice and water also works but might lighten your hair slightly. Strong tea works well but will darken your hair.
f) Rinse out the vinegar with clear icy cold water when you are finished, as cold as you can stand it. The icy cold water will make the cuticles lie flat helping to keep it from breaking. It will make it shinier too.
g) If you have dry and/or damaged hair, deep condition it once a month with a natural oil. Olive oil works well. Warm it up and apply to hair. Wrap your hair in a towel or a plastic shower cap and leave it on all day or over night. You will probably need to use a little shampoo in the wash to remove it. Follow the guidelines in “c” above.
h) Keep all electric appliances away from your hair. This includes curling irons, flat irons, hot rollers and crimpers. Never, ever put that kind of heat on the ends of your hair, no matter what kind of stuff you put on them to protect them. If you want curls, use gentle pin curls or roll it up in a rag and tie it. You can actually go to the store with your hair rolled up on top of your head in a rag and tied. It looks cute. It’s quite curly and wavy when you let it down. NEVER USE VELCRO ROLLERS! and don’t sleep on rollers, crushing your hair against them (see “d” below). Put soft ones on the very top of your head where you won’t be sleeping on them.
i) Lesson any friction on your hair. When it gets long enough for you to lean back on, don’t. Rubbing the ends between your back and a chair is a good way to damage the ends. Pull it over your shoulder when you sit down or clip the ends up or braid it. Don’t sleep with it loose. A long braid will hold it tight to keep it from the friction of moving around between your head and the pillow case in the night. Use a slippery satin pillowcase. Don’t wring it out tight when drying or scrub the ends vigorously in a towel. Avoid all friction between your hair and another surface.
j) Do not put anything elastic in it to hold it, including cloth scrungies. Don’t tie it tight in the
same spot over and over again. That’s weakens the hair there. Clip it up or braid it. Braiding is the style of choice for me, when I can get it all in a braid.
k) Constantly trimming the ends will not make it grow any faster. If you are maintaining a healthy length, trim it 1/2″ every month just to remove the damaged ends. That is the normal rate of growth for the average, fairly healthy individual. If you think you hair never grows, it could be because your damaged ends are breaking off that much every month or you are getting a “trim”. It will never get any longer if you lose it off the ends. If you think the ends look bad and need a trim, take off the damage and resolve not to need a trim again until it is the length that you want it. If you already have very damaged ends, you will have to eventually cut them off. You can wait to do this when it gets longer or you can do it before you start to grow it long.
l) Never cut your hair with anything other than very sharp scissor made specifically for that purpose. If you are going to be trimming your hair or bangs yourself, invest in a good pair of hair cutting shears. If you take care of them and never use them for anything else, they will last you a lifetime.
m) Avoid hairstylists. Don’t let anyone near your hair with scissors that you don’t trust to do EXACTLY what you request. If you must have someone else trim the damaged ends off your hair, ask to see what she is going to cut off before she does it. Remember, it is not in the best interest of most salons or hairdressers if you don’t spend money there regularly. If someone tries to convince you that your long, healthy hair should be cut, run screaming from the salon immediately! Otherwise smile politely and ignore every word they say.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT TOO OLD OR TOO GRAY TO HAVE LONG HAIR !!!
The only way to really fix damaged hair is to cut it off, so minimize the damage in the first place.
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