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It's Spring 2017, and we've had a few days of hot weather. The garden is taking off, which means it's time to start collecting flowers and plants I want to use in my soap. Often I have a short window to do this before flowers go to seed or plants die back for the season. Right now my roses are starting to reach their peak, which goes until mid-June.
Every day I pick a handful of roses to dry. These will be used later to infuse in oil for things like rose balms and soap and also as decorations for on top of the soap. It's important that the plant material be dried first, since moisture encourages mold, and we don't want any of that in our oils. The roses pictured here are incredibly fragrant and actually scent the oils beautifully.
Some annual flowers like calendula, I have to plant every year, so I collect the seeds and save them for the next spring. Then I have to make sure I get them in the ground and that the seedlings don't get mowed or pulled out or eaten by critters.
Pictured right are some dried calendula and dandelion flowers that I plan to use later. I collected the dandelion flowers early this spring as soon as they started blooming, since that is when they are most prolific. Gotta save some for the bees!
Now on to the soap prepping...
Now on to the soap prepping...
Pictured here are Lemon Balm, Rosemary (behind bird bath) left, and Mint (right), which grow almost invasively, so I can trim them back without guilt.
After I pick the herbs, I dry most of them, but some I use to make tea. I put them in a canning jar and pour boiling water over them and let steep for 5-6 hours before putting in the fridge overnight. Then I like to strain the leaves out and freeze the tea in ice cube trays. This keeps it from turning too brown when I add the lye during the soapmaking process.
The herbs that I want to dry, in this case Lemon Balm, I set aside for about a week. I've discovered that it works best to dry them in small bunches, upside down, so they don't turn brown and soggy.
This is one of my drying boxes, with some dried wild plantain that I got from out in the yard, some dried lemon balm, and semi dry rose petals.
Once the herbs are dry, it's time to infuse them in oil. I usually use olive oil, but sometimes use avocado or sweet almond oils. If I want to make soap the next day, I will use the quick method which involves putting the plants and oil in a canning jar, putting those in a water bath in the crock pot on low heat for about 5-6 hours, then cooling and straining the oils through a cheesecloth. When I'm not in a hurry, I let my plant and oil mixture sit on a sunny windowsill for a week, and then move them to a dark shelf and let them sit another week before removing the plant material. I'm not too precise about this. I think the rosemary one sat on the dark shelf for a month, but smelled amazing! Incidentally, you can also use these oils for potatoes, focaccia, pasta etc., so always handy to have some around, soap or not!
The oils are infused, the tea ice cubes are ready, which means time to make soap. To make it extra special, I like to add some colorants and sometimes additives. Lemon balm soap would normally be whitish beige and smell pretty neutral, since the lye can make the natural scent dissipate. Both tumeric powder, or annatto seed infused oil can give soap a light yellow color, and Lemongrass essential oil gives it that lovely herbal lemon smell.
Sometimes I add a little powdered lemon or orange peel to my soap. This is made by zesting the orange or lemon, letting the zest air dry and then grinding it in a coffee grinder. The citrus powder gives a bit of color and exfoliation, or looks cute sprinkled on top of the soap.
And there you have it. It's a lot of work, but really gratifying to be able to create something out of ingredients you grow yourself.
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