Soap for the Christmas Craft Fair

 

  

Northern Lights Soap

I make soap from scratch with no chemical hardeners, no chemical preservatives and
no chemical sudsing agents. I don't use SLS (Sodium Laureth, -al Sulfate). My recipe makes plenty of great lather without it. Most "Melt-and-pour" soaps contain these chemicals. That's one reason I decided to make it from scratch myself. I know what goes into it. I started making my own soap because the commercial soap made my skin so dry. It became a problem that I have not had since I switched years ago. I will never go back to using commercial soap! Homemade soap contains a lot of glycerine that good for your skin, plus my soap has goat's milk, olive and coconut oils!

 

Part of my Aging Soap Collection

I am making soap for the Christmas Craft Fair. It's November 22, 2025, so I have about another week to make CP soap and have it aged 4 weeks, just in time for the Fair. I'm making CP soap every morning now. I will be making HP soap closer to the date, since it only needs to age about 5 days. 

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. 

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 have small soaps for sale at the Farmer's Market now. Vanilla-Honey, Lavender, Peppermint, Coconut, Honeydew, Strawberry, Raspberry & Rose. I'll have these at the Farmer's Market along with the larger, fancier ones. 

 

 

I will be making soap again tomorrow morning. Hmmmm... I wonder what soap I should make next?

 

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. 

I sell all my soap at the Fort Nelson Farmer's Market, open every Saturday, all year long. I also plan to be at the Fort Nelson Christmas Craft Fair, November 22. If you are in this area, or passing through on your way to Alaska and parts north, stop into the Farmer's Market. Contact me for directions. You can also contact me directly through email and pick up directly from me. I also take orders to make a special soap just for you with a 10 bar minimum. My soap prices range from $4-$6 for each bar, depending on size and type, etc. 

Use Those Raspberries!

Our raspberries are ready! We love the tart, fruity flavour of fresh raspberries! A few raspberries added to things can raise the flavour to a whole new level.We have three large red raspberry bushes, producing for the first time this year. We have purchased our fresh raspberries in the past. These bushes have produced enough berries to make one pie and one small cobbler, so far.

This is my recipe for raspberry pie filling. This makes two pies:

9 cups washed berries
3 cups sugar
1 cup flour

Cook on top of stove until thickened. Pour into prepared crust and bake at 350F for 45 mins.I also made a raspberry cobbler with the filling I had left. I just cooked a pot of filling from the amount of raspberries that I had saved. I picked them every day as they ripened and just kept adding them to the bucket in the freezer until it was full. I cooked them in a pot, sweetened to taste and thickened with flour dissolved in a little cold water until it was sweet and thick enough for pie. I filled the pastry and had enough left for the cobbler too.

If I don't have enough of a fruit for a pie, I make a cobbler. A cobbler is a baked fruit thing without a bottom. (A flan is a baked fruit thing without a top.)

I have been using this cobbler recipe since I was in high school. Its the best one I have ever used and it is so simple and easy!

It is very thick and is just spooned on top like biscuit dough.This is my cobbler recipe. I make it in a loaf pan.

4 cups sweetened berries or enough to fill a loaf pan about 1/3 full.
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Combine dry ingredients with butter in a mixing bowl then add the milk and mix with mixer until well blended. Spoon on top of fruit in loaf pan. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes.

You can also make raspberry wine and raspberry cordial or liqueur. I collected enough berries, with the addition of some wild black ones, to make some raspberry liqueur. I just put the washed berries in a lidded jar and covered them with tasteless alcohol (vodka works for this) and added a little sugar. Its sweetened to taste. You might want to put a lot in. They will sit in there for about six weeks while I am going to shake it daily or whenever I think of it. When the six weeks are up, it will be strained and bottled and left to age. It can be imbibed immediately, but gets mellower with age. After a year it will be fabulous! I don't think it will be here in a year. You can pour this over ice cream or other desserts and light it for a fancy dinner.

Raspberry jelly is also a favourite at our place. I run the berries through the juicer first, then make jelly with the juice, sugar and certo. I didn't have enough berries this year. I still have a few dozen jars of strawberry and peach freezer jam from two summers ago, sitting in the freezer. We don't eat very much jam.

Any leftover raspberries get frozen in ice cube trays. I freeze everything in ice cube trays. I have bags and bags of frozen cubes of all kinds in the freezer.

Frozen cubes of rapsberries make great blender drinks on a hot day!

Crabapple Jelly

I picked these crabapples yesterday morning! I drove about 20 mins to a friends house and picked them in the park across the street from her house. There were tons of beautiful, ripe crabapples there! These are the big kind, 1.5 - 2" across! I only need about 15 to 20 lbs to make crabapple wine, which is about two buckets full. I knew there would be a lot of waste, so I picked more than I needed.

After sorting and cleaning, I had about the right amount. Some were still a bit too green to use for wine, although they would be great for jelly. There is more pectin in the slightly green ones.

The secret to making good jelly from the very tart, wild things is to use only the clear juice, without any pulp in it. Use a very fine strainer or straining bag and do not squeeze it. This includes, but is not limited to, rhubarb, wild grape, crabapple and choke cherry (which I fully intend to make next year). It probably also includes wild strawberries and a few other things as well.

These things usually have a lot of acid or tannin which is what makes them so tart. So I don't usually add acid to the recipe, although I will for the crabapple, I think. Raw apples, as a general rule, are low in acid. I have a new acid tester now, so I can test the finished juice after boiling and straining and add just the right amount of sugar to it.

I have enough to make crabapple jelly! (It's TIME that I don't have!) Maybe I will just put those in the freezer for now and make jelly later. No pectin is needed for apple jelly. Apples have a lot of their own pectin. As a matter of fact, you can make pectin for general use from apples and crabapples, if you have enough.

Crabapple Jelly Recipe

8 cups fresh crabapples
water as needed
3 cups white sugar

1.Remove stems and blossom ends from crabapples, and cut into quarters. Place them in a large stainless steel or other non-reactive pot or saucepan. Add enough water to be able to see, but no so much that the crabapples are floating. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. The apples should soften and change color.
2.Strain the apples and juice through 2 or 3 layers of cheese cloth. Do not squeeze. Use just the clear juice. You should have at least 4 cups of juice. Discard pulp, and pour the juice back into the rinsed pan. Bring to a simmer, and let cook for 10 minutes. Skim off any foam that comes to the top. Next, stir in the sugar until completely dissolved. Continue cooking at a low boil until the temperature reaches 220 to 222 degrees F (108 to 110 C). Remove from heat.
3.Pour the jelly into sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process in a hot water bath to seal.

Drying Herbs & Spices

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 , goldenrod, fireweed, stinging nettle, thyme, oregano, ground ivy (also called creeping Charlie), usnea lichen, chamomile. I also use feverfew and purslane that I grow myself. 

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 use a lot of plantain.  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 and easy to use for cooking.

You can spend your summer collecting and processing the herbs & spices, then make the salve in the winter.

Making Salve with Dried Herbs

The first step is to make sure every single ingredient has been fully dried. I then grind them with a coffee grinder and store in glass jars for future uese. 

To make the salve: infuse the 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. 

There are several ways to do this. The easiest way is to fill a glass jar about one third full with dried, ground herbs. Fill to the top of the jar with oil leaving some air space. Stir it well, use a tight lid, put in a warm place like a south facing windowsill, on top of your fridge, etc. and shake whenever you walk by. Open daily to stir and let some air in. Leave this for 4-6 weeks. If you want to do this faster you can use a slow cooker. Use jars that fit in your slow cooker with the lid on. Set the jars with lids lightly on just to keep out condensation, full of herbs and oil, into the slow cooker and fill it full with hot water to about half the height of the jars . Cook on low for minimum 5 days, 7 days is better. Take the jars out every day, set on a towel, remove lid and stir. Put the lid back on and return them to the slow cooker. When all jars are out of the slow cooker, add more very hot water so it doesn't dry out. You will have to keep adding water to the slow cooker as the days go by. Just make sure the jars are out of it and it's hot water you are adding. You can turn it off over night so it's not cooking when no one is there to keep an eye on it. Mine goes off and on during the days when I'm cooking herbs. Be very careful handling the jars. They are HOT. Don't handle them with your bare hands. For faster infusion, you can use a steamer. I use the slow cooker method most of the time. When the 5-7 days are finished, strain the herbs. Toss out the cooked herbs. There is nothing left in them of any use. I use a little metal strainer with a coffee filter in it, set on a bowl or a wide mouth jar, to strain the oil. When you have clear, strained, herb infused oil, it's time to add the wax. 

 

You can use beeswax, soy wax or paraffin. All work equally well. I prefer to use soya wax for this purpose. Beeswax is becoming a non sustainable resource. I save my beeswax for lip balm. After straining the oil, you will need to reheat it to melt the wax. You can set the jars in a double boiler on the stove to heat. If the wax is just not melting, the oil is not hot enough. Do not leave oil heating unattended and do not over heat it. It should be just hot enough to melt the wax within a few minutes of stirring. When the oil is hot enough, add the wax and stir until dissolved. I use 100g of wax added to 400g of oil for salve. You can adjust this for your own preferences. Less wax makes a softer, oilier salve. When the wax is fully melted in the oil, pour it into your clean permanent containers and put the lid on. If the salve is grainy, the was hasn't fully melted. You can use a stick blender with it's hot and thin to insure a smooth finish, but if your are sure the wax is fully melted, this is not necessary. 

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. 

Leave them sitting still for a few hours as the salve cools and hardens. 

My Cobbler - What is a cobbler?

 

My Old Fashioned Cobbler Recipe

What is a Cobbler? What is the difference between a cobbler, pie, tart, flan...these are all fruit pastries. 

A pie has both bottom and top crust and is at least 6" across. 

A tart is the same but cupcake size or smaller. 

A flan is a fruit dessert with a custard base

A tart is a fruit dessert with a pastry bottom and no top crust

A cobbler is a fruit dessert with no bottom

And so now you know...  

This is my best cobbler recipe. It's been in my family for a very long time. 

Fruit Cobbler

4 cups sweetened berries or enough to fill a loaf pan about 1/3 full.

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Combine dry ingredients with butter in a mixing bowl then add the milk and mix with mixer until well blended. Spoon on top of fruit in loaf pan. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes.