Our new Soap Line!

 

With the last batch made, completing 24 scents of our Homemade Soap! Getting back to one of my true loves, soap making! 

Each bar contains Olive, Coconut, Palm and Soybean Oils! They are soft and high in lather as well. Each smells amazing but not too over powering. Each bar is weighed at over 4 ounces at the cut to allow for drying. 

All kinds of designs, colors and scents. This is Witches Brew just in time for the season! We have holiday scents as well. 

Like little soldiers they have been lined up curing and getting ready to go.

(Pictured Amber in front and Candy Cane in back)

Each batch is 8 pounds so you can imagine that we have a lot of soap on hand!

(Pictured from bottom up, Witches Brew, Confetti, Rainbow, Cafe Latte and Lemon Poppyseed at the top)

We also have pre-packaged Soap Balls to fill a soap dish or a great gift idea as we get ready for Holiday Shopping! These are available in the scents listed below or in assorted packages too! This year give a purposeful gift from a small business!
 

 Available Soap Scents

Amber                                     Lavender Fields         

Bergamot Black Tea                       Lavender Mint

Beach                                      Lemon Poppyseed

Café Latte                                  Oatmeal, Milk & Honey

Candy Cane (Peppermint)                 Pumpkin Spice                                                        

Cardamom Chai                            Rain  

Christmas Spice                            Rainbow

Coconut Paradise                           Rose Garden

Confetti                                      Sage & Lemongrass

Cranberry Pomegranate                    Strawberry Fields

Dragon’s Blood                             Vanilla Swirl

Honeysuckle Citrus                         Witches Brew

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Soap Bars (4 oz)                       $6.00 each or 2 for $10.00

Soap Balls (pack of 10 - 1 oz balls)   $12.00

Felted Soap (asst scents)              $8.00 each

These can be purchased from here at the farm or check our upcoming events. You can also give us a call on our farm line @ 203-881-1986 or email us@ CoonHollowFarm@aol.com. We can provide shipping too!

 

Making Rainbow Soap!!!

I have been wanting to make Rainbow Soap for a long time. I just love rainbow's with 6 colors or 7 colors, it doesn't matter. After the past year that we all have had, we can use some rainbows in our lives. 

I have stalked Youtube videos, soap groups just to figure out how I was going to do this. I wanted straight bands and was worried about each color blending. The secret was to mix each color separately of course but it was all in the trace. Blending it to a very thick trace was the trick. What is a trace you must be asking yourself? It is bringing just blended soap to a thick consistently,  I marked each mold a half and inch times 6. I would have loved to do the actual 7 colors of a true rainbow but it was hard to divide 3 inches by 7 and easier to do it by 6. The soap was beyond what it should be as far as thickness without seizing to a solid blob. I gave this so much thought before attempting it. I ran it through my head over and over again, and then went for it starting with purple and working my up through the rainbow.

Even the clean up after the process was a cheery rainbow over colors. 

Coming up with a scent was given a lot of thought until I saw a soap company that had a scent called "Rainbow". I ordered it and was amazed that someone actually made a scent that was cheery and fun. The soap set really quickly and I was worried, however each color pour didn't seem to blend and I knew I was close as far as success goes. Every process is a learning curve and then once in a while you just nail it and I did!

The 24 hours waiting for it to saponify was hard. I was full of anticipation and couldn't wait. Luckily I had to go to work for a few hours but when I came home I went right to it! I was so pleased when I took it out of the molds and then when I made the first cut, my results were perfect!
 

Just like little rainbow soldiers in a row! Now to put them away for a couple of weeks to cure and be ready to go! We have 24 different scents of soap and will be available at different shows that we will be at listed on our side bar!

 

How does that chicken color the egg?

I borrowed this picture from online just to show just a few of the different colors of eggs produced by different breeds of hens.  

 

Egg colors come in a variety of colors as seen on this wheel of eggs that I took of some of the colors our hens produce. 

The eggs we sell are always a selection from different breeds.

So how does the chicken make their eggs a certain color? As the egg moves down the oviduct a few things can happen depending on the breed. The egg moves down and squeezes against glands. These glands then produce the color. If the egg stays stationary for too long it will be spotted. The pigment can permeate the shell in some cases, but in other cases like the Black copper Maran chicken, it simply coats the outer part of the shell in the deep rich brownish red color. Chickens have been bred and cross bred for years to get these effects in color. White eggs will be white all the way through, browns are white inside, blues are all the way through and green are blue on the inside but green on the outer part of the shell! So all in all, it depends on the breed, the pigment the chicken produces and the age of a chicken can also be a factor. A chicken could loose her "tint" as she gets older. 

 This egg is interesting, at first I thought she ran out of color but under quick inspection, there is a build up of calcium around part of it and can be easily chipped off. This could be from her getting too much calcium but who knows. 

Playing the Tom or Hen game!

I have fallen completely in love with the Royal Palm breed! They are a passive, gentle breed and pleasing beautiful to look at and just watch which is what I find myself doing constantly! This fine fellow who we are calling "Strutter", because we see him often displaying his tom strutting routine and gobbling. You can also tell by the snood which is that flap of skin on the top of the upper mandible of the beak. As he grows this skin will change colors with his mood. His feet are also about twice the size of the others. 

Raising these birds has been a learning experience for sure.

I have also learned to never put the camera away too quick because right after I took this picture, "Strutter" displayed his beautiful tail feathers and puffed up, but by the time I got my phone back out it was all over!

This one I have most definitely confirmed is a hen. "Strutter" likes to show off for her. What I am finding interesting is she has more black in her feathers than he does. She's not a plain jane at all.

 They have discovered this piece of fencing that we separate the young birds from the older one as they grow out. This is a fun congregation spot for the turkeys but the chickens have discovered it as well. We did have another piece of fencing above it but took it down as we were often finding the turkeys trying to climb it. So at this point we have either 2 toms and 2 hens or 1 tom and 3 hens. That 4th bird is giving me some trouble trying to determine exactly what it is, but when it's ready to reveal itself as to if it's a tom or a hen I will know at that time!

Another live and learn...

To say that we learn from our mistakes is an understatement! Especially when it costs you in a sad way. Over time we have always used this bird fencing medium over our chicken and turkey run.

And for whatever reason I bought this this year, a wider cotton type fencing to drape over the current fencing on top for extra protection. This decision cost me big in the loss of a sweet little turkey, Ricardo Shilly Shally. On a tragic day I came home to find that he had gotten the draping down by knocking the chair over and getting his head stuck in it and then twisted until he strangled himself. That baby we raised from an egg, he struggled the first few weeks but did well later only to have this happen. I am beyond heartbroken at this loss.

 Everything was removed and new smaller gauge fencing has been replaced as this was a huge learning lesson and I still don't know what I was thinking! The safety of each and every being on this farm is so important to us. This was definitely a live and learn...