Soap Making on a Dreary Day

What do you do on a dreay day in the fall? You make soap in summer scents! I have always found soap sets up much better on wet dreary days, It's not science but it does.  I have had a heck of a time finding lye to make my soap with. Apparently like many things in this time of Covid, this is scarce too! I finely found some at a small hardware store and set out this morning to get a batch made. I combine the above ingredients in certain weights to get a beautiful smooth soap.

Since all I can think about is getting through winter and getting back to Spring shows, I chose a Lavender-Mint to blend for my fragrance. I decided to do Essential Lavender with both Essential Peppermint and Spearmint combined to give it a smooth mint with a lavender scent. 

One of the greatest tools ever invented and discovered for soap making is the stick blender! It cuts down on so much time stirring. It cuts the process by about 10 times the time!

Once it was ready and I had the proper tracing, it was poured into a couple of molds. The batch I make is an 8 pound batch so you get quite a bit of soap! I will have bars as well as some soap to cut up for felted soap.

The finished soap! I wish I could have a scratch and sniff button on this blog! It smells amazing and so does my kitchen! I added some Lavender flowers for texture too!

 The molds are covered and the soap will be allowed to cure for a couple of days. I will the remove the soap from the molds and then it will be allowed to cure for a couple of months for a soap that brings you back to summer. 

Item of the Week: Alpaca Dryer balls

This weeks Item of the Week is: Alpaca Dryer Balls. These are made from our alpacas here on the farm. They are quite labor intensive but I do enjoy making them, the end result is just so amazing. We have packaged them in these nice eco-friendly bags which have a small window to see the alpaca dryer balls.

      Each bag contains 4 dryer balls, each a solid ball embellished with some alpaca. These are available to be shipped for an extra $5.

                       They are so soft and are amazing in the dryer. They leave your clothes soft and cut down on the time you have to dry your clothes. 

 Just an up close view of our soft and wonderful dryer balls!

The Poor Drones

While checking on the honeybees I saw this sad drone. He was walking on the landing board as if he was lost. That's probably because he was! This time of year, the female workers are preparing for winter. It's a painstaking process, they have to ready the hive, bring in enough food to get through the cold weather ahead and get rid of the free loaders. These are the Drones! A drones whole purpose in life is to reproduce. They do not forage, clean or work whatsoever in the hive. They are complete free loaders. If you don't do your work you get fired right? Well a little worse fate comes to the Drones, they are either starved out or they are carried out to their deaths! Many workers will darg a drone out, chew off his wings and drop him to his death. The hive can't afford this during the winter cluster so they must be eliminated.

I caught this guy on the landing board (center bee is the drone) going from bee to bee begging for food. Every time he approached the entrance a guard bee would block him. 
 

Here he is trying to convince this bee to feed him but quickly got the cold shoulder. So in conclusion, while it's wonderful to be born in the Spring, get fed, never have to work for it, hang out with other drones all day, get fed again, go to sleep and repeat the process everyday, all good things must come to an end!

Happy October!!! Homemade Vanilla: Item of the Week

As we dust ourselves off here after learning the rest of our shows for the year are cancelled, we are going to be featuring an Item of the Week. This week our homemade Vanillas are ready after curing for 6 months! We have 5 flavors to choose from, however this item is pick only.

We also have 3 sizes to choose from: 8 oz, 4 oz and 2 oz. These will make a wonderful gift for a foody or baker on your holiday list!

  We have many bottles in stock too! All three sizes!

Our selection of 5 different flavors and price list is above. These are made from fine cured bourbon and Madagascar Vanilla Beans. The Vanilla Vanilla is made from Vanilla Vodka which is also cured.

 We have 3 sizes available too! Give our farm line a call @ 203-881-1986 or email us @ CoonHollowFarm@aol.com or find us on Facebook or Instagram! These smell and taste divine!