Sunday, November 23, 2008

I have a Dream!

As a lot of you know back up in Alaska I have wanted goats for a long time. I used to threaten to go and live on a goat farm. Well I did go, but I have no goats yet. I would tell people that I would have goats and make goat cheese and goat milk soap. (And have chickens too.) Well on Saturday I am a little bit closer to that dream! I went to a craft fair and there was classes available to go too. One of the classes was "How to make Raw Goat Milk Soap" Well,I went to the class 2 times! It was very interesting. I was intimidated about using lye, as you have to have lye to make soap. The books that I have made it sound so scary!
Elizabeth was the very nice person teaching the class. She did talk about how dangerous working with lye was but also showed that it's not that scary with the proper tools. I picked her brains and asked a lot of questions as she was so open to helping others.

The basic ingredients for soap are fats,liquid and lye. Elizabeth uses 3 fats for her soap. She puts in Olive Oil, Coconut oil and Palm oil. For liquid she uses 1oo% raw goat milk and then lye.


The following are the pictures that I took during her second class.




This is melting the 2 solid fats. Palm Oil and Coconut Oil.








This is getting the frozen goat milk out of the bag so that it can
be mixed with the lye.







This is Elizabeth, it her protective gear weighing out the lye. It's all done by weight. Not cups and quarts.






Lye creates a lot of heat when added to a liquid. So when the lye was added to the frozen milk, in about 5 minutes it was up to 80
degrees and melted.








This is all the fats and the milk/lye mixture being mixed.





This is when all has been blended. Elizabeth is looking for "trace" That is when you can dribble the mixture back onto what's in the pot and it wont sink back into its self. It's soap! This is also where you would now add the essential oils, colors and herbs.

This is the soap being poured into the mold. She will leave it there for about 3 days and then will cut into bars, then it cures for up to 4 weeks.
Elizabeth is working on getting her Web Site up this winter. Her
She is a very warm and nice person. If you're looking for a Christmas gift? This might be an ideal! I love her Sportsman Secret Soap. It's made with Star Anise Oil. A scent that I enjoy.
Posted by Aunt Krissy at 1:56 PM
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4 comments:

  1. PAK ARTNovember 23, 2008 at 5:58 PM

    That looks like a really cool class. Are you going to try to make some with bought goat milk? Or are you going to wait until you have your own goats? Me and Tim have been drawing up chicken/goat house plans. He has some changes from what you told me, but all good because he's thinking of stuff you and I didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. tainterturtlesNovember 23, 2008 at 8:48 PM

    Ted and I love Elizabeth? We started buying soap from her this summer. Elizabeth goes to my church and bible study. I'm so glad you met her and went to her class on Saturday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 23, 2008 at 9:24 PM

    So you need to send me your mailing address so I can send you the bear fat soap I made. You got me the lye for it and if I can render down grizzly bear fat and make soap over a campfire I know you can do it in the comfort of your home.....no WHINING about safety cause if you plan and do it right safety happens. I did Lavender I grew myself and Cinnamon and I still have some of the original without the melting and adding the smells and colors and flowers/spice. We never got to get together before youu left so the package I put together for you is still in my possesion. For the reciept of such package all you gotta do is e-mail me an address capeech

    Love ya

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 24, 2008 at 2:59 PM

    I want to be on the list to recieve some of your goat soap when you start making it! Go for the dream!:)

    ReplyDelete

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