Soap as the Meaning of Life

In less than 48 hours our MOSA (Midwest Organic Services Association) inspector will be here to do his annual thing...he will inspect us. He will look at our critters, our critter housing, our barns, our feeds, our bedding and all our files/receipts/certifications. He might even notice the wonderful handcrafted soap in our bathroom made with certified organic Red Wattle Lard. Segue to soap starts here...

Made with palm, coconut, olive, canola oils with a spattering of Mango Butter
and several pours of essential  Lavender and Geranium Rose
Smells great but looks like the moon's surface. Indigo and woad powders
are due credit for the bizarre colors.

 We are of course, not ready due to major paperwork procrastination and the lack of extra time I have requested repeatedly. Does anyone listen ? Do I receive even one hour of extra time a day ? I do not.
Yet, warrior that I am, I am in the midst of rifling through piles of paper that should have been organized months ago but was not, convinced I can get it all together before The Man enters the farm. Perhaps if I soaped less...


Same soap, smaller piece next to gifted shell I adore. Obviously the two were
separated at trace. Colors of the sea all for me all for me.

 We have no one to blame but ourselves. We CHOOSE to be certified organic. Eejit farmers for sure.

BUT, I need a break from Livestock Input  Inventory Update  and Farm: Update Organic System Plan Form  (to name just two of the required forms) Therefore, I will post about that which makes me smile, soap. Because the long and short plan of it is, organic inspection paperwork may be necessary, but it does nothing to rev my engine.

Or perhaps the soap and my bathroom tile were once one and the same.
Either way, I kept only half the batch and hot processed/rebatched  the rest.

Working with natural clays, charcoal and Indigo powder however, thrills me endlessly. I blame all you soap nuts out there, especially those like that Cocobong Chick who had the nerve (and generosity) to send me all natural additives to play with. How could I resist ?

This weeks experiment was on the bluesy side, love playing with the blues. So I mixed woad powder with some raw soap and then some indigo with more raw soap and got a really hard and great smelling bar that looked , well, different. I liked it some, then muchly, then against my better judgement I threw half the bars in a crock pot and cooked them like a Sunday roast. Plopped it in the mold and poured some cold process soap on top.

Sort of Funky Wunky huh ? I added some Titanium Dioxide for the white
in the top layer, got some veinage but the charcoal layer in between
was satisfactory. Is it better this way or should I have left it alone?

You decide. I got paperwork to do I told you.