Saponification Sunday...Billy Bob Soap

I have a soap customer
His name is Bob.
So I  named the soap he likes most,
Billy Bob Blue Grass Soap

 

It never comes out exactly the same. But it's close.

 

 

Lots of different colors.

 

 

All thrown into the mold with a big soup spoon

 

The colors are some shade or another of blue, purple, green, white and yellow.

 

But never pink 'cause Bob is just not a pink sorta guy.

But he does like his soap sweet.

 

 

A little lavender, a little Geranium Rose, a little Lemongrass, a little grapefruit.

 

Today, I took Billy Bob outside  for his photo session

 

 

Into my secret (shhhhhhhh) garden

Because, although I appreciate  those beautifully photographed  light box soaps

 

 

I'm not really that kind of soap maker

 

I'm messier. My soaps are never bubble free. My beveled edges are not consistently beveled. My soaps are never uniform in size

Or shape

Or color

Or scent

They are a work in progress.

 

 

Just like someone else I know

Recipe:
13 oz Coconut Oil
13 Oz Pomace Olive Oil
3 oz Sweet Almond Oil
3 oz Castor Oil

Lye 4.5 oz
Water 10 oz

Colored with Woad, Indigo, Alkanet,
Spirulina and Orange peel powders
Scented with 1/2 oz each of Lavender, Grapefruit,
Lemongrass, Geranium Rose Essential Oils

Upside of Downsizing

Mad Max and girls enjoy greener pastures while we dream
of our own new paddocks...one day.

So the current status of South Pork Ranch is this...

Despite all our best attempts, we're still here. You might recall that not so long ago, about a year and 1/2 ago, we put the farm up for sale. Lock , STOCK, and barrel, which s not technically true because although the majority of livestock are included in the sale, my guns will  come with me.

We've shown the farm and the farm business to several individual parties and although they seemed very interested, none were interested enough to offer real money to us. So we've moved forward, onward and upward even though our goal has been for some time now to travel DOWNWARD.

With just one month left on our second Realtors contract (first we tried selling with one realtor, then by ourselves via For Sale By Owner, and then with a second realtor) we are once again faced with the decision of "Now What?"

So for your reading pleasure, here is just a snippet of alternative plans.

     1. Stay as we are. Working very long days amongst far too many farm revenue centers

         which provides us with adequate income but a slow, sure, death.

         (Raw milk, direct and retail beef sales, direct and retail pork sales, Red Wattle feeder sales

          Red Wattle Breeder sales, honey sales, soap sales, conference speakers, free-lance writers)

     2. Give it all to Charity and join a monastery ourselves, preferable one that grows all their own

        food and makes their own underwear.

     3. Pick just one of the revenue centers listed in number 1 and make it our sole source of income.

        Who says you can't put all your eggs (or pigs) in one basket?

     4. Re-list the House and 10 acres alone and sell off all the farm p and return to nursing in order

        to pay the mortgage and other utilities.

     5. Consider selling the House and 10 acres we own on Contract for Deed , hoping the tenants

        actually pay us their monthly amount due and selling off all the livestock etc and using that

        for seed money for our next tiny tiny farm.

      6. Follow number one but hire enough staff to make it workable, at least two full time folk

          so we can fret about having enough to pay them every month.

     7. Allow the bank to take it all back, file bankruptcy, go back to nursing, live in an apartment

         (Keep in mind this action would put Keith in the ground within 6 months)

    8. Sell all our belongings. Rent five acres from our friend LM, move our farm store to that property

        Making it our 200 square foot home, rent out our farm and land.

     9. Turn it all over to the bank. Climb in the truck. Resettle in Alaska

     10. Take a nap and make a decision on Monday

Ah yes, you are indeed brilliant. I choose number 10. Keith is spending the afternoon planning a get
rich quick scheme involving Peacock feathers. Don't ask.
     

Parasite War



One Hot Pig prepares for her mud bath.
The best parasite deterrent of them all

 

 

 A couple of weeks ago while in Michigan we noticed an extraordinary amount of ticks and mosquitoes. Even the locals said it was far more than normal.

Back home. Same thing. Not as many ticks as in Michigan but still far more than we've seen in other years. In addition the flies seem to be having a riot with their obsessive breeding, swarming, buzzing. Lice has been noted on some of the livestock, as well as fly bots (eggs) especially on horse legs and behind pig ears. Even flooding their pens with the first mud holes of the season did not see to help much. Therefore...

This means war.

Due to our organic certification we are prohibited against any DEET type chemicals or other synthetic parasite control. So we gather up our own supplies and make our own deterrent.   It's always a challenge.

The pig ears were the worst last week, flies had been biting them, drawing blood, leaving scabs etc. I did my research and gathered together my organic coconut oil and the approved Essential Oils and concocted me own brew. It's very complicated. Pay attention,

16 oz water
1/4 oz each of Cedar wood. Peppermint. Rosemary, Lemongrass, and Tea Tree essential oils

Shaking it well, I did what all goofball farmers do....I tested it on myself. Sprayed my extremities and my clothes and went to the garden, in the evening, for some weeding. The night before I had gotten chewed up by several winged creatures, at one point I swear a bat was gnawing on my ear, but after spraying my home brew on me the next night, I was not bothered.

I did however, smell like the inside of a tennis shoe recently used as a makeshift bong, but the odor kept away the critters and for that I was grateful. Next I tested it on my horse Ennis, our three young calves and Mad Max our Red Wattle boar who seemed to have the most fly bites on his ears.

I mean what's the point of having animals if you don't use them for scientific testing? (Just one more reason PETA never returns my phone calls)

My spray worked well for a few hours but needed to be reapplied a couple times that day but by the next am Mad Max's ears had stopped bleeding and there was only a couple flies buzzing around instead of the mob action he had the day before.

The calves backs had small redden areas where they too had been frequently fly bit so I went back to the food processor and beat the living fluff out of 8 oz of Organic Coconut Oil. My water based spray wasn't going to last long enough I suspected. I then added 1/8 teaspoon of the above essential oils (listed in paragraph 6). I needed an applicator so created one from burlap strip and a wooden skewer and went to work applying salve to the critters with serious bite marks.

 

 

Good Witch Glenda and her wand...sort of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 hours later checked and NO FLIES on those areas of salve. I reapplied for good measure and went to bed. The next day the sores were well on their way to healing and I swear Mad Max's facial wrinkles have decreased as well.

Raw Milk Monday. Some good News!

Please note: If you are new to my blog you can catch up on the reasons for my raw milk passion and the struggles our own farm have experienced, by reading any of the previous posts on the topic I have written over the last 3 years . To do so, simply enter "Raw Milk" in the search bar under the picture of our house, on the right.

Yesterday we sold out. Of milk that is. Folks came and the tank was empty. Good news for us not so good for those who traveled. And two couples traveled over 130 miles (one way) to get our raw milk.

So we will have to start scheduling our regular raw milk customers, new procedure for us. And who should we see about all this? Well the Illinois Department of Public Health! So much free advertising as they tried first to limit our sales and production, that we are just one if several raw milk farmers who have seen an increase in sales. IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY MADE RAW MILK ILLEGAL IN ILLINOIS?!?

Well, as we have tried to warn them, farmers would not stop selling raw milk nor would consumers stop buying it. Instead we'd all go as far underground as we needed to. But this IS NOT what we want. Because with illegal sales comes immoral producers, who when they see the profit that can be made would begin producing raw milk in all kinds of unhealthy conditions.

Yes, believe or not there are dishonest farmers. Not many but a few.

So back to the IDPH Dairy Work Group. We had another conference call on June 11 and it basically went like this

No, we said. We are not moving forward with these proposed rules that were not written by raw milk farmers and/or consumers.

Instead we asked that all the proposed rules written before my involvement began in Feb and the other farmers and pro-raw milk advocates came aboard May 1, be eliminated. Yes, totally eliminated. Instead we want a clean slate with the agenda for the July 16th mtg to be written by the Dairy Work Group, not by IDPH.

They agreed.

Yes they did.

So we submitted our agenda items , 5 of them , and on July 16th we'll see if they listened to us THIS TIME, or did they not. If you'd like details of this recent conference call please see Tom Kocal's article and part 6 of his series on this issue in Illinois. Maybe since they knew they were being taped they will follow through with their promises this time.

Time will tell. In the meantime our sales and sales of many of the other farmers on the Dairy Work Group continue to increase. So, IDPH, thanks for the free advertising. Much appreciated.

Saponification Sunday...Irish Milled

 

 

 

 

 

Before I was deep into the soaping world I was one of those folks who believed that a bar of soap with the words "Triple Milled, French Milled or even better "Triple French Milled" must mean that the soap was pretty durn special, or else why were they charging so much?

 

 

And if done the right way it can make a smoother soap and one that lathers nicely. Scraps of soap are either melted down and remolded or if done well they are run through several metal rollers which makes the pieces very tiny and smooth. It is often a very beautiful looking soap.  Unfortunately as with many commercial soaps, the glycerin is removed which means drier skin at the end of your wash-up.

 

 

This Midlife Farmwife has her own version of French Milling which I call "Irish Milled" . I grate up leftover soap bars, or ones that aren't as pretty as I would like. Melt them in a crock pot, with some water to keep the soap from burning, super fat them with a little more Castor oil and add more essential oil at the end just before dumping in a mold. It is not the smooth and lovely look of the French Version but I never claimed to be sophisticated did I?

 

 



Then after just one day of sitting in my mold, I am able to cut and use the bars. The last time I rebatched or Irish Milled some soap I used two different batches of soap, one very light and one very dark. I also cut up some chucks of the dark soap for even more texture and contrast, This all makes sense since we Irish are not well know for our smooth edges.

 

 

First I spooned in the dark soap, then the light soap over it then pushed in a few dark soap chunks then added more light soap. Both batches had Lemongrass Essential Oil added and mixed very well, before I put them in the mold.

Now I have what I am calling Mud Pie soap. Fun huh?

HAY, you!

Buffer Zone Hay for Equines

 

 

 It's that time. It is hot and sunny and dry.

The perfect time to make hay. This year is a first for us as we've made our own organic hay. In years past , due to limited land we have bought all our hay except for the horse hay which we make from the roadsides and buffer zones. But since we have less cows than ever before we have more pasture to turn into hay. Even though we had to hire someone to bale the hay we still saved a large amount of money. Now back to Buffer Zones.

A field full of round bales extends all the way to the tree line

 

A buffer zone is the land between certified organic land and non-certified organic land. Usually about 25 feet wide and as long as we want, it is hay made from wild grasses and other vegetation. We cannot under the NOP (National Organic Program) feed it to our cows, beef and swine which we sell to consumers but we can feed buffer made hay to my horse and donkey.

First round bale goes on the wagon. It's a trick to keep it all balanced

Since we have no plans to consume them...yet.

For the convienence of the Midlife Farmwife, the buffer hay is done up as small square bales. It would take Ennis and Doolin ages to go through a round bale anyway. The cows and pigs will get the big round bales.

 

I love the way the round bales look.

62 round bales divided by 5 bales per load equals...numerous trips!

 

Like big green marshmellows dotting the prairie.

Like shredded wheat for the organically focused Green Giant

Like a kalidescope of grass and alfalfa and wild flowers and the unsung hero-weeds.

Like get on with it will ya?!?

Last of the previous years hay on left, our own round bales next to them
Pallets used to keep hay dry and off the ground

 

Yesterday, with rain on the way, we had to get the big round bales in the barn. 62 of them. I pulled the wagon out into the field and Keith loaded it with the tractor. Since the hay rack will only hold 5 big bales at a time the whole process took a few hours.

 

As we worked the clouds began rolling in, darker and darker.

Hmmm. Is that lightening in the distance?

 

In between getting the round bales in our own shed, We rushed to get another rack of square bales and a load of grain into the neighbors shed (Yeah for generous neighbors!) Down there, I realized  I could ignore the gas gage no longer and had to make a quick trip into town. Back in the field a few minutes later the wind picked up and temp dropped. A couple more loads in the barn, when the rain hit HARD.

View of our farm looking West. Barn on left, machine shed in middle
and house to right of that. Dark rolling clouds above.

 

 

Keith was drenched by time we got back to the barn (I had the shelter of the truck) but we got in all but 10 bales. Those will be fed up first to livestock and with the heat predicted this weekend may dry out pretty well anyway.

Stacking round bales takes skill. Which is why Keith does it, not me.

 

 

There are many things that give one a sense of accomplishment on the farm but none quite like the feeling of a barn full of hay for the next year. Well, nearly full.

Saying NO to Farmers Markets

The display above is of the soap I make here on our farm. This was taken a couple of weeks ago at the Farmers Market in Fairbury sponsored by The Stewards of The Land, a group of farmers Keith and I are very proud to be a part of.

We were members for many years and then to make more room for new farmers, our "status" was changed to Advisory Board Member. That's OK with us, the group helped us get started with direct farm to consumer marketing and now it's our turn to help other newbies.

For two years we very religiously set up our soap and meat and honey products at this Farmers Market every Saturday morning. It takes hours to get ready the day or two before, a hour or two of set up time (tents, tables, signs, products) and more time at home to put it all away.

Some weeks we sold only $4 worth of product.

But other weeks we sold much more. Regardless of the end sale amount we always came out ahead. Time spent with our fellow farmers chatting in between customers, time spent with the locals chatting about our products, our farms, time spent in the Antique Shoppe owned by the very gracious Kathy and Daton who lent us their parking lot for the market....all of this was time well spent.

But, this year, we decided to shift our focus. Again. Four years ago we stopped selling our milk to a co-op and shifted to on farm sales only. Three years ago we opened our Farm Store to further advance direct farm sales. Two years ago we pulled out of the Chicago restaurant scene ceasing the delivery of carcass pork. This year...we're greatly limiting our Farmers Market presence.

Don't get me wrong. We love Farmers Markets and support them, shop at them often. We will be at The Stewards of The Land Farmers Market in Fairbury at least twice this summer doing our share as "Host" farmer, but our focus will be right here. Do you understand what that means ?

It means we need about three more loads of gravel for our driveway, THAT's what it means! We have a lot of traffic up and down the lane these days.

But that's what we want. The more people can actually SEE their farmer at work, and SEE the animals at work and play and SEE the way good food should be raised, used to always be raised, the more likely we are to facilitate the growth of new farmers in our country.

Children need to hear the cow bellow, watch the pig burrow, feel the peacock feathers swirl by their feet in order for them to want to be farmers. Not all farmers are set up like we are for constant visitors, many of them must work off farm jobs and are not even home during the day doing all their farm work late into the evenings.

But for us, for us right now, on farm visitors are the key to our "success" and the success of farming in this country. In an era where farm displays in large metropolitan zoos will not even allow the child to touch their token animals or where milking is done on a life size fiberglass cow, farmers who can take the time to share their livelihood with visitors...should.

It's not easy. It sometimes interrupts our supper or breakfast or our bookwork but the payoff for our own little farm and for those kids who might never have experienced the joy of a piglet nibbling on their shoes, is really worth it. And 99% percent of our visitors are very gracious, respectful of our privacy  and thankful for the few minutes of our time. We have also learned to set limits. No tours on Sunday. And we do not offer Bed and Breakfast...yet.

So this year we are saying NO to our own participation in Farmers Markets and instead saying YES to bringing the public to our farm even more than before.

If it gets too intense we can always hide out in The Secret Garden. No one knows about that, do they?