Ginny’s been busy

Ginny Projects, , , ,

Learning all sorts of new things.  It is not as easy as saying; Hey I am going to make and sell natural skin care products. The number of decisions that have to be made are mindboggling. The how-to info is out there and that is the easy part. Well, easy enough once you decide what type of products you want to make. No matter what you want to make, there is a basic recipe for each item. Oils, butters, and wax are the baseline ingredients and the process is great, fun science; but there is a lot more involved. First you have to decide what kind oil you want to use. Each oil adds something different to your product. Then you have to decide if you want to try Infusing your oil choice with any number of herbs. That takes time. A month at least, though you can do this in just a few hours using a crockpot or double boiler. I prefer using the slow method and have my jars lined up alongside our wood stove.

And I had to get myself more organized too. Every jar needs a label and date. The only oil you can easily identify is coconut. And this only after it cools down and started to solidify again. I have calendula infused olive, coconut and sunflower oil. Lavender olive oil which I did use in making a batch of lavender soap. One jar of comfrey infused olive oil to try using in salves. And calendula infused coconut oil. Lots of things to play with. Ron added to the mix by having a friend at work who raises goats. Which is why we are making goat’s milk calendula soap.
And then there is the stuff you have to buy. You can find some of it in the grocery store and maybe can find something to use as a mold in your house, but there is so much out there now that you can be overwhelmed by the choices. I decided to go with simple loaf molds as I wanted to make bar soap. But even with that, I still have to decide what type/style of mold and what size. You also need molds or tins for lip balms, lotion bars and salves. You have to find sources for your supplies. Beeswax and lye are not easily found on store shelves. Ron found a guy on Ebay selling 8 pounds of beeswax for a good price and ordered it for me. It came in big chunks which were not going to be easy to work with.  So I melted it down, filtering through cheesecloth and poured it into smaller molds. Time consuming but it made it much easier for later projects.

So, you have made the soap and then have more decisions. How are you going to cut it into neat bars and where will you store it during the curing time? Which is at least 4 weeks. The longer your soap cures, the better. And you have to plan accordingly. This is not something you can decide on December 1st that you want to make soap as Christmas presents.
Ron made an executive decision and decided that I needed a fancy shmancy soap cutter, and I have to admit that it really does a great job. But I don’t feel the same happiness using it as I did with the cutter my friend Josi made me. With my longer loaf molds, I end up with 10 even slices. A good number to work with. As to the curing process, that issue was solved when Ron came home with two metal shelf sets. I combined all the shelves to make one unit, so now I have shelves to hold my soaps, lotion bars and assorted supplies. Time for a happy dance.

Another issue any soap maker has is keeping tracking of when the soap was sliced so you will know when it can be used. All of my soaps are the same so I cannot ID each batch by just looks. I stumbled across a suggestion of putting small stickers on one bar from each batch and have a list with sticker color and date. A simple solution to my problem is keeping a spread sheet with weekly weights of each bar.
Now you have your cured soap or lotion bars and you need to make yet another decision. How to package and label it. Again, the choices are endless. Ron pulled on his graphic designer hat and came up with a great design. We are going to have the same basic label for all of our products;  just changing it as needed. He also found a terrific company to make the stick-on labels for us. We highly recommend you check out Stickermule for any label needs. With our soap, we not only have a wrap-around label but we actually wrap the bar itself. It looks a bit more put together and will protect the soap from any bashing about.
All of this has been a real adventure for me as there is so much to learn. And it has been re-enforced that you really do need to read your recipe or directions. And pay attention. Last week I tackled lip balm. Ron wanted to get the labels ordered, but I told him to wait until I had done a couple of runs at it. So, I divided my recipe in half and got everything melted together. Then I discovered that the tubes I was planning to use for this batch did not fit properly with the tube tray I bought. They were longer and thinner. I did not want to use the tubes that came with the tray. They hold the same amount by weight, but they look under filled. Not a good selling point. Once the balm had hardened, I pulled one out to try. Major disaster. The thing was rock hard and I could not figure out why.  More oil was the obvious solution, but how did I get the recipe so wrong?  Driving to work the next day it hit me. I had misread the beeswax conversion from tablespoons to ounces and had doubled the amount needed. Glad I figured it out, but annoying nonetheless.
The second batch was much better, but I still need to figure out the best way to use the tray I have.

I already have a good recipe for lotion bars and those are something you can quickly whip together.  Bonus being they are ready to go within a few hours. The issue I have with those are getting the weight right.  Each bar needs to weigh at least 1.5 ounces.  I am using 12 individual molds and it is annoyingly difficult to put each one on my scale and then pour the hot mixture in to in.  Moving the just filled molds without spilling is tricky.  After I have made a few more dozen, I should have a solid routine down pat.

The most luxurious product I make is a calendula body cream.  It is also my problem child.  Because it is made with water it does not have the shelf life of items made with oils.  I have to add a preservative and then make it shortly before I am going sell it.  But people who have tried it, really like it.

We are really looking forward to seeing how well these products sell at the events we attend this year. Ron is still focused on the shiitakes, but having something non perishable to sell too could be a major game changer.  It is going to be a fun year.

Here I am using something I had around the house with my soap making.  Goat’s milk soap will darken if you keep it warm longer so I put the molds in a box and cover with a towel.  Murphy loves helping me out by adding her warmth to the process.   Who says cats can’t be helpful?

It was an absolutely perfect spring day

Mushrooms

 

for working out on THF. After the last few weeks of rainy, snowy and freezing cold days, it looks like spring has finally decided to arrive here in upstate NY.
And what wonderful timing. Saturday morning was chilly. I know this because my 2007 Camry hit 150,000 miles as I was driving to the farm and the photo I took shows the temp as being 34 degrees.
I had stopped to pick up a box of coffee and morning yummies (got to feed the troops) while Ron headed directly to the farm. He was going to get the heaters, burn barrel and grill going. When I got there, he drove up to road to collect me and the rest of the food supplies. Then we got on with the business of final set up. I say final set up because we had being getting ready for Saturday since the previous weekend. There was a lot to do. We are still dealing the left behind trash from previous owner. The flooding we had last year pulled more of it out of the bushes. And the wind that hit this area played havoc with our rows of landscape cloth.

Ron and I took Thursday off and Jo joined us to tackle the biggest projects.  It was cold, cloudy and unfortunately windy which made our job that much harder.

We still have some tweeting to do with the landscape cloth, but by the time we were done, it looked much better as did the rest of the farm.  Fallen trees were cut down and chopped up, trash picked up and assorted things put away and into proper place.

Ron had taken Friday off too so he spent a few hours by himself puttering around on THF, getting the last minute things done.

It was  8:30 am and we were just about to say we were ready when I noticed that I had grabbed two boxes of plastic forks instead of spoons.  As we had chili and soup for lunch, a fork was just not going to work.  I headed to the store to correct this goof.  By the time I got  back, most of our crew was on site and Ron was well into the safely and work briefing.  Then I discovered the next gone wrong thing.  Just before I had to make the store run, I had put our foil wrapped sausage biscuits on the grill to warm up.  Did not notice that Ron had the burners on high.  Yeah, they were more than crispy.  A few were still eatable but most of the biscuits were too far gone.  I had to throw the left overs out when we got home.  Which made me sad.  But those were the only things that did not work out.

Turns out Ron’s use of social media was a good idea and he found a few more kooky people who were willing to drive a good distance to work in a tent for someone else while learning how to grow their own mushrooms.  With 18 people plus Ron and me on site, it was a bit crowded and we struggled at first to get a good rhythm going

Ron and I gave a quick demo of each job and everyone jumped in to work.  We made sure they traded jobs, wanting each of them to get a feel for all the steps this project entails.  They really liked Ron’s bungee cord set up and the rolling stands we had to hold each log.

Doug and Jim took over one of Ron’s normal jobs which is hauling the finished logs across the stream and down to the end of our property.  And then bringing down the next set of logs to work on.  That freed Ron to answer questions and keep an eye on the whole set up.  We had unexpected visitors that he spent about 30 minutes talking to. Neighbors from down the road who noticed all the cars and thought this was a good day to stop by and see what we were up to.  Any of you who know my husband, you know he was delighted to talk with them.

Our second wave of workers arrived about 10 am and that turns out to be a good thing.  If we again open this event to newbies, a schedule of arrival times might be part of the plan.  Along with a dedicated grill master.  Getting the food ready or keeping it available causes us no end of issues.  We need to figure out how to have what we are offering ready for anyone to grab when they need a quick bite.  We also struggled with our wax.  If we let it get too hot, it tends to be very runny and harder to work with.

As the day went out, people had to leave.  Some of them had an over 2 hour drive back home.  But we soldiered on with Jesse, Lynne, Jim, Diane, Sym, Hans, Vicki, Brittany and her young son, Dallas.  If that young man comes, I will have to lock up the donuts.  He really liked them.   I do wish he could have shared some of his energy with rest of us.  We had a wonderful surprise when Shelly arrived later in the day.  She thought she would not be able to make it but then just came anyway.  She gave us a needed boost to finish off the logs we had waiting in the wings.  And was a great help to Ron in the getting logs across the stream.  We were all on our last legs.

At 4:30 pm, we were down to Ron, me, Shelly, Jesse, Brittany and Dallas and we were done for the day.  Now the picking process began. This is my thing.  I know if I sit down before getting things put away, I will regret it.  So I just got started tossing things into boxes or a garbage bag.  Jesse took Brittany and a load of stuff up to the road and loaded it into my car.  Shelly helped us getting the last few things into the shed or wagon for the trip home.  I was done and left Ron behind to finish up.

Such a relief to get home. Jo helped me unload the car and for the first time, I just left everything where it landed in our kitchen.  When Ron got home, I warmed up a couple of hotdogs and we ate those with a beer and some chips.  It had been a wonderful day and with the help of our volunteers, we got almost 300 logs drilled, inoculated, waxed and moved.

We did miss our facilitator in the person of Ron’s brother Don.  He was not up to it this year and our work flow was just not the same without him.  He has the knack of seeing who needs a quick break or pep talk and what is needed at each station before those working there do.  And he was always happy to jump in where he was needed.

I am typing this while Ron and I are slowly getting ready to head out to THF today.  We have a bag of spawn and some logs that are waiting for us.

Just think we get to do this again next year.  Ron will be sending out the event details shortly.  He will want to get your commitment for 2019 as soon as possible.

 

 

 

 

Here we go

Mushrooms

with our 2018 THF plans.  If only Mother Nature would cooperate.  She is determined to let the winter weather hang on here as long as it wants.   Woke up this morning to 1/2 inch of snow and again with the wind.   We shall push on though, even as we wait for the temp to get above 40 degrees.  Things have got to get done and our to do list never seems to get smaller.  Ron doesn’t help as he keeps coming up with new thoughts regarding what we should or could do.  This morning I have more calendula to get started and this blog post to get done.  We have 4 – 10 pound slabs of wax to bust into manageable pieces and a cardboard template to cut out.  Ron needs that so he can get his solar powered fans set up in our shed.  No way my perfectionist will cut a circle out of wood without a template.

While I am busy getting ready for our upcoming sales event in June by making soap and lotion bars (more on this later), Ron is focused on our 2018 shiitake crop.

April 21 is now our planned date for the inoculation of our 400 logs.   After the March storm that bush wacked us last year, we decided on a later date.  We still have issues to deal with though.  Lots of water from our melting snow

We have lost a few of our experienced workers. For some reason they did not check with Ron before making plans of their own.  Ron has been slow to understand that.  Not one to let incidentals thwart his plans, Ron has reached out and posted to a few local social media sites.  Going to  – New York State Veterans in AG, Mohawk Valley locavores and organic growers, Slow Food Mohawk Valley, Central New York Mushroom Club/Central New York Mycological Society, Rome, N.Y. Area Vegan And Plant Based Lifestyle and Central New York Permaculture Meet-up.   The response he has gotten is amazing.  Turns out here is a lot of interest in our area for mushroom growing in forest settings.  Which is great for our work crew needs.

 

For those friends/followers/viewers who don’t use FB, here is Ron’s ad for our shiitake inoculation event.

Attention to all our Forest Grown Shiitake Friends

Have an interest in the Forest Grown Shiitake mushroom process and maybe even taken a few classes? Come out of the classroom and have a real-life, hands-on experience.
Are you tracking?

We’ve entered our fourth season in this process and we’re at the point and are excited to, share our hard-learned knowledge and experience with our friends, our new friends, in fact, anyone willing listen and learn. Ourselves; we’ve attended multiple classroom and hands-on training sessions led by the Cornell team and others, and now, we want to share. We are the only Certified Naturally Grown mushroom grower in the state. Whether you’re just new, just curious, or are planning full scale Shiitake production, this might be the perfect way to spend a few hours outdoors on a Saturday.

We are on track now for this month and we’re all set for your company. Thanks to our Amish neighbors, we have over 400 sugar maple bolts that have been delivered. Our mushroom spawn order is currently stashed in our frig.
Overhead cover, tools, heat, power, food, check, check, check!

In addition, we have all sorts of yummies (breakfast and lunch) and will have safety glasses and gloves for everyone. Dress warm with layers to take off and bring some rubber boots. A burn barrel will be roaring and hot drinks will be available.  Work environment will be in a large, all weather heated tent.

For the ladies, a heated comfort station awaits you. For the gents; man up, guys, you’ll get plenty of fresh country air.

We hope you’ll be able to come out, learn something new, take a tour, have a bite to eat, and enjoy some good conversation at the Tiny House Farm Augusta NY. All stages of the outdoor Shiitake mushroom bolt inoculation process will be covered. Everyone will have the chance to rotate through each work station and gain some insight into what it takes to grow Shiitake mushrooms for themselves. Farm tours will also occur as part of the workflow process.

For the more advanced, we are willing to discuss our outdoor Oyster, Red Wine Cap and Nameko mushrooms. Discussion of the benefits and requirements of the Certified Naturally Grown program available.

Second time participants will receive their “limited edition” Tiny House Farm t-shirt. Let us know in advance if you’re returning and needed T-shirt size.

GPS’s, Google, and phones will easily track to our farm’s established address in the Oriskany Falls / Augusta NY (southern Oneida County) area (sitting between Rome, Vernon, and Oriskany Falls). Roadside parking is available.

We have a thing about being prepared – so give us your name and phone number so we can establish a head count for gift logs and refreshments.

Contact us via Facebook: TinyHouseFarmAugustaNewYork (and like us please) or by email: thfaugustany@gmail.com and you can call Ron at: 315.264.8969

Attendance will be limited, so reserve your space now.

Planned for Saturday, April 21, 2018
Augusta NY – southern Oneida County
Hands on experience, farm tour
For a few hours or stay all day
Start time: 0900 hours
Food, comfort stations, new friends
Follow announcement on our Tiny House Farm Augusta New York Facebook page
Reminder: Second (2nd) time attendee, you’re entitled to a Tiny House Farm T-shirt New attendees, one ready to spawn, Shiitake mushroom bolt

Veteran Owned, Homegrown By Heroes
Ron Delaney
US Army (MSG, E-8) Retired
Please let us know ASAP if you wish to attend.  While many hands make light work and our work space is a very large tent, work space is limited .  We will have to say no to any late comers.  We want to have enough volunteers to get the work done with no one sitting around waiting their turn.  And unless we have another No’Easter, flooding or a tornado on  April 20, this plan is set.

Catching up on THF

Our 3 Acres

Spring is slowly, slowly heading our way and we have a long list of things to get done before it gets here.  Our first huge project, of course is this year’s logs to be inoculation party.  But before that can happen we have some smaller project to get done.

Ron has plans to expand our mushroom area by getting us on the other side of the stream.  That involves a bridge, strong enough for him to drive the 4 wheeler across.  So he talked with his new Amish connections and they came through for him.

We have a little tweaking to do. Some kind of ramp for each end, but I think this should do the job quite nicely.  To Ron’s right is the pond where we get the water needed to soak the logs.   Our current logs are off on the right too but he wants to get more going  on Jo’s side of the stream.   We still have some serious work to do, anybody up for some land clearing?, but it will be good to have another area to work in  that is closer to our water source.

Ron had already gotten cherry logs so we could try growing a new variety of mushrooms, nameko.   We just had to get them inoculated.   The weather conspired against every weekend.  Too much rain or just too darn cold.   Even with our great tent to work in, we needed some measure of comfort.

Finally President’s Day weekend we decided that it could not be put off any longer.  Monday it was going to be clear enough and the weather people were sure it was going to be over 40 degrees.   So as soon as the sun was up and it the temp was over 35, we loaded up and head out.  It was just the 3 of us and the load was pretty lite.  Too lite in fact.  Jo realized we had forgotten to bring the spawn so I headed back to get it.  Ron was struggling to get the grill going.  We use it to melt the wax we need to seal the spawn in.  And to grill lunch when we have more people around.   At least 3 mice had made their home in it and obviously they had chewed up a few things.

When I got back with the spawn, Ron was still fighting with it.  He had gotten out his flame thrower (don’t ask) and burned everything out of it and tried using the flame to jump start it.  No luck.  Then he decided to get the burn barrel going so we would have that option for melting wax.  30 minutes later it was barely going.  I had given up on that process and was keeping our hot plate and double boiler going.  And that actually worked.  We had wax ready to go.

Ron did the drilling, Jo the inoculation and I was in charge of the wax and getting the logs stacked up outside.

Just about 2 hours and we were done.  And so much for the  promised 40 degrees.  The cold drizzle we got hit with made it feel even colder.  Our tent kept us dry but not really warm.  Though as long as we were working, it wasn’t too bad.  The walk back to the road is when the chill really hit us.  Such a relief to have one thing checked off our list.

Of course we have now added fixing the grill to our list.

I have been working on soap for the past month.  Interestingly I confirmed what I read about goat’s milk soap.  If you keep your loaf covered with a towel for the first couple of days, the color will eventually darken.  This is all the same soap, the small round pieces were left uncovered and stayed lighter in color.

Yesterday we got hit with a major snow storm.  They were calling for  12 -18 inches and they were spot on.  I was already scheduled to work from home, Ron got a snow day and Jo was at home too.  I worked on my computer and watched the snow come down while they worked to keep the driveway clear.  There was some worry about the snow on our new tent.  We really did not have it in us to deal with another disaster.

Jo was off to work Saturday morning and Ron and I headed of to THF.  Long boots, double layers, a shovel and new parts for the grill.  Ron had already replaced the tubes with no luck.  We parked in our usual spot, took a deep breath and started the long, slow walk (wading really) through the knee deep snow.  There were more than few stops to catch our breath.   Ron decided we might have an easier time walking further in the trees once we reached them and he was right.  We got closer to our work area and felt huge relief to see the tent standing tall.

We dug out the back end and Ron got busy working on the grill.  Not total success, but he got two of the bars going.  More than enough to grill some lunch and melt lots of wax.  Yea team.  Then we headed out to our shed to get the broom there so we could use it to knock the snow off the tent roof.  By this time I was soaking wet from the knees down from all the snow that fell into my boots.  Broom in hand and we went back to the tent.   Ron went to the far end and reached up with the broom to push against the tent room.  There was a massive noise that I have never heard before and as I stood there frozen, all the snow slide off the roof.  We had just had our own small avalanche.  It scared the heck out of me, but how cool.  No more worries about the tent for now.

We had only been out at the farm for 90 minutes and we were done and ready to head home with two big items checked off our to do list.  A good day at THF.

 

 

 

 

Finally – I made soap

Our 3 Acres

This has been a long time in coming. As I told you before, I have talking about making homemade soap for years. Classes, books, You-tube videos, and assorted supply purchases were made but none of them were enough to push me over the edge. I have no idea what was holding me back. Fear of failure is the only thing I can think of. Which is silly when I think about it.   After all, Ron, Jo and I took a huge chance and bought a farm three years ago. How could soap making be any scarier than that?

Christmas 2017 was the game changer. My amazing friend Josi made me a soap cutter.  This is something that anyone who makes soap really does need.   We have watched dozens of people make soap on You Tube and only a very few of them can hand cut their soap into even slices.  And most of them graduated into a cutter anyway.

This is the cutter Josi made for me.  So very cool.  And she told me that she was going to come over and make soap with me.  There was no waffling I could do this time.

I had already started infusing olive oil with calendula flowers.  This is a very cool medicinal herb that offers so many benefits for your skin with its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties.   Takes a good month for proper long infusion to take place so early planning is necessary.  And you can infuse a range of oil types.  I have calendula in jars of olive, grapeseed and coconut oil all steeping in our family room.

When we bought our house, we did not think about the orientation to the sun.  We don’t get much sunshine during the morning hours and then only through the front windows in afternoon.  That makes it difficult to set up a secure table for my jars.  Especially with two active cats in the house.  Right now I am using the heat from our wood stove to gently warm the oil.  Too hot and I will kill off the benefits.   As my first batch of oil would be ready on Jan 19th that was our target date for soap making and we settled on Feb. 3.  When Josi asked me what time she should arrive.  I said – early.  She needed clarification;  did I mean regular early, or Delaney early?  Regular early would be fine so the plan was for her to arrive at 8:30 am.

There is a lot of equipment needed for soap making.  Scale, pot, oils, lye, molds, thermometers, wand mixer, gloves, long sleeve shirts and glasses.  Then there are the extras.  Ron wants our soap to have calendula “flecks” showing, but I decided no essential oils would be added to this batch.

We started by mixing the lye into the “calendula tea” I had previously made.  This was the only dangerous part of the process as lye is very caustic and the mixture gets very hot.   I used a large plastic pitcher for this.  I like the idea of higher side to lesser risk of splashing.   Once that was set aside we started mixing together the oils and warming them up.  The temps of both lye and oils need to be around 100 degrees.

That was the biggest chunk of time, waiting for the temps to balance.   Once that happened, things speeded up.  I carefully poured the lye into the oils and Josi started mixing it together.  In less than 10 minutes we had what is called trace and our soap was ready to pour.  I added calendula leaves and poured our mixture into the mold.

The recipe we used fit nicely into the mold I bought.  Now we had to wait until Monday when I take the loaf into work with me along with my cutter and we give it a try.  I was so excited, I did a happy dance once an hour all weekend.

I arrived at work with a bag full of soap stuff.  The soap, the cutter, my background material, camera, parchment paper and a few nerves.  Josi and I used one of our break times to get everything set up and slice our soap into pieces.  She had do to a quick repair as one and then two of the wires snapped as they were tightened.  But the darn thing worked.

We ended up with seven slices.  And discovered that the lady who provided the cutter directions must like chunky soap.  Both of us decided that they were just too thick for our tastes.  And that next time I needed to chop up the calendula flowers.  They were just too big and ended up leaving actual holes in the soap.   But not bad for my first attempt.  Of course I won’t know what the soap is like until it has cured, in about 4 weeks.   When I got home with it, I cut each piece in half so I have thinner slices.  I didn’t think it through ahead of time, so my pieces are nowhere near evenly cut.  This soap will be handed out to our local test subjects, so looks don’t matter that much.  This time.

By June we have to have some seriously nice looking soap for us to sell.  More practicing is  needed and a few tweaks to our recipe.  Ron is already working on our label.  It is good that he gets to use his graphic designer skills for us.  And it is very nice for me to have something exciting to work on.  While I have no problem and, really lots of interest in getting our mushrooms bolts ready each year, I have to say they are not my thing.  I don’t even eat them.  So soap, lotion and salve making will keep me busy, happy and interested in the farm.  All in all, a very good thing.  But then I start thinking about elderberry jam, lavender sachets, and juneberry whatever and have to wonder if I will have enough time for even half of it.  Especially as I have to blog about everything we do.  My organization skills are going to need sharpening.  It is a good thing that I like to make lists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ginny’s experiments

Our 3 Acres

With the winter weather here in upstate New York we have not been out to THF for anything but quick trips.   Since Christmas the temps have been in single digits or the teens and most days the wind has made it even colder.  Along with most people up here, we have spent a lot more of our time indoors.  And I have been taking advantage of it.  It is the perfect time to do a bit playing around with things. To see what I can do with the plants we grow on THF. Those who know me;  know that I have been talking about making soap for years. Many, many years…..  Many years. Ron did research and found me a local connection for the lye I need and we drove out to pick up a bottle of it.  I bought books and printed up lots of recipes and directions.  Went to every soap making workshop at each Mother Earth Fair we attended.  I have most of the equipment that I need stashed in a box down cellar. But I just could not bring myself to take the plunge.
That has all changed now. Not only do I have fabulous calendula growing plans in the works but my wonderful friend, Josi made me a soap loaf cutter for Christmas. And she is going to come over to my house to make soap with me.  I am saving pictures of her soap cutter for that adventure.
Turns out was just the push I needed. I ordered a soap mold and started infusing olive oil with dried calendula flowers. That takes at least a month so it will be next week before we can make official plans. Soap making is longer process than just mixing it together and pouring it out. It has to cure which can take up to several months. As we are hoping to sell our soap at local events this summer, now is definitely the time to get started.
I also got busy looking for other things I can use my calendual infused oil for.  Once again I spent a good deal of time on Pinterest.  And they have so many good ideas.

I started with salves.  With both calendula and lavender, which we also grow on THF.   The people Ron and I work with are more than happy to be our test subjects.  You have to get not only the feel but the scent just right.  For most, lavender is a hit for hand lotion and salves.

Calendula lip balm is a bit more tricky.  Turns out lavender not so good on your mouth.  I tried a bit of orange essential oil, but was informed that peppermint would also be good.  You do have to keep it light as too much so close to your nose can be a real turn off.   If any of you have looked into making your own lip balm you know the list of oils you can add is long.  One does this, another that and one is not good at all.  Trial and error is the only way to go.  And lots of trying out on your test subjects.

Lotion bars were my next project.  I have been a fan of these for years;  a nice simple thing you can stash in your bag and carry with you anywhere.  But things have changed since I first bought one.  Now the molds you can use are amazing, all different shapes and sizes.  I used an old ice cube tray that I had handy for my first attempt.  I do have to admit that I grabbed it as I could not find the mini muffin pan I bought a few years ago. I was not going to let that stop my on going projects.

When I found the muffin tin under our dehydrator cart I was able to try a new variety.  This one had arrowroot powder added.  It is supposed to reduce the oil feeling.  Not so sure that works but I will try a few more batches and see what the end result is.

The next steps really are the harder ones.  Not only do we have to decide what shape I want the lotion bars to be, but have to decide what container to use at the same time.  And the label needs to be factored in.  We need ones that not only lists Tiny House Farm as made by, but the name of product and the ingredients.  And it turns out labels are costly.  And we have to fight about the containers.  What color they are, either gold or silver and what shape.  The graphic designer in Ron wants to make sure the whole thing pops.   Already decided we want to use screw top tin containers and amber colored jars with a black lid.   The jars will be for a calendula cream I made.  That was fabulous.  But it is water based and needs a preservative or it has to be kept in the frig at all times.  Which might not be a good selling point.  And that leads to another decision we need to make.  Which preservative do we use?  More research needed.  I am trying to keep our products as natural as I can which does tend to limit the choices.  Actually that is not a bad thing.  If I had twenty or more types to pick from, I would never get through that process.

All of this is very exciting and scary.  And I am having serious fun with it.  Ron always has to add his two cents in, which can be a good thing. I have been doing a pretty good job of taking photos for this blog.  But taking a photo of a jarred product in my kitchen is a bit tricky.  The light tends to throw a glare just where you don’t want it.  Ron told me I needed a large box with front cut out and then covered with background cloth.  I would then be able to use natural light.  I had been using an old beach towel on my stove but his box idea is much easier to work with.   The beach towel had to go though.  Ron thought denim would be prefect by giving me a slightly country look for any photos.  What we came up with is another connection to family for me.  Years ago Mom gave me her denim jumper and I love it.  It isn’t exactly big enough, but for now that I what I am using.  And don’t you agree that my photos look great?

I don’t know how well all my efforts will turn out.  Not even sure we will make any money on them.  There is so much more I have to do, number crunching at the top of the list.  It is a serious balancing act trying to figure out what we can charge.  But again we are having great fun with this.  Meeting lots of great people and learning so much along the way.  2018 is going to be exciting.

Wish me luck.