Guest guest Posted April 28, 2010 Report Share Posted April 28, 2010 I printed all that and plant to read it several times more. Use it and other posts for reference. I use utube for a lot of education. I watched them making soap there. I also learned how to make a forge and then made one. I learned how to make catch 'em live bird traps for quail and other chunky birds. i set up a whole trap line of over a dozen traps. Utube is also where I learned to make Ricotta cheese. Look it up for a visual. Take a gallon of milk (or what ever your willing to spare) and put it in a pot. Heat it up to almost boiling point. Slowly pour vinegar wile siring until it starts to curd. Place cheese cloth in spaghetti strainer and pour curds and whey in. This separates the curd from the whey. Squeeze alll the whey you can and then put fresh cheese in bowl. Add some Italian seasoning. Your done. Great in lasagna with Lambs Quarter. I had this for lunch just now. :-) The whey can be used in you morning TN or smoothy or it can be used to water plants, etc, etc, etc, etc. I make tortillas every 'Mexican Night'. They are really easy. 3 1/2 cups of wheat flower in a large mixing bowl. 1/2 teaspoon of Baking Powder and a pinch or two of salt into the bowl. Whisk it. I like to add herbs at this point. Cayenne, Basil, Rosemary what ever I got on hand. If its cut (not powdered) it shows colors in the finished product. Add 7 tbs of olive oil and 1 cup of tepid water. Kneed the dough and cover bowl with cloth. Wait for 30 minutes Form into silver dollar sized balls and roll 'em out. I use no oil in my cast iron frying pan. I just slap 'em down for ten seconds and then flip 'em. Little bubbles appear and I like to brown those. Really fast and easy. Wait till you try them; you'll never buy tortillas again. Type 'how to make tortillas' in to utube for a visual. I'm really enjoying this. What else do you know how to make???? I got a hand crank meat grinder at the flea market and now make awesome chicken burgers with just salt and pepper for seasoning. They're nice because when you cook them, they don't spatter grease everywhere and smell up the house. ML ~B On 4/28/2010 1:48 PM, Lori Smith wrote: i Bryan, Do me a favor before you make your own soap, go to your local library and get a book on soapmaking or look it up on the web so you will understand what "trace" means and looks like (so you will not have a flop with all those expensive ingredients), and familiarize yourself with soapmaking. I always tell people that if they can make bread, they can make soap. The process is different, but the time factor is about the same. However, it is best to get an idea of how the process works. Also, since you live in the south and it is probably warm there, homemade soap will draw moisture to itself (humectant), and so if you do not have A/C be prepared for it to maybe take longer for your soap to cure out hard, and also that it will "sweat" as it draws moisture to itself. This happens to all my homemade soaps in the summer (I store my soaps in empty show boxes in a cupboard). I wanted you to know this so you would not think there is something wrong with your soaps. Again, this is where it is good to take a few books out from the library and read all about soap making. Susan Cavitch has a couple of good books, but there are also other authors whose books would be very helpful (especially if you want to rebatch (which means to grate the soap, melt it down, add natural ingredients, and put in pretty molds), and I highly recommend you do just this. I have never made my own lye, I buy mine from the old Main Hardware in town (only place I could find it!). The only problem with making your own lye (and one reason I have not tried this) is that you cannot control the strength of the lye. That is why many people in the old days complained about how their mother's lye soap "would eat the skin off of you". I do know that when you make your own lye water that you know it is strong enough to make soap when an egg will float in it. What I like about buying lye is that you will get the same superior results every time. Not to say you can make the same soap recipe 10 times and not get a varying product occasionally (humidity/weather, differences in essential oils, etc), but the lye content will not change and will not make a difference in the soap. When you use a homemade lye water you might get hard bars or with a high ph (lye just right or too harsh), or you may end up with too soft of soap that will not form (lye not strong enough), but when you use store-bought lye the lye is always the same and gives good results for firm bars. Here is a good site to go to for a saponification chart (knowing how much lye you need when you design your own soap!) and for some information: http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php I know you worry about everything being organic, but lye saponifies (turns to soap) and the entire chemical structure of the lye changes so that it is no longer lye. I do not understand the complete chemical reason, but if you want to understand this you can find the information on line. I would not worry about my soaps not being "organic" because of the lye for this reason. I've been making and using my own soaps for a little over 14 years and I can tell you that I have loved them. I do not like using vegetable shortening (I think this makes a poor soap), but I have used tallow and this makes good bars of soap, but they should be scented as the fat can smell a bit rancid after time. My soaps usually don't last long enough to go rancid, though! If you have a slaughter house nearby you might be able to get all the suet you want for free or almost free and this can be easily rendered down into tallow (I've done this before many times), and tallow also makes lovely smoke-free candles. You can also make your own fat lamps using rendered tallow or olive oil. I have also saved the fats from frying (vegetable, olive, or meats), strained these and made soap. I save these oils/fats in cleaned spaghetti jars and freeze them until I want to make soap. These make nice bars for gardener's soap for hand washing after working in the garden or just for hand washing. I also have a really nice laundry bar soap (made with 11 pounds of animal fats~ suet/lard) but need to find it. I was looking for it a few weeks ago and not sure where I have misplaced it. This makes a large batch of laundry soap, very hard bars! I do not like to make soap well enough to do it for a living, but it is all part of that self-sufficiency lifestyle I try to live. I love using homemade soap and I love to give some as gifts. I also love the fact that I know exactly what is in my soaps. I admit I do not buy all organic because of the cost, but I still love my soaps. If you and Kelly get to where you enjoy making soaps and other body care items (bath crystals/salts, body scrubs, facial scrubs, bath oils, etc), this along with your foraging/ gardening might make a nice side business for your dad's on-line store or for a local Farmer's Market to bring in extra money. I will warn you, soap making is not cheap!!! Even when not using organic products it is still expensive. That is why if you find a recipe you like using tallow (I will send you my laundry soap recipe if and when I find it!) you might find a niche to sell laundry or hand soap made from animal fat (free fat is great if you can get it!). I would love to have your recipes for tortillas and cheese!!!! I have been wanting to find a tried and true recipe for tortillas for awhile. I made a recipe a few months back from a web site and ended up throwing it away as they were awful! At this time I do not have access to raw milk. A couple of years ago I was getting a gallon of milk a week from an Amish farmer for $2.00 a gallon! An awesome price!!!! But then gas went up to $4.00 a gallon and I could not justify driving that 20 minutes every week for just one gallon of milk. I wish I had as he moved and I have lost contact with him. I was making my own butter from the cream, my own yogurt, and using the rest just as milk. it is illegal here in Ohio to buy/sell raw milk. I am hoping to have access to raw goat and cow milk in the next year as a friend of mine from church is going to barter with me. She is going to buy a cow, and she is going to kid her goats. Her goats will need milked when she is gone and I will do the milking for milk and eggs. Great deal! But that is down the road a ways in time. I don't know if you ever watch TV, but Bob (my husband) and I sometimes watch the Food Network channel and we enjoy Guy Feiri on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. He went to this one restaurant a year or so ago where this man was making his own Ricotta cheese just as his mom made it (for his restaurant!) and it was so easy! But I need to catch the show again so I can write down the ingredients and process. It also made a huge amount! (I think he uses 5 gallons of milk at a time!) Years ago when I was your age (21/22) I dated a Mexican (he left me broken-hearted, but now I am glad as I've been married 27 years to Bob!), but he and the other guys used to make dozens of tortillas for dinner every night. I watched a few times, but I never learned from them. They made it look so easy as they did it assembly line style. They literally made dozens and dozens at a time as they ate them all the time as we might eat bread. We eat tortillas often enough and so I would love to find a good tried and true recipe. Thanks!!!!!! Hope I've been helpful! I know I always learn so much from all of you!!! I absolutely have been loving your herb of the week! And when you do that free seminar, let me know! I want to know how it goes! I will be holding a free Home Remedies Seminar using foods (I will cover some herbs and non-food stuff such as charcoal), but my focus will be on foods for health and medicine. I held one of these at my church in October of 2008. I will be hosting this other one on September 24, 2010, at the Newark (Ohio) public library for the public. I was asked to do this by a friend of mine who belongs to a "green group" here in Licking county. They put me on their agenda. More and more people are looking for healthy alternatives for health. The last seminar I gave I also listed books and websites, your dad's site included! It is a great resource and I promote it a lot!!!! But I want to know how yours goes, too, when you host it!!!! I wish I could be there!!! But hearing about it will be good. I know you will post the info online for all to read. I know everyone will enjoy hearing about it!!! Talk with you again. Blessings~ Lori "By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19 Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:31:27 -0400 Bryan homeschoolmom42 Re: Soap ~B This is so awesome!!!!!! Thanks to you I'm actually gonna make soap sooner instead of later. I just printed out your recipes and now all I have to do is gather together the ingredients. Woohoo!!! Do you make your own lye??? I've studied (a little bit) on how you can take wood or grass ashes and make it. Do you know anything or have you tried this? Thanks so much for taking the time to teach me how to make soap. You rock Lori. Thanks a million. ~Bryan P.S. Do you make cheese or tortillas??? I can teach you how I make them if you don't already make your own. :-) On 4/28/2010 11:51 AM, Lori Smith wrote: Here you go, Bryan, the pictures of the last two batches of soap I made, along with the recipes (first two). The first picture shows a recipe I modified somewhat from a book, and it is okay, but not my favorite. I was looking for a very mild soap (and this one is mild!) for my sister who is extremely sensitive to all scents, essential oils or fragrance, and so I wanted something without scent. The second soap is a recipe I created in 2003. It is a nice basic soap with exploding bubbles. I did not add anything to this soap (such as powdered oatmeal, calendula flowers, etc), and I added a variety of essential oils until I had a fresh citrusy scent. I can't tell you the exct amounts, but I can tell you what. This first recipe is modified from the book "Country Living Handmade Soap, Recipes for Crafting Soap at Home", their Basic Recipe Four, page 33, copyright 1998. This is called a "basic recipe" as it can be grated down (rebatched/hand milled) and other ingredients added then molded, if desired. I doubled the recipe and adjusted the amounts to what I wanted, which meant I adjusted the lye somewhat, too. I don't remember the adjustments (I didn't write them down, but this is extremely similar to mine. This soap is poured at a higher temperature because of the amount of beeswax as it will harden as it cools. I actually allowed mine to cool too much before I combined and poured with the oils (which had also cooled) which is why mine looks like fudge with the rippled top. But it works as soap, it just is not as aesthetically as nice on top as the other soap. Enjoy! Blessings~ Lori Basic Recipe Four (First picture) This soap comes out a buttercream/very light goldish color 14 oz. tepid water 5 oz. lye 6 oz. beeswax 4 oz. coconut oil 2 oz. palm oil 28 oz. olive oil 1. Prepare the mold, use cooking spray, if needed (I used a disposable tin lined with parchment paper and still sprayed it) 2. Blend water and lye. Walk away for a minute to allow toxic fumes to dissapate. Stir to dissolve completely. Set aside and cool to 150 degrees. 3. Melt the beeswax, coconut and palm oils. Blend in the olive oil and either heat or cool to 150 degrees. 4. Once the temperatures match, blend the lye solution into the oils. 5. Stir the mixture until soap traces (usually 10-20 minutes). At trace pour into prepared mold. 6. Cover with a piece of cardboard and a blanket to insulate. 7. Leave the soap to set for 6-12 hours, or until the soap is solid and firm to the touch (this actually can happen within 4 hours with this recipe). Remove cardboard and blanket. Cut into bars (either in mold or unmold and then cut), lay out to cure for 4-6 weeks. I lay mine out on plastic canvas from a craft store so that it can cure evenly. Otherwise, lay out on wax paper and turn daily to cure. My Castile Soap (Second picture) (I made a double batch of this, too, but this recipe is for a single batch) This soap comes out a whitish cream color 27 oz olive oil 20 oz coconut oil 8 oz. cocoa butter 6 oz. palm oil 18 oz. water 9 oz. lye 1-2 Tbls. essential oils (I used Ylang Ylang, Lavender, Patchouli, Cedarwood, Balsam Fir, Lemongrass, Marjoram, and Clary Sage) 1. Prepare mold(s) then spray with cooking spray (I used drawer dividers by Rubbermaid, the kind that is about 2 1/2" across, about 2" deep, and about 8" long) 2. Blend the water and lye (you can actually use goat or cow milk, if desired, but make sure the container is in a cold/ice water bath to keep the milk from burning and curdling. If it turns to orange the solution is ruined and must be thrown out and restarted anew), walk away for 1 minute to avoid fumes; dissolve completely. 3. Melt the cocoa butter, palm and coconut oils. Add the olive oil. 4. Once the temperatures of the lye water and oils match to 100 degrees pour the lye slowly into the oils as you stir. 5. Stir until comes to trace (20-30 minutes), blend in essential oils, then pour into prepared molds. 6. Cover with cardboard and a blanket. 7. Remove cardboard and blanket, cut into bars (in mold or after you remove from mold), and allow to cure 4-6 weeks before use. My Favorite Deluxe Soap (No picture) (I created this also in 2003) This is a really good soap that is softening to the skin. With the use of the essential oils I used this soap comes out a tannish brown. 30 oz. olive oil 20 oz. coconut oil 4 oz. almond oil 2 oz. cocoa butter 2 oz. beeswax 1 oz. lanolin 1 oz. glycerin 18 oz. water 8.8 oz. lye 1/2 cup powdered oatmeal (powder whole oatmeal in blender or food processor until it is flour) 2 Tbls. essential oils (my favorite combination is Cassia, Clove, Bergamot, Cedarwood, and Sassafrass (good luck finding Sassafrass as it is no longer easily available!) 1. Prepare molds (always spray with cooking spray for easy unmolding) 2. Combine lye with water and dissolve completely. 3. Melt the beeswax, cocoa butter, and coconut oil. Stir in olive oil, almond oil, and lanolin. 4. Once the temperatures of lye water and oils match, about 120 degrees, add the lye water to the oils and stir to trace. 5. Once at trace, quickly stir in glycerin and oatmeal to completely combine, then add essential oils to blend. 6. Pour into prepared mold(s), cover with cardboard and a heavy blanket and allow to set up for about 12-24 hours before cutting into bars. 7. Allow to cure for 4-6 weeks before using. *This soap could be modified using goat or cow milk instead of water. Use precautions above to keep milk from burning. "By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19 The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Get started. The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Get started. 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