Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
• Rubber gloves to protect your hands
• Eye protection to protect against splashes
• Candy thermometer
• Large sharp knife
Making Soap
Making homemade soap, using beeswax or honey, is another way to use small amounts
of your exquisite harvest for personal use, gifts, or to sell. Making soap is slightly more
complicated than lotions and balms and requires care and attention to detail, especially
in keeping good records. With practice though, you will soon be making personalized
soap products.
Included here are a couple of recipes, one with beeswax, and one with honey. Mak-
ing either of these requires about two hours, essentially the same equipment, different
ingredients, and similar curing times.
Add the lye to the water, not water to the lye, and stir constantly but gently until it
dissolves. Do not splash! The water mixture will become very hot as you stir, reaching
nearly the boiling point. Place the container in the ice bath to cool, stirring occasionally.
Place the enamel or stainless steel pan on the stove with moderate heat. Add the
coconut oil, vegetable oil, and beeswax. Stir regularly until all ingredients melt, and stir
until everything is completely blended. Use the thermometer to keep tabs on the tem-
perature and stir until the temperature reaches 110° F to 120° F (43° C to 49° C).
Don't forget about the water/lye mixture cooling in the sink during all this.
When the lye mix has cooled enough that it is warm to the touch, and the oil mix is
also at the right temperature, it's time to combine them.
Turn off the stove and remove the pan from the burner. Very slowly add the lye water
to the oil mix, stirring constantly. This step takes a long time, so be patient. The mix
will warm again, and you need to stir until it cools and all the lye water has been added.
Allow at least 15 minutes for this step.
