Honey...

I was selling my soaps at Granite Farms again this morning and I purchased from my friendly farmer, this 3 lb. jar of golden honey. As soon as I got home I dipped in a spoon and had a spoonful of sweet, smooth, deliciousness.

I have many plans for this honey. Not only will I be drizzling it on my morning toast, but I have a new recipe I have been waiting to make. A super healthy bread using honey, sunflower and flax seeds.

What I find most exciting is that I will be making a batch of honey soap. Honey soap is on the list of many new specialty soaps I am in the process of producing for you.

Here are some neat honey facts, from Honey.com ~

• To produce 1 lb. of honey, a honey bee must tap two million flowers.
• On average, each person eats 1.31 lbs. honey per year.
• A worker bee visits about 50-100 flowers during each trip.
• There are an estimated 211,600 beekeepers in the United States.

Wow! that means honey bees visited about 6 million flowers to make my 3 lbs. of honey. That is alot of flying around for those little bees.

My father used to keep bees and I had the privilege of seeing the whole process from start to finish. Ordering bees by mail and then building the hive. Smoking the bees to collect the screens full of dripping fresh honey. My dad even built the extractor himself to spin those full frames clean of honey. He has since put his hive equipment away, I'm not sure what had happened to those bees. I do know that he still has much of the hive equipment and my husband and I are interested in perhaps starting are own hive so we can enjoy our own fresh local honey.

Spring is coming...time to plan.

Blueberry Cream Soap

I just finished slicing a beautiful new batch of my Blueberry Cream soap into nice, thick individual bars of soap...it has made the whole place smell soo delicious!
Just like it sounds, you will smell sweet/tart blueberries mingling with vanilla cream. And as you can see, light blue swirls with cream to create an attractive soap.

Men and women alike enjoy the scent of this soap. If you are looking for a fun Maine themed soap to send to friends, this is your soap.

As always, I made the soap with my own tried and true recipe of 100% vegetable oils. No chemicals, no animal ingredients, and nothing you can not pronounce. My soaps continue to be made in small batches, resulting in loving attention to each bar from start to finish and the unique quality of each soap.

(Shameless Plug) ~ To order my Blueberry Cream soap, click HERE

"14 Carrot" Soap

I have a great new soap! I call it "14 Carrot". I call it this because it is made with carrot juice and it takes 14 carrots to make enough juice for each soap batch! I just finished it up, and I am working on labels. I should have a picture of the soap up on the website soon. It will be available shortly for sale.

This carrot soap is my own 100% veggie blend, hand made soap with the addition of pure carrot juice. The bright orange carrot juice has lent some of it's color to the finished bars of soap. Each bar is a beautiful muted golden yellow.

Carrot juice has vitamin A and Beta Carotene, both are reported as helpful for nourishing the skin. This soap should benefit dry and mature skin. For these reasons, I choose to leave the soap unscented, since fragrance is often what irritates skin. I am currently using this soap to wash my makeup off at the end of the day. As with all my soaps they are facial quality.

I will also be making a Terrific Tomato complexion soap as well (more to come on that later). I am looking forward to seeing the color of "Terrific Tomato" soap. I'm anticipating a light creamy red. I will be creating all sorts of new soaps for you and for the upcoming warm weather Farmers Markets. I have a list of new ideas and projects....there are soo many cool things I can do with soap. Soo much soap, and soo little time!

Pineland Farms...

We are expecting more snow today....lots. But before it started to fall, my husband and I took a drive to Pineland Farms in New Gloucester. http://pinelandfarms.org/

We mostly were going to check out the market, as I had recently heard that have added their own cheese, crafted right there on the farm, to the selection of foods offered. They had about 6 different cheese out to try, all very tasty. We especially enjoyed the smoked cheddar.

Here is the write up on their Market Page:

Introducing The Market at Pineland Farms!
The Market at Pineland Farms combines all the farm-fresh goodness of our farm stand with an expanded assortment of Maine-made foods, beverages, and gifts - all under one roof.
You'll find a full assortment of delicious cheeses from our Creamery, organic eggs from hens right here on the farm, and our own jams, honey, and pickles. The Market will be bursting all summer long with locally grown vegetables and fruits. We also feature a great selection of premium-quality, Wolfe's Neck Natural Meats.

What a beautiful and picturesque place. I even ran into my friend Beth. She and her son had just finished up cross country skiing. He was enjoying a locally made

Lemon Lime Soda by Capt'n Eli's Soda.

Lunch is available, and many were partaking in homemade sandwiches and delicious looking deserts. I looked more than once at the pie's for sale, thinking of buying one, but my husband asked me to bake him one of mine instead. What a guy!

We will be sure to go back and enjoy the many recreational opportunities including trail running, walking. hiking, mountain biking, tennis, Nordic skiing, and ice skating.

Snow...

We got another sprinkling of snow overnight to add to the 4-5 inches that fell yesterday.

I only mention this to let you know that I am working on a very special project involving fresh snow....can you guess what it might be?

More to come.....

New Banner...

Check out my new banner. You can see it here on the blog, and also on my website. www.cascobaysoap.com

I just wanted to take a minute and post a big THANK YOU, to D. from The Photo Spot .

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6571306

I found her on Esty.com which is a fantastic site, featuring all sorts of creative and super talented artists. I should blog on that someday too....

Anyway, she worked with me to create my new fantastic banner! She created several drafts for me to choose from and happily accepted all my input.

I just love the colors, the stripes, the use of the sand dollar

which graces every label on my soaps.

Great job D. Thanks!

It's Laundry Day...

Have you seen my new laundry soap? In powder form, my laundry soap is made from my ground, old-fashioned soap - not detergents, dyes and chemical fillers.

I started making this when I thought of all the chemicals I was putting into my washer and then ultimately, into my septic system. I also had a bunch of ends and trimmings, cut off from my soaps and wanted to re-purpose them. Being a Yankee, it's just part of me...nothing should go to waste!

I've teamed my soap with natural laundry boosters. My laundry powder is 100% natural and biodegradable. And just like my soaps, it should work for most, if not all sensitive skin. I really can't make any claims as to how it will work for everyone. I do have some super skin sensitive customers, that have had no trouble with my soap. But, I always caution them when trying a new soap (as they should with any new product) to test on a small portion of their skin first.

This non-sudsing powder is very concentrated. Only 2 scoops (a cute little wooden scoop is included) are needed for regular-sized loads. Great for both front and top loading machines.

This 1 lb. bag of powdered laundry soap, holds enough powder to wash 20 loads. Fabric softener is no longer needed. (Maybe you should stop using those fake chemical scented sheets anyway).

Sometimes old fashion ways are best. Forget all the extra chemicals and dyes in store bought detergent, switch to something better.

Ingredients: My own 100% veggie, from scratch, handmade soap, washing soda, & borax. That's it! Since I do use soap scraps, sometimes the powder may have a hue to it or a slight fragrance from all the different soaps I make.

Cost: 1 lb. of my own powdered laundry soap, good for 18-20 washes, and a cute little scoop all for only $8.00.
http://cascobaysoap.com/laundrysoap.html

Hot Chocolate

What does Hot Chocolate you say, have to do with soap? Well, certainly not much. But this blog is going to include small bits & pieces of my everyday life, as I work long and hard to produce soap for you. A cup of hot chocolate may be just what I need to inspire a new fragrance or maybe give me a sugar boost to push on through the new business plan I am writing.

Plain and simple, I love hot chocolate. For those of you that know me personally, I love to cook & bake. Food to me is creative, a visual treat and a comfort. During the holidays, I made a big batch of hot chocolate mix, kept some for my own personal use and gave some away little glass jars to friends. I wanted to share with you the recipe that I use, it is from Epicurious.com It may have few extra steps, but it is well worth it.

Ingredients:

4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split crosswise (see tips, below)
1 1/2 pounds high-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process

Directions:

Place sugar in large bowl. Split half vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape seeds into sugar, and add pod. Work seeds in with your fingers. Cover snugly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature.
In food processor fitted with metal blade, process semisweet chocolate and milk chocolate until finely ground, using 4-second pulses. (Process in two batches if necessary.)
Remove pod from sugar. Add ground chocolate and cocoa powder to sugar and whisk to blend.
Store mix airtight at room temperature for up to six months.


To serve:For each serving, heat 8 ounces milk in small saucepan over medium heat until scalded (or microwave 2 1/2 minutes at full power). Whisk in 1/4 to 1/3 cup mix. Serve with unsweetened softly whipped cream or marshmallows.

Tips: •Save the other half of the vanilla bean for another use, such as a second batch of vanilla sugar, which keeps indefinitely and can be used in baking, coffee, or simply to sprinkle on fruit or waffles.

Even better top with your own homemade marshmallows. I will post that recipe down the road. I have made them a few times and boy, are they good. Melt in your mouth, pillow soft, and boy do they toast up nice over a campfire....

Rich and steaming, a mug of hot chocolate will help soothe away the winter cold. We are expecting a winter storm in the form of 8-12" of beautiful snow in the next day or so, a mug of hot chocolate is just what I will be mixing up. Keep warm!

Eat Maine Foods!

Eat Maine Foods is the networking site of the Eat Local Foods Coalition of Maine (ELFC), a coalition of groups and people working to put more Maine foods on more Maine tables more often. With Groups, Blogs, Events & Forums, there is bound to be something for everyone.
http://www.eatmainefoods.org/

Winter Farmers Market

NEW! - Casco Bay Soap Co. is very excited to be selling our soaps during the winter months at an indoor Farmers Market in the barn at Granite Farms in Brunswick.

Take a beautiful drive into farm country and visit an old dairy farm. The big white barn shows evidence of when it was once used as a working dairy farm. I even have chatted with a few old timers who have come to visit us as customers, that use to work on the farm. Market vendors are friendly and happy to chat with you. Often free coffee or hot mulled cider is offered to sip while visiting with your neighbor, sampling the baked goods or browsing the variety of items for sale. Plenty of parking.

The market is open from 9-12, Saturdays, at 93 Casco Road in Brunswick with several vendors from the Brunswick Crystal Spring Farmer Market and a handful of vendors from the Cumberland Farmers Market Association. This winter market offers eggs, poultry products, pies, whole birds, candles, canvas bags, goat meat, herbs, vegetables, baked goods, maple syrup, honey, apples, soap, Gluten Free baked goods, flowers and wreaths.

What a great opportunity for local farmers to sell during the winter months. I personally have purchased some fantastic offerings. Local eggs from Em's Eggs, with more than a few over sized eggs in each carton, I felt I was getting more than my moneys worth. Chewy macaroon, so good I was going to share with my husband, but they didn't make it home. Gluten Free chocolate chips cookies, I didn't even miss the gluten! My mom & dad stopped by one Saturday and my mom (a true Yankee always bragging about a bargain) was thrilled to walk away with 2 tomatoes for $1.00!

Any vendors interested in joining this market can call Debbie Cupo of Granite Farm at 729-5275.

I hope to see you there.