Thursday, December 3, 2015

Girl’s Week


Girl Scouts learn about cold-process soap making

 Last week was “Girl’s Week”. Girl Scout Troop #3010 watched me make a cold process soap loaf and then we melted premade glycerin base and the girls created their own soaps. 
Melting the Soap Base

Mixing colors and pouring molds
They mixed the colors, poured and when it cooled, un-molded. Their sense of color was amazing. 

Pouring liquid soap into molds

Just poured "dog bones"
Removing from mold

A few of the beautiful finished soaps
It was a joy to craft with them and they went home with small gifts to wrap for friends and family.
My lovely assistants
 A few days later the neighbor girls came over and after they helped me pack Browse and Sniff boxes, we played at making lollipops out of melt and pour soap base.

Lollipop Glycerin Soaps
Happiness is a job well done
No, you can’t eat them! 
Making body butter
Bottling body butter
Finished product
In between times, I managed to make some body butter. 

By the way, this is the Lavender Citrus Soap the Scouts helped make.
Lavender Citrus Soap

Monday, October 26, 2015

Three Little Birds




Smiled With the Risin' Sun

 Did you ever get a song, a little ditty, stuck in your head and find yourself humming and singing the darn thing all day? Well, for me, it’s been Bob Marley’s, Three Little Birds, who I think I heard in the maple tree a few minutes ago:

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Perch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou"

Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

Anyway, in spite of the fluttering of the little birds in my brain, I’ve been very prolific in the soap kitchen.

Marshmallow Root
The root harvesting is over for the year, but the salves will continue be made on demand until the oils run out. Aren't these gnarly, healing roots fascinating?

Mugwort Root
Salves in the wonderful display made by Hunky Husband

Soapwort Root
The Oil of Oregano is a wonderful dietary supplement.

Oil of Oregano
I’ve made batch after batch of the body butters; it seems I’m always running out.
This is the large, but two smaller sizes available

Here’s a few of my favorite soaps. By the way, the website needs updating so you may not see some of the products on bechardsbotanicals.com until that happens.


This is actually in a bright red bag (looks orange here)


For extra sensitive skin


For men, although women use it too!


Girly Girl and Babycakes have been replaced with Just for Kids


Yummy Orange Sherbet

Red bag, again looks orange


White Wedding with citrus scent

Rose Petals matches Body Butter and dusting powder

Fresh as a winter walk in the woods

Scent of the Season

Woodsy and Fresh

A Halloween Fav
Happy Halloween!


Friday, September 18, 2015

Mea Culpa




Berm in June 2015
This blog has been sorely neglected. Every time I’d think about posting this summer, a long list of tasks and errands would pop into my head right behind it!
Garden Bench
A wet spring contributed to a bumper strawberry crop, which had to be harvested, cleaned and frozen. Of course, the weeds grew right alongside the beautiful crops and flowers.
Strawberries in Bloom
I did manage to take a few pics.
Sunshine Park Farmer's Market



Our Booth
We did two farmer’s markets for half the summer but cut it down to one in mid-July. That helped a little, but there was always soap to be made. New products developed over the winter constantly had to be replenished: body butter, (who would have thought it would be so popular in the summer?) and Stardust (dusting powder),
which everyone seemed to want to stay dry in the heat and humidity. The herbal mosquito repellent was a popular item also. The salves, especially the comfrey, have also necessitated making bigger and bigger batches. Before I knew it, I had ripe pumpkins.

Mr. Big Appetite
We had many visitors to the Garden of Nemesis, some of them four-legged critters who liked to eat from our abundance during a month-long drought in July. Skunks dug tunnels along the foundations of both houses and woodchucks staged attacks on the carrots.
Ground squirrels helped the skunks dig up the lawn.

Sammie the Guard Cat
Above is the “guard” cat who romped with the visitors.
Happiness is Sauce
 As the dog days of summer wind down, I know that this winter I will be grateful for every jar of grape juice, green beans and tomato sauce I retrieve from the pantry. Still, this is one senior citizen that will be glad to sit down on occasion and reflect.






Thursday, May 14, 2015

Spring Has Sprung




Daffodils
Glorious spring! First the daffodils, then the tulips.
Yellow Tulips

May 3rd
The quince is a thorny mess all year, but in the spring, it is one of the first to bloom a delicate pink. Later, there will (hopefully) be those crazy apple-like fruits that make such good jam.

Quince
The violets are sending out their delicious perfume and are gathered for salves and tinctures.

Violets washed and ready
Added to the Bechard’s Botanicals line of new products are these:
Shampoo bars are joined by hair balm

Stardust Shimmer Dusting Powder for sweaty summer days
Healing Salves
Lip Balm
As I was working in the garden, I happened to look across to the park and saw my husband making the best of that irritating wind. He’s the only guy I know that will go fly a kite when his wife tells him to!

Go fly a kite!