Mushroom, soap, and healing the planet

I just watched this amazing talk:
http://youtu.be/DAw_Zzge49c

Paul Stamets is a world famous mycologist, and he has discovered that the fungal properties of mushrooms lead to bee health.
So more mushrooms = more bees = saving the planet.

I had a revelation that mushroom spores could go in my soap, adding anti-bacterial properties.
So look for a new batch in Winter of anti-bacterial soap, with mushroom spores and honey.

Why this soap is better

I was recently dragged to a very post products store in Boulder called Lush.  

"You will love everything there, it's all hand made and totally natural," my daughter promised.

I had a long conversation with the manager after examining all their soap ingredients.  Only ONE of the product lines was sodium hydroxide based, the rest all had detergents in them.

This is not natural soap.

She had a long explanation about phasing out this and that, blah blah blah, but the truth is, almost no one makes commercially manufactured soap the old fashioned way from lye saponified with fats.  It simply costs ten times more than cheaper detergent processes.

Go look at your shampoo bottle, it will be all sodium laurel sulphates and other detergent chemicals. These are made with alcohols and acids, and they dry, dry, dry your skin.

The only widely available lye based soap on the market is Dr. Bronner's - and it uses potassium hydroxide so the soap will stay liquid.

I actually do love Dr. Bronner's, so if you need liquid soap, it's a great choice.

The truth is, once you try truly saponified soap, you will never want to use detergent based soap again.

Getting ready for the holiday season!

How soap works

It almost is magic that humans figured out thousands of years ago to mix ash from their fires with oils from their animals to get an agent that could clean so well.

Although the idea of lye in soap gives some people pause, the lye is completely nutrilized in properly made soap, leaving the fat the moisturize your skin.

In my experience, the most ancient of chemical combinations (lye with solid and liquid fats) create the most cleansing soaps.  The current glycerine based chemical soaps do not have the same properties of bonding with the oil based particles.  This explains it pretty well:

How does Soap Work?

Nearly all compounds fall into one of two categories: hydrophilic ('water-loving') and hydrophobic ('water-hating'). Water and anything that will mix with water are hydrophilic. Oil and anything that will mix with oil are hydrophobic. When water and oil are mixed they separate. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds just don't mix.

The cleansing action of soap is determined by its polar and non-polar structures in conjunction with an application of solubility principles. The long hydrocarbon chain is non-polar and hydrophobic (repelled by water). The "salt" end of the soap molecule is ionic and hydrophilic (water soluble).

When grease or oil (non-polar hydrocarbons) are mixed with a soap-water solution, the soap molecules work as a bridge between polar water molecules and non-polar oil molecules. Since soap molecules have both properties of non-polar and polar molecules the soap can act as an emulsifier. An emulsifier is capable of dispersing one liquid into another immiscible liquid. This means that while oil (which attracts dirt) doesn't naturally mix with water, soap can suspend oil/dirt in such a way that it can be removed. The soap will form micelles (see below) and trap the fats within the micelle. Since the micelle is soluble in water, it can easily be washed away.

from the website: Edinformatics.com

Soap making is full swing

After combining all the ingredients (I use an electronic scale to measure everything to make sure the proportions are exact), stirring until trace is achieved (a soft pudding consistency) I pour the soap into a mold.  It cures for two days, then this happens:

I am peeling the paper lining to the mold off of the soft soap.
Then slicing the bar.  I love this stage, the soap is still soft enough to mold just a bit.

After two months (!) of curing, all the water is removed, and the hard bar is ready to use.  Since our climate is so very dry here, the cured soap is magically hard -- and therefore it lasts such a long time.
If you keep it well drained after every use, it can last 6 months or more.

These batches will be in my Etsy shop starting November 1st.

Verbena Hastata vs. Verbena Officianalis

I am a vervain lover.

I discovered it's uses 30 years ago while an exchange student in the South of France. Every cafe there would serve an Infusion De Verveine when asked, and I asked often.
The medicinal effects were undeniable -- it gave me a relaxed gentle feeling, not sleepy at all, just pleasant.  It also helped my digestion tremendously.
No wonder this plant has been used since ancient times, both Egyptians and Greeks noted it in their writings. The Druids used it, as well as Dr. Bach, who included it in his 38 original Bach Flower Remedies.

But we have a problem, currently, with the labeling of Vervain. There is a plant that is native to the Old World, and that is Verbena Officianalis, and there is a similar cousin from the new world, Verbena Hastata. Both of them are often labeled Vervain.

I have tried both as teas, and the Hastata plant does not have the same medicinal qualities or flavor as the Officianalis plant. Sadly, here in the US, there is no distinction between them.

Another layer of confusion is sometimes Vervain is mislabeled as Lemon Verbena. My goal is to correct this misinformation.

If you want to try some soap, this can be your first introduction to Verbena Officianalis, or True Vervain. I will be planting a crop of Vervain for the 2014-2015 season, and if the harvest is enough, I will be able to offer tea leaves in early Summer of 2015.  Let's hope our Colorado High Mountain Climate and sunny Summers will produce abundance of this magical plant.

"To those interested in magic and religion, there is no herb in the garden more worthy of attention, for this simple plant without fragrance, without an outer look of power, without a flower of significance, was singled out from among all other plants and herbs as the most sacred of the growing things of earth between the Pillars of Hercules and the roots of the Caucasus." 

--Henry Beston, 1935

Stirring the soap pot . . .