Sick Day

I had a great time at the South Austin Urban Farmers Market last Saturday and hope to make an appearance again this weekend. I almost sold out of my new moisturiizng shea butter soap - so pounce early this Saturday to get your own bar. It's the most divine soap i've ever used and hope to make a few more batches as soon as i can get an order of supplies filled.



(Yes, i misspelled moisturizing. Just pretend i mean it makes you moister than other soap)


I've been feeling rather under the weather lately. Some combination of mold allergies, seasonal allergies, and allergies to very cute and heavily shedding corgi puppies......
I'm completely stuffed, can't taste the delicious food i've been cooking, can't sleep, and can't deal with it anymore! Sadly in order for me to afford health insurance i carry a high deductible policy that covers nothing much until i've spent $5,000. I can almost afford the low premium, but not much else. So i don't go to the doctor. Luckily i'm rarely sick and haven't had a cold in over 5 years. I just hate that in order to afford health insurance i can't afford to go to the doctor. I really wish health care would pay you back for being a healthy person. Sorry: i won't go into that particularly controversial topic on this blog - but you get the idea of my angst.

Long story short, i have some projects piling up in the studio and my building fatique due to sleepless nights of mouth breathing causes me to need a little break. I'll try and continue posting some shorter posts here, but expect a slightly less motivated and involved farm mama for the next few days.

On the positive side: kale, calendula, beets oh my! Germinating babies in the gardens make me happy! I'll post about my fall gardening schedule on Thursday. Any requests for wholesome wednesdays this week?

South Austin Urban Farmers Market

We had a lovely time with Robin and the other south Austin vendors this Saturday at 5109 Manchaca - a lovely, treed front yard just north of Fair Oaks. We hope to be sporadic regulars to this venue, and are applying to the Cherrywood Market happening in early December.

It was really great to bring our projects out to the open air and get responses from the public.

I would also like to make my soap, salts, and hair rinses available for online orders - pick up locally, or pay a little extra for shipping (within the usa). I'm working on a banner link for the side of this blog to make ordering easy - for now click the 'contact me' at the top of the page and let me know what you would like to order. Currently in stock:

• Herbal hair rinse, 3 blends - all natural with homegrown, organic herbs to sooth and beautify your scalp and hair   $8 - 8 oz
• Growth
• Shine
• Dandruff relief
• Aromatic bath salts   $6 - 10 oz

• Lemongrass/Rosemary for an invigorating bath (or foot soak)
• Lavender/Jasmine for a relaxing bath (or foot soak)
• Castile soap with soothing oats, calendula oil, and lemongrass essential oil (among other delightful ingredients)  $4.50 - 4 oz bars

My next batch of soap will be a shea butter soap with lavender essential oil, followed by another castile soap with tea tree and perhaps sandalwood. Feel free to email me at any time to see what i have in stock! And of course, thanks for supporting your local (or not so local as the case may be) gardener and budding herbalist!

Homemade Dyes

In my recent venture, Tinctures & Tonics, i've been playing apothecary and creating potions and bath products using homegrown herbs and other various botanicals. But what about pretty colors? So far i've been relying on store bought turmeric and occasional use of regular old food coloring. I would prefer to make it all myself.
What i've tried so far:

• Dehydrated some dill and ground it for green dye. Haven't tested it yet, but i bet it will work for soaps and candles, unless it just floats. Perhaps if i rub it in some oil first and then mix it in.
• Dehydrated beet root. Can't beat this opacity! Dehydrated and ground, i'll have to use this sparingly to be sure not to 'stain' my product users (no one wants to wash their hands and have them come out pink!)
• Beet Root stain - boiled it down for a few hours. May just try and dye my hair with this, we'll see ;)
• Sage flowers - lilac purple. Not sure if these will work, but it's worth a shot.

Obviously, i haven't tested these things out. But soon, SOON! i'll make my first batch of homemade, cold processed soap (and hopefully not burn myself with lye repeatedly, as i did in some rather disturbing dreams last night). I'll report back then.

In the meantime: do you have any tips/recipes for creating homemade dyes and colorants, suitable for soap making and salt coloring?