Garden art is an expression of one’s soul… Seeds packets, weathered hand trowels, a stalled tractor, the resting plow, pea shoots, sunflowers face the sun or lie their full heads to rest, rainbow reflections from the water-flowing sprinkler, dirt-cladded rocks, green garlic sprouts, worn ruts in the field road, sharp rows of green, bee’s visit to the flowering lavendar … all spiritual gifts to receive at the farm and share … an artist’s palette.
So I have in mind to use my abundance of dried lavendar into soothing, aromatic soap for Christmas gifts and sell at the farmer’s markets this winter. Bought some simple molds. I thought to use creative ideas, and welcome yours. What do you use for your soap molds? An antique or something contemporary?
Deanna Greens and Garden Art 
so cool
Hello, Anna!
Oh, I wish I lived in Missouri, sometimes, my home state. Alas!
However, I do get there, sometimes, having lots of family there, even some in St. Louis.
I do all my landscaping with herbs and edibles and would visit your place LOTS! (A few photos on my site: katharinetrauger.wordpress.com ) Did you have drought this summer? I need to replace SO MUCH!
I never did mold my soaps, but let them set up in a large block and then cut them when half done. At Hot Springs, they have an entire store devoted to soaps, I suppose because of the bathhouses. The folks at that store add whipped soap to the top of the block and then when they slice it, they have a cute foamy edge on it, often of a telling color, such as blue foam for lavender soap.
What type of soap do you make? Do you begin with the fats, or do you reprocess glycerin type? Or what? If your soap will not make heat while in the molds, I have often thought of the trays store-bought cookies come in for molds and wondered if they would work. Have seen another top-secret idea I would be willing to share with you that I think you and customers would love. Just get in touch.
I do not make soap these days, but have in the past. I do have a lovely recipe using lavender in cookies, if you are interested. It is too easy. Just add a tablespoon of lavender blossoms to part of the flour for any “5-dozen” sugar cookie recipe and whirl in a blender just a bit, to pulverize the lavender, some. Then make the cookies as usual, with this flour and the rest of the flour of the recipe, sprinkling with purple sugar, if desired, before baking. Mmmm! My college son will come home for these! 🙂
Thank you for responding to my blog post.
Where in Missouri are you from? Where are you living now?
I’d love to see pictures of your gardens and herbs! Yes, we had a terrible drought, bad for so many vegetables and plants mid-summer. The organic farm we are a part of and have our CSA with had a few weeks of sparse shares this year.
I started making soaps this past month, using glyercin. I too thought about those old antique cookie molds I have seen while antiquing. I suppose it would be worth a try with those ornate designs. We had an abundance of lavendar at the organic farm, so it made nice soaps. I am finding many other uses. My winter project is to make some scented sachets for the drawers and dryer. I love the flavor of lavendar, and would welcome your lavendar cookie recipe! I obtained a lavendar scone recipe a few days ago, and hope to try during the holidays. I will let you know how that turns out.
I was born in Kansas City, but my folks moved a lot and that was mostly in the central part. I remember taking a train from Union Station to St. Louis to visit my grandparents. Nothing like it!
Now days, my family and I live in the Deep South, and actually we are only about 1 1/2 hours from Hot Springs, so it makes a good place to take a day off, for us.
I don’t have many photos of my gardens, here, because first, they were immature, and then we had drought and they are dying. Sighs. What I do have, though, is mostly on my blog.
When we lived in Mississippi, I had a convent garden with a huge section of white flowers. It was such a joy, but the people there do not take to outsiders too well. We got out as soon as possible. Great weather there, though: zone 7 summers and zone 8 winters!!! And that loess soil!!! And all the free mulch you can haul off from cotton gins!!!
You know, I was not talking about antique molds, but rather the cellophane trays that cookies come in in the store. I suppose they would not be organic, though, eh? They do have unique shapes, though.
There is no recipe for the lavender cookies. Just blend the blossoms with your flour from your own recipe for sugar cookies, as instructed above. That is all it is.
Anyway, thanks for visiting my site and let’s keep in touch! 🙂
ps – how many lavender plants do you harvest?
Sorry for the slow response. I had traveled to KC for a couple of days with my husband’s family, and then back with my family in the St. Louis area. My husband is from Lee’s Summit. I have lived in the St. Louis ara most of my life, except for 3 years in Warrensburg, Missouri will in school.
I have a great sugar cookie recipe, and I will add lavender in place of the orange or lemon zest. I worked as an apprentice on an organic farm this past season, and we had 2 or 3 small patches of lavender. Not yet familiar with the different varieties, but this one had a spicy fragance to it.
I hope to have some photos of our greenhouse available on my blog very soon. We were in there most of the day yesterday, planting cuttings from houseplants. My husband captured some lovely glimpses of our green sanctuary.
I hope you had a great holiday with your family!
We celebrate Thanksgiving big and Christmas low key. Lazy. And not sure about all the worldly traditions. But we did have peace on earth! So glad! Whew!
I had a chance to get 72 lavender plugs that were dry and “pot” bound, for 50 dollars, once, and had the birthday money to do it! My son dug 72 hole for me, as his birthday present and voila! I have lotsa lavender. Only lost 3 at planting, and a couple more to deer sleeping on them! Can you imagine how nice a deer would smell? Ha!
We had such drought here, whole ponds were dried up that had never dried before. I think ours is spring-fed because although it did get low, it was not dry. And now, it is the first to fill up.
I used to live in Lee’s Summit, in my 7th through 9th grade years! Our address at the time was 305 E. Forest Avenue, but the grand old victorian house we had is now gone. Its foundation was sorta caving, even then. It sure had amazing care put into building it. Not like houses today.
Thanks for your kind wishes and glad you are back! 🙂
I try to keep holidays simplified myself. Keep the spirit of the holiday in the forefront.
Boy, you have some lavender. Particular variety? Your place sounds heavenly, serene …
So it is such a small world. I will have to ask my husband about that address. His maternal grandmother lived at 408 2nd Street for years before passing away ( I believe I remembered that address correctly), and he lived there while we were dating. He requested a job transfer with the National Archives a couple of years ago, and we were married July 2010. If you do not mind me asking, what is your maiden name? Small chance you went to school together …
Hoo, girl, I am 60 years old! 🙂 No chance, unless you married an elderly gentleman! I do not mind your asking, but let’s go off site for the answer, okay? 🙂
It is serene, here, except for coyotes at night–sounds like a woman is being murdered! But they get their singing over and then all is serene again. 🙂
Lotsa lavender and you can search it on my site and find the crafts I made this fall–pillows and such. Fun to give but fiddly to make.
My husband and I are both 51. My direct e-mail is deannagreensandgardenart@gmail.com. Feel to communicate via our e-mail. Myhusband said your childhood address was close to his grandmother’s house.
I liked you lavender photos. Nice crafts. Such motivation. Only so many hours in a day …