Monthly Archives: May 2013


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I love baked beans. They are to me the epitome of summer picnic foods. My favorite style is smoky, sweet and tangy but not all ready-made beans fit what I want or what I am looking for. So here is a simple but wonderful recipe to the rescue! And the […]

Baked Beans





I would like to wish everyone an enjoyable Memorial Day. To me Memorial Day is a day to remember all the American men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. This is a day for many to gather with family and friends to visit cemeteries […]

Memorial Day


We have covered this week how to make decoctions, how to use decoctions, and now I would like to cover Storing Decoctions.  You may have noticed, like I did when making the mushroom decoction that I had to keep adding in additional water to accomodate the ever expanding mushrooms. So what happened is […]

Storing Decoctions


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 I wanted to share with you some of the botanical powders that we used in a few past blogs and their curing results. The first photo shows – Safflower Powder; Ground, Vanilla Bean; Spirulina Powder; Paprika Powder; Orange Peel Powder; and on the end a green tea infused soap (not […]

Results of Botanical Powders in Soap



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Wow, this has been a very easy and fun process of making decoctions and adding in the fabulous extracts into our cold process soap. I have deciced to do a ginger decoction now, so I have gathered my supplies and I’m ready to start, first I will clean and cut up some […]

Ginger Decoction


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After completing the mushroom decoction I have decided to venture on and create a carrot decoction and ginger decoction. I have gathered my supplies and I’m ready to start cooking, first I will clean and cut up some carrots and place into a sauce pan, add water (I need at […]

Carrot Decoction


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Here we go using our first Wood Ear Mushroom Decoction in a batch of soap! Yea! Yes, I did take a moment and had some lunch, cooking the mushrooms made me hungry. I gathered a few soap making supplies and I have my completed Wood Ear Mushroom decoction. Now, I’ll show […]

Decoction in My Soap, Oh My!



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In my first decoction I will be using a dried mushroom called Wood Ear; also known as mo-er, black fungus and cloud ear. This mushroom is used throughout Asia as an edible fungi and an herbal medicine, it is also known for its antioxidant properties. Wood ear mushrooms can be […]

Making Decoctions – How To