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 […]
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
10 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
3 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
4 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
1 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!
7 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
Over the past couple of months I have been showing you how to use dried herbs in making Tinctures and Infusions; today I am going to introduce you to Decoctions. I’m really excited to finally get to this part – so that in future blogs I can incorporate these fabulous […]
What is a Decoction and What do I need to ...
4 I am super excited to announce that we have now written over 1000 blogs! I’m still a little surprised that we have finally reached this number, but I can also believe it. When this blog was started in January of 2009, I remember sitting in front of my computer wondering […]
Wowza! We’ve Written Over 1000 Blogs!
2 I love foot creams! I think my favorite evening ritual is to apply a foot cream to my feet, put on my socks and head to bed. While I wear wool socks during most of the day and evening (as well as year round), my feet still can get a […]
Simple Scent Free Foot Cream
2 We have been making Tinctures, Infusions, and Decoctions with several dried herbs and with many of the powders that are available in the catalog. Today instead of using the extraction method to get the properties or color out of the dried herbs or powders I would like to show you […]
Safflower Powder in Cold Process Soap
This Paprika Powder is great, the color is absolutely amazing. So, I am continuing on with my different powders to add to soap and now I have the paprika powder, thinking potato salad….. no I’m thinking what a beautiful color this would make in my soap. Today I will show […]