I’ve had several people contact me about how to make soap and about the butter churner I bought off of EBay. I’ve been answering each individually, but this morning there were two seperate emails with the same question, so I thought it might be a good idea to give some info here on those questions.
First – the butter churner. When I started looking for a butter churner, I had three things in mind: 1) I wanted a hand crank churner 2) I wanted a glass churner and 3) I wanted a Dazey Churner. I really had no particular reasons for this, other than I wanted glass so I could see what is happening when I churn,I wanted a Dazey because that’s really the only old, glass churner I’ve really ever heard about, and I wanted a hand crank because you know, being all into getting self sufficient and everything, I didn’t want it to depend on electricity. I paid $50 for it. Here’s a picture:
She’s a beauty and cranks out some really awesome butter. I highly recommend her. Only she’s not for sale. But I highly recommend one of her siblings.
As for soap making, I never bought a book on the subject. I never even thought about making soap until I started reading about other people having fun making soap. I can’t stand when people have fun without me, so I decided I needed to get in on it. I started looking all over the internet and finding out about making soap. Two excellent resources are the Soap Making forum on HomesteadingToday and Mullers Lane Farm. And, of course, I have a page up on the Back to Basic Living website with step by step instructions and a basic soap recipe for beginners.
I found the most difficult part of soap making was finding the lye needed. After ordering from several places, I found Ace Hardware had the best deal – I order it by the case.
If you have other questions about butter churning or soap making, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m no expert, but I can either answer your question, or point you to someone who can.
Speaking of soap, here are a couple of pictures of my Sinfully Decadant Chocolate soap with swirls:
Ah – just gorgeous! This next picture is the same batch, but I ran out of the chocoate swirl. I think it came out really pretty, but I wanted more chocolate swirl:
OK – time to go cook up a couple of nice steaks for supper. Bernie bought Live Free or Die Hard and we’re going to watch it tonight while we eat. It’s not Movie Saturday or anything, but we like to be spontaneous and adventurous on occasion. This is about as spontaneous and adventurous as it gets around here. Woo hoo!
Live Free,
Penny
OOOhh I wish I knew how to make soap!!!
they look beautiful!!
Thanks, Dana. And if I can make soap, YOU can make soap! It’s really not difficult. And you can even use MILK!!
Penny
What a wonderful churn. I haven’t seen one in years. Dang, now I have to add another ‘project’ to my list. I am learning to make soap now!
Hey there, Homesteading Today linked to you (and my blog too) so I came visiting. I have the Daizey churn with the red ball on top; it’s a newer model, like from the 40′s or 50′s. Truthfully, though, I prefer to shake the cream in a gallon jug. It leaves one hand and arm free and it’s easy to carry it with me if I want to go sit on the porch swing, or in the living room to watch TV.
Thank you for the butter churner soap recipe. It’s really amazing!Thank you! I am going to add a link to this page from my Natural Bath Products site. And if you do not mind, I will add your soap recipe to my collection of soap recipes here. thanks!
I know this is really old, but as you know I’ve gone back to the beginning of your blog and reading about your homesteading journey.
Jen and I were discussing butter last night. Can you leave butter out of the fridge? It’s so much better when soft but then is there a hazard in doing so?
Next, naturally, we started wondering how hard it would be to make our own butter. Neither of us had any idea. Now I run across this in your blog! I guess I’ll be shopping for an old time butter churn here real soon!
Pat
Hi Pat! I’m no food safety expert, but I can tell you I never refrigerate butter. Well, I refrigerate EXTRA butter that will take us a while to eat, but I always leave some on the counter and that’s what we eat on. But one thing to keep in mind is if you leave home made butter out and there is any moisture at all, it will go sour on you if not eaten with a day or two – and it is a little difficult to get home made butter completely dry. Our usually doesn’t last long enough to worry about, but I did have some go sour on the counter during the summer one time. I just make sure I only leave what we’ll eat within a couple of days on the counter.
Keep an eye on E-Bay for one of those churners! They do show up occasionally.