Plants for Soaping

For some of my soaps, I like to add in extras, like dried herbs and flowers. For my sister-in-laws wedding favors, I added bits of rosemary to the rosemary-scented soap, and I have been known to color soap with parsley, tumeric, paprika, and kudzu.

Pink and Red Rose Petals

Currently, I am growing some marigolds to cut and dry for calendula petals, along with loofahs, and I've been looking around to see what other plants I can dry...

My in laws have lots of plants and flowers around the farm, but this past weekend I had my eye on a deep red rosebush and a bright pink rosebush! My husband and I collected handfuls of rose petals, and we have laid them out to dry in prep for a layered rose soap.

Orange peels

We've also started looking at our groceries to see what we can use and reuse. We recently replanted the heart of our last batch of celery, and it is growing back more celery! Yum! We also just bought a big bag of navel oranges, and we're saving and drying the peels to use in soaps and bath teas. Dried orange peel can be found in the spice section of the grocery store, but it is WAY cheaper to dry out your own peels! I've dried orange peels before, and they got very hard as they dried, so I am going to run them through my food processor after they are dry to get them to a finer consistency. 


Happy Creating!

Green Thumb

It is Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and with the warming weather, my mind has turned to gardening... We live near a wooded area and I am already planning on picking lots of honeysuckles and blackberry leaves... and there are hundreds of dandelions and nettles all around us in Tennessee... But I've always wanted a big garden, but apartment life isnt really suited for it.

Loofah seeds!

However, a month or so ago, I ordered some loofah seeds from Amazon, determined to get those little suckers to grow. I soaked them for two days in water before wrapping them up in a wet paper towel with a little bit of potting soil. After just a day in the paper towel, all of my little seeds had germinated and were ready to plant!

Four little sprouts!

My little loofah sprouts have all popped up from the soil and are looking green and strong! I'll keep them in this starter pot for the next few weeks, then separate them into their own, individual pots, and put tomato cages with the plants so that the vines can crawl! They need well-draining soil and lots of sun...

I am hoping to have a good crop of loofahs, so I can use them in my soap!