Bloomingnews Article on Full Moon Milk Soaps

Bloomingnews, the free newsletter of our local Bloomingfoods Co-op, published an article on Full Moon Milk Soaps this month.  Check it out!

Full Moon Milk Soaps in Bloomingnews

Basil & Lime Zest Milk Soap for Summer!

We started making Basil & Lime Zest one year when we had a LOT of basil in our gardens.  Basil and lime go together perfectly-- the scent wakes me up and cheers me up! This soap makes me smell like a warm garden in the summer months.  You can find it at market (in Bloomington and Greencastle) or here: www.fullmoonmilksoaps.com

How to Make a Natural Baby Wipe Solution

We have a new baby to play with! Jasper was born on February 11. I use cloth diapers and wipes at home, and our soaps are a perfect base for a baby wipe solution. I make it as I need it about once a month, and the process just takes a few minutes. Here's how to do it:



I collect bits and pieces of our mildest soaps, like Clover Blossom, La Leche, Pure Lavender, and Calendula Sunshine. You can also shave or cut pieces from a bar of mild soap. Goats milk soap is particularly gentle to delicate skin.



Gather your soap, a measuring cup or bowl that can withstand heat, tea tree oil and lavender oil, and an old pump container to dispense your solution.



Pour about a cup of boiling water over 2-3 small pieces of soap or about 1/8 cup of shavings. Set aside--when soap has dissolved and cooled, add 6-10 drops each of tea tree and lavender oil and stir. Pour the solution into your soap pump, and shake well before using. I use about 5 squirts of this solution in two cups of water to immerse each batch of (usually a dozen) baby wipes. I have found this to be a gentle mix for both of my babies, but use common sense and discontinue use if you notice any problems. Enjoy your natural baby!
J.D.

Making Felted Soaps

We get a lot of comments about our felted soaps. Many of our customers have never seen felted soaps before, and the beautiful colors and textures are very striking. The wool felted onto the soaps acts as a built-in scrubbie, and shrinks as you use the soap. These soaps are long-lasting and great exfoliators!



Soaps are easy to felt at home, and this can be a fun project for kids or a great way to use wool rovings. You should start by selecting two pieces of roving, each long enough to wrap all the way around the soap with a good amount of overlap. Gently pull apart the fibers of the wool, spreading the piece of roving to the width of the soap. Wrap one of the pieces of roving around the soap in one direction, and the other piece of roving in the other direction, so the entire soap is covered with a thick padding of wool and no soap shows through. Pull loose fibers around the soap and make sure corners are well covered.



Now you're ready to felt! We do our felting at the sink. Carefully hold your soap under very warm water for a few seconds, until it is completely saturated, and begin felting the wool to the soap by 'washing' it on, working it in your hands as if you were washing your hands with the soap. When you work up a thick lather, you will notice that the wool begins to adhere to the soap. Make sure the wool is still covering the soap entirely! Repeat this process several times, working the soap into a lather and then rinsing it in hot water. When the wool feels tightly adhered to the soap, run the soap under cold water for a few seconds, lather it a final time, and rinse it in cold water. This 'locks' the felt onto the soap. Gently tamp your soap dry with a towel, and set it on a board to air dry. In a few hours, it will by dry and ready to use!



Have fun making felted soaps! And thanks, Grace, for teaching me this process.

J.D.

Healing Salves

We spent a lot of time this summer harvesting comfrey, lemon balm, and fennel from our gardens and chopping fresh herbs around the picnic table in Grace's garden. We infused olive oil with these herbs in the hot greenhouse for several weeks, then strained the oil to make these deep-healing salves. A touch of cocoa butter makes them extra moisturizing, and beeswax hardens them. We use these salves around the house for cuts, stings, bruises, burns, itches, and dry skin-- I even use them on my hair sometimes!

Sweet Medicine Salve is our richest salve, infused with healing comfrey. We add essential oils of tea tree, lavender, and lemongrass to this salve for their antiseptic and calming properties. This is a fantastic household salve for all purposes.

Bronze Fennel Salve is infused with beautiful, sweet smelling fennel. We add a touch of essential oil of fennel. This is a calming and carminative salve for general use.

Lemon Balm Salve has a warm, cheering scent from our infusion of lemon balm leaves and essential oil of lemon. This is the lightest of our salves.
We make our salves in 2 oz and 4 oz glass jars. Enjoy!
J.D.

J.D.'s Farm Story

In a sense, I have lived in the country all my life. I grew up far from my nearest neighbor in rural Missouri. My folks were educated idealists from a long line of farmers, and they wanted their children to experience the country life they found most comfortable. They also provided plenty of books, and these became my escape from my little world.

I left for college with hopes of finding a way to live as a poet, and ended up exploring the country over the next ten years. When I reached Phoenix Rising Farm in Florida, I knew I’d found a place where the poetry in my heart could live. I also found out about the intense rhythms of farm life and farm work. Working on a 40 acre organic farm, I was expected to pull long days of hard labor with minimal breaks. I learned some strategies for making my motions efficient in Florida, and in the wild blueberry fields of Maine where my friends and I traveled to work in the summers. Over time this efficiency of motion became a kind of dance, or prayer.

When I was ready to move on to my own farm, my grandmother was ready to pass her family land on to me. I moved to Indiana in 2003 with my partner Kilgore, and we started building a cabin on the 80 acres of old forest and fields that had been in my family since the 1880s. Over the next year, we struggled to build our house with hand tools while living in a tent nearby. We started a painting company in the nearby town of Greencastle to support ourselves and pay for our building materials—in time, this evolved into my business Rogue Renovation. When Kilgore left, I began reaching out to Bloomington, Indiana for a community to support me while I built my farm. I’m still connected to the wonderful community there, but I’m slowly working my way back to my land.

I have been amazingly lucky to be able to steward a piece of land this beautiful and untouched, and so imbued with my family’s history. I am even more excited about building my farm here now that I am starting a family of my own. My partner Bruce and I are having a great time parenting two-year-old Silvan, and renovating a tiny farmhouse in Spencer, Indiana while we build our farming skills and business. We have goats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, dogs, and many cats… and two beautiful peacocks I couldn’t resist. We are fledgling vendors at the area farmers markets, and supporters of the local foods movement.

Grace lives down the road, and we make soap, salves, massage oils, lip butters, and anything else we can think of in each other’s kitchens, and work together in her family’s gardens. This is one of the most fun and positive things I do. Working with herbs in this way to make beautiful, natural cosmetics and soaps is a great fit for me, and brings me back to many of the things I enjoyed in my childhood. I call my farm Fullcircle because I feel like I’m always coming back to this… my feeling of deep connection to the natural world and people who take care of it.

New Herbal Massage Oils!

We make our massage oils with fresh lemon balm infused olive and sweet almond oils...and add a light touch of scent with pure essential oil. Currently we carry Lemongrass, Rosemary Eucalyptus, Tea Rose, and Lavender. Yum!