It is that time of the year to make soap. This time we have decided to go for the Chocolate Swirls (and blobs) with clay from the Bladen area.
Clays of Bladen.
The clay comes in different colours: reds, pinks, purples, yellows and whites. It is really quite beautiful to go to the Bladen area to ogle at the colours but once you step out of the car to start digging, that’s a different story…the usual hot, sweaty work!
Lovely Colour:
Raw Clay.
Gnome is the designated digger of clay:
Clay Digging in Belize.
We finally got the chance to use the soap-cutter which was presented to us as a gift from our friends, Erin and Jim. In simple words, Jim can make things and put them together…a bit of gnomishness there methinks. Anyway, when he heard that Gnome was cutting each single soap with wire (like cheese) he set himself the task of making a soap-cutter for us. Oh, and we are soooo pleased…it does the job and eases our pain and sweat!! This is Great. Thank-you Erin and Jim for this wonderful gift!!
Soap Cutter.
And this is what we have been making:
Clay Swirls.Chocolate Soaps.More Soaps.Clay and Chocolate Swirls.
Hello Everyone!! Well, tropical storm Nate passed by without a drop of rain. We had stayed indoors on that day (thinking it was going to pour down) but it was actually a fine sunny day. Gnome said afterwards,
“let’s never look at weather reports EVER again!! They never get it right!”
Munchkin: “Yeah sure but if you remember correctly it was the fruit-monger who told us about the incoming storm first…”
Gnome said: “Since when did the fruit-monger become a meteorologist?”
Munchkin: “Eh…since we trashed the last weather report…”
Anyway, it is absolutely pouring down right now so I am forced to come indoors. Anyway, I should really keep up with my blog posts!
What have we been up to? Making some new chocolate soaps for the new season; oooh nice!! And I even managed to take a cool looking picture (a la Panda…he’s really into fuzzy background photos…sorry, I mean professional looking “coffee table” pictures!! Ha-Ha!!)
Chocolate Soap.
Oh, and Gnome bought me this Vision cooking pot as a gift. It was about time for some new cookware!! Over the years, I’ve slowly accumulated bits of kitchenware from people (usually people leaving Belize because they don’t want to be here any-more). So, I’ve ended up with a hotch-potch assortment of old pots and pans…and many missing lids. Gnome told me it was about time that I should have my own set of cookware:
“Munchkin…you really love cooking….why, after all this time have we never got you your own set of pots and pans?”
Gnome bought me one of these to “try out” and I absolutely love it. This is great for french onion soup. Ooooh, can’t wait to get the whole set!!
Vision Cookware.
We’ve been digging up our sweet potatoes…they are huge:
Sweet Potato.
Tobacco is growing and Gnome has been soaking dried leaves in a solution of brown sugar and lovely essential oils. He has packed them in bamboo to cure. Watch this space in 12 months:
Tobacco Curing Solution.Bamboo.
Tobacco:
Dried Tobacco Leaves.
Ok folks, I would lIKE TO WRITE MORE BUT MY CAPS LOCK KEEPS STICKING…LOOK AT tHIs!!
With so many funny animal stories coming from our blog, I have neglected to talk about other stuff that we do. We have a new Chocolate-Mint soap. It’s chocolatey and has the zing of mint!! (As I am writing this, Gnome is murmuring under his breath…Munchkin, is this your idea of marketing??).
Ha-Ha…
We just dropped some off at the Chocolate Factory (Cotton Tree Chocolate) in Punta Gorda today:
Cotton Tree Chocolate.
Lovely soap made by Munchkin and Gnome; made from coconut oil and chocolate. Picture Munchkin and Gnome stirring a metal cauldron in the middle of the bush…
Chocolate Soap Making.
We make this stuff on the farm:
Chocolate Artisan Soaps.
If you are not in Punta Gorda, Belize…check out our Chocolate Artisan Soaps in The Apothecary.
We have a range of Chocolate Artisan Soaps and four scented chocolate soaps: chocolate-vanilla, chocolate-mango, chocolate-orange and chocolate-mint.
As an interesting aside, we have noticed that having a website does not actually decrease the administrative work involved in running a business. There are still a gazillion back and forth emails to write. What we have come to realise is that even although everything can be ordered on a website with the minimum of communication, everyone still wants the personal touch. So, we are happy to receive email orders and have a personal relationship with you, if you prefer.
Our Christmas delivery will be on Wednesday the 21st of December. For anyone living in Punta Gorda, orders will be hand-delivered by Munchkin Fairy & Gnome Fairy. For the rest of Belize, goods will be sent by Tropic Air.
Chocolate Artisan Soaps.
Everything is hand-made by Munchkin & Gnome, with care, love and attention on our Farm. We’ve got all sorts of lovely stuff including chocolate and medicinal soaps, massage oils, chocolate lip balms and lots more. You can either order through the website or email us with your order on info@casamascia.com.
Ooooh…look at that…stacks of Chocolate Artisan Soaps. We are getting ready for the new season with our lovely soaps made from Toledo Cacao and coconut oil. Here is a gallery of some of our chocolate offerings made by Gnome, the budding artist!
The Artist Known as Gnome.
These are brand new for the season: White Chocolate Mint Soap….smells delicious…you’d think you could eat them!!
White Chocolate Mint Soaps.
Artisan Chocolate Soaps…these are the swirly ones….
Chocolate Artisan Soaps.Chocolate Artisan Soaps.
Oh…and of course….100% Doggy Approval…this one tries to grab and eat them!!
We started making soap because we were both fed up with the quality of shop-bought soap. The bars that we bought were a funny pink colour with an artificial rose scent. We didn’t think much of the well-known brands either because they all smelled of unnatural fragrances and dried out the skin. And so we decided to embark on the making of our own soap…at that time we did not have Internet on the farm and had to conduct our research at the Internet Cafe in town.
Our purpose was to make a good soap for us to use instead of having the buy the poor quality supermarket stuff. The properties that we sought for in our home-made soap was a good lather and a moisturising bar with natural scent.
Generally speaking, soap is made from oil/fat and lye. The oil/fat lends the qualities and properties to a soap bar and so we started off by experimenting with anything that we could find off the supermarket shelf. We tried everything from shortening, to lard and a whole plethora of vegetable oils.
These attempts were a great learning experience: shortening was actually okay but the lard soap actually smelled quite piggy!! We came out of the shower smelling like we had smothered ourselves in bacon!! The vegetable oil made a soft moisturising bar but disintegrated very quickly into bits.
At the time, we were also making coconut oil and selling it to the lady at Punta Gorda market. It was a slow, laborious process of grating, boiling and stirring. We spent many full days setting up a fire (with coconut husks) and stirring our pot of coconut oil together under the shade of the coconut palms. It was a very significant time, when we tried to seek meaning in our lives, after extricating ourselves from the rushing urgency and pressures of our previous lives as medical doctors.
I remember making a test batch of coconut oil soaps and eagerly waiting for the results. When soap is made in this way ie. not commercially, the soap needs time to “cure” and this can take anything from 3 months or longer. The longer you wait, the better…it is like a fine wine. Anyway, after waiting 3 months, we tried this soap and discovered that it had all the properties that we were looking far. It lathered well, did not dry out the skin and the natural scent was lovely. The skin felt so clean and smooth.
This was the perfect recipe and we were using our own coconuts from the farm!
Our Lovely Coconuts.
Our soaps are still made from this original coconut oil recipe. In addition to this, we have created Medicinal Soaps and Chocolate Soaps.
Hey guys, we have been compiling a whole bunch of new product pictures for the online apothecary (it is coming soon!!). We don’t have any photography studios in Toledo (Belize) or for that matter, in the middle of the jungle, where we live, so we had to come up with a “light box” made out of a cardboard box and table lamps. Check this out:
Light Box For Taking Photographs In The Jungle.
Here are some nice pictures of our New Chocolate Artisan Soaps. These ones are our Dark Chocolate Range. The dark violet hues of the cacao have come out really well in the light box! 🙂
Dark Chocolate Soaps.Dark Chocolate Artisan Soaps.
Since we are in the business of making hand-made soaps, many people have asked,
“Why Buy Hand-Made Soaps?”
For many people who are not into Artisanal, Hand-Crafted goods, the question is valid and I would like to take the opportunity to explain the reasons.
Soaps are made from fat (eg. tallow, coconut oil, olive oil, etc) and an alkali, usually Sodium Hydroxide (commonly known as lye). These two ingredients react together in a chemical process known as saponification.
Firstly, you need to know about cold-processed and hot-processed soap making.
Cold-Processed Soap Making.
This is typically the process used in making small batch hand-made soaps. The process involves mixing ingredients and allowing the reaction of saponification to occur at room temperature. It is important to note that the making of fine soap involves accurate measurements because it is a very exacting process; too much fat will produce rancid soap and too much alkali can cause skin irritation. Soap-making requires skill, practice and strict measuring.
In other words, you can’t Glug Glug!!
Cold-Processed soap results in a small excess of fat (this is called super-fatting). Also, the glycerin component of the soap remains (compare this to industrially made where all glycerin is extracted as a side product). For these reasons, hand-made soaps are more moisturising than shop bought soaps.
The other advantage of Hand-Made soaps is that the maker can choose the fats and oils according to the qualities that they wish to impart to the soap. For instance, we use coconut oil which allows a rich creamy lather and has characteristic emollient properties.
At this point, I would like to mention briefly that some “Artisanal Soaps” may be made from Melt and Pour Soap. I will go into more detail about this another time. For all intents and purposes, this is a commercially made soap which requires Melting and Pouring into moulds only. In other words, the soap has already been made…people are just re-pouring it. Therefore no soap-making skills are required in this process.
We make Cold-Processed Soap!!
Our Soap.
Hot-Processed Soap Making.
This is the process of making your shop-bought soap which is sold by the millions or billions. The fat and lye are added together in extremely exacting amounts so there is no “super-fatting.” This is boiled and after saponification occurs, the excess fluid is drained off. This fluid contains all of the glycerin component which is extracted as another industrial raw material. So, at this point the soap can be rolled, pelletised and/or flaked so that they can be put into a machine that can make the bars.
Industrial soap does not have the extra fat and glycerin that a cold-processed soap contains.
So, the reason why you might choose to buy Hand-Made Soaps is to have the extra emollient qualities of the soap. You are also supporting an individual rather than an industry.
See you at Cacao Fest 2016 today! Casa Mascia Apothecary will have a booth in Punta Gorda and all the fun starts at about 9am. We will bring our Chocolate Soaps, Chocolate Body Wash, Copal Oils and Soap. And much, much more at Runaway-Not-To-Missed-Bargain Prices!! Ha-Ha…you can tell I don’t have a marketing degree!
Everyone always asks us which soaps are our favourite. Artisan Clay Sandalwood Soaps are our choice soaps; in fact we make a whole batch just for ourselves. These are made from coconut oil and the lovely violet clays of Bladen. For more ordering details and product information check out The Apothecary.
Since we are in the business of making hand-made soaps, many people have asked,
