Teach Soap

For a change I kidnapped my mom (instead of the other way around) and took her on an adventure in Houston. First we went to "Make-A-Cake" and the manager/owner was so helpful and really made it fun to shop...he is even placing a special order of cream of tartar for me since I wanted a large amount. Then I took her over to another store I had recently been told about. It was with out a doubt one of the most AWESOME stores I have been in for a long while. And although it has a lot of bad reviews in terms of the owners friendliness (we were prepared for the worst) we were treated to some fairly great customer service.

You might ask why is all that relevent to being a nitwit? Well as I was checking out the owner says " ah you got some books, which ones did you get." Me: I got 2 books on aromatherapy and one on canning. Him: OH so your a survivalist? Me: NO, I am a farmer. A few minutes later after I explained that I was a soapmaker as well, he shows me some books he has ( not great ones) then proceeds to get into politics. I mean really!! When at your place of business, I see no reason to discuss politics. Especially when you have no clue what peoples politcal stances are. It probably would not have bothered me if we agreed on that area of discussion but alas we do not.

But what really bothered me was the comment about being a survivalist. Yeah I want to have some food put back, especially after being laid off and I dang sure dont want to waste any food that I have worked so hard to grow or raise. WHY oh WHY do people automatically make the assumption that if you are canning food that your a prepper?

It also got me to thinking about how times have changed. I grew up helping my mom and my grandmother can fruits and vegetables. I am in a place where I can get back to that and I really enjoy it and the time I spend with my mom doing something she so obviously loves. But no one would have ever called my grandmother a prepper or my mom. Grandma after living through the depression was well aware of the importance of managing the food supply for her family and we are doing the same. I cannot imagine anything more beautiful that shelves full of food that we grew or raised....well my soap curing rack is probably more beautiful!!

Thanks for listening ...err...reading my rant.

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Dawn

Yeah, some people can be rude. Let it go. It's not worth your anger or wasting your time.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

So true and to be honest that man isnt worth my time. But not sure I will be going back inspite of him having some really pretty products. Just not worth the drive or the hassle of dealing with that man.

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Dawn

I don't know exactly where in Texas you are, but there is Bitter Creek South, Day Star, Ellen's Essentials, Houston Candle Supply, Ingredients To Die For, Just By Nature, Logan Bear Candles, Starrville and Suppllies By Star. If any of these is the problem vendor, send me a message and I'll delete them from my list.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Some people are just silly! Home canning is just plane awesome. You know exactly whats in your goods! I missed doing any this year (don't have the pots etc yet). No home made pickles or tomato sauce GAH! I have some jams and jellies from last summer still... but my FIL keep seating them and then THROWING OUT MY JARS! Seriously? Who throws out a mason jar? Plus these are all special no sugar added ones for my diabetic husband. But alas, his father is a non stop eating machine and no food is safe. Next summer I plan to do a lot of canning, gardening too! My husband secured a spot in the yard for my garden

As for the guy talking politics while at work; WTF? (that is geek for "what the f**k") Politics only belong at work if you're a politician!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I can/freeze/dehydrate just about everything so I guess that makes me a survivalist? Actually, I consider myself a home economist extraordinaire!
Heather, your FIL should be shot for throwing those jars away. The only time mine get thrown away is if they are chipped or cracked. I have some that are probably 20 years old. Make him buy you all new jars next year. I bet that will change his mind about getting rid of them.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

@Irene.. I am in the Houston area. The place I went to was Crafttex. I went for what I heard was a great ribbon selection at good prices...and it was. I have dealt with Supplies by Starr once, ordered supplies to be delivered at a soapy conference I went to. Great service and good products. I have not tried the others. Bitter Creek is on my list of places to go, but they are not a walk through, only order and pick up. The same goes for AAA Chemicals which I have found is one of the best places for me to get my lye locally. They are the closest to my house and I can pick up same day if I need to. They are a bit more expensive on the oils and butters, but when you factor in shipping and wait time it pretty much levels out. AND they are awesome to deal with. I started talking to them about the different butters I would like to see them carry and the next month the website had a plethora of them. I will have to see if I can find the physical locations for the others. I like to go into the places or do a will call if I can. Living in such a large city I am always amazed at what we lack here.

@Heather My Mom and I ask family to return the jars so we can reuse them...they never do. I bet if we started charging them a return fee for those dang things they sure would. They have gotten expensive. between our two gardens we have put up more collard greens and dried herbs than I care to count. Last years drought pretty much ruined our pear crop this year, although last year I though we would never see the end of the pears, had to give away what we could not put up...we worked pears for over a month our two trees were so productive. I bought a couple of peach trees that I hope will produce as well. Just about everything I put in the ground this year was either ruined by the heat ( inspite of watering), but I could not kill my collards if I wanted to. Those things are almost 2 years old now, and the chickens/turkeys love the bumper crop. In the spring we will be picking blackberries till our hands turn purple, they grow wild on our property and Mom purposefully wont allow those areas to be mowed. So to say that we do a lot of canning would be accurate. Some of the women our ladies club can more than we do, I just dont know where they get the time.

The bad thing about that guy is that because of that part of our conversation we are considering changing our minds regarding taking the women there on a field trip. 30 women spending their husbands money seemed like a good idea till he opened his mouth. There were some things that we wanted to go back and get next week, but not sure if we will at this point.

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Dawn

@ Linda, when my grandmother passed one of the things my mom collected from her house was the jars. I asked for all the bail jars at the time, but only got a fraction of them since there was limited space to bring them home from Georgia. So some of the jars we use are that old. Strange enough you can't use old jars for items you put in the county fair.

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Dawn

I recently got into canning thanks to my mom. I have only made one batch of Strawberry Jam and oh, my... It was delicious. I have had requests for more from family and friends. My family (4 of us) at 3 jars within one week! Craziness! I want to start canning other things as well I just don't know where to start or how to preserve things like Pesto. I have tons of Basil to use up. My mom only does jellies and jalapenos so I can't ask her. As far as ordering products, I am in Texas as well (DFW area). Supplies by Star is kind of hit or miss at the moment. I have Star to thank for getting me into this addiction (she's such an enabler!) as I started out ordering m&p from her and then she actually taught me how to make cp. I absolutely adore Star. I know she had a hard time a couple of years ago when her husband passed away and had contemplated selling her business. But then I also got an email saying she was keeping it. But when I go to her site, there are not many products left. So I am not sure the state of her business. You may email her and see if you get a response. I tried but got nothing in turn. Taylored Concepts is also in Texas. They deal mostly with candle supply but they do have some soap supplies as well. They are in Dallas.

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Haven

Haven, you need to find a copy of "The Complete Book of Home Canning" by Ball. It's got tons of stuff in it.
You won't be able to can pesto because of the amount of oil in it. There's too great a risk of botulism to try it.
I just dry my basil or chop it up and freeze it in a small amount of water in ice cube trays. Then I put the cubes in a ziploc bag and use them in sauces, etc. It tastes just like fresh.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Haven

We dried our basil and put it in a jar with an oxygen absorber, sealed the jar and doesnt allow enough oxygen in there for nasties to develop

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Dawn

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Oh, we have that book and several others. I just like to pick up different books for different recipes. The same ol' stuff gets boring after a while.

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Dawn

I would love to learn how to can. Good for you all that do it. I think it is smart and so much better for you and your family.

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Lisa
“What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul” ~ Yiddish proverb