Thursday, March 24, 2011

Day 52

Today it rained all morning. We had expected to be finishing the mudding on Kim and Marcelo’s house, but instead we spent the morning in the kitchen making salve and castile soap. Here is Jo, cutting the lard for our soap...
And Clay, stirring it with sunflower oil until it melts...
After adding caustic soda that had been mixed with water, and stirring it all up until it was like thin cake batter, we poured it into our molds and added tidbits for fun: oats, flowers (dried and fresh, just to experiment), essential oil, and various spices. The turmeric soap turned the most beautiful orange! Can you see it here?
I've been working on finishing up Prodigal Summer before Jon gets here... Kayla is hoping to squeeze it in before Sasha gets back!
We also made aloe vera balm with aloe from our garden. We first peeled the aloe, then ground it in the hand crank blender before squeezing the juice out through cheese cloth. We're experimenting with different amounts of Vitamin E, used both because it's good for the skin and because it's a good preservative.
Coop, Kayla, and I made a coffee cake with the dulce de batata that I brought home yesterday... isn't it beautiful?
In the afternoon we worked in the garden transplanting leafing seedlings (today is the day for that according to the biodynamic calendar) and amending the soil. Look at how well the blissful wife beans are doing! They already have bean pods on them!!!
These little beetles were all excited about this one part of the adzuki bean plant... I wonder why?
These little eggplant flowers are so beautiful!
and this blossom was filled with water like a little fairy goblet...
Here are our seedlings. Some are doing well, and some got munched because we planted them too early (here, if you plant in the summer, they get eaten because there are too many pests around still.)
baby beetlets!
Garden beauty:
I have been so excited that Jon is coming that I can barely sleep, and I am not hungry (so unlike me!) It’s so hard to wait… he leaves tomorrow!

4 comments:

  1. Wow... looks like some fun projects for a rainy day! The dessert you made looks soooooo yummy!

    And wait, what?, Jon is going back to Argentina!!?? Wow -- so exciting!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, he's here! We all just reconvened earlier this week, and we're getting back into the swing of things for the month. It has been so wonderful to have him here... and SO exciting to share part of this journey with him!!!

    PS... that dessert was awesome. I have collected so many fun recipes to make together when we're all home again!
    xoxoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just thought of something, now you'll need to rename the blog, something like 104 Days in Argentina.....

    ReplyDelete
  4. And SOME day, when you wing through this part of Maine, I would love to play at soap-making with you. You see, we have this rather large and reliable source of lard... ;-)

    ReplyDelete