This One's Just for Me

I made this very strange recipe.  I have no idea how it will turn out at all.  I knew I wanted to use lard.  I don't use palm oil mostly because I can't find it here and lard makes for very good hard soaps.

I also wanted to use up some oils that I had a little bit left of. Additonally I wanted to make soap just for myself.   Something luxurious and pretty.   A soap that I would use on my face, and therefore I wanted all those exotic oils that I normally would use in face creams rather than soap.

So it became quite a cocktail.  I'm still waiting to see how it will turn out.  It just might be an almighty flop.  But it could also become my new favorite soap.

I know this is a crazy recipe. It's not supposed to be very conditioning, but since I used both jojoba oil and lanolin, both of which really are waxes rather that oils, I'm counting on them to do the job. Plus this is more superfatted than I usually do.

The thought with this soap (if there was any, I did this pretty instinctively) was to make something similar to my old facial soap that I did ages ago. That soap seemed to take forever to cure, but turned out to be one of my all time favorite soaps. And that one aged quite well too.

Coconut Oil - 36% - 5 oz / 160 g
Lard - 30% - 4.7 oz / 134g
Almond Oil - 17% - 2.6oz / 73g
Avocado Oil - 10% - 1.6oz - 45g
Olive oil (Rubarb root infused) - 3.5% - 0.5oz / 15g
Castor Oil - 1.8% - 0.3oz / 8g
Jojoba Oil - 1.6%% - 0.25oz / 7g
Lanoline - 0.5% - 0.1oz / 2g

Water - 5.2oz / 66g

Lye - 2oz / 58g which makes it 15% super fatted, but always check a lye calculator (I always use Soapcalc myself).

For fragrance I used Neroli, Ylang Ylang and Benzoin, with a dash of Rosewood, Sweet Orange and a dash of Geranium, Vetiver, Sandalwood Amyris and Cubea Litsea.   I put it in this silicone cake form that I got in a thrift store (and have never used for cake) as well as my heart shaped ice cube mold from Ikea.   I like to have small soaps for the bathrooms.

The scent is nice and fresh and the colour also turned out to be a very nicely pink.   But this soap is also going to take a lot of curing.   Oh, well. Patience is the mother of all virtues, as they say.   I need more of that, and as they also say: Practice makes perfect.  So it's all good.

Update: Like I expected, this soap took some time to cure, but once it did it does make for a nice very creamy lathered soap that feels quite gentle on my skin.  I have also used it as a shampoo bar and my hair likes it.  The fragrance didn't hold up as well as I hoped.  It turned into a kind of indistinct something.  So even if I like that Neroli, Ylang Ylang and Benzoin combination I should probably have skipped the others or made one of them dominant.

Making Soap My Way - A Tutorial Of Sorts

I made soap again.  Just suddenly got the urge and then I thought I should document my process.  I never did a tutorial before.  Mostly because when I started this blog I was a complete beginner in soap making and I was reading other peoples tutorial to learn from them, not ready to teach others.  But now that I have become pretty seasoned in soap making, I thought I should write down my steps.

I have always made soap in the kitchen using my regular pots and kitchen stuff.  I have read a lot of books about making soaps and most of them are very good and thorough, but sometimes I feel that they make it sound so difficult and complicated.  I like things to be easy and simple.  So my favorite book about making soap is by Anne Watson "Smart Soapmaking" (even if the subtitle is a bit more complicated: "The simple guide to Making Traditional Handmade Soap Quickly, Safely, and Reliably, or How to Make Luxurious Handcrafted Soaps for Family, Friends, and Yourself".  I love the humor in that).  She gave me the courage to go ahead and try it.

Over time I have developed my own way to do things and I have gotten pretty set in my ways.  I always use the same equipment: same pot, same glass measuring jugs, same spoons, same everything.   Except the recipes.  I just can't make the same recipes again and again.  I always need to tweak them a little bit, at least.  And now suddenly, I have a need to make soaps.  There are a few that are asking to be made.  I have sometimes wondered what kind of soap I would make first.  Once I started again.  It was Rhubarb oil soap.  A very strange recipe, if I'm honest.  I have no idea how it will turn out.  Might be a total failure, although I thought of it as a luxurious face soap.  But that is another post.  This one is about the process.

My equipment consists of:

• A pot - I use that for the water/liquid and to dissolve the caustic soda
• A large pyrex class measuring jug with a handle - That is for the oils
• A small pyrex class measuring jug with a handle - This one is for the caustic soda
• ---I do not use the measuring jugs to measure, just as containers---
• A slotted spoon - to stir the caustic soda solution
• Two thermometers - one for the soda and one for the oils
• A digital scale - to measure everything
• A stick blender - to mix everything
• Moulds
• And the most important equipment of all is my computer... and SoapCalc www.soapcalc.net/.  I use that for every single recipe and save them as pdf.  
• And then there is the camera, or the phone these days.  (Which I know isn't good because the photos are not nearly as good as on a proper camera.  But I have gotten a bit lazy.  I need to change that.)

I put my recipes straight into SoapCalc as I work.  I usually make either 500g or 700g depending on which mould I'm using.  I put in the total weight and my preferred water ratio (usually about 33% these days) and super fat % (varies from 5-10% usually).  I would recommend that beginners stick to the default setting in the beginning.

I would also recommend goggles and gloves and an apron.  Lye is very caustic and it does burn.  The raw soap is also very caustic and it does burn.  You do not want to splash this stuff on yourself and definitely not get it into your eyes.  Having said that, I have to admit that the hazmat-like outfit that I wore in the beginning has given way to a bit lighter safety gear.

Before I do anything else I get my mould ready.  I like the wooden moulds with freezer paper. But one can use silicone moulds (for baking) and just about anything that has a shape resembling soap.  In the beginning I used milk cartons and yoghurt pots.
Then I start measuring the oils one by one, resetting the scale after each time. Sometimes I pour a little bit more than I intended and then I go back to SoapCalc and adjust accordingly. I melt the oils in the microwave.  About a minute at a time and I stir in-between.
Next I measure the caustic soda. I prefer not to store it among the foodstuff in the kitchen so I keep it in the garage. I take the small pyrex jug and the scale and measure out there and bring it back to the kitchen.
I then measure out the liquid into the pot.  I usually just put the pot on the scale and pour in whatever liquid I'm using. Then I put the pot on the stove and turn the exhaust on full while I slowly pour the caustic soda into the liquid. The liquid gets very hot so I let it sit and cool down. If I need to hasten the cooling I'll simply let some cold water run on the outside of the stainless steel pot.  That cools it pretty quickly.
Once everything is the same temperature I pour the liquid into the oils. I try not to heat the oils too much and often leave a little bit of the solid oils to melt on their own while the oils cool down to the correct soaping temperature.  Or even have some solid bits still floating like here.  The stick blender takes care of it. I prefer to soap at about 40°C / 100°F, so I let both oils and water cool to around that temperature.
Here is why I love to make soaps.  The Rhubarb oil is yellow with a strange greenish, almost iridescent cast to it.  But once the lye hits it, it turns red. I love that. I use an old Bamix stick blender that I got in a thrift shop.  I really like it.  It's very sold and rather quiet.
Next is the fun bit: Turn on the stick blender and watch the swirls.
I don't really mix for very long.  I'm not too bothered about trace.  The soap mixture will reach trace on it's own if it is properly blended.  At least I have never had any problems with that.
I then pour in my essential oils, which I have already poured into a small bowl.  I do not have a scale that is sensitive enough to measure essential oil blends. Since my recipes are small, I may use only a few drops of this and a dash of that.  My scale can measure down to +/- 2 g (that's around 0.07 oz) and that isn't enough accuracy to use it for fragrance.  So I just make my fragrance blends on instinct. I usually try to avoid using the stick blender too much for the essential oils, since they are so volatile.
Once all the ingredients are blended, I pour the soap into moulds.  I have wooden log moulds and I like those. I'm usually not concerned if they gel or not.  I just let it happen. But, if I do not want them to gel I'll put the moulds into the fridge or even freezer overnight. Or sometimes I use smaller mould to avoid gelling, but that doesn't always work.

I always use a small pin (knitting needle, the end of a thermometer or a chopstick) to make swirls in my soaps to decorate the tops.  I studied the way other peoples soaps look like and I tried to get different looks.  But mine always looked the same.  The funny thing is that when my cousin and I were doing this together and she would use the same implement and the same type of movement we could easily tell our soaps apart.  So I guess this is my look.

I added dried flowers.  That may be too cutesy for some, but when I was looking through my old photos as I uploaded them to Flickr I really loved the look of them.  So even if they get spoiled when they get wet I still like them like that.

Old Fashioned Ice Cream

I bought an old fashioned Ice cream maker a few years ago.  I didn't really know what it was, but the colour was adorable and whatever it was intrigued me.  The people at the thrift store were excited that I bought it and asked me what it was because they had no idea either.  These are not at all common here and I assume that it was bought in the States by some seaman who thought his wife would enjoy using it.  Since it is practically unused and mint condition, I'm assuming the wife didn't really think it was such a hot idea.

But I love it and I have so often planned to use it, but never taken the plunge.  It's so funny how doing something that I haven't done before is so impossibly difficult.  And then once I do it, it's really easy.  So I decided to make Rhubarb Ice cream in it.

I love Rhubarb ice cream.  Nobody else seems to, which I find very strange.  But I had some rhubarb and there was a family party and I offered to bring dessert.  The family was a bit skeptical.  My daughter confessed to having serious doubts beforehand, but once they tasted, they were converted.  Or at least that is what they told me.

The recipe for the ice cream is very easy, I posted it before here.  Except this time I used a whole Vanilla pod for the ice cream instead of the vanilla sugar/essence that is specified in the recipe.  It's not a lot of ice cream, probably about a quart (or 1 liter).  There were 8 of us and all had a nice portion each, but it was also served with Rhubarb soup and whipped cream.  I actually like smaller recipes of ice cream since I like to make more flavors rather than a huge amount.  Coffee ice cream is probably my favorite, along with the Rhubarb and of course real Vanilla.  The taste is just so much better.

Making ice cream from scratch is very easy.  I started with two egg yolks, one tablespoon  powdered sugar, seeds from half a vanilla pod and mixed it together with a fork.

Five stalks of  rhubarb are chopped into little pieces and boiled with a little bit of water and 3,5 oz sugar.  Or one can use rhubarb mash from making the rhubarb soup.  The rhubarb is cooled while 1 and 1/4 cup of whipping cream is whipped.  Once the rhubarb has cooled, it is folded together and poured into the ice cream maker.

I had never used this old fashioned ice cream maker before, so I had little idea how much salt would be needed, but I bought 4 kilos (8punds) of rock salt.  I used about half of that, 2 kilos (4 pounds) and all the ice I had, alternating a dash of salt and a smattering of ice.  But I did make this recipe twice, and could churn it with that amount of salt and ice.  (This meant that I had some ice cream that was for me only after the party.  Oh, joy.)

Then churning by hand.  The mechanism of this is really interesting and I would actually love to have a smaller unit to use.  This large bucket is just a bit too big for the kitchen and so it has to reside in the garage, even if the turquoise  colour is just fantastic.

I didn't really know how long it would take to churn the ice cream.  It actually took shorter time than I thought, but then the amount of ice cream was only about half of the capacity of the ice cream maker.  I think it only took 15-20 minutes to churn the ice cream.  I loved peering into the ice cream  maker and watch how it moves the ice cream so slowly.  It all looks a bit weird, but then suddenly everything starts to flow smoothly.  I took the thing apart, emptied out the container and put the ice cream into the freezer to store it until it was time to go to the party.

I served the rhubarb ice cream with the fabulous rhubarb soup and lots of whipped cream.

There is nothing in this world that doesn't taste better with lots of whipped cream.  And then it was sprinkled with dark chocolate.  Although some cocoa nibs are also very good with this.  As is chopped dark Toblerone.

Peachy - Liquid Soap

The other day I wrote down all the ideas that I had for my next soaps.  I wanted to do a liquid soap by rebatching and I wanted to do a peach coloured soap, among other  things.  The peach colour came from the colour I got from a Woad exhaust, a really nice pale peachy colour.  It's so strange how that works.

But anyway, I dyed a long silk scarf and got this colour, instead of the blue that I hoped for.  But I loved the colour and it reminded me of some elastic that I picked up the the Good Shepherd, purely because I loved the colour, not because I had any use for a lot of elastic.  I have no idea what I want to do with it.  Although it probably could be designed as a very funky-something-to-wear if I were a bit younger and could carry off some funky clothing.

But back to the soap.  I had one soap left of one of my favorites, the Madder soap with Neroli that I rather selfishly made just for myself.  The colour was long gone and the scent wasn't really noticeable any longer either, but it was white and hard.  I had loved the feel of it, the smell of it and I remember that the lather was really nice.  So I grated it into a pot and poured some fresh cream on top, as well as a bit of coconut milk and some water.  I heated it gently and stirred to melt the soap.  Then I thought: Wouldn't it be nice to have a bit of colour?  So I went to my stash shelf and picked op a jar of Rhubarb oil.  Pink liquid soap!   I've made a quite a few nice pink soaps using both Rhubarb oil and Rumex oil and I always really like the nice pinks I get.  So I poured it in and magic:  It turned this nice peachy orange.  I was delighted.

With that colour the scent just had to be Ylang Ylang, Sweet Orange and a bit of Sandalwood, for depth and a tiny dash of Cubea Litsea for a fresh top note.  I added a little bit of Natrium benzoate a a preservative and some glycerin to help to keep it from clumping up.  Now I just have to wait and see how it ages.

Since I don't have it in a pump, it won't really matter if it thickens a bit, but I would like to be able to make liquid soap that can survive in a pump without having to use KOH.  The kids have been asking for that and I've been meaning to do some experiments.  Although one of these day I'm sure that I will treat myself to 25 kg. of KOH and start to really experiment with liquid soap.  But in the meantime I'm perfectly happy to compromise and rebatch my leftovers to get some liquid soap.  It's so important to remember that it doesn't have to be perfect.  That's the beauty of making stuff oneself.  It's not only just fine if it is slightly imperfect, it's actually better.  It's more human.  It's more me.

Fruit Rolls

I have always hated to throw out any left over mash from making fruit or rhubarb gel, syrup or drink so I was quite happy to find a recipe for fruit rolls.  I jumped on the chance to make some,  first I used the left over mash from making Red Currant (Ribes) jelly and then I tried to use Rhubarb mash.  I liked the former much better, it tasted really good, fresh an fruity.

They are relatively easy to make.  I used about 1 liter (4 cups) of fruit mash for one baking sheet.  For the Redcurrant mash I put the mash into a pot and pour a little less than 1 cup of water over it.  I then added sugar to taste.  Since I was using leftovers from jelly making, the mash was already slightly sweet, so I didn't need a lot of additional sugar.  Just start with 1 tablespoon and let that dissolve at a low heat and then taste it to see if it needs more sugar.  I've seen recipes without sugar, so I guess it all depends on taste.  I also like to squeeze a little lemon juice in there to give a little tang to the taste.  I let this simmer for 10-20 minutes making sure all the fruit was well mashed and the whole thing has thickened.  It's good to give it a last taste to make sure that it's neither too sweet nor too sour.   Then I strained it.  I did that with the Red Currants because I had all the little branches and stuff in there.  When I used Rhubarb mash I didn't strain, but that makes more of a cloudy fruit roll.  It can be good to use a stick blender on the fruit mash to make sure it is well pureed.

This is then poured on a baking sheet lined with baking paper or silicone.  The thickness is 1/2 to 1cm (1/4 to 1/2 inch) thick.  This is put in the oven on a low heat 60C (140F) until it has dried and can be peeled off.  This can easily be overnight in the oven on that heat.  I don't have a dehydrator, but this would be perfect for that.

When I do the Rhubarb mash fruit roll I also add an apple to give it more substance.   In fact most fruit can be used and I think Blueberries would also make a very nice fruit roll and those probably wouldn't need any additional sugar.

It's Rhubarb time again

I have been making everything Rhubarb in this past week.  My Rhubarb plants are doing so well, probably because I covered them in loads of well rotted manure last fall and gave them some seaweed as well.  They are growing like maniacs, which is nice because I didn't expect to be able to get any crop this year since it's only been two years since I got them and I even replanted them last summer.

Rhubarb rewards it's owner handsomely if treated properly.  It's not very complicated.  It should be divided every 10-15 years, or when it stops being productive.  It's a big plant and it needs plenty of nutrients.  Manure is perfect, or some other form of organic fertilizer like chicken manure and seaweed.

There are many cultivars of Rhubarb, some are completely red through the stalks, others have red on the outside of the stalks and then some are completely green.  The reds cultivars tend be give less crop than the others.  The taste is also different between the cultivars and apparently is is malic acid that determines the taste, if there is too little it tastes of little, and if there is too much it is too sour.  There is no correlation between the colour of the stalks and the amount of malic acid in the Rhubarb.

This year I have already made Rhubarb syrup, Rhubarb heels, Rhubarb drink and Rhubarb muffins.  And of course Rhubarb soap!  I wanted to try to make a gradient colour with Rhubarb oil.  Maybe an Ombré type effect. I didn't quite succeed, its more stripes than Ombré, but it's nice anyway and I had fun.

I just eyeballed the amounts of Rhubarb oil (chop up some pieces of root into oil of your choise and let it infuse until you see a good colour) into the soap, so it wasn't very scientific, but the recipe is here:

Olive oil 49% 360g / 13oz (out of this 20g was Rhubarb root infused)
Coconut oil 25% 190g / 6.7oz
Rapeseed oil 17% 107g / 3.7oz
Cocoa butter 9% 70g / 2.5oz
Castor oil 2% 14g / 0.5oz

Water 33% 250g / 8.7oz
Lye 106g / 3.7 oz

I divided the soap into four approx. 200g /7oz each and colored the first part with about 2 tablespoons of Rhubarb oil.  The second with just over one tablespoon.  The thirds with about half a tablespoon and the last with about a teaspoon.  I tried to pour very evenly, over a spatula, and slammed the mold down to even it, but there are still valleys in the colors bands.  I put the soap into a cold oven when it started to gel, because I wanted it to gel evenly and it seems to have done just that.

The intensity of the colour surprised me a little bit.  The darkest layer is really dark red.  Quite beautiful and a blueish tint to it.  The cut surfaces are more of a yellow red, but they turn more blue as the soap ages.  The scent was a combo of Rosewood and Rose Geranium and it smells lovely.  I still leave a lot of Rubarb left to harves and I just may need to try some of the hair colour recipes next.  On myself.  That could be interesting...

Gardening soap

I had decided to make a really pretty soap and I thought it would be such a great idea to use Cochineal to color it pink.  Enough of Rumex oil already.  Enough of subtle shades.  Lets go for gusto.  Cochineal is a bug that had been used for centuries to dye pink and red.  It gives vibrant colours and is soluble in water.  I've used it to dye wool and got a beautiful strong pink.  So I thought I'd try it because sometimes I would like to try some really strong colors for a change.  And I thought I would use the little aluminum tart forms that I have, but line them with cling film, even if it shows.  And then I thought I'd use some of the Poppy seeds that I collected last fall and make it this bright pink flower shaped gardeners soap.

Well, apparently the universe likes me to stick to soft and natural.  I prepared the Cochineal by grinding up a few bugs and adding them to water until the colors was really saturated and way too strong for what I intended.  When I added the lye the water turned to purple, as was to be expected, but when I added the oils and started to stir, the colour simply disappeared.  I had this happen once with Logwood, a beautiful purple that refused to participate in a soap making adventure.  Since I really didn't want as wishy-washy nondescript soap I grabbed my bottle of ... no not Rumex oil, but Rheum oil (that's Rhubarb to you and me).  As I poured it into the soap I could see great red color swirls and they soon turned the soap pink and I was quite happy.  Usually Rumex and Rheum oils turn a tan colour at first, changing overnight to pink.  But this was fine with me.  Immediately pink.  Great.  So I put some Lavender, Lemongrass and Rosewood essential oils into it and then my poppy seeds, poured it into the little moulds and went to bed.

I made a really small recipe, only 260 g. / 9.2 oz, the smallest batch I've ever tried.

Olive oil 33%  

Coconut oil 33% 

Soybean oil 10%

Sunflower oil 10%

Cocoa butter 14%

The next morning this surprising result waited for me.  Exactly what I hadn't wanted:  A rather insipid, undecided, plain, dull, nondescript, wishy-washy colour, if it even deserves that noun.  And to make matters worse, it had a really really thick layer of ash.  I don't mind some ash, but this was really thick.  I don't know how the colour managed to change from a lovely, and yes soft, pink to a really weird blueish-in-some-places-pinkish-in-others-and-no-real-colour-at-all-in-between.  But it did.  And after looking at it for a few weeks (and a hard day of gardening in the allotment garden) I used it and decided that it wasn't a miserable failure after all.  It was a nice size, it smelled lovely, it had a nice lather and the Poppy seeds gave it just the perfect scrub without being too rough.  Just perfectly natural and slightly irregular like the life I live, the vegetables I grow and the raised beds that I built.

I really like this one

I made this soap and I intended it to be just like one that I made last year.  I really liked that soap.  I loved the colour and the scent, and I especially liked they way it felt.  It was the first silk soap that I made.  So I thought I would replicate it.  But I didn't.  In part because I didn't have the exact ingredients and in part because my brain gets ideas most of the time and tends to want to do different things all the time.  And I let it.  Because that way, life is fun and not boring.

So I did this soap, mostly like I did last time, except I couldn't decide if I should use Annatto seeds and make it a soft yellow or use the fresh Rumex oil that I had just started and make it pink.  So I used both.  I thought: Maybe I'll get a pretty orange or coral colour.  But I didn't and it's a rather dark yellow, but that's fine because the really nice thing is that I did a fragrance blend that I really, really liked and the decoration reflected that and I think it just so cute.

The recipe that this one turned out to be is:

38%  - 200g / 7 oz.   Olive oil
28%  - 150g / 5.3 oz.   Coconut oil
19%  - 100g / 3.5 oz.   Lard
6%   -   30g / 1 oz.   Cocoa butter
6%   -   30g / 1 oz.   Sunflower oil (half infused with Annatto seeds and half with Rumex root)
4%   -   20g / 0.7 oz.  Rice bran oil

I used an infusion of Baldursbra/Mayweed as the water.  It gives a lovely yellow colour and also smells really nice.  It's a local herb (almost weed) that is sometimes used the same way as Chamomile.  I also added about a teaspoon of sugar too the tea before dissolving the lye.  Then I added quite a bit of silk threads (still using the bridal silk) and let them dissolve in the lye.

For the scent I used some Sandalwood (the real expensive stuff), Bergamot, Bensoin, Palmarosa and Ylang Ylang.  And as the crowning glory I threw on a few dried flowers: Some tiny rosebuds, some Chamomile and lavender and a few herb leaves that I had hanging somewhere.  I put this in my boudoir    (it's the previous girls room that I now filled with my thrifty treasures) because it smells so nice that I wanted that scent to infuse my special place.

I had this idea a while back that I would like to experiment more with fragrance blends but somehow I haven't really gotten into it that much.  I guess there have been other things to occupy my mind.  But now I feel that I want to make a few experiments.  I've decided to make a few more soaps like this one, but with different fragrance combinations.  I think one very white, but a rosy scent and perhaps one blue (if I can bear to sacrifice my indigo) with a greener sort of scent and then I should do a pink one with either Rumex or Rhubarb oil and something lovely smelling.  Oh, I'm really quite excited about these.  Maybe they look a bit "old lady", but I'm turning into one anyway.  They will be my special blend soaps and I make them in my small 500g mold.  And then I thought I could do a matching fragrance blend for some sugar scrub cubes.  Or dollops, I think dollops look more old fashioned and lady like.  And I would love to do both a bath bomb and lotion bar.  That would make a wonderful Christmas present.

I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit now, in spite of unseasonably warm weather (it's been raining non stop for weeks).  I even baked my first batch of Christmas cookies the other night.  I've never been this early.  Ever.  This is going to be a lovely holiday season.  I can just feel it.  No.  Actually.  I know it.  Because I decided it's going to be just that.  A lovely holiday season.

My Icelandic sweater - Dyed with Rhubarb root

I finished knitting my Icelandic sweater.  Knitting it didn't take that long, less than a week.  It was finishing it off that was a bit fiddly as I have never done one that is cut up in the middle.  Like a cardigan.  I actually only knitted one Icelandic sweater before and that was many years ago.  So I'm no expert.  They are usually knitted from rope roving which we call Plötulopi.  It's not spun and it pulls apart very easily.  But you can also just as easily twist it back together.

There are fashions in these sweaters as in everything else and today they are usually knitted with a pattern only around the shoulders rather than at the front of the arms and the bottom of the sweater as well.  The fit is also tighter.  Although I have to say that some of the older patterns are beginning to look quite good to me.  I used a pattern called Héla that available free on the internet, but I adapted it to suit my needs.   I made the sweater longer and changed the rib to a proper rib and I added a steek.  That was new to me.  I found really good instructions for that at the excellent See Eunny knit website.

I made the pattern myself.  It's just flowers and hearts and something.  I wanted to make it girly because I thought it suited the colours.  The sweaters are usually made from naturally coloured wool, so this is a nice change.  I really enjoyed dying from Rhubarb root.  I got very nice colours and there is something really soft and gentle about the colours that is completely different from synthetics.  I also loved to be able to knit with colours that I made myself.

I know my husband wants a sweater so I may start to knit him one soon.  His will not be girly at all and I don't think I'll use my natural dyed wool for his sweater.  It'll be quite traditional with natural sheep colours.  I know that he wants a light background colour and probably brown tones rather than gray.  Now I just need to find a nice pattern.  Since his is going to be in the round it'll take much less time.  I should we able to finish it in one week.

I like to have something to knit or crochet although I only do it sporadically.  I have been crocheting a pattern for a hat from the 40's and am looking forward to putting that together.  I love 40's hats.  I bought one in a charity shop that I absolutely love.  It's black and I use it when I go to funerals.  I used to wear hats all the time in the early 90's, but I guess that went out of fashion.  The one I'm crocheting now, I'm doing it in a shiny red yarn and it could look good.  Or just terribly silly.

Rhubarb hair colour - and that is the last of the Rhubarb recipes

My Rhubarb talk went really well.  The venue was this folk museum that has some of the oldest houses in Reykjavik and it looks like a small village in the olden days, complete with animals and people in the national costume.  The weather was incredibly nice and the turnout was good.  People had to squeeze to get into the room.

I gave them all the recipes that I've posted and then a few others.  I was a little surprised that people were surprised that you could do something other than just jam and pie.  So the ice cream, soup, drinks and muffins recipes were all enthusiastically received.  But I did save the best for last and I think that really, really surprised them:  Hair colour from Rhurbarb!

I was a bit surprised myself when I found them and I have to admit that I haven't tried them, but I just had to share them anyway.  And please let me know if you dare to try.  And, no.  The photo's are just for fun and in no way reflect the outcome of the recipes.

This recipe is for lightening hair and originally comes from a book called "Natural Beauty" by Aldo Facetti, but I found it on Ehow

1 oz. (30 g) rhubarb root, finely chopped or powdered
1 pt (1/2 liter) cider vinegar
2/3 oz. (20 g) chamomile flowers
2/3 oz. (20 g) marigold flowers
Juice from two fresh lemons, squeezed and strained
2 oz. (50 g) acacia honey
2 oz. (50 g) 95 percent proof liqueur
Thick conditioner

Boil the root in the vinegar for 10 min.
Add the flower petals and simmer under lid for 5 more min. and then let cool.
Strain and add the lemon juice, honey and liqueur.
Add enough conditioner to make this into a creamy consistency.
Apply to hair and cover with sower cap.
Rinse with cool water and let hair air dry.

Here is the recipe for dark hair. I found it on Harmony Green blog where there are also a number of other recipes for herbal hair dyes.

3 tbsp Rhubarb root, mashed
2 cups water
Kaolin clay to thicken

Simmer the mashed root until half of the water has evaporated.
Add enough clay to make into a paste.
Wash hair and divide into sections.  Apply the paste to every sections like any other hair dye.
Leave for 15 min and check the colour by rinsing and drying a strand.  Leave for additional 15 min. and keep checking until the colour is dark enough.  After 1 hour the root will not give any more colour.
To make hair even darker, repeat after 2 days.

I am pretty sure that the blond recipe works because all the ingredients are tried and tested hair lighteners and it also contains honey and conditioner so it shouldn't be too harsh.  I hae to admit that I am a bit intrigued by the other because there the root is supposed to mae the hair quite dark.  Now I know that in acidic environment the rhubarb root colour will turn yellow and that in an alkaline the root will turn a lovely mahogany brown.  I guess the clay must be alkaline.

I might have to try this out to satisfy my curiosity.  But not yet because I am putting finishing touches to my Icelandic sweater.  It is very pretty in it's summer colours from Rhubarb and I look forward to wearing it.  But I guess that is the subject of the next post.  And then I'll have to start to think about something else!

Rhubarb to dye for

When I started to look into natural colours to use in soaps I was inevitably led to websites about dying fibers with natural materials like plants and bugs.  I was fascinated because I had always thought that the only colours you could get from nature were dull beiges and browns and maybe some greens.  And that didn't appeal to me.  I like rainbow colours, vibrant and clear.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see the exciting pink that the Cochineal bug gives and the deep purple of Logwood, not to mention the fabulous blue of Indigo.

I have been collecting bits and pieces of dye stuff for just over a year.  I came across a website that sold some natural dyes and I ordered some like Madder, Alkanet and Logwood which I tried to uses in soap, mostly successfully.  But I also ordered some mordant even if I had no clue what it was.  I only knew that it was used in the dyeing process, but didn't really understand it's function.  Then I started to notice books about dyeing and I bought some.  In my Icelandic book about medicinal plants and also in general books about the Flora of Iceland there is always the mention of how each plant was used in the past, either for food, medicine, dyeing or other practical purposes.  I found all this absolutely fascinating stuff!  It's hard to explain, but I find it somehow comforting to learn how to make things that usually come out of factories.

When I was a kid, we were taught a lot in school.  We had cooking and baking lessons and handiwork lessons where we learned to knit and crochet and sew and embroider.  Or rather the girls did, the boys learned woodworking and such which I would also have liked, had I known that it was possible for females to do macho things like that.  But I didn't know about sexism then and now I am very thankful for what I learned at this early age.  I remember when I moved to the States and heard my American friends talk about baking "from scratch".  I had no clue what they were on about.  Scratch?  What was that!  Some ingredient?  Equipment?  I couldn't believe it when I found out that it was possible to buy something in a box, add water and eggs and call it baking.  Hmm.  Where's the fun in that!

So anyway, back to natural colour.  I wrote a post about my first dyeing experience using Dandelion  - Taraxacum officinale) and this cold spring I have been busy dying with some plants that are in season as well as some of the dye stuff that I have bought.  I have now dyed from Cochineal, Alkanet, Comfrey, Rumex, Lupin, some Lichen and now Rheus (Rhubarb to you and me).  And this post is about my Rhubarb colours.

When I was asked to do this little talk about Rhubarb I wanted to show a lot of different ways to use the Rhubarb.  One of them is obviously to use it to dye yarn and fabric.  And what colours!  Beautiful soft yellows, through orange to corals to green (with the help of some copper).  I can't wait to finish my sweater.  The Icelandic sweaters are usually made in the natural sheep colours of greys, browns, white and black which I really like, but knitting one using my own home dyed yarn is just so cool!  I've almost knit enough to be ready to knit the pattern.  I just need to make one up.  I want it to be a flowery, girly untraditional something.  I have to see what I can come up with.

It is possible to use both the leaves and the root of Rhubarb to dye animal fibers.  I don't know how cotton receives the dye.  I need to find out.  But wool and silk take the colour quite well.  The dyebath is made beforehand by simmering the chopped dye stuff (either the root or the leaves) for 30-45 minutes and strain it and let it cool.  The leaves give a geenish yellow, but the root gives the most lovely range of colours in the photo.

The wonderful thing about Rhubarb is that there is no need for a mordant.  That means that there is no pre-treatment required.  All one needs to do is to wash the fiber to get it thoroughly clean and wet.  Squeeze out excess moisture and put it into the cold dyebath.  Then the whole thing is heated up to about 80C (very, very slowly if one is dyeing wool.  It should take at least an hour) that temperatur held of 30 minutes and then let cool down over night.  The fiber is then rinsed and dried.

I have a few books about dyeing.  I own everything that has been published about it in Icelandic that I have been able to get hold of, some of the old stuff has been typed up and photocopied.  But out of everything that I have seen on the subject there is one woman that stands out to me as the most generous and reliable source of knowledge.  I have two of her books and love them both.  Jenny Dean has a blog that I recommend to everyone and her newly republished book, Wild Color, is not only beautiful but also invaluable to those who want to learn to dye with natural colours.  I can only humbly thank her and all the other women who have written books and article and blogs about dyeing and shared their knowledge with me.

Rhubarb soap

As soon as I started to chop the Rhubarb root I knew that it would give colour to soap.  That strong yellow colour is even stronger that that of Rumex so there was no doubt in my mind.  And chances were that it would produce a pink, like the Rumex does.  So I chopped some root and poured olive oil over it and let it sit for a week or two.

Since I had all this Rhubarb infused water also left over from dyeing I decided to use that also for the lye.  so this is a double coloured soap.  The Rhubarb is in the water phase and in the oil phase.  And it produced a lovely pink that is still deciding whether to go to the blue or yellow end of the spectrum.

I made a recipe based on what ingredients I have right now, but it turned out to be remarkably like the Sorrel shampoo bar that I made some time ago.  It will probably be a great shampoo bar although I hadn't really thought specifically about making it that.  At least I look forward to take it to the gym.

Rhubarb soap

Olive oil 47%           280g / 10oz (out of this 40g was Rhubarb root infused)
Coconut oil 25%     150g / 5.3oz
Rapeseed oil 17%     100g / 3.5oz
Cocoa butter 8%       50g / 1.8oz
Castor oil 3%             20g / 0.7oz

Water 33%              200g / 7oz (this was water that I had simmered root pieces in for about an hour)
Lye   83g / 2.9 oz

When I stirred the lye into the soap, the whole thing turned this magical blue pink colour that I recognize so well.  The colour then turned a more tomato red as the ph dropped.  I didn't wrap my soap in a blanket to insulate, I never do (maybe I need to try that) so it gelled in the middle.  I kind of like that, but some people prefer to see the soap a solid colour throughout.  The gelled soap is darker than the ungelled.  The soap is still curing, but it is very soft.  I used Geranium, lavender and a touch of lemongrass in the absence of a natural Rhurbarb fragrance. Although I wonder: Does Rhubarb have a smell?  I don't really think so, it's more of a taste isn't it?

I couldn't resist taking the photo outside with my apple tree blossoms.  I bought the tree almost ten years ago and I knew it had pink flowers, but I've never really seen them properly until now.  The spring has been so cold that the caterpillars haven't  gotten to the flowers and now the tree is just covered in these sweet scented beautiful flowers.  Oh, I love it.  Finally something good came from this cold weather.

As I was snapping the photo balancing the soaps on this pressed glass dish (in the shape of an apple) that I bought because it was a neat retro looking yellow (turned out to be dirt), one of the soaps fell to the ground and got dirt on it (the bottom one) I wiped it as best I could and continued to try to get the apple blossoms into a good position and then of course another soap fell and I could hear the plop! of it diving into the goldfish pond.  The fish have been pouting for a few days because my husband put some cleaning stuff in the pond (quite harmless) but they didn't like it one bit and have protested by going on a hunger strike.  They are now in an even more of a huff, poor darlings, but at least they are clean!
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How to drink Rhubarb

Rhubarb is great to drink.  The tartness of it makes a refreshing taste for summer heat in combination with a touch of sugar og honey for sweetening, lemon juice and even a touch of Ginger for a more spicy version.  I find that it is really easy to just trow it in a pot and improvise, but here are a few recipes that I am going to give in my talk about Rhubarb.

I have posted this recipe before, but it is the only one that I've posted without having made it myself. My excuse is that I wanted to try it, but it takes a long time to be ready so I thought I'd post it so that I didn't loose the recipe. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got it from. But here is is, a little boozy treat for those who like that sort of thing. I have to say that the taste of this isn't really all that much Rhubarb, but rather a sweet something that I can't put my hand on. But it still might make an interesting gift.

Rhubarb liquor
This recipe is for about 6 dl. and takes about 4 weeks to do.

5 dl / 2 cups Rhubarb pieces
4 dl / 1 3/4 cup vodka
1 vanilla pod
1,5 -2 dl (3/4 cup more or less) simple syrup

Put the Rhubarb into a jar. Pour the vodka into the jar, put a lid on and shake for a few minutes.
Let this stand for about 2 weeks and shake every now and again. Add the vanilla pod.
After about 4 week you sieve the booze, add the simple syrup and stir well. Taste and add more syrup as you like.  Let this stand for about a month to let the flavours mellow.

I didn't find that it mellows that much, but I did let a piece of vanilla pod stay in the bottle and I think I probably shouldn't have.  There might just be a tad too much vanilla taste.

Rhubarb syrup is great to make because it can be made into drinks and to make pink lemonade.  I like this recipe which I got at Miss Print blog.  The syrup can also be used in cocktails if one wants to.  The recipe for syrup is something like this:

1 cup rhubarb (washed and dried) cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and stir. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Once mixture has boiled, turn down the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the rhubarb is soft and the red colour has bled in.  Sieve the mixture and pour into a bottle and let it cool.  This should keep for a few weeks in the fridge.

The recipe can be tweaked a bit.  I like to add some lemon juice and occationally a piece of ginger to make it slightly more interesting.  Use as sauce on ice cream, as a drink concentrate and mix with still or sparkling water.  Pour into lemonade to make it pink.  Or slosh some vodka into it to make a boozy drink.

I am now in the process of making a third recipe.  The name is lovely, so I had to try it: Rhubarb champagne and I found it on an Australian site: Just like my nan made

Rhubarb champagne

2lb rhubarb
1 sliced lemon
8 pints of cold water
1 lb sugar
1 dessert spoon of vinegar

Wash rhubarb and cut up roughly, add sugar, finely sliced lemon, vinegar & water.  Let stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.  Sieve and pour into plastic bottle and close them.  Used soft drinks bottles are ideal.  Let stand for a few days.  This will start to ferment and becomes alchoholic after 2 weeks.  Before that it is a fizzy sweet drink, probably a bit like my Ginger ale.

This needs to be put in the fridge to stop fermentation.  Do that when you like the taste.

I can't wait to try this one, it sounds really interesting and I'll be sure to add my verdict to this post.
But on to other things Rhubarb...

UPDATE:  I really like the "champagne".  It tastes quite sophisticated and unlike any other rhubarb drink I've tasted.  The name isn't that far off.
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Everything Rhubarb and some Chocolate too.

I love Rhubarb.  I love the colour and I love the taste.  When I was little we used to pick slender stalks and dip them in the sugar bowl and eat them like candy.  My mom also used to make rhubarb compot which we ate hot with cold milk as desert.  And it seems that the only jam that was ever available back then was Rhubarb jam, the only Rhubarb thing that I don't really like.  I've made it a bit of a hobby to find unusual recipes with Rhubarb and I've posted some here like the delicious Rhubarb soup and the fantastic Rhubarb ice cream.

I got a phone call the other day from a woman I've never met and she asked me to participate in the Day of the Rhubarb which is being held in a kind of Folk museum in the City.  Apparently she got my name from the Gardening Society as someone who is an expert on using Rhubarb.  Oh!  Ok!  I can be that!

So I've been up to my eyeballs in Rhubarb ever since that phone call, wiping the dust off my various Rhubarb recipes and looking for new ones, making stuff from the recipes to snap photos and even creating one, this Rhubarb and Chocolate chip muffins.  Well, at least adjusting a recipe to fit me needs.  In my 20 minute talk I want to show how incredibly versatile Rhubarb is and give people recipes for every part of the plant.

I didn't have a photo of my Rhubarb syrup, so I made some so that I could snap a picture.  When making syrup, there is always the problem of what to do with the mash that is left from sieving.  This time I adjusted a muffin recipe and came up with this:

Rhubarb and Chocolate Muffins.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt 

3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1/2 cup melted butter 

1/2 cup rhubarb mash plus almost the same amount to put on top

1/4 cup milk

3 eggs 

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Start by turning the oven on to 200C / 400F and line some muffin forms.  This recipe is perfect for 12 muffins. 

Mix the sugar, melted butter, rhubarb mash, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.  Combine the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder and stir it into the wet mix.  Don't over mix this, a few lumps are fine.  Add the chocolate chips.
Fill the muffin form and put a small dollop of rhubarb mash on top and a chocolate chip.  Sprinkle with some sugar.  Bake for about 20-30 minutes, check with a toothpick.

They were really nice and I was very happy that I didn't have to throw away food.  Although I could have put it on the compost heap, but this is so much better.

The speaking thing is on June 30th and I have reserved the rest of the month to everything Rhubarb.  Dyeing yarn and hair, insect poison, and, yes!  There is Rhubarb soap.  Might be two different ones.  And it's all coming soon to a ...
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Rhubarb delicacy and liquor

I love rhubarb and I'm always looking for
new recipes to try out.  I just had to try this. 

I do like Rhubarb.  I guess the flavour reminds me of childhood when we ate the raw stalks, sometimes after dipping them in sugar.  Back in those days there weren't that many sweets available so we kids would eat all sorts of plants such as Njóli (Rumex longifolius), Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and Rhubarb.   I have to admit that my tastebuds can't bear the acid taste of raw Rhubarb anymore.  Nor am I a fan of Rhubarb jam.  I find it too heavy and almost gluey in concistency.  Although I have tasted very good jam that was 50/50 Rhubarb and Strawberries.

But before my youth, way back in the old days when fresh fruit was only seen in Iceland before Christmas and canned fruit was an expensive luxury, the heel of the Rhubarb was considered a special delicacy.  It was thought to taste similar to canned pears and those were expensive and difficult to get.  So when making Rhubarb jam, the heels would be cut away and canned separately.  This fact seems to be lost on many today as most people know that they are supposed to cut the bottom off the stalks, but instead of treating them with the reverence they deserve, people throw them away.  For some reason I mentioned this to a friend and a few days later she showed up with a bag of Rhubarb heels for me.  So this is what I did with them.

Rhubarb delicacy from way back when recession was the way of life

First I cleaned the heels and cut off the brown bits.  I then weighed them and I had about 200 g / 7oz.
I put them into a small pot and poured 180 g / 6.3 oz of sugar over them.  I heated this up and let it simmer gently until the heels were soft.  I then poured this into a sterile canning jar and let it cool before I closed the lid.  This is lovely warmed up slightly and served with ice cream.

I am still harvesting Rhubarb and have a few other recipes that I am going to make.  I'm making another batch of ice cream, this time I'm goining to siv the rhubarb bits out and see if my youngest likes it better.    I've made syrup before as well as saft, but I came across a recipe for a liquor that I thought was interesting.  I doubt that I'm going to try it, but even though I don't like to post recipes that I haven't tried and tested I thought I would write it down in case I change my mind.  It might make an interesting gift.

Rhubarb liquor

This recipe is for about 6 dl. and takes about 4 weeks to do.

5 dl / 2 cups Rhubarb pieces
4 dl / 1 3/4 cup vodka
1 vanilla pod
1,5 -2 dl (3/4 cup more or less) simple syrup

Put the Rhubarb into a jar. Pour the vodka into the jar, put a lid on and shake for a few minutes.
Let this stand for about 2 weeks.  Add the vanilla pod.
After about 4 week you siv the booze and add the simple syrup and stir well.  Taste and add more syrup as you like.
Let this stand for about a month to let the flavours mellow.
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Rhubarb soup with Rhubarb ice cream

Tivoli's rhubarb ice cream and rhubarb soup. Delicious.

Tivoli is a fun park in Copenhagen, Denmark.  It is a combination of fairground, shops and restaurants and every child's dream.  I was there for dinner in June and we got this amazing desert.  It was ice cold Rhubarb soup with some sort of dark chocolate/marzipan wafer and Rhubarb ice cream on top.  Not only did it taste good, but it looked really pretty so a snapped a photo of it.

When I came home I looked for recipes of Rhubarb soup and found a few.  This is the one I made and it is delicious.  Serve it ice cold (put it in the freezer for 10 minutes just before serving) with ice cream, either rhubarb or a good quality vanilla.  Any addition of dark chocolate in whatever form you can think of is a treat.  As is the mint leaves and berries.

Rhubarb soup (serves 4):
500 g rhubarb
200 g sugar
3 dl water
1 vanilla pod
Juice from one lemon if needed

Cut the rhubarb into small pieces.  Cut the vanilla pod into two and scrape off the vanilla corns into the sugar.  Put the water and sugar into a pot and bring to boil.  You can put the vanilla pod into the pot to simmer, but I put my pods in oil to use in creams and lotions.  Let simmer for 10 minutes.  Taste and adjust with more sugar or some lemon juice if needed.  Siv the rhubarb compot.  The liquid should be a pretty red soup.  Put the soup into the fridge.  It will keep well for a few days.   It can also be frozen for later use.  But serve it really, really cold with ice cream and decorate with a few mint leaves and redcurrants if you have them.  The left over rhubarb mush in the siv is lovely on toast for the next few days.

The view from our Paris apartment (ok, it's not ours, we rent
it, but we like to call it ours. With a view like that who can
blame us)

The best Rhubarb ice cream is sold in the ice cream shop on Île Saint-Louis in Paris.  It's on the corner opposite the rear end of Notre Dame, over the bridge.  And if you don't know it you'll recognize it by the long line.  But it's rare flavor to get in shops, so here is a recipe.  It is quite good and really easy to make.   I like the fact that it doesn't ask for all my egg yolks.  The trick is to use fairly small stalks and cut them into very small pieces.

Rhubarb ice cream:
300 g / 10.5 oz small cut rhubarb (that was about 5 stalks for me)
1 dl sugar / 3.4 oz
1/2 dl water / 1.9 oz water - if needed
3 dl / 10 oz whipping cream
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla sugar (or essence)
1 tbs icing sugar

Cut the rhubarb into small pieces and put into a pot with the sugar and a little bit of water if needed.  Cook for a few minutes at low heat until the rhubarb is soft and mushy.  Take off the heat and let cool.  It doesn't take long, I took the dogs for a walk.

Mix the egg yolks with the icing sugar and vanilla.  Whip the cream and fold the yolk mixture into the cream.  Fold in the cooled rhubarb.  Put into an ice cream maker and follow instructions for that (mostly that you turn the icecreammaker on before you pour the mix into it) OR put into a bowl and stick it in the freezer.  If the latter, take out every now and again to stir through until frozen.  Stirring will prevent large crystals from forming.

My version of rhubarb ice cream and rhubarb soup with the
tuile cookie. The spoon is a Christmas spoon - a gift from
my stepmother in law and father in law.

I don't have recipe for a marizipanychocholateythingy but I made these, cause they looked kinda cute.

Tuiles:
80 g soft butter
80 g sugar
50 g flour
50 g glucose sirup

Mix together.  Smear it out on a baking sheet (I did four circles) and bake for ... well the recipe said "about 5 minutes at 175C /350F or until golden in colour"  That took about 20 minutes for me.  Now the rest of the instructions said: "Take the baking sheet out and wait a few minutes until it is cold enough to handle.  You can then make it into interesting shapes.  Let it cool completely and store in an airtight container."  This apparently works if you have Marthaesque composure in the kitchen.  I do not, so my instructions would be more along the lines of:  "You can make TRULY unique shapes while handling this gooey mess in a blind panic furiously trying not to burn off your fingers."

Bon appétit!
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