The Back Story Behind My New Carrot Soap
It’s taken a full year to create the new “Gardener’s Delight” soap. It started when I harvested a quart bag worth of F2 carrot seeds. The smell of those seeds was absolutely amazing. I wanted to harness that smell of earthy sweetness. So I held on to them and thought about it for months. Eventually I discovered you could use anti-oxidant rich carrot juice to make soap with. I had to try it! But being me, I had to do it the “Nettlesome Way”. I couldn’t just go to the store and pick up some organic carrot juice and make things easy. I decided this needed to be “Slow Soap”. Much like the idea behind slow food.
I had this brilliant idea in December, no one wants to buy carrot soap in December. So I had to wait. Finally May rolled around. It was planting season. We amended the beds, I planted hundreds of carrot seeds (carrots are a big part of our storage foods) and then waited. All season long I watched as the carrots grew and imagined the day it would finally come that I could harvest some and make this soap.
As summer wore on I thinned the carrots on occasion and saved and dried their tops. I had a hunch that they would make a nice colorant for the top part of the soap.
Finally harvest season came and we were not disappointed! Carrots are one of the most satisfying root crops to harvest. You never know if you’ll get two that wrap around one another, or some that had the perfect conditions and grew to be of epic proportions. And of course there is always the goof ball ones that make you blush with their “naturalisic shape”.
But of course it was October and in October you all want pumpkin soaps and mulled cider, so this soap had to wait. Luckily carrots hang out wonderfully well in cold storage. Finally, February arrived. It was soap making time!
I got out my jar of dried carrot tops and put them in my herb grinder. I blended them until they turned to a course powder. It was green and smelled very carrot like. Then I pulled out some of the biggest carrots from cold storage I could find and grated them with a box grater then squeezed the pulp in a mesh bag. The juice was so orange! With the two star ingredients ready I got to work making the soap.
I debated letting the carrot tops and seeds do all the scent work in this soap, however I experimented a bit and came up with a really lovely citrusy floral combination. It is an absolute delight to smell.
When the batter was all mixed I poured in the carrot colored layer first, then the carrot top layer and then sprinkled a few carrot seeds on top for fun. Finally the carrot soap was done!
Just in case you wondered how serious I am about trying to use locally grown plants, know you know. I enjoyed creating this soap so much. It will certainly be in my seasonal collections every year from now on.
