Hey friends, Sandi here! This week was busy with daily chores, processing rabbits and chickens, and replenishing inventory. I made soap on Monday! I've been making soap for over 15 years, and I started selling it almost 14 years ago under the business name Earth&WindCreations. Crafting soap is a lot of fun. It's an art and a science, so every soap maker generates something different. I make cold processed, vegetable-based soap in 24lb batches. This produces eight 3lb logs and each log makes 11 bars of soap, so I make 88 bars of soap with each batch. Sometimes I scent the whole batch with only one or two scents, and other times I make 8 different scents. This week I made Vanilla, Spring Clean, Patchouli, Coconut Lime, Honeysuckle, and a new one made with rose water, bergamot, and chamomile. Hopefully it turns out well! It is so fun to create, smell, and feel all the different soaps. Did you know soap takes about 3 weeks to cure, though? It is a long process so I always try to stay ahead of the game. You can see some of my products on Facebook but here are a few pictures of the soap logs and freshly cut bars.

I also strained tinctures this week! I had soaked various herbs in a high quality grain alcohol for about 6 weeks to extract the beneficial elements from the plants. It's always exciting to see the resulting product! So far, I have mullein and chickweed tinctures. Mullein has been used for generations for respiratory health and to help heal ear infections. Chickweed in tincture form is helpful with digestive issues. Both are packed full of nutrients! You can read about some of the uses for these herbs through a quick internet search, but I also really like the book Healing Wise by Susan Weed.

Want to know what Tyler has been up to? He processed chickens this week, but he has also been breeding and growing meat rabbits for a while, and we're starting to get enough surplus to share! We took some rabbit meat with us to the farmers market in Orleans this weekend. We raise our rabbits on pasture just like our chickens. If you've never eaten rabbit, you're missing out! It tastes amazing and is incredibly lean and nutritious. High end restaurants in big cities serve rabbit meat and charge a premium price for it. If you want to learn more about how Tyler raises our rabbits, and read about how very nutritious their meat actually is (it's really amazing), go to our website! There's a whole page about our pastured rabbits here. We're hoping to add rabbit meat to our CSA shares very soon! Here's a picture of our happy, healthy rabbits in their homemade hare pen.

Speaking of CSA, have you purchased your share for the summer yet? If not, make sure you do it soon! We don't have many shares left and time is running out. The next share doesn't begin until September! If you want the convenience of homegrown, nutritious chicken delivered to you monthly be sure to jump on the opportunity!

Click Here!

Next week is a big week for us!! WE'RE GOING TO POLYFACE FARM!!! If you don't know, that's the home of our favorite farmer Joel Salatin! We are so excited to take a tour of his family farm and see firsthand what sustainable, regenerative agriculture looks like after decades of dedicated stewardship. He truly is an inspiration to us and has blazed the path for future generations to create lasting, healthy change in a post-industrial agricultural world. Joel's son, Daniel, helps run the farm and has been breeding rabbits raised on pasture for close to 30 years. If we're lucky, maybe we'll come home with a few Salatin rabbits. EEEEK!!! Stay tuned for next week's newsletter where I'm sure I'll be gushing about our trip to Virginia.

Have a great week!