Goat milk soap
I am wondering if you have ever gotten into soap making with your goat milk. If so, could you share a recipe?
Sheryl (Pyro)
Newport News, Virginia
Sure I’ve made goat milk soap. It is easy and fun and the simple recipe makes a nice batch of wonderful soap. Here it is:
3 cups cool water
2 cups goat milk
12 oz can lye
12 cups lard or other rendered fat. I often use our own tallow for this, rendered in the oven.
Put water into a large stainless steel stockpot. Carefully stir lye into water. It will heat. Let the lye water cool to 85 degrees. Add milk, stirring gently. Stir for 5 min., wearing rubber gloves and long sleeves plus a long-handled wooden spoon. This will get VERY hot.
When the mix has cooled to 75 degrees, warm the lard or fat to 85 degrees. Then in a slow stream, pour the warmed fat into the cooled lye mix, stirring while pouring. Pour the fat in slowly.
Continue stirring until the mixture becomes like thickened honey. It takes about half an hour.
When to this thickness, pour into molds. Cover with plastic wrap. Place several layers of newspapers and a folded towel or two on top, to insulate the new soap. The new soap needs to hold its own heat in order to work. Cure for 4-6 weeks. It’s that easy and you’ll love the results. — Jackie
Harvesting wild mushrooms
Many wild mushrooms grow around our mountain cottage near Prescott, AZ. I know it’s impossible for you to give me a way to distinguish all the good ones from all the bad ones, but are there a few types you can identify which are unfailingly good? BTW, I wish you the very best of success with your surgery and recovery.
William Thompson
Sun City, Arizona
Thank you. Your best bet is to get a couple good mushroom books w/photos and, if possible, link up with a local who is experienced in mushrooming. (Maybe put an ad on a local health food store’s bulletin board or online on Craigslist.) Like everything, being with someone who knows is best but I’ve learned a lot through books too. I have four mushroom books myself and find them invaluable. Some easy to identify mushrooms include inky caps like shaggy mane and morels, which look like a pointed sponge on a stem. But even these have look-alikes so always take care. — Jackie
Ellendra,
True, but even then a person has to be careful as some folks have been poisoned by eating very young, emerging mushrooms which “looked” like round, white puffballs before the rest emerged. But with a little caution, puffballs are pretty foolproof. And yummy.
That’s great news on the surgery Jackie! Glad you’ll be able to get out in the dirt when spring finally arrives.
There is one edible mushroom that doesn’t have any natural look-alikes: The giant puffball.
It does have one unnatural look-alike. It looks and feels exactly like a white nerf ball left in the rain!
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