{"id":5295,"date":"2016-03-22T03:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T07:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=5295"},"modified":"2016-03-22T03:00:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T07:00:08","slug":"q-and-a-goat-milk-soap-and-harvesting-wild-mushrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2016\/03\/22\/q-and-a-goat-milk-soap-and-harvesting-wild-mushrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: goat milk soap and harvesting wild mushrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goat milk soap<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am wondering if you have ever gotten into soap making with your goat milk. If so, could you share a recipe?<\/p>\n

Sheryl (Pyro)
\nNewport News, Virginia<\/em><\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

3 cups cool water
\n2 cups goat milk
\n12 oz can lye
\n12 cups lard or other rendered fat. I often use our own tallow for this, rendered in the oven.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Continue stirring until the mixture becomes like thickened honey. It takes about half an hour.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Harvesting wild mushrooms<\/strong>
\n
\nMany 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.<\/p>\n

William Thompson
\nSun City, Arizona<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}