Market Report!

So, today was the first Queen Creek Farmer's Market. The turnout was amazing! The event was well advertised and hundreds of people braved the wind gusts to shop at the 30 local vendors booths.

Most of the vendors had crafts/ art, with a few produce and food booths mixed in. There was great live local music and the weather (though windy!) was gorgeous.

The tvala booth did fastastic; we sold nearly half our inventory in 4 hours! I managed to keep up with pace, and made 23X my booth fee. :)

Top sellers: Winter Grapefruit flew off the shelf and I only came home with 5 of them. Oatmeal Milk and Honey did well, as well as M-81 and Lavender Milk.

I'll be looking forward to the next market they do, though it won't be until April. See you there!

How do you know when your soap gells?

I was completing a custom order I've been working on (personalized soaps for Christmas presents; what a fun idea!) and I took this picture to show what it means to 'gel' your soap.

While the saponifaction process is underway, the raw soap batter heats up quite a bit. The heated soap 'gells', starting at the center and spreading to the edges. This causes the soap to darken slightly from the origional pour color, but in no other way changes the composition of the soap.

Some soapmakers prefer not to gel their soaps, and attempt to prevent gelling by putting the raw soap into the fridge or freezer to cool it off. Since soap naturally wants to gel, I go ahead and let it, encouraging it if it doesn't complete itself (as it sometimes will start to cool back down before reaching the edges) by covering it with blankets or placing it in a barely-warm oven.

So, for your reference purposes, the soap on the left is almost completely gelled (with the edges still un-gelled) and the soap on the right has not yet started to heat up.

Upcoming

For those who will be in the Queen Creek area this coming weekend, November 15th, make sure to make time to stop by the town's first Farmer's Market!  We'll be set up in the parking lot of the newly opened library (which is fantastic, by the way!) on Ellsworth just north of Ocotillo.  

The Town is giving out coupons you can use at which ever booths you choose, with everything from jewelry, hand-sewn items, to locally grown produce, candles and of course, soap!

The weather should be great, as it has finally cooled off, so be sure to stop by from 8-12 and stock up on some unique Christmas presents!  This is a great opportunity especially for those who have 'Taken the Handmade Pledge' for the holidays this year.  See you there!!