We just got back from the Kalona Farmer's market. And things went fairly well! We sold 35 bars of soap and the action was pretty steady. 
Cheryl went into this event grumpy, as all of the baked goods flopped and she was never very "passionate" about the soap. ( Even though it is possibly the best soap I have ever used.) I have been looking for a reason to rekindle the soap store, since baking seems to have taken over things now. So today was an opportunity!
And Kalona delivered! We basically sold almost double what we sold at Muscatine. Kalona is only 7 miles away instead of 40 to Muscaine ( think rising Gas Prices!) And the action seemed a little more festive. ( 
Live Music, various crafters and carvers. Even a Forger/blacksmith with hand-made knives and axes!) In all, I'm happy we moved out some of the closet soap stash. Cheryl is as well. In fact, I think that is the whole reason she went... Wanting to "unload" the soap we have been storing all this time.
My favorite "Flavor": The Old Style Barbershop Soap, is now down to one bar. Cheryl says we may have to make more this week. That might mean that I get to play with dangerous and harmful chemicals for real this time! I can hardly wait!
As for the baking, Cheryl says she has a theory on what went wrong after taking some time to contemplate things. IT might all come down to the flour. She was using Bread flour... but then discovered she "should" have been using the Pastry flour. The difference, from what I have gathered, is the water absorption rate. She switched recipe books and they neglected to make the distinction ( possibly assuming "all purpose flour" was being used) so by using pastry flour, the water was not absorbed enough and a "swamp" was formed in the middle of each cake.
"Mistakes were made... Usually in the past. And upon various comets and asteroids... Let's review the Tapes!" Tamama. Sgt Frog.
The car is unloaded and the Temps are in the 90's again. Time to "chill" out in the Air-conditioning. We are now formulating our next phase of the plan, trying to figure out if we should keep baked goods on Thursday and Soap on Saturday. Seems like a decent plan to me, but we may need more data to learn more... To make sure Kalona's First Farmer's market was not a fluke. I can hardly wait to play with Real Lye!
That last part is a joke. Lye is very dangerous and should only be used in the presence of small Children.
That last part is also a joke.... Lye should not be used in the presence of small children OR large children... like me!.. without adult supervision. ( And a LOT of safety gear.) Good thing Cheryl will be there to Boss me around.
(Assuming she lets me "help" in any way at all.....)
1 comment:
It was not until I moved away from home did I ever use store purchased soap. During the summers, my grandmother and mom made plain old lye/rendered fat soap. No scent and just shapes created by a sharp knife.
I liked the smell of that soap and it never seemed to dry our skin out either.
The soap lady at our Farmer's Market does well too. I think she uses goat milk in her soap.
Sounds like Kalona was a success.
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