Our soap…

Our soap making venture started out of a desire to make use of all parts of our animals. When we started raising pork, we came to realize how much extra fat we had after processing an animal, (particularly with raising a heritage breed like Berkshires). Many of our bulk pork customers didn’t want to take the back fat and leaf lard that comes with a pig, so we started to accumulate this in our freezers. Not wanting it to go to waste, we began researching what we could do with all of it - soap making was discovered.

The first process is to render the fat into lard. The fat is ground or cut into small pieces and put in a pot in the oven at a very low heat until it all melts down. This is poured through a strainer to remove any bits of meat or connective tissue that was present, and VOILA, lard. Some of this lard is set aside for our own personal use in cooking and baking. Its a great cooking fat as it has a high smoke point and can handle lots of heat. But, we can only use so much for this purpose. The rest we make into soap.

Soap is created by combining fats (of any kind) with sodium hydroxide (lye). Lye is dissolved in a liquid (typically water) and then added to fats/oils that have been heated and are liquified. Blend these two things together and a chemical reaction called saponification takes place and the creation of soap happens. Lard is known for lending a creamy lather, moisturizing properties, luxurious feel and adding longevity to a bar of soap.