Frozen Pipes, Lost Driveways, and Warm Ocean Breezes

It's been a cold and snowy Vermont winter so far…and we’ve got at least two more months to go! We've had lots of days and even more nights with below zero temperatures. Add in the wind chill, and it's been down right chilly.

Living in a 200 year old house is a pretty nifty thing most of the time, but with temps this low, we reminisce about draft-free windows, protected pipes, and super insulated spaces. 

A couple of weeks ago our main water line from the well into the house froze. It could have been a disaster, but fortunately our drilling company was able to thaw it for us quickly.  Thank you, Chevaliers!

A couple of days ago we discovered that our so called frost-free hydrant in the barn was frozen. Guess the frost line has gone really deep this year. So, until we can get that working again, we're hauling water from the house in buckets for the animals. 

And yesterday, our tractor wouldn't start.  Seems the tractor's diesel fuel gelled in the fuel filter from the consistent, bitter wind chill. Fortunately, my husband knows all about gelled fuel in fuel filters, and he had the tractor running before long. 

After a couple hours of plowing today, we have found the driveway and our goats are happy to have a path around their exercise area. I'll work on freeing the gates and clearing the areas behind the barn tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago I had the very good fortune of spending some time on a little island, part of the Yum Balam Nature Preserve, off the northern Yucatan coast of Mexico. While it always feels great to come home to Vermont, I have to admit that I've been spending a lot of time lately day-dreaming about warm ocean breezes, pink flamingos, and breakfasts of locally grown papaya, mango, and baby bananas. 

I'm not normally one to post vacation photos, but given our current weather situation, I thought I'd share a couple. Maybe they will warm you up just a little...and give you hope that summer is indeed coming!

Stay warm!

Ocean treasures....

Native iguanas.  Did you know they always travel in groups of 4?  Three females and one male.  

Warm water. White sand. Can you see the juvenile heron? The island is a breeding area for brown and white pelicans, herons, pink flamingos, and others.

This is Max, a scruffy but debonair little dog I got to know. I expected him to bark in Spanish.  

Flowers! FLOWERS! Gorgeous, wild bougainvillea. 

My hotel.  Coconut palms. Palapas roofs. GREEN foliage. 

This is El Castillo, a temple that dominates Chichen Itza, a Mayan ruin located on the Yucatan peninsula, and a World Heritage Site.  This has nothing to do with islands and warm ocean breezes, but if you ever have the opportunity to visit, take the time and go. The site is hard to describe, and photos just don't do it justice, but it is truly something to experience.  It will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. And if you're into the paranormal and extraterrestrial, just do a few google searches to learn all about the documented activity over the years, particularly at the time of equinox. National Geographic also has some good info. That will get your mind off of the cold for a while! :)  

New! No Fragrance Added Cream and Bath Treats

Our new, Natural Cocoa Butter Hand and Body Cream is here! We kept all the richness, but skipped the fragrance.  Since we use a good dose of natural, organic fair trade cocoa butter in the formula, the cream does carry a very slight, pleasant cocoa butter scent.  Feedback from our customers has been terrific! This is a great cream for those sensitive to fragrance, as well as for children, men, or those who just prefer a no fragrance added product.

Ever since our bathing beauty, Lucille, graced our Studio window in her tub, we've been receiving requests for relaxing bath products.  Here you go! Two varieties of soothing, muscle relaxing bath salt blends, and three varieties of fizzy, foamy, moisturizing, and fun bath butter balls. 

The bath salts are a blend of imported, naturally harvested sea salts, magnesium rich epsom salts, and essential oils.  The lavender blend is scented with lavender essential oil and lavender buds to soothe and calm, and the sea salt blend features the same  blend of fresh essential oils found in our Sea Salt bar soap. Both blends help detox the skin and stimulate circulation. Packaged in a hinged glass jar with a wooden scoop.

If you want to get your bubble on in the tub, we'd like to suggest one of our super creamy bath butter balls. Most of the surfactants used in commercial bubble baths are terribly drying and irritating to most skins, so we decided to forgo the big bubbles and concentrate instead on fizzy, foamy, creamy luxury. And I mean creamy! We use a ton of organic cocoa butter and shea butter in each ball. Plop one into a tub of warm water, and the ball will spin and fizz and create a thick sheet of conditioning foam.  All you need to do is slide in and relax! Available in Holiday Fizz, Lavender, and Summer Ocean scents. The balls make nice stocking stuffers and are fun for all ages. 

 

Small Business Saturday, Holiday Open House, and December Studio Hours

I hope you and yours had a quiet and relaxed Thanksgiving Day! At my home, a great grandma met her four month old great grandson for the first time, so it was indeed a day filled with gratitude.

On this day of BIG BOX business, I wanted to make sure you knew about Small Business Saturday. It was started several years ago as an alternative to Black Friday, as a way to encourage shoppers to support their local, independently owned retailers. Throughout the country, small businesses will be open on Saturday to welcome you to their store and share their expertise with you.  Many stores are running special deals. Most of the businesses in downtown Saint Albans are celebrating the day, and we will be open, too, 10-4.  Please buy local this holiday season and support your neighbors, wherever you may live!

We also wanted to announce our annual Holiday Open House will run December 3rd through December 9th.  Now that we have a retail space, our Open House will be held at the Studio as well as online in our webstore.  As a small token of appreciation for your support, we are offering 15% off your entire purchase during this time*.  If you are shopping online, just enter BUBBLE in the promotion box during checkout to receive the discount.  If you are coming to the Studio, just let us know you follow our blog, and we will apply the discount.

During the week of our Holiday Open House, we will be open every day at the Studio, as follows:

Wednesday the 3rd - Friday the 5th, 10-5
Saturday the 6th, 10-4
Sunday the 7th, 11-4
Monday 8th - Tuesday the 9th, 10-5

Then, throughout the rest of December until Christmas, our regular hours will be
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 10-5,
Sundays 11-4,
and by appointment other days and times.
We will be at the Burlington Winter Farmer's Market the first three Saturdays in December, 10-2 at Memorial Auditorium, Burlington.

 *And the fine print on the discount: Discount offer is valid Dec. 3rd through 11:59 Dec. 9th, online or at the Studio, only.  Discount applies to regularly priced items. Please email for more information.

Holiday Soaps, Meta Strick, and Craft Vermont

Last night we had our first little snowfall.  The ground is barely covered this morning. It's certainly not enough to get all excited about, but it does signal that we are ending stick season and moving into winter when we can expect (hope for!) less gray and lots more sparkle. Yay!

Our winter holiday seasonal bar soaps are here! We just placed them in our online store: Cranberry Balsam, O' Christmas Tree, Orange Winter Spice, Peppermint Frost, and Frankincense & Myrrh.
And speaking of the Frankincense & Myrrh soap, we are really excited to share the new wrapper painted for us by Vermont artist Meta Strick.

I've known Meta for many years, and am fascinated with her work, particularly her take on the human face. I am lucky enough to own a couple of her creations, and when we decided to change the focus of the Frankincense wrapper from a traditional silver and gold, three wise men theme to a more goddess oriented one, I knew Meta was the right person to create the design. I was delighted when she agreed!

Meta is a life-long artist whose primary focus is the human face, figure, and experience.  Meta spent a career working in human services, and I'm sure all of those experiences with so many different individuals has informed her work.  (Can you imagine the stories she could tell?!) Her art is a result of a combination of many materials and processes.  She paints, carves, draws, sees, drills, weaves, prints, glues and hammers her way toward mixed media paintings, dolls, and decorative items. Much of her work is created on wood. For our wrapper, Meta did her magic on paper, and then we added our logo and the fragrance name band.  

Here it is.  I hope you like it as much as we do!

It's almost time for Craft Vermont, the annual fine craft and art show of the Vermont Hand Crafters.  We are in high gear around here wrapping up lots of soaps, including our holiday line, and getting our bins loaded with all our other goodies.

Please join us if you are in the Vermont area! It's a fantastic show and all members are Vermont residents, juried in their respective mediums. I buy most of my holiday gifts at this show--beautiful, well crafted, unique items for everyone on my list made by my neighbors. Perfect!

Meta and I will both be there. I'm in booth #2 on the main level, and Meta, along with all her great art, will be upstairs. If you make it to the show, please stop by and say hello!

The show will be held at the Sheraton Conference Center in Burlington, November 21-23. Hours are Friday 10-8, Saturday 10-6, and Sunday 10-5.  Please visit the Vermont Hand Crafters site for more details.

For more info on Meta and to see some of her other work, click here.

Stick Season, Holiday News, and Sweet Sally

This little guy greeted me on my way out the door to Market early yesterday morning. I was surprised to see a sticky frog still hanging around.

In Vermont, leaves are falling after a beautiful show of color. Stick season is almost here--that dreary period when there's no leaves, and no snow, just lots and lots of brown and gray--and winter is already knocking with snow forecast for the mountains tonight. Today, though, I'm enjoying the last of the color and will make one more visit to Hackett's, my favorite local apple orchard in the Champlain Islands. Fresh apples and warm apple cider doughnuts. Yum. And, tonight, my new favorite autumn cocktail:  warmed apple cider, a shot of  Barenjager's Honey and Bourbon Whiskey, and a squeeze of fresh lemon.  Might be time to make a fire in the wood stove!

We are finally caught up on most of our farm chores. The hay is in, the goats and sheep have been shorn, and the chicken house is buttoned up for the cooler days ahead. At the Studio, we've been working for the past couple of months at an almost frenetic pace to finish the winter and holiday seasonal soaps so that they will have ample time to cure. Now it's time to take a breath and regroup for the holiday season ahead.

We have lots of news to share--

• We're growing, and are really excited to welcome our newest retailers:  Firefly Moon in Arlington, MA (just outside of Boston);  Hunger Mountain Cooperative in Montpelier, VT;  Truly Unique Gift Shop in Rutland, VT; and Gina Allen at J. Michaels in Chicago, IL.  If you are in their area, please stop in and say hello.  If you know of a store near you that might be a good fit for our products, please let us know!  Referrals from our customers are always helpful and appreciated.

• The Burlington Farmer's Market will be outdoors one more week at City Hall Park-- this coming Saturday, October 25th-- and then will move indoors to Memorial Auditorium.  The market generally runs every other week, with three markets in December. Please see our events page for dates and times.  There's lots of amazing produce still available from the farmers, along with seasonal fruits, cheeses, chocolates, spirits, jellies, and Cinnamon Pumpkin SOAP! Please join us!

• Our holiday products will be ready for sale in early November.  This year we will offer five seasonal bar soaps, including an updated Frankincense & Myrrh in a gorgeous, brand new wrapper painted by VT artist, Meta Stick.  (More on that later!) We'll also have our holiday seasonal liquid soaps, Candy Cane lip balms, our new foaming bath salts packaged in glass jars, and, if we are able to stay on schedule, some fun fizzy bath bombs.  

• We are working on finalizing the details of our annual Holiday Open House.  This year, along with our online specials, we will also host an Open House at our Studio in downtown St. Albans with extended hours for our local customers.  More details will be available soon.

• Look for us in the gift guide of the November issue of Vermont Life Magazine!

• And, last, Craft Vermont is just around the corner, November 21-23, at the Sheraton Conference Center in Burlington.  This annual fine craft and art show features an eclectic mix of juried artists and artisans from all over Vermont.  It's really a fantastic show with lots of terrific gift options for everyone on your list. Please see our events page for the details.

For those of you who have visited our farm or are interested in our animals, we also wanted to share some sad news.  We lost Sally, one of our Leiceter Longwool sheep, a few weeks ago to a stroke.  Sally was a big 'ol sweet sheep, well over 200 lbs. and almost waist high, and as I was struggling to find pictures of her to include in this post, I realized she was the brown blur at the bottom of most of my images that usually got cropped out.

Sally was quite affectionate, and loved a good snuggle or getting her back scratched. Whenever we went into the barn or pasture with the animals, Sally would put that head down, head over, and damn near knock us down as she'd swing her hips around to get in the best position for a scratch. She'd stand there as long as we'd scratch, moving her body around so that we hit the right spot, licking the air in pleasure. At night we could usually hear her coming before we saw her.  Clomp, clomp, clomp. So, back to the photos, I don't have many of Sally because she was usually by my side and not in the middle of the action. The barnyard seems a little subdued lately. Farewell, Sweet Sally.

Enjoy these last days of autumn color, and thanks for your continued support of our little farm!

This is a lousy photo, but Sally is in the front (right), heading towards the camera. 

Black and Yellow Spiders

We have had a glorious summer in Vermont!  The weather has been really remarkable.  Lots of sunshine, enough rain, and only three days above 90 degrees.  Most days were in the 70s and low 80s.
I'm usually eager for autumn to arrive, but this year I am holding on to these beautiful summer days with both hands even though the signs of a changing season are popping up everywhere.

Last week I needed to move the electric netting to create a new pasture space for the goats and sheep. I didn't get to it until fairly late in the day, and about the time I was finished it was dark.  The last step before the animals can go into the new pasture is a final walk around the perimeter to make sure all the posts are in properly and everything is tight. Because it was so late,  I decided to wait until the morning to do my walk by.

I was up quite early, before the sun was fully up, and as I walked to the pasture I saw the most remarkable spider webs.  The dew was still heavy, and with the angle of the sun so low, the webs glistened and sparkled.  They were everywhere! I've been in that pasture so many times, and I have never seen spider webs like this there, or anywhere else, before.

When I looked at the individual webs, I was even more impressed because of their size and beauty.  Some were easily 2 feet in diameter.  

And then I noticed the spider itself.  Yikes!  It was huge, too!

A phone call and a few internet searches later, I learned that these webs are the work of female Black and Yellow Garden Spiders.  The females are much larger than the males.  I read all sorts of interesting things about these spiders, including the fact that they breed once a year. Often, when the male approaches the female, he has a safety drop line ready, in case she attacks him. After mating, the male dies, and then is often eaten by the female.

I also read that once prey is snagged by the web, the spider will undulate her web to further entrap her dinner before she injects her venom.

And, amazingly, the spider builds a new web EVERY day. In the morning. I must have arrived just as they were finishing up.

This is the actual size of the spider.  (Photo image courtesy of Wikipedia).  

I should point out that these spiders are harmless to humans.  I have to admit that as much as I love looking at the webs, this photo of the spider on the hand makes me feel a little itchy and creeped out....

This pasture full of spider webs looked an awful lot like Mother Nature was getting started early on her Halloween decorations.

Artist Debba Pearce and a Revamped Gardener's Bar

Back in the late winter and early spring, we set our efforts upon giving our Gardener's soap a few tweaks.  It had been scented with a blend of essential oils and fragrance oil, and our goal was to have it scented completely by pure essential oils.  After a lot of experimentation and the discovery of Katrafay essential oil, a very "green", complex oil from a tree grown in Madagascar, we were happy with our new fragrance blend.

While we loved the handmade paper the gardener's soap was wrapped in, we also wanted to upgrade the wrapper to a hand painted design that could feature a Vermont artist, as well as give us a little more color and a better fit for our brand.

I knew just the artist!

Please meet Debba Pearce, a watercolor and pastel artist and photographer from Shelburne, VT.

For those of you who joined us for Open Studio in 2013, you may remember Debba as our featured guest.  It was a rainy weekend, and she and her easel joined me in the pottery studio.  I love Debba's work, and in particular the way she uses and understands color.  I knew her florals would make a gorgeous, colorful wrapper, well suited for a gardener's soap, and we were delighted when Debba agreed to take on our project.

One of Debba's earlier works that I had fallen in love with was the inspiration for our wrapper. (See the notecard in the photo, above.)  Debba painted a new work for us in a similar style that would accommodate our logo and scent name band.  It was perfect! Her original is below, along with the finished wrapper.

Thanks, Debba, for the beautiful new wrapper!

To learn more about Debba and her work, please visit her website, www.halexdesigns.com. Her notecards are available for purchase in our studio shop.

If you are a Vermont painter, and would like to have your work featured on our soap wrappers, please contact us for more information.

Open Studio Weekend is Next Weekend!

Please join us next weekend, Thursday, May 22nd, through Sunday, May 25th, 10 am - 5 pm, as we celebrate the Grand Opening of our Soap Studio during Open Studio Weekend!

We have participated in Open Studio Weekend at our farm in Georgia for many years, but this year we are moving the event to our new studio in downtown Saint Albans.  Open Studio Weekend is a statewide event hosted by the Vermont Craft Council showcasing the working places of artists and artisans across the state.

In addition to studio tours, we will have ongoing discussions about soap making and related topics, special Grand Opening discounts and promotions, and our Third Annual Naked Soap Sale.  The Naked Soap Sale will begin at 10:00 am on Saturday.  All other promotions will be offered all four days.

Our Soap Studio is located at 118 N. Main Street, directly across the street from the new Ace Hardware store, one block north of City Hall.

For more information please contact us at info@chasworthfarm.com or 802.309.3778.

Fiddleheads Emerge

Photo by Elizabeth Hagwood

Gourmands, flannel-shirted country boys, and back-to-nature gatherers are all  taking to the woods and stream beds ...  It's fiddlehead season in Vermont!

If you've never tasted these delicacies, you're in for a real treat!  After a good wash and a quick blanch, gently sauté in butter or olive oil with a little garlic, and finish with some salt and perhaps a dusting of aged parmesan. Mmmm!

If you're not up to gathering your own, visit the first Burlington Summer Farmer's Market on Saturday.  I'm betting you'll find some fiddleheads already washed and ready for your skillet.

Market runs 8:30 am to 2:00 pm, City Hall Park.

Winter Weary Goats Lounge in Sunshine

This weekend is the Vermont Maple Festival in Saint Albans (yum and yippee!) and as I was searching the event web site for scheduling information, I noticed photos of last year's event.  People were wearing shorts and sleeveless tops.  Not this year!

The other day though we did have the pleasure of a warm afternoon, and I caught our winter-weary goats lounging outside in the sunshine.  I was alarmed when I first saw Millie (on the left, head down) because of the unusual way her body was all twisted, but she was fine. She was just sprawled out chillin'.  To her right is her youngest daughter, Sophie, and her twin, Sam.  To Sam's right is Millie's oldest son, Huey.  He's got his head resting back on his horns.  In the right foreground, tucked against the rocks, is Thomas, our very handsome and sweet Leicester Longwool wether.  With all that winter wool, it's hard to see much of his face. The gray spots are along the end of his nose. He lifted his sleepy head for the photo.

If you come into town for the Festival, please stop by and say "hello!"  We'll be open all weekend, 10-5.

The Soap Studio is Open!

We are finally all moved in and settled at our new Soap Studio on Main Street in downtown Saint Albans.  Yay!


Fresh batches of soap are curing on racks, new creams are ready for sampling, and Lovely Lady Lucille graces our front window.  Our larger space allows us to offer handwoven hand and dish towels and hand painted tea towels crafted by Vermont artisans, along with imported safety razors and handmade shaving brushes made from horse and badger hair to compliment our soaps and shaving products.

This year we will host Open Studio Weekend at our Soap Studio instead of at our farm in Georgia on May 24-25th.  Just to have a little extra fun, we are going to combine that weekend with our Grand Opening, and have a four day affair (Thursday - Sunday) with lots of specials along with our annual Naked Soap Sale.  Look for more info soon.

In the meantime, we'd love to show you our new working space! We are open this weekend as part of Maplefest, Saturday and Sunday, 10-5, and will feature our Vermont Maple bar soap.

Our production schedule will change week to week but we are open to visitors on Thursdays and Fridays, 10-5, and by appointment on other days.

Hope to see you soon!


Chasworth Farm Soap Studio
118 North Main Street 
Saint Albans
(directly across the street from the new Ace Hardware)
802.309.3778
Thursdays and Fridays, 10-5 or by appointment.

And the Winner Is....

Ellen W.!

Ellen submitted the winning name in our mannequin naming contest with her entry, "Lovely Lady Lucille."

Thanks for your suggestion, Ellen! We've got a goodie bag coming your way.

Thanks to those who shared their ideas!

Mannequin Naming Contest

We have a new member on our sales team!

Please meet our mannequin who just arrived today.  We have big plans for her in our new soap studio, but first she needs a name.  Will you help?  Is she a Suzy or an Emily? Betty or Matilda?

Please submit your best ideas by email or by leaving a comment, below. If you submit the winning name, you'll win a little goodie bag filled with some of our artisan soaps and balms.  Enter as many names as you'd like, as often as you'd like, but all entries are due by next Friday, March 28th.

(We're going to be mixing up her hairdo and wigs from time to time, so we've kept her bald in this picture.  She'll also grow arms and legs. :)

Thanks for your help!  We'll announce the winner (and the winning name)  here on our blog.

It's Sugaring Season in Vermont!

We've still got snow on the ground, but we've had the first runs of maple sap of the season.  Spring is on it's way! You can find familiar metal or the newer blue sap buckets hanging on maples all along country roads and in front of houses.  You can also see flexible blue tubing criss -crossing through the sugarbush (groves of maple trees) used by larger operations to  efficiently deliver sap to holding tanks.

This photo was taken along our road.  The blue buckets are translucent, and I love passing by and being able to see how much sap has run and been collected in the bucket.  Most sugar makers empty their buckets once a day for boiling. The best days for gathering are warm and sunny-- high 30's to low 40's--with below freezing nighttime temperatures.

Franklin County, where we live, is the largest producer of maple syrup in Vermont.  There are sugar houses everywhere! Some are big elaborate reverse osmosis and evaporator systems and others are tiny, little backyard operations.  Communities get together to celebrate the season with pancake breakfast fundraisers at firehouses and maple ham dinners at churches and community halls.  Maple popcorn, maple cotton candy, and maple candies pop up everywhere.

We invite others to join us in the fun by hosting an annual Sugar Maker's Open House Weekend where sugar houses around the state open their doors to the public so that you can see and taste maple sap being boiled down into syrup, and then made into candies and other treats.  Saint Albans is host to our annual Vermont Maple Festival, quite an affair with everything maple, including maple tastings, maple recipe contests, maple syrup judging, live entertainment, the Annual Sap Run,  a parade, the Fiddlers' Variety Show, crafts, and more.

Grey and I have a small sugarbush at the back of our property, and have sugared several years.  Our operation is TINY, with just 30 taps, but that yields enough to keep us in syrup through the year with a few quarts to share with our family.  We boil outside using a propane tank and burner, and then finish off the syrup inside. We aren't tapping the trees this year because we are just too busy opening the new shop, but the whole sugaring experience is truly one of my very favorite things.  From walking through the snow to collect the sap into buckets, to smelling the fragrant steam as the excess water evaporates during boiling, to bottling the syrup into beautiful glass bottles, I love it all. One year we submitted a bottle of our syrup for judging at the Maple Festival, and I had butterflies as we anxiously awaited the results.  We won a blue ribbon!  I've never been prouder! :)

So what does a soap maker do when she can't make the real thing?  She makes maple scented soap.  It's  warm and sweet and smells *almost* as good as the real thing.  And it's certainly better for washing up.
Available now in our store and at Market.

Happy Sugaring!

Kate's First Spring Egg

Kate, our Americauna hen that lives in the goat barn, left me a beautiful present this morning!

As cold as it has been all week, she laid her first egg since October. This is a sure sign of spring! I guess the increasing daylight is more important to her than the temps.

It's always interesting to see the places she chooses to lay her eggs.  The girls that live in the hen house almost always lay their eggs in nesting boxes, but I think Kate enjoys all the options available to her in the barn.  Today she chose my wheelbarrow where I toss the twine that binds our hay bales. There was just enough hay attached to the twine for her to make a nice little nest.

Thanks, Kate!