I love learning things I don’t know and never learned. I never did well in school. Nobody heard of Dyslexia when I was in school; the teachers just assumed I was lazy or dumb. But I never quit being curious; that helped me immensely as a reporter.
Cindy Casavant is the kind of person I’m most curious about. She and her husband run a goat farm near Bedlam Farm, and Maria and I have become friends. That is tough, tough work.
Cindy is impressive; she set up a soapmaking factory in her basement and grew it into a thriving retail and wholesale business. I wanted to see how she makes her soap using goat milk from her goats, the best soap I have ever used.
And she put it together all buy herself. You can check out her blog here. Her e-mail is [email protected]; her website is www.cazarez.com.
(Above photo by Cindy Casavant. I’m holding the soap I made.)
I have a lot of respect for Cindy, and so does Maria. She has worked hard and been through a lot, but she was undeterred, coming up with all kinds of ideas for selling goat cheese and her increasingly popular soaps. She’s a success story. And the soap bars are first class.
So when she offered a class today, I jumped it. It cost $50 and took two hours. It was fascinating; Cindy is a terrific teacher and a shrewd businesswoman.
Cindy teaches the Cold Process for her teaching. There were five or six other students in the room. One, a native German, brings soaps back to Germany whenever she goes. She’s planning a trip in a few weeks. I was the only man in the class, which was unsurprising.
Soapmaking, Cindy says, is the act of mixing fixed oils (like Olive and Coconut oil) along with an alkali (Sodium Hydroxide or Lye). The result is a chemical process called saponification, where the oils’ composition and the creation of bar soap are explained, and they are neither simple nor easy.
We had to measure chemics a dozen times on small scales to ensure the mix was right.
Then, we went into another room for some powerful hi-tech blending. There was a lot of measuring, pouring, mixing, and stirring. I love seeing how successful dreamers pull it off.
I learned a lot, but not enough to create my soap, which would be very difficult and expensive for me to do. I’m happy to see how soap is made here and so glad to buy it from her. Next week, she’ll bring my settling and curing soap to the Farmer’s Market; I could see how soap happens. Writing was the right choice for me.
I put some brown clay power in my mix, and the soap boar will be dark chocolate or something close. I want to go back to Cindy’s next class. I even got a gift bag of soap pieces that broke or couldn’t be sold.
Larry and Ciney have a rough job running a goat farm. In March, Cindy will have about 100 baby goats to feed twice or thrice daily. After the farm chores are done, Ciney will come into her soap basement work area and work all night. She’s one of those unstoppable dreamers who keep trying until they get it. I love being in her class. Of course, I was the only man there, but that was fine. She’s finding a lot of wholesale customers. I just know she’s going to be quite successful. She radiates that quiet detemirnation.
I’m I went to her class. This education stuff isn’t so bad these days. I might need to try it again.
Cindy was ready for us. Everything was all set up. Next week, I’ll get to try out the soap I made. To my surprise, tat seems really neat.
The final step is a new high-powered vertical blender.
Cindy is the kind of teacher I would love to have had. She is organized, calm, articulate, vigilant, and helpful. The room was set up, and she clearly explained everything we were doing.
I sometimes wonder what would have become of me if I had gotten along with the supportive teacher. I don’t know; I doubt that I would have ended up on Bedlam Farm.
Cindy, with my soap, I’ll pick it up next Sunday.
Meeting time. Zip awaited me when I got home; it was time for our afternoon meeting.
