Busy, busy weekend coming up!! On Saturday morning we will be at Ogunquit's Christmas By the Sea Festival from 10-3 with a great assortment of our herbal soaps, Vintage Garden wine  jellies and handmade herbal products...our last holiday show for the year.  We'll also be at Saco River Winter Market as usual from 9- 12:30 and Saturday evening we'll be celebrating the Festival of Lights!  Wow! Tis' the season indeed!!

We encourage & challenge you to do your part this Sat (& all holiday season)- kick off your shopping (or maybe challenge yourself to do ALL your holiday shopping in small businesses!
(Especially the ones you love & want to see last!) Small Business
Saturday: Nov 24th

Winter Market is Back

   

Last Saturday was the close of our outdoor summer farmers markets.. but we'll be back again for the RE-OPENING of the indoor Saco River Winter Market! It's nearly here.. Re-Opening day of Saco River Winter Market!

           
      Saturday  November 10th  from 9-12:30 

        and every Saturday thereafter right through the winter.

Come support your local farmers and artisans. See you there!
                

Holiday Shows

Now that hurricane Sandy has finally moved out, we can get back to readying for our upcoming holiday shows.  Our power has been restored and we hope all of our East Coast friends are safe and a lot warmer tonight!

November Holiday Fairs

Shop Til You Drop Happy Hour 

Thursday Evening, November 8th     5pm-9pm

Stop by & support the SHS Class of 2013!

International Womens Club of New England Holiday Fair

NOVEMBER 10, 2012       9am-2pm

York Middle School

30 Organug Road

York, Maine

December Holiday Shows 

Kicking off our December Shows will be the Christmas Prelude.  Tree lighting ceremony.. & Santa's arrival.
Be sure not to miss this one!
 Kennebunkport Christmas Prelude
December 1     9am-3pm
Atlantic Hall Cape Porpoise


and our last & final show of the season will be in Ogunquit, Maine

December 8, 2012   Christmas by the Sea Celebration
Annual Ogunquit Christmas Celebration - Dunaway Center, Ogunquit, ME

Soap cutting helper

Punkinfiddle was another huge success again this year. The shoppers were awesome and my little soap helpers were fantastic! Here's Rose cutting some Lemongrass & Hemp we had just unmolded as part of our demonstration. Anytime you want a job Rose cutting soaps.. just holler! :)

Punkinfiddle Festival

We're stirrin' up the soap pot for one of our favorite shows of the year -- Punkinfiddle Festival at the Laudholm Farm - September 22, 2012, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Come to our 10th annual Punkinfiddle festival. Our National Estuaries Day Celebration features traditional crafts, hands-on learning, lively music, old-fashioned games, fun food, farm animals, and lots of smiles in a historic seaside setting. Great fun for the entire family!

The Comfrey Patch

When I first became involved with herbs in the early 1970′s, comfrey was then known to be a miracle herb. It was the front yard insignia of the back-to-the-land movement. Back then, if you had a subscription to Mother Earth News, you had a comfrey plant–or a comfrey plantation. No herb so devoid of flavor and fragrance had ever achieved such popularity. You could do just about anything with comfrey. It was a nearly universal folk remedy, the answers to food shortages and even fodder for the livestock. Back in those days you didn’t have to look the plant up to find out how to use it. Comfrey was so well know back in the 70′s equivalent to what aloe vera would become in the 1980′s. Back then, it became my absolute favorite herb in the gardens.

Even today, as I cleaned out split and moved my comfrey beds around I had to smile remembering back on that old folklore. I think every gardener should have a comfrey patch, Yes, it has it’s place.. or rather shouldn’t be moved unless you really do want to have a comfrey plantation in your yard, but left undesturbed, it’s simply a lovely statured bed of flowers...and one of my favorites in the garden. When I sold our herb farm last year, I took with me one hundred and fifty perennial and herb cuttings to start again here in Maine, and remarkably enough I forgot to grab a snippet of comfrey! My good friend Cindy had some comfrey growing randomly around her farm and was good enough to give me four cuttings from her beds. I immediately transplanted them down at the farm to a dedicated comfrey bed that I would cherish. Not only do I adore the plant itself, I cultivate it for it’s healing properties to be used in my healing salves and balms as well as my herbal soaps. Well, those four ‘cuttings’ grew into a simply marvelous comfrey patch this year.

I hope you’ll try some comfrey in your gardens. Anyone can grow it. Just remember, it really is harder to get rid of than it is to grow. So plan to give it one dedicated spot of its own. It won't let you down.

On the racks

I don't know where the summer has disappeared to, but we have been super busy these past months with the gardens, farmers markets and summer shows. Things are finally beginning to wind down a bit for me, with one market ending in another week. Kennebunk Farmers market will remain open until Thanksgiving and then, for the second season we begin our indoor Saco River Winter Market. Seems odd to use that word 'winter' on a gloriously sunny day as today is :)

We just received our confirmations on some of our scheduled Christmas Shows.. (another word that seems odd saying in early September!) and I'll be posting those dates up soon. But be as it may, we're already gearing up for them and soaping up a storm. Here's just a few on the racks.

Springing into a new season

The sun is out today and the first daffodils are in bloom in the woods around town. This marks something important, those beautiful spring flowers get full-to-bursting with their brilliant yellow heads, and I thought yesterday would be the day they’d pop, but they held off until this morning. In spite of 38 frosty degrees, I awoke to see the first brave daffodil souls raise their open faces to the sun. Here in northeast, there are other spring flowers such as crocus and johnny-jump-ups that are up a week and a half before. But I always feel when daffodils bloom on the hills and under the trees where I live, we have indeed survived a long, cold winter, and that’s got to be a good thing.

I just love this time of year.. garden plans that were made on paper through the chilly winter days now can come alive. We're planning to expand the herb gardens this season, to include more culinary and medicinal herbs. I took a few herbal workshops this winter. You can never learn too much about herbs. Tinctures, syrups and teas were of course a big seller for me this winter along with my soaps, especially anything with elderberry in it. I never realized what a sincere following it had. I thought it was only me :-)



In the garden... it's nearly all cleaned up. The comfrey roots have been harvested and beds thinned. Many of the calendula seeds I missed during autumn clean up have begun to self sow, so it looks like I'll be transplanting many..saving me a lot of time re-seeding this year. The grapevines are pruned and already buds are popping out on a few. Spring is such a magical time of year.

The scented geranium cuttings I planted in January are really beginning to take off, and my lovely bay and figs made it through the winter, hurray! Since returning from Italy, the one thing I've always wanted to grow was an olive tree and a few weeks ago I was able to find one in a nearby nursery. Such beautiful grey green foliage, which historically is thought to bring peace, harmony, wisdom and success in to your home. These days, I think everyone should grown one don't you?

Winter market went seasonably well for a new market, but now we are gearing up for summer markets and I can't wait! The Kennebunk Farmers Market will open May 5th this year and the Wells Market usually opens over Mothers Day weekend. We'll be offering our line of herbal and goat milk soaps, herbal balms and salves, herbal teas, and skin care specialties. We will also be expanding our summer offerings at market to include herbal jams and preserves, herbal dips,seasonings and vinegars, herbal baked goods as well as various preserved items. Be sure to check out our gift page for some of these newer items. We'll be updating it as the season progresses so do check back often. Or even stop by market to sample some of these delicious offerings.

Farmers Market Bars Return

I began making these specialty bars many years back. Some seasons they were popular..others not. But this winter market season I haven't been able to keep them on my shelves, so we're bring them back for summer market. The Garden Collection --Tomato Basil, Slice of Summer, Carrot Patch and the Herb Garden bars.

Comfrey Rose

This year I decided to combine two of my popular soaps…Rosemary Goat’s Milk and Lavender Comfrey. So…introducing…(drum roll please)… Comfrey Rose



It contains organic olive, honey and goats milk, with comfrey root,lavender, so you have ingredients for moisturizing, honey for healing and rosemary and lavender for exfoliating. It’s on the drying racks and I tried a sliver myself the other day. Marvelous lather with a crisp clean fragrance. It seemed like a natural combination. I’ll let you know about the response when I get it out there for market opening, but I'm thinking it's going to be a keeper.

Just another swirly soap day

Green Tea with Mint just poured

Just Cut

Just out of the molds.. New England Christmas, Lemon Scrubby and Wild Rose.

Holiday Shows

We've been so busy readying for this upcoming season, I almost forgot to post these show dates. Hope to see you there!

November 12, 2011 Holiday Craft Fair, Hampton Inn Hotel- Wells, ME
8am - 3pm



December 3, 2011 Christmas Prelude, Atlantic Hall- Cape Porpoise- Kennebunkport
Kicking off the famous Kennebunkport Christmas Prelude. Tree lighting ceremony.. Santa's arrival. Be sure not to miss this one!



December 3, 2011 Wells/Ogunquit Music Boosters Christmas Fair, Wells JHS- Wells, ME
9am - 3 pm

You can also find us every Saturday beginning Nov 12 at the new Saco River Winter Market, on Saco Island, with thirty fabulous artisans,crafters and local growers.

Rosemary Sea Mud

New Winter Market

A new winter market!!! Cricket Corner Soapworks will be a vendor at Saco River Winter Market - Saturday mornings beginning November 12.

Just poured-- Calendula Agave

Calendula soap is a popular seller for me. Mild, gentle creamy opulent lather..and oodles of shea butter.. I decided to try adding some agave nectar to this last batch. I'm hoping it will darken up a bit, which I suspect it will.

Blue Immortale Facial Elixir

Bulgarian Rose, Blue Chamomile & Helichrysum combined in a truly luxurious facial cream to nourish & protect maturing skin. Organic oils including Rosehip, Borage, Shea butter, Jojoba among others, work to enhance the skin's collagen helping to improve skin tone, help remove those fine lines from sun damage & premature aging spots. We've enhanced this lovely cream with Heliocarrot, Calendula, White tea extract, Marine algae & our Botanica 12 complex formula. Essential oils of Bulgarian Rose, Blue Chamomile and Helichrysum Immortale' work to counter the effects of aging and enhance all skin types.

Opening Day at Kennebunk Farmers Market

Well, after a very long winter I'm happy to announce that the Kennebunk Farmers Market's grand opening celebration will be Saturday, May 7th from 8am - 1pm. Kennebunk will also be celebrating it's May Day Festival. I was asked to write a brief bio for our market newsletter and decided to also include it here as well for our new visitors.

Cricket Corner Soapworks is all natural.. period. Our love and interest of herbs is how our soapworks evolved--right in my kitchen on our herb farm in 1996. We wanted to create the purest and as natural a product we could, and believed it was time to step back to our natural resources. All of the herbal ingredients that go into my products are grown by me, from our own healthy herb gardens here in Ogunquit, ME.

My soaps are all vegetable, extra moisturizing, scented with essential oils, naturally colored with herbs raised on our farm, local wild crafting or from only certified growers. Also, each bar contains extra nutrients such as avacado, sweet almond, hemp seed, peach kernal to name only a few to make them even more moisturizing.. a soap that feels silky smooth on your skin that produces a rich, creamy opplulent lathering abilities and that you can feel good about your whole family using.
Our bars are formulated, poured into molds and hand cut my myself and then cured for six weeks before I will sell them. Last year we made nearly 13,000 bars thanks to our wonderful retail and wholesale customers. You can find us each Saturday at the Kennebunk Farmers Market and on Wednesdays at the Wells Farmers Market throughout the growing season or through our web site: www.cricketcornersoapworks.com

We will be offering our natural line of handmade herbal soaps, herbal balms, herbal salves and and for those that are already inquiring.. Yes! We will also have our fabulous natural 'Bug Off' Repellant as well as our complete line of skin care specialties. We hope you'll stop by to say hello. Let the season begin!

Mr Witty Bar

One of the things I like about soapmaking is the types of cold process soaps you can make. Goat milk is one that I really love.. it's so wonderful for your skin & makes a fine bar of soap. I tend to keep my GM soaps pretty simple.. only adding herbs, veggie powders or spices for colors & use only essential oils in them. I generally use fresh goats milk, but some other options are already prepared.. canned & powdered to be reconstituted gm. To me.. the natural fats in fresh milk is extraordinary in a bar of soap & yet so gentle on your skin.

All soapmakers have their own tricks to making a nice gm soap.. I've tried many.. but for me, the easiest process is to add my fresh goats milk to my already warmed & cooled oils before adding the lye/water. I split my water portion 50 % add it to my lye.. set aside the balance of 50 % what would be water in most cases... for my gm portion. Once the lye water & warmed oils & butters has cooled down to around 90 degrees .. I then warm up my room temp goats milk to about 85-90 degrees.. add it to my oil pot & any essence I will be using and blend in well. Once blended, I then add my lye water mixture while stick blending all the while to get a nice creamy emulsion type mixture. I'd then add my additives if any .. hand stir well until I come to an early trace.. which at these lower temps should be quite soon. I have my molds all readied.. so pouring is efficient & rapid.. I only cover my mold with saran wrap.. no other insulation.. and set it out in garage on cool cement floor.. or place into refrigerator.. as I don't want my goat milk soaps to come to a gel. If they gel.. they will become much darker from overheating. Sometimes.. this IS the effect I want.. so I lightly insulate.. it all just comes down too what I am trying to achieve.

Before we had our own flock of Nigerian dwarfs, I'd get my fresh goat milk from a local goat farmer/breeder friend, Mr Garth Witty. He was quite a character... full of anecdotes and philosophies..and a wonderful conversationlist, well known to most in the area as being a throwback from the 60's.. a former MIT researcher and brilliant man.. who dropped out of the rat race,for a slower paced new life. To look at him now in his suspendered trowsers, long long mid chest beard and grey pony tailed hair you'd of never guessed. LOL I just love Garth to bits!! I don't think there is a more knowledgable man in New England when it comes to raising any bovine creatures that Garth can't help you with. He has an inner sense around creatures that's just remarkable. So for farmer's market we'll be offering..our Mr.Witty Goat Milk Bath Bar formulated in honor of Mr Witty along with our Lemon Drop 'Kid' and Shea Butter and Oatmeal goat milk bars.