Good for the Body, Good For the Earth: Farm-Crafted Soaps
I am a lover of good stories that take astonishing and unexpected turns for the better - it’s the gooey stuff in the center of life that makes it so sweet. In Emily Scherer’s case, a passion for cultivating an urban garden and farming unexpectedly transformed into a beautiful passion and ambition for wildly creative farm-crafted soap making.
In 2012, while located on a modest plot with an unusually large yard in the Clayton neighborhood of Denver, Emily transformed a mundane lawn into a sprawling, urban farm. Emily, a renowned enthusiast for learning new hobbies (a woman after my own heart), became enlightened by each new task she could tackle to further cultivate her urban farm. She started with the usual produce, flowers, and then eventually worked her way to chickens, honey bees, etc. The fondness of having live creatures on her urban farm quickly led her to a less common urban farm animal… Nigerian Dwarf goats.
Can you just picture a woman in the center of Denver working away on her sprawling urban farm with livestock as you walk past with your dog and coffee before work? I love the notion that no matter where you are, growing and tending to nature is still a possibility. While Emily was searching for uses for all her extra goat milk, she came across a woman (in her homesteading class... naturally) that made goat milk soaps… and in true Emily must-try-it-out fashion… She gave it a try and fell in love with the process of creating soap. Emily was quickly drawn to the natural processes of creating her beautiful and artistically made soaps in a way that honored clean skincare and the planet.
As a new mom, Emily felt a pull to be home with her daughter more while also wanting to stay connected to the artistic side of herself that desires to create. Within the next few years, Emily soaked up all the knowledge she could, experimenting in exciting ways and finding cool uses for botanicals, herbs, fruits, vegetables, and oils. She ended up establishing her farm-crafted soap line that she now displays and sells at the local market!
The Soaps:
Now, when you go to a farmers market… it's not atypical to see someone selling soap but what Emily does is certainly not the norm. When City Park Farmers Market was being re-established, Peter and I decided we would not have any body care vendors because we really wanted this market to be a growers focused market… But to our glee, Emily didn’t fit the mold of a typical soap maker.
Emily uses locally harvested and grown ingredients from her own yard or local farms as well as natural dyes from the earth. She creates soaps in a way that’s sustainable for our planet and good for us. All of her soaps are free of harsh chemicals, fragrances, and lab created colors. Her mission is to craft products that are environmentally friendly while simultaneously nourishing your skin… easier said than done! Once we heard her story, learned about her processes, and tried her soaps ourselves… We were forever sold. Emily needed to be at the City Park Farmers Market and our community needed to know how lucky we are to have clean, local skincare products like this readily available every week! When I say we get 5-10 soap vendors applying each year, it's not an exaggeration. Although we remain dedicated to diligently reading through each application every season, we have become increasingly aware of how unique Emily’s soaps are and how superbly high she has set the bar in terms of quality ingredients, sustainable practices, and remarkable soaps that will leave your skin feeling hydrated and clean.
What makes EJ Farm soaps different from the rest?
The Ingredients
The heart of the soap line is to use locally sourced and locally made ingredients. EJ’s Farm Soaps are farm crafted utilizing farm fresh ingredients. These small batch soaps are sourced with ingredients locally grown from either her garden, the market farms, or other local food producers/growers. Emily sources her top ingredients such as goats milk, oatmilk (using Oatis Love from the market!), various produce, and kombucha all locally. The teas that go into her soaps are cultivated from botanicals that she herself has grown. The few ingredients that she has to source from other regions, such as coconut milk, she ensures are from a source that is utilizing sustainable practices that honor the grower and the planet.
Locally Made Soaps and Here’s Why it Matters:
In Emily’s words, “Local is just better. It’s the foundation for this entire product line”. When we purchase *any* item locally, it eliminates unnecessary waste that is created in transportation and delivery. The second (and personally most astounding reason), is that soaps are formulated for different climates! For instance, soaps on the East Coast are formulated to be less conditioning due to the humidity in that region. Colorado, being a more arid and dry climate, requires more conditioning for our skin. EJ’s Soaps are formulated with a higher percentage of oils that are to be left on your skin to make sure you’re getting more skin conditioning. Turns out local is better for the plant *and* better for our skin!
Free of Lab Made Fragrances and Dyes
Skin, being our largest organ, absorbs what we place on it… especially what we use on it daily to cleanse with. EJ’s Soaps do not use any lab created fragrances or dyes that are chemically made. These dyes are made in labs to smell like all sorts of things that naturally wouldn’t be available (ex. watermelon). EJ’s Soaps are either left unscented (Emily’s personal preference) or have essential oils in them to give them an aroma when used. Emily is also particular about which essential oils she uses because not all oils are created equal and not all oils are sustainable, meaning they may be derived from plants on the endangered list, or plants that are not very sustainable to farm.
As you pass EJ’s Farm-Crafted Soap stand at the market, it’s impossible not to notice the insane artistry that Emily is able to create in her soap designs. We’re talking landscapes, swirls and yes… even cat faces. These strikingly beautiful soap designs and colors are all created with natural coloring. Emily only uses coloring from clay botanicals, spinach, barley, indigo, mater root, rhubarb, and curly dock weed. These natural dyes ensure that once again, what you're putting on your skin is both good for the planet and good for us.
My Obvious Conclusion:
In a world where the beauty industry is filled with a whole lot of unknowns and an FDA regulation doesn’t necessarily translate to safe products, transparency is essential. With EJ’s Farm Soaps, less is more and local is key. Looking for cleaner and safer cleansing solutions that *actually* work? Head to EJ’s Farm Crafted Soaps, chat with the maker yourself, and snag one of these incredible bars!
Emily’s Personal Soap Choices:
Coffee and Cream Soap (loves a good scrubby soap)
Whisper Soap - made with local kombucha
Lady Lavendar - used from The Tea Spots lady lavender tea infused in local goats milk
Peter and Margo’s Personal EJ Soap Favorites:
Peter loves the hair conditioner bars! A lot.
We both use the Sonora Soap - Lavender, orange, and cedar wood essential oils create the most perfect smelling blend.
Dish soap blocks! It’s dainty, it works, and no longer necessary to buy chemically created liquid dish soaps in plastic bottles.
Try it out!
Emily shared with us a favorite of hers, Summertime Sunburn Relief. This recipe is meant to help sooth the inevitable summertime sunburn with local ingredients that can be sourced at the market!
