Gardener's Soap

Gardener's Soap (in a terra cotta pot)

This is a great soap for washing up after gardening. The corn meal particles have a nice scrubbing affect to get the dirt off your hands, and it looks really cute packaged in it's own little flowerpot!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

little clay flower pot (2 or 3 inch diameter)
4 oz. glycerin soap ("melt and pour" glycerin soap can be found at many craft stores-but you can use a bar of glycerin soap grated up)
1 TBSP corn meal
1 TBSP dried calendula petals
a few drops of essential oil such as lavender and sweet orange

DIRECTIONS:

Cut an eight-inch square of plastic wrap and line the flower pot by pushing the center down into pot. Make sure the plastic wrap comes up over the edges of the pot. You may want to use a rubber band to secure it there. Grate the glycerin soap and melt in the top pan of a double boiler (or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water) Don't stir too vigorously or it will get too many air bubbles. When the soap has
melted remove it from the heat and stir in the corn meal and calendula petals. Add the essential oils by the drop as they are strong! Pour the soap into the plastic-lined flower pot and set it aside to harden. You can hurry this up by putting it in the refrigerator. Once the soap has hardened remove the plastic wrap and put the soap in the flower pot.
Wrap the entire thing in plastic and tie with a ribbon. A silk flower tied into the ribbon or hot-glued on top would be a nice touch! It also looks nice if you insert a silk flower into the soap before it hardens completely so it looks like a plant growing in the pot! You could also paint the pot...even mud-colored fingerprints would be appropriate for this!
Melt and pour glycerin soap can also be melted in the microwave in 30 second intervals on high. Make sure you stir in between heatings.