Hair of the Hog Botanicals was born in 2022 from a longing to have a few simple, yet healthy and safe, locally-sourced and locally-made products for our home and bodies. By that point, we had long done away with most of the products that we were told we needed to buy and were left with a very minimal selection for our personal care and our home. As I continued uncovering more and more about the ingredients in the few remaining products that we were buying, I was disappointed to say the least, yet not shocked, to discover that most of the ingredients that were being touted as healthy, natural, sustainable, eco-friendly, and local were actually nothing more than highly processed, mono-cropped ingredients imported from lands far away with little to no ethical care for the land, people, or living communities of beings who were impacted by their harvesting, processing, and manufacturing. I wanted something better than that. I wanted to return to a more localized way of living and was fed up with supporting these systems.
I also had absolutely no connection to any of those ingredients, the places that they originated, the beings that were impacted by their growing and processing, nor the people who participated in all of it, which is something that we’ve really been tending to over the past many years here on with farm as we continue to step more deeply into reconnecting with our human roots by living in an intimate relationship with this place and localizing as many of our systems as we can.
So, from my love of traditional, simple ways of living, and an intense curiosity for how we have existed as a species for longer than not by living in deep relationship with the land and gifts around us, in a sacred and reciprocal way versus our current global mindset of importing, exporting, and raping lands far and wide, I dove head first into exploring the possibilities. I wanted to know how humans had survived, and thrived, for so very long without the horrid products of today that we’ve become so dependent on and are told that we somehow can’t live without.
Since I had already been rendering the fat from the pigs, cows, and ducks that we’ve been raising here on the farm for the past many years for cooking, it felt like a logical next step to utilize those fats for creations that humans have been making for a very long time. I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making soap with the lard, which is the fat rendered from our pigs, along with some of the milk from our goats, and although it took me a ridiculously long time to make my first batch of soap as I was terrified I’d blow up the house with the lye, it all went super smoothly. It took me a few failed attempts to master my recipe as there wasn’t a lot of information available regarding the use of 100% animal fats in soap making, although that’s what humans have always used, but once I got it figured out, it’s been a wonderful learning process and I’ve never used a more moisturizing and soothing bar of soap in my life. And of course, I’ve never been more intimately connected to a bar of soap in my life! I do not use any imported oils or butters in my soap, just pure 100% organic lard. Just like my great-grandparents would have done.
I was also very curious to explore ways of making soap that didn’t include essential oils, fragrance, synthetic dyes, or colorants. Anyone who knows me knows that I have an incredible sense of smell and that my body cannot tolerate fragrance, even those from most essential oils. Being exposed to scents causes my sinuses to flare up, I get an intense headache, and I feel physically sick. This includes fragrance from laundry detergent, dryer sheets, perfume, cologne, car fresheners, and deodorant. The current list of products that include some sort of synthetic fragrance is practically never ending. And the longer that I live in the woods, without any of those assaults on my senses, the more sensitive my system becomes. Which to me, isn't a bad thing, as it is my body telling me, warning me, when there is something in my immediate environment that is toxic and that I should avoid. By living without these items in my day to day life, my body has been cleansed from the toxicity that I was once accustomed to.
The impacts of fragrance will be a longer post for another day, as I feel incredibly concerned about the over-use of fragrance and the detrimental impacts it’s having on our health, and the larger health of the earth. Some of the negative impacts of fragrance chemicals include headaches, asthma attacks, breathing difficulties, and cardiovascular and neurological problems. And although essential oils are touted as medicinal in their usage, the degree to which they are being added into every product imaginable, including candles and soap, is also concerning for our health as well as for the Earth in regards to the methods used to grow, harvest, and process them. No where else in the Wild does such a concentrated amount of scent occur, leading to a variety of health issues. But that writing will be for another day.
So, because I have chosen not to use any essential oils or synthetic fragrance, colorants, or dyes in my creations, I either grow or wild harvest all of the botanicals used to infuse with the lard. Knowing the source and story contained within each ingredient is incredibly important to me and I am happy to be able to say that each bar of my soap is made with 99% local ingredients. The only ingredients that aren’t locally sourced are the coffee beans (although they are organic and fair trade) and the lye (sodium hydroxide), which I would love to try making one day, just as my ancestors used to, over an open outdoor fire.
It is an interesting thing to observe people who check out our soaps. For many people, we have been so programmed to think that soaps, along with all other bath and body products, should have a scent. If it doesn't smell like pumpkin spice, patchouli, or vanilla latté, many people don't want it. We have forgotten to consider the most important questions of all: what are the ingredients in this product, what will the ingredients do to my body, where do those ingredients come from, and how are the ingredients being grown and processed? To me, those are the questions that I ask and want to know the answers to. If it is just the scent that you are concerned about, then yes, just pick up a bar of pumpkin pie soap and give it a whiff and go by that. Yet if you actually want to put something healthy, that has been grown locally, without toxic chemicals, and will have a positive impact on your body, then ask those questions. Be curious as to why the product is made in the way that it is with the ingredients used and what are the benefits for your body, and the Earth's body, by you supporting that product.
Our skin is the largest organ in the human body. Wow, isn't that cool and doesn't that actually make so much sense?!? So why then, would you want to put anything on your skin that isn't good for you and that doesn't come from a locally-sourced, mindfully grown place? To think that what we put on our skin doesn't matter isn't an accurate assessment of its value. I used to buy handmade soaps made from all sorts of oils and butters and essential oils that were imported from all over the world. For me, it was a step away from the commercially manufactured, toxic soaps that I had grown up using. Yet I still had skin issues. I would still have incredibly dry hands, like to the point of cracked skin, and I still had to use more hand lotion than I care to think about. My eczema would flare up and something just didn't seem quite right. So I began researching animal fats. That's when it clicked for me.
Believe it or not, pig skin is very similar to the structure of human skin. Both are largely composed of saturated fats, making pig fat easily absorbed by our skin, as well as extremely soothing and nourishing. So it would make sense that if I was to rub some pig fat on my skin, my body would absorb it. It also began making sense that if I rubbed coconut oil or olive oil or shea butter on my skin, it just didn't cut it, as far as moisturizing went. I am not a coconut, so why would a coconut be compatible with my skin?
So once I figured out a recipe for lard soap and began using it, my dry skin issues disappeared. And as farmers, you can imagine that we wash our hands a lot throughout the day. Yet even in the dead of winter, our hands are not dried out, cracked messes! Our lard soap is incredibly moisturizing and has such a rich and creamy lather, it's like a bottle of lotion in itself! Will and I were experiencing the dramatic difference that the lard soap was having on our skin, yet I was curious to hear feedback from others. Once a few people had tried out the soap for themselves, their feedback was wonderful. I had people with eczema and psoriasis tell me that it didn't exacerbate their symptoms and that it's wonderful for allergy-prone skin. I heard from parents of children with significant skin issues and sensitivities finally finding relief using our soap. People express that the soap is gentle and extremely moisturizing and that their skin breakouts cleared up after use. All of this from a simple bar of soap. Here's one of our favorite reviews from a regular customer:
"I purchase from this store every half a year or so to stock up on my tallow soaps, as I have lupus and get an allergic reaction to just about anything else. I've cheated on them with some other sellers on etsy, and I regret it literally every single time. I always end up giving those soaps away and immediately placing an order here again. I don't know what it is that makes such a drastic difference in the quality: whether they're more knowledgeable about the processing of the soaps, or if their ingredients are better quality, or wtf their secret is, but I don't know what I'll do when these guys stop selling soaps. I'll probably have to fly myself out to their farm and harass them into teaching me how to make them myself the right way."
Now if that isn't motivation to continue creating these soaps, I don't know what is!
After creating a few successful soap recipes, I also began experimenting with making salves, lip balm, and candles, all with our lard as well as some locally raised grass-fed beef tallow. During the winter months, when our wood cook stove was burning 24/7, I would infuse botanicals that I had harvested with our lard in glass jars on the warming shelf, making a beautifully slow-infused oil which I could then use for soap and salves. The processes involved in participating in each step of these creations, from growing and harvesting the botanicals, raising, harvesting, and processing the pigs, and rendering their fat, to drying the botanicals, infusing them in the rendered lard, and then creating something from all of that energy and work is a big part of what being human means to me. That intimate connection with daily living and the mindfulness and love that goes into all of it. It has been a very important part of my journey here in the woods, one that I feel reconnects me to my ancestors and creates a life worth living.
These are the gifts and the love that I want to share with everyone who seeks what I have to offer. There is such beauty and story connected to these creations and I feel blessed to share that with those who come searching.
May we all have the opportunity to reconnect with the wisdom and knowledge that lies within each of us. Never lost, merely misplaced, just waiting for us to come looking with an open heart and a child-like curiosity.
You can view all of our 100 % pure lard soaps from our online shop
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