The journal
Notes from the farm.
Milk, curing racks, and the slow way of making few things well. Written from one farm in the Hawkesbury, New South Wales.
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The calf drinks first: meet Terry
Mona's calf takes ten litres before we take any. A bar of soap drinks twenty-six grams. Milk was never the thing that limited us.
Read the noteA terroir of milk: why the Hawkesbury is in every batch
Wine has terroir — so does milk. River flats, seasons and two centuries of farming, folded into a bar of soap.
Read the noteHow to make a handmade soap bar last
Six weeks of cure can dissolve in a fortnight of puddles. The dish, the habits, and the last-sliver trick.
Read the noteMeet Mona: the one cow behind every batch
Her mornings, her breed, and the honest cost of building a maison on one animal. You should be properly introduced.
Read the noteSix weeks on the racks: what curing soap actually does
The chemistry is done in days — the character takes six weeks. What the quietest room on the farm actually changes.
Read the noteRaw milk in soap: why the bar doesn't go off
Fresh raw milk, in a bar, on a shelf for months — and it keeps. The small piece of chemistry that makes it possible, told plainly.
Read the noteJersey milk vs goat milk in soap: what's the difference?
Both make a gentle soap. The difference is fat — how much of it the milk carries, and what that extra richness does once the bar meets your skin.
Read the noteMore notes are being written between milkings. One at a time, like everything here.