With all the rain we’ve had, my garden looks frightful. My tomatoes are stunted and my cucumbers are growing at a slugs pace. Oh, and the slugs are out of control! So, I was excited to discover that the hospital near my house is hosting a farmer’s market every Friday afternoon for the rest of the summer! I’m thrilled to be within walking distance of fresh produce straight from the farm. I plan to fit in a weekly visit in between making new batches of soap.

Handmade soap

There are so many creative soap makers that inspire us. Check out some of our favorite finds on Pinterest! (Are we pinning buddies there? We should be.)

• Spring Blue – I haven’t perfected the art of the straight line in my soap yet but Botanica has!
• Japanese Indigo Soap – I’m a huge admirer of SoapJam soaps! This example is no exception.
• Lavender Indigo Salts Soap – The indigo blue color of this soap from Tioga Soap Company is intense.

Good, clean fun

If you’re not following us on Facebook, here’s some of the fun you missed:

• Practice doesn’t always make perfect – Poor Fritz. Maybe someday he’ll learn to catch.
• The luckiest girl in the world – This video of Paul Simon allowing a fan to play on stage with him makes me happy every time I watch it.
• The small, happy life – This is a nice reminder that it’s OK to find joy in the little things.

Previous musings from Emmet Street you might have missed

Being lactose intolerant, I’m always on the lookout for decadent recipes that use less dairy, like this vegan chocolate chia pudding. When I can, I substitute milk with soy or almond milk, as I did in this wild mushroom soup. So, when my Pinterest feed recently blew up with recipes for an Alfredo sauce using cauliflower instead of milk, I knew I needed to try it. The method of making this sauce was very similar to Kelly’s creamy mushroom soup. The result was nothing short of amazing. It was thick and creamy and it clung to the pasta just like an Alfredo sauce should. (I took the risk of leaving the parmesan cheese in the recipe because cheese is my weakness.)