Every Woman Has a Story | MaryJanesFarm

by Ardis Eckel

“Can you tell the difference between a love letter and junk mail?” asks the soap maven of Many, Louisiana. “Between fresh red snapper and fish sticks? Between a Monet and those dogs playing poker?”

If so, she is sure you will recognize the difference between a commercially produced bar of soap and her hand-crafted creations.

Susan Dahlem’s business, Dahlem’s Soapworks, is contained in the kitchen of Rose Cottage, the country home Susan and her husband, Jerry, have shared with six children, three now grown, three still at home. In her mid-forties with green eyes and graying hair—which she says she’s earned—Susan is a “what you see is what you get” kind of woman, with strong ties to the land, her family, and a simpler lifestyle.

“We live in a little old farmhouse at the end of a dirt road,” she says, with the rhythmic Southern accent that reveals her roots. “And please, God, don’t ever let them pave it! As it is, if someone is coming down that road, we know it’s the mail lady, or someone’s lost, or they’ve called and they’re coming to buy soap.”

Susan is a stay-at-home mom. Jerry works as an engineer on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico—two weeks on, two weeks off. “So the two weeks he’s home, he’s home full time,” Susan says. “It works for us. We have a really good life.”

The Dahlems raise a garden almost year-round. They home-school their children, “which must be working,” Susan says, “because all six are a joy and three are now productive adults.” In addition, Susan hand-makes and sells soaps, lotion bars, and lip balms.

“I like doing things the old way. The hard way,” she says. “At our house, we don’t drink instant coffee. We don’t go buy a bag of Hershey’s Kisses at the store. If we want chocolate, we make brownies or a batch of fudge.”

Eighteen years ago, soap making started out the same way. “I didn’t set out to have a soap business,” she explains. “I just wanted to make a better bar of soap for my family than I could buy. Making soap started out as an experiment.” It was an experiment Susan kept at until she got it right. “Soap making is a chemical process,” she says. It’s called “saponification,” and it turns two basic ingredients, an acid and an alkali, into something entirely different.”

It’s also a precise science. “That’s why some people make really good soap and some people don’t,” Susan says. “And that’s why when our grandmothers made soap, sometimes it wasn’t great for washing your body with; it was better for washing your clothes. They ran water through ashes and made a caustic element with it, and then added fat to make the soap. But sometimes the soap was strong, and sometimes it wasn’t. They didn’t have the chemistry down.”

In contrast, every element in Susan’s soaps has been measured to 1/10
of an ounce. She uses specific combin-ations of ingredients like olive oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, soy oil, castor oil, shea butter, beeswax, and tassah silk to make soaps that are easy on the skin. To those, she adds specific herbs, pure essential oils, and skin-safe fragrant oils to make up more than thirty uniquely scented soap bars.

“I’m particular about my ingred-ients,” she says. “I buy only from reputable companies. And I use as small an amount of lye as I possibly can to keep the pH at a very skin-friendly level.” On top of that, she leaves in the glycerin that is so often removed from commercial soaps because it is hard on the machinery used to manufacture them. “The reason handcrafted soap is so soothing and leaves your skin feeling supple is because all the naturally occurring glycerin is still there,” she explains, “and glycerin is great for your skin.”

Susan is even a stickler about the color of her soap bars. “Some people like the aesthetics of color,” she says. “But if my soaps are tinted, the color comes from mineral oxides or herbs. I want my soap to be as pure as possible. So my rule of thumb is that if I wouldn’t rub it on my kids’ bodies, I wouldn’t ask you to rub it on yours.”

The result of Susan’s experi-mentation is quality bar soap that’s kind to the body and to the earth. Because of that, her business has grown from the few bars she made for her family and handed out as samples. In fact, it has bubbled up into a business that keeps her making soap almost every day. And although her husband has offered to make equipment that would allow her to make bigger batches, she insists on doing it the hard way.

“I make my soaps in five-pound batches because I want to,” she says. “Because I can! My hands touch the soaps I make from the time I dip the oil out of the bucket until every bar is wrapped and the labels are put on them.”

For Susan, that’s what handcrafted means: taking the time to do something well. And whether she’s making soap or tending the garden, doing things the old, slow way keeps her in touch with what’s real. That even includes home schooling. She’s made sure her children spend their share of time doing book work. But they’ve also worked beside her in the soap-making business and in the garden, too.

“Not a snake or a frog or a bug goes by that it isn’t a learning experience,” she says. “And most people have no idea how many science lessons are in gardening. You have to test your soil, fertilize (we use organic), and get your soil pH correct for the type of plants you’re planting. You have to have slug control, watch for ants and cutworms, and more.

“My kids are very resourceful. They’ve seen me say, ‘Oh, I don’t know about this bug, let me go look it up.’ So if they want to know something, they know how to find it. When I said, ‘I think we need a Web page for the soap business,’ my twelve-year-old—who was nine then —said ‘Well, I think there’s a book on HTML around here somewhere. Let me go find it.’” Susan’s pride is evident. “My daughter never for a minute thought she couldn’t build a website. She knew there was a manual here somewhere, and that she could read, so she could do it.” Even if it took some time. But then Susan says everything takes time.

“As it should,” she insists, “because, if something’s instant, you don’t savor it. If you drive through the drive-in and get hamburgers for supper, you fill the hole in your stomach, but you haven’t had a meal. You didn’t get to enjoy the time spent preparing a meal, or time spent with your family at the table.”

And that’s the way she feels about soap making. “I know I’ve taken the time to make the best soap for my family that I can,” she says. “And it’s the same with my customers. It’s like I’ve made the soaps especially for them. It smells good. It’s useful. And it’s better than they can buy in the store.”

Susan delivers her products to customers in Many. She sends orders to outlets in other towns, other states, and even other countries. And every delivery begins from the cottage at the end of a dirt road. From behind a fence that in the spring is covered with green leaves and tiny pink fairy roses. From inside a kitchen filled with laughter and love and the scent of artisan soaps made one bar at a time.

Check out Susan’s website, www.thesoapmaven.com, to learn more about her soaps, lotion bars, and lip balms.


	by Ardis Eckel “Can you tell the difference between a love letter and junk mail?” asks the soap maven of Many, Louisiana. “Between fresh red snapper and fish sticks? Between a Monet and those dogs playing poker?” If so, she is sure you will recognize the difference between a commercially produced bar of soap and her hand-crafted creations. Susan Dahlem’s business, Dahlem’s Soapworks, is contained in the kitchen of Rose Cottage, the country home Susan and her husband, Jerry, have shared with six children, three now grown, three still at home. In her mid-forties with green eyes and graying hair—which she says she’s earned—Susan is a “what you see is what you get” kind of woman, with strong ties to the land, her family, and a simpler lifestyle. “We live in a little old farmhouse at the end of a dirt road,” she says, with the rhythmic Southern accent that reveals her roots. “And please, God, don’t ever let them pave it! As it is, if someone is coming down that road, we know it’s the mail lady, or someone’s lost, or they’ve called and they’re coming to buy soap.” Susan is a stay-at-home mom. Jerry works as an engineer on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico—two weeks on, two weeks off. “So the two weeks he’s home, he’s home full time,” Susan says. “It works for us. We have a really good life.” The Dahlems raise a garden almost year-round. They home-school their children, “which must be working,” Susan says, “because all six are a joy and three are now productive adults.” In addition, Susan hand-makes and sells soaps, lotion bars, and lip balms. “I like doing things the old way. The hard way,” she says. “At our house, we don’t drink instant coffee. We don’t go buy a bag of Hershey’s Kisses at the store. If we want chocolate, we make brownies or a batch of fudge.” Eighteen years ago, soap making started out the same way. “I didn’t set out to have a soap business,” she explains. “I just wanted to make a better bar of soap for my family than I could buy. Making soap started out as an experiment.” It was an experiment Susan kept at until she got it right. “Soap making is a chemical process,” she says. It’s called “saponification,” and it turns two basic ingredients, an acid and an alkali, into something entirely different.” It’s also a precise science. “That’s why some people make really good soap and some people don’t,” Susan says. “And that’s why when our grandmothers made soap, sometimes it wasn’t great for washing your body with; it was better for washing your clothes. They ran water through ashes and made a caustic element with it, and then added fat to make the soap. But sometimes the soap was strong, and sometimes it wasn’t. They didn’t have the chemistry down.” In contrast, every element in Susan’s soaps has been measured to 1/10 of an ounce. She uses specific combin-ations of ingredients like olive oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, soy oil, castor oil, shea butter, beeswax, and tassah silk to make soaps that are easy on the skin. To those, she adds specific herbs, pure essential oils, and skin-safe fragrant oils to make up more than thirty uniquely scented soap bars. “I’m particular about my ingred-ients,” she says. “I buy only from reputable companies. And I use as small an amount of lye as I possibly can to keep the pH at a very skin-friendly level.” On top of that, she leaves in the glycerin that is so often removed from commercial soaps because it is hard on the machinery used to manufacture them. “The reason handcrafted soap is so soothing and leaves your skin feeling supple is because all the naturally occurring glycerin is still there,” she explains, “and glycerin is great for your skin.” Susan is even a stickler about the color of her soap bars. “Some people like the aesthetics of color,” she says. “But if my soaps are tinted, the color comes from mineral oxides or herbs. I want my soap to be as pure as possible. So my rule of thumb is that if I wouldn’t rub it on my kids’ bodies, I wouldn’t ask you to rub it on yours.” The result of Susan’s experi-mentation is quality bar soap that’s kind to the body and to the earth. Because of that, her business has grown from the few bars she made for her family and handed out as samples. In fact, it has bubbled up into a business that keeps her making soap almost every day. And although her husband has offered to make equipment that would allow her to make bigger batches, she insists on doing it the hard way. “I make my soaps in five-pound batches because I want to,” she says. “Because I can! My hands touch the soaps I make from the time I dip the oil out of the bucket until every bar is wrapped and the labels are put on them.” For Susan, that’s what handcrafted means: taking the time to do something well. And whether she’s making soap or tending the garden, doing things the old, slow way keeps her in touch with what’s real. That even includes home schooling. She’s made sure her children spend their share of time doing book work. But they’ve also worked beside her in the soap-making business and in the garden, too. “Not a snake or a frog or a bug goes by that it isn’t a learning experience,” she says. “And most people have no idea how many science lessons are in gardening. You have to test your soil, fertilize (we use organic), and get your soil pH correct for the type of plants you’re planting. You have to have slug control, watch for ants and cutworms, and more. “My kids are very resourceful. They’ve seen me say, ‘Oh, I don’t know about this bug, let me go look it up.’ So if they want to know something, they know how to find it. When I said, ‘I think we need a Web page for the soap business,’ my twelve-year-old—who was nine then —said ‘Well, I think there’s a book on HTML around here somewhere. Let me go find it.’” Susan’s pride is evident. “My daughter never for a minute thought she couldn’t build a website. She knew there was a manual here somewhere, and that she could read, so she could do it.” Even if it took some time. But then Susan says everything takes time. “As it should,” she insists, “because, if something’s instant, you don’t savor it. If you drive through the drive-in and get hamburgers for supper, you fill the hole in your stomach, but you haven’t had a meal. You didn’t get to enjoy the time spent preparing a meal, or time spent with your family at the table.” And that’s the way she feels about soap making. “I know I’ve taken the time to make the best soap for my family that I can,” she says. “And it’s the same with my customers. It’s like I’ve made the soaps especially for them. It smells good. It’s useful. And it’s better than they can buy in the store.” Susan delivers her products to customers in Many. She sends orders to outlets in other towns, other states, and even other countries. And every delivery begins from the cottage at the end of a dirt road. From behind a fence that in the spring is covered with green leaves and tiny pink fairy roses. From inside a kitchen filled with laughter and love and the scent of artisan soaps made one bar at a time. Check out Susan’s website, www.thesoapmaven.com, to learn more about her soaps, lotion bars, and lip balms.