Blog

Don’t Blame the Cow

November 11, 2021

Twenty years ago a young man took upon himself the mission of expanding inner city gardens. He wanted to do this for all the right reasons. He wanted to create fresh food, knowledge of where our nourishment comes from, and a safe green neighborhood environment. What he envisioned was both a respite and a teaching center. He was bright and earnest and he had a college degree. And so he was able to write an application and obtain a grant and create a pilot project mini-farm in a dense city environment. He grew vegetables and turned compost and tried to…

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Better Castile Liquid Soap

December 28, 2020

Liquid Castile Soap or LCS is a safe, effective and natural alternative to chemical detergent foaming products. LCS is a primary ingredient in many nontoxic cleaning formulas, and in natural and organic hand, feet and pet products. The tricky part is to find one that cleans well (industry code word degreasing), that doesn’t rip your skin off. Previous readers to this blog will recall that the secret to great soap starts with great crystals! To see a 1 minute video on soap crystals click here. And the secret? The secret (drum roll please) is in our special slow cook method.…

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Science Is Not a Collection Of Facts

December 23, 2020

Contrary to popular opinion science is not a collection of facts and immutable Truths or Laws. Rather science is a method of inquiry; a system designed to inch us closer and closer to increasingly accurate understandings of the Universe that begat us and of which we are 100% a part of. Cool beans! So why isn’t everyone as excited about science? Why wouldn’t like, everyone want to work with science? Or at least pay attention to it? The answer to that in my opinion, has nothing to do with shortcomings of the human brain and everything to do with the…

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Free Shipping to Military with AE, AP or AA Addresses

November 16, 2020

Vermont Soap is officially announcing free APO shipping for military members!  You read that right: You can now get FREE shipping on ALL military orders with NO minimum order total.  All you have to do is add the products you’d like to your cart and checkout with an AE, AP, or AA address. Need a gift idea for what you should send your favorite military members serving overseas? Consider Fungasoap. Fungasoap was developed in cooperation with a Podiatrist who later patented the use of tea tree oil in foot soap. His study on this product and formula won a national…

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Tune In to Larry the Soapman on Relocalizing Vermont on WGDR Radio

September 23, 2020

Our own Larry the Soapman was interviewed on the radio recently about going toe to toe with Proctor and Gamble and other large corporations for the past 30 years.  Listen in as Larry explains all about his journey to all natural, organic soap and household products. “Larry Plesent made himself into a human lab rat in the early 1990s, to find ingredients for a soap he could use without irritating his skin. When he came up with a recipe he was happy with, he founded Vermont Soap, which now employs dozens of people in Middlebury, Vermont. Plesent talks about what…

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Does Prop. 65 Actually Protect You?

August 20, 2020

You’ve seen the Prop. 65 warnings everywhere, but what are they actually doing to protect you? Larry, our fearless leader and the one and only Soapman, was interviewed for this article! While our products come with just about every natural certification and seal of approval you could expect (Organic Certification, Non-GMO, and Cruelty-Free), in California, they also come with a warning that states our products harbor a “chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.” If that sounds confusing to you, then you won’t be surprised to hear that we were stumped, too.…

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I LIKE Killing Flies

July 30, 2020

I LIKE Killing Flies! My wife owns a bakery and as you know, flies and restaurants do not mix. Hence the title of this month’s musing on all things natural and sustainable, “I LIKE Killing Flies”. Did you know that all insects “breathe” through their bellies? Their abdomens are coated with an oily substance that helps their spiracles or air holes to pull oxygen out of the air and expel carbon dioxide. Air travels throughout the insect’s body through a tube-like ventilation system to get to the cells.  And therein lies their fatal kryptonite weakness. Soap washes away oil and…

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Chevy Bolt vs. Toyota Tacoma

May 28, 2020

Making the Connection Turning Soap into Transportation It always bothered Vermont Soap’s founder Larry “the Soapman” that he drove an internal combustion engine to work every day. And so, one chilly morning in January 2020 he finally did something about it and ordered an electric car. By plugging his all-electric Chevy Bolt into Vermont Soap’s 20,000 sqft 150kw rooftop solar array he was able to metaphorically turn soap into transport (read more about Vermont Soap’s environmental mission here)! Here in his own words is a comparison between his beloved Toyota Tacoma pick up truck and his newly found infatuation with…

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Soak Yourself to Bliss

May 15, 2020

Do you have trouble sleeping? Do you get muscle cramps, spasms, or twitches? Are you generally tired and run down and find it hard to get your energy levels up no matter how much coffee you drink? Do you have inflammation issues like arthritis, chronic diarrhea or high blood pressure? Are you concerned about Type 2 diabetes? All these issues and diseases have a dozen possible causes and this article is not intended to diagnose or treat any of them. However if you would like to do something healthy and nutritious for yourself that is without side effects or harm…

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The Downlow on Deodorants

April 27, 2020

Like many of us you just might be working from home right now. Our web lady let drop that for her this means washing her hair just once a week and not using (ahem) underarm deodorants.  In her honor let’s take a couple of minutes to think about the ingredients natural formulators use to create organic underarm deodorants. Each one of us has a unique scent, a combination of diet and our invisible skin ecosystem of bacteria and fungus. Your deodorant’s job is to repress this natural microbial ecosystem in order to make all that biology less noticeable to the…

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