The Warmth That Came Early — Notes from an Early Harvest Batch🍠

Hugging Bubbles MT
Oct 8
2 min read

Pumpkin spice will come next week. For now, the soil still speaks in gold.

It came a little early this year — the warmth, the color, the slow, golden hush that settles across the Bitterroot Valley before the full weight of autumn arrives. The pumpkins weren’t ready yet, still green under their vines, but the sweet potatoes were calling — ready to be lifted from the soil, rinsed clean, and turned into something quietly radiant.

So before the pumpkins turned, we began this batch — Ember Harvest — a soap that captures the gentler side of fall. The kind of warmth that doesn’t shout cinnamon in your face, but hums softly like firelight after dusk.

The base of this batch came from local sweet potatoes, puréed and blended into the lye water. They gave the soap a buttery, harvest-gold hue and a creaminess that even pumpkin can’t quite match. We infused olive oil with turmeric and annatto for six full weeks, letting each root and seed steep until the oil turned into liquid sunlight.

To that, we added cocoa butter and grass-fed tallow, deep moisturizers made for cold air and dry hands. The bar itself marbled into layers of gold and amber — like a loaf of firelight cooling on linen. And as it cured, the scent of cinnamon essential oil wove through the workshop — not strong, just a quiet echo of home-baked warmth.

This is the kind of batch that marks a season’s turning. A small, golden reminder that even before the harvest is complete, there’s beauty in what’s already here — in roots, patience, and timing.

The Pumpkin Spice batch will come soon — maybe next week, when the first frost whispers and the kitchen smells a little sweeter. But for now, Ember Harvest holds the first firelight of fall.

🌿 Also on the table…

The catnip soap is ready too — minty, cooling, and surprisingly gentle. The catnip leaves had been sitting quietly in camellia oil for more than six weeks, steeping in sunlight until the infusion turned a soft green-gold. It’s refreshing and grounding all at once — a companion to this warm, earthy season.