OUR STORY
Four generations of the Louw family have been involved in the making of cold-water farmers soap. Ouma Duifie made this soap on their farm Bo-Elandsoog, near the town Middelpos in the Calvinia District. Every now and then she would also make the old fashioned style boiled soap
She taught her daughter-in-law, Johanna Louw, also known as Ouma Hanna, the finer art of making cold-water farmers soap, which Ouma Hanna did for years, specifically for the household use of the family.
In 1998 Alida asked her mother, Ouma Hanna, to make more soap, since she wanted to start selling the soap, which Ouma Hanna and Oupa Piet Louw started doing.
After 10 years Alida’s parents decided to give over the soap making to Alida and to support her entrepreneurial idea of making farmers soap and to sell it and basically to start an official business.
In October 2007 Alida Taljaard took over. Under the strict supervision of Ouma Hanna, Alida created her very own cold-water recipe.
For 6 months Alida tested different recipes on her back porch end eventually created a recipe that Ouma Hanna approved of and declared that the recipe was now perfect.
Alida’s son, Wessel, joined the farmers soap business in 2010 as Production Manager. After many hours of training and lots of experience Wessel has now taken over the full management of the business.
Ever since, the Taljaard family have not looked back and with hard work and wide marketing strategies and faith, find that they have been blessed and their business has since grown from strength to strength.
As our ancestors had to make their own soap for household use, the “soap pot” would remain one of the most precious tools that was taken along on all the long and far away roads. It remained near at hand and recipes were passed down from generation to generation.
COLD WATER METHOD
Today we use the COLD-WATER METHOD to craft our soap. Cold rain- or distilled water is mixed with caustic soda to create a caustic solution. The soap is not boiled but is stirred until the tallow and caustic soda are completely mixed through a chemical process after which it thickens and solidifies
