Press Release: Palm-Oil Free Soaps Hit the Market on the West Coast

A small family-run business in Southern Oregon is making a contribution to the cause of the orangutan. Diggin’ Livin’ Farm and Apiary, owned and run by Joy McEwen, produces a small line of farm products, principally bee products such as honey and candles, as well as a line of goat’s milk soap, and Shetland wool. Aside from being a beekeeper, Joy has been manufacturing soap for eight years or so. She sells her products at farmers markets and local shops. Like so many other soap makers Joy used to use large amounts of palm oil in her products. Through an adoptive orangutan agency, Joy learned about orangutans and the loss of their habitat to oil palm plantations. Already a local foods and sustainability advocate, Joy quickly became concerned with the unethical use of palm oil. She nearly quit the soap business, but finally settled on reformulating her recipes and relabeling her soap to help bring awareness to this issue. Her new line of soaps is called Save the Orangutan Soap. She is donating 5% of the proceeds of each bar to organizations committed to assisting the orangutans.

Joy’s soaps are made with large amounts of raw goat’s milk from a local dairy, and honey and beeswax from her apiary. She currently handcrafts eight different bars; some with scrubbers such as oatmeal and lavender flowers, some more moisturizing with large amounts of goat’s milk, and even one with natural antimicrobials good for the kitchen sink. As well, she has focused on utilizing the highest quality natural ingredients including many organic vegetable and essential oils. As a local agriculture enthusiast, Joy has prioritized the use of local ingredients in her soaps, including olive oil, walnut oil, and almond oil from California, and tallow from Full Circle Bison Ranch in Williams, Oregon. Her North American bars have only oils from North America, and her bioregional bar has ingredients from only California and Oregon.

When Joy is not busy making soap, she finds herself working in her greenhouse or her small market gardens, managing her beehives, and raising a family in the woods.

For the holidays Diggin’ Livin’ is offering special assorted soap six-packs in a decorative wooden box. She is currently offering these on her website, www.digginlivin.com.

When you order your soap, please remember to tell them Orangutan Outreach sent you! That way a percentage of the proceeds will go back to the orangutans cared for by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. Thanks!