Sudsing up for one last farmers market in Ephrata

EPHRATA — It doesn’t take much, apparently, to want to make your own soap.

“I don’t like store-bought products. I like natural,” said Norm Perreault, who along with his wife, Diane, stood behind a display of soap he has made for the last 20 years from the water and minerals of Soap Lake.

“This is the best,” he explained, showing a display of the four kinds of soap he makes. “You buy store-bought soap and you shower with it, it leaves a residue on your skin. This soap completely washes off, it leaves no residue.”

“It’s good for you,” he added.

The Perreaults were hawking their wares, which include hand-crafted dream catchers and soap made with mud from the bottom of Soap Lake, at the last regular farmers market this year in Ephrata on Saturday.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has not been a normal year for much of anything, and that includes farmers markets. Ephrata scheduled its farmers market, which is held on the block of C Street Northwest in front of the Grant County Courthouse, every other weekend this summer.

Saturday’s farmers market was the last of the season in Ephrata, and the next-to-last opportunity the Perreaults will have to sell their special soap this year.

“We only sell at farmers markets,” Perreault said. “We don’t have a website or a store.”

One last farmers market, Sept. 5 in Quincy, and he and his wife are off to spend the winter in Arizona, Perreault said.

He’s not the only Ephrata-area soap maker there. Dawn Arbuckle of Sun Basin Suds stands behind several large stacks of small, oval bars of the soap she has crafted at home for years.

“I wanted soap where I could control the ingredients,” Arbuckle said. “So I started making it, and people liked it and started buying it.”

Arbuckle said that while soap is a simple combination of oil and lye, with fragrance and color added, it’s not really that simple to make.

“There’s a lot of science involved,” she said. “There’s specific rules, and you have to have the oil and lye ratios right.”

Currently, Arbuckle uses only coconut oil for her roughly a dozen kinds of soap. She sells it mainly at farmers markets, though she’s also happy to sell to friends and sells online through her Facebook page.

Soap was not the only thing for sale on Saturday. Locally-made face masks were on sale, a couple of fruit and vegetable vendors were there, an Ephrata-area beekeeper sold his locally-produced honey, and a flower arranger finally got out to show off her arrangements only to make to the final market of the year.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, and I finally got to get down here,” said Joanna Ruiz, owner of Floral Designs by Joanna, as she stood beside a cart stacked artfully with moss and flower arrangements.

“These are smaller works, I do bigger arrangements,” she said, adding she can sell or rent floral arrangements as needed.

Local mother Melissa Mayer pulled her son Oliver in a wagon as she slowly perused the vendors at the last farmers market. Growing up with a big garden in her backyard taught her to appreciate fresh fruit and vegetables, she explained.

“Well, we love local produce, and it’s a nice Saturday morning walk. So we’re just here to eat as many local goodies as we can while they’re available,” Mayer said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].