Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophie Orluck.
Hi Sophie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It all started with a mission of sustainability, that really only had to do with my own household. I was tired of shopping for natural products and still finding ingredients that I didn’t approve of on their labels. So, I decided I wanted to start making a natural bar of soap, that had multiple functions and had ingredients I could trust. The world had enough poison in their products, I wanted something that healed my family not harmed us! We had just moved to our homestead, I started making my own soap as a sustainable living craft, and I shared it with friends and family, they ended up loving it and started coming back for more. I worked online full time and had a large community who showed interest in buying my soaps. One blend, one bar, nothing else. People loved it! Their skin conditions started to get healed, psoriasis, eczema, dryness, acne, just by switching to this bar. This led us to new essential oil blends and shampoo bars with the same idea in mind. I really became obsessed with the concept of how healing beeswax and honey were, how could I maximize the opportunity of making products for our homes that involved these powerhouse ingredients. Beeswax candles! Then I loved the aromatics and home goods production, so we started doing clean burning incense. We’re constantly thinking of ways to expand our handcrafted and healing goods to fit the consumer’s needs but also have intention. Beeswax and botanicals are the roots of our product line.
Now the bakery. I started my health journey back in 2020, with the push of sustainable living, cooking from scratch, and eating real, whole foods that weren’t loaded with chemicals. I learned that food is medicine and that there was a lot wrong with our eating habits. I started making sourdough after trying my sister in law’s homemade bread and fell in love with the process, the challenge and the flavor! Lots of trial and error, lots of flat loaves, loaves without salt because I forgot to add it, lots of loaves tossed because they were simply inedible. I started understanding that this was an ancient practice and it was wild, literally! Once I had more grace in the process and understood how a good dough felt, I started to perfect my loaves. 5 years later I thought about how dreamy a micro bakery would be. Lots of work, but lots more reward. Sharing loaves with neighbors, family, friends and gatherings. Eventually I started making more baked goods with organic ingredients, quality taste and perfected my recipes.
Not only did we have an online community of consumers of our healing goods, now we have a local community who loves my baked goods! This led us to the farmers market, which led us to weekly farm drops in the off season and porch pickups from cottage.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
From failed loaves, soap volcanoes (when the batter overheats and is poured too quickly it erupts!), candles that didn’t burn or melted too quickly, shipping hassles or products not arriving to customers, not enough money in the account to build up inventory, timely deliveries. There’s been a lot of hiccups but none of it got in the way of the passion we had for the brand. We also changed our name after realizing we wanted our brand to better reflect the products. The Bad Hippies turned into Honeysalt. Honey – sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Salt – the rejuvenation of our bodies and of this earth.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
-we make handcrafted healing goods made with natural and non toxic ingredients.
-we make baked goods that heal your gut and are made with organic ingredients.
-we homestead, raise chickens and ducks, garden and grow medicinal herbs and botanicals.
-we use paper products and use as little plastic as we can to better the environment.
-we are rooted in Christ, it didn’t start that way, but has come to be the foundation of our values.
I’m proud of the connections we’ve made with the community and the awareness we’ve created for those who didn’t have the same knowledge we did about how harmful products and food can be for us.
We believe in quality, clean products whether it’s for your home or your body. We believe that the things you use every day, the staple ingredients you eat shouldn’t harm you, they should heal you, strengthen you and promote cleaner living. We’re crunchy 🙂 and we want others to be too!
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My husband Stephen, who has supported and promoted everything we do. He designed our first website and would sell products with his online community. He’d help me at markets and connect with locals. He’s my main support system.
The online communities for buying products that weren’t perfect but still came back for more. The brand wouldn’t be what it is today without them building us up for 3 years.
Cady Berg, getting our names out there and motivating us to continue to grow.
Addie and Glen Geppert, our farmers market friends who allow us to do farm drops weekly at their farm store and conceptualize new ideas with us for future markets and collaborations.
Our regular customers, who have grace for our imperfections and continue coming back for more. They are the backbone to what keeps us going. The regulars who have the same values as us whether it be religiously or similar lifestyle choices, they are who inspire us to do it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: honeysalthomestead.com (original e-commerce) honeysalt.square.site (local pickups/deliveries until we get shipping sorted)
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569125472269
