It started with a wild yeast culture and the Farmhouse On Boone Youtube Channel.
I wasn’t just trying to bake a loaf of sourdough bread; I was trying to change our family’s life. Standing in my kitchen, smelling that tangy, slow- fermented dough which at times smelled so bad I could hurl, I felt a shift rooted in three powerful motivations: to eat more healthy meals, to save money by doing things myself, and to reclaim control over what we brought into our home. This desire for intentional, “from scratch” living wasn’t just about food, it was about stripping away complexity everywhere.
This commitment to living simply and intentionally, whether it was in my kitchen or in my chaotic life as a wife, mom, and blender of families, is what ultimately let me to tallow.
The Homesteaders’ Secret
As I dove deeper into this new world, finding myself engrossed in the videos and books of incredilble homesteading women, I was constantly learning how to use every part of what we had. The lightbulb moment came when i first heard about using rendered animal fat for skin care.
It clicked instantly. If I was committed ti respecting the whole animal in my cooking and minimizing waste, wy was I still relying on store-bought skincare with ingredients I couldn’t pronounce? Tallow became the perfect opportunity to apply that “ from scratch” value to a totally different area in my life.
The Purest Defense Against Winter
While my motivation was philosophical, the results were incredibly practical. We are a family that sruggles with dry, irritated skin when the colder months hit. My bathroom cabinet was a graveyard of synthetic lotions that offered temporary relief but never truly healed or nourished.
And let me be real: My first batch was terrible. I only had rendered it once, and the smell was awful. I crushed up some lavender, and mixed it in, thinking it would cover the smell, it did not. My niece who was two at the time took one sniff and said “It smells like horse poop!”(She’s Horse obsessed) practice truly does make perfect, because I quickly learned how to render tallow properly.
When I started creating my own whipped tallow lotions with simple infusions of essential oils, It wasn’t a desperate fix, it was simple, pure solution. Suddenly, we had a product that was bio-compatible with our skin, rich in Vitamins A,D,E, and K, and made from an ingredient I completely understood and trusted. It wasn’t just natural; it was powerfully effective against the elements.
The Nourish & Thrive Philosophy
The simple process of rendering and whipping tallow lotion is now as intentional as baking a loaf of bread. It’s the philosophy behind Nourish & Thrive: we are intentionally removing complexity abd synthetic ingredients from our lives to focus on pure, simple, and honest nourishment.
My goal is to share that simplicity with you. Whether you’re here to find a tallow product that will genuinely soothe and heal your skin, or you’re looking for an honest account of blending families, or you just need a new weeknight recipe, you’re in the right place. I’m offering you the same simple, clean, and intentional nourishment I rely on for my own family.
I’d love to hear from you:
What’s one thing you’ve made “from scratch” recently, whether it’s a meal, a habit, or a mindset, that has changed your life?
