The eight months between batches of Greasewood

I make Greasewood soap once every eight months. People ask why I don't make it more often. The answer is the creosote bush.

Creosote (Larrea tridentata) is the most strongly scented native plant in the Southwest. It's also a slow-growing desert shrub that's mostly on BLM land or private ranches outside town. I harvest twice a year, once in spring after the rains, once in late summer, and I only take small clippings, the way I was taught. A full Greasewood soap batch needs about three pounds of clipped greasewood, and that's two harvest seasons of careful collection.

Then the infusion is slow: six weeks at low heat. Then the soap itself cures eight weeks. So from harvest to bar is about 14 weeks of process, and I can only make one batch per harvest cycle.

Right now (February 2026) I have batch 23 in the cure room and batch 24 coming out of infusion in April. After that the next batch starts with the May harvest.

If you've been waiting on Greasewood, you should buy two or three bars when a batch lands. The next one is eight months out.

Linden, February 2026.