About Rainwater Farm
Rainwater Farm’s story starts 19 years ago, with an unlikely beginning. The Souder Family was a bit smaller then–only three little ones: Kathleen, John and Mary, aged 6, 5, and 1. When Colette wasn’t busy chasing after them, she was homeschooling and cooking. Then, one fateful day, the family had a visitor.
Christine visited from Montana and had a fun time in East Tennessee hanging out with the family. As a parting gift, she left three bars of handmade soap for the family to enjoy. Colette and her husband, Steve each took a bar to their showers. When that soap ran out they realized they were hooked. A fight ensued over the remaining bar and Colette realized she never wanted to go back to using commercial soaps. At the time there were no handmade soap makers in the area so the only solution was to make her own.
It was a year after Christine’s stay that Colette made her first batch of Oatmeal Lavender. She kept some, used some, and gave some away. It quickly became apparent that people saw the difference between this soap and mass produced bars. After little Annie was born, Colette introduced Rainwater Farm to East Tennessee and signed up for a booth at her first craft fair. She brought six kinds of soap, a lip balm and her healing salve and her business took off from there.
Today, Rainwater Farm offers twenty nine varieties of bar soaps, three kinds of liquid soaps, three moisturizing salves (healing salve, lotion bar and new body balm), three lip balms, two bath balms, a laundry soap and new products are added yearly. Her products are two of the top selling products at Mast General in Knoxville and the world-famous luxury resort Blackberry Farm sells her soap in their shop. The family has changed as well: Kathleen and John are both grown up and working in Saint Louis and Louisiana. Mary is studying nursing at Saint Mary’s at Notre Dame and Annie is finishing high school, ready to head to college. However, the important things have stayed the same: the recipes for the bar soaps and healing salve have not changed and the amount of care that goes into every product has not wavered. Colette’s two youngest, Dominic and Clare, are still at home–helping out with the family business like their older siblings did.
To sum up the company, Rainwater Farm has always, is now and will forever follow the mission statement:
Rainwater Farm creates handmade products that clean, protect and nourish–naturally. Everything we make is long-lasting, highly effective, safe and perfect for the environmentally conscious. We strive to bring you products of the highest quality, free of unnatural additives such as PABA, petroleum and sodium lauryl sulfate. Everything is good for you, and good for the environment.