From Goat to Soap: The Story Behind Every Bar 🐐🧼

It Really Does Start With the Goats

Before there is soap, there is milking.

For years, milking goats was part of my everyday routine here. Twice a day, every day, whether I felt like doing it or not. There are no weekends off when you have animals depending on you.

The milk we use in our goat milk soap comes right from our own goats here on the farm. It is not powdered goat milk ordered from a supplier and it is not a premade soap base that we melt down and put our name on.

It is actual goat milk from our farm.

And that is something I have always been really proud of.

Then We Make the Soap

Once we have the goat milk, the soap is made here in small batches.

Soap making is one of those things that looks pretty simple when you see the finished bar sitting on a shelf. The reality is that there is quite a bit of measuring, mixing, timing, cleaning and waiting involved.

Our goat milk is combined with the oils and other ingredients that make up each particular soap. Depending on what we are making, we might add a phthalate-free fragrance, essential oils, herbs, coffee grounds or other ingredients.

Everything has to be measured correctly. Soap making is definitely not a throw a little of this and a little of that into a bowl kind of project.

There is actual chemistry happening.

The oils and lye go through a process called saponification, which is what turns those ingredients into actual soap. Goat milk soap made using the traditional cold process method then needs time to harden and cure before it is ready to use.

Pouring and Cutting

Once a batch is mixed and ready, it gets poured into molds.

Then we wait.

After the soap has set enough, it comes out of the mold and gets cut into individual bars.

This is one of my favorite parts because you finally get to see what the batch actually looks like.

And because our soap is handmade in small batches, every batch can look a little different.

Colors can vary. Swirls can vary. One bar might not look exactly like the bar sitting next to it.

Personally, I like that.

It is supposed to look handmade because it is handmade.

And Then We Wait Some More

This is the part people do not always realize about handmade soap.

You cannot make a batch in the morning and put it on the store shelf that afternoon.

After the bars are cut, they need time to cure. Cold process goat milk soaps are commonly cured for several weeks before they are ready to sell and use.

So when you see rows of soap curing here, those are products that were started weeks before they ever make it into the farm store.

Running a farm business teaches you patience whether you want to learn it or not.

Soap definitely does too.

From Our Farm to Your Home

There are certainly easier ways to sell soap.

We could buy premade products. We could have another company manufacture something for us. We could buy a soap base, add a scent and put The Hippie Farmer on the label.

But that was never what I wanted this business to be.

I wanted to make things.

I wanted to know what was going into the products we were selling. I wanted to use what we were producing here on the farm and turn it into something useful.

That is how our goat milk becomes soap.

And eventually one of those bars leaves our little farm and ends up in someone's bathroom somewhere.

I still think that is pretty cool.

So the next time you pick up one of our goat milk soaps, just remember that it did not start on a warehouse shelf.

Come visit us at the farm store, see the animals, smell all the soaps and see what is new.