The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Author: Crystal

What’s up Wednesday 1/5

We had wonderful mild weather this past weekend. It’s amazing what a slightly warm, sunny day can do to your mood! Although the last couple of days haven’t been as nice as the weather we experienced over the weekend, it looks like the weather is going to hold up, meaning no snow, so we are able to attend the My Courthouse Market inside the Goochland Courthouse YMCA this evening. We will be there from 3-7. We will have our coffee goat milk soap with us!!

We got quite a bit done in the last week. We ordered our newest chicken coop and it was shipped on Tuesday. It’s going to be nice to just assemble a coop this time rather than spending months building one from scratch. We are also putting together a huge lumber order for all of our other projects that will be happening over the next few months including a buck barn, buck pasture, building a few new mangers to accommodate the new animals, expanding our garden by adding 6 new beds, building a garden for Breckin, and fencing off a new pasture for the girls and llamas. We are also hoping to have the solar put up in the barn before too long as well. So much to do, so little time!

February 5, 2014
Introducing Coffee Goat Milk Soap!

As many of you know every month this year we will be introducing a new soap! Some of these are seasonal, some permanent additions, and others are soaps we are testing out. Check back the first of each month to see what new goat milk soap we are introducing. This month we are so excited to finally introduce our Coffee Goat Milk Soap! Isn’t it pretty?

We have been working on this soap recipe for a long while. It was actually one of the first recipes we played with. We handed it out to the soap testers and they loved it, but Kevin wanted to make changes, so he did. We handed out the new soap and people still preferred the first one… but Kevin was not convinced and went on trying to perfect the recipe. Months past and we kept getting requests for our original coffee soap. There were times when we would have 3 or 4 requests a week. I was finally able to convince Kevin that he got it right the first time! We started working on building our stock and here we are… Finally introducing our Coffee Goat Milk Soap… The first recipe!

This soap has a light sweet smell (more of a sweet cream scent than a coffee scent). Our coffee soap is made with coffee infused oil (prepared by us), espresso, natural oils, and of course raw goat milk. The soap includes finely ground coffee beans throughout making it a strong exfoliant. We are not recommending it for those with sensitive skin because of it’s high exfoliating factor. It was a favorite soap our testers and hopefully it will become one of ours.

To purchase this, or any of our soaps, visit our website

February 1, 2014
What’s up Wednesday – 1/29

More snow… Can winter be over yet? We have really gotten good at managing the fire in our stove and have had a few days where I was able to keep the house at 70 degrees, even with it in the teens outside. I’m a person who loves heat, so the hotter the better!

The animals are wishing for spring as well. The goats and llamas are spending most of their time in the barn, making the daily clean up fun, and the chickens only leave their coop for a few minutes during free range time. On Monday we had a little warm spell and the animals ran and leapt through the pasture, acting crazy and having so much fun. I guess cabin fever is getting to all of us.

Last night we ordered new chickens. They are scheduled to be shipped on March 10th! We are down to 5 laying hens and they are not enough to supply us with all of the eggs we need for our family of four. Our girls are getting up there in age and will start laying less and less, so we have decided to purchase a second coop (instead of building another one from scratch), put it in the pasture with the goats and llamas, and retire our current girls there so they can free range all day and live out the rest of their days happy and unrestricted… except my the pasture fence. We are hoping they will also keep the bug population down in the pasture. With this order we got two breeds of chickens; Easter Eggers and Black Copper Marans. We ordered 3 female and 1 male Easter Eggers, and 7 female and 1 male Black Copper Marans. The plan is to put the Easter Eggers in with the “retired” chickens. The Black Copper Marans will go together in the old coop that Kevin built. This will keep the roosters separate and allow us to have pure bred fertilized Easter Egger and Maran eggs if we want to expand our flock or sell the eggs.

We also got 3 male Buff Orpingtons to meet the minimum shipment requirement for this time of year. We plan to use these guys as meat chickens since My Pet Chicken doesn’t offer actual meat chickens. We had to go through MPC because they offer the lowest shipping requirement (we do not have space for 25 chickens at the moment) and had the breeds we wanted. This will be our first experience with butchering and we are very nervous about the whole situation, but we have friends who have promised to help us. If all goes well we will do a full batch of actual meat chickens later in the spring. This is a subject I have struggled with quite a bit. It’s sad that I am so detached from our meat source that it is painful to think about butchering an animal to feed my family, but I have no qualms with purchasing meat from the store. I know I can offer our own meat chickens a much better life. I have been told that I have built it up in my head too much and that I will be fine after the first butchering. I know it will feel good feeding my children healthy meat that was humanely raise (spoiled, really).

On another note, we are SO excited to announce that we have been accepted to the My Manakin Market Saturday market for this spring and summer. We have also been extended at the Wednesday My Courthouse Market in Goochland through the rest of the year. We have loved being apart of the market group!

January 29, 2014
What’s Happening Wednesday – 1/22

This week we took a big step towards our self-sustaining dreams… We purchased a new (well used, but new to us) wood stove to heat our home. When we moved in the house had a large wood stove in the den. We used it a few times our first winter, but we never had the stove and chimney inspected so I was too nervous to really use it. That same winter I became pregnant with Breckin and I really feared that small children and wood stoves did not mix. There never seemed to be a good time to really put the stove to use. This year Breckin (the child who climbs on anything and everything) is finally old enough to know to stay away from the stove and Bryce, even at her young age, is good about listening to instruction, so we decided it was time to finally get our old stove and chimney inspected and cleaned. Long story short, the chimney needed a better/smaller liner, our old stove would not do the job we needed it to do, and the chimney company knew of a used Blaze King that we could purchase. The stove was finally put in this past Friday and it has been burning full force ever since. It’s wonderful not having to use the crazy expensive electric heat. It’s also a great comfort to know that we wont have to immediately use the generator when the power goes out in order to keep our children from freezing. I have even enjoyed collecting and splitting wood (we will see how long that lasts). It’s one more step towards independence.

January 22, 2014
What’s up Wednesday – 1/15

It’s been a rainy week on The Freckled Farm. The farm is one big muddy mess. It’s been like this for weeks. The ground never has a chance to dry out before another drenching rain comes along and makes the whole situation worse. The pasture is in horrible shape and I worry that it won’t recover this spring. It’s causing problems all over the place. I don’t remember it ever being this bad. I practically have to swim through our backyard!

Yesterday it rained most of the day. Doing farm chores in the rain is miserable. The kids are usually stuck in the shed the whole hour and I have to just tough it out and get soaked! Luckily, yesterday it stopped raining and the skies cleared up moments before we went outside. We were only outside a few minutes before a thick fog started to roll in. It was so beautiful.

As soon as I finished farm chores (because the goats weren’t going to wait) I ran inside to get my camera to capture the fog. I have included some of the pictures that I took below… I know, I know, some are duplicated. I just could not pick between the color and black and white on some of them… I mean, could you?

January 15, 2014
What’s up Wednesday – 1/8

It was a cold day on The Freckled Farm yesterday… as it was for most of the country. Monday and Tuesday night we closed the animals up in the barn and coop. Normally we leave the doors open to the pasture and run, but we wanted to prevent any wind from getting to the animals and to allow the deep bedding to do it’s job. The animals faired well through the cold weather, although there were points when I was working in the pasture that I could see the goats shivering. They ended up spending the entire day in the barn, only coming out when I was doing farm chores. We have one chicken though who decided that she wanted to molt late in the season and still hasn’t gotten all of her feathers back. I have worried about her quite a bit, but she seems to be doing fine.

On Tuesday Kevin went out to feed the animals around 5:30am and the temperatures were in the negatives with the wind chill. He closed everyone back up after they were done eating and I went and let everyone out once the sun came up. I had to go out several times during the day to remove the ice from the water buckets. This is my least favorite winter chore. We thought about getting heated buckets, but the breeder of Tina and Hillary told us to avoid them because they lower the goat’s resistance to cold, and if the bucket should break or the electricity go out the cold water could end up hurting the goats. So I trek out the barn and coop every couple of hours to remove the layer of ice that has formed on the water and add warm water. Last year there were only a few days that we really had to fight ice in the water buckets. If we lived in an area that is as cold as what we are dealing with right now all the time I might have consider investing in something else to combat the problem!

In other news, today is our first day at My Courthouse Market in Goochland, VA. This is an INDOOR farmers market located inside the YMCA in Goochland Courthouse. The market runs from 3pm-7pm. Come and visit us!

January 8, 2014
What’s up Wednesday – What to expect in 2014

Last week, while introducing our Rosewood Salt Soap, I said that we have a lot of great things in store for this year. I thought I would take a moment to share some of the exciting things that we are expecting to happen in 2014…

The most exciting thing we have coming up are the additions to our soap line. We will be introducing a new goat milk soap every month! This month it was the Rosewood Salt goat milk soap. Next month it will be our coffee soap. Some of these soaps will become permanent scents in our line, while others will be seasonal. Make sure you check back, follow us on facebook, or subscribe to our blog, so you don’t miss out on one of our amazing new scent.

We will be offering a soap to represent each season. These soaps will only be available during the season in which they represent. If you become a fan of that scent you will need to stock up before the season is over or wait for it to come back next year!

We will be at lots of craft shows and farmers markets throughout the year. Visit our “Where to Buy” page to see where you can find us.

We will be adding several non-soap items to our line, including bath teas, bath bombs, scrubs, and more. We will be testing out new products at craft shows and farmers markets, and the most successful products will make it to the website.

As far as the farm goes we will be adding baby goats, our first buck (no more drive-by breedings for us!), more chickens, an additional coop, new pastures, expanding our garden, and so much more!

We have so many exciting things in store this year and we can’t wait to share it with all of you!

January 8, 2014
Monday Makeover – Vinegar Hair Rinse
To debut our Monday Makeover I picked an oldie but goody… Vinegar Hair Rinse. I am sure over the next year you will see quite a few body care recipes that include apple cider vinegar, because in my mind vinegar cures all. Kevin often jokes that I am to apple cider vinegar as the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding is to Windex.

This recipe is one that I have used in the past when conditioners and other hair products started to build up on my hair. The apple cider vinegar strips hair of build up and residue, giving it more shine. It also closes the cuticles of the hair (which looks a great deal like tree bark under a microscope when the cuticles are open) making the hair more smooth and preventing tangles
1. Mix 1/4 – 1 cup of vinegar to 16 oz of water. You will have to play to see what ratio best fits your hair needs. Dry hair generally likes less ACV, while oily hair has a tendency to like more.
2. Shampoo as normal.
3. Skip the conditioner.
4. Pour the ACV mixture on your hair.
5. Massage your scalp to make sure the ACV reaches the base of your scalp.
6. Allow the mixture to sit in your hair for a few minutes.
7. Finally rinse with the coldest water you can stand.
This is not a treatment that you want to do too often, as it could potentially dry out your hair. Most find it helpful to do it once a month, while others prefer to do it as often as once a week.

If you are interested in keeping up will all of our all natural body and hair care recipes subscribe to the blog!
January 6, 2014
The Freckled Farm First Friday Book Club – Goat Song

I am starting the 2014 “The Freckled Farm First Friday Book Club” with my favorite farming memoir – Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, a Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler

You will learn over the next year that I am completely obsessed with farming memoirs. I find the process of starting a farm incredibly fascinating… any type of farm, not just goat farms. It’s likely because I am at that same point in my life as many of the authors, but even if you aren’t I can assure you that they are great reads. There is something very romantic about learning to live of the land.

This was the book that started my love of farm memoirs. This wonderful novel follows Brad Kessler’s journey as he leaves the big city, moves to a farm in southern Vermont, and learns to raise goats and make cheese. I found his process of learning to make cheese especially inspirational. I love when people go to great lengths to truly learn their craft. Throughout the book Mr. Kessler throws in interesting facts about goats and how they have been viewed and used through history. So not only is this book a lovely story it’s also a history lesson.

Goat song is beautifully written. It goes into great detail about what it is like to start a goat farm and if you haven’t witnessed a buck in rut or the whole breeding process I am here to attest that it really is as gross as he depicts. Brad loves his land, his goats, and good cheese. I sincerely love this book. It is the perfect book to start your love of farming memoirs!

Have you read Goat Song? Leave your thoughts in the comment section!

January 3, 2014
What’s Up Wednesday – Introducing Rosewood Salt

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome 2014! We have so many exciting things happening with our soap company and our farm this year, and we can’t wait to share it with all of you. To kick off what we expect to be an amazing year we are introducing the newest addition to our Goat Milk Soap line… Rosewood Salt.

This spa bar is a real treat! It’s not an everyday use bar. This is the soap that you want to save for when you need a little bit of pampering. It has the wonderful scent of rosewood and the salt acts as a nice exfoliant. The salt also mimics the feel of soft water. It leaves your skin feeling clean and soft… it also does wonders on your feet.

Visit our website to purchase this soap.

January 1, 2014