The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: Goat Milk Soap

  • 2015 Spring Goat Milk Soap

    It’s SPRING!! Oh my goodness I am not sure I have ever been so happy for winter to end. Yesterday was the first day of Spring, which means it is time for our Spring Goat Milk Soap to come out!

    Spring Goat Milk Soap from The Freckled Farm Soap Company

    The plan was to have a set scent to represent each season that would return each year. This worked out for all of our seasonal soaps, except for Spring… which we learned soon after making the first batch that Kevin and I were allergic to the main essential oil used. It was awful! Every time we had to work with it we would both get terrible sinus headaches. So, while it was a pretty bar of soap, that many people enjoyed, we had to change it up this year. The other seasonal varieties were wildly popular (especially Winter which sold out in just two weeks!) and will remain the same. So what did we pick for this year’s spring soap?!…. A wonderful floral blend!

    For the 2015 Spring Goat Milk Soap we used the essential oils of Jasmine (one of my favorite scents), Rose, and Lavender. This bright, cheery soap has a light floral scent. It’s a beautiful blend and I am extremely happy with it! This will be a returning soap for sure!

    Our Spring Goat Milk Soap will be available on our website and at our farmers market and craft show booths through the Spring!

  • Goat Milk Soap Laundry Detergent

    It’s finally here: Our Goat Milk Laundry Soap!

    Goat Milk Soap Laundry Detergent from The Freckled Farm Soap CompanyWe’ve been working on it for months and have put this laundry detergent through the paces! It has worked wonders on our red clay caked farm clothes and we have heard nothing but great things from our soap testers! It was able to get stains out of our clothes that have been there for a long time, and it works it’s magic with only a tablespoon of detergent. You get over 50 washes out of our 24 oz containers.

    It is always exciting to release a product that you know your customers are going to love and we can’t wait for everyone to try it! Check out the detergents on our website…. and remember orders over $50 receive free shipping!

  • What’s up Wednesday – February 25th

    We are in the final stretch before the start of kidding season! Sonia only has a week and a half left. She has received all of her vaccinations (CDT and BoSe) and we continue to increase her feed to prepare her for milk production. She is a first freshener and they tend to bag up (their udders grow) over the course of the last week or two but hers hasn’t started to grow yet, however that is not an indication of how close she is as she could potentially bag up right before she kids. One indication of how close she is to kidding are her ligaments. They are about the size and thickness of a pencil and are on either side of the doe’s tail, as they get closer to their due date the ligaments soften until they eventually disappear, at which point labor is imminent. Sonia’s ligaments are quite soft! She is most definitely going to keep us on our toes! Ruth is a little over two weeks away and will be getting her BoSe shot this Friday. Her ligaments are also softening. Hillary has a little bit longer to go with a little over 4 weeks left. She is already huge though! I have a feeling she will go at least a little before her due date. Then of course there is Tina… who isn’t due until June. Between the 3 girls who are due in March we will likely get 5-6 kids. My current guess is we will get 3 does and 2-3 bucks. I hope I am right!! We will soon find out!

    On Tuesday morning we put in the monitor in the barn. This monitor allows us to hear everything that is going on in there and helps us catch when the girls go into labor. It keeps us from having to constantly go out and check on them. It’s great during the day, and is helpful at night however it keeps me up most of the night since I am a really light sleeper.

    Yesterday our packaging for the laundry detergent came in! Isn’t it cute! This jar is the largest size. There will also be a refill size and a sample size. It won’t be long until we are able to debut it!

    Laundry Packaging - The Freckled Farm Soap Company

  • What’s Up Wednesday – February 11th

    In the last week we have continued to work on our goat milk soap laundry detergent. We have worked hard perfecting the amount of essential oil for each scent. I think we finally reached an amount that we are happy with. We are hoping to be able to start offering the detergent sometime in March.

    In the past week we received our acceptance to the West End Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Mid-Week Farmers Market at Aw Shucks. Kevin will likely be the one manning the booth at both of these locations. Our spring and summer is starting to come together!

    This weekend we worked on getting the soap room together. We have been building it for almost a year at this point and haven’t had a chance with our busy schedule to put any real time into it in the last 6 months or so. The soap company has lived in several rooms in our house. A large portion of our home has been cut off to our family for far too long! This weekend we got the room painted and within the next few days the floor is going in and cabinets are going up. It won’t be long until we will be moving in and we can have our house back!

    The count down continues to the start of kidding season! Sonia now has a little over 3 weeks, Ruth has a little over 4, and Hillary has about 6 weeks. Tina is not due until June, so we are not considering her in this countdown. Hillary is already huge and is getting quite uncomfortable. I can’t wait to see how many she has!

     

  • Saturday Events – February 14

    Valentines day is this Saturday! Are you in need of a last minute Valentines gift? You’re in luck! We are in two locations this Saturday. Goat milk soaps make a great gift.

    • South of the James – 9am – 12pm – Forest Hill Park – New Kent Ave & 42nd Street, Richmond VA
    • West End Farmers Market – Pop-up Market – 10am-12pm – 12450 Gayton Rd. Henrico, VA 23238

  • What’s Up Wednesday – Feb 4th

    This has been the week of figuring out what our spring and summer is going to look like. We’ve been applying to farmers markets. Our plan going into the year was to be at five markets throughout the week and so far we have applied to a total of five. I have one more that I am considering. I should have a better idea what our farmers market schedule will look like in a few weeks and I will update the “Where to Buy” section of the website! We are also applying to several late winter and spring festivals.

    Kidding season will soon be here! Sonia is due first, in a little over 4 weeks! Ruth is next, followed by Hillary later in the month. Tina is not due until June (assuming she is pregnant, we only bred her a week and a half ago). We will be starting to slowly increase their feed over the next few weeks to help prepare them for milk production. They will also be getting their CDT booster shots.

    This is the time of year that things really start to pick up around the farm! The days are getting longer, egg production is picking up, the countdown to kidding has started, and we are getting days that are at least somewhat warm! The winter funk is starting to thaw!

  • What’s Up Wednesday – January 28th

    It has been a very busy week. We are still very much in the adjustment period since Kevin left his day job, but we are finally starting to form some sort of routine. I am in the middle of wedding booking season for the photography business, we are working on our new goat milk soap laundry detergent, contacting stores about carrying our products, building up our soap supply, and taking care of the farm. Busy, busy, busy, but we are loving working together full time.

    Last Wednesday we took Tina to have her hooves reshaped. She foundered this past Summer and we spent months controlling the crazy growth and lowering her grain intake to slow it down. I finally felt like we got her back to (somewhat) normal, so we took her to a farm in Culpeper who were going to use a grinder to get her feet back to the correct shape. We didn’t breed her in the fall because we were dealing with getting her feet comfortable again. We honestly were debating whether we were breed her again at all because we weren’t sure if it would be too hard on her, but the farmers in Culpeper didn’t think that her case was anywhere near as bad as others that they had seen and she was cleared to breed again. She went into heat on Monday and was bred to Warner. Her due date will be June 25th, much later than we are used to, but it could set us up for a year round milking schedule. It would be nice to not have periods of the year where we are without fresh milk coming in… We have two chest freezers of frozen milk for soap (it must be frozen to be used in the soap making process), but it’s not the same when it comes to drinking.

  • What’s Up Wednesday – Jan 21st

    The last two weeks since Kevin left his “day job” have been an adjustment. For the last two years we have lived in survival mode. Kevin was pulling in at least 60 hours a week at work and every other second of the day was stacked with things that needed to be done for the businesses and farm. Late nights and extremely early mornings were how we lived. Now that the 60 hours of work outside of our businesses are gone we are trying to figure out what our new schedule looks like. We no longer have to live with the mindset that if we have a second it needs to be filled with something because who knows how much time we are going to have later. We are working on balancing everything and actually giving ourselves time to just relax… what a concept. I have actually had to set myself a set of tasks that need to be completed that day, and once I am done I am allowed to relax. Otherwise I will just move on to one of other five hundred tasks on my to do list…

    One of our big projects this week is working on our new goat milk soap laundry detergent. We are officially in the research and development phase! So far so good! We plan to sell them in three sizes; a nice large reusable glass container with a wooden scoop, refill bags, and finally a sample size for 2-4 washes. We are currently planning on 4 scents; Sunrise Citrus, Lavender, Tea Tree (for strong odors caused by bacteria – body odor and stinky socks), and Unscented. Look for these detergents to join our market booths and website in the late winter or early spring.

    We do have a little bit of sad news from this week. We lost one of our free ranging chickens to a hawk. Her name was Sophia and she was one of our original chickens. In fact she gave us our very first egg! We retired to her to the pasture last spring where she, and several of her sisters, had the run of both pastures and the barn. We knew this was a possibility. Chickens are very vulnerable to predators, especially when they are free ranging, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it happens. I am extremely tender-hearted and we love our animals. In the meantime we have moved the few other free rangers into the big closed coop until we can figure out a safer option for them. Our fear is now that the hawk knows where the food is he will just keep coming back.

    Check back next week for even more updates!! There is so much in the works!

     

  • 2014 in Review

    Oh my goodness it has been an amazing year. I am so proud of what we have accomplished with both of our businesses and I am incredibly grateful for our wonderful, loyal customers, who allow my husband and I to work together, build this farm, and live our dream. I cannot wait to see what 2015 has in store for us as we start our journey of both Kevin and I putting a full time effort into both of our businesses… It’s certainly going to be an adventure.

    Stand out moments of 2014

    • Baby Goats! – I think baby goats will still be one of the top highlights of the year decades from now. Watching these precious little creatures come into the world is nothing short of amazing, and getting to watch as their personalities develop is such a treat. I can’t image it will ever grow old! We had 4 beautiful little babies born on the farm this year. William, Chelsea, Elsie, and Eleanor… all of whom we retained.
    • Farmer’s Markets – This was our first year doing farmer’s markets full time and while we were only able to be in 2 markets a week (nothing compared to the 5-6  a week we hope to be in, in 2015) it really allowed us to find our customers. I love being able to interact with the people who use our soaps. I love their feedback and stories.
    • Purchasing Our First Herd Sire – Before this year we would do “driveway breedings,” meaning we would wait until the girls would go into heat, take them to the farm where our chosen buck lives, breed them, then bring them home. This is extremely stressful. Especially when goats are only in heat for 24-36 hours, with only about 12 of those hours being “optimal,” and the truck you use to transport your goats is also the truck that your husband takes to work. Goat heats, when you don’t have a buck in rut to throw them into a really good heat, are really slight. You have to know exactly what you are looking for, and in the case of our girls, it can be easy to miss if you aren’t actively looking for it. This spring we purchased our first herd sire. It was so much easier to tell when the girls where in heat. The only challenge was dealing with a young buck who had never bred before… He didn’t really know what he was doing… but in the end he got the job done and we currently have a herd full of pregnant does.

    Thank you for all your support in 2014! I can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store!

  • The Week Ahead – December 15th – 21st

    This is the last week to get our soap for Christmas gifts! Who doesn’t love receiving handmade, local goat milk soap? It’s a great stocking stuffer or teacher gift!

    Saturday December 20th  – South of the James Farmer’s Market – 9am – 12pm – Forest Hill Park – New Kent Ave & 42nd Street, Richmond VA

    Saturday December 20th – Vendor Expo at Midnight Brewery – 1-4pm – 2410 Granite Ridge Rd, Rockville, VA 23146