Local woman makes soap from goat's milk

“It’s a bit work intensive in the morning and they’re going to be noisy when I go in there. It’s also going to smell.”

Patty Woodland was giving me a quick rundown of what to expect as I stood nearby and watched her prepare the grain for the nine goats that she has. It was nine in the morning and still cold out. I was excited though because a new baby goat had just been born the night before at around 7 p.m. Patty said that they had named him Kringle.

“We don’t like to have babies during this time of the year, but Mallory jumped the fence and nature won out,” Patty said. “We like to have babies in April, May and June.”

The weather is warmer in those months. A heat lamp and lots of hay help to keep Kringle warm who was also wearing a green sweater that read, “Happy Goat Farm” on the back.

Patty feeds Pricilla first, a female goat that has been retired and put out to pasture. But before she does, she has to rescue her as she’s gotten tied up in some twine.

“Pricilla, what did you do?” Woodland asks as she kneels over to help her out. When Pricilla doesn’t eat out of the container where it’s been set, Woodland checks to make sure nothing is wrong as she picks it up and holds it for her.

Aside from feeding each of the goats in the morning, Patty milks two of the goats daily—Abigail and Sarah—and uses their milk to drink, make cheese and sell goat milk soap. Patty said that she gets about two to three quarts of milk a day, depending on the goat’s cycle.

Patty said that after a female goat has a baby, she will take the kid off its mom at night and begin milking her once a day. At two months old, Patty takes the kid off completely and milks its mother twice a day. Patty said that she sort of started experimenting with soap and cheese.

“There was an excess of milk,” Patty explained. “We had more than two people could drink and so I started experimenting with soaps and cheese.”

Patty said that the soaps, which she sells to customers at farmer’s markets and online, is relatively easy to make. She mixes the milk with lye, fats and butter. She has to let each, the milk and lye, fats and butter, hit the right temperatures, which she said can be tricky at first. Then, it’s a matter of adding fragrances. From there, the mixture is poured into a mold and allowed to sit overnight. It takes a month’s time for it to cure.

“It’s actually better for your skin. The milk has a lot of amino acids. The fats and butter are a moisturizer and homemade soaps have a lot of natural glycerin, which is pulled out of commercial soaps,” Patty said.

Patty said that people can check out her Web site, www.gethappygoatsoap.com. She said aside from selling online to customers, she also has some regulars in the area.

Having milked Abigail and Sarah, Patty leads the goats out to the pastures for the day.

“Goat parade coming through,” Patty says as the goats trail after her, some running right to the pens from the barn. Goats will apparently do anything for grain.

Finally, buckets of hot water are put inside for them to drink. Patty said that she read somewhere goats enjoy hot water over cool water, even in the summer time.

“They’re pretty funny,” she remarks.

Patty said that she’s sort of adapted to being a country girl. She said that each of the goats has their own personality. Taking Brewster, the young buck out, he ends up heading to the wrong pen where his mom is.

“He was a big boy yesterday and went to where he was supposed to,” Patty said. “I’ll have to go collect him.”

Patty said that having the goats around had just “been fun.” She said that she also has some health problems and so they get her out of bed on days she just wants to stay in bed.

“And they’re cute,” she added.

To make things even more fun, Pricilla, who was the goat that started it all back in the spring of 2007, has her own blog, www.pricillaspeaks.blogspot.com, where she dishes about everyday life on the farm.

“She sort of speaks for the operation,” Patty said. “It sort of started out to promote the soap selling.”

Of course, the one thing about having the goats is that “we’re sort of stuck here because I’m on a goat schedule,” Patty added.

If you want to see some photos of little Kringle, they will be on Pricilla’s blog.