Have too much goat milk?

When Stephanie Schindler’s children began raising goats as a 4-H project, she had no idea this would evolve into her making scented goat milk soap.
About four years ago, “the kids wanted a 4-H project and decided to get goats, and it blossomed from there,” she said. “We were milking the goats and had so much milk, we couldn’t drink it all, so I started freezing it.” When the freezer was full, she decided to start making soap.
She found a recipe on the Internet, “and added my own oils,” Stephanie explained. “I mix oils and lye and goat milk together. There is a chemical reaction between oils and lye, and that makes soap.”
When she first make the soap, “we would just give it away,” she said. “Then people started hearing about it.”
Her husband, Joe, “started taking it to work, and people wanted to buy it,” she said. Both work at Hannibal Regional Hospital, where Joe is in data processing and she is a registered nurse.
“It just amazes me that people are interested in this,” Stephanie said.
Now her soaps are now being sold in several area stores as well as by her family. They are stocked at a feed store in Bowling Green, Grandmas’s Attic in Perry and an antique store in Curryville.
She adds scents in the form of essential oils, such as lavender, rosemary, mint, oatmeal and honey. People can order a particular scent, she said. “I ask what they want and tell them if they want a scent, I can order it if I don’t have it.”
For details about buying the soaps or ordering a certain scent, call (573) 784-9964 or e-mail her at stephsfarm@yahoo.com.
 

Goat milk soap gives skin strength and suppleness

Stephanie Schindler said her goat milk soap contains lactic acid, “which helps smooth skin by exfoliation. It also has vitamins A and D. That gives your skin strength and suppleness. And it contains alpha hydroxy acid that breaks down the glue that hold dead skin cells together, (which means it) softens skin for a more youthful appearance.”
With its restorative vitamins, minerals and protein, she said, the soap is good for acne, eczema and other skin problems. “Goat soap has the closest pH to your skin. Other products have an alkaline substance and the balance of your skin — the pH — is lost, which causes skin to feel dry and tight. With goat milk, the pH is close to the same as your skin.”
Her soap has no chemicals or preservatives and uses milk “straight from our goats,” she said.
The family has about 20 goats, including both meat goats and dairy goats. Stephanie’s children, Breanna, 15, and Logan, 13, “both help with the goats every day,” she said. The dairy goats are milked by hand, and she will have goat milk for sale later. Only one goat is milked now, but “when they have babies we will be milking six,” she said.
The family farm includes cows and chickens and “Joe helps me all the time,” she said.
She recently began making pet treats with goat meat and goat cheese. “I have experimented with pet treats and made some with cheese and meat, dehydrated like jerky,” Stephanie said. “I made jerky bites. I tested it on our pets and give it to family and friends, and everybody has come back (for more).”
She hopes to make goat milk lotions in the future, or “anything you can make with it,” she explained. “People are making lip balm, lotions and soap, and I also would like to make liquid soap.”
Meanwhile, she will be selling goat milk soap and goat milk, which she explained is not pasteurized. “It is natural from the goat. And I make goat cheese,  but only the soft cheese.”
The Schindler family has taken the soap to the Pike County Fair and took goats to the state fair last year, where “they did very well,” she said.
“If somebody is interested in a goat, we might have some for sale. We will have babies, and you can’t keep them all.”