If you've read this blog for awhile, you know that "The Goat Chick" is Tabby's nickname. (A play on the goats and chickens she cares for.) She blogs sporadically at The Goat Chick and has an Etsy shop with the same name.
The best seller in her business has been The Goat Chick's "Udderly" Natural Goat's Milk Soap. This awesome totally good for your skin soap that we make starts out with fresh goat milk - supplied by our own goats. After we have that milk, we add in these other fine ingredients: coconut oil, olive oil, palm kernel oil, rice bran oil, shea butter, palm oil, castor oil, and eucalyptus and spearmint essential oils.
I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of Tabby milking the goats, so Saturday I followed her outside in the morning. The lighting wasn't great and my camera batteries were almost dead, so I couldn't turn on the flash, but you can get the idea from these pictures.
When we walked into the goat pen, our three goats were so very happy to see their Goat Chick! They knew it was breakfast time. Goats love to eat. Though in spite of what the cartoons lead you to believe, they do NOT eat tin cans. Nor a number of other things. But amazingly, they DO like to eat poison ivy! Talk about a natural, organic way to clear poison ivy out of your yard. :)
Tabby starts out by getting Nutmeg's breakfast and putting her in a stall to eat, so none of the other goat's steal her food. (Nutmeg is obviously not pregnant, much to our disappointment.)
The guinea hens home is near Nutmeg's stall, so I snapped this picture of them after taking hers. They are getting bigger but are still quiet skittish. They are just a much more wild bird that the chickens, so they aren't thrilled about having us close to them.
Tabby next feeds Big Christa. She puts the bowl of food in a special place on the milking stool that Frank built, and Christa jumps up to eat. Tabby puts a bar down over Christa's neck, so that she can't jump down, and then sits down and starts milking.
Tabby's got strong hands and can really get that milk out fast and squirting into the bucket. It makes a neat, rhythmic sound.
Christa finished her food before Tabby was done milking her and so she let Tabby know by stomping her hoof. Tabby gave her more food and then finished milking her. I thought that was a funny signal. And Tabby was quick - the second Christa's leg started going up, Tabby moved the bucket to make sure that hoof didn't come back down IN the bucket.
Next it was Pippi's turn. You can really see foam at the top of the milk by this point.
By the end, we have enough milk to fill up 3 quart jars. We drink it, use it for making yogurt, bake with it, and still have more than we can use! I want to try making some ice cream with it soon. And I've heard mozzarella cheese is easy to make with it.
And of course it's the first ingredient in our goat milk soap!
Once we make the soap, it cures for at least 5 weeks, Tabby then wraps each bar with her signature labels:
Finally - a finished product that is really GOOD for your skin!
FOR THIS WEEK ONLY - I AM HAVING A SOAP SPECIAL! A bar normally costs $4.50. But in honor of Lilly's birthday - she would have been 4 years old - soap will only cost $4.00 a bar! You must contact ME directly for this discount.
All those years that Daddy had cows and I never ONCE tried milking. I was afraid to.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the pictures. :)
I've only milked Christa once! And that's because Tabby was too sick to do so. I keep feeling like I should try it again. :)
DeleteMaybe next time we come to see you, Tabby will teach me how. :)
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