[upbeat folk music]
- Inga: From the hills of southeastern Wisconsin,
I traveled to a farmstead in the Northwoods,
where Julie takes loving care of her small herd of goats.
When she realized they were producing more milk
than her family could drink,
Julie found a new way to get value out of her dairy goats.
[light melodic music]
[door opens and closes]
Hello, Julie. - Hi, Inga.
- May I have a seat? - Absolutely.
- Nice to see you. - You too.
- I see I've come just in time for milking.
- You have, you have.
- So, I've just been really feeling intrigued
by goats lately,
and I've been trying to visit as many as I can,
so immediately I thought,
I need to come out and see Julie.
- Thank you.
- Goat milking is a little different than cow milking.
- Less than half the work. [both laughing]
- My cows will typically milk about 25 pounds a day.
When they get on good pasture, it goes way up.
But how much do goats do?
- Well, right now, I'm probably getting
about a pound and a half a day,
but that's because the kids are with her
and they're drinking a lot of milk.
- This year, I'm experimenting
with having my calves with the cows,
and which I know a lot of people do,
and boy, are they healthy. - Yes, they are.
- I don't mind sacrificing that little bit of milk;
I'm sure you don't either.
- Not at all, not at all. - Yeah, for healthy babies.
- That's right.
- So, how did you get into goat milking and goat farming?
- Well, I grew up in Appleton,
which is not exactly farming country,
but my great-grandparents had a farm
just outside of Berlin, Wisconsin,
and it was my favorite place in the whole wide world.
My great-grandma Lucy was there as I was growing up,
and she had tons of animals, and I decided then and there
that that's what I wanted for my life when I could.
- There is something amazing, isn't there,
about being on a farm? - There certainly is.
- Yeah; I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm,
and I find a lot of people will say to me,
"Well, and then you decided to be a farmer?"
Well, I decided to be a hairdresser,
but I failed out of beauty school, so I became a farmer.
[both laughing]
But now I find that I have that need for those animals.
I need to be around it, and I enjoy milking.
- I do too, I do too.
- How did you decide on goats?
- Julie: Well, I had a neighbor who had baby goats,
and as you know, there's nothing cuter than a baby goat.
- Inga: Oh, I know, I know.
- And that was the start of us getting two goats,
which has turned into many more over the years.
- I don't blame you.
I've been spending a little bit more time with goats,
and I have Jersey cows, which have these big personalities,
but the goats are so friendly.
- They certainly are, yes.
- Yeah, it's just such a nice feeling that they're--
I feel needed. [both laughing]
- Julie: It's like having a bigger Golden Retriever.
- Inga: Yeah. [both laughing]
So how did you decide on soapmaking?
- Well, we had started to do farming
back in the early 2000s,
and were wondering about how to make things profitable.
At that time, we had a gentleman come up
from the Department of Ag, Trade, and Consumer Protection
to help us with our financials.
And when he found out we had goats, he told my husband
he could just take his wallet out of his pocket,
shake all the money out on the table,
'cause he'd never see it again. [both laughing]
And a few months later, I was in Eau Claire
at the Value Added Farming Conference,
and met Tony and Della Ens from down near Brodhead.
They had a grant to teach several other farm families
how to make goat milk soap,
and I thought that sounded really interesting.
So I went down and spent time with them and their farm
and learned how to make soap,
and I've been doing it ever since.
- And really turned it into a business.
- Julie: Yes, I did. - That is, so for me,
I'm just, I'm kind of...
We went through this barn fire thing
and the creamery burning down,
and now I'm sort of having to just stay strong emotionally,
and meeting with ladies like you,
hearing your story and seeing the success that you've had,
I can't even tell you how much it's helped me
and really said to me, "Hey, it's gonna happen.
It can happen."
Because there's no way I'm gonna give up my cows,
and I might be having some goats soon, too.
I'm not gonna give those up.
So, I have to keep figuring out a way to make it work.
- Well, we can help you with that.
- That must have been nice raising a family, too,
and having that flexibility. - It was very nice.
Our kids were in grade school at the time,
and when I first started making soap,
I made it in our regular kitchen.
My concern at the time was, in order to make soap,
you have to use lye,
and I was concerned about having my kids around that.
- 'Cause lye is, like, a chemical, right?
- Yes, a very caustic chemical, so I wear gloves
and I'm very careful when I do that part of the process.
And I was doing it in our own kitchen,
but I would only do it
during the hours my kids were in school,
and would have to clean everything up real good
by the time they got home.
And a number of years ago, we built a dedicated soap kitchen
off the back of our garage,
which has a door that locks so I can leave my mess behind.
[laughing] Keep it safe.
- This is wonderful.
I would love to see where you make the soap, if that's okay?
- Oh, I'd be delighted to share that with you.
[light guitar music]
- So, these soaps look amazing.
Yhey're so fun and beautiful.
It looks like it's an easy thing to do.
When I think of soapmaking,
I think "Oh, you can just throw it together."
What's the process?
- Well, it actually takes at least four to six weeks
from start to finish. - That's crazy.
- I know. [Inga laughs]
So, I start by making just a big plain bar,
and to do that, I have to use frozen goat milk
and combine that with lye.
If I didn't use the milk frozen, the lye would heat up so hot
that there would be a burnt orange chemical reaction to it.
So, I have those in the sink, and then on the stove,
I'm melting all my oils and bringing them to temperature.
And when those two products are ready to be combined,
I put them together in a large pot.
I use a electric drill with a paint stirrer on the end
for about ten minutes,
then pour all that into a big Tupperware container.
The Tupperware container sits for 24 hours
so that the soap will harden,
and there's a chemical process called saponification,
where the lye no longer is caustic.
That comes out of the Tupperware
and sits on the shelf to dry for about four to six weeks.
At the end of that time,
I bring the soap up to the soap kitchen,
I cut the bar into big slices,
put it through the food processor and grate it,
put it back on the stove for a second melt.
And if you've ever heard of French milled soaps,
it means they've been melted more than once.
And the reason for that
is so the soaps last longer and hold their scents longer.
- Inga: Oh, interesting,
so these are really artisan products.
What is the difference, can you tell folks,
between your basic bar of soap
and something that's homemade with care?
- To actually be considered soap, you have to use lye.
And if you look at some of the things
that you think of as soap in the grocery store,
they aren't labeled as soaps.
They might be labeled as moisturizing bars
or something to that effect,
and are full of a lot of different chemicals.
- They're like the margarine instead of butter.
- Yes, yes, that's an excellent analogy.
And with goat milk soap,
the goat milk in and of itself is a moisturizer.
And when you make homemade soap,
all the natural glycerin is retained in the soap.
Glycerin is a humectant,
which draws moisture to your skin,
so you're actually getting moisturizing benefits
both from the soap itself and the goat milk.
- Well, I'm excited to share some of it.
It smells delicious in here
with all the different essential oils.
This is heaven. - It is.
[upbeat folk music]