What is "Farmstead" Milk Soap?

Farmstead soap set, ready to ship

After a busy month filling holiday orders we've finally had a day or two to catch up on other things. Throughout the rush to get everyone their presents a bunch of questions came up about our soaps and what makes them special. A common question was in regard to the term "farmstead" soap.

What Does "Farmstead" Mean?

In the cheese world the term farmstead refers to the fact that the milk used for cheesemaking comes from the cheesemaker's own herd of dairy animals. Only if the cheesemaker ALSO milks the goats can he/she label their cheese as farmstead cheese. If the cheesemaker is buying milk from another dairy the cheese can't be labeled as farmstead cheese. Simple as that.

Since the milk we use to make our soaps comes from our own dairy herd we decided to transfer the term "farmstead" over to the soap world.

Why Does "Farmstead" Soap Matter?

With our farmstead soap you know exactly where the milk comes from. That can't be said for most other soaps. The majority of goat's milk soap uses powdered milk or milk from the store. Generally, the milk is coming from very large dairies where the goats are kept in confinement. At a minimum, you can be pretty certain that those goats don't have access to fresh pasture everyday. There's also no way to know the conditions in which they live. With our soap you know that the goat's milk comes from happy and healthy goats that are free to live their lives expressing their full goat-ness.

It might sound silly to some, but I like that peace of mind. 

Happy goats, happy soap!

The Herd Goes Organic - Sprouting Grains for Feed

sprouted spelt and wheatAs I bet you can tell, Scrapple and I aren't necessarily about doing things the easy way. We've set out down this path to do them the right way, or at least the way we believe that to be. This mindset led us to rotational grazing, which, while being a bit on the labor intensive side, has the overwhelming benefits of providing our herd with a variety of fresh, nutrient dense, forages daily and enhances the land with the amazing fertilizing feature of our four legged friends.

We've strived to give our herd the best care possible, while at the same time allowing them to be goats and so far they seem to thank us by not only staying happy and healthy, but also giving us some amazingly delicious milk!

"nom nom nom"Along with the around-the-clock grazing, we give our milking goats (when they're in milk) a bit of grain when they're on the milking stand twice a day to supplement their diet. In keeping with our values and practices, we had hoped to feed organic but, unfortunately, none of our local suppliers carry an organic goat feed. We went with the next best thing, local, while hoping that eventually someone would start carrying organic/non-gmo

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Local, Organic, Free-Range. Is it All About the Taste?


Truly free-range chicken enjoying the pasture

Does Your Local, Free-Range Turkey Taste Better?

 
When it comes to “alternative” food production, such as organic and local, there’s plenty of skepticism. Recently, I’ve heard a lot people asking whether the food tastes better. Whenever the origins of a free-range Thanksgiving turkey are discussed there’s almost always someone asking if it tastes better. In another instance I asked our brewing grain provider if he could source some local or organic grains and his response was the same: “I’d be curious if the beer would even taste better.” I’m always baffled because better taste is one of the last things I think about.
 
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