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!

Our Farmstead Shop - Now Open!

Mayday was waiting up all night for this! She's been counting the days until she could stock up on our Farmstead Milk Soaps for Holiday gifting, the Mini Lavender Bars in particular. Not only did Mayday help make them with her very own milk, her daughter, Sabine, is the goat model on the packaging and she has vowed to make sure they sell out first (and NOT the Oat Bars, graced by her nemesis - Bridget). 

The Little Seed Farm Shop is open and stocked with farmstead goodness! You can visit it by clicking "SHOP" along the top bar of the site. If you're one of our first 10 (non-farm animal) customers, you'll get a gift from the farm with your purchase. What could it be? A baby goat? Can't tell - it's a surprise!

Curious? Here's a little bit about the farmstead products you'll find in our Shop and how they came to be.

- Farmstead Milk Soap -

We made our first batch of goat's milk soap this past Spring while my Gram was in town. We were so happy with the results that we made another batch, and then another, trying different ideas and recipes along the way as we learned. Previously, we had only used liquid "squirt" soap, I would go so far as to say that I seriously disliked bar soap, but this stuff left our skin feeling so good that we quickly became converts. By this point, we had a slightly obscene stash in our closet so we started giving it away to friends and family that visited. Then it ran out. Shortly, calls and emails started pouring in with questions like: Were we going to make more? Could they buy some for their friends? When?!? We were so thrilled that they had enjoyed our soap enough to want to use it every day and share with others. We were getting the most amazing milk from our herd daily and needed to be sure the rest of our ingredients were up to par. We set to work sourcing sustainably harvested and certified organic oils to complement the milky goodness from our goats and were awed with the results. In our farm Shop you'll find both full sized and mini versions of our Farmstead Milk Soaps in Oat, Lavender, and Milk.  

- Country Correspondence -

At around the same time as our first foray into soap making, I started a series of posts called Postcards From Little Seed. Sometimes it's a little difficult for me to write a blog post. I end up self editing obsessively, or getting lost in details, or (most often) feeling really self conscious... On one of these occassions I decided to give words a kick in the pants and post only photos I had taken recently documenting life on our farm. I enjoyed sharing them so much that "Postcards" became a series. The feedback from our friends and readers was so encouraging - some of them even joked that we really should turn the images into Postcards. I laughed at the cute idea, but didn't take it seriously (I'm not a real photographer guys!) until after a few others inquired about purchasing the images as prints. Some brainstorming later, Country Correspondence was born - high quality photos from our "Postcards" posts, mounted on beautiful, thick, note cards and packed in themed sets. They're great for sending a Thank You, Thinking Of You, or even a unique holiday note. Once the envelope is opened and the message read, the card can easily be popped into a frame and hung in a special place.

- Little Seed Gift Set -

We put both our Farmstead Milk Soap and Country Correspondence together along with a sweet packet of saved seeds to create a gift set for the holiday season. The best part about this set, is that we get to give a gift right along with you - 25% of all proceeds from this set will be donated to the Red Cross to support Sandy relief efforts.

We appreciate your support!