Knowing Your Ingredients

Don and I think that whether it is our food or our soaps it is important to know where our ingredients come from. In the Spring, Summer, and Fall I am busy canning our food in addition to making soap. Our food comes from local farms or our little garden and we, along with our extended family, enjoy the fruits of our labor all winter long. The majority of our meat is wild caught and every bit is utilized. In fact, even the fat is rendered down and cleaned by hand and used in our soaps. It produces a hard, creamy, conditioning bar of soap that is hard to beat in our opinion.

Some time ago, my source for fresh goat’s milk dried up. The wonderful people we were getting our milk from were a lovely elderly couple and their nanny passed. Before they were able to replace her, tragedy struck and the lovely lady also passed. The husband decided that it all was too much and understandably chose to not replace the goats. However, that meant that I had no goat’s milk for my soap.

I immediately launched into a search for a good source of goats milk. In the meantime, I used powdered which is fine in a pinch but doesn't produce that creamy texture that we so love. I found many of the goat farms in the area do not sell their milk as they are meat farms, which is fine but disappointing. Having our own goats would be ideal, because I just love them, but is not possible for us due to my illness. I am simply not strong enough for that level of work. The search was discouraging to say the least.

One day, as I was reading the local paper, there was an article about a small farm right here in Bascom. The article was just lovely. I immediately contacted the owners and we set up a time to visit their farm. Restoration Ranch is everything I would want in a farm and to say I fell in love with the place is an understatement. Lee and Alecia, the couple that own the farm, are every bit as wonderful as the farm. They have turkeys, chickens, guinea fowl, goats, cows and pigs. The baby pigs were adorable! I'm sure that they were just thinking who is this crazy woman who wants to hug our goats! LOL

During that initial visit, I got to meet Meadow and Esmerelda the nannies that are providing my milk for soaps. I thought you all should meet them too. Here is a picture of the beautiful Esmerelda but Meadow has proven elusive.

Just as it is important for us to know where our ingredients come from, so it is for you also. Know where your food comes from and what is in it. You will find that you get back to nature a little bit and will be all the healthier for it.