The summer of 2013 we purchased a 1.25 acre piece of horse property with a fixer upper house on it that had been abandoned for 5 years.  I saw a money pit, my husband (who is truly a visionary type guy with the drive to make his dreams happen) saw the home he wanted his family to live in.  So we purchased what would become our surbaban goat "ranch".  Obviously, it's not really a ranch.  But when we had to come up with a herd name for our dairy goats Lil' Toad Ranch just sounded better to us than Lil' Toad Farm.  But I digress.  

 

One of the other structures on our property besided our run-down house was this corral, overgrown with weeds and rusting.  We decided we should take advantange of the oppurtunity the land was affording us and get some farm animals.  We asked our kids what they would like to raise for a 4-H project and they picked goats.  

 

Fast forward a couple months we got our first buck and doe and so began Lil' Toad Ranch Nubians.  We spent months learning from observation, reading and mentors about how to care for our dairy goats and were pleastanly surprised that we actually loved the milk!  

 

We, like many, were afraid the milk would taste gamey or goaty, but because of the animal husbandry practices we'd learned through reading and talking to others we ended up getting a very sweet, creamy, delicious milk. And a lot of it!

 

And so, when the fridge was full of milk and we'd made as much cheese as we could make, Sheila (the Lil' Toad in Lil' Toad Ranch) decided to give soap making a go. She was a bit intimidated but set out to craft a nourishing bar of soap with natural ingredients that would be good for her family's skin. And with the not-so-secret ingredient of our goat milk, the soap turned out amazing! 

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She gave away bars of soap to her friends and family and was overwhelmed with the response: everyone wanted more!  And so, she milked her goats to make more goat milk soap. 

 

And the rest is history!

 

We sure hope you enjoy our goat milk soap as much as we enjoy it!