Goat Milk and Soapmaking

One of our does became a first time mom in April.   Surprisingly, our little lady has had pretty good manners on the milk stand.  She is normally very skittish and I thought she would never stand still long enough to be milked.

Bella is a first time freshener this year.

Before the kids were born, I put her on the milk stand every day to feed her so she would get used to the routine.  The practice paid off. She stands still and is very acquiescent as long as she has grain, necessitating my working quickly.  My hands had gotten out of shape so it took a while to get back into the rhythm.

My supplies for milking.

Putting together a few batches of  soap has been a big priority over the last few months with an abundance of lovely, creamy, goat's milk. I have tried to make enough to last until next year's freshening.  Unlike Queen Elizabeth I, who said, "I take a bath once a month whether I need it or no,"  our bathing habits are more frequent so we use up a bar every couple of weeks.

The different colors are interesting.

I freeze any extra milk in ice cube trays so it is convenient to measure out for a soap recipe whenever I have a little time to get creative.  I am experimenting with adding fragrances to my soap recipes and have found that almond is my favorite so far.   While it cures, I enjoy the calming almondy scent that gently wafts through the house.

Going through the process of soapmaking made me start wondering how this method and the particular mix of ingredients came about. According to http://www.soaphistory.net/ soap has been around a long, long time, like thousands of years.  The first soaps were not used for bathing the body, but for cleaning cooking vessels and for medicinal purposes.  Apparently early civilizations did not use soap for regular bathing of the human body until much later.   Evidence from the earliest soapmaking indicates that it was made with fat, salt and oils, similar to modern soap.  Although some early soap contained urine.  Hmmm, I don't think I will include that in my recipe.

I have come up with a good recipe that so far has worked every time.  Interestingly enough, each batch turns out to be a different color.  I think this has to do with heating the milk, fragrances used and different combinations of oils.

I am saving the scrapes to remelt and remold so nothing is wasted.

Maybe if Queen Elizabeth I had  a bar of my soap, she would have bathed more often than once a month.