“Oooh, who are the best little golden goaties EVER?” I croon to Honey, Freya, Fat Pumpkin, and Figgy Pudding as they jump onto their milking stands.

I milk two Nigerian Dwarf goats, each smaller than a Labrador retriever dog.  These particular goats give little milk—a quart apiece at the height of their lactation—but the milk has almost 8% fat.  Whole cow milk hovers around 4%.  On my homestead, I’m hungry for fat.  Fat makes butter, and butter is good.  We are eating only what we can grow and harvest by hand, so animals that convert blackberry brambles into cream are worth their keep.  The Nigerians stay in vibrant good condition eating just what we can grow and gather around the farm, no grain required.

I also have two high-producing LaMancha goats.  Their milk is pleasantly rich but doesn’t develop as thick a layer of cream on it.  My two LaManchas, bless their bucket-filling ways, do better if I feed them grain during the peak of their lactations.  Grain is a convenient high-calorie supplement for them during the winter and spring before the garden kicks into high gear.  For the summer and into the fall, milk production increases when each goat gets a giant overgrown zucchini from the garden.  It’s cheaper and easier to grow zucchini than to grow or buy grain.  If I had to raise goats without the benefit of an awesome feed store just down the road from me, I would keep the Nigerians and rethink the LaManchas.  It would be a full-time job keeping those big girls fed through the winter without a handy bale of alfalfa hay.

In case you were wondering, feeding grain does not necessarily increase the fat content of milk.  Digesting fiber is what puts fat in the milk, and there is plenty of fiber in the weeds and grasses of our farm.  During our growing season, from April to October, the goats eat essentially only what we grow here on our few acres.  The goats’ appetite for brambles and weeds inspires us to keep the homestead groomed.  My uncle stopped by with a bucket of weeds from his garden patch, shaking his head.

“I meant to weed these beds last week,” he said, “but I waited until the weeds got big enough for the goats to eat!”

Now that you know how to produce high-fat milk from your goats, what about butter? During our year-long hand-harvested food challenge, butter would be a real treat.  Chicken fat is fantastic, but it’s a little weird to spread on a piece of cornbread.  I had heard that butter comes only from cow milk.  Would it make sense for me to get my own cow?

“Butter on your popcorn,” said our farm-mate T-bone.

“Whipped cream!” enthused my friend Saskia.

So I went out and bought a Guernsey cow.  Eight-feet long and weighing half a ton, she ate a lot more than my goats.  She didn’t give a lot more milk, though.  It took her about two weeks to eat the pasture that sustains my goats all summer.  Did I really have to do all this work (and buy a lot more feed, and wash the milking machine this cow required) just to get a bit of butter?

Then I got a tip from Gianaclis Caldwell, dairywoman extraordinaire, in her excellent book The Small-Scale Dairy.  This tip changed my life since it let me sell my butter-making cow, and stick with small, easy-to-feed goats.  Don’t get me wrong, I would gladly have a cow again someday, but it’s nice to be able to get at least a small amount of butter without having a huge cow.

Yes, I said “a small amount of butter.” It’s true that the fat in goat milk does not rise as quickly or completely as the fat in cow milk.  Given the same amounts of cow and goat milk, I can make less butter from the goat milk even if the goat milk has a higher total fat content.  Oh well.  The upside is that goat milk, even skimmed of its cream, has enough fat left in it to make creamy yogurt or a hard cheese that does not rely on a lot of fat for its texture.  Parmesan, for example, is made with partly skimmed milk.  I make a mean hard cheese from skimmed goat milk.  It’s loaded with flavor after being aged for six months.  Making butter from goat milk, then, yields both short-term and long-term satisfaction.

Here are the steps to making goat milk butter.

1)    Strain warm, fresh milk immediately into wide-mouth jars.  Or track down a local source of rich milk.

My four goats, as of this writing, give me about 12 gallons of milk a week.  I skim off a quart and a half of cream from that amount.  This cream yields about a pound of butter.  If we had more than a pound of butter a week, I am sure our household of butter-lovers would eat it!  Having one pound is better than none, though.  Many cream-skimming instructions urge you to let the milk sit in shallow containers.  I use half-gallon jars, which concentrate the cream in a smaller surface area.  I find it easier to skim this way.  The fat content from goats varies, both between goats and during the course of their lactations.  By the time my Nigerians are nine months into their milking period, I’m practically squirting pure light cream right out of them.  Another fat-saving hint—during each milking session, the first milk from each animal has less fat than the last milk I get out of her udder.  If the barn cats are going to get any milk, it’s the first stuff I squirt, not the creamy last pint.

2)    Refrigerate the milk for four days.

Time is not always kind to goat dairy, so I want to get the fat off the milk as soon as practicable.  Some people are more sensitive to the goaty flavors of old milk than others.  For some people that tang is part of goat milk’s allure!

Letting the milk sit in the fridge longer than four days means thicker cream, but less than two days means there will hardly be any cream worth skimming.  Four days is a happy medium.  I used to chill the milk in a cooler with ice water but found that I could get away with simply putting the jars directly in the fridge.  My ladies have never had a goaty taste in their milk, but this can vary significantly between animals.  If your milk tastes unpleasant, try chilling it quickly after milking, in an ice-water bath.  If you buy milk, it may already have sat for this long and be ready to skim.

3)    When you skim the cream from four-day-old milk, put it in the freezer in a quart-or-larger container.

I use a big peanut butter jar, about a quart and a half, because that is as much cream as will fit in the kitchen mixer I use to churn butter.  I get about a quarter cup of cream from each half-gallon jar.  Yes, it seems like a tiny bit of cream in a big jar, but just let it build up over time!  I have one precious ladle that is just the right size to fit inside the wide-mouth jar and lift out that thick cream.  Skim all the jars before you lick the ladle, of course.  While cow milk forms a distinct “cream line” between the cream and the skim milk, it’s less distinct with goat milk.  You will notice a visual change in texture between the thicker cream and the watery milk.  As I said, I rarely get more than a quarter of a cup of cream per half-gallon of milk.  Those goats are tiny but mighty when it comes to producing fat.

4)    Add cream to your freezer container as you can skim it from milk in the fridge.

As you gather and save cream over the course of a week, a little glacier of cream will build up in your freezer jar.  I like to add only really thick cream, which means a higher yield of butter from the cream I have saved.  Plus, then enough creaminess is left behind in the milk that rest of the household milk-drinkers don’t complain that I have stolen all their fat.

5)    When your jar in the freezer is full, thaw and make butter.

I like my goat butter uncultured, or sweet, but you could add kefir or another culture and let the cream ripen before churning.  The main trouble with churning goat cream, cultured or not, is that it is so delicious I have been known to halt the butter-making process and just eat the bowl full of whipped cream before it turned to butter.  All my goat butter has had a mild and delicious nuttiness, like a temperate-zone equivalent of coconut oil.  Goat butter is white.  You could camouflage it in a Crisco jar.

For those who haven’t made butter before, my technique is to use my ancient KitchenAid mixer. Into the bowl goes the cream I thawed the night before.  I use the whisk attachment on a medium-high speed.  I learned to drape a kitchen towel over the mixer because when the cream turns suddenly to butter, there can be a lot of splashing buttermilk.  The cream usually takes just a few minutes of churning to turn to butter.  Don’t step too far away from the kitchen during this time.  Once the butter starts separating, I turn the mixer down to its lowest setting to gently consolidate the butter crumbs instead of splashing them all over the kitchen counter.  For whatever reason, goat butter has consistently churned faster for me than my cow butter did.  Maybe it’s because of the freezing, which gives a grainy texture that may help the fat globules stick together.

Once the cream has separated into butter and buttermilk, I rinse the butter in cold water, massage in a pinch of fine sea salt to the pound of butter, and press it into a pint jar.  That’s our butter for the week!  I drink the buttermilk myself or give it to the chickens.

A big crusty loaf of cornbread from corn grown in the backyard, and a gleaming spoonful of goat butter—this is bliss.  See what kind of blackberry-transforming alchemy your goats can do.  It helps, of course, to baby talk to them.

The post How to Make Goat Milk Butter appeared first on Homestead.org.

When milk is $4.50+ per gallon at the supermarket, keeping a dairy animal starts to look really economical, especially when you drink a lot of milk.  For us, with 5 children, we will use 1-1.5 gallons of milk each day.  At today’s prices in our area, that adds up to about $130.00-$135.00 a month.  We were resigned to high milk prices, as we didn’t know anyone to trade milk with, and we couldn’t afford a cow.  We also did not have proper shelter for a cow, nor anywhere suitable for milking.  Many families like us, are spending quite a lot of milk each month, just because of these problems with owning a cow.

We met a local family through our church, and imagine our surprise when they had a dairy goat.  We actually kept their goat for them while they went on vacation, and she was so terrible in temperament and attitude, that, although we thought we might enjoy the milk, we couldn’t stand the thought of owning and caring for such an obnoxious animal.  We didn’t know the number one rule of goats!  One goat wants out, but two goats want out less.

To say the least, our sheep tight fencing was not acceptable for a goat.  Since the goat was alone, without a buddy, she was cranky, mean, and always trying to escape.  When her owner came back from vacation, we shipped her off and said “GOOD RIDDANCE!”  However, the idea of the goat stuck with us and after a long enough time, I found myself reading up on dairy goats, despite my unpleasant encounter with that particular goat.

With lots of reading and research I found out about that number one rule of goats, and according to the books and websites, most dairy goats are entirely different than that goat.  They are known to be gentle, friendly and are reputed to be excellent children’s companions and pets.  We found some milk, tried it, and found it to taste wonderfully sweet and good.  It has a milk flavor, with a nice creamy texture, very much like that from a Jersey cow.  It is rich and creamy, and does not taste “goaty” at all.  Some breeds can have a stronger flavor, namely the Toggenburg which was bred for cheese-making.  The milk we drank was delicious and we all liked it.  So we found ourselves looking for a breeder from which to purchase a couple of goats.

From the reading, there were a few criteria that I wanted to meet, without exception.  First of all, we had a price to find, one we could afford, and some of the dairy goats are very expensive show-type animals.  We also wanted a goat that had been dis-budded, and therefore would have no horns.  We knew for SURE we wanted two goats and not one.  Since we had never milked before, we also wanted a seasoned milker that was very easy to milk.  We needed an older goat that could teach us what to do.  Since it was also for a 4H project, the goat needed to be of good quality as well so that it, or its kids could be shown for the fair.  With the low price we needed to find, it was not looking very good for us getting any goats, but luck was with us, and we found two.

Often the good breeders will have a doe or two, that is perhaps a little older, has a limp from injury, or some other defect.  These can often be purchased for a very reasonable price, and they met all our other criteria as well.  One had a bum leg, and the other was just very small and therefore not show-material.  We bought these goats, and after a hard and fast learning curve on goat care, we have become successful goat herds.  We milk the goats, and they save us about $75 or more each month with their milk.  We can always find someone who is happy to take extra milk, and often make cheese and soap.  Best of all, they were both bred to show-quality sires, and both of them were of show-quality breeding, just not show-quality themselves due to environmental factors.  We ended up with three beautiful kids for the fair, and plenty of milk to drink.

The story has a happy ending, with the family having lots of milk, ice cream, cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, and other dairy products to eat and enjoy.  We can sell (or make for ourselves) wonderful soaps, as well drinking our goats’ milk.  The does are personable, pleasant and easy to handle.  The children play with them, and they are ideal pets and companions, even for very small children.  The lack of horns and pleasant disposition of these two animals have completely erased our negative impression of these now well-loved individuals.

So, looking back I think that a person considering a dairy animal is very well served to consider a dairy goat.  They do require some special care and also have some needs that must be met for optimum output.  A very happy goat is wonderful, and a very unhappy goat is horrid.  Compared to a cow, a good dairy goat is much cheaper, with a pair of does costing about $200 – $500 for a good pair.  A cow would cost at least twice as much, and often more.  The price of the cow notwithstanding, they also have a much higher maintenance cost, as well as a higher breeding fee.  A dairy goat is so much more economical and gives you so many benefits that every small farm should look closely at the possibility of keeping some dairy goats.

Goats are small and can be easily transported in regular vehicles.  You can put them in the backs of trucks with camper shells for example, or even in the back of a van or station wagon.  If you are careful to protect the surfaces from soiling, then a goat will happily go, even in the back seat of a regular car.  Goats are easy to transport and take to the vet, or to be bred.  A cow, on the other hand, requires a trailer, and a big vehicle to tow it.  Transporting a goat is much easier than a cow if you do not already own a trailer and truck or towing vehicle.

Goats also have a much lower feed cost in comparison to a cow.  One cow will eat as much as 3 to 6 goats, depending on the breed and needs of the individual goat.  Pygmy goats are the miniature milkers of the goat world, and they are extremely economical to keep, and yet put out plenty of milk for the average family.  Even larger breed goats will only need about 7 pounds of hay a day, whereas a cow can need as much as 25 or more pounds each day just to maintain her condition.  Add lactation needs on top of that, and the savings on milk are gone into the expense of hay unless you have the equipment to cut your own.  Goats will happily eat “weedy” hay that cows and horses will not, so hay is often very cheap and perfect for goats as long as it is not moldy.  Grain, mineral and other expenses also come into play, and the goats win every time with a lower cost of upkeep.  Two goats are much cheaper to raise and keep than even one cow, and with two goats, you can keep one fresh almost all year.

Goats are also easier on the land and graze very well with other livestock such as cattle or horses.  Because they prefer to browse, or bushes, instead of grass, you can use your goats to keep the brush down, and fence rows clean.  They will go along behind horses or cows and eat down what was left behind, cleaning up brush and weeds.  Provided they are getting good mineral and grain, they will still fill your pail with wholesome and delicious milk, all the while helping to keep the place looking great and the pasture nice.  They do not share worms with cattle or horses and they get along well with both.  Goats can keep a wooded area completely clean and park-like in suitable numbers, without a chainsaw or rake in sight.  Fence rows are clean and brush free, with no brambles or thorny bushes to clear away for repairs.  Goats have a real positive effect on the appearance of their home and can save their owners much back-breaking labor.  They are easy on the land and will prefer to eat food that is left behind by other livestock.

Shots, medicine, and general care of the goats are also easier and especially better if you plan on having children to help with milking and caring for the animals.  Keeping dairy goats is a great way for children as young as 4 or 5 to contribute and produce a product for the family to consume.  Children get a big benefit from learning how to care for an animal and they also get a good sense of accomplishment from being in charge of providing milk for the whole family.  Goats are generally much easier to milk, as they have a softer udder and their small size and wonderful disposition make it easy for a child of 7 or 8 to learn to milk the goat.  Younger children can help bottle feed the babies, put out hay or help with other parts of the goats’ upkeep.  Children can also learn how to make money with an agricultural project as they care for the goats, which makes them perfect for 4H or FFA.  The will be able to sell the milk to Mom, and also market the kids that are produced from the breeding of the does.  Children can really benefit from the responsibility of raising and caring for a pair of dairy goats and their kids.

Dairy goats are also easier to keep as they do not have the need for a large barn like a cow does.  A simple shelter that is draft free in winter and dry will suffice.  It can be as simple as a small shed, and the goats will thrive and be happy.  Each goat needs about 25 square feet of space to move about, and they will do well if they have a place to walk and exercise that is protected from the weather as they do not like to get very wet.  If your shed doesn’t have a floor, then you can put down pallets and bed them deeply with straw with great success.  They also do not require a large area for milking, you can easily bring them into the garage, on the porch or another small area for milking and have no problems what so ever.  A goat will not soil the milk stand under normal circumstances so waste and urine are not an issue to clean up if the goat is brought inside a garage to milk.  A simple milk stand is easy to build and very low in cost.  The goat stands on the stand to be milked then is whisked away back to its pen afterward, with hardly any mess to clean up.  So a small part of a garage, shop or even a porch is just fine for milking a goat.  Goats have a very minimal requirement for shelter and milking facilities which again makes them a smart choice for the small farm.

Goats are obviously more economical than a cow, but what about the milk?  Goat milk is also more healthy, easy to digest, and tastes wonderful if the goat is well treated, healthy, and kept properly.  You must keep bucks away from the does at all times except during breeding season, at which time the does are dry.  Exposure to bucks can cause the milk to taste goaty and disgusting.  You will also need to handle your milk in a sanitary way.  Any bacteria, or unsanitary conditions, can also cause your milk to taste bad.  You can drink the milk raw, or you can pasteurize it.  It will keep longer if it is pasteurized and you will not need to worry about problems with bacteria.  Once you are familiar with milking, then you can drink your milk raw if you choose.  You will also need to make sure that the goat has a proper diet, good minerals, and watch out for mastitis and other illnesses that are related to dairy animals.  There are tests available, and lots of resources and after a bit of learning, the new goat owner will soon feel confident and be able to care for their goats, and maintain good milk production with ease.  The milk is not only healthier, but it tastes sweet and delicious with a wonderful creamy texture that is great for many dairy products.

Goat milk is also excellent for soap making, with many of the handmade goat milk soaps selling for impressive prices at farmers’ markets and festivals.  A person keeping goats can easily begin to learn to make soaps, and there is a real potential for a side hustle income from a mail order or booth type business.  The soaps can contain natural botanicals, be organic, and contain oils and fragrances that are beneficial and healthy, which makes it perfect for the niche markets.  The soaps are rich in conditioners, and once you use one, you will want more.  Getting started doesn’t have to cost too much, and you can grow and add to your soap making business as you make profits.  The money you save with the goats, could, in fact, start a business that had good potential to supplement your farm and household income.

There are many dairy products that are very good made with goat’s milk and you can learn to make many of these at home with your own high-quality milk.  Yogurt, soft cheese, pressed cheese and cultured products like buttermilk become economical and easy to come by, as you can easily make them for yourself with surplus milk.  Ice cream and other treats such as homemade pudding become even better made with fresh goats’ milk.  Gravy, cream sauces, and other milk-based foods are also improved with goat milk because of the creamy texture, and light flavor of the milk.  Goat milk is not only wonderful for drinking, but also for making cheeses and cooking as well.  The rich flavor and creamy texture make a lower-fat alternative to cream but with a comparable texture and flavor.

Goats are fun, personable, and pleasant animals that require very little in the way of fancy housing, fancy food, and fancy surroundings.  They need lots of love, a good buddy, proper diet, and good fencing to be healthy, happy, and productive.  They will eat on weeds and brush, and as long as they are supplemented properly still give you over a gallon of milk in the pail a day.  You can clear your brush out, and feed the family at the same time.  You can make your own cheese and dairy products, which will save a ton of cash in the long run.  You can even make your own soap and market this for resale if you want.  You can get all of this, and save money with a pair of good dairy goats.  The dairy goat is truly the small farmer’s dream come true.

The post The Economics of Dairy Goats appeared first on Homestead.org.

Most homesteads require the clearing of brush and weeds.  Often this is required to be able to use the land for certain pre-planned purposes—or even just to keep this undesirable type of growth maintained.  The good news is that the goat is the perfect animal for the job!  Goats prefer weeds and brush to even the most luscious of grasses.  Given the choice between grass and weeds, the homestead goat will choose the weed every time.  Goats are so proficient at clearing undesirable vegetation that they are often used as fire prevention in many areas that are otherwise too difficult for people to clear.  Goats nibble and remove the thick undergrowth of combustible weeds and shrubs as well as low tree branches, all of which are the most used fodder of wild fires.  Goats can walk and maneuver the steepest and roughest terrains imaginable, browsing even poisonous vegetation as they go.  These are the areas in which fighting fires or landscaping are the most difficult, even with tractors, trucks, and power tools.  Thus, homestead goats are often called on to clear these areas before they can become fire-hazards.

The main challenge of using goats for weed and brush maintenance is the problem of keeping them in the area that you want to be cleared and not finding them roaming wherever they please.  Goats do not do well without some type of barrier to contain them.  The least expensive and easiest type of fencing for weed and brush control when using goats is a temporary electric fence.  Make sure the wires are spaced close enough that the goats can’t slip between wires, under the bottom wire, or over the top one.  The experience that our family has had with using goats for weed and brush control has definitely been a positive one, however, we have found it best to take the goats back to an enclosure close to the house in the evenings.  This is due to the fact that predators are more prone to attack homestead goats at night and we have found that it is safer for the goats to take this preventive measure, otherwise, there is a risk of losing a few goats to predation.

When choosing which breeds to use for brush and weed control, any breed of goat will work; but beware that if you allow a dairy goat to consume this type of diet it can flavor the taste and smell of the milk from lactating does.  This warning comes from personal experience—a few years ago one of our dairy does ate an entire patch of wild onions.  Needless to say, no one wanted to drink her milk for a few days afterward.  Also, keep in mind that hair goats have the tendency to collect certain types of briers and vegetation in their coats if the area is very overgrown.  If this happens, you will need to brush and clean the goat to preserve its quality.  This can be a tiresome and difficult job if you have to complete it very often.

The Angora, Cashmere, Pygora, and Nigora are breeds of homestead goats bred especially for their hair production.  They are often favorites of homesteaders that like to produce their own creations—frequently these fiber artists use the hair for spinning, spindling, knitting, crocheting, weaving, tapestries, and other fiber arts.  It is also commonly used in constructing articles of clothing.  The Cashmere goat produces fine, soft wool that is considered one of the finest textile fibers in the world.  Cashmere goats are usually combed to collect their wool. Combing out a Cashmere goat can take up to a week to collect all the precious fibers.  The Cashmere goat grows its fiber only once a year, yielding only about 4 ounces of material.  The Angora goat (not to be confused with Angora rabbits) is sheared to collect their fibers.  The Angora hair is known as mohair, a long, curling, glossy fiber.  Angora goats are typically shorn twice a year, yielding an average of about 10 pounds.  Both the Pygora and Nigora are smaller breeds that are crossed with Angoras; their fiber type is essentially the same as that of the Angora.

The dairy goat is one of the most common types of goat associated with homesteading today.  Goat milk is naturally homogenized, which means the cream remains suspended in the milk, instead of rising to the top, such as cow’s milk.  An average dairy goat doe provides 3-4 quarts of milk a day and will milk for approximately 10 months; however, as lactation nears that tenth month the production rates will gradually drop off.  Goat’s milk is also used for cheesemaking on many farms and homesteads.  Cheese made from goat milk is known for its rather tart flavor; a characteristic that creates many people’s penchant for the taste.  Butter is another product that can be readily made from goat’s milk. It is important to note that it requires a little more effort to make butter from goat’s milk than it does from cow’s milk.  Again this has to do with the fact that the cream in goat milk remains suspended within the milk instead of rising to the top. The use of goat’s milk for drinking and making other dairy products is a great benefit for those who are lactose intolerant, as goat’s milk does not contain lactose, unlike cow milk.  Therefore, there are many individuals that can enjoy milk products when they would otherwise have to avoid dairy entirely.

Last but not least, goat’s milk can also be used in making homemade soap.  Goat’s milk is great for soap making; its qualities are very appealing to people as it has wonderful softening and moisturizing effects on skin.  These characteristics have made it a revered cosmetic ingredient for centuries, and especially popular for use on delicate or damaged skin.

The great part about these milk products is that all of them can be made on the homestead.  There are lots of recipes and directions for making these products available for free on the Internet.  All it takes is a little effort and the willingness to experiment with milk.  A couple of good dairy goat does can provide a lot of healthy and cost-saving benefits to a working homesteader.  The financial, nutritional, and all-around natural benefits make keeping some type of dairy goat a plus for most homesteads.

There are several dairy goat breeds to choose from that are readily available today; however the most popular and easiest to obtain are Saanans, Alpines, Nubians, Toggenburgs, Nigerian Dwarf, and La Manchas.  The milk types and production rates on these breeds vary somewhat, so be sure to check with a breeder before choosing which breed or breeds might best fit your milking plans.

On our homestead, we raise Boer meat goats primarily; however, we keep one to two dairy does in the herd.  The reason we choose to do this is simple: we enjoy the milk, plus it can be handy to have the extra milk if we need it for bottle feeding weak or orphaned kids.  We breed these dairy does to the Boer buck; it doesn’t matter to the does and the kids can then be used for meat or dairy. We have noticed that other animals on the homestead also seem to appreciate a good milk goat.  At milking time, a line forms near the milk stanchion and seams to wrap around the entire barnyard.  Cats are always the first in line, followed by the dogs and poultry.

Meat goats have grown exceedingly popular here in the U.S. in recent years.  The Boer breed is now the most common and the easiest to quickly identify in the United States.  Its white body with colored head makes it a visual stand out in pastures.  However, the Kiko and Spanish breeds are also becoming more commonplace and accessible.  Meat goats have a larger frame and thicker build than other types of goats. This is due to the fact that they are bred specifically for meat production and the build demonstrates that fact.

Goat meat is low in fat and is a nice tasting alternative to chicken and fish when looking for meat with lower fat levels.  Goats do not store fat within the meat, rather, the fat is separated with the skin at the time of processing.  This is what results in lower fat levels associated with the meat.  It also means that it is not similar to mutton in taste or smell, so for those of you who don’t like lamb, do not make the mistake of thinking that goat meat is the same thing as mutton.

Meat goats are a great choice for those wanting to raise their own meat while keeping their investment costs at a minimum.  The initial costs of goats are much less than cattle and goats require much less feed as well.  They also have the benefit of producing young twice a year compared to only once a year for cattle.  Goats are also ready to butcher at approximately 80 pounds on average, which a good meat goat is able to attain at 5-7 months of age.

We have approximately twenty-five head of meat does and we are never at a loss to sell kids.  We always have more calls for sales than we have kids available to sell.  When comparing cattle to homestead goats, our personal experience has proven that we have less invested in our goats than we do in cattle and that the goat return is a much higher overall percentage.

In recent years, goats have become a popular means of pack transport and have proven themselves to be as good as, or even better than, horses or mules for carrying baggage and equipment.  They are definitely more surefooted and user-friendly than horses, donkeys, or llamas.  Packs are loaded from above on a goat, so it’s not necessary to be able to lift loads high to place packs on them.  This can be a great help for people that might be handicapped in some way from lifting heavy loads into higher positions for the larger animals.  It also makes it a great and accessible hobby for children.  Add the fact that goats can be transported much easier than horses or donkeys and you begin to see the advantage that they can offer to the backpacker seeking assistance or companionship on the trail.

Goats can also be trained to drive and pull carts.  Not only has packing and cart driving become a rather varied hobby for homestead goat owners, it just helps to give another boost to the versatility of one of nature’s most diversified species of livestock.

Goats also make great companions; no matter the breed, goats are curious, personable animals that love attention.   Goats work well as companions for both people and animals.  It is a common practice to use goats as companions for all types of livestock that do not do well alone.  There are even many racehorses whose stall buddy is a goat.  Countless people love to watch and photograph their goats just for the antics that they pull on a daily basis.  We have one doe that, as a kid, would sit on the four-wheeler and ride around the farm with us.  It was great fun and quite a show for our visitors, as well.  Even today, she will still come up to the four-wheeler while the other goats run away from it.

Currently, the word diversity is preached endlessly to both the farmer and small homesteader.  It is generally understood that diversification has definite benefits when looking at what all we can do and produce ourselves, for less cost.  While many animals work well and have a defined purpose on the homestead, goats have most definitely proven themselves to have very diversified purposes, and deserve considerable consideration when choosing what types of livestock to purchase and raise.

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The Darwin of Nutrition

Weston A. Price, known as the “Darwin of Nutrition”, was a dentist who wanted to understand the increase in degeneration he saw in his dental practice – crowded arches, cavities, crooked teeth.  So, he took to the field (a man after our own hearts).  He traveled to isolated pockets of people, the so-called “primitives” such as the Inuits, the Maori, South American Indians, the Gaelics of the Outer Hebrides, the Aborigines, and the Swiss in the Alpine villages.

On his travels, he found people who were relatively free of degenerative diseases and tooth decay.  They had straight teeth, strong bodies, easy reproduction, and emotional stability.  While living in such diverse locations, these healthy people shared one thing in common: a traditional diet.  A diet free of refined or denatured food and full of animal protein, saturated fats, and some raw animal products.  Once a group of people abandoned the traditional diet for a Western diet, the changes evident in one or two generations were stunning – crowded teeth, narrow faces, and the onset of “Western” diseases, including emotional ones.

Benefits of Raw Milk

Milk and dairy are some of the raw animal products consumed.  Here are some of the benefits of raw milk that you can think about as you milk the cow at 5 AM.  Raw milk contains:

• All twenty standard amino acids – a complete protein.
• Anti-microbial molecules such as Lactoferrin, Lysozyme, and lactoperoxidase.
• Lactic acid, which boosts the absorption of calcium, phosphorus, and iron and makes protein more digestible.
• CLA – an Omega 6 fatty acid that stokes metabolism, helps eliminate abdominal fat, increases muscle growth, reduces insulin resistance, boosts the immune system, decreases food allergy reactions, and has anticancer properties.
• All of the vitamins, including, of course, calcium.  It also contains the proper balance of calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium for best absorption.
• Cholesterol; yes, we do need cholesterol, especially for the production of hormones.
• Beneficial bacteria suppress the harmful bacteria in the milk and in our guts.

Nearly fifty percent of the calories in raw milk are from butterfat.  Yum. Butterfat contains higher amounts of vitamins A and D, which are necessary for the assimilation of calcium and protein.  The fatty acids in butterfat also help to stimulate the immune system and contain lipids that prevent intestinal distress.

Raw milk doesn’t contain additives, unlike the coloring in typical butter, the bioengineered enzymes in mass cheese production, and the neurotoxic amino acids in skim milk.

The Problems with Commercial Milk

So what’s the big problem with typical commercial milk?  Here are the facts you can share with your well-meaning relatives who are appalled by the idea of drinking milk straight from the cow.  It’s a long list, so hold on.  Pasteurization kills enzymes, diminishes vitamins, denatures milk protein, destroys vitamins C, B12, and B6, kills good bacteria, promotes pathogens, leads to growth problems in children, and increases the likelihood of allergies, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer.  Many calves that are fed pasteurized milk die before maturity.  Whew.  No wonder milk has been getting such a bad rap lately.  However, it’s the pasteurization and the homogenization that’s the real problem.

Homogenization has been linked to heart disease.  When fat globules are broken up mechanically, an enzyme known as xanthine oxidase is released and penetrates the intestinal walls.  Once xanthine oxidase reaches the bloodstream, it is capable of creating scar damage in the heart and arteries.  This, in turn, causes the body to release cholesterol into the blood in an attempt to cover the scar with fatty material.  Thus, the likelihood of arteriosclerosis developing.

Raw Milk Safety

The big issue the opponents of raw milk bring up is one of safety.  However, pasteurized milk is actually linked to higher numbers of illnesses than other regulated raw milk products.  There are four factors to look at when it comes to food safety: the health of the cows, feed, confinement, and collection.

Collection is an easy one to consider.  Some workers in commercial plants figure that the milk’s going to be pasteurized anyway and so they don’t have to be as stringent about sanitary rules.  Also, they’re not drinking it, so who cares?  Most small farmers and homesteaders know the importance of washing hands, washing udders, keeping the collection area and equipment clean, and refrigerating the milk soon after collection.

The care of the cows is a more complex issue in terms of safety and milk quality.  Cows fed mostly grains have higher levels of pathogenic bacteria in their milk.  It has been noted that pasture-raised, grass-fed cows live about 15 years and can birth 12 calves in that lifetime; however, cows fed soy meal live about six years and birth three calves.  Commercial cows are fed not only soy and grains but bakery waste, citrus peels laced with pesticides, and pellets with chicken manure in them.

Pesticides, estrogens, antibiotics, trans fats, and other toxins can all make their way into the milk.  The milk is only as healthy as the cow it came from.  On the other hand, cows fed a healthy diet of green grass supplemented with hay, silage, and root vegetables in the winter months, have milk with higher levels of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus, which in turn keep the bad bacteria, like E. Coli, in check.  For instance, the Swedes pasture-raise their cows and have no incidences of Salmonella in their milk.

Types of Cows, Types of Milk

So you’re convinced that raw milk is good for you (thank goodness, since you have that cow lowing in the field out there).  But it’s never as easy as you would think because not all milk, even raw milk, is considered equal.

Many people find that their milk allergies and intolerance vanish once they start drinking raw milk.  However, this isn’t always the case and some of this has to do with the breed of cows that are most common in the U.S.: the Holstein.  This is discussed in Dr. Keith Woodford’s book, The Devil’s in the Milk.

Milk is comprised of three parts: the fat, the whey, and the milk solids.  The milk solids contain different proteins, one of which is casein, and it’s the beta-casein that may cause problems.  Milk from old breed cows such as Jerseys and Asian and African cows (known as A2 cows) have the “original” form of beta-casein but new breeds (known as A1 cows), such as Holsteins, have a mutated version.

The “A1 milk” doesn’t bond as well with a small protein called BCM 7.  The problem with BCM 7 is that it is an opiate-like substance that may cause neurological problems, most notably, autistic and schizophrenic changes.  BCM 7 also interferes with the immune response and may increase the likelihood of Type 1 diabetes.  Dr. Woodford has shown a direct correlation between widespread consumption of A1 milk and the rise in type 1 diabetes, autism, schizophrenia, auto-immune disease, and heart disease.

It is interesting that the French have never accepted these A1 cows due to the belief that these cows produce inferior milk.

The good news is that the absorption of BCM 7 is lower in people with healthy digestive systems.  Also, BCM 7 is not found in goat’s or sheep’s milk.

There are some other arguments for choosing Jersey milk.  According to High Lawn Farm, Jersey milk is comprised of 18 percent more protein and 29 percent more milk fat when compared to the average of the other breeds.  Jersey milk also contains over 20 percent more calcium than other milks, more vitamins A and B1, and a higher percentage of riboflavin.  The nutrition found in a 9.64-ounce helping of Holstein milk can be obtained in an eight-ounce helping of Jersey milk.

The Alternative: Goat’s Milk

Goat’s milk has the advantage of being easier to digest; this is in part because the protein curds that are formed in the stomach are softer than that of cow’s milk.  This, in turn, makes digestion faster and easier.  Almost half the people who are lactose intolerant can drink goat’s milk.  In addition, goat’s milk contains only trace amounts of an allergenic casein protein, alpha-S1, which is found in cow’s milk.  Scientific research has not discovered a lower incidence of milk allergy with goat milk; however, many mothers would disagree and this may be another case where a mother’s wisdom and attention overrides the evidence of a laboratory.

Another advantage is that the medium-chain fatty acids in goat’s milk are believed to help with several diseases such as cystic fibrosis, gallstones, heart disease, and digestive problems.  Goat’s milk is comprised of 35 percent of these medium-chain fatty acids as compared to cow milk’s 17 percent.

The mineral content of goat’s milk and cow’s milk is generally similar; however, goat’s milk contains 13 percent more calcium, 25 percent more vitamin B-6, 47 percent more vitamin A (and the vitamin A is pre-formed, unlike cow’s milk which must be partially converted from carotenoids), 134 percent more potassium, and three times more niacin.  It is also four times higher in copper and contains 27 percent more of the antioxidant selenium than cow’s milk.  An eight-ounce serving of goat’s milk contains nine grams of protein as compared to eight ounces of protein in cow’s milk.  Cow’s milk contains five times as much vitamin B-12 as goat’s milk and ten times as much folic acid.  Since goat’s milk is lower in folic acid, it is usually fortified with folic acid when used in formula or as a milk substitute for children.

In the goat world, the Saanen is comparable to the Holstein in that it produces a high quantity of milk with a lower fat content.  On the other hand, the Jersey of the goat world is the Nubian, which produces less milk but with a higher fat content.  The LaMancha, Toggenburg, Alpine, and Oberhasli fall in between the two extremes.

Law Regarding Raw Milk

Sales of raw milk are allowed in twenty-eight of the fifty states.  In another five states, raw milk may be sold for “pet consumption”.  In some of these states, there are laws under consideration that would require all “pet milk” to be treated with a charcoal dye so that humans will be sure not to drink it.

In some of the remaining states, such as Colorado, Wisconsin, and Virginia, raw milk is available by “cow sharing”.  Cow sharing or “herd sharing” is when a group pays a farmer fees for maintaining and milking a cow and then picks up the milk from the “shared cow” but does not pay for the milk itself.  If cow sharing is not allowed, some people have organized “farm sharing” in which a group of people buy non-voting shares in a farm and can obtain milk from the farm in which they own shares.

Obviously, there are other benefits to be had from consuming raw milk.  Raw milk bequeaths a myriad of health benefits but it also makes greater economic and environmental sense.  Drinking raw milk may be your best economic option because you already have the animal; however, even if you have to purchase your raw milk, you support a small farmer and help him or her maintain their lifestyle.  Raw milk is also the best environmental choice because a small dairy production allows for a “mixed-use” farm, which is the most in sync with nature.  So, if you already have your dairy animal(s), congratulate yourself on (yet another) wise decision.  If not, consider supporting a local farmer and buying raw milk and raw milk products.  And if you are banned from buying raw milk, fight for your Constitutional right.

You can find more at: realmilk.com and raw-milk-facts.com.

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In fact, it’s the most natural thing in the world to take it another step, fence in that yard, put up a shed, and go shopping for The Dairy Goat.

The first thing to consider is that goats are herd animals and if you get one, it WILL get out of the pen trying to find company.  I recommend a minimum of two goats.

Your fence will need to be goat-proof, and unfortunately, they haven’t invented one of those yet.  Wood fences are sturdy, but baby goats can slip out and coyotes can slip in.  Wire fences can/will be bent over by your goats standing up on them reaching for whatever tiny leaf may be on the other side that looks more appealing than the million leaves on the inside.  Barbed wire is just a nightmare waiting to happen.  Electric will be bumped into systematically (accompanied by goat curses) till it breaks.  The most effective fence I’ve found is the 16′ cattle panels with the graduated spacing, narrower on the bottom than the top.  These are non-bendable, quick to go up, and the only drawback is that if your goats have horns, they can get their heads stuck in the upper spaces if they are not careful/smart, so plan on your goats getting stuck now and again.

Goats must have shelter.  The worst fate in the world to a goat is to be wet.  If it’s raining and the food is outside, they won’t eat.  A three-sided shed with the open end facing south is perfect for them.

Now just add goats.

This can involve months of research into different breeds and bloodlines, contacting a breeder, waiting for a baby, taking delivery of said baby, raising that baby to adulthood, and doing MORE research to find the right Billy for your precious nanny, sometimes carrying her far afield for the perfect match.

Or, you can answer the ad in the Thrifty Nickel that reads “Free Goat, heavy bred”.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both strategies.  If you are interested in breeding show goats and getting top dollar for babies, go with the first scenario.  If you just want yard goats for personal use and pleasure, the second route is fine.  After years of being in the world of “pedigreed” animals, I’ve come to the conclusion that a good crossbred anything is just as serviceable as the purebreds, and though my goat herd is currently all purebred Nubians, they are not registered, and when I find a buck to cross back to my buck’s daughters, it most likely will not be a Nubian.

Of utmost importance, for the small-scale homesteader is the health history of your goats.  Have they been tested for Tuberculosis (TB) or do they come from a TB-free herd?

Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis (CAE)  is common in some areas and although the milk is fine for human consumption, you must pasteurize it before feeding to any goat babies or they may die.  Any carriers of CAE can develop life-threatening arthritis.

All that said, you have your pen, your shelter, your goats, and their brand new kids.

Now what?

You need to decide if you will bottle-raise those babies, or let Mom do it.  Again, it’s purely personal—there is no right or wrong answer.

Bottle raising will give you goats so tame they will follow you through fire (just don’t ask them to follow you through water).  It is time-intensive as those babies are just that, babies, who will need a bottle every six hours for the first few weeks.  Add to that milking twice daily to get those bottles and you have a very busy schedule for a while.  Of course there is NOTHING in the world cuter than a baby goat, so to most folks it’s a small price to pay.  This is also the way to go if you are planning on a larger-scale milk usage (commercial soap making for example) where you need your girls producing at full capacity for an extended period of time.  (nine to ten months).

Letting your mother goat raise her babies is much less time consuming, with a corresponding lower production.  For my first years as a goat-keeper, I would leave the babies with their mothers and milk twice a day.  Sometimes I’d get a lot of milk, sometimes not a drop, depending on when the babies last ate.  I’d wean the babies at three months, and continue milking twice daily.  My goats would produce milk for about six months.

In my old age and slothfulness, now I totally ignore mother and babies for three months, then wean the babies and start to milk in the mornings only.  A lot of this has to do with being in Texas as opposed to Wisconsin.  Down here it’s just too dang hot to be up under a goat in the heat of the day at 5 or 6 pm.  My girls produce milk for about three months.  Since they are bred randomly year-round, I usually have someone in milk, and since they are pregnant for five months, that gives them a few months rest before more babies hit the ground.

There are people who will tell you that if you let the mothers raise the babies you will have a whole herd of goats wild as deer.  This is partly true.  My goats who are not bottle-fed are curious, but not pushy.  They are harder to catch, but once caught generally give up and stand there instead of trying to run you down.  As a rule, I like them better to work around on a daily basis.  I have noticed very distinct differences in my bloodlines: Alice was bottle-fed and so is tame, but all her non-bottle-fed babies are wild.  Wilma was bottle-fed and so is tame, but her non-bottle-fed babies are almost as tame as she is.  I am concentrating on keeping more of Wilma’s babies and less of Alice’s (duh).

Feeding your goats properly is also of paramount importance if you will be drinking the milk.  Anything that goes into your goat will flavor the milk.  Period.  Therefore, the blander a diet your goat receives, the less of a “tang” the milk will have.  Bland does NOT mean low nutrition.  Your goat needs enough protein and fat to produce milk on an ongoing basis.  A good NON medicated (unless you require daily worming) goat food (I feed an All purpose Livestock pellet) along with some sweet feed (9%) along with really high-quality hay twice daily is a must.

Man, all that research and hard work to get your goats and their babies here has made you thirsty.

Got milk?

In the movies and the pictures in homesteading books, the Goat-herder strolls into the milk-house early in the morning; birds singing, sun just peeking over the horizon.  She is carrying her milk stool and her milking bucket.  At the quaint Dutch door of the immaculate barn, she calls her goat, who comes daintily dancing into the barn to the sound of distant bells ringing.  A rosy glow infuses the milk-house as the Goat-herder gently places her stool next to the goat, who stands still as carved granite with a little goat smile on her face.  The milk-house is filled with the sound of warm fresh milk hissing rhythmically into the bucket.  After a few peaceful minutes, the Goat-herder lifts the bucket and pats the goat on the side.  The goat gives an affectionate little “mmmaaa”, and dances back out the door, which is quietly shut by clean little mice who wear tiny t-shirts (like on Cinderella).

This is an accurate portrayal, with the exception of the birds, sun, bells, glow, peace, and smiling well-behaved goat.  The little mice really exist, or at least you will be positive that you see them as you careen out of the barn, covered in sweat and mosquito bites, hay in your hair, hair in your milk, milk most everywhere but the bucket, and the sound of laughter (the goat’s) ringing in your ears.

Actually, these are both correct, depending on the day.

The first thing to learn is that goats are particular.  They only like ONE person milking them, always and forever.  I don’t care if your son/daughter/husband feeds the goats every day, if you are the one milking, anyone else will be in for a Goat Rodeo lasting much more than 8 seconds, and resulting in at least as much bruising on the part of the human.  This is something you need to be prepared for too, until you and your goat have an “understanding”.

This understanding must be reached every year when you start to milk.  Since we are humans, equipped with large brains and opposable thumbs, we have the power of superior thought processes and leverage tools on our side.  Thus the playing field is made somewhat more even.

To milk a goat, you need somewhere secure and clean to do the actual milking.  This can be as elaborate as a separate “milk house” with little stanchions that hold the goat’s head secure while you milk, to just tying the goat into a corner and kneeling next to her (what I do).

You need something to wash the udder with (all-natural “wet ones” are fine, or you can buy Udder Wipes from a milk supply place), and something to milk into (a large pot is fine.  I splurged 2 years ago and got a lovely stainless steel bucket)

You will need your equipment set up for straining the milk (a metal colander lined with a Bounty paper towel—it MUST be Bounty, everything else will not drain fast enough and you will have a big mess—or a milk strainer from the afore-mentioned goat supply place) a metal or glass bowl big enough to hold your strainer, container for milk, and pasteurizer, if you will be pasteurizing.

You will need a feed bucket and roughly 50 pounds of sweet feed, for currency.

Until you and your goat have an “understanding”, you will need the help of the biggest and most patient family member you have.

Have all your equipment clean and in place, including washing your hands well, gird your loins (not kidding) and proceed with your backup muscle and a bucket of sweet feed to the goat pen.

Since most goats are chowhounds, getting the goat to the tie-up is not a problem.  Fighting your way through ALL the goats eager for a snack of sweet feed and getting only one goat is your first chore.  Your clean hands are now dirty.

Once your goat is tied and eating happily, wash her udder.  This may or may not be problematic.  Most goats don’t care.  Some will be offended by the invasion of personal space and handily kick the wipe from your hands, never missing a beat in chewing the grain.  Repeat till the goat’s udder is at least as clean as your hands.

Here’s where your muscle comes in.

With one hand on the bucket (for quickly yanking out from under the goat), place the bucket under the goat and start milking.

Several things can happen here.

a) your goat will continue to eat, making no never-mind to you.  If this is the case, say a silent prayer of thanks, try to keep the tears of joy from getting into the milk, but milk one-handed for the first few times to make sure the goat is not lulling you into a false sense of security, only to neatly stomp her foot into your almost-full bucket (again, not missing any food).

b) your goat will kick slightly, but settle down after a stern word or two.  I still milk one-handed for a bit, just to make sure.

c) your goat responds by wildly jerking her head up with a look of horrified indignance, rolls her eyeballs, sends the bucket flying across the barn with a swift kick, and swing smartly around, knocking you to the ground.

MOST of the time, you will be looking at “b”, and the mere presence of an extra person is enough to convince a wise goat that she is indeed outnumbered and eating the sweet feed is payment enough for your stealing her milk.

If you are faced with a “c” situation, this just takes a little longer to resolve.  Shorten the lead rope, and have your helper hold the goat’s hindquarters against the wall while you milk.  In some cases, I have had goats so wildly opposed to being milked, that they fight both of us.  The important thing with goats (as with horses and children) is that you end all encounters on a good note.  I have even cringed and milked really wild goats onto the ground, avoiding the bucket till they settle down some, just so they know that they WILL be milked, and it will NOT kill them (or me).  Food is always there, and I always tell them how good they are and thank them when finished, but they ARE milked.  I’ve not had one go longer than a week before settling down to eating as soon as I tie them, and ignoring me while milking.

Milking technique is important.  The number one mistake I see people make is PULLING on the teats.  You do NOT pull on the teats.  You gently squeeze the teats just enough to get the milk, keeping your hand snug against the udder.  Watch your wrists.  They should not move.  Rough milking causes mastitis, flakes in the milk, blood in the milk, and makes for a very crabby goat (understandably, think about it).  Once the milk flow lessens, gently rub the whole udder, then milk again, until you are getting hardly any.  You will not get ALL the milk, but you can get most of it.  Milk is produced in a “supply and demand” fashion, so the more milk you take, the more she will make (assuming her diet is what it should be).

Once you and your goat have a routine, the entire milking process—from tying the goat to straining the milk—should take about fifteen minutes.  Actual milking time will be about five minutes per goat.

Your milk should be strained and refrigerated (or pasturized and then refrigerated) immediately upon finishing milking and washing your hands.  All equipment should be washed and dried and put up for the next milking.  Leaving wash-up for later will cause milk “residue” to form on your equipment (yicky).

I once described the processes involved in milking to my banker at his request.  He looked at me quizzically for a moment, then said, “You know they SELL milk at the grocery store”.

You either Get It, or you don’t.

We who are doing “all this mess” are NOT crazy.  We are feeding our families (at least partly) with good healthy food that we ourselves have produced.

We have veggie gardens for veggies.

We have chickens for eggs, meat, garden fertilizer, and bug control.

We have dairy goats for milk, cheese, ice-cream, yogurt, soap, lotion, meat, and fertilizer.

It’s all a Circle of Life thing, and we are a part of it, not mere consumers or spectators.

On a steamy summer morning, with the flies already biting, the sweat pouring down your nose, your goat clearly not amused, and visions of row upon row of chilled milk gallons at the air-conditioned Wal-Mart, it can be hard.

But on a brisk pre-dawn winter morning, with your goat happily munching and your ear resting against her warm furry side, it’s so quiet you can hear her tummy gurgling.  You glance up at your home, one light on in the kitchen.  Your family is inside, still sleeping or just waking up.  You can smell the coffee over the good smell of clean, healthy livestock and hay.

And the little mice in t-shirts smile and wink.

Starting a Micro-Creamery on the Homestead

Goat Kidding Season — It’s No Joke

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Goat milk has 39% of the recommended vitamin A, compared with the 21% provided by cow milk.  It has 68% of the recommended B1, compared to the 45% we receive from cow milk.  It is also slightly lower in cholesterol.

As with everything else you produce yourself, goat milk produced on your homestead is healthier than the dairy you generally purchase from the grocery store.  When you know what you put into the animal, you know what is—or more importantly, isn’t—in the milk.  The control that is available to you as a producer compared to when you are simply a consumer is one of the best reasons I know to produce your own food.

Because my family enjoys goat milk, and because of the health benefits it offers, I have looked for ways to extend the milking season.  Because of the possible negative effects of not breeding does annually, I choose not to just leave a doe or two in milk indefinitely.  I have found the best way to extend the production of milk is to stagger breedings.  A doe needs a dry period of about two months before being bred so I stagger breedings to accommodate those dry periods.  The kids are weaned from receiving milk at eight to twelve weeks of age and I maintain a regular milking schedule.  This has been enough to keep us in goat milk year-round.

Of course, there are more things you can do with goat milk than just drinking it.  Instead of dedicating a freezer to goat milk, I have discovered some great storage ideas and recipes.  Here are a few of my favorite goat milk recipes.

Evaporated Goat Milk Recipe

Fresh milk is delicious and can be frozen with minimal change in taste.  But there are some situations, from camping trips to power outages, when shelf-stable milk is extremely convenient.  Evaporated milk is fresh, homogenized milk from which 60% of the water has been removed.  Canned milk can be stored at room temperature until opened, after which it needs to be refrigerated.  According to The Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Herbst, when evaporated milk is slightly frozen, it can even be whipped and used as an inexpensive substitute for whipped cream.

Making evaporated milk is as simple as boiling milk.  Bring four cups of goat milk to a slow boil on medium-high heat.  Boil, stirring constantly, until milk has reduced in volume by a little over half.  Pour milk into sterilized canning jars and seal with sterile lids and rings.  Process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.  Transfer to a folded towel on the counter and leave undisturbed until the jars seal.  Keep in a cool, dark place for up to one year.

Sweetened Condensed Goat Milk Recipe

Sweetened condensed milk is a mixture of whole milk and sugar.  Sweetened condensed milk is used in baked goods such as candies, puddings, and pies.  It can be unopened at room temperature for up to six months.

To make your own sweetened condensed goat milk, combine four cups of goat milk with two cups of sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan.  Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture reduces by slightly more than half.  This product will be very thick and sticky at this point.  Pour mixture into sterilized canning jars.  Seal with sterile lids and rings.  Process in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.  Transfer to a folded towel on the counter and leave undisturbed until the jars seal.

Easy Goat Cheese Recipe

Goat cheese, or chevre, is enjoying a rise in popularity with foodies everywhere.  It is very simple to make your own goat cheese at home, which is fortunate because with increased popularity comes increased prices.

To make your own goat cheese, slowly heat two quarts of goat milk in a non-reactive pot to 180-185F.  Add half a cup of the warmed milk to one cup of sour cream, stirring to blend.  Add this mixture back into your pot of milk.

Place a colander lined with cheesecloth in a large bowl.  Pour milk mixture into the colander.  Gather the edges of the cheesecloth and tie into a bundle.  Allow to drain overnight.  Scrape cheese into a bowl.  Add salt and/or fresh herbs to taste.  Store in refrigerator, tightly wrapped, for up to two weeks. [Use it to make some delicious Goat Cheese and Lemon White Bean Dip with Crostini or on top of some Whole-wheat Irish Soda Bread.]

Remember, the whey that you have drained off the cheese is also very nutritious.  You can add it to soups, smoothies, and baked goods.

Cajeta (Mexican Caramel Sauce)

Cajeta (pronounced cah-Het-tah) is a caramel sauce I was first introduced to when I worked in Mexico.  It was most often put on toasted bolillos (hard rolls) and eaten for an early breakfast.  Toast is just one of the ways to enjoy cajeta.  Eat it with fresh fruit, in oatmeal, as a topping on store-bought ice cream, or incorporated into your own homemade ice cream or yogurt.

Cajeta is an excellent way to use goat milk, especially if you have so much you don’t know how you will use it all, as one quart of goat milk will make one pint of caramel sauce.  I have yet to meet anyone who does not love the rich, creamy sauce.  It is a terrific item to have stashed back on your shelf, and it makes an unusual and thoughtful gift.

To make cajeta, you need one quart of goat milk, one cup of sugar, ¼ teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch.  Stir the baking soda and cornstarch into a small amount of the milk.  Put the remaining milk into a heavy-bottomed pan with the sugar.  Heat until the sugar dissolves and add the reserved milk.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  Adjust the heat as needed to maintain a steady boil but do not allow mixture to boil over.

Continue boiling until mixture begins to take on a caramel color.  It is extremely important to stir constantly at this point because the sauce is thickening and can easily stick to the bottom of pan and burn.  It takes approximately forty-five minutes from when the milk begins to boil to when it begins to turn a caramel color.  At this point you can stop cooking the sauce whenever you are happy with the consistency.  Cajeta can be thin, so you can pour it, or thicker, like a candy coating.  The sauce will thicken slightly as it cools.

To can a large batch of cajeta, pour finished product into sterilized canning jars and seal with sterilized lids and rings.  Cover with a towel and leave undisturbed until you hear the jars seal.  Store any jars that did not seal in the refrigerator.

Glorias (Caramel-pecan Candies)

Glorias offer another authentic taste of Mexico.  They are special treats that make a beautiful small gift for any special occasion.  They are a traditional Christmas gift in many parts of Mexico.  This recipe makes approximately fifteen candies.

To make Glorias you need to make your caramel first.  Combine four cups of goat milk, 2 ½ cups of sugar, and three tablespoons corn syrup into a pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to bubble.  Add ½ teaspoon baking soda.  Continue cooking until mixture turns a caramel color and you can see the bottom of the pan, or until mixture reaches 240F on a candy thermometer.

Remove your caramel from the heat and add two teaspoons of vanilla extract.  Let caramel cool until you can work with it using your hands.  Meanwhile, toast ten whole pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat.

Roll caramel into tube shapes.  Top with a pecan and wrap in parchment paper.

Goat Milk Ice Cream Recipe

Goat milk ice cream takes a little time and prep work but once you taste this custard-style ice cream you will agree it is well worth the effort.  The main difference between ice cream made with goat milk and ice cream made with cow milk is the cream.  Because goat milk is naturally homogenized, you need to find a replacement for the cream.  Luckily, you can do this by adding a small amount of fresh goat cheese and powdered goat milk.  Don’t have powdered goat milk on hand?  No problem; regular powdered milk will work just fine.  This recipe will make slightly less than a quart of ice cream.

First, you need to whisk three whole eggs.  For an even creamier custard, you can use six egg yolks.  Just remember to save the egg whites for another meal.  Set whisked eggs aside.  Warm approximately three ounces of fresh goat cheese and whisk until smooth.  Set aside.

Combine two cups of fresh goat milk and one tablespoon of corn syrup in a pan.  Heat until it begins to simmer.  Add ¾ cup sugar, six tablespoons of the powdered milk, and a pinch of salt to the hot milk.  Whisk until there are no lumps and everything is dissolved.  Remove from heat.

Temper the eggs by slowly adding one cup of the hot milk into the eggs you have set aside while whisking.  Pour egg mixture back into the saucepan, continuing to stir.  Put pan back on medium-high heat and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.  Remove from heat.

Add one cup of the hot custard to your softened goat cheese.  Stir until combined.  Pour cheese mixture back into the pan and combine well.

Strain mixture into a large bowl and cool overnight in the refrigerator.

Add two teaspoons of vanilla extract and churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.  Stir in ½ cup of any desired add-ins, such as fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips.  Enjoy!

How to Make Goat Milk Hand Lotion

Goat milk is not just for drinking.  Milk contains alpha-hydroxy acids which have proven benefits for your skin.  Milk also contains protein, nourishing oils, and vitamins A and D.  Goat milk lotion is a great item to have on hand, especially for those of us who spend time outside working with our hands.

To make a small batch of lotion that you can keep in the refrigerator you need one cup of goat milk, two tablespoons good-quality oil, 1/8 teaspoon white vinegar.  Mix the milk and oil thoroughly.  Add the vinegar, which acts as a preservative, and blend well.

If you want to make a longer-lasting lotion, whether to give as gifts or sell, you only need a few more ingredients.  Melt 1 ½ tablespoons of beeswax with ½ cup of a high-quality oil, such as olive oil or sweet almond oil.  Add five to ten drops of an essential oil of your choosing and one cup of goat milk.  Add a few drops of vitamin E, which is good for the skin and acts as a preservative.  Stir until mixture becomes thick and creamy. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Goats are friendly animals to have on your homestead.  The milk they provide is a great benefit to those of us who are trying to wean ourselves off of the consumer-based lifestyle and into the producer-based mindset.  Most of the recipes I have provided give you a jumping-off point to develop your own, based on the likes and needs of you and your family.  I have thoroughly enjoyed testing new ways to use the plentiful supply of milk we have and even when the recipes don’t turn out exactly how I envisioned them, they are still delicious.  The added benefit of feeding your family something you know has been produced with the utmost care is the most rewarding of all.  Happy milking!

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https://www.homestead.org/food/how-to-make-butter-from-goat-milk/

Goat Kidding Season — It’s No Joke

The post Goat Milk Galore: Goat Milk Recipes and Products appeared first on Homestead.org.

Why Did We Choose Nigerian Milk -goats?

When choosing goats, you first need to decide between meat or milk goats.  If you want meat goats then you would buy Boer’s, most likely.  They are the most popular meat-goat.  The most popular milk-goats are probably Nubians.  We chose milk goats, but we didn’t choose Nubians.  We chose Nigerian dwarf milk-goats.  Nigerian dwarf milk-goats are small, friendly, and cute.  They don’t produce as much milk per day as Nubians, but we don’t need more than one to two pints of milk per day anyway.  What would we do with a gallon of milk per day, every day?

The information in this article will work equally for Nubian or Nigerian milk goats.  Just know that Nubians are a bit larger than Nigerians and they can provide twice as much milk (or more) per goat.  This article will only discuss milk goats.

How to Pick Your Milk Goats

Milk-goats are there to make milk, so the most important section of your new milk-goat is the “trunk.”  How much junk can your goat keep in her trunk?  All the action is in the udders.

You want a goat with great udders.  What does that mean?  Firm, strong, balanced udders with good teat development will make for a great milk-goat.  In the picture, you can see that the tan goat’s got it goin’ on, and she knows it.  The gray goat is a great mother and a wonderful goat, but she has bad udder development.  Her udders almost drag on the ground; they have actually been cut and scraped when she climbs over things.

Why do we have a goat with bad udders?  The gray goat was our first purchase.  We didn’t know what to look for and she was cheap: she cost $75 instead of the normal $200+ for a goat with better udders.  A goat with great udders will make baby goats with great udders.  When you sell females, good udders mean good profits.  When you milk a goat, good udders mean easier milking.

Goats are social animals; never try to keep just one goat.  You will need to buy at least two goats, otherwise the solo goat may not eat and will make constant noise.  We made the mistake of only getting one goat to start.  She would only eat if I was standing out in the field with her.  Otherwise she would stand at the fence and cry.

Along with udder development you want to find a goat with a good build, well filled out, clear eyes, healthy appearance, and “clean” pelleted poop.  Don’t buy a goat who has diarrhea, isn’t energetic, or otherwise makes you uncertain.  A bad goat will take just as much feed and space as a good goat.  A goat that consistently has triplets can make a thousand dollars more in profits (over her lifetime) than a goat that only has twins.  In other words, paying an extra $100 up front is better than spending lots of food, medicine, and time on a goat that under-performs in the long run.

Milking a Goat

It may seem obvious, but not everyone knows that in order to milk a goat she first must have recently had a baby.  Making babies is what makes milk.  If you buy a goat for milking, she should be pregnant, recently have given birth, or you will need a buck to impregnate her for future milk-production.  Generally, you will let the kids nurse until weaning at about eight weeks, then you will start milking after that.  It is possible to keep a goat in milk for months.  Then she will need to be “freshened” by getting pregnant again and having babies.

If you want milk year-round you will need at least two females on rotating birthing cycles.  It is also possible to hand-rear the kids on artificial formula and milk the doe from the time she gives birth.  Just let the kids nurse for the first few days in order to get antibodies from their mother.  We leave the kids with their doe until weaning time, but we aren’t aiming for maximum productivity.

Building a Head Hold for Your Milk Goats

Even the most friendly goat isn’t all that interested in standing still for twenty minutes while you milk her.  You will need a head hold, or a milking station.  You don’t need to buy one.  They are easy to make and fairly self-explanatory.  My first milking station was made from a wooden pallet and a 2×4.  That’s it!  Later I built an entire goat “tractor” with a milking station and a yard to hold the goats about to be milked.

A milking stand really just needs two pieces of wood with notches cut out to go around the goat’s neck and hold her head in place.  It helps if you include a feed bucket where the goat can eat a little while you are milking her.  The head hold in the picture is made with two pieces of wood, a screw at the bottom of one piece that allows it to pivot, and a screen door latch on top to hold it shut.

Milking a goat is simply a matter of pinching the teat up near the udder—to trap the milk in the teat—and then squeezing down (like squeezing toothpaste from a tube) to get the milk out.  Repeat those steps over and over again until the udder is empty.  Occasionally, I will massage the udder to get more milk to drop.  Repeat the same steps with each side.  You can even go back to side one after milking side two to get a little more milk.

Generally you will want to milk your goats twice each day.  Milking more often creates more milk production.  You will get more milk overall by milking twice each day than you would by only milking once each day.  For us, the process of milking takes about 20 minutes per session per goat, or 40 minutes per day per goat.  We aren’t in a big hurry.  They do make milking machines for goats, but they are expensive.

My wife wears latex gloves when milking in order to keep her hands from smelling like goat.  The exact process for milking is as follows:

1.  Put goat in milking station (with some feed).

2.  Sanitize the teats and bottom of udders with warm soapy water or a sanitizer diluted in water (like StarSan).  Some people also shave or trim the udders to keep hair from getting into the milk.

3.  Use a clean jar and milk each side of the goat. Be careful to not let the goat kick over, or put her dirty foot in, the milk receptacle.

4.  Cover the jars to bring into the house then STRAIN out any hair or other debris. A quart mason jar is better than a metal bucket for milking goats, in my opinion.

5.  Refrigerate, and drink or use to make other products like cheese or soap.

A Word About Goat Milk

Goat milk has smaller fat particles, so it’s harder to separate into cream and milk.  The fat stays in the milk, making the milk taste richer than cow milk.  Contrary to popular belief, goat milk has the same affect on people with lactose intolerance as cow’s milk.  However, many people (like myself), who thought they had lactose intolerance, actually have a milk allergy.  If you have a milk allergy (like I do), then goat milk will not cause gastric distress.  I’m a big fan of goat milk because it doesn’t affect me like cow milk does.

You can make cheese out of goat milk.  We have made both mozzarella and feta type cheese from our goat milk.  You can also make soaps and lotions from goat milk.  I have never done it myself, however.

What does goat milk taste like?  The first time you drink it it will taste “funny” because your brain is telling you that it’s “farmy.”  That quickly passes and it tastes just like cow milk, only creamier because the fat is still in it.  It can have a slight “earthy” smell depending on how well you clean the teats.  It helps to remember that cow milk from the store is separated, processed, and pasteurized before packaging.  So consider the difference between goat milk and cow milk to be the same as the difference between fresh-picked green beans from the garden and a can of green beans.  Fresh smells better even though it is “farmy.”

Making Goat Babies

A great way to have fun while making profit is to make new baby goats.  It’s a trip!!  Baby goats are just like any other type of baby, they are fun to watch!  In order to make babies you will need a buck.  Having a buck in your herd is just like having a man anywhere else… it’s a bit more trouble but you need one to get certain chores done!

Picking a buck is the same as picking does.  Look for healthy, clear eyes, good structure and plenty of junk in his trunk.  In this case his junk is his scrotum.  Don’t worry, it’s easy to spot.  It hangs down farther than a does’ udders.

If you want to make “registered” babies then you need a registered buck and registered does.  If you just want to make great goats of the same breed then make sure you get goats that look like good examples of the breed.  I recommend against getting any sort of cross-bred goats.  I’LL SAY THIS AGAIN IN ALL CAPS: DON’T GET CROSS-BRED GOATS FOR BREEDING.  They exist, and people may claim that they are just as good or even better.  No, they aren’t.  And even if they might be, there’s no way to know that what you’re getting is better.  Trust the system and keep your herd pure to the breed.

IMPORTANT:  If you are going to have baby goats, then it’s very useful to make your goats very FRIENDLY and TRUSTING of humans.  Feed them by hand often.  Make sure they trust and like you.  Because when they start having kids, and you want/need to help the birth, they have to trust you.  Otherwise, they will try to run away.  Running with a kid hanging out of the back of a doe is not good for either party.

It is possible to just let the doe have her kids “au naturale” without any assistance.  But it generally results in more dead kids and possibly even a dead doe.  Having assistance can mean the difference between one live kid and three live kids.  Since a goat is worth about $200, that’s a $400 profit just from helping out with the birthing process.

To help with birthing you will need a “kit.”  The kit should include: iodine, latex gloves, towels, floss, and scissors.  The scissors are used to cut the umbilical cord, if necessary (it has never been necessary for me).  The iodine is there to treat the umbilical wound on the kid and keep it from getting infected.  The gloves and towels are there for obvious reasons.  The floss is there to assist in birthing in complicated births.

You will need to research how to deal with goat birthing issues.  This article is not designed to do so.  Suffice it to say, a kid should come out with it’s front feet and face emerging AT THE SAME TIME.  The proper goat birth posture is with it’s face resting on it’s front feet.  Anything other than that requires intervention to re-position the kid.  One of the most common problems is Rear-First positioning; you will need to turn the kid around.  Another problem is Face First But No Feet; that means that the front legs are folded backwards and assistance will be needed to keep the kid from getting stuck in the birth canal (generally a gentle tug).

Do not try to pull on the after-birth or do anything more than is absolutely necessary to help the birthing process.  Clean the kid’s nose and mouth to make sure it is breathing, but otherwise leave it alone.  The doe will lick it clean.  If the kid can’t find the teat in a reasonable amount of time, then help it.  What does this look like?  It looks like a kid trying to nurse on the barn wall or getting stuck in a corner unsure where to go.

You will be amazed at how fast these goats get moving around.  They will be following mom around within hours of birth, and by day two they will seem like they’ve aged a month.  The kids in the picture were just born minutes before.  The white one was born first, which is why it’s cleaner.

Raising Goats for Fun and Profit

Like I said at the beginning of the article.  Goats can be eaten, milked, or sold (to be eaten or milked).  Goat milk can be sold (depending on local, state, and national laws) or can be made into products.  The difference between making goat cheese and goat milk soap is the FDA.  There are lots of rules about making and selling cheese or milk products, but no real rules about selling soap.

We sell male kids at the time of weaning.  Even though we sell “dwarf” goats there is a market of people who will raise them to eat.  Generally, we will take the males to the local “sale barn” where they are auctioned off.  That’s where most males are destined to end up.

We sell females when they are ready to be bred, or we sell them as bred does.  It isn’t hard to find buyers.  Craigslist.org will do the trick.  The lower the price the faster they sell.  But, since goats mostly just eat grass/vines/etc., it’s not a great cost to keep the does around until we get the price we want.  Worst-case scenario is that they stay long enough to make even more babies!  It’s a win-win scenario.  However, we have ten acres of pasture.  If you are doing this on dirt, or rocks, or in your backyard, time means feed.  You can do the math.

What about soap or lotions?  If you have a market, they are very profitable.  One could go to people who have booths at local antique-shops and see if they have a shelf to rent, or would engage in some sort of profit-sharing arrangement.  Generally, you won’t have enough product to justify a booth of your own, but if you can sublet a shelf, then it will be a profitable undertaking.

The idea of selling these things at the flea market may seem like a good idea, but flea markets cost money and will eat up your entire weekend.  So it’s better to find a passive way to sell your products.  Online places like Etsy may work as well.  But remember what you are selling isn’t a product.  You are selling a STORY.  “This lotion was hand-made in God’s country on a sepia-toned farm using traditional methods on a red-checker-covered farm table while a rooster crowed in the background and happy goats grazed on the hillside.  Won’t your hands feel softer because of it?  Of course they will!”

No matter how you do it, no homestead is complete without a couple of goats, even if they are just for taking cute photos.

The post Nigerian Dwarf Goats: Complete Your Homestead with Milk Goats appeared first on Homestead.org.

After gardening, soap making was the first homesteading skill I learned. At the time, I was living in a Sacramento suburb, still dreaming of a place in the country. But I decided that learning how to make milk soap was a homesteading skill I could pursue even in the middle of the city.

My very first batch of DIY milk soap was, objectively, ugly. I semi-burnt the milk, blended until the mixture was too thick, and had to glop the soap batter into the mold, leaving the finished bars lumpy and uneven.

Even with these shortcomings, I was proud of that soap and became enamored with milk soap making.

If you have a dairy animal on your homestead, DIY milk soap is a good way to use up extra milk, and the resulting soap is wonderful for your skin.

But you don’t need to have your own dairy animal. You can make milk soap from scratch with simple ingredients from the grocery store. Soap making is a wonderful self-sufficiency skill that anyone can learn to do, even if your homestead is a small lot in town.

Over the years, my soap making vastly improved, leading to a small business selling goat milk soap and teaching soap making workshops.

Today I’m sharing with you my tried-and-true tips for making milk soap so that you can avoid all my newbie mistakes and make milk soap from scratch successfully from your first batch on.

Let’s get soaping!

Benefits of Milk Soap

So, what makes milk soap so special? Three words: fats, sugars, and acids.

It’s the milk fats that give milk soap its extra moisturizing oomph. These fats are left as “free oil” in the finished soap bar, making milk soap supremely gentle and nourishing to the skin.

The characteristic rich, creamy lather of milk soap can be attributed, mainly, to the sugars found in milk. Lactose, the chief sugar in milk, increases soap lather because it reduces the surface tension of water allowing bigger and longer-lasting bubbles to form.

Remember being a kid and blowing bubbles with a straw into a glass of milk versus a glass of water? Milk produced big bubbles that overflowed the glass and lasted a long time; water bubbles burst quickly. The same effect happens with milk soap versus non-milk soap—bigger bubbles that last longer.

Milk also contains naturally occurring hydroxy acids, specifically lactic acid. Lactic acid is a gentle exfoliant, and leaves the skin feeling softer and looking brighter. Milk soap isn’t at the same level as an exfoliation treatment like a scrub or peel, but it does give a little extra benefit for your skin.

What Kind of Milk Can I Use for DIY Milk Soap?

While goat milk makes the quintessential milk soap, any type of milk can be used including cow, donkey, coconut, and more. The soap making instructions below can be used with any type of milk you desire.

Fresh Milk

If you have a dairy cow or dairy goat, obviously you have plenty of fresh milk to create soap. Either pasteurized or raw milk can be used for soap making.

Store-bought fresh milk can be used if you don’t have a dairy animal. The milk you have in your fridge right now will do, although whole milk will give a creamier soap lather compared to low-fat varieties. Larger grocery stores will also have fresh goat milk in the refrigerated section.

If there is a local creamery or dairy nearby, consider purchasing your milk from them. Your support of small farmstead businesses is vital and incredibly appreciated.

Canned Milk

You can also use canned milk to make soap. If you use this option, dilute the milk first with equal parts water since canned milk is concentrated.

Vegan Milks

Are you vegan? There are milk soap options for you too!

You can use the instructions below to make soap with coconut milk, almond milk, or soy milk. The steps are the same. The finished soap bars will have a slightly different color and consistency than soap made from cow or goat milk but will be a lovely soap, nonetheless.

The Key to Beautiful Milk Soap Making

Here’s the secret to making lovely milk soap: freeze your milk prior to soap making.

This is the step I skipped in my first few batches, and why my milk soaps turned a funky shade of brown and had an off smell (old tires came to mind).

It doesn’t matter if you’re using farm-fresh, store-bought, or canned. Or cow milk, goat milk, or plant-based. Use only frozen milk when making soap.

Soap is made using a blend of oils, liquid (milk, in this instance), and lye.

Yes, my friend, lye is needed to make milk soap from scratch. Nothing can be substituted for lye in handmade milk soap recipes. We’ll talk more about lye and its use in just a bit.

When oil, liquid, and lye are blended together it triggers a chemical reaction called saponification. When saponification is finished, you no longer have oils, milk, and lye; you have soap.

First, the lye is dissolved in the liquid. As lye dissolves it generates heat, and fast. It can heat a liquid to above 200 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few seconds.

In water, that isn’t a problem (except, of course, you must be careful to not burn yourself). Bringing milk up to a high temperature so quickly will scorch and curdle, making it smelly, off-colored, and unusable.

Freezing the milk counteracts this, preventing it from becoming too hot too fast.

The most convenient way to freeze (and use) milk for soap making is to freeze it in ice cube trays. When you’re ready to make soap, simply pop the cubes out and place them into your container.

Don’t freeze the milk in its entirety as one solid mass. It’s nearly impossible to properly dissolve your lye granules in a big block of frozen milk.

Soap Making Safety Rules

If you’ve never made soap before, there are some lye handling safety rules you must know before you whip up your first batch.

But truly, there is no need to fear lye. If you have ever used a drain opener in your home, you’ve already used a form of lye.

Following these simple tips will help you craft your milk soap safely.

• Use only 100% lye. Although you can find 100% lye at the local hardware store, it’s often safest for beginning soap makers to buy lye online from soap making suppliers. This way you’ll be certain to get the right lye for soap making.
• Wear rubber or exam-type gloves and eye protection goggles. Lye granules, lye/milk solution, and soap batter are all caustic. To protect yourself, put gloves and safety glasses on at the beginning of your soap making and don’t remove them until after clean-up.
• Weigh out all ingredients. Soap ingredients must be measured by weight, not by volume. Weighing ingredients gives a more precise measurement to ensure your finished soap is not lye heavy.
• Clean up lye spills with copious amounts of water and mild soap. If you get lye granules, lye/milk solution, or soap batter on your skin, immediately rinse with cold water, wash with a mild soap, and rinse some more. For spills on countertops and floors, wipe up as much as possible with paper towels and discard (or sweep up lye granules with a broom). Wash the entire spill area with a damp rag and mild soap, such as dish soap.
• Do not substitute oils in any soap recipe. Soap recipes are formulated with very specific lye-to-oil ratios. There needs to be just enough lye in the recipe to turn oil into soap, but not so much to leave lye in the finished batch. If you swap out one oil for another, you run the risk of creating a lye-heavy soap. Only experienced soap makers who know how to recalculate lye amounts should substitute oils.

Soap Making Supplies

You will need to gather a few supplies to get started making homemade milk soap.

Important note: Due to the caustic nature of lye, all the supplies must be used exclusively for soap making (so don’t use them again for food). You can, however, use these tools for creating other types of DIY bath and body products.

• 8-quart stainless steel pot (must be stainless steel, NOT aluminum, cast iron, or non-stick coated as these will react with the lye)
• Heat-safe plastic pitcher
• 2 (4-cup size) plastic measuring cups with spouts
• 2 silicone spatulas or plastic spoons, one for the oils and one for the lye/milk mixture
• Digital cooking thermometer
• Kitchen scale
• Immersion blender (AKA stick blender)
• Safety glasses
• Nitrile exam gloves or rubber cleaning gloves
• 42 oz. soap mold or shoebox, lined with freezer paper, shiny side up
• Soap cutter (optional) or large non-serrated knife

Easy Milk Soap Recipe

This recipe makes approximately 2 pounds of finished soap with 7% superfat. (Superfat is a measure of the amount of free oil, or oil that is not
turned into soap, left in the finished bars. Superfatted soap is
especially moisturizing thanks to this extra oil.)

• 14 oz. frozen milk of your choice (goat milk, cow milk, etc.)
• 13 oz. olive oil
• 9.5 oz. coconut oil
• 9.5 oz. palm oil
• 4.5 oz. 100% lye

Prep step: Gather all supplies and ingredients needed and have them easily accessible. Put on your gloves and goggles (remember, keep these on the entire time you’re soaping until after you’ve finished cleaning up.)

Step 1: In a measuring cup, weigh out each oil individually and add to the stainless steel pot. Place the pot on the stovetop and warm oils over low heat until melted. Remove from heat.

Step 2: Weigh out frozen milk cubes into the plastic pitcher. No need to cut or sh­­ave cubes to get a precise measurement for the milk. If adding an extra cube brings the measurement slightly over 14 oz., that’s okay.

Step 3: In the second measuring cup, weigh out lye granules. Do be precise with this measurement.

Step 4: Slowly pour the lye into the frozen milk cubes, stopping frequently to stir. The milk will immediately begin to melt. It will also change in color.

After you’ve added about half the lye granules, check the temperature of the lye/milk mixture. You want the lye/milk mixture to come up to above 85 degrees Fahrenheit but stay below 100 degrees. Higher than 100 degrees and your milk will scald and curdle; lower than 85 degrees and the lye granules may not dissolve fully.

Continue to slowly add lye to the milk, testing the temperature periodically. If the mixture is nearing 100 degrees, let it cool for several minutes before adding more lye.

Step 5: Once you have added all the lye to the milk, let the mixture sit for 20 minutes. This step is important as it gives the lye granules ample time to fully dissolve.

Step 6: Carefully pour the lye/milk mixture into the pot of oils. The lye/milk will have thickened considerably, so don’t fret if you come back to a pudding-like mixture. Use a silicone spatula to scrape as much of the lye/milk mixture from the pitcher as possible.

Step 7: Place the stick blender into the pot, making sure the bell is fully submerged. Blend in 30-second spurts until the mixture is fully incorporated and has thickened to a cake batter-like consistency (what soap makers call trace).

Step 8: Ladle or pour the soap batter into your prepared mold. The batter will continue to thicken, so be prepared. No need to rush, but don’t let it set in the pot any longer than needed. Use your silicone spatula to spread the soap batter evenly throughout, making sure it reaches the corners of the mold.

As a finishing touch, use your spatula or wooden dowel to make a pretty decorative texture on the surface of your soap.

Step 9: Set the soap mold in an out-of-the-way spot for 72 hours. This allows the soap to finish saponifying and firm up. I prefer to cover my mold, to prevent pets or accidental fingers from getting into the soap batter. If your soap mold doesn’t have a lid, you can improvise with a piece of cardboard. Don’t allow the lid to touch the surface of the soap. If your soap mold is so full that a lid will contact the soap’s surface, just leave the lid off.

Step 10: Clean up! Keep those gloves and goggles on, the soap batter on your tools is still caustic. Wipe any excess soap batter off your tools with paper towels or crumpled newspaper and discard. Wash everything well with dish soap and rinse. Wipe down your work area with a damp cloth. Once everything is completely cleaned up, it’s safe to remove your gloves and goggles.

Step 11: After 72 hours, your homemade milk soap is ready to unmold. Turn the soap out onto freezer paper or brown paper and cut it into bars. The soap will be soft and sticky, like soft cheese. It will harden during cure. Cut the soap into bars using a soap cutter or large non-serrated knife.

Step 12: Cure your soap for 30 days. Simply set your soap bars out on brown paper or freezer paper in a dry, out-of-the-way spot like a cabinet or closet. Make sure the bars are not touching each other to allow air to circulate around all sides. Turn soap bars once every week or so to expose all sides to air.

Curing is important, so don’t skip this step. During curing, any excess liquid evaporates out, creating a hard, long-lasting bar of soap.

After 30 days of patiently waiting, your soap is ready to use.

To store your milk soap: Wrap bars in paper or keep them in a paper bag or small box. Air circulation is important for long-term storage. When properly stored, your milk soap has a shelf life of 5 years.

Enjoy your homemade milk soap!

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