By Lilah Ward, Goat Dairy Manager

We get most of the materials for our base recipe from bulk. We also add herbs from our gardens — such as lavender and rosemary leaves — to our scented recipes. For our honey oatmeal soap, we use honey from our own bees. During milking season, we pour our goats’ milk into ice trays and freeze it for this process. Once frozen, we transfer the milk cubes into gallon freezer bags. This year, we have filled about two entire freezers.

Step 1: The Base Recipe
All of our soaps begin with the same base recipe, composed of coconut oil, shea butter, olive oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil, castor oil, and beeswax (which we mainly process from our bees). This year, we were short on beeswax, so we ordered additional wax from a farm in Iowa.

We combine the measured amounts of each ingredient and heat the mixture until all the beeswax has melted. The exact temperature varies, but it’s usually around 150 degrees. Once everything has melted, we remove the pot from the hot plate and let it cool. If we're making a scented recipe, we add the “dry” ingredients — such as oatmeal, honey, lavender leaves, or rosemary leaves — once the oil mixture begins to cool.

Step 2: The Lye and Milk Mixture
In a separate pot, we mix the measured amount of lye with the measured amount of frozen goat-milk cubes. This combination creates a chemical reaction that heats up on its own.

Step 3: Combining the Mixtures
Next, we wait for the oil mixture to cool to 97 degrees and for the lye/milk mixture to warm to 97 degrees. Once both reach the same temperature, we combine them in a single pot. Using an electric mixer, we blend until the mixture reaches “trace,” ensuring that the oils and lye are fully incorporated. This is a quick-moving stage because the soap begins to harden rapidly. For scented soaps, we add the essential oils at this point.

Step 4: Molding the Soap
Once the mixture has reached trace, we pour it into our soap mold. After the mold is filled, we place it in the freezer overnight. The entire process up to this point takes about two hours. The next day, we remove the soap from the freezer and let it sit in the mold for about four days so it can harden enough to cut. After four days, we remove the soap from the mold and cut it into bars. Each mold yields around 20–21 bars.

Step 5: Curing the Bars
Once cut, the bars go into the curing phase, which allows them to air-dry for about a month — longer for scented soaps. After the curing process is complete, we package the bars, and they’re ready for sale in The Museum Store.