Saturday Sources: Hanley Fold Farm Goats Milk Soap

Today edition of Saturday Sources is a bit different from the past couple. Instead of a producer of an edible product today I am interviewing Anne of Hanley Fold Farm. Hanley Fold Farm produces and sells goats milk soap as well as lotion bars and lip balm. I will admit that I have a particular weakness for homemade soap. If you haven’t tried it you really should. It is so much more moisturizing than anything I have ever purchased commercially. There is one other distinct difference. These are available for mail order! My readers from all over the world can go to their website and order some soap and other products to be delivered. Those of you who are local to me can get Hanley Fold Farm Soap at many of the local farmer’s markets as well as at the Local Harvest Grocery Stores and other locations. For the full listing go to this link on their website Retail outlets and Farmer’s Markets

-PattyLA

How long have you been making soap?

I started making soap in Michigan in 2004 or so when I went to a class on soap making given by the Michigan Dairy Goat Society. I lived at home on my parent’s farm at the time and had a surplus of goat milk. It seemed that making soap was the answer to use up all that good milk. A friend of mine suggested I start a soap business. The business was official as of August of 2005. The soap business has grown each year. My husband Vinnie has helped to transform it in recent years including developing our new label and expanding our availability to various farmer’s markets and retail shops..

In addition to handmade goat’s milk soap we also make lip balms and lotion bars for hands. We also have wooden soap dishes that we offer to lengthen the life of our soap.

Soap that is made by hand has naturally occurring glycerin in it. Glycerin is very moisturizing. Commercial companies take the glycerin from their soap and use it to make lotion. The goat’s milk has the added benefit of containing the wonderful vitamins and minerals from the milk.Our soap also lasts a long time and is good for people with sensitive skin. There are no harsh detergents in our soap.

Our soap is made in small batches that yield 22 bars. We can make 10 batches a day and that process from start to finish takes about 6 to 7 hours. That soap will be cut after a few days and then allowed to cure for at least a month before it is ready to use or sell.

We sure hope so. That is what we are aiming for in the future. Making soap enables me to be able to stay home and take care of our daughter Mary who is one year old. As with any business it takes a great deal of work to get it going.

I have several favorite products. Hard to narrow down to just one. I love the lavender sage oatmeal soap for the bath. The clove coffee is an excellent soap for use in the kitchen. It helps take the smells of garlic and onions off your hands after cooking. I love the orange lavender lotion bar. Lastly, my favorite lip balm is the Coffee lip balm that has real coffee butter in it. It is just wonderful.

Hanley Fold Farm is a small family business. We enjoy getting to know our customers at farmer’s markets and local craft fairs. We have found that our business has been able to grow through meeting the needs of our customers. We look forward to future learning and growing as a company.

If you are in the St. Louis area check out Hanley Fold Farm Soap the next chance that you get! They are at most of the area Farmer’s Markets as well as Local Harvest Grocery (both stores), and Greene’s Country Store and Feed. You can also find their Lotion Bars at Knitorious and Ewe Knit Yarns.

Or go to their website and consider ordering some of this fantastic soap. The lotion bars are very rich and moisturizing. They are perfect if you get dry hands in the winter and in the bar form they are easy to take with you. My husband gets very dry hands in the winter and he is impressed by how moisturizing this bar is. After Anne told me about that coffee Lip Balm I got some and I agree it is really terrific.

Hanley Fold Farms

Soap, Lotion Bars and Lip Balm

Do you have any questions for Anne that I didn’t think to ask? Go ahead and post them below and I’ll make sure she sees them to answer them.