Goat soap and cheese questions...

[farmerlor]

Waddaya think of offering the price of the class as credit towards a goat if they choose to buy one? Or half the price of the class? Or what?

I think offering the class price as credit towards the price of a goat is sheer genius.

HA! i shoulda known that Free and i had the same thought about... "so.. what in the class??"

HA!

and really this class sounds like its worth its weight in gold. what a great idea!

and just to throw in.. our goats paid for themselves very quickly. some folks just asked me about this and what we use all our milk for so that it makes sense and cents.. i just put the link in my journal or its here on my blog:

http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-do-we-do-with-all-milk.html

even with the bagged feed and ha for our goats we still come out ahead. the trick is to "stack" your barnyard so the ducks and clucks eat any 'wasted' hay and also to use whatcha got. so we drink and use a lot of milk. and then there's the cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, whey etc.

glad you decided to go for the class!

ps i'm so gonna charge people to milk my goats! ha!
;-)

Yeah, I'm not so in love with the soap making part but since it lasts so long and you can make so much in one batch I don't see it as being a HUGE problem that I have to take care of very often as I don't plan to sell any soap. But I can see me getting WAY (get it WHEY....?) happy with making cheeses. I wish the stuff to make cheese wasn't so expensive because of course I WANT a separator and I WANT a butter churn and I WANT a cheese press and they all cost mucho money and right now while I'm trying to save up every penny to go towards restocking my baby supplies for the foster babies that ain't happenin'. They tell me you can make the butter in your food processor. Is it as good that way? Any problems using that?

 

[farmerlor]

Ooooh, and I WANT an ice cream maker. LOL! (sigh)

 

[savingdogs]

I would have loved to attend a class such as you describe and if it were credited towards the price of the goats, I would have been 100 percent sold.

We felt confident buying the goats when we did because the seller spent the time teaching us basic goat care. It came with the purchase price, with a tour of her barn and we learned to milk, too. But not make cheese and soap! I think she felt better selling the goats to us knowing she had taught us how to care for them properly.

 

[freemotion]

farmerlor, you don't need all that fancy stuff. I made/scrounged all my cheesemaking supplies....except the cultures and rennet and such. Made the press and all my molds from this and that. Make some pretty fancy cheese, too! <cheesy smile!

 

[xdewit]

[
Yeah, I'm not so in love with the soap making part but since it lasts so long and you can make so much in one batch I don't see it as being a HUGE problem that I have to take care of very often as I don't plan to sell any soap. But I can see me getting WAY (get it WHEY....?) happy with making cheeses. I wish the stuff to make cheese wasn't so expensive because of course I WANT a separator and I WANT a butter churn and I WANT a cheese press and they all cost mucho money and right now while I'm trying to save up every penny to go towards restocking my baby supplies for the foster babies that ain't happenin'. They tell me you can make the butter in your food processor. Is it as good that way? Any problems using that?

IMHO ones you get into soap making you wont stop. you have the best gifts ever and almost free soap and you can make laundry soap out of it ( I never use store bought again and no fabric softener, safes me a lot of money!).
Also when you go into cheese making (remember ... I am dutch)
you find out that you really don't need all the equipment. For soft cheese a muslin fabric and a colleander works, for yogurt making only some old jars and for hard cheeses you can use other things beside the press. Butter making can also be done in an old canning jar and shake it all around.. Sit read a book and shake.
i have the homestead blessing from the West Ladies series and they show how to make it, looks fairly easy! Never done it cos I don't have a cheap source for milk (no milk farmers in the neigbourhood).

Xant