I never dreamed that when my family and I started raising alpacas three years ago, that I would eventually be making soap. What does raising alpacas have to do with making soaps?

About a year ago, my husband Tom and I opened a farm store on our alpaca farm. The store is stocked with all items made from alpaca fiber which includes teddy bears, sweaters, blankets, socks, and hand-spun yarns. I hand spin all the shorn fleeces from our sixteen alpacas and one llama. I regularly attend several craft shows in New England as a vendor throughout the year selling our alpaca products. After attending the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival this past October, I noticed a couple of vendors selling goatmilk soaps. This started the wheels turning.

I went home and did some research on the computer on soapmaking. “ I can do this.” , I thought to myself. From that time on, many hours were spent researching soap supplies, techniques and avenues which to sell handmade soaps. A great advantage to making soap would be to sell them in our farm store. Alpaca items can be very expensive, and not everyone walking into the store is willing to spend that much. If we sold handmade soap in the store our customers could still buy something “farm made” without emptying their wallets. Through further research, I stumbled upon BrambleBerry.com. I tried a few products and was hooked, particularly by the Melt and Pour goatmilk soap. After trying a few suppliers I found that Bramble Berry had the best quality products for the soaps I wanted to sell to our customers. After trying the Melt and Pour soaps, I decided to make lotions to go with the soaps. At a local show, I sold out of lotion on the first day of the show! Today we are selling plenty of melt and pour goatmilk soaps in various fragrances in single bars and 3-packs from our alpaca farm store! And since selling alpaca products is basically a cold-weather season business, we are hoping to produce and sell more soaps, lotions, lotion bars, and bath salts during the warmer months to supplement store sales. All our soaps and lotions will also be added to our online store.

In addition to this, I have been inspired at shows to try my hand at Cold-Processed soaps once the hectic holiday season is over!