Page 36 Stories of the Heartland • Sunday, September 21, 2025 hometownsource. com / heartland /
From barn to bar: Little Falls Couple Turns Goat Milk Into Soap
BY SHEILA MCCOY STORIES OF THE HEARTLAND
As consumers become more aware of what they ingest, whether through eating, drinking or what they put on their skin, goat milk products have become widely popular. There are after all many benefits to goatmilk, such as its skin nourishing properties that are suitable to most skin types. While vitamin A is essential in repairing and rebuilding skin cells, vitamin B12 regulates skin pigmentation. In addition, Alpha Hydroxy Acids helps remove dead skin cells, lactic acid serves as a mild, natural exfoliant and selenium improves skin elasticity, said Steph Haakonson.
Haakonson and her husband, Eric own Red Pine Pastures in Little Falls, where they raise dairy goats, sheep, cattle and other animals.
The journey to making goat milk soap was not straight for Haakonson. At first, it simply began with wanting milk to consume. At that time, the couple had several Jersey cows, but none of them were in milk.
While getting dairy goats hadn’ t exactly been the plan, Haakonson said when the opportunity to get some dairy goats presented itself, she was all in.
“ I had a friend who was looking to offload a couple goats and I said,‘ Sure,’” she said.
Looking back, Haakonson said she’ s glad she and Eric decided to keep dairy goats rather than cows. Cows yield much more milk than dairy goats and they knew they wouldn’ t be able to consume gallons of milk each day.
Haakonson said after milking the goats, she often freezes the milk into ice cubes after she’ s filtered the milk. As she makes cold processed soap, a very traditional way of making soap, it’ s easier to work with the milk when it’ s frozen.
Haakonson said how soapmaking essentially works is that a form of fat is needed, whether butter or an oil, such as coconut oil, olive oil, coconut butter, shea butter and more. That is then combined with an alkali or a basic ingredient to create a base through a chemical process called saponification.
“ When you’ re making soap, whether you’ re making it with water or milk, it heats up very quickly. With water it’ s not a big deal, because when heated up, it’ s still water, but it’ s different with milk. If it heats up too fast, you’ ll end up scorching the milk,” she said.
Haakonson said while scorched milk can still be used in soapmaking and none of the beneficial properties are destroyed, milk that is heated up too fast becomes orange in color. As she strives for her soap to have a nice creamy white color, Haakonson said she’ s found that by using frozen milk, she is able to slow down or keep the isothermic reaction at a lower temperature.
Haakonson said the difference between cold and hot processing is in how it is prepared.
In cold processing, all of the ingredients are combined. The mixture is then poured into molds and left to solidify before being cured. It usually takes several weeks before the soap hardens. The hot processing method uses an external heat source, such as a slow cooker or a double