End of a Busy Year

Here we are approaching Christmas already!  It’s been a busy year for us.  We’ve gotten our signature bath and body care products off to a running start, set up an online store for ease of ordering, added some new goaties to our flock, did some reconfiguring of the barns, and removed two overgrown trees from the front yard.   Most recently, we vended at the Holiday Farmer’s Market at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.  It was great seeing so many people interested in local products and supportive of their local producers!  Thanks to everyone who shopped with us!!!

We started off making goat milk soaps using a Stephenson goat milk soap base.  We a thrilled with this soap – it is so creamy and silky!  Little by little we’ve been trying other base products and recipes and have started producing shaving soaps, goat milk bath salts, natural lip balms, liquid hand soap, and finally lotion!  All can be scented with your favorite scents, or we can leave out ingredients to help you cope with sensitivities.  We can leave out SLS- and SLES, fragrances & dyes, and milk.  We’ve tried an olive oil base and found it wonderful as well.  

We can also add ingredients to the soaps.  By adding bentonite clay to our soaps, we add even more “slip” which makes the soaps better for shaving.  Exfoliants also work well in soaps.  We can add Strawberry Seeds or Pumice to soaps for gentle exfoliation. 

We also developed a new hunter & fisherman’s soap, called Buck Muck.  This soap was designed to mask and absorb human scent.  We added hawaiin black lava salt (with activated charcoal for absorbing odors), deer-loving botanicals, diatomaecous earth for extra scrub, and bentonite clay for a close shave.  We haven’t had much feedback on Buck Muck’s effectiveness in stalking yet since it’s so new, but hunting- and nature-loving family members have declared it the perfect soap! 

To find us on the web, simply google “Hickory Lick Goat Farm Soaps” or follow this link:  www.HickoryLickGoatFarm.MyBigCommerce.com.  We can also be found on Facebook by searching on our farm name. 

One last item to note, we’re in the research & development phase on a line of carved wooden bowls made out of those tress I mentioned in the first paragraph.  Keep an eye and ear open to see what we come up with.  We’re really excited about this project!

Have a fabulous Holiday season!  Don’t forget the stocking stuffers!

2010 Kids Available for Reservation

Wow has it been wet! The girls didn’t let that stop them and we have a nice crop of kids again this year. They’ll be ready to wean in about a month (possibly sooner). Come on out and pick out your favorites. We have everything from Fullblooded Boers to dairy does crossed with our Boer buck, Sweet Victory’s Orion’s Legacy – love this guy. His kids are big, conform well, and they have lots of color. There’s at least a couple of them out there that would be great show wethers – they have a lot of style.

We look forward to finding out how those dairy crosses turn out. The reports I’ve seen indicate it’ll produce dual-purpose kids – meatier goats that can produce a larger volume of milk. Boer goat milk has more milk fat in it, so richer milk is possible too. We have one Purebred French Alpine freshened at long last. No more milk runs to the grocery store! The other appears to be getting ready to deliver soon. We also have some grade dairy does and their kids available for sale – they’re good girls, but don’t have all the attributes we’d prefer. We’ll be looking into some better quality does – those from good milking lines and possibly a dairy buck.

Don’t forget to check us out at Country Lace Craft Mall (Auburn/Pawnee exit off I-55 behind the truck stop). We have goat milk soaps, goat milk bath salts, and other hand crafted items there. Ours is the booth with the kitchen sink!

A Few Kids Still Available

Seems like fall started a bit early this year – either that or I’m very behind in my work!  We still have a few kids left – probably in the 60-80lb range, perfect for processing. The new feed is working great, we’re seeing more muscle definition and the goats are fending better on mostly grass & hay now. Their coats have great shine. We’ve added a couple of new dairy goats to the herd – two registered French Alpines. Lovely ladies with great temperament. It’s a pleasure to milk them. I’ve tried my hand at making mozzarella cheese from the goats milk and was initially successful, but have had trouble balancing the acidity since the first try. I was able to make a delectable ricotta from the leftover whey. I’ve also been experimenting with making soaps with our goat milk. The results have been wonderful. Love the soap and don’t think I’ll buy hand soap again. The new laying chickens are finally busily producing and the eggs are the talk of the family. We’ll probably have to get some more chickens. We’ve added beehives this year and the bees are thriving. It’ll soon be time to add the honey supers on top of the brood chambers – raw honey for us!!!

Spring on the farm

It’s been an interesting spring what with all the rain we’ve had.  The rain is starting to slow down a bit and like the farmers around us, we’re finally getting to plant the garden.   Lots of rain means lots of growth - from the jungle we call a yard to the fruit in the yard to the mosquitoes & gnats that chase us out of the yard.  It also means parasites find the conditions conducive to growth and “bloom” for livestock everywhere.  We’ve been watching the goats carefully to see how they handle the extra load and to see how the new feed ration is working for them.  What we’ve seen is that even while nursing 2 or 3 kids, the does stopped losing weight and started building muscle.   All evidence points to the ration being successful and providing what we were missing.  Last weekend we weaned the kids and started milking a couple of the does for personal use.  These Boer goats don’t provide as much milk as a goat bred for milk production would.  We do have a couple of milk does now, one is with kid, the other two are too young to breed yet.  We are considering selling milk as well.  We’d be glad to hear from anyone interested in raw goat milk.

Good stuff in means good stuff out

In the past, we hooked up with a very knowledgeable goat breeder who was offering feed supplements and consulting services for devising a total feed package with appropriate supplements that would benefit the goats the most – based on our specific forage availablility and health concerns.  His work was true to the mark and we had excellent results – not only healthier goats as evidenced by lack of health issues, shiny coats and great muscle tone – but we also fed less to them – 1/2 what we normally would on commercial feeds.  While pricey, we felt the end result justified the means.  Unfortunately, the manufacturer of the supplements quit producing it and we’ve been very unhappily stuck with commercial feeds… until last week, when we had a new feed mix and supplement package milled based on a ration we devised.  So far the results of our new mix our very encouraging – the goats like it and they don’t seem as hungry all the time.  It’s too soon to tell much more.  Some of the features of the new mix are:  1) 8 different kinds of grains and roughage – excluding corn and wheat, 2) an organic supplement mix- including kelp, 3) yeast to promote rumen utilization of feed, and 4) linseed meal (a flax product) which adds valuable omega-3s to the meat.   The new mix is pricier than the commercial mixes – but the end product should be much healthier.

Welcome to the new home of Hickory Lick Goat Farm!

New website, new focus, new barn & new kids… it’s been a busy time here in Central IL.   We’ve adjusted our focus to help support the goat industry in the area by helping to establish the market for goat meat in the Springfield area.  Most goat in the area is shipped out towards the closest and largest cities, Chicago & St. Louis.  We’d like to see Springfield served in this interest as well as provide another satisfying source of locally-grown, carefully-raised and economical food.  To that end, we are working through Magros Processing in Auburn, IL to provide flash-frozen, vacuum-packed goat.  We will continue to sell show-quality Boer goats for breeding and show purposes. 

This year we’ve had an outstanding crop of kids.  Every one of our does produced at least two kids, including our first time mothers.  Our small barn is bursting at the seams – so much so that we’re putting up a new larger barn this spring.   This long-anticipated structure should be done in a couple of days.