Here is our conversation…… 

(BWM) 1. What motivated you to start your own body-care line? 

(EMF )1. A while ago a friend gave us some goat’s milk soap.  The soap was great and it got us thinking.   We already had goats as pets and the idea of putting them to work really appealed to us. We borrowed a strong handsome billy goat named Jacques from a friend of ours and five months later we had four new baby goats and began milking and experimenting with making soap.  At first we just had fun playing around with different recipes and seeking out local soap makers for advice.  I wanted a soap that was all-natural and super-moisturizing and I wanted it to be round in shape because I liked the way it felt in my hand (much to my husband’s dismay because he figured we would never be able to figure out how to package it!).  We gave away soap to family, friends, the mailman – basically anyone who was willing to try it, and we were surprised by how much people liked it. We began selling it in a few local stores and farmers’ markets and the business pretty much just grew in a very incremental way from there

2. Are you from Vermont?

2. No, I was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. 

 3. How has where you are from influnced your business?

3. Even though we didn’t grow up here, Vermont has always had a lot of gravitational pull for us. My great aunt moved to a farm in Strafford in the 1930s which is still in my family today.  I spent lots of weekends and vacations there while I was growing up, and I loved spending time in the barn.  My husband and I met at Middlebury College, and we knew even then that this was where we wanted to be.  Vermont has such a strong sense of place and such a great set of values associated with it.  We’ve tried to capture these in our products and in the way we make and market them.

4. How did you come up with your lables they are the best?!

4. My husband, Peter, draws the labels!!  I am lucky to be married to someone who can draw goats in the tub and shower! When we first started, he drew many different labels to choose from—and I preferred the whimsical but tasteful goats in the shower etc.  We also have a line of “Goats on the Go” note cards.  The goats on the cards are jogging, gardening, kayaking, mountain biking and doing other healthy things.  The profits from the sale of the cards are donated to cancer research.  Currently all profits are being donated to the Susan G Komen Foundation

 5. What is your favorite Elmore Mtn. Product? 

5. My favorite product is definitely the soap and making it is truly a labor of love!  Most of all, I love caring for and milking the goats.  My workshop is in the barn and the goats are right next door.  I can watch them from the window while I’m making soap and we keep tabs on each other throughout the day. Making the soap is as much an art as it is a science, and believe me, I have the ruined batches to prove it! It takes time to accurately measure everything and to get it to the right temperature and consistency so that it will set up and cure properly. I love the whole process of combining the ingredients (I use olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter and palm oil along with the goat’s millk), pouring the mixture into the molds, extracting it, cutting it and  placing it on the racks to cure. It’s incredibly gratifying when people approach me and tell me how much they like it or how well it works for them.  I know men who shave with it, people with various skin sensitivities or allergies who appreciate how gentle it is.  I feel fortunate to be doing this at a time when people are more aware of the products they use and of the benefits of using all-natural products.