Goat's Soap in Madison: Resident Living Country Life

Tracee Palmer is the founder of Secret Garden Soap of Madison, and assistant teacher at the school of St. Vincent's Church. She used to be a woman who kept up with all of the latest fashion trends. That is, until she read a book on homesteading that inspired her to try her hand at making goat's milk soap.

"I never left the house without makeup or lipstick," says Palmer when she describes her previous priorities.  This is hard to believe now, as Tracee Palmer lives the true life of a country girl right here in Madison.

The book which Palmer read contained instructions and a recipe for making soap, and after tweaking it a bit Tracee gave it a try.

Palmer purchased pasteurized goat's milk at the local stores, but after a few months she figured out that having raw, fresh milk was more of a benefit to the quality and texture of the soap.

"Fresh goat's milk has a much creamier consistency than the pasteurized version that can be bought in the local stores," says Palmer.  "It's much easier to work with and has a softer feel on the skin."

There is a difference in the butterfat between fresh and pasteurized milk. Pasteurized milk is heated to destroy the bacteria, but it also destroys the butterfat.

"They (the batches of soap made from fresh milk) pour better and they are creamier, like silk, I think because of the higher butterfat in the fresh milk."

In order to have fresh goats milk, the main ingredient, of course, is the goat. The Palmers have three goats right in their own backyard.

Morning rituals start at 5:30 a.m., as Tracee Palmer and her husband Joe share quality time taking care of the goats every morning, and collect the many fresh eggs hatched from the hens in the chicken coop, called "Coop De Ville" by the Palmers. 

"When I'm standing out there in the morning it's really nice," says Palmer about her yard.

Their children help with the chores, somewhat reluctantly as they say other kids they know have "normal" chores.

Why goat's milk?

"I wanted to go back a little bit and wanted to be in control of what I was using," says Palmer. She continued, "People always did for themselves and made their own and I wanted to get back to that".

After she read the book, Palmer says, "I just had a feeling that this is what I wanted to do."

The soaps each have a unique name and fragrance. Fragrance oils are bought from a company called Nature's Garden and mixed in with the soap during the manufacturing process. All of the ingredients used to make the soaps are natural. Even the honey is made by the bee's hives right in the Palmer's yard.

"I would like to move to essential oils eventually, like the jewelwed soap [typically used by naturalists to get rid of poison ivy]," says Palmer. 

The process starts by mixing sodium hydroxide and goats milk which sits for around one and a half hours, the oils are mixed), heated to 100 degrees  (some oils have to be melted), stirred by hand, poured into the mold and frozen for 3 hours.  The sodium hydroxide burns the sugar in the milk and freezing prevents it from burning too quickly. Freezing also keeps the finished product white.  The mold sits for a day as a loaf and Joe Palmer cuts it in slices, and it sits for 30 days to cure.  One loaf makes 17 bars of soap. Each soap is individually wrapped for sale.

When he is not working as the proprietor of Chatham Collision Repair Shop, Joe Palmer makes custom soap molds out of wood.  The molds have a curve in middle, which makes the soap unique. It happened by chance when one of the old molds leaked, and a curve – "we call it the secret garden swoop, " says Palmer, was formed.  The "swoop" in the soap makes it easier to handle when it gets wet. 

"This is just the beginning of the road, I'm going to start here and see where it goes," says Palmer.

Secret Garden Soaps may be purchased by contacting Tracee directly at  sgsoapsmadison@aol.com or by going to Secret Garden Soaps in Facebook. The soaps, which are about the size of a very thick slice of bread,  cost $5.50 per bar and are individually wrapped.

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