About Us
Al-By Farm, LLC is located in Union City, Pennsylvania. Our goats roam in fresh air and sweet sunshine. The pastures are filled with lush grasses, multi-flora rose, berry brambles and other native plants that goats simply love.
We are a family-centered small farm and began milking LaMancha goats in 2012. LaMancha's are known for their mild-tasting milk, tiny ears and pleasant demeanor.
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While the goats were meant for producing lovely goat milk to drink, we soon tried our hand at making goat's milk soap. The eczema issue our child struggled with for years soon vanished!
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Our goal continues: to craft and produce a chemical-free, natural soap that nourishes our skin with vitamins, minerals, and enzymes from our own goat's milk, high quality oils, and essential oils. All of our soap is handmade in small batches and safe for the whole body.
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About Our Soap
Handmade soap is made by combining an acid: fat, oils or butters, with an alkali: sodium hydroxide (lye). The result is saponification; the fats/oils/butters retain their individual properties and the lye is neutralized. Thus, soap is made with lye but doesn't contain it. Oil based soaps bind to dirt and grease and rinse away without stripping the skin's natural oils and without leaving a residue.
Goat's milk is made of roughly 3.8% butterfat, 4% protein, vitamins, minerals, glycerin, enzymes and water. There are 13 vitamins in goat's milk: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Nicotinic Acid, Vitamin B 6, Pantotheine, Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin B 12, Ascorbic Acid, Choline, and Inositol. Minerals include: Calcium, Phosphorous, Zinc, Sodium, Magnesium, Manganese, and Selenium. Enzymes in the milk such as Alpha-hydroxyl and lactic acid may help break down dead skin cells.
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We make our soap with minimal heating to maintain goat milk's natural glycerin, vitamins, minerals and enzymes. The water content of the milk is taken up by the lye and the fats are saponified. The glycerin, vitamins and minerals remain and are available to nourish the skin. Testing our patience, we cure every batch a minimum of four weeks to fully saponify the soap and allow each bar to harden.
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We strive to use ingredients that are readily available, sustainable and we buy as locally as we can. We scent our soaps with pure, therapeutic grade essential oils. No synthetic fragrances, colorants, or additives are ever used. We feel great about what's in our soap and you can too.