What, or who is Gaia?

Gaia was, in Greek mythology the Goddess of the Earth. She was depicted as a beautiful, voluptuous woman and was the first deity, the revered primal mother goddess from whom all other Greek gods and goddesses sprang.

The Gaia hypothesis, proposed in the 60s, is frequently described as viewing the earth as a single organism, which links everyone and everything as a complex, interacting system. Our planet can be viewed as a complex, living entity, which involves the biosphere, atmosphere, oceans and earth.

Here at Goats of Gaia Soap Co. we endeavor to keep our goat herd in balance with their environment and view their circumstances here on our farm as a miniscule element of the Gaia theory.

Our Goat Herd

Our Saanen milking does are registered dairy goats, with the D.G.S.A and are bred under the Fernside Stud prefix.

Our herd is raised holistically- employing herbal medicine, homeopathy, aromatherapy, natural feeding and allopathic veterinary husbandry.

We find that a combination of all these disciplines makes for a healthy, happy herd that produces prolifically.

Unlike other dairy farms we do not hand rear our kid goats but leave them on their mothers after birth. They are given all their mum’s milk for the first 3 to 4 weeks and we then milk the excess, sharing this bounty with the kids until they are weaned. Kids of 4 weeks are given rations, alongside their mothers in the dairy.

Kids under 4 weeks of age are kept indoors or closely monitored, until the likelihood of fox and eagle attack is reduced.

Our dairy herd is fed herbal and natural supplements, as part of their daily care. These may include rosehips, garlic, seaweed meal, sea salt, sunflower seeds, raspberry leaves, molasses, pumpkin seeds and carrots.

Our buck (male) goats are not forgotten either and are fed the same rations- they are, after all half the herd! Presently we have Picasso,Cosmic Rocketman, Rinchen Dawa and Moozey as our resident males.

Of course what goes into a goat, quite obviously affects milk quality and this feeding and management regimen ensures that our milk is of the highest quality to utilize in the manufacture of our soaps and body care products.

Our Products

Goats of Gaia Soap Co. utilizes the finest ingredients it can source in the manufacture of our product lines.

Where possible organic ingredients are employed, alongside the highest grade aromatherapy base oils, essential, fragrance oils and butters we can obtain. This applies also to the botanicals and other ingredients used.

Our soaps all contain 35% fresh goat’s milk, making creamy, lathering, exquisite bars of natural goodness for your skin.

Some of our products are freshly made, such as our Goat Milk Moisturizer and Heaven In a Jar- this range will expand in the near future.

All efforts are made by Goats of Gaia Soap Co. to employ recycled and biodegradable packaging- right down to our sticky tape! We pride ourselves on being environmentally aware.

We also use brilliant gift packaging from Planetwise Paper- Tasmania, hence proudly supporting and sustaining a 3rd world village industry.

Our Soap

So you’d like to buy soap without sodium hydroxide (caustic soda)?

Sorry, it’s a myth that cold process soap can be made without this ingredient and besides, the sodium hydroxide neutralizes upon saponification of the oil and liquid mixture. Therefore soap is made with the alkali caustic soda but after curing does not contain any!

Our oil and butter (e.g. Shea & Cocoa) combinations are added to a milk and sodium hydroxide mixture and stirred until trace is reached. Through the process we may add botanicals, essential or fragrance oils or colors. The soap is then set up in wooden, paper lined log moulds.

The soaps are left from 24 to 48 hrs to harden and are then unmoulded, hand cut, racked and left to cure for 4-6 weeks.

End result?

Stunning bars of goodness to enrich and moisturize your skin. We are sure that once you’ve tried our soap range you’ll find it hard to go back to anything else!

The Benefits of Goats Milk in Skincare

Goats milk is fast becoming one of the most sought after ingredients for skincare. It is easily absorbed by the skin with moisturizing qualities, alongside its restorative constituents.

The milk contains pH reducing caprylic acid, which aids exfoliation and leaves your skin feeling silky soft and smooth.

It has naturally occurring alpha hydroxyl acids, proteins, minerals and high levels of vitamins A, C, B1, B12 & E.

Goats milk is said to be a natural anti-inflammatory and is therefore an excellent choice as a skin care ingredient for people with sensitive skin and with skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and rosacea.

The Poo Project

Here at Goats of Gaia Soap Co. we decided that our copious amounts of goat poo could be put to some use. World Vision Australia runs the Gift program which supplies many individuals in countries such as Africa with donated goats which can change lives immensely. Remembering that goats in many parts of the world are essential to daily life and can change a global family's life for the better, we thought it a great idea that our Gaia goat herd could be of benefit to this program.

ENTER THE POO PROJECT!!!!!!

So now, as we collect the ever abundant poo, we bag it and it is available on the farm for people to buy.You can even buy it by the trailer load! All monies are then donated to World Vision to buy more goats for the program. It’s pretty neat, knowing that our goatherd in Australia is indirectly multiplying goats around the world!

Not only that but when you think that our goat feed is recycled, in the bags it came in, it makes the whole POO PROJECT even more awesome!

And to all those people who donate money for bags of poo, we hope your veggie patches are abundant and tastes fantastic!

Our Heritage

The Coutts family were pioneer settlers in the Otway Ranges. John’s grandfather Alfred settled at Mt Sabine on the main ridge of the Otways, living in a dirt floored hut in the late 1800’s.It is known that the family only brought in a bag of tea, a bag of flour and a bag of sugar and were self sufficient in everything else. Perhaps Grandma Florrie made her own soap from lard?

The family farmed cattle with paddocks at Beech Forest and also ran their cattle through the dense Otway’s rainforest. These cattle were rounded up out of the bush and driven through to Colac, the nearest market, a day’s droving away. The family has always been renowned as highly skilled horsemen and this legacy has been passed down through the generations. Indeed the farm still has a mob of horses who co exist with our dairy goat herd.

In 1927 the Coutts family bought our existing property from the Martin family, who were pioneer dairy farmers and used the coastal pastures for beef cattle and hill sheep breeding. The farm has also seen the family run a timber mill, where local Otway forest Blackwood was cut for many years.

More recently the family conducted horse trail rides as a tourism business. Our original Saanen herd was kept in the 80’s, based on Karinya Stud lines and supplied milk for Timboon Farmhouse Cheese production.