Dearest Friends, I have goat news to share with you!

After over eight years of daily milking, I have passed my beloved girls on to a lovely older cowboy and songster, Archie West. He lives just out of town in Lone Butte in the house he grew up in, surrounded by two other houses where two of his children and his grandchildren live. Out just behind the little outhouse, is a beautiful adobe brick barn and fenced yard, where the girls are now living.

This was not an easy parting for me, but it was time. (See that first picture at the top? I felt like I was watching my most favorite chidhood stuffed animal friends driving away.) We've had Autumn, the grande damme, since my now-almost-16-year old daughter was little.

Now she and her two daughters and granddaughter are living with Archie's sweet grandchildren; Clara is just about the same age as Roan was in that picture above.

"What about my business? What about the milk? What about keeping goats in your life?" you may ask. The beautiful thing is, I am still getting milk from "my" goats: Archie's son Ben brings me a gallon of their milk once a week; or I go out to Lone Butte, get a visit in, and bring milk back. "What about milking?" I definitely didn't want to give up milking altogether--just the unrelenting responsibility of it. Well, let me tell you something that you will love about Santa Fe--and even better--my part of town. Just barely a mile from where I live--right in the center of town, mind you--there is a cohousing community by the Santa Fe River that keeps three sable saanen goats (relatives of the goats at South Mountain Dairy), and they operate a goat milking co-op!! There are a dozen or so folks who take a shift a week (am or pm) to milk the goats. I have signed on as a sub for now (not ready for all that responsibility!), and I can't tell you how sweet it is.

Just this morning, I rode my bike (!) from my house to the river park, along the river bed on the bike path, right to the back gate of Tres Placitas. I had a lovely time milking and visiting with the three adorable kids,

then I loaded up the milk pail (with lid), into my backpack, and rode home! What a life! So folks, my biggest dilemma at this moment, is when I tell people about my soap at the Farmers Market . . . I am still saying "Made from milk from MY goats!" What should I say??!!! I still feel "Archie's goats" are mine, and now I have an extended goat family at Tres Placitas! Well, now you know the story. I look forward to your thoughts!

Compost Happens!

This is the incredible pile of manure & compost that was removed from the goat pen this weekend! I am thrilled to report that my goats are now in a very cooperative situation. Well, maybe I'm the one that's in the cooperative situation.

My goats are on a piece of horse property in Agua Fria Village, owned by a lovely woman who is turning her family land into a space for all kinds of people to experiment, and bring lovely dreams and plans into reality. I found her through my beekeeping friend (and honey/beeswax supplier) Steve Wall, who keeps some hives on this property. There is also a man who keeps his backhoe parked there, in exchange for him cleaning out horse pens--and I just benefited from this arrangement myself! Can you imagine cleaning this out by hand, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow?? And FYI--this is just this winter's mucking. Goats are sloppy, wasteful eaters, so there is lots of hay in this; plus they get food scraps from Kitchen Angels, so some of it includes veggie & fruit scraps, even eggshells. Then of course there's nanny berries and goat pee all mixed in. The perfect compost recipe!






This is the new compost arrangement as brilliantly envisioned by Sara, the landowner. Her idea: not have to move anything. This strawbale compost bin sits just outside the goat fence. Food/hay is fed to the goats in the big round feeder; then the next day scraps are dumped over the fence into the compost area. Dirty water gets dumped here as well, when we come to give fresh water to the goats. Worms are on order and will be moving in; so are fly predators and . . . MUSHROOM SPORES! Worms & mushrooms will help transform the scraps & manure into compost, and give us mushrooms to eat too!

While the goats are mine and the property is not, my goats have inspired the compost pile, which Sara will nurture. So wonderful to be part of something bigger than me and my goats.

Honeybee Lotion Bars in the Grand Canyon

Our full line of Milk+Honey body care products will now be available to visitors and adventurers to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Bar 10 Ranch, a lodge, family cattle ranch, and host of Grand Canyon activities from river rafting to helicopter tours, will be offering our Nanny Goat Milk soaps, Honeybee Lotion Bars and Anywhere Balms.

Our products are perfect for their Ranch! Several years ago, a ruggedly-handsome young man came to my booth at the Farmers Market to tell me that my lotion bar was the only thing that saved his hands while he was going down the Grand Canyon. Since then, I have wanted to get my products into the backpacks of more outdoor adventurers, knowing that their natural ingredients were appropriate for camping, soothing for active skin, easy to carry, versatile, and consistent with environmental values.

Bar 10 Ranch has smartly ordered all my products in tins, so that folks can easily pack and protect their soaps and lotions during their Grand Canyon journey.

I'd love to hear more stories of adventures my products have been on!

Update on Milk+Honey at the United Nations!

Kathy just shared this press release with me:

WINNING STRATEGIES FOR ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION OF RURAL AND INDIGENOUS WOMEN

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2012, UNCSW 56

The Women’s Intercultural Network (WIN) invites all NGOs to an interactive Roundtable and Forum on “Winning Strategies for Economic Participation of Rural and Indigenous Women” .

This 4th WINNING STRATEGIES Parallel event convened by WIN and US Women Connect at a UN CSW Session is a follow up to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women’s Economic Summit (WES) convened by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in September 2011. This year’s UN CSW theme of ‘Empowering Rural and Indigenous Women’ is a perfect opportunity to engage women who are isolated and left behind in most countries.

Secretary Clinton launched the Women’s Economic Summit as “The Age of Participation” and brought together 800 senior private and public sector players for a dialogue on fostering women’s economic empowerment among APEC economies and formed a set of economic policy recommendations in the San Francisco Declaration.

This year’s WINNING STRATEGIES Forum will expand the WES Declaration globally adding experiences and comments of rural and indigenous women working ‘on the ground’, living with an economy and surviving economic policies they often have no voice in making. They will add a fresh perspective with innovative micro-enterprise models and concepts that are replicable for sustainable growth and prosperity.

We will video tape and post the 'best practices' and winning strategies on web media. All women are vital as participants in economic recovery locally and globally.

Panelists:
Olivia Calderon, Moderator, CA Legislative Director New America Foundation, WIN Board of Directors
Dian J. Harrison, Chair, WIN, USA; Advisory Council Kayunga Peace Centre, Republic of Uganda
Marily Mondejar, President, Filipina Women’s Network
Mona Motwani, Human Rights Attorney, Co-Founder, SPARK San
Francisco
Helene Rama Niang, Exec. Director, NGO Network for
Development, Dakar, Senegal
Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, Tewa Women United; Co-Chair US Women Connect

Location: First Floor Chapel, Church Center UN
777 United Nations Plaza, corner of 44th St. and First Ave
New York, NY 10017
Co-Sponsors:
Women’s Intercultural Network (WIN)
US Women Connect (USWC)
Women News Network (WNN)
TEWA Women United
Filipina Women’s Network (FWN)
NOW Foundation
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

For more information : win@win-cawa.org
Women’s Intercultural Network (WIN)
1950 Hayes St. #2, San Francisco, CA 94117
415-221-4841

Fast-breaking news: M+H to be presented at the UN Commission on the Status of Women!

Kathy Sanchez, co-director of Tewa Women United and co-chair of the national organization USWomenConnect, will be presenting at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York City next week. She will be presenting at the UN panel discussion on micro-enterprises, reporting on rural women businesses. She has chosen to present Milk and Honey as an example of a successful, woman-owned micro-enterprise! She'll be handing around our products, and sharing our story with photos of the goats and Farmers Market. We're so excited!

Stay tuned as we get more information! Kathy's talk will be recorded and available on the web after next week, so we'll send out a link.

Success Client of the Year!

Milk+Honey honored as Success Client of the Year:
"Off to a Honey-of-a-Start"

Read about us in today's
Santa Fe New Mexican!

"It takes a village to produce a business, and Daven Lee has done just that -- in the form of her Milk and Honey Soap, which is made in Santa Fe and sold all over the country.

"Sales in fact doubled in 2011, despite the weak national economy.

"In a telephone interview, Lee said her "original assistance" from the Santa Fe Small Business Development Center came in the form of helping create her first business plan and then obtaining a microloan from Accion, a small business lender.

"'That started me with the production of my wholesale line of products,' Lee said. "They also helped me with the first round of financial projections" for her new company. 'I put those together when I was looking for other funding,' she said.

"Lee also thanked Mykris for helping her with her business, including nominating the company 'for this great honor' from the SBDC.

"'Daven is extremely passionate about all aspects of her business,' Mykris said in a statement. 'She considers her goats and bees to be her primary business partners.'

"Lee and other SBDC clients will be honored Wednesday at at awards banquet at Hotel St. Francis in Santa Fe. Lt. Gov. John Sanchez will be the featured speaker. "

Read the complete article

Welcome new customers!

Cricket and I took a road trip to Phoenix last week to ply our goods at the Oasis Gift Show, where we met many new folks and picked up some more stores!

A special welcome to:

--Stacy's Hallmark two locations in Phoenix: N. Tatum & E. Cactus

DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun; Tucson

--Nana's; Auburn, IN

--Scottsdale Historical Society

--The Beatitudes Campus; Phoenix

--Old Town Emporium, Albuquerque, NM