Cooking with Kid

Oh Lord, sometimes you have to bring a two-day old goat into the house with you, and wear her in a sling, and then sit in the rocking chair with her and stroke her little soft head. . .

Brain Trust with Baby Goat

Allow me to introduce the Milk and Honey Braintrust: pictured from left to right: Amy Coplen, Chemist, and first UNM student to graduate with a minor in Sustainability; Dr. Cecelia Williams, Microbiologist; and Phil Pohl, Chemical Engineer; all of Sandia Labs in Albuquerque. They have come to me via the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program , which provides we small NM businesses with the assistance of scientific minds to help us solve business challenges that only a scientist can help with. . . It is a free service (!) to businesses that qualify, and I applied and was connected to Phil, who has brought on his colleagues to help as well.
What the heck to I need a brain trust for? I presented them with a challenge that my designer Michelle and I have been considering for the past six months: How to create unique, packaging that fulfills the promise of William McDonough's "Cradle to Cradle" philosophy:

“Cradle-to-cradle design means literally designing waste right out of the lifecycle of the package. Mimicking nature, a package is designed to be either a technical nutrient that can be reused, or truly recycled in a tight, closed-loop process with zero loss in material performance, or a biological nutrient that can safely break down into the soil.”

I suggested the additional challenge that the packaging be sourced from materials unique to New Mexico (green chile? Adobe?) and that the packaging have an integral identity with my products. These great, smart folks came out to the farm on Monday, and it was exciting an inspiring to work with them. Amy is particularly interested in calculating my carbon footprint--a prospect both scary and exciting--and one which will no doubt enlighten me as to improvements I can make in how I run my business and my farm, and that my customers will appreciate knowing about.

In the meantime, I continue to work with Michelle as we create the first generation of packaging for my new soaps and lotion bars. Currently we are looking at using paper from New Leaf, an incredibly progressive company that provides an "eco-audit" for every project that uses their paper.

The world is a very exciting place to be with all these smart, creative people putting their minds to saving our planet and living better. I am so happy that they are helping me fulfill my vision for Milk and Honey.

Welcome Babies

YOU CAN SEE A VIDEO OF THE NEWBORNS AT MY FACEBOOK PAGE! (It's under my name, Daven Lee.)
Currently named "Sassafras" or "Sass" for short (the girl) and "Pigwidgeon" (you know, from Harry Potter, pronounced "Pig-Widgin"), or "Pig" for short (boy), our new babies were born on Monday, easily and beautifully, probably just as I was waking up around 6am. While doing my morning yoga, I heard a little high bleat coming from the barn, and padded down there in my pajamas, to find two wet kids, sitting up, complaining and crying a little, while their proud and very efficient mother licked them off.
Such a sweet site, especially as the Monday before, we had had another birth of a little doe kid that died a few hours after she was born. It was a sad way to start our kidding "season"--but also a good lesson. I've been beating myself up for a week thinking that I could have done something more to save this kid, but I have to say after Sass & Pig were born, the difference between them and that doeling was dramatic. Although I have had goats for about seven years, I only breed them every other year--in fact, this is only my 4th kidding, and so I don't have the experience that I would have if I were breeding 20 goats every single Spring. Incidentally, I breed about every other year because I'm able to continue milking my goats for two years. I don't have a need for high milk production, and it feels less wasteful, and easier on the mama goats not to dry them up every winter and breed them. After all, these babies will need homes.
In the meantime, we are LOVING THEM!

Introducing My Lovely Assistant

Those of you early birds who have been shopping at the Market this season have already met my lovely and incredibly capable assistant, Teresa Davis. She came to me via an ad I placed in Craig's List (that I thought might be impossible to fill), and she is outrageously over qualified. She just graduated from the University of Chicago and is preparing for graduate school. When I asked her for a work reference, she said I could call the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she worked for a summer. ("Um, hi, yes, I was wondering if you thought she would be a good employee for 4 hours a week at my Farmers Market Booth?" I don't think I'll bother them with that. . .) After I met her and said, Yes!, I told a friend she would be working for me during the summer--assuming she didn't meet a Kennedy and go off and get married. As it turns out, she's just finishing up a vacation at Martha's Vineyard, so that could be a very real possibility. . .

Assuming she comes back this Saturday, you can meet her at the Market where she works the early shift for me (it turns out there are some people who really are "morning people")--until 9am Tuesdays and Saturdays. She is cheerful, knowledgeable about my products, and loves the Farmers Market. She is a welcome addition to the growing Milk and Honey team. (Eeee-- I hope you don't mind that I used the word "team"!)

My New Employee

Well, daughter Roan is now on the official payroll. She has been begging to help me pour lotion bars, and sure enough, as you can see in my other blog post, she is an instant pro. So she's found a way to earn a little extra money, and she told me, "It's fun to be part of the business." She is conscientious and detail-oriented, and does her best not to spill a drop--I'm working on loosening her up! She also helped me sell this past Tuesday at the Market, and got a great response from my customers. At the beginning of the day she was feeling too shy to talk to folks walking by; by the end, she was pulling people over and inviting them most sweetly to "try a lotion bar!"

New Lotion Bars are Here!

Aren't they gorgeous? Ok, like a doting mother, I get to brag--I'm so excited about these. This photo shows my new line of lotions, all of which are custom designs exclusive to Milk and Honey--except for the Bee & Honeycomb, which for now, is welcome to tag along. If you are dying to order some in every scent as soon as possible, you can now do so on my website. Yay.

And, if you're wondering, "When the heck are the SOAPS going to be available in these incredible forms that I can't find anywhere else and that I must get for myself and everyone I know?" (Thank you for asking. . . ) I already have batches of Lemongrass, Milk and Honey (unscented) and Lavender curing away in their red crates on the shelf, preparing for their debut in about a month. They will soon be joined by mint, rosemary and lavender-rosemary. I promise I'll let you know when they are ready!

New Molds Arrive. . . and the Future of Milk and Honey is Here!

Last night was momentous for me . . . my daughter Roan and I made the first batch of lotion bars with the first round of my new custom molds. This is the first completed step of work that began over a year ago with the drafting of my business plan over the summer, applying for and receiving loan funds from Accion New Mexico and the Farmers Market Institute, creating and refining sculptural forms with sculptor Stephanie Huerta, discovering and collaborating with designer and marketer Michelle Moser . . . and here they are! I plan to introduce them at the Market this week, and hopefully on my website in the next couple of days as well. Soaps will take a little longer as they cure for one month before appearing in my booth and website. I'll be experimenting with price points; that is, ONE price point for all my products, as I incorporate my new designs into my booth and website, and rotate the old (but beloved!) designs out. There is one more mold that will come on line hopefully by the fall: a logo image mold--we are in an exciting phase of logo design right now, but it is not complete yet. Stay tuned and let me know what you think!