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Woman produces products from herd
RANDOLPH – Gina Bagbey embraces the homesteading lifestyle.
She grows her own food, raises chickens and goats, and cans meat and vegetables for self-sustainment.
“I learned a lot from my mom. I cooked at a young age,” she said. “My grandfather was a pig farmer and that’s something I always took interest in. I’m always doing something - sewing, soaking, canning, growing. I don’t sit down much.”
So it was natural - some might say, organic, even - for the Randolph woman to churn that lifestyle into a business. Under the name Hooved Homestead, Bagbey retails handmade soaps, lotions and candles - using goat milk from her own small herd.
When Bagbey and her husband, Eric, were looking to get out of the hubbub of Fort Collins, Colo., there were two main criteria - stay in the Midwest and find a place that allows goats.
“When we moved here, I told Eric, ‘You better check around and make sure I can have my goats,’ before we even moved to the area or the house,” she said. “If they couldn’t. I couldn’t.”
They settled in a home on the southwest edge of Randolph in October 2021, remodeling the interior of the home and the exterior of the barn on the property. They have six goats, seven chickens, and a Labrador dog named Cash.
The herd includes miniature Pygymy and Nigerian goats with two bucks - Rocky and Little Dude; three does - Blue Bell, Zoe and Sunshine who produce milk for Hooved Homestead products - and one buckling named Rudolph.
“I just love to go up to the barn and hang out with them,” Bagbey said. “They’re very good natured. They’re very sweet. They have great personalities. A lot of the neighborhood kids come visit them.”
She’d been making goat milk soap, lotions and candles for more than 20 years, only adding her own herd about seven years ago.
Bagbey utilizes fragrance oil blends that are phthalate and paraben free in her small-batch soaps, scented with peppermint, lavender, eucalyptus, and more.
“I like to use pure scents,” she said. Soaps are the No. 1 seller due to many benefits from goat milk’s anti-inflammatory properties. Goat milk is also high in fatty acids which makes it more moisturizing and is also naturally exfoliant compared to other soaps, Bagbey said.
If you look at the list of ingredients on a Hooved Homestead soap, the first and most potent ingredient is goat milk, followed by olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil.
“You know what the ingredients are,” she said. Customers appreciate the all-natural products, she said, which has lead to repeat orders and rampant word-of-mouth advertising.
“Orders are sold before I can even make a new batch,” she said. She utilizes several different processes, depending on what type of soap she’s making. For example, liquid hand soap requires making a liquid paste with the whole process taking about five hours. A hot process soap takes a little more than an hour, while a cold process soap can take 20-30 minutes. However, then the soap must cure for four weeks before use.
Hooved Homestead products are available at the Rural Roots Boutique in Randolph, and also available by contacting Bagbey personally.
The Bagbeys will refurbish a trailer this spring to take Hooved Homestead on the road for pop-up shows and vendor fairs.
“For me, it’s just fun, and its something that I’ll go wherever it takes me,” she said. “I’m along for the ride.”
For more agriculture news, pull out our special Grain section in this edition.
