We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Debby Flowers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Debby below.

Debby, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

It’s really hard to contemplate giving up a well paying job with good benefits for the questionable income and no (traditional) benefits. To trade that employment for the opportunity to pursue a full-time farm life was a big scary risk. In 2022 after working for our county social services department for 14 years, I took that risk.

I began making goat’s milk soap as part of our farm business in 2016. I loved farm life and also loved the local farmer’s market. The idea of actually producing a farm product and joining the market as a vendor, side by side with other local producers was tantalizing.

My husband Kevin and I both worked full time off the farm. We thought that growing grain (for flour) and vegetables for the market would be a good way to go but we knew that would not be enough – we needed something to fill the gaps that seasonal vegetable production has. We knew we would be limited in the amount of produce we could grow by the time we spent at our day jobs.

We already had dairy goats as part of our homestead lifestyle. Although I had no plan to make and sell goat’s milk soap when we acquired the goats, I decided to give soapmaking a try with a view to having more to sell at the farmer’s market. What I found out was that making soap was a fascinating process and yielded a quality product. I was hooked!

Fast forward six years. I could not make enough soap to keep up with demand. I had added goat’s milk lotion to our offerings and we had totally given up the idea of growing produce. I was working every evening and all day Saturday and Sunday – there was simply no time to garden. We had added a website by then and on-line orders were growning too. After a lot of contemplation, we took the chance and I left my job.

Fast forward again three and a half years to present. I have no regrets about giving up that job. It’s true that I miss the paycheck sometimes but the rewards of being my own boss and seeing our farm business grow are great. Every time a customer tells me “I just love your soap” or “Your lotion is the best!” is a re-enforcement to my own enthusiasm.

Debby, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began making goat’s milk soap almost reluctantly; I hadn’t planned to be a soap maker at all but it seemed like a way to have another product to offer for sale. I was surprised to discover that I actually enjoyed the soap making process and the creativity that can be applied to it.

From the beginning I knew that I wanted my product to be as natural as possible. I am a “nothing artificial added” kind of gal myself. I take medications reluctantly and sparingly; I am careful about what products I use on my body and what food I consume, choosing to stay away from many processed foods. My soap is the same, I do not use any artificial fragrances, only essential oils. I do not use any manufactured colorants, only natural colors such as clays or charcoal. Most of my soaps are uncolored. I am not one to be attracted to “cutesy” things and I do not make cute soaps such as those shaped like frosted cup cakes, etc.

My soap appeals to people like me who want a natural product and are not attracted to glitter and bright colors in their personal care products.

My soap is from our farm as much as possible. I use milk from my own goats which one might assume but actually some soap makers use powdered goat’s milk in their products. I use lard from pigs that we have grown ourselves as part of my soap recipe. When I run out of that (which sometimes happens these days), I buy it from local sources that I know have raised their pigs in a humane manner. That matters very much to me. I also use a large percentage of sunflower oil in my soap which comes from a producer right here in Minnesota.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

As an person past middle age, I knew that the farmer’s market and doing various special vending events like holiday markets was not going to be enough and would get to be harder work as I aged. We added a website to be able to sell our farm products on-line with the idea that this would start out slow but hopefully grow over time. Our on-line sales have increased over the years and it is my goal to grow this part of our farm business with a view to eventually reducing the in-person selling events that we do. As I have said earlier, I love the farmer’s market but have found that it is a lot of work!

Wholesale and consignment sales are also a growing part of our business. My products are in three area consignment stores and I sell wholesale to several other retailers. I see this income stream plus the on-line sales as an important part of our business.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We have two main ways to keep in touch with our clients. The first is social media, mainly Facebook. I mainly post about where I will be vending in person or to introduce new products. Our followers like to know what’s happening on the farm, especially when goat kids are being born. It’s a good way to keep us in front of the customers.

The other way is our e-mail newsletter. I try to keep that to once a month so as not to flood the customers inboxes as that is a personal annoyance of mine. I update what is happening with our products, what is new, what might be in short supply and also where we will be vending in person.

Contact Info:

• Website: olelakefarm@gmail.com
• Instagram: debbyolelake
• Facebook: Ole Lake Farm

Image Credits

my personal photos.