Jersey Thyme Herb Farm
By
Fran Alt
When the oldest of Mike and
Patrice Buck's six daughters got involved in a 4-H heifer project, they decided
to get her a Jersey. A Jersey would be smaller and easier for the child to
handle. At that time, Mike worked at a dairy and Patrice, a registered nurse,
spent most of her time at home with her daughters. The heifer project, some 18
years ago, convinced Mike and Patrice that when they had their own dairy, they
would milk Jerseys.
"We looked into
building a dairy on our twenty acres of land, but that was cost
prohibitive," Patrice said. "There was a dairy right next to our
property, where they milked Guernseys by hand. It had an old flat barn, but it
was what we wanted."
In August of 1988, the old
dairy, along with 15 acres became available and the Bucks bought it. They
knocked through the walls and put in a pipeline and a bulk tank. Later they
bought another 27 acres that ran alongside their property."
The Saluda, South Carolina
family started with 20 cows and now milk around 50 - all registered Jerseys.
Patrice says the dairy is a family operation, with the girls all chipping in to
lighten the workload. "The problem now is that the girls are getting older
and moving away, but Melissa our oldest daughter has taken over feeding the
calves."
Melissa, whose heifer
project led the Bucks to buying Jerseys, is now 28, and teaches eighth grade at
a local school. She and hubby Chris Price have a three-month-old son, Michael.
The rest of the Buck's six
daughters include: Jennifer 24, a graduate student working on a Masters in
Horticulture at Clemson, twenty-year-old Alyson, a teller at a local bank,
Katie 17, and Whitney 15.
Katie, a high school senior,
is still undecided about the future. Her Mom thinks she will stay in farming.
"I think she will always want to be around cows. They love showing cows -
all of the girls were always active in 4-H."
Whitney, who just finished
her freshman year in high school, plans to become a veterinarian.
Mike says the important
dairy story in the family is about his wife and the value-added product she
creates from their milk.
Just past the main farmhouse
stands a rustic little house with an inviting front porch. The building houses
everything Patrice needs to make and sell soap. Well, almost everything - she
has to get the milk from the barn.
Patrice makes soap using
milk from the family's Jerseys.
She began dabbling in soap
making twenty years ago, and recently on her way to Lexington, saw a sign
announcing a one-day soap making class. She decided to attend the session.
"That class renewed my
interest. The instructor helped me with my milk recipe. I had always used water
and wanted to try milk as my liquid. I knew some people used goat milk and I
thought, why not try the milk from my own cows."
The recipe worked and
Patrice began devoting her time to creating a soap business. That Christmas
calls began coming in, people wanted to buy her soap to use as gifts.
"I started off with
soap and slowly added more products - lip balm, bath salts, milk-bath, foot
creams and lotion bars. My products have no preservatives."
The new business gained
momentum. At a health food store Patrice met a buyer who wanted to handle her
products. Later she placed her wares at the local Rosewood super market.
Another regular customer is a woman who makes gift baskets.
The basic formula for soap
is lye and water. Patrice adds milk - half gallon of milk per seven-pound
batch, and gets 30 bars of soap to a batch.
"After I make the basic
soap, I add my olive, cocoa or palm oil. I add fragrance oils and essential
oils depending on what I am making. Essential oils are pure oil from a plant. I
melt my own oils. I buy them in six pound buckets. I use sweet almond oil,
cocoa butter and beeswax. They soften your skin. There's powdered milk in my
milk bath. And I also make an unscented soap."
In the back room of the
little house is an antique cook-stove and cupboards containing bottles of oils.
There are fragrance oils like 'rose petals,' and essential or natural oils like
spearmint. Large white buckets hold a lard-like substance - the basic oils that
Patrice melts down. She explains that a chemical reaction between lye and water
causes saponication - the turning of fat into soap.
There are wooden molds for
rectangular bars, but the basic mold Patrice uses is PVC pipe with one end
capped. The pipe forms round bars. She leaves the formula in the mold for 24 to
49 hours. When the soap is formed it is pushed out and put in a cutter. Each
bar is the same size. Patrice then cures the soap on racks.
"I let my soap age two
months. Regular lye soap can be used in two or three days. The reason I age
mine has to do with the moisture content of the milk. It takes a length of time
for the soap to get hard. You can use it, but it is too soft. Another reason
for aging is that the soap will last longer."
When the soap is ready for
sale, it is wrapped and labeled. The ingredients listed on the Jersey Thyme
Herb Farm soap include herbs grown by Patrice. "I love herbs. That's my
first love. I've grown herbs for 25 to 30 years. I sell dried herbs and there
are some I put in my milk baths. I grind up the rosemary and spearmint."
The front room of the little
house serves as a store. Shelves contain soaps whose labels include names like
Spring Rain, Suspense, Stress Relief and Moopie. Moopie is a Jersey colored
soap with a brown sugar scent. Another soap contains visible rosemary from the
garden; it's rosemary geranium. "I make my own blend," Patrice says.
Baskets setup for quick gift
shopping, include products like Smiley Feet Foot Cream, scented Milk Bath and
Bath Salts. A favorite is a lotion bar that looks like a bar of soap. You rub
it on your hands - no liquid, no mess! The bar feels something like a lip
moisturizer and comes in heart and rose shapes. It contains cocoa butter, sweet
almond oil and vanilla musk. Lip Balm flavors include peppermint, spearmint and
get this - cheesecake!
If you are ever in Saluda,
South Carolina, checkout Jersey Thyme Farms. Maybe you can get some ideas for
value added products for your dairy.