Got goat’s milk?

Chris La Pelusa - clapelusa@chroniclenewsgroup.com Eleanor Zarski is the co-owner of Roxbury Farms in Hampshire and maker of goat’s milk bath products.

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

By CHRIS La PELUSA HAMPSHIRE - We’ve all seen those T-shirts or bumper stickers that read “I’d rather be fishing (or hiking or canoeing or any one of those “-ing” hobbies).” Well, if Hampshire resident and co-owner of Roxbury Farms had one of those T-shirts or bumper stickers, it might amusingly read “I’d ‘lather’ be soap-making.” “I [produce] goat’s milk soap, lotion, and then I mix up bath salts,” Eleanor Zarski said. “It is all handmade.” All Roxbury bath products are blended with creamy goat’s milk produced locally from Roxbury’s stock of 40 registered pygmy goats, which, when they’re not helping Zarski make her sweet-smelling soaps, are shown in the National Pygmy Goat Association. For Zarski, producing all of her products locally holds a strong value. “I would rather be able to buy from someone in my community, to help my community, to help someone continue to live in my community,” Zarski said. “If you could get a competitive price in your community and support the farmers or seamstress or [other local business owners], I just think that comes back a hundredfold to you. I’m pretty passionate about it.” Zarski puts the same attention to detail into packaging her products as she does into making them. Her lotions and bath salts are packaged in elegant cobalt blue bottles and jars, and her square bars of creamy-white goat’s milk soap are individually labeled with an antiqued cardboard placard and crossed with hemp twine. Zarski also explained that, since her products contain no preservatives, they are easier on skin and even helped lessen her daughters’ acne a few years ago. “I put it in all the showers in my house and everyone, even my husband, said their skin began to feel better,” Zarski said. In addition to goats, Roxbury Farms is also home to six horses and a multitude of laying hens. For Zarski, Roxbury Farms is a rather new venture in her life. After years of living the suburban life in Naperville, Zarski yearned for the expanse and quiet of country living. She wanted a place where she could explore a budding passion for farming and where she could finally house her three horses that had been kept at a boarding barn since her daughters (Anna now 18 and Lila now 19) were just 4 and 5 years old. In 1999, Zarski found that perfect place in a farm in Paw Paw. There she lived with her daughters and three horses for six years while her husband, David, remained in Naperville during the week, as it was a closer commute to his law firm in Chicago. At the end of those six years, Zarski began searching for a location convenient for the whole family. “We started looking for a community where we could have a farm and also have a commuter train,” Zarski said. Hampshire fit the bill. Presently, the original Roxbury Farms in Paw Paw is rented out and all of Zarski’s farming duties and bath product production are contained at her Hampshire location. As a leader in Amboy for the national youth organization 4-H, Zarski hosts two goat clinics per year for kids to learn how to care for and handle goats. Farming, Zarski said, contributed largely to teaching her daughters responsibility while growing up and helped shaped them into the strong young women she’s proud of today. “There is a huge connection between how functional my children are in society and the fact that they’ve had (farm) chores to do since 8 years old,” Zarski said. “There’s a lot of growing up. There are a lot of life situations you experience at the hands of animals.” The need to remain a local farmer and distributor of local goods is so strong and valuable for Zarski that she has no aspirations of branching out commercially and hitting the major markets with her product. In fact, all of Zarski’s products are distributed only in Hampshire and the surrounding towns. “I’m happy with what I’m doing now,” Zarski said. “We start in a community before we start as part of the world.”