CAMBRIDGE CITY — Long before there was a new business, there was a family farm with a distinctive single windmill in the middle of the lane. Amber Morford said if her family ever started a business, she would call it Lonely Windmill Farm.
Sure enough, her idea came to fruition with Lonely Windmill Farm Goat Milk Soap, owned by Amber and husband Greg at 265 N. Germantown Road. Their small sons, Gideon, 6; Lincoln, 4; Canaan, 3 and Deacon, 18 months, get into the act by helping out and even trying their hands at milking the family's goats.
The family resides on part of Amber's family's farm, founded by great-great-great-grandfather Park Ammerman. Amber grew up in the area and Greg is from Connersville. Her folks are Jamie and Amy Fagan and his are Jim and Pam Morford.
Beginnings
The couple got their first goat in 2009. "We like to be self-sufficient," says Amber, a stay-at-home mom who homeschools the boys as well as raises a large garden and cans from it besides. Greg works as a designer at Fayette Tool in Connersville. He is a graduate of Indiana University East. She attended Ozark Christian College in Missouri.
Amber had always wanted to make soap so they gave it a try using the goat's milk in 2010. At first they shared it with family and friends and then started doing craft shows which expanded with the family's production and success. They were recently invited to have their soap and related products at Warm Glow, just off Interstate 70 at the Centerville exit, giving them a national market that passes through the Warm Glow complex.
All milk for the soap products come from their own herd of Alpine goats which includes five milkers. The goats are milked by hand twice a day, generally by Amber. The boys come along, playing in the barn, the barnyard and with the family dog, Winchester, or the barn cats.
"It's something we can all do as a family," Amber says of the business. "The kids come with us to the craft shows."
Long-range, the couple would like to open a storefront business that would allow for Greg to leave his day job to work with the soap full time. As it is now, often they have a goal of making 120 bars a day. The soap is made in the family kitchen from scratch using raw ingredients and it takes six weeks to cure.
And yes, they use the products themselves. Says Greg, "We get all the scratch and dent bars."
In addition to the business side, Amber likes the people side of the business and knowing what goes into the products. The products, she says, have been beneficial to people with sensitive skin, for example. "We enjoy helping people move to a healthier lifestyle."
Teamwork
The family freezes the excess goats' milk so they can continue making soap during the two winter months that they let the goats rest from milking duties. A goat can produce two gallons of milk a day. The Morfords also have chickens and rabbits. They find it interesting that Amber's grandfather on the other side of the family was a dairy farmer for 60 years.
They offer 12 regular scents and an additional four for the holidays. Oatmeal Milk & Honey is the best seller, and all are made without synthetic colorants.
Greg graduated from Connersville High School in 1997 and Amber from Hagerstown in 2004. They met when Greg worked on her grandpa's dairy farm and she told a cousin that she wanted to marry him. "So 10 years later, we did," she says. Amber is 28, Greg is 35 and they have been married for seven years.
"We work together," says Greg. "It's a good team."
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