Home
News
Arts & Leisure
Sports
Business
Opinion
Dining
Gardening
Travel
Classifieds
Jobs
Community
Events
Forums
TV Listings
|
|
Community
 |
 |
Bea's Beauty Bars. Photo credit: Lin Ennis
|
Bea's Beauty Bar Soap in Sedona
By Willma Gore
|
Sedona.biz
At age nine, Katie Radosevic
of Cornville, Arizona “fell in love” with a pigmy
goat, Abigail. She had joined the Cornville 4-H club and goats were her choice
of animal to raise. But it was her Nubian, Beatrice, who, within a year,
launched Katie into entrepreneurship as the maker of goat milk soap and the
purveyor of Bea’s Beauty Bar. Beatrice’s kids were stillborn. This meant that
the doe had to be milked regularly and she produced more milk than the family
could use or give away.“Because of this,” says Katie, “we began to make different products
from the milk—table cheese, soft cheese for cheese cakes, caramel, fudge
and yogurt. Then we found a recipe for
 |
|
Katie's goats.
Photo credit: Lin Ennis |
goat milk soap and made bars for the
family for gifts. These were well received and we soon realized that there is a
high demand for goat milk soap. So, ultimately, it was the fact that Bea lost
her babies that the business was formed."
Since then, Katie and her mother, Patti, have perfected the recipe by
experimenting with different combinations of oils and adding other ingredients
to perform as exfoliates. Each batch needs a team of two, as adding lye and oils
to milk prepared for soap making requires continuous stirring, accurate
temperature control and timing. Katie has designed a wrapper for the bars that
bears the face of her acclaimed Beatrice. The young entrepreneur has placed her
soap in prime boutiques and gourmet shops in Cottonwood and Sedona to which she
wholesales Bea’s Beauty Bars.
|
Katie milking her goat.
Photo by Lin Ennis.
|
All this might be a likely enterprise for a 20 year old but only four years
after launching her 4-H membership with Abigail, Katie, at 15, is a high school
junior, still not licensed to drive herself to school, but she read in a 4-H
newsletter of an opportunity for a loan from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. She applied and received $1000 with which she and her father, Rod,
constructed a one-goat milking parlor, complete with milking stanchion, running
water, electricity and a refrigerator.
The funds are normally loaned to young people who are raising market animals
for show and/or auction. But the loan officer was so impressed with Katie’s
business plan and sales forecast for her soap that they funded the loan. It is
well on the way to being paid off through sales of Bea’s Beauty Bar. Katie has
“gone the extra mile” by writing and photo-illustrating a book that gives
step-by-step instructions on how to make goat milk soap and she has filed a
patent application for her soap. She uses the book as a visual aide during the
many presentations she makes about her enterprise. She hosts visitors several
times a year to give people an opportunity to meet the goats, and see
demonstrations on goat milking, spinning, weaving, cheese and soap making.
 |
Katie Radsovic and her Mother make the soap.
Photo by Lin Ennis.
|
The Two Bob Ranch herd now numbers twelve with three does currently out for
breeding. Katie is up early enough each morning to greet and feed her herd, milk
the fresh goats, filter the milk (twice) and package it for the deep
freeze inside the milking parlor. (Proper soap making requires that the milk be
frozen first.) These chores are accomplished before school. There she has a 4.0
GPA in classes of Algebra, English, Chemistry, Photography and Spanish. After
school she greets, milks and feeds her goats again. Then there is also the
cleaning and general herd management that is nonstop throughout the year. Above
the stanchion in the milking parlor barn is a shelf that displays Katie’s many
trophies and plaques. She participates annually in shows and fairs and has won
many awards for showmanship, presentation and the condition of her animals.
 |
Katie cuts the soap into bars.
Photo credit: Lin Ennis
|
Katie meets monthly
with her 4-H group in Cottonwood that now numbers about 55
members. She and two others specialize in dairy goats. One
raises Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats; the other, Toggenburgs. She
has also taken on other projects that include cavy (guinea pig),
dog obedience, pigeon, waterfowl, horse, and musical
pursuits—flute and mandolin. As “equine” designates horses, “bovine,” cattle and “porcine,” pigs,
“caprine” is the designation for goat breeds. Hence the name, Two Bob Caprine
Dairy Ranch. “Two Bob” came from two parakeets, both named “Bob,” who were the
first of Katie’s beloved pets. Her love for her animals—and theirs for her--is
obvious. They cuddle against her whenever she is in their pen. Her herd
includes two pigmy goats, two Toggenburgs, six Nubians, and two male Angora
goats with beautiful, curled horns. The Angoras are fiber goats and need their
horns as part of their cooling system—much like a car’s radiator. From their
hair, shorn twice a year, washed and spun into yarn on her own spinning wheel
and woven on her loom, Katie and her Mother create scarves and are experimenting
with making felt hats.
 |
Katie with her trophies.
Photo by Lin Ennis.
|
All Katie’s activities around the property are monitored—and
sometimes hindered--by her show-off turkey, Blue, of the historic breed, Bourbon
Red. Blue’s blue neck and red wattles and his fan tail’s shiny black and white
feathers give him a beauty all his own. He struts about with his tail spread
demanding to share attention with the goats.
And the ranch’s livestock is not limited to
goats, chickens, ducks and Blue. Also included are two dogs, five cats and the
African Spurred Tortoise, Butter, age seven--going on 100. He weighs 90
lbs, has his own house and yard adjacent to the milking parlor, and is
served vegetable salads daily. His special claim to fame is as an “escape
artist.” He dug out of his pen two years ago and was finally retrieved 25 miles
away. “We think,” says Katie, “that he must have ‘hitched a ride’ because if he
had walked all that distance he would have had to cross the creek twice (this
breed cannot swim) and a freeway. The Radsovics put notices out with a
description of Butter. They got a call from someone who had found a giant
tortoise. The family rushed to retrieve him and were relieved to find him safe
and well cared for...
Katie will remain with the Cornville 4-H group until she is 19. By then, she
will have increased her merchandising skills, and Bea’s Beauty Bar will have
earned her enough to launch her college career. With her example, her goats may
be smart enough to go with her.
[Home Page]
[News Home Page]
[Back to Community Page] |