GMS Sweet Shop.com
The new Goat Milk Stuff food website - https://gmsSweetShop.com has been super popular and we continue to add new items. You can buy all our available cheeses, fudge, caramels, toffees, marshmallows, sweatshirts, hats, and more on this website.
Emery's focaccia and bagels are also available and are getting excellent feedback.
With the new https://gmsSweetShop.com website, food items no longer ship together with soap or bath & body items. In fact, the food items and packaging (boxes and such) never even enter the soaproom, so there is no chance of any of the food picking up any soap smells.
If there is anything you want to see, but you can't find, send us an email to soap@goatmilkstuff.com and we'll email you as soon as we have it listed.
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Goat Yoga
Well... people have asked and we are finally making it available! Yes - goat yoga has arrived at the Goat Milk Stuff farm.
This is an incredible way to relax, take care of your body, and enjoy time with the goats.
This class is with a certified yoga instructor and is for all levels, including people who have never before tried yoga.
We will have at least 4 times available during the month of April (see the goat yoga page for details).
We had 2 sessions (the third was canceled due to snow) in March and everybody had a wonderful time!
 
The smiles and laughter brought joy to our hearts and we felt very blessed by the event.
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Events on the Farm
As the farm (and my children) continues to grow, we are trying to offer more events on the farm. We currently have the following available:
We have been working toward adding several classes as well, but right now are limited by time and the number of helping hands. If you have any ideas for a class that you would love to take on the GMS farm, let us know as we're working toward making classes happen.
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The Updated Sweet Shop
The Sweet Shop has been a work in progress since its inception. When we built the space, we had originally intended for it to be meeting and class space. But God had other plans and the Sweet Shop was born!
We continue to add new items and this past week our new cabinets and counter tops arrived.
We've now positioned the food cases so they all face the same way, which makes it easier for people to realize everything we offer. We also now have a longer counter top which makes it easier to take lunch orders and check people out.
As with everything we do, we strive to continually improve it and make it better for everyone. We hope all those who visit the Sweet Shop enjoy the changes.
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Lunches on the Farm
We began offering lunch on the farm in March and it has been a huge success, with over 1000 people served in March. I'm super proud of all the hard work that everyone put in to make this happen. Mason has taken the lead role in cooking the sandwiches and wraps, with Emery in charge of the pizzas. Emery makes all the pizza dough from scratch and was given the challenge from friends of ours to create a gluten free pizza crust. They recommended a gluten free flour for him, and they pronounced his finished gluten free crust a success!
Jade, Indigo, and Greyden have all been learning how to cook the sandwiches and wraps so that eventually they can give Mason a day off! And my serving staff (primarily Jade, Indigo, and me) are doing a great job delivering the lunches and "bussing" the tables.
Lunch is available from 11-1, Monday through Saturday. You can see the menu and even place a to-go order online at https://GMSToGo.com.
If you're planning a visit and have time for lunch, we'd love to know what you think!
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Coffees
In addition to offering lunch on the farm, we now have gourmet coffees (cappuccino, macchiato, latte, espresso, and americano) as well as iced gourmet coffees (iced cappuccino, iced latte, and iced mocha) available. And for those of you (like me) who don't enjoy coffee, we have chai tea and hot chocolate as well. Per a special request from my children, we can even make peppermint hot chocolate!
All of these options are currently available with goat milk. We're not quite equipped for cow milk or soy milk, but you can order your coffee black and add an alternate milk if you'd prefer.
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Speaking Event
I (PJ) will be speaking on April 24th at the Professional Women's Networking Event at MAS Park in Scottsburg, Indiana on Thursday, April 26th.
I will be discussing something I believe many of us struggle with - the problem of competing priorities. It's difficult enough to set priorities and then follow through on them. How do you handle it when you have priorities (that are equally important) that pull you in opposite directions?
I would absolutely love it if you have a moment to share with me your thoughts/concerns/questions about this issue. You can FB message the Goat Milk Stuff page or email me at soap@goatmilkstuff.com
If you are local and interested in attending the luncheon, you can find more information at this link.
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April Giveaway
This month we're giving away a gift certificate for $25 off your order at goatmilkstuff.com! You can find the entry widget here.
Since you're already signed up for the newsletter, all you have to do to get your first entry is put the email address that you used to subscribe to this newsletter in the widget. It's that easy! For extra entries, you can follow us on various social media sites or answer a question. Just make sure you go through the widget, so your entries are counted. Good luck!
Congratulations to Carol Simpson who won the March giveaway!
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Employment Opportunities
When I began Goat Milk Stuff in my kitchen in 2008, I had no idea that God was going to take my idea and grow it into our existing farm. Never in a million years could I have imagined we would be milking almost 100 goats, shipping our stuff internationally, and hosting thousands of people on our farm.
We are looking for some some extra workers to help with our workload. We have full-time and part-time opportunities as well as seasonal and year-round positions. We need help on all areas of the farm - barn, soaproom, garden, and kitchens.
Potential employees must not be afraid of hard work, getting their hands (and clothes and shoes) dirty, and doing whatever work is needed (even if it isn't in your job description). All employees must be able to deal with customers with a smile and show up on time. We do not have any housing available.
If you are interested, please check out the GMS Jobs page for more information.
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Newsletter Special
The April newsletter special is a free, unbagged half bar of Oatmeal, Milk & Honey or Purity with a minimum $25 order. You must order them from the April newsletter special page only.
If you order more than one, we will only include one. And if your order doesn't meet the $25 minimum, the free half bar won't be included. So please follow the directions so you don't get mad at us!
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Baby Goats for Sale
I currently still have baby Alpine goats for sale. There are both Alpine bucklings and Alpine doelings available. And if you're looking for an Alpine Starter Herd, I have a few options available as well.
Our Nigerian Dwarf herd is still growing and we don't have any babies available for sale right now. But I currently have 4 pregnant Nigerians and will be breeding some more soon. So if you don't mind the anticipation of waiting several months, you can place deposits on Nigerians on the Nigerian page of the goat website.
The goat website - https://gmsgoats.com is still a work in progress. We have a few hundred goat photos to take once the weather gets nicer and the farm "greens up". Once I have those photos, I'll get the remaining goats and goat photos on the website.
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Homestead Happenings
So many new things happened on the farm this March! Our new Alpine barn is almost complete. For all practical purposes it is, but there are still a couple of gates and such that need to go up.
All of the Alpines are now in the new barn, with the exception of Schuyler and Paprika who both just had their babies.
Schuyler had girl/boy twins - Shado and Sheep. Shado is the flashy one with white in the back. She is called a Pied Cou Noir and is the first goat we've ever had with this color pattern (black in front and white in back).
Paprika had twin bucklings - Princeton and Plymouth.
That is the end of this group of pregnant Alpines. We do have seven Alpines left who "should" deliver in May.
We (the proverbial "we" which means my contractor and his crew) have been working very hard to retrofit our existing barn to house the Nigerian Dwarf goats. The Nigerians are so much smaller than the Alpines that we decided to re-do all the fencing as well as lower the feeders and hay mangers.
We are also adding a small addition to the outside of the barn so that the Nigerians could be bottle-fed under cover, out of the rain.
Which is a good thing since it feels like it has rained the entire month of March!! There is mud everywhere and while I'm not praying for a drought, some sunshine would be really appreciated.
We currently have four pregnant Nigerians and as soon as the barn is retrofitted, we will be breeding some more.
We were surprised when one of the young does we bought had a surprise pregnancy and delivered triplet doelings! We named them Glitter, Glamour, and Glow. We all quickly fell in love with the three of them.
 
Unfortunately a few weeks after their birth, we lost Glitter. She was the smallest of the three and even though she ate well and played, she never really thrived or put on as much weight as I would have expected. Our best guess is that there was an internal issue that she was born with.
While that was super sad, we have so many happy, healthy baby goats, that it's easy to focus on them!
Now that kidding season is finished, we're looking forward to garden season. We have a few seeds planted, and many of the blackberries and fruit trees are budding.
But until I get to eat my first asparagus, garden season hasn't fully arrived!
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I'll finish Homestead Happenings by sharing a few videos (from 2 years ago) of the baby goats for you to enjoy! And yes, the baby goats in these videos are all now moms themselves. :)
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We hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Easter!
As always, we thank you so much for all of your support of our family and our business!
The Jonas Family
Jim, PJ, Brett, Colter, Emery, Fletcher, Greyden, Hewitt, Indigo, and Jade
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