Since moving away from the big city 5 years ago, Karin Meadows and Paul Herberman have started raising goats and making herbal remedies.
Herb Meadows Farm, located in Mancos, makes beeswax candles, arnica pain butter, beard tamer, soap and lip balm, Meadows said.
“Our soap is made from the milk of our goats on our farm,” she said. “Everything is all natural. We know where the milk came from, through all the way to the very end.”
Even the arnica butter is made from arnica harvested in the mountains, she said. Rather than synthetic fragrances, Herb Meadows uses organic oils from Mountain Rose Herbs.
Meadows said she started making soap and other products out of necessity because she is sensitive to gluten and soy.
“A lot of people put soy in candles, they put soy in soap, soy in lip balm,” she said. “Even Burt’s Bees has soy in it.”
She said the impetus for her and Herberman’s relocation to Mancos was also health. They previously lived 30 minutes from Denver International Airport and always had tinnitus and migraines. It went away entirely when they moved to their farm, she said.
Meadows said taking up farming has been a learning experience.
“I’ve learned so much about goats in the past five years because we came from suburbia – like straight green front yard suburbia – to having our own 10-acre farm,” she said. “Learning everything about goats, learning how to make cheese, how to make soap, how to do all of these things. We watch a lot of YouTube, honestly.”
Herb Meadows’ relationship with YouTube isn’t one directional, though. The farmers also upload videos to their own channel at youtube.com/@HerbMeadowsHomestead.
“It’s got baby goat videos and stuff,” Meadows said. “And then, I’m in the process of making some videos for cheesemaking.”
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
