New goat milk soap business comes to Waterford, California

How do two pet goats become a business? Turns out, by accident.

Hughson resident Bethany Riner never thought the couple of goats she bought as pets when she first moved out of her parents’ home would eventually turn into her livelihood. But those goats turned into more goats. And then she started milking her goats. And then there was all this milk.

You see where this is going, right?

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Riner, who grew up in Ceres and graduated from Ceres High, began by using her milk to make food: cheese, yogurt and ice cream. Then she decided to try her hand at soap making. She researched and taught herself from YouTube tutorials and other resources.

Her first batch came out dry as a brick, and it crumbled when cut. But she kept at it, using the goat milk from her small herd. About five years ago, Riner began making soaps in earnest — giving them to family and friends who loved them and encouraged her to think bigger.

She started an Etsy shop in 2018, selling just her goat milk bar soap, called Mazzeltov Farms. The moniker is based on her maiden name, Mazza, and the nickname her high school friends gave her, “Mazzeltov.”

About three years ago, Riner moved to Hughson, about 20 minutes east of Modesto, and her soap making became full time. That led to this spring, when she opened a boutique storefront in Waterford for her Mazzeltov Farms Soap.

The journey from goat owner to artisanal goat milk bath and body product maker has been a happiest of accidents for Riner and members of her family, who pitch when they can.

Waterford shop renovated to storefront, production center

Mazzeltov Farms Soap opened in early March in downtown Waterford, off State Route 132 just east of Hickman Road. The old gas station has been through many incarnations over the decades, but likely none that smell as wonderful as the boutique.

With help from her family and husband, Ryan, a general contractor, the 29-year-old Riner has transformed the 1,100-square-foot space into a retail shop in the front, with attached production center and storage office space. All of Riner’s soap is produced, cured and packaged in her Waterford store.

Riner and a cousin, Denair resident Corien Addis, run the company together and have three additional staff who help with their farmers markets and pop-up events. Addis serves as production manager and is often in the shop’s small kitchen area stirring up their soap mixes from scratch.

Instead of using water, Mazzeltov Farms Soaps use goat milk from Riner’s personal herd. She has about 20 goats, a mix of the smaller Nigerian dwarf and larger LaMancha breeds, on her Hughson property. Riner milks her producing goats every morning and then freezes the resulting milk to be incorporated into her bath products.

Riner and Addis produce bar soaps, hand soaps, bath soaps, liquid soaps and lotions. She offers about 16 product lines year-round and makes an additional four to five seasonal varieties, too. They use a variety of oils (olive, coconut, shea butter and avocado, among others), goat milk, lye, coloring (typically from natural sources like spices, clay, mica or charcoal) in their products.

Goat milk, other natural oils used in handmade bath products

Using goat milk makes the products more creamy and moisturizing, Riner said, because of the milk’s high butterfat content. And for those worried about that particular “goaty” aroma, the bars have no trace of the farmyard.

They make batches of 96 bars at a time in repurposed pizza dough trays. Then the bars cure for a month in their storage area before being hand packaged for sale. Bar soaps typically sell for $9, with lotions running $5 to $25 depending on size.

Some of her most popular products include the Milk & Honey, Fierce (a more masculine-themed dark bar with lemon, lime, lavender and other scents) and Trippy Hippie (orange and patchouli) soap bars. The colorful bar soaps look as good as they smell, with custom swirled tops or botanicals embedded.

She sells them through her Mazzeltov Farms website, in her store, at local farmers markets and at some 20 to 25 pop-up events each month across the region. Shoppers can find her weekly at Turlock, Oakdale, Ripon, Escalon and Lodi farmers markets. This season, she joined Modesto’s DoMo First Fridays monthly evening markets. The shop also handles custom and special orders for events, weddings and other occasions on request.

While Waterford, a community of about 9,000 in eastern Stanislaus County, might seem like an unusual spot for a boutique bath and body product shop, Riner said the response to opening has been nothing but positive. She said a brick-and-mortar shop wasn’t initially one of her goals, but the location, on State Route 132 headed toward the Sierra Nevada foothills and Yosemite, has been a boon for sales.

“Honestly, probably (opening the shop) was the best thing I ever did,” Riner said. “Since we’ve moved in, we’ve had so much love from the Waterford community. Everyone is really excited to have this store.”

Mazzeltov Farms Soap, at 12901 Yosemite Blvd., is open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday. For more information, call 209-874-8090 or visit mazzeltovfarms.com.