Our Story
My name is Mary Anne Duren, and I founded Ivory Oak in 2012. We are a dairy goat farm in Austin, MN that focuses on producing the finest goat milk we can for our goat milk soaps.
As a kid, I was sick more often than normal and suffered from chronic stomach aches, digestive issues, and congestion. Alternative medicine and a good diet helped me overcome those illnesses. I was sensitive to cow dairy, so it was at that young age that I was introduced to goat dairy products.
I grew up as a city kid who always wanted to have a farm "someday", and that was able to happen a year after I moved back to Austin from college.
Because of my background, I knew that when I started my farm it was going to be run a little differently. We have a strong emphasis on organic management, and our animals are raised with sustainable and regenerative farming practices at the forefront of what we do.
We work to raise healthy, organically-fed dairy goats to produce high quality milk that we use in our line of goat milk soaps. All of our soaps are made with milk sourced exclusively from our goats, certified organic base oils, and essential oils + natural colorants; no synthetic fragrances or artificial colorants/dyes are used in our soaps.
Our Goats
The herd at Ivory Oak is made up of purebred Nubians and French Alpines. Our foundation stock consists of high quality, registered breeding stock.
Our goats are raised as holistically and sustainably as possible. They are given free choice alfalfa year-round and free choice pasture spring through fall. They are supplemented with a custom grain mix consisting of certified organic barley, oats, and peas. They do not ever receive any corn, soy, or wheat. We do not vaccinate our goats and they do not receive conventional medicine on a routine basis. Conventional medication is used on a handful or so of our goats throughout the year when emergency medical situations necessitate it.
