Maid In Cornwall January’s Lamb

 

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Rose, who is the shepherdess of our family, the founder of “Sheepishly Ewe”, hand crafted sheep milk soaps.

Rose has been working all hours of the day and night caring for her flock of sheep as they approached lambing and for the last couple of weeks are currently lambing.  She has also been raising some baby ducks.

Caring for her “Noah’s Ark” of animals, poultry and her family is a twenty-four hour, every day job.  Sheepishly Ewe initially began in 2011 although in those days it was purely a few orphan lambs she was caring for.  Word spread amongst the Cornish farming community, and Rose became a foster mother to orphaned animals and poultry, and before long she had acquired a small flock of sheep who were the foundation of “Sheepishly Ewe” sheep milk shampoo bars, soaps and dog shampoo.

The initial soap and shampoo making in Rose’s kitchen began as creative idea to make use of the surplus milk she had to collect from the ewes after the lambs had been weaned.  Sheep milk is rich in vitamins and minerals which nourish the lambs for the first months of their development.  There was very little demand for sheep milk as an alternative to cow’s milk a few years ago, but in recent years, it has gained popularity and is quite an exclusive beverage in Sussex, where I live.

From small beginnings selling the soap and shampoo bars alongside her hen and duck eggs, Rose has built a loyal customer base from word of mouth.  From one initial lady who fell in love with the charcoal shampoo bars, a multi-generational stream of customers have turned away from mass produced shampoo in favour of a natural shampoo free from parabens and SLS (sodium lauryl sulphates).

The need for small rural businesses to diversify their income  accelerated following the Covid lockdowns and the resulting financial crisis.  Rose does the work of two people in order to care for her animals and the land they live on.

I hope to be able to help build her Maid In Cornwall Store on Etsy, which will give her more time to focus on the animals.  Rose is devoted to animals, which is her reason for working seven days a week, 52 weeks of every year.  Seeing her animals well fed and cared for means more to her than days off or holidays, but money doesn’t grow on trees so with the maidincornwallstore.etsy.com she will be able to reach a wider audience of discerning customers.