Goat-milk frozen treats are winning shelf space

PETALUMA, Calif. — Got goat milk? Northern California ice cream maker Laura Howard does, and she's using it to turn out a product that's anything but plain vanilla.

Howard's goat-milk frozen treats are winning shelf space in upscale grocery freezers across the country. And here's the kicker: They don't taste of goat.

"Some people see goats' milk ice cream and they sort of wrinkle their nose," says Howard, who traded Hollywood for the country charms of Petaluma to start her Laloo's Goat Milk Ice Cream Co. "After they try it, it's a different story."

In fact, Laloo's tastes like premium ice cream — it's a myth that goat milk has to carry the smoky tang that conjures up visions of Heidi in grandpa's hut. Milk flavor is mostly the result of what the goats eat and how they're managed.

Goat milk has been drunk all over the world for centuries. But it's only relatively recently, with the success of high-end goat cheeses, that Americans have taken an interest in the other white milk.

These days, goat has gone gourmet with products including milk, yogurt and even soap becoming more widely available.

"There has been a huge increase in demand," said Scott Bice, farm manager for his family's Redwood Hill Farm and Creamery in Sebastopol.

Howard's goat milk journey began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, when, like a lot of people, she began questioning her life choices.

A successful advertising executive and film producer in Hollywood who already had a yoga practice, she began studying yoga more intently, visited India, and came up with the realization that "I wasn't going to have any answers until I learned how to treat my body better and treat my mind better."

A change of diet followed, with goat milk replacing cow milk.

One problem: She had a 3-pints-a-week ice cream habit.

But then she got to looking at her grandmother's old-fashioned ice cream maker sitting in a corner of her Los Angeles kitchen, and inspiration struck.

"I thought, 'You know? What if I made ice cream with this,"' she said.

She did. It was good. And not too much later, she decided to "just go for it" and try turning her hobby into a commercial venture.