If you ever find yourself wandering through the vendors at the Landsdowne Farmers’ Market, you might see a welcoming and smiling Kaitlin Jones surrounded by soaps of all scents and colours ready to be sold.

Although now, Jones spends many weekends going around farmers’ markets selling soaps for her company Fox and Fern. It wasn’t always like that.

“It all started with a dream,” said Jones. “I had dreamed I was making soap and I told my husband I think I want to start making soaps.”

“I didn’t come from a farming family so I went and got myself a couple of goats,” she continued. “A friend of mine lent me her goat and I bred them and then taught myself how to milk and how to make soap. It was really trial and error.”

But after some time, Jones had figured out her formula and Fox and Fern launched in early 2021.

After receiving a grant from Digital Main Street, a digital guide and program to help small businesses grow and find a platform online, Jones put out the Fox and Fern website where most of her soaps are sold at around $9 a bar.

The whole process can take about six weeks since all the soaps are handmade in Jones’s basement and made from natural milk collected from her goats.

The colourful pattern and attentiveness to detail make the soap one of a kind. All over the Fox and Fern Instagram are compliments from customers, such as “Beautiful!” and “So pretty!”

Located in South Mountain, Fox and Fern raises Pygmy and Oberhasli goats, as well as different flocks of ducks and chickens to make all their artisan soaps.

As for the future, Jones hopes to start making shampoo and conditioner bars. In addition to continuing her line of soaps and fizz bath bombs, she hopes to get Fox and Fern in more front stores around the Ottawa area.