About Ekokoza

Our story · since 2007

It began with a single goat.It continues in your hands.

Ekokoza did not begin with a business plan. It grew out of an ordinary family need, hands-on work, and a desire to understand what we eat, use and make. From the first goat, through cheese and soap, to a European base serving more than half a million customers, the scale has changed.What drives us has stayed the same.

Marta and Hugo Čapek, the founders of Ekokoza, in their younger years with their goats
Marta and Hugo Čapek in Ekokoza’s early days — when everyday life with the goats set the rhythm for the whole family.
For us, returning to our roots does not mean rejecting the present. It means taking some responsibility back into our own hands — knowing what things are made from, being able to make informed choices, and creating with understanding.
2009

the year the first Czech online shop was launched, together with a shop for Slovakia

Hundreds

of tried-and-tested recipes and guides that connect each ingredient with a real result

500,000+

customers across Europe who have found ingredients, guidance or a reliable base for their own production with us

Across the EU

for people making at home, passionate creators and professional manufacturers

The first need

We wanted our own milk for our daughter.

One goat led to another. And one question to the next.
The original house in Lesní Jakubov where the Ekokoza farm began
The house in Lesní Jakubov where the original farm grew, and where Ekokoza gradually emerged from that first need.

We got one goat. But goats need company, so a second one joined her. Then another. Before we knew it, we were living alongside a herd of several dozen goats.

More goats meant more milk than we could use. So the next natural question was:what should we do with it?We began making cheese and yoghurt. With no formal training, no readily available instructions, and no certainty that the first attempt would work.

Practical information was difficult to find online at the time. Rennet and cultures were mainly sold in large quantities, and ordinary people had nowhere to buy just what they needed. We learned through trial and error, observation and sharing.

And this was where the principle that still guides Ekokoza first emerged:what we had struggled to find for ourselves, we began making accessible to others.

A journey that was never planned

Ekokoza grew the way living things grow.

Not in one leap, and not according to a spreadsheet. Every next step grew from a real need, an experience, or a question from the people around us.

  1. 2007 First goat

    Milk of our own for the family, and the first step towards greater self-reliance.

  2. Soon afterwards First cheeses

    Learning from the ground up — finding methods, rennet and cultures.

  3. 2009 Czech and Slovak online shops

    Making supplies available in quantities that also make sense at home.

  4. The next step First soap

    From whey to soap, cosmetics, candles and a gentler home.

  5. The farm A place to meet

    Markets, food boxes, visits, recipes and experiences shared with others.

  6. 2016 A new home in the Beskids

    Moving to Fryčovice, larger warehouses and a greater focus on developing the online shop.

  7. 2023 Ekokoza across Europe

    France, Germany, Austria, Italy — and customers throughout the European Union.

  8. 2026 Twice the warehouse capacity

    The new warehouse allows us to keep reliable stock even for larger manufacturers and continue expanding our range.

From a need to a service

What we had searched for ourselves, we began sharing with others.

We had to buy rennet and cultures in packs far larger than we could use. So we offered the surplus to friends and people nearby. We soon discovered that we had a surprising number of “friends”.

In 2009, we launched our first Czech online shop, together with a shop for Slovakia. Not because we had decided to build a retail business. We wanted to make available what we ourselves had been missing:sensible quantities, clear guidance, and a real person you could ask.

Meanwhile, we took our cheeses to markets and added them to produce boxes alongside other goods. What had begun as a family need slowly became a source of support for other people who wanted to make things themselves — and make them well.

Goat cheeses and other dairy products that we took to markets and added to food boxes
What we first made for ourselves soon travelled with us to markets and was shared with people in the surrounding community.

From cheese to soap

The same principle. New ingredients and new possibilities.

Whey was left over after making cheese. We did not want to waste something that could still be put to good use, so it became our first soap.

Then came balms, salves, creams, candles and gentler household products. The same pattern repeated itself: first we learned something for ourselves, then shared the method, and finally offered the ingredients needed to make it.

1

Try it in practiceFirst understand the ingredient, the process and its limits.

2

Explain the wider contextShare the recipe, the experience, the mistakes, and the reason something works.

3

Make it accessible to othersOffer ingredients, packaging, tools and the opportunity to ask questions.

Early experiments with soap and natural cosmetics at a table at home
Our first soaps and cosmetics were made at home, from ordinary ingredients, our own experiments and carefully recorded experience.

The farm as a community

It was more than a place where things were made.

People began coming to the farm. They came to look around, taste, ask questions, and spend a while inside a life shaped by closeness to animals, the soil and the seasons.

We talked about self-reliance, our relationship with animals, and what we use every day on our bodies, in the kitchen and around the home. We shared our methods and received other people’s experiences, recipes and ideas in return.

That is why Ekokoza was never simply a one-way shop.From the very beginning, it was co-created by people who bought from us, experimented, asked questions and passed their experiences on.The Ekokoza recipe collection grew from this exchange too. Today it contains hundreds of tried-and-tested methods, and it continues to grow.

Marta with the goat herd, the dog and visitors during a gathering at the farm
The farm became a meeting place, where experience was passed on not only through words, but above all through time spent together.

When values are more than words

Living close to nature also taught us to face its difficult realities.

Life with animals was not a romantic backdrop. It was beautiful, demanding and full of responsibility. It also revealed a conflict we could not ignore.

Dairy farming naturally means that male kids are born too. In the conventional system, however, they often have no future other than being raised for meat or used as feed for other animals. We never raised our goats for meat, and over time we could no longer reconcile ourselves with this reality.

That was one of the main reasons why we gradually closed the farm. The last of Ekokoza’s elderly goats moved with us to the Beskids, where they spent several more years grazing without any productive purpose — simply as our companions.

This makes us value all the more every farmer who continues this work and looks, every day, for the best possible way for people, animals and the landscape to live together.It is hard, beautiful and necessary work. We are sincerely grateful that people choose to do it.

The goats left. The idea remained.

A small farm became a professional base for your craft.

Moving to Fryčovice beneath the Beskids also gave the online shop room to grow. We added warehouses, a team, ingredient documentation, a broader range and systems that must work not only for a first experiment at home, but also for regular production. In 2026, we are completing a new warehouse that doubles our existing capacity, allowing us to maintain reliable stock for larger manufacturers and continue expanding the range.

Today you will find small sizes for testing a formulation as well as larger packs for your own brand. A beginner needs support. An experienced maker needs precision. A professional manufacturer needs consistency, information and a partner who understands that an ingredient must arrive in the right quality and at the right time.

Becoming more professional never meant abandoning the original idea.It meant giving that idea a stronger foundation. Just as there were boundaries we would not cross on the farm, there are boundaries we do not cross in the online shop today. Some things are not negotiable — and at the same time, we know that honesty often means finding the best possible balance where no ideal answer exists.

Ekokoza’s present-day base in Fryčovice beneath the Beskids
Ekokoza today in Fryčovice beneath the Beskids — a professional operation still built on the same integrity and closeness to people.
Languages change. Our responsibility does not.

Since 2023, we have been developing Ekokoza in France, Germany, Austria, Italy and other countries across the European Union. Your orders are still prepared in Fryčovice beneath the Beskids. Abroad, however, we do not want simply to translate the same words into another language. We listen to real people, their experiences and their needs, and adapt our communication and support accordingly. The same team and the same sense of responsibility stand behind every parcel. After all, the need to understand what we put on our skin, use in our homes and make things from has no borders.

What has not changed

Four principles we still stand on today.

Our range, technology and scale continue to evolve. These principles have remained the same since the first time we searched for rennet for our own cheese.

01

Nature as a compass, not a backdrop

We have boundaries we will not cross. At the same time, we look for gentle, practical solutions even where no ideal option exists. We do not hide compromises — we explain openly why they are necessary and why we have chosen a particular path.

02

Knowing matters as much as having

An ingredient without context is not a complete solution. That is why we connect it with a recipe, a method, documentation and the possibility of speaking to someone who can help.

03

Honest craft, proven in practice

We begin with what can genuinely be made, repeated and explained — not with appealing shortcuts. For us, expertise means precision without superiority.

04

Co-creation instead of anonymous selling

Customers’ recipes, experiences and questions flow back into Ekokoza. What one person discovers can help another — in a different town, country or language.

Room for different paths

Whether you are making your first balm or your hundredth batch for customers.

The same idea can take many forms. Our role is to provide the kind of support that matches where you are today.

I am just starting

A confident first step

A clear recipe, a small pack, an explanation of what each ingredient does, and someone to ask when you are unsure.

I make regularly

Room to follow your own path

A broad choice, deeper context, packaging and tools that let you adapt and develop your formulation.

I manufacture professionally

A reliable production partner

Larger packs, documentation, planned supply, expert communication and a dependable base for repeat production.

A story still being written

Ekokoza began in our hands. Today it continues in yours.

It continues every time you take an ingredient and turn it into something of your own. Every time you share a recipe, pass on experience or make something for someone you care about.

Perhaps you came to us for a single ingredient. We hope you will also find context, support and people with whom you can share your journey.We are glad we found one another.

With us, you know what you are making. Ingredients, recipes and tried-and-tested methods.
Explore the Ekokoza recipe collection Find everything for your own making
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