Have you been following our 365 project on Instagram (@Thefreckledfarm)? We have been posting at least one photo a day from the farm. If you aren’t following us you might want to consider it… come March there will be a ton of pictures of baby goats!
Don’t have Instagram? At the end of each month we will be posting a round-up of the pictures that we posted throughout the month. Below are all the pictures from January. Enjoy!
Today’s Fun Farm Fact may shock you!… Goat meat is the most consumed meat per capita worldwide! It’s only in the United States that it is not regularly eaten, although it has been gaining in popularity in recent years. Maybe the rest of the world knows something we don’t!
Goat’s meat is considered to be very healthy. It’s is leaner than both beef and chicken. Goat meat is also considerably lower in saturated fats than beef and chicken. It is also low in cholesterol while maintaining it’s iron level.
So if you are looking for a leaner, healthier meat… consider goat meat.
It has been a very busy week. We are still very much in the adjustment period since Kevin left his day job, but we are finally starting to form some sort of routine. I am in the middle of wedding booking season for the photography business, we are working on our new goat milk soap laundry detergent, contacting stores about carrying our products, building up our soap supply, and taking care of the farm. Busy, busy, busy, but we are loving working together full time.
Last Wednesday we took Tina to have her hooves reshaped. She foundered this past Summer and we spent months controlling the crazy growth and lowering her grain intake to slow it down. I finally felt like we got her back to (somewhat) normal, so we took her to a farm in Culpeper who were going to use a grinder to get her feet back to the correct shape. We didn’t breed her in the fall because we were dealing with getting her feet comfortable again. We honestly were debating whether we were breed her again at all because we weren’t sure if it would be too hard on her, but the farmers in Culpeper didn’t think that her case was anywhere near as bad as others that they had seen and she was cleared to breed again. She went into heat on Monday and was bred to Warner. Her due date will be June 25th, much later than we are used to, but it could set us up for a year round milking schedule. It would be nice to not have periods of the year where we are without fresh milk coming in… We have two chest freezers of frozen milk for soap (it must be frozen to be used in the soap making process), but it’s not the same when it comes to drinking.
Today’s Fun Farm Fact is important to dispel a fairly dangerous wives tale about goats… That goats eat anything and everything. They don’t. Goats cannot eat trash or tin cans… It will kill them, and while goats are known to clear brush and will happily clear your land for you there are plenty of plants out there that are toxic to goats. Here is a great list of plants that goats can and cannot eat.
Goats have very sensitive systems. Drastic changes to their type of feed or amount of feed can mess up their rumen. If we are increasing or decreasing our goats’ feed or changing the brand of feed we make the change slowly over the course of weeks or months. This way their system has time to adjust.
It’s important, when putting goats into a new pasture, to check and make sure there are not plants present that can hurt them. For us personally, we have had to fight black cherry trees. Most people would be thrilled to find black cherry trees on their property. Especially some that are as big as ours, since their timber is worth so much, but wilted black cherry leaves are toxic to goats. So throughout the spring and summer we have to search through our pastures to find any black cherry saplings and . Most of the time goats will not eat things that are toxic to them, but if the foods they do like to eat become sparse they will eat whatever they can find, toxic or not.
The last two weeks since Kevin left his “day job” have been an adjustment. For the last two years we have lived in survival mode. Kevin was pulling in at least 60 hours a week at work and every other second of the day was stacked with things that needed to be done for the businesses and farm. Late nights and extremely early mornings were how we lived. Now that the 60 hours of work outside of our businesses are gone we are trying to figure out what our new schedule looks like. We no longer have to live with the mindset that if we have a second it needs to be filled with something because who knows how much time we are going to have later. We are working on balancing everything and actually giving ourselves time to just relax… what a concept. I have actually had to set myself a set of tasks that need to be completed that day, and once I am done I am allowed to relax. Otherwise I will just move on to one of other five hundred tasks on my to do list…
One of our big projects this week is working on our new goat milk soap laundry detergent. We are officially in the research and development phase! So far so good! We plan to sell them in three sizes; a nice large reusable glass container with a wooden scoop, refill bags, and finally a sample size for 2-4 washes. We are currently planning on 4 scents; Sunrise Citrus, Lavender, Tea Tree (for strong odors caused by bacteria – body odor and stinky socks), and Unscented. Look for these detergents to join our market booths and website in the late winter or early spring.
We do have a little bit of sad news from this week. We lost one of our free ranging chickens to a hawk. Her name was Sophia and she was one of our original chickens. In fact she gave us our very first egg! We retired to her to the pasture last spring where she, and several of her sisters, had the run of both pastures and the barn. We knew this was a possibility. Chickens are very vulnerable to predators, especially when they are free ranging, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it happens. I am extremely tender-hearted and we love our animals. In the meantime we have moved the few other free rangers into the big closed coop until we can figure out a safer option for them. Our fear is now that the hawk knows where the food is he will just keep coming back.
Check back next week for even more updates!! There is so much in the works!
It Friday!! Which means it’s time for a Fun Farm Fact!
Capra, latin for goat, is the root of the word capricious. A word meaning to change often and quickly, quirky, and whimsical… Fitting
Today’s Fun Farm Fact is one that I discovered soon after getting our first goats, Tina and Hillary… Goats (like all other ruminate animals) do not have top front teeth! Imagine my surprise when I discovered this for the first time! There is a reason for this… It helps them grind the grasses and other vegetation they eat. In the space where their upper front teeth would be is a hard plate. The lower teeth grind the food against this hard plate breaking it up. While they do not have top front teeth they do have molars on both the bottom and the top towards the back of their mouths.
Happy Birthday Kevin!! … Not only is it Kevin’s birthday, but it is also his first day as a full time farmer. Yesterday was his last day at his “day job.” I am so excited to finally be in entering into this new chapter. I now get to work side by side with my favorite person every day! We have been working our butts off to get to this point.
The next few months are going to be an adjustment as we try to get into a routine. Hopefully we won’t be pulling super late nights anymore… or maybe just less of them. I am extremely excited about all of the projects that we will have time to do, now that Kevin will be home and extra 60+ hours a week, like building the green house, greatly expanding our garden (by a quarter of an acre!), and so much more. It’s also going to be so nice knowing Kevin will be around during kidding time in March. The next year is going to be an awesome adventure.
Welcome to the very first “Fun Farm Facts Friday!” (say that three times fast)
Living on a farm is a constant learning experience… quite frankly it’s an uphill battle at times. No matter how much you research, no matter how long you have been farming, there are always little surprises along the way. I intend to share some of the most interesting facts that I have learned over the years, along with all the questions that I am asked most often.
So, I am going to start the year off answering the question that I am asked the most… The answer may seem obvious when I tell you, but people just don’t think about it…
The question: When do goats begin to produce milk?
The answer: Goat’s (or any mammal for that matter, including humans) must be bred and have babies in order to produce milk. The goats begin producing milk once their kids are born (called freshening). They first produce colostrum, then begin milk production shortly there after. Their supply will continue to grow over the next two months, at which point it will level off. Depending on the breed, if the doe is left unbred her milk production will start to decrease as she reaches the one year mark from her last kidding, or in some cases sooner. Some goat breeds can be milked for up to 18 months, however the amount will not be at the same level as it was in the months after her kidding. So, each year the goats are bred to maintain their milk production.
Oh my goodness it has been an amazing year. I am so proud of what we have accomplished with both of our businesses and I am incredibly grateful for our wonderful, loyal customers, who allow my husband and I to work together, build this farm, and live our dream. I cannot wait to see what 2015 has in store for us as we start our journey of both Kevin and I putting a full time effort into both of our businesses… It’s certainly going to be an adventure.
Stand out moments of 2014
Thank you for all your support in 2014! I can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store!