Monthly Archives: October 2022

We are hosting a dairy goat workshop!

Have you thought about keeping your own dairy goat? We would love to help you get started! We are hosting a 3.5-hour workshop on October 29th where we will go over what it takes to feed, house, care for, and milk your own goat. We’ll even show you how easy it is to make goat cheese and finish with a cheese tasting. All this for only $95! The class size will be limited to 12 participants to make sure everyone can be involved. 

Go to our online store to sign up.

Agenda

9:00-9:15 introductions

9:15-10:00 milking demonstration

10:00-10:45 Basics of keeping a goat – feeding, fencing, housing, etc

10:45-11:15 Goat healthcare

11:15-noon Cheesemaking and tasting

Noon-12:30 wrap-up and Q&A

Basics

  • Feeding – summer winter
  • Housing
  • Space needed
  • Fencing
  • Pasture
  • Livestock guardian dogs and protection from predators

Care

  • Hooves
  • Parasites
  • Giving shots
  • Horns – no horns?

Kidding

  • Breeding
  • Gestation, drying off
  • Birthing, normal vs complicated – what to do when things go wrong
  • Bottle vs dam feeding

Milking

  • Basic steps
  • Filtering
  • Chilling
  • Shelf life
  • Selling

Cheese

  • Ricotta
  • chevre

September Meat CSA

In your share this month: 

  • Duck 
  • Bacon 
  • Ground beef 
  • Ground Lamb 
  • Breakfast Sausage 
  • Pork Roast  

On the farm 

The changing of the seasons always brings changes on the farm, too, and we enjoy the transition to autumn not only for the end of the scorching summer temperatures and the return of the PNW rains, but tasks on the farm are also starting to ebb a bit. All our pastured poultry pens will be emptying out over the next two months, 10 more pigs will be heading in to be turned into the bacon, chops, and sausages you have come to love. We are even hoping to get off the farm for a few days at the end of this month, for a couple of nights of camping and soaking in hot springs in SE Oregon, followed by two and a half days of music at the Sisters Folk Festival. But that is all contingent on thing that will be the antithesis of things slowing down for the fall, and that is our most recent Great Pyrenees addition, Jolee, is pregnant and due to have her puppies plus or minus a week on either side of our planned time away. Fingers crossed! 

In your bag 

You have quite a diverse share this month, with products from four distinct types of animals, instead of the typical three, with duck, pork, beef, and lamb. Your duck is a breed called Pekin, which is often confused with the dish, Peking Duck, and while you can make that dish with this breed of duck, there are many other recipe options available, as well.  

Ground lamb also only makes occasional appearances in your share, so this month you will have recipes for both these items!