We’ve had 2 does kid so far this month, Vinca and Posey, both had twins. Our kid count so far is 1 doeling and 3 bucklings. Our herd is on milk test this year and we had our first test last Saturday, I’m excited about what I’ll learn having my does on test, like milk quality and herd management and how they’re related.
We have a couple more does due this month and then we’ll have a little break until May. Check out New Arrivals page for updates and availability.
We are at less than two weeks from the arrival of the first kids of 2017! First up is Old Mountain Farm Vinca. Vinca has been paired with Rockstar Ranch Debonair (planned pedigree) and I’m really excited to see what this pair will produce!
Kids will be arriving March through June, so stay tuned for updates and photos of the kids as they arrive.
Don’t forget to check out our KIDDING SCHEDULE if you’re interested in being added to our waiting list.
Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving today. I thought I’d share my absolute FAVORITE recipes for Thanksgiving. Today (and every Thanksgiving) I’ll be baking Apple-Raspberry Pie and Pumpkin Cheesecake, (click the links to Martha Stewart or scroll all the way down for the recipes). I can’t just make plain apple pie anymore, it’s so good with the raspberries, and the pumpkin cheesecake is a fun twist on the regular pumpkin pie (which I also love😍). Even people who don’t normally love pumpkin pie or regular cheesecake have told me they really like this version. I’ve been using these same two recipes for years, they’re SO GOOD (thanks Martha Stewart). Not to brag or anything…but I think Thanksgiving would be ruined if I didn’t show up with these pies. Ok…maybe not ruined but people might be sad, and I don’t want anyone to be sad on in this day of being thankful, so the pies are in the oven now.
I’ll officially be ready to kick off the holiday season. I’m one of those that waits until after Thanksgiving to start getting ready for Christmas. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so I just can’t skip ahead until it’s over. I’m happy to start all things Christmas tomorrow (but you won’t find me shopping on Black Friday). I’m going stay home, eat some leftovers, and start decorating to my Charlie Brown Christmas music!
What are you thankful for?
(from Martha Stewart)
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE CRUST
1 1/4 cups graham-cracker crumbs (from 10 whole crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
FOR THE FILLING
4 packages (8 ounces each) bar cream cheese, very soft
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons pumpkin-pie spice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in center. Assemble a 9-inch nonstick springform pan, with the raised side of the bottom part facing up.
Make the crust: In a medium bowl, mix cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until moistened; press firmly into bottom of pan. Bake until golden around edges, 10 to 12 minutes.
Make the filling: With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on low speed until smooth; mix in flour (do not overmix). Add pumpkin puree, pie spice, vanilla, and salt; mix just until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated before adding the next.
Place springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour filling into springform, and gently smooth top. Transfer to oven; reduce oven heat to 300 degrees. Bake 45 minutes without opening the oven. Turn off oven; to prevent the top from cracking, let cheesecake stay in oven 2 hours more (without opening).
Remove from oven; cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours. Unmold before serving.
(Adapted from Martha Stewart)
2 3/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
6 ounces fresh or partially thawed frozen raspberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Pie Crust (this is the recipe Martha suggests, so I use it, or use your own favorite recipe, or buy crust from the store)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir apples, raspberries, granulated sugar, flour, lemon juice, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into a 12-inch round. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Fill with apple mixture.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out remaining disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into a 12-inch round. Drape over filling. Trim overhang to 1 inch. Press edges to seal. Fold overhang under, and crimp as desired. Make five 3-inch slits in top crust. Refrigerate 20 minutes.
Bake until crust is golden and juices are bubbling, 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes. Place foil on rack below to catch juices. Tent pie with foil if browning too quickly. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool 4 hours (up to overnight).
Our first kids of 2016 have arrived. Vinca had twins on Groundhog Day. If you were wondering, Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow, which means early spring…YAY! I think Tawny would be a perfect name for the doeling, it even matches her pretty color. I’m not quite sure what to name the buckling yet. Do I want a goat named Phil?
Despite having a baby goat name list a mile long, I’m usually inspired by holidays for kid names, last year we had our Presidents’ Day kids: Kennedy, Lincoln, and Reagan. There’s a holiday for every day of the year. February 7th is National Periodic Table Day, National Send a Card to a Friend Day, and National Fettuccine Alfredo Day. I might think about sending a friend a card and having Fettuccine for dinner, but I don’t think I’ll be naming any kids Alfredo.😉 You can see more on this National Day Calendar, everyday is a holiday!
We also have more good news, our herd disease test was done a couple weeks ago and we got our results back that all our adult goats are CAE, CL, and Johne’s negative (we don’t test kids/juniors because results are not reliable). I’ll admit it is expensive to have the vet out to draw blood, and the vet bill put me in a bit of a bad mood😄, but it is so worth it to know our goats are healthy. We try to be really careful about where our goats are from, I’d hate to risk the health of my entire herd buying a diseased animal, especially because these diseases are fatal.
Here are a couple good articles on disease testing:
Hoegger Goat Health: Test Your Goats
Bramblestone Farm: HERD TESTS CAE, CL, TB, BRUCELLOSIS, AND JOHNE’S
Our dog Oaken recently decided to go on an adventure. If you don’t know about Oaken, he is a Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd cross, these breeds are born to be independent thinkers, livestock guardians…not always the best pets, they need room to roam, and a job to do…following the rules is optional. We got him to protect our goats from predators like coyotes and cougars. He was named after the character in the Frozen movie, Oaken…owner of Wandering Oaken’s Trading post. Little did I know when we picked out the name how appropriate it would be (particularly the wandering part). I blogged about his addition to the farm last February.
We knew when we got Oaken he’d need a secure fenced yard, we didn’t realize that just a regular fence isn’t good enough, he’s a climber and despite his large size, he can scale anything. We had a hard time containing him, so finally, I had to resort to putting a strand of hot wire around the perimeter and gate. One zap and he seemed cured of his fence climbing habit. I’m always worried about shocking visitors, the mail lady, FedEx guy… Continue reading “Wandering Oaken”
New arrivals! This is the first year we’ve had baby goats born in the fall, I bought our doe Baklava last June when she was already bred. At first I wasn’t sure…but then she just kept getting rounder and rounder (more round then the goats usually are😊). This week we knew she was close so we had our kidding pen and barn camera all ready to go.
Yesterday morning I noticed a change in her behavior so later in the morning I went ahead and put her in the kidding pen. She’s already accustomed to it and seemed to appreciate having a meal all to herself, while her buddies were looking a little jealous peeking through the fence. I gave her some shoulder rubs and thought to myself…this must be what it feels like to be a midwife or doula, for a goat😄.
I put her in the pen just after 11am but she waited to start pushing until 3:15, exactly when I leave to get my daughter from school. Fortunately, my husband was “on call” to pick her up for me if needed. I DO NOT like having to interfere with kidding and prefer to keep an eye on things from a distance, but I’m glad I was there because the first kid was breech, all I saw was a little tail in the sack, and it was wagging! I’ve had does deliver tiny kids in this position on their own in the past but after letting Baklava give a good effort, I could tell she needed some help…so I had to push the kid back in a bit, enough to maneuver one leg and then the other, after that a big baby buckling came right out. Shortly after he was followed by a second and third, all boys.
My three daughters think three kids is the perfect number, that way they each get to pick out a name. After the initial disappointment of there not being any girls quickly wore off, they got started picking out names. We decided to go with a fall theme and the kids picked Pumpkin, Leaf, and Acorn. At first I wasn’t too sure about Leaf but then it reminded me of the Norse Viking explorer Leif Erikson (and first European to land on North America) being so close to Columbus Day it seemed a good choice.😉
So, please welcome Acorn, Leaf, and Pumpkin to the herd. More pictures to come of these adorable blue eyed boys!
This is my 3rd year milking goats, I don’t have a milking parlor (yet😊), I milk in our barn/shop. My husband built me a stanchion when we got our first goats and it is a must for milking (also great for hoof trimming). When I first started out I was milking 2 Nigerian Dwarf does by hand…these days I’m milking 7 does and have switched to a machine, so much easier! I’ve been using the Simple Pulse home milking system and really love it, my goats all adjusted to it in a couple of days. I don’t have a sink in the barn and the Simple Pulse is a bit heavy for me to carry so I have a little cart I pull it on that doubles as a little table for all my milking supplies.
For hand milking I like to use stainless steel bowls I get from the grocery store. I’ve purchased small milk pails before, but for my short goats a low/wide bowl is a better fit…and I can use it for a salad the next day.😉 I filter the milk into half gallon jars. I use the mini-strainer from Caprine Supply.
So…the Simple Pulse fits right in my little cart and it also holds my supplies, like paper towels and dixie cups which I use for cleaning the udder. I like to recycle large yogurt tubs to hold my homemade udder wash/teat dip. I use the udder wash recipe from Fias Co Farm. You can also see my milking stool where I sit, it was my great grandmothers and she really used it when she milked cows in their farm many years ago. It’s pretty special to me, I got it from my grandmothers house after she passed away in 2008, little did I know I’d actually be using it to milk goats one day!
I keep my grain and Chaffhaye handy while I milk. I love using Chaffhaye, the goats love it but don’t eat it nearly as fast as they would just grain. I wish I’d had it my first year milking because I was slow and the goats would be impatient once they ate all their grain…which usually led to a hoof in the pail!
We’ve had several new arrivals since I posted last about the arrival of Snow’s kids. Since then, Vinca, Ritzy and Capella have all kidded. That leaves just Daisy and our kidding season is officially over.
The nice thing about all the milk is that I have the opportunity to start making cheese again. Today I made chevre out of 1 gallon of fresh goat milk. I got almost 2 1/2 pounds of cheese. Some I seasoned with Herbs de Provence and another with lavender and fennel pollen, inspired by Purple Haze chevre, my favorite cheese! I’m so excited to be able to make it myself, it’s a little pricey at the store. I think it looks so pretty with the lavender sprinkled on it and it tastes good too! I’ll freeze the rest of the chevre for later.😊
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)
FOUR CEDARS 