Ellies Dairy - The Finest Goat Milk, from Kent

And we're off!! First babies arrive ...

2012-02-29T16:19:00.000Z

Lara and Bramling wish to announce the birth of their twins about an hour ago! One male and one female. Lara decided that it was a bit crowded in the barn and sneaked outside to find a quiet corner to have her babies:

Nice easy start to the season. Lara is a first time mum but she had them with no problem and they were up and feeding within a few minutes. Just how it should be!

Moyra, on the other hand, is still playing the waiting game. She has looked increasing uncomfortable for a couple of days and was moved into her own pen yesterday, which she seemed very happy with. I don't think that she has sat down since and clearly has something on her mind. Could be a long night ..

Got some catching up to do!

2012-02-26T15:08:00.000Z

Well, what an end to the week! A rollercoaster of emotions and no time for blogging. So, get yourself a cup of tea - I have a feeling this blog may be a long one as we catch up on events from the past few days.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin ...

So, Thursday was delivery day as Friday was taken up with other things. Quick whizz up to London and then back home via the farm/country store in Aylesford where I stocked up on kidding essentials. More feeding bottles, milk powder, bucket loads of spare teats and other such exciting purchases. My colleague who has the most gorgeous Cashmere and Boer goats in the Lake District National Park, calls this our 'nesting' phase! The days when we try and get ourselves organised ready for the ensuing chaos.

Friday started very badly as our little Morgana goat took a serious turn for the worse. She has been living up in the main barn for a few weeks now as we have been treating her for some kind of strange nervous condition. She had been recovering exceptionally well but, for some reason, went rapidly downhill on Friday morning. We took the very painful and heart-rending decision to say goodbye as we had exhausted all the possibilities, and so Peter called in to send her to the big goatshed in the sky.

Not a good start to the day. But we had to pick ourselves up and carry on as the BBC were coming to film us in the afternoon for Countryfile - how about that for bad timing?!

As we were not entirely sure what they would be filming, we tidied up a bit, put lots of clean straw and hay in and then patiently waited for them to arrive. Here are the girls busy getting themselves ready for the BBC:

A very grey and overcast morning gave way to brilliant sunshine and blue sky and by the time the film crew turned up, lots of goats were out in the field and it all looked lovely. Couldn't have wished for better weather!

The Countryfile team were spending a couple of days filming in various locations around Kent and wanted to come and visit us before they went off to Buttercups Goat Sanctuary later in the afternoon. Our presenter was the lovely Matt Baker - what a thoroughly nice bloke! Very down to earth and really nice to talk to. He was completely at home with the animals as he had goats as a child and was very interested in what we were doing with them and how we looked after them.

So, they spent the whole afternoon with us, doing various things with the goats. Monica came and did an acupuncture treatment, Michael came back and did some pregnancy scanning and they also filmed the start of milking. I don't expect we will have more than about 5 minutes on the program but they certainly have plenty of material to choose from!

It was an exhausting experience but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially the cameraman and the sound engineer when certain goats who shall remain nameless (Willow and Footsie) tried to eat the microphone and the very expensive camera equipment!

Here's a few pics of the day:

You can see the results on BBC Countryfile on Sunday 11 March.

An early start to Saturday saw me go off to Wimbledon market. This time of year is always entertaining at markets as we have virtually no cheese to sell and so I have to concentrate on the raw milk, kid meat and goat's milk soap. I did have a little cheese but had sold out an hour and a half before the market ended!

It was lovely to see some returning customers as this was only my second time at Wimbledon. The meat went down particularly well and a lovely Indian lady gave me a great recipe for a traditional Parsee kid meat curry. I love to collect goatie recipes as they are great to give out to customers who are not sure how to cook the meat.

My loyal GeeGee Parrot's Mama came along to collect her milk ration and brought with her some frozen fruit from her own allotment for me. Delicious victoria plums and morello cherries!

While I was at market, David took advantage of the good weather and decided to muck out the rest of the barn. So now we are all ready for kidding. The little men have moved round into the hay barn with the big chaps. Little chaps to the right, big chaps to the left:

This has left one large bay in the main barn completely empty:

Along with another bay on the opposite side of the barn, where we have squashed the big girls up a bit:

And we have moved the hayracks round as well, just to confuse the goats!

So, it looks like we have LOADS of space in the barn but, believe me, once we get into kidding there will be pens and babies everywhere!!

So I wonder what this week will have in store? Well, I know that tomorrow morning, I have to take the last four little chaps to the butcher. Taking the last kids of the year is like the end of an era and it always seems the hardest run to do. Especially when my beautiful Little Floppy Ears is one of them:

Later in the week we will start to see babies arrive. In theory, Moyra is due on Tuesday, followed by Alice, Lara, Dolores and Whoopi on Friday and big fat Footsie goat on Sunday. Things will get a bit frantic over the next few weeks, so please bear with me! I will blog as often as I can to keep you all up to date with the new arrivals.

Wish us luck!!

So who is Ellie?

2012-02-22T22:02:00.001Z

Having attended a Careers Fair at Hadlow College today as an exhbitor, and having been called 'Ellie' for the umpteenth time, I thought I would do a wee blog on the subject.

Not that I mind being called Ellie, you understand ..

So, as I have mentioned in a previous blog - Betty and Wilma were our very first two goats in 2004, closely followed by Ellie who came to us just a few weeks later. All three came from a very good show herd in Essex. Ellie (or Langhome Luella, to give her her proper name!) was the last female in an important breeding line of British Toggenburgs. Her mother, Patrician Peace, was a Breed Champion and a very beautiful goat. Here is Peace pictured with her owner, Gordon Turner, who bred Ellie:

Here is Ellie as a young kid:

In the summer of 2005, I took all three of them to the Kent County Show - here is Ellie in the ring:

And it was at this show that I took the photo that was to become our logo:

You can see Betty and Wilma in the background.

We decided to call our business 'Ellie's Dairy' because it had a nice ring to it and also because the very talented Whitstable artist Sue Clinker had done the most wonderful pencil drawing from the photo above:

Ellie kidded for the first time in 2006 and produced two male kids, one of whom was Fremlin:

Amazing how these tiny things grow into huge smelly boys!

Bunnie was Ellie's next kid and she carries on the female line in our herd now, along with her kids Cilla and Ellie (junior).

Poor Ellie had a really bad time kidding in the years after Bunnie and ended up with an emergency caesarian in March 2009 - a fairly unusual operation for a goat.

Despite the horrendous looking scar, which healed up totally, she made a complete recovery and we put her in kid again the following year. But it was not to be. Sadly, we lost her after another very traumatic kidding in 2010.

Bunnie gave birth to a daughter just three days after we lost Ellie and we decided that the new kid should carry on the family name - so she was named Ellie after her beautiful grandmother. She is currently pregnant now herself and is due to kid in March.

So, there you go ... the original Ellie is watching from the big goatshed in the sky whilst little Ellie is getting ready to become a mum herself!

Bubblewrap and aprons

2012-02-20T21:24:00.000Z

Well, we are now officially in a drought area ... surprise surprise. Looks like it's going to be a struggle again this year to make enough hay. Hey ho. So, the more that the goats go out and eat grass, the better!! Saves the hay ...

And here they are enjoying the sunshine today:

Far off down the field in that last photo!

Whilst I was in Ashford today making arrangements for David to have a hire suit fitting ready for the awards dinner next Friday, I made a quick visit to my old workplace to relieve them of some of their bubblewrap. They have mountains of the stuff taking up space and so are pleased to give me a large bag full every so often - I get through a fair bit of the stuff packing up milk for mail orders and it's nice if you don't have to pay for the packaging! My polystyrene boxes and ice packs come courtesy of Macknade in Faversham and Franklins in Dulwich - recycling at its best!

And on a totally different subject .... when I had a few minutes last week, I was trawling through the 'stats' for this blog. You can find out lots of information about the location of people who read the blog, which websites they come from, what search terms they use to find you etc etc. I was intrigued to see that one particular blog from last September had over 5 times as many views as any other entry. Curious, I started to delve further into it. It was a blog entitled 'say cheese!' and was mostly about my day making cheese ... Maybe there are a lot of people interested in cheesemaking, I thought to myself.

And as I continued looking at various bits and pieces, I came across some of the search terms that people had used to find our blog. Amongst the usual things like 'goat dairy', ' raw milk' and 'milking parlour' was the search term 'rubber apron'. Mmmm .... And where did this phrase appear? Yep, you got it .... In the 'say cheese!' blog ... So that explains why that posting had so many hits! Sadly, most of the people who read it will have been very disappointed to see a picture of me in my white wellies and cheesemaking apron!

It's a weird and wonderful world!!

Happy Birthday Daphne!

2012-02-19T20:57:00.000Z

In our herd of goats, most people have their birthdays between February and May (for obvious reasons). When we only had a few girls, everyone would get a banana on a birthday .. Sadly a bit impractical now - not to mention expensive! But, with the older girls, each birthday is special and today Daphne was 8 years old.

As one of our original 5 goats, Daphne has been with us from the beginning and so today marked a special kind of day for the herd. We did manage to sneak her a banana skin and a bit of bread when noone else was looking!

Next significant birthday is Thelma who will be 8 on 23rd Feb.

I had a pretty restful day attending a British Toggenburg Breed Society meeting in Guildford today. Met up with a few goatkeepers and had a very nice lunch. Quick trip around Nick and Michael's goatsheds to see the gorgeous Ashdene and Theban herds (two of the most prestigious show herds in the country) and then back round the M25 to start feeding and milking once again.

Siouxsie had obviously had a busy day though as she was absolutely fast asleep at milking time - she had found a nice comfy spot in front of the hay rack and was far away dreaming little goatie dreams.

Well, we are now into the final full week before kidding so it's time to start getting the place sorted out. David has mostly finished the mucking out and a space has been cleared for the kidding pens to go up. The caravan ('Kidding Control Centre') will be moved in sometime over next weekend and I need to start gathering bottles and teats. We have a box full already but some of them are getting quite old now and need to be replaced.

We already have the automatic milk feeder machine on site but that won't need to be set up until a couple of weeks time when the first babies are ready to be moved onto it.

We leave them on their mums for about 5 days, then they are bottle fed for a week or so and then they are moved onto the auto feeder which is rather like a huge coffee machine that whips up lovely warm milk all day long! Francesca and I had a good system in place last year to deal with large numbers of hungry babies, so hopefully we should be able to do it all again without too much trauma but only time will tell!

Tales of kidding

2012-02-18T21:17:00.000Z

When I went to feed the youngsters yesterday morning, I got to thinking about how much they have grown and how, very soon, they won't be the 'babies' any more! Watching them tucking into their food and run about, I was reminded of when they were small and how we struggled to keep some of them alive and healthy.

Look at them now! Watching me climb over the gate with their breakfast:

As with all kidding seasons, we did have a few traumas last year, but most turned out well in the end. Here's a couple of stories for you:

This is Stevie now. First time mum Cerys had a really difficult kidding with Stevie's twin being born dead. Little Stevie was very small and frail when she was born and Cerys really struggled to look after her. Mum and baby both needed a lot of love and attention. You can see just how tiny she was from this photo:

Once little tiny Stevie was up and about, we quickly noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with her eyes. Closer inspection showed white cataract-like films over both eyes and we assumed that she had been born blind. No wonder she was struggling!

When David took her for disbudding at a few days old, our vet checked her out and said that it looked like her eyelids were growing inwards - they were scratching the eyes and this was what had made them 'blind'. Quite common in sheep apparently, but not so usual in goats. Solution - inject the eyelids with a type of botox to plump them up and bring them away from the eye. If this didn't work, there was something else that he could try. But he was hopeful.

And, indeed, after a few days, her eyes slowly started to improve and she came along in leaps and bounds. She has grown into a cheeky little person and now has no problem at all with her sight.

And then there was Tattie. She was one of twins born to Tinky goat. Remember Tinky? The little naughty brown goat who turns round in the parlour?

Well, she had twins on the same day as her sister Winky also had her twins. As they always spent time together, we put both mums and all the babies into the same pen. For some reason, Tinky did not like Tattie at all and refused to feed her. She would happily feed Tattie's little brother but when Tattie tried to feed, she would bite her until she ran away. That's how she got her name - she had bits of hair pulled out and nibbled and looked really tatty!

Fortunately, Winky was a bit of an Earth Mother and was quite happy to feed all the babies. We had to get Tattie away from her mum and put her over to Auntie Winky for her meals. Good old Auntie Winky!

And here is Tattie now ... beautiful and well grown. She shows no sign of being traumatised by her experience with Tinky!

And, finally for today - Faye and Teasel. Otherwise known as the 'Cilla goats'. They were born to young Cilla and although they were well looked after by mum, they didn't seem to thrive. They needed a lot of attention and remained on extra milk feeds for much longer than other kids the same age.

Before we had decided on proper names for them, Francesca and I used to call them 'the Cilla-goats'. When you needed them to come out of their pen for feeding, you just called 'Cilla goat! Cilla goat!' and both of them would come running to the gate.

Seems that all our hard work paid off - here they are now:

Diggle gives us a fright

2012-02-16T22:26:00.000Z

So there I was, yesterday morning, watching the youngsters tucking into their breakfast. All of sudden, a small brown goat fell on her side and started twitching and kicking her legs. I rushed over to find little Diggle goat looking like she was having some kind of fit – her eyes rolled back and legs twitching . In true goat fashion, none of the others cared at all and were trampling over her to get to their next mouthful, quite oblivious to her distress.

I pulled her out from under the greedy hordes and managed to get her lying on her stomach. A vigorous rub and a cuddle and she was right as rain! Back off to the trough to finish her breakfast.

I can only assume that she got her head trapped against the feed trough by one of the larger girls and had her oxygen cut off for a moment. Certainly, she was up and about quickly and looking like nothing had ever happened. Poor little Diggle goat!

BBC chaps turned up yesterday afternoon and spent some time with us looking at the goats and asking lots of questions. They seem quite keen to come and do some filming, possibly next week, but we will hear for definite within the next couple of days. We sent them away with some milk and cheese to sample. They were very taken with the goats – particularly that they are so inquisitive and affectionate. It also tickled them that Footsie comes over to have her ears scratched and Bunnie shouts at you when you call her name. Far too intelligent ...

And to end the day, we had another visit from Michael the scanning man who checked out all the remaining pregnant ladies. So, most of them are in kid but, as we suspected, there are a couple who didn’t manage to get pregnant. Little Big Ears Johari, our sole Anglo-Nubian, is due to have triplets in April. Not sure that we have the space to cope with all those extra ears!

So, finally we have a complete kidding calendar and we know for definite who will carry on milking through this year and who is dry (and gets a year off!). I have sprayed a red dot on the bottom of those who are milking through to make it easier when we split the goats at milking time. It was quite easy until last week as they were really the only ones with udders! However, as some are getting near to kidding now, their udders are getting bigger and it only adds to the confusion. Mind you, it doesn’t take much to confuse us early in the morning!

Kidding starts 28 Feb and goes through to 22 May – all dates subject to change of course! Our busiest time is mid-March and then everything gets a little more leisurely towards the end of April and into May. Approx 141 kids due in total but there will no doubt be a few traumas and surprises!

Water water everywhere ...

2012-02-14T15:34:00.000Z

The problem with snow is that it doesn't stay frozen forever. So, spare a thought for Jane the Cheese who wandered out to her dairy yesterday morning to find torrents of water flowing out of her maturing room. And the cheese room. And several other places. Poor Jane the Cheese. Having located and fixed the burst pipes, the mammoth cleanup operation started. Hopefully, not too much damage there.

Meanwhile, at the soft/goat cheese making plant we also had a couple of minor bursts but, having suffered badly a few years ago, we now take the precaution of leaving fans running and turning the water supply off when we leave the place overnight in the winter. Lucky lucky lucky .... One of the bursts blew the water meter off the wall, but hardly any leaks. Lucky. David managed to mend the pipes pretty quickly and so we were up and running and making cheese by 10.30am. Hurrah!

And then last night it started to rain and this morning all the snow has gone! Looks like someone has been over my garden with a hoover and taken it all away - not a spec left. Must admit that it's nice to see green again!

So, it's a Happy Birthday day today (as well as being a Happy Valentine's Day). Firstly, my dear Auntie Celia is 87 today. And then, it is also the 1st birthday of Valentine (guess how she got her name?!) who was our first live born kid last year. So, she is now officially a goatling! Big grown up girl that she is ... I tried to get a picture of her this morning but she was having none of it .. nice blurry pic!

So, as you see, we are a couple of weeks later starting to kid this year. Just as well, as our assistant goatherd Francesca, has decided to go swan off back to the Gambia for 2 weeks sunshine! No dedication ... She has given instructions that none of the goats are allowed to give birth until she gets back - especially her beloved Footsie goat!

And, to continue the excitement of last week's visit from the Taste of Kent Awards team ... tomorrow we are receiving a visit from the directors of BBC CountryFile. Apparently, they are coming to film in Kent in the next few weeks and may want to come and do some filming with us. They are on a scouting mission tomorrow to visit various potential filming sites so that they can decide where to send the crew. So, we may or may not be on TV again but watch this space!

Put your thermals on!

2012-02-12T14:33:00.001Z

Well I must apologise for not writing you a blog last night. To be honest, by the time I got home I was so cold and tired all I wanted to do was have a hot drink and go to bed. So I did. In bed before 9pm. What an airhead. No dedication ... sorry ...

Anyhow ... I have to say that it was rather on the chilly side when I left for Balham yesterday morning. It was -13 as I left the farm and I struggled to get my little van up the lane on the ice. As I drove past Leeds Castle I saw -14.5 on the van temperature. Didn't think it went that low! But it was an absolutely gorgeous morning. So cold but no wind .. just very still freezing cold air. Absolutely gorgeous. And then the sun came out and it was a balmy -7 standing at market. But the good people of Balham did us proud once again and I came home with a lot less than I went with.

Sal, the Mad Parrot Woman, came along to pick up a leg of goat and some milk. I didn't see her arrive but heard this faint bleating in the distance as she walked along the road towards the market! The market was quite quiet when she came and so it was lovely to have a bit of time to spend having a good chat with her and hearing some more of her stories. She was wrapped up warm against the cold but still looked so damn elegant! Don't you just hate people like that?!

Isn't it about time for another GeeGee Parrot picture? This is a totally gorgeous one taken by Sal:

Called in on the little girls on the way home to find that their water had finally frozen up during the day. They had been doing so well as most of their water pipe runs underground and there is only a very short part that rises up to feed their trough. I was unable to defrost it and so had to call in the cavalry. David arrived with large troughs and a tank full of water - this is how we get water to remote animals during bad weather:

So it looks like we will be doing that for the next few days as well! Needless to say - everyone else in the main barn has frozen up again and so it's buckets and buckets and more buckets!

We had a quick visit from Jane the Cheese's partner, Dave, and her daughter Kelly yesterday evening. Kelly was amazed at the size of Footsie goat and took a pretty good picture of her ..

Poor Footsie. Not long to go now!

Today is murky and foggy, although we did have a quick blast of snow earlier this morning. The goats are not impressed with the weather and were much more interested in the contents of their hayracks that were filled up after milking.

Seems that we have a different goat in the hayrack each day now. This is Aretha (yes, as in Franklin). Notice how she has her head down, butting at the other goats who are trying to eat HER hay:

Right, I'm off to get a nice cup of tea and a bit of cake (purchased at Lenham Market this morning) before I have to start getting all my layers back on ready for the evening goatie shift. I feel like a Michelin Man at the moment ..

Just a quickie!

2012-02-10T23:04:00.000Z

Looks like David and I have to dig out our best frocks for 2 March. Seems that we are in the final of the Taste of Kent Awards Food Farming and Landscape category!! So we get to go to the posh dinner! Downside is that we will probably have to sit on the same table as Jane the Cheese .. still, can't have everything.

Judges were extremely nice yesterday and spent some time looking at the goats and various bits and pieces. There is some very serious competition though so I doubt we will win, but at least we get to go to the dinner!!

And I just thought you might like to know that as I finished my milk deliveries tonight my van told me that the outside temperature was -12.5 degrees. Brrr ... chilly ..... Not looking forward to getting up at 4am to get sorted ready for Balham market .. Hey ho ...

Back with a proper blog tomorrow night! Wrap up warm!

Judgement Day

2012-02-08T22:10:00.000Z

Those of you who have been following our blog for some time may recall that we were voted into the Top Ten in the Taste of Kent Awards Artisan Food Producer category. Well, what you didn't know is that Jane the Cheese and ourselves have also entered a couple of the other categories that are selected by a judging panel. And, although you may accuse us of blowing our own trumpets, we would like to announce some success!!!

So, step forward Cheesemakers of Canterbury! Canterbury Cobble has been placed in the top three in the Kent Food Product of the Year (Foodservice) category and the Bowyers Kent Brie has been placed in the top three in the Retail category. Well done those cheesemakers! This means that Jane now has to borrow a frock in order to attend the Awards dinner on 2nd March where the winners are announced. Not often those little legs see the light of day! There is some stiff competition though as our fellow cheesemakers at Kingcott Cheese, Karen and Steve Reynolds, have also made it into the top three in the Retail category with their Kentish Bluebell. Curd knives at dawn!

And, as for us humble goatkeepers .. well, tomorrow we are receiving a visit from the eminent judges of the Kent Food Farming and Landscape Award, as we have been deemed interesting/special enough to warrant further investigation! Not sure how many of us are in the final but we will try and find out a bit more tomorrow. Wish us luck!

And, finally, our friends Sarah and Mark Hardy at High Weald Dairy in Sussex have received the coveted title of 'Sussex Food Producer of the Year'. Well done!

Anyway, enough back-patting .... What about those goatie girls and boys?

Another beautiful sunrise yesterday morning:

Unfortunately for our youngest bull calf, we had a visit from our vet in the afternoon. Peter was on site to perform a necessary little operation on the young chap as we had not been able to fit a castration ring on him when he was younger ... I don't think you need the details or any photos, but I leave it to your imagination. Quick and relatively painless ... and now he sings soprano. Poor lad.

Today saw a quick trip to High Weald in Sussex with a vanload of frozen milk. The main roads and motorways were clear of snow but the little country roads made for interesting driving in the ice!

It's always interesting trying to get round our regular doorstep deliveries in this weather, as all of them are in neighbouring villages not served by main roads. One delivery this morning would have proved too much for my little van so I nicked the truck to make sure that I had enough grip to get up and down the icy hills. Just as well I did, as there was no way I would have made it in the van. I did manage to get stuck on one occasion last year and had to call David very early in the morning to come and pull me out. Think I had been a bit over-optimistic when faced with a series of snow drifts!

The goats stayed firmly indoors today as it was pretty miserable and there were some snow flurries drifting about. Kitty found that the best place was right on top of the hay rack:

Eating the avalanche!

2012-02-06T21:50:00.000Z

Spot the white goat in the following picture:

Nicely camouflaged! This was Goblin trying to eat her way through the avalanche this morning. Assisted by Dipsy:

Meanwhile, there were three very fat ladies having a lie in:

Footsie

Betty

and Flora

And they've all got over 4 weeks still to go!

Round in the boys' house, there was also a lot of lying around going on:

Fremlin, Norville, Navajo and Beamish all snuggled up together. Beamish is the black blob to the left of the picture - lying right under Navajo to keep warm!

The fog lifted this morning to leave a beautiful sunny crisp morning behind. Most of the goats decided to go for a wander outside into their yard:

David and I tried to coax them into the field but only a brave few would venture just inside the gate. There was no way they were going to get their little goatie legs cold walking in that deep snow!

And, talking of deep snow ... David took a picture from his tractor cab as he arrived at one of the first roads in the early hours of yesterday morning. Taken on his phone so not fab quality but hopefully you can get some idea of what faces him when he goes out in the snow:

Imagine you are sitting in the tractor seat and looking out through the front windscreen .. the red bit is the bonnet and at the bottom of the photo, to either side, you can see the tractor wheels. In front of you is the road .. somewhere. To the left a hedge. To the right a fence. Those fence posts are usually 5ft above the road level. Nice drifts!

The day ended quite prettily as well - this is the view from my back garden as the sun went down tonight:

The white stuff

2012-02-05T14:52:00.000Z

So, there you go - the weatherman was right. Snow .. and lots of it. Started late last night and dumped several inches over the Kent Downs (and other places) during the early hours of the morning. I got up a bit earlier than usual and realised that I probably wouldn't be going to market when I couldn't push my back door open against the snow drift.

David was already out snow ploughing when I got to the goat shed .. We usually get a little bit of snow blowing in around the edges but the wind was swirling the stuff around last night and I swear that there was more snow inside the barn than outside this morning. One side of the barn looked like it had been hit by an avalanche!

The milkers were all crowded together in a couple of small groups trying to keep dry whilst the little men were all covered in snow. The big males seemed to have got off lightly and didn't have as much snow as those in the main barn. So much to sort out, but what to do first?

Priority was the little men. Lots of clean dry straw to lie on and hay to eat. Sort out their water bucket and then they could wait for their breakfast until I had finished everything else.

Same again for the big males - clean dry straw, lots of hay and enough water to keep them going. Only one tap working in the whole place which means carrying water buckets even further!

Then to the milkers .... they would have to wait for straw until David got back as it would be much better just to load a couple of big round bales in with the tractor, rather than fiddle around with little bales. I filled up their hayracks (the ones not covered in snow) and then sorted them out ready for milking. Had trouble getting the back door of the barn open - bit of a drift, as you can see from this pic (taken from the parlour, looking up towards the door):

Sent a couple of text messages to my market manager and a couple of loyal customers to tell them I wouldn't be at market today. And so, into the parlour. More snow. It's amazing how the stuff blows in through tiny holes and roof vents!

Had to defrost everything and make sure it was all working before I got the goats in. Cleared the snow from the milking platform so that they wouldn't slip over and then hope that they would actually go out of the parlour, down the ramp and outside into the snow to get back into the far side of the barn.

So, off we went ... the clusters kept on freezing up while I was milking and so I had to keep pouring hot water over them to keep them going. The goats were very good girls though - they seemed to know that it was a bit stressful this morning for mum! They all behaved very well - and even went out into the snow without too much complaining.

David came back in just as I was finishing milking which was excellent timing. He had been battling the local roads and the A20 to try and keep them open when the snow was drifting.

He had also managed to check on the female kids in their barn and it seemed that they were not too bad. They were surprised to see a human so early but loved to get the extra hay that he gave them!

Filled up hayracks again for the milkers and put two huge bales of straw in for them so that they were all dry and warm. Didn't take long for them all to settle down and get cosy. They also had the added excitement of a large blue trough filled with water in their pen as all their drinking bowls have now frozen.

Much better!

Quick coffee (and cake!) break and then off to the little girls again to feed and hay them properly. Gave them some straw as well although they had not suffered too badly.

Goats done! Now for the cows .. the calves in the yard at the farm were fine apart from their water trough which has been frozen for a couple of days. More buckets of water!

Then into the truck and down the lane (ooo, pretty ...)

... and off to see the Gracie Moos who are still outside in their valley. The girls now have Benji the Bull to keep them occupied for a couple of months. He arrived this week and will stay until April I think. his real name is Playboy but he is known as Benji. HUGE great beastie of a boy.

The Gracies (and Benji) were all fine but pleased to see us with some food for them. Smashed the ice on their water trough so that they could get to water easily and that was them done!

Back to the goats and refill the blue water trough (again!) in the milkers pen. Final check round that everyone was warm and comfy and off home for a couple of hours to get warm and have something to eat before we have to start it all over again tonight!

Winter's finally here!

2012-02-04T21:40:00.000Z

Well, we awoke to a gentle dusting of snow this morning. The goats went out for a wander - they are quite happy out in snow as the ground is hard and they don't get their feet wet and muddy.

Jane and I didn't have to worry about temperature control for the cheese at Wye market this morning! Highlight of the day was seeing Pauline, our market manager, looking like an extra from War and Peace ..

And the real Russian cake lady was complaining about being cold, to which all the other stallholders cried 'but you're Russian! You should be used to this!'. Apparently not ....

The freezing temperatures mean that we are now starting to suffer with various bits and bobs freezing up. The automatic water bowls are still functioning in the milkers' area but the one for the little chaps and the other for the big males have both gone on strike. This means that we have to put large buckets of water in for them all. Of course, being goats, they think that this is wonderful and I am sure they are drinking much more water than they usually do, simply because of the novelty value of having a bucket there!

Mind you - Max always prefers to drink from a bucket. He stands next to a perfectly serviceable water bowl and gives you a hard stare until you take a bucket of water over to him. He then drinks the whole lot in one go! Here he is waiting for his bucket at tea-time:

One of the things I love about snow in the country is seeing all the little footprints that various creatures leave. Only a light dusting today but we can see that lazy Marmite cat has been out for a walk, closely followed by a large bird .. possibly our local pheasant that hangs around the garden.

Just had an email from Rachael, our Parson's Green market manager, who said that there is a 'generous coating of snow' now outside her window. Sounds like it's on the way down ...

Wrap up warm everyone! We will see what the morning brings and if I can get out to Parson's Green market or not.

Great new foodie blog!

2012-02-02T22:46:00.000Z

Here's a new blog for all you foodies out there ... http://www.atoasttofood.blogspot.com/. It's written by Rachael who is our wonderful market manager at Parson's Green Farmers Market in Fulham.

She is absolutely passionate about good food and local produce and has created this blog in the hope of sharing her thoughts and recipes with everyone. She took some kid meat from me last week along with a very nice recipe for Sri Lankan goat curry - went down a treat apparently and so hopefully that will make it onto the blog pretty soon. Anyhow - go take a look and enjoy!

Cold enough for everyone now?! Facing a chilly afternoon in the dairy bottling milk for the freezer, I finally dug out my thermal leggings from the depths of my wardrobe. The dairy is lovely and cool in the summer but freezing cold in the winter - tiled floor, lots of stainless steel and a large metal tank full of ice and cold milk! In my next life I am going to do something that involves standing in a warm kitchen cooking over an Aga. Anyhow that's it - winter is finally here now that the leggings are on!

The goats have automatic water bowls inside the barn but also like to drink from a couple of very large buckets that we fill for them outside the back of the dairy. A lot of show goat keepers pander to their animals and carry buckets of warm water to their goaties ... although it is a good way to get poorly animals to take water, I think that this picture shows that goats will drink freezing cold water as long as it is clean and fresh.

David was taking advantage of the hard ground today to get some muck spread on the fields. However, it all went a bit pear-shaped mid afternoon when one of the front tractor tyres got a major puncture. The tyre went down so quickly that David had to stop in the middle of the lane and blocked it for a while until they could get an emergency replacement tyre on and drive home. Looks like he has to go tyre shopping tomorrow for a new one ... However expensive the tyres are for your car, they are nothing compared to the cost of a new tractor tyre ... believe me ..

So, I'm off to bed. Marmite has been warming it up for me already .. Let's see if the weatherman is right and we get some snow overnight ..

Friends and sisters

2012-02-01T13:42:00.000Z

Goats are herd animals and like to live together as a group. Our animals all live together - kids in one barn, males in another and milkers and goatlings all together in the main area. It always makes me happy to see them snuggled up to each other when I open the door in the mornings. Most often, they will curl up next to their sister (if they have one) or next to a special friend. Sometimes they will just snuggle up to a nice comfy warm looking goat!

Lucy and Marcie were curled up together this morning and this always brings a tear to my eye whenever I see them.

Marcie is the one at the front. She was desperately ill last year and it took a lot of time and effort (and willpower on her part) to get her through it. For several weeks she was housed in the main barn but penned separately from the other goats so that she had space to herself. We have found this to be the best option for very sick goats - they like to be on their own but near to all their friends so that they can see everyone. Lucy, Marcie's sister, would often come and lie next to the pen so that she could be close to Marcie.

Although Marcie recovered very well, the illness left her slightly 'simple' and she now has what our vet describes as a 'vacant' look. She is totally happy and well but seems to be in her own little world some of the time!

When Marcie was finally well enough to go back in with all the other goats, I let her out and she immediately walked over to her sister. Lucy rubbed her head against her and then walked away. She somehow knew that Marcie was now slightly 'different' and couldn't quite come to terms with it. It took many weeks before she would accept her again but now they are back together and inseparable. Like I said - it brings a tear to my eye whenever I see them snuggled up together as I remember how we almost lost Marcie.

Remember Siouxsie? The goat who was having acupuncture? Well, she has finished her current course and although she still has problems with her food sticking in her cheek, she does seem to have put on a little weight and is doing well. She doesn't have a sister but curls up next to anyone who looks comfy! Here she is this morning curled up with one of the goatlings - totally different age group to Siouxsie but they obviously get along just fine.

And even the big tough old males cuddle up together at night! Navajo and Beamish are often found in this corner.

And finally ... a couple of naughty goats for you. Here's Willow, who is the prime suspect for opening the parlour gate on Sunday afternoon:

A very pregnant Ginger goat - who can no longer squeeze through the gate or climb over the top of them:

And little Morgana who decided that it was worth checking if there was any food left in the wheelbarrow:

Riots and markets

2012-01-31T21:52:00.000Z

Must be the weather. Or the fact that Vodafone/Orange/BT can’t be bothered to upgrade lines/masts/bits of string enough to get a decent broadband signal out here in the country. For heaven’s sake this is Kent not Outer Mongolia! Not exactly the outer reaches of civilisation ...

Anyway, dear readers, internet connection permitting, here I am once again. Better late than never.

So, we have a bit of catching up to do!

Sunday was a day spent selling cheese to the good people of Parson’s Green, including of course, Mad Parrot Woman. She brought me a magic potion this week for my aching cold fingers and toes .. something vaguely peppery in a strange brown bottle. Works like magic apparently ... I will keep you informed!

Here are a couple of the other stalls at the market:

Greatest comedy moment in the market was watching James of Little Jack Horner’s Pies giving his full attention to a small person in pink that could only just see over his table. It was a quiet spell in the market and he was giving her the full sales pitch ... ‘Pies’, said the small pink voice. ‘But these are no ordinary pies, madam. These are potted pies in enamel tins. And I buy the tin back off you or give you money back on your next pie’. ‘Pies’ said the small pink voice again before it bounded off to find a larger human without an apron and scary beard. Nice try, James ..

It must be something about going to Parson’s Green that encourages the goats to be naughty when I am away. Remember the occasion when they broke the gates and got out into the barn? Yes, well ... I arrived back on Sunday and was talking to David in the barn when he suddenly said to me – ‘I think we may have a problem’. A problem?? We don’t have problems .. only challenges and opportunities ... I followed his eyes and saw what he had already spotted – a couple of little goatie faces staring out at us from INSIDE the milking parlour. Ah .. yes .. you could be right. We may have a problem.

In fact, it wasn’t a problem – it was a riot. Or had been. Judging by the amount of poo and chaos that greeted us when we opened the door, it would seem that every single goat had been in the parlour that afternoon. David had been out there early afternoon and so it couldn’t have taken them very long to turn the place upside down. There were about 20 goats stuck in the actual milking parlour – they were able to get in, but could not get out without a human to lift the parlour away for them. They were just standing there patiently, if a little bored. The feed bins were totally empty, the lovely large basket of apples from Franklins Farm Shop (waiting to be chopped and shared) had been totally trashed, though not the basket itself fortunately, as I have to return that to Franklins this week.

And so before we could even think about milking on Sunday evening we had to do a massive cleanup and thorough disinfect of the parlour as well - just what I wanted on a freezing cold Sunday evening after a weekend of London markets! And how had all this happened? David has a theory that one of the goats managed to open the gate into the parlour. It is possible as they are very very adept at opening gates, even ones that are meant to be goat-proof. We have one goat in particular, who is very good with gates - yes, Willow, you know who you are - but she usually opens them and then steps back to let others through so that she doesn’t get the blame. I just wish that we had a CCTV installed to capture the fun!

Here is Kiki standing on the offending gate:

Monday morning began with a little gentle exercise. Little Hermione had been in the wars last week when one of her ear tags had started to rub for some reason and I had been bathing and spraying it for a few days – she was sporting a lovely blue ear for most of the week. However, yesterday morning, she decided that enough was enough and that she wasn’t going to be caught again. Round and round the barn we went ... Trying to catch a small speedy and very determined goat in a large barn is virtually impossible when you are on your own ..

Eventually I had to call in reinforcements – fortunately David was working just up the road and so came along to help catch her. Round and round we both went .. We managed to get her eventually and having looked at her ear again we decided that we should cut the ear tag out and let the ear heal up properly as it was starting to look quite nasty. So, now she has a blue ear with a hole in it! But not to worry, it will heal up and when it is quite better, we will put a new tag in for her.

Needless to say - she won't come anywhere near me again at the moment! She just gives me a dirty look and walks off in the opposite direction.

And today it snowed .. not much, but it did snow. So, our forecast for bad weather in February is looking like it may be proved right .... Any excuse for another snowy pic! For those of you who don't know, David runs the snow plough in our area and so he gets to go out and play when the weather gets really bad:

And sometimes, it gets so bad that even the snow plough can't cope. A couple of years ago he had to get a farmer friend to come and dig out one of the roads that we couldn't plough any more:

Here's hoping!!

Ellie goes in search of Wombles

2012-01-28T21:45:00.000Z

or rather ... Debbie goes to Wimbledon Market. Lovely market but not a womble in sight.

That's Orinoco by the way .. for those of you old enough to remember ....

So, first time out at Wimbledon - good established market that has been going for about 10 years. And we made it onto the blackboard by the entrance!

Sadly I was next to the very delicious Cakehole stall ... rude not to come home with several pieces of cake. David was happy that they had baked cheesecake so I think I may be allowed to go again next month.

All our cheese went down very well, especially the Shaggy's Beard camembert which was absolutely spot on for the market. Nice and ripe, just starting to run. Delicious! Sold out of that one. Also sold out of milk which was great - people are starting to learn about us in the London markets and come looking to find the stall as we are the only people doing raw goat's milk on any of the markets.

Fortunately, the weather did stay dry, despite the large black clouds looming for part of the day. I was hoping that it wouldn't rain as there is nothing worse than trying to pack up a wet gazebo - especially when you need it for another market tomorrow. It did get bitterly cold towards lunchtime though but all the stall holders were revived by Nicky, the market manager, coming round with hot drinks for everyone. She boils up a kettle and brings a big tray of drinks round to all the stalls, bless her. Here she is lurking behind the stalls opposite me, whisking up mugs of coffee and hot chocolate:

I had also taken some diced kid meat along and that also proved very popular. I have managed to find my special Sri Lankan goat curry recipe which I will copy and take along to Parson's Green tomorrow - it's a delicious flavoursome curry (not too hot).

That's another idea I have for some time in the future when I have time (ha ha ...). An Ellie's Dairy recipe book - nice things to do with goatie milk and cheese and meat. One day ...

Right then .. off to do the hot water bottles (yes, Marmite has one of her own to stop her hogging mine all night) and then to bed ... getting up at 4am does nothing for my wrinkles!

Norville and the case of the disappearing internet

2012-01-26T23:06:00.000Z

So, there I was last night - all fired up and ready to blog about Norville's visit to the vet (as I know that you dear readers were concerned to know how my boy got on). And what do I get? Nothing. Nada. Zero. No internet. Well, not strictly true .. I got some kind of internet connection but nothing that I could do anything with. I tried the mobile broadband (known more locally as mobile narrowband) and my neighbour's wireless connection .. both a pile of the proverbial brown stuff.

Anyhow - whatever it was seems to have fixed itself tonight and here I am.

So, young Norville was a very brave lad yesterday. Our appointment was not until 11.30am and so I had to separate him off from the other big males to stop him eating breakfast - he had to be starved from the previous evening, much to his disgust. I made a pen for him in front of the little chaps so that he had some male company until it was time to load him up and drive him the few miles to the vet. Here's a good shot of his head so you can see what we were dealing with - see how those horns are pressing into his head?

The vet decided that he would just sedate him rather than knock him out completely, but also gave him some local anaesthetic into the head area just in case. The sedation drug was quite amazing .. one minute Norville was standing up on the stable door shouting his head off and the next minute he was standing quietly with his head down! I guided him over to a more suitable place and he lay down and drifted off. Poor boy .. here he is - fast asleep:

The operation was over very quickly without too much mess and it was time to reverse the sedation. The vet made me a cup of tea while we were waiting for Norville to come round and a few minutes later he was back on his feet as if nothing had happened. He tucked into a very late breakfast when we got back to the farm and then lay down and went back to sleep. Poor lad did look a bit dozy for the rest of the day and so we left him in his own pen where he could just relax and not worry about the other chaps. He had a comfy night next to the little men and then we put him back in with his big friends first thing this morning in time for breakfast. They were all very pleased to see him and everyone remarked on his new hairdo:

Much better! Hopefully he will be happier now and won't spend so much time rubbing his head against the barn!

Whilst I was feeding the youngsters today I was thinking that they won't be the babies for much longer! It seems only a short time ago that we were watching them as tiny babies .. and here they are, all grown up. Well, most of them anyway ... I got a couple of pics of little Diggle goat. Bit blurry I'm afraid but you can get the idea .. Diggle is the very small brown one in the centre of the pics next to Mara (splodgy one).

She is actually one of the oldest but has never really grown very much. It doesn't seem to bother her at all though - she just thinks that she is the same size as everyone else!

So, off to bed for me .. it's been a long day today. Went down to Sussex to my wholesaler and, true to form, it absolutely poured with rain. It just wouldn't be the same if the sun was shining!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-23T21:35:00.000Z

Happy New Year - Chinese Style! The year of the Black Dragon. I'm a Green Dragon (some would rather unkindly say 'old dragon') so I don't know if it's going to be a good year or not. But I did wear red socks today in the hope that it would bring me luck for the year ahead! Celebrations start today and last for 15 days if you are thinking of celebrating ...

Well, the day started with a bit of spaceship spotting as it was a pretty clear morning and the International Space Station was due to come over. So, at 6.45am we stood outside the barns and watched as it moved across the sky - it was visible for about 4 minutes and was pretty high up so easy to spot. I would love to get a decent pair of binoculars to see if you can make out the shape of it at all.

An hour later and it was down the road to the butcher for four of my lovely little men. Only another four left now, and the two little stud boys to move on and that's everyone sorted. Just in time to start all over again with the new kids. It's a never ending cycle! One of the remaining little chaps was sporting a lovely new hairdo this evening:

He obviously thought that he looked good anyway!

After the butcher, it was off to make cheese. Just in case you are wondering how we get the milk to the cheese plant - here's the answer:

I used to hate towing things after a bad experience with a caravan in a high wind on the M3 many years ago! But, it's a case of having to do it so frequently now that I have just got used to it .. I must say that I am getting a dab hand at reversing now as well. Well, almost ... the goat trailer has a very short drawbar and tends to swing very quickly. It does take me a few wiggles round the back of the butchers to get into the right position - much to the amusement of the vet and meat inspector who usually come out to watch. At least they find me entertaining I suppose.

First batch of kefir was judged to be ready this evening. I did try it yesterday but it still tasted like slightly warm milk (yuck!) and so I left it another day. I have to say that it tastes a lot better this evening. Next batch is fermenting already!

David was busy sorting out the Gracie Moos today. We are getting ready to put a bull in with the older girls and so need to have the calves out of the way to avoid 'accidents'. They are virtually weaned now anyway (doesn't time fly?!) and so he has moved the calves, and last year's heifer, up to the farm. They are now in the area outside the goat barn which my big male goats use during the summer. Of course, they have been separated from their mums and so there was a LOT of mooing going on this evening. The goats were wondering what all the noise was! David had been back to check on the cows in their field a few miles away and said that they were quite noisy as well. They will only be separate for a couple of months and then everyone will be back together again. Sadly, it was too dark for photos when I got home this evening so I will try and get some pics of them tomorrow.

Here's one of them taken earlier in the summer:

The fattest goat in the barn

2012-01-22T15:32:00.001Z

There's a bit of competition for this coveted title as you will know from reading previous blogs. However, at the moment, the reigning champion is Moyra who is just a slim finger's width fatter than Footsie goat. Only fitting really as she is due to kid about 5 days earlier than Footsie. Ginger (the great escaping goat) and Flora are running pretty close though, as are Florence and Betty.

Apologies for not blogging on Friday night but I was in the pub :-) Not often we get out for drinky poos these days, but as there is a very nice pub at the end of our milk delivery round on a Friday night, we thought we would pop in for a swift orange juice. Met up with some friends that we haven't seen for quite a while and caught up on everyone's news. Good to see that we aren't the only ones with escaping animals though - our friend Judy had gone outside to feed her 4 ponies on Friday morning to find them gone. Following the trail of broken fences and large hoofprints, they were discovered a few fields away munching on some very nice long grass. Seems that they weren't keen to come back home and, strangely enough, didn't want to eat all their dinner when they arrived!

Wye Market on Saturday was steady again. The threatened gale force winds did not appear which was good news for Nicci Gurr, a guest chef, who was cooking up market ingredients during the morning. We sampled some delicious winter greens and leeks tossed in a mustard sauce - absolutely gorgeous. She was demonstrating a few dishes and handing out recipe cards as well. Great way to publicise market produce! I think she will be doing it at a few other farmers' markets over the next month.

I was very excited that one of my regular milk customers, Lucy, brought some kefir grains with her for me to try.

Many of my customers use our milk to make their own kefir and everyone says that it is absolutely delicious. For those of you not familiar with it, kefir is a fermented milk drink - bit like a thin yoghurt. Fantastic health benefits and great for people who are lactose intolerant or have serious stomach problems. Rather then me waffle on about it - check out http://www.yourkefirsource.com/ if you are interested to know more. So, I have my first batch fermenting at the moment - should be about ready this evening or tomorrow morning.

I was also thrilled that Clare the Egg brought her lovely collie Gwen along with her to market. Clare was the breeder of our two collies Nell and Ben and Gwen is one of their other two sisters from the same litter. She was the only long haired one and is absolutely gorgeous:

And the first signs of spring are appearing in my garden - first primrose:

First flowers on the rosemary:

First locally grown narcissi:

And look! Good Lord! Can it really be?! Marmite cat - OUTSIDE?????! Must be spring ...

And to continue the excitement of the weekend - this morning David and I went down to collect some hay from near Bethersden. Although we do still have a fair bit in the barn, it won't be enough to last the season and so we are gathering more from people while they still have it (and whenever we have enough spare money to buy some!). Bonus of this collection is that Hilary is one of the top pygmy goat breeders in the country and so I got the chance to nosey in her goat shed while David was loading up the trailer with Chris.

Hilary has about 50 adult goats and the first ones have already kidded. Pygmy goat kids are just SO gorgeous - little tiny things. Couldn't resist a few piccies:

Aren't they just adorable?!

So, busy week ahead this week - four little chaps to the butcher early tomorrow morning. Then off to make cheese later in the day. And, I haven't told Norville yet, but he's going to the vet on Wednesday morning.

Although the boys are disbudded at a few days old, their horns sometimes tend to grow back a little bit (they are known as 'scurs' as they are not proper horns). Usually, they will knock them off but Norville seems to have a bit of a problem with his and they are starting to curve back onto his head. I have noticed that he keeps rubbing his head against large immoveable objects (like the steel joists for the barn) in what appears to be an effort to get rid of them. We have nipped them off a couple of times but as he gets bigger, this gets increasingly more difficult and so I have decided to take him into the vet to have it done properly. It's quite a brutal and messy procedure but as it's done under general anaesthetic, Norville will be blissfully unaware of it. Poor lad. Won't tell him til Wednesday morning so that he doesn't worry about it ..

Students and spaceships

2012-01-19T22:55:00.001Z

Every year we seem to become more popular with vet students looking for a work experience placement. Last year we had two second year vet students and a fully qualified veterinary nurse who was looking to go back and upgrade her studies to become a veterinary surgeon. All of them were great and worked really hard, especially with those babies who needed a little extra attention.

If you have read the 'red feather' blog you will notice a comment posted by Charlotte who was our last student of the year. She had a great technique for feeding multiple hungry kids and here's the proof (sorry Charlotte, but it had to be done!):

This year we have already got one vet student, one prospective vet student and a college work experience student lined up. Looking like another busy year!

I had a long chat this afternoon with the organiser of the Wise Traditions Conference about the arrangements for the conference in March. This year it will be held at Epsom racecourse over two days and it promises to be even bigger and better than last year. Ellie's Dairy is proud to be one of the 'milk sponsors' for the event which means that we provide raw milk for the catering - not only for the tea and coffee during the day but also for the rather excellent breakfasts which are produced. Rude Health provide the porridge and Hurdlebrook Farm provide the cow's milk and cream. Delicious! Check out all the details on their website at www.westonaprice.org/london

And what of the spaceships?! Well, as we are up and about early in the morning and late at night, David and I enjoy a bit of star-gazing. It's a bonus of living in the country that you can enjoy proper darkness and inky black skies full of twinkling stars. We have recently started to look out for the International Space Station passing overhead and it's become a bit of a hobby now! NASA has a great website with loads of information and you can check when the ISS can be sighted from your location. OK, so it's a bit geeky, but it's great when you actually do manage to spot it! This week is particularly good for us, early in the morning. Isn't it just typical though that the weather has changed and it's gone cloudy! Can't see a thing at the moment!!

Our white boy, Daramac, is still with us and he's spending more and more time out with the other chaps. Here he is enjoying some hay with Navajo:

That little pink patch that you can see on his side is where he kept squeezing out through his 'cat flap'! The hair is starting to grow back now though so soon he will be back to his former glory.

Delivery day as usual tomorrow and then Wye Market on Saturday. Let's hope it's a busy one!

It's big and brown and very very round ...

2012-01-17T21:16:00.001Z

It was lovely to see the goats outside in the field again today. I can't believe that this weather will last much longer!

Tammy, our oldest girl, was one of the first ones out today. She is the shaggy brown one in the centre of this photo.

David had put a large bale of hay in last night and so some preferred to stay indoors. We have a little song in the goat shed at the moment that goes something like .. 'it's big and brown and very very round ...' And here are two very fine examples - Footsie and Flora:

Flora is the one standing up on her hind legs to the right of Footsie. She is 8 years old this year and I am very surprised that she is still being so active. She is usually a pretty lazy goat (see earlier blogs) but when she is heavily pregnant, she gets even worse. During the final month of her pregnancy, she can usually be found directly under a hay rack so she can reach the hay without having to get up, but she also refuses to get up for food or anything else. David and I have to physically haul her to her feet (no mean task!) and make her waddle over to get a drink or something to eat to make sure that she keeps moving. She just gets so enormous that I think she really can't be bothered with the whole thing and would quite happily just vegetate under a hayrack!

And if you have been wondering what Marmite is up to these days ..

Lying on the floor next to my washing airer. This spot on my bedroom floor is where the radiator pipes run underneath, so it's always nice and toasty.

I managed to snap a few other good pics this afternoon in the goat shed:

Fremlin and Larking posing at the gate.

Max eyeing up one of the girls in the next barn

Fremlin smelling something nice!

The boys (and girls) lift their top lips like this when they can smell something they like - when the boys do it, it's usually because they can smell a nice girlie!

When I left Franklins shop in East Dulwich on Friday, they gave me a lovely box of 'less than perfect' apples and pears. A quick half hour transformed this:

into buckets of this:

All went down a treat after milking this evening. Certainly looks like Perdi goat enjoyed it anyway!!

The red feather

2012-01-15T14:39:00.000Z

Another glorious day for Balham market yesterday. Freezing cold but beautiful and sunny. Fortunately I have now sorted out my 'cold feet' problem so the only bit of me that suffered yesterday were the fingers but there's not a lot you can do about that when you're serving food. On the advice of Clare the Egg from Wye Market, I bought myself a pair of Muck Boots. Posh neoprene boots. They are just amazing! I hope that whoever invented them is VERY very rich. I have not experienced warm feet in winter for many years and it is just so wonderful.

Market was steady but not overly busy but I was delighted to get a visit from Sara, GeeGee parrot's Mama. There aren't many stalls on the market who have customers that walk up to them and start bleating ... it could only be Sara. GeeGee stayed at home in the warm - she apparently had a bit of a crash landing a couple of days earlier when she damaged herself after a close encounter with a door. Apparently the navigation equipment was a bit sub-standard in the dark. To make up for not being there in person (or should that be 'in parrot'?), she sent Sara along with one of her beautiful feathers:

I'm sure that we all wish GeeGee a speedy recovery! I had taken along a few walnuts from the tree at the farm for Sara to take home with her, so hopefully she will enjoy eating those whilst convalescing!!

Whilst I was watching the youngsters feeding this morning I thought I would take a few photos to show the many different colours. Basically, we have black, white and brown goats. They come in various shades and most of them have perfect pedigree markings - like Betty and Wilma in this picture. This was taken at a show in 2005 when they were both young goatlings!

But sometimes, for no apparent reason, you get what the breeders call 'mis-marked' goats. These can range from a slight white mark in the wrong place to the most beautiful spotty or splodgy markings. These animals would not be any good for showing but we absolutely love them in our herd. The more colours the better!

Here are some of our little splodgy jobs - all of whom have perfectly marked parents. Our very first splodgy goat was Diddi who was born in 2007.

She has had several kids since and all of them are perfectly marked brown and white girls.

Here are a few of last year's kids.

This is Mamkina. She has a black mum and white dad. Her twin sister is completely white.

This is Dottie. She is one of Betty's daughters. Her sister is the light brown one to her right.

And this is Mara.

Bottoms up everyone!

Willy Wonka and the escaping goats

2012-01-12T22:35:00.000Z

In the mornings we feed the goaties a little sugar beet with their lucerne after milking and they absolutely love it. Bit like having chocolate sprinkles on top of your All Bran! It comes in 25kg bags which we carry into the barn and split open into a feed trolley. At the moment the manufacturer (presumably in an effort to sell more sugar beet) is offering a Willy Wonka type incentive ... a few 'golden tickets' are hidden in the sugar beet. I have no idea what you would win - a year's supply of sugar beet? A trip round the sugar beet factory (with all the goats)? Who knows ... and I doubt that we will ever find out as we do not usually win anything. But at least it makes opening your sugar beet sacks a little more interesting. Knowing our luck though, we won't spot the golden ticket until it's disappearing into a goat's mouth!

So, having eaten all our breakfast, had lots of hay and a huge new bale of straw, the goats decided that they would go for a little wander. I had just mixed the food for the little girls in a large wheelbarrow and had walked out of the barn to get the feed sacks out of the back of the truck. As I turned round and headed back to the barn I was greeted by over 100 goats trotting out into the sunshine. Seems that the gates that David repaired at the weekend didn't hold together too well.

I managed to shoo everyone back in and then, having told David off for not taking pictures last time this happened (and I wasn't there), I shot off a couple of pics on my camera. You can get some idea of the chaos:

The crowd in the centre of the picture is eating the contents of my wheelbarrow

The same black goat that jumps in the hayrack! On top of the lucerne bale.

It was as I was taking this second picture that I noticed in the distance young Marcie. She was the only goat in season today and had taken herself off to go and see the big boys in the far barn in pursuit of romance. So, I stopped taking pictures and ran over to grab her, just as Navajo was getting ready to shin over the gate to see her. He could quite easily jump the gates (and has done so in the past) but I got her out of the way just in the nick of time.

I had got about half of them back in when David's parents happened to come out to the barn - so they managed to help me get everyone back in and repair the gates ... Never a dull moment with goats.

Goats in the sunshine

2012-01-11T22:36:00.000Z

After a bit of a rubbish start to the day, it turned out rather nice.

Sadly for my little chaps, my butcher is now back at work and fighting fit. So, I took four of them down there this morning. As I said, a rubbish start to the day. But, they will be very much appreciated and at least they have had happy little lives.

So, things could only get better ... and what a glorious day it turned out to be. Sunshine and warmth. Strangely so for January. David and I have a hunch that it's going to get much worse come the middle of February. It's a pattern that we have seen before .. mild December and January and then massive snowfalls in Feb. We'll see!

But for the moment, the girls are enjoying the sunshine - at least, those who can be bothered to get up off their fat bottoms and wander out of their comfy barn.

Here's some of them enjoying the January weather this afternoon:

Paperwork and seasons

2012-01-09T21:25:00.000Z

It's that time of year when I am trying to get all the loose ends of paperwork tied up and sorted out so that when kidding starts at the end of Feb, I can devote myself fully to the mums and new arrivals. Of course, there is always other stuff to do but if I can get everything in order as much as possible then I feel much happier!

For example, my British Goat Society kid registration cards for the 2011 kids have been sitting on my desk for a couple of months now, waiting to be checked. So, yesterday afternoon, I sat down with all my goat details and went through them all - checked that the names are spelt correctly, that parents are correct, eartag numbers are correct etc etc. Found a couple of minor errors and one kid, Velma, doesn't seem to have been registered, so that's a task for tomorrow to sort it out with the BGS Secretary. Then they can all be filed away and we are ready to start on the 2012 kids!

Today was a cheesemaking day - a small batch of Ellies for this week. Only 171 cheeses as there wasn't a lot of milk left after bottling for markets last weekend. Still, better than nothing at this lean time of year. We have got so used to every type of food being available all year round at the supermarket that people tend to forget that we do actually have seasons (and that some goats dry off)! Incidentally, I have a great book called 'Seasonal Food' by Paul Waddington which is an excellent book all about British food in season. I thoroughly recommend it.

David and I went through the kidding list again tonight and spray-marked a few more goats who need to be dried off. Milking is getting quicker every day! Unfortunately, our lovely BammBamm who was supposed to be running through for another year looks like she has got bored of being milked and is in danger of drying herself off. If she does, it means that she gets a lazy year off as it's a bit late to be putting her in kid now. Nice for her but not so good for us! Still, she's a very good milker usually so we can't complain.

Sadly, we didn't make it into the top three for the Taste of Kent Awards Artisan Food Producer. We were pipped at the post by Quex Foods, Simply Ice Cream and Taywell Ice Cream - so congratulations to all of them and may the best producer win. I'm just thrilled that we got into the Top Ten in our first year of entering!

I thought that I would try and get a couple of photos of the big males this evening as they were all snuggled up together for the night. But, as soon as I walked over to them with the camera, they all stood up and came over to see what I was doing. Typical nosey goats! I managed to catch Fremlin as he was climbing up the gate - the camera angle makes him look rather sinister I think. As you see by all the bits in his hair, he was very comfy under the hay rack!

I always think that it's nice to see the boys curled up together. They spend their days 'ladding' about and snorting at the girls they can see at a distance but they are really the best of friends and always get upset if one of them is taken out for some reason (usually because they think that he is getting something that they are not!). Despite their huge size and strong 'perfume' they really are wonderful creatures. I am very proud of 'my boys' and I love them dearly, especially Fremlin who is such a gentle giant.

A potted history of Ellie's Dairy

2012-01-07T22:30:00.000Z

After chatting to a few customers at Wye Market this morning, I got to thinking about how we actually started producing milk and cheese here at Ellie's Dairy and, while it's relatively quiet on the goat front, I thought I would do a little blog about it for those who are interested.

We started in 2004 with 3 goats - Betty, Wilma and Ellie.

Betty & Wilma - 8 weeks old

Ellie

They were closely followed after a few weeks by Thelma and Daphne.

Daphne

Thelma

All were kids, and so we did not milk our first goat until Thelma kidded on 26 Feb 2006. Daphne kidded a couple of days later and they were both exceedingly patient as we tried to milk them by hand. Although David and I can both milk by hand, we decided that we would get ourselves a portable milking machine to speed up the process. And here it is - all shiny and new in the newly built milking parlour.

And, believe it or not, that was what we used until August 2011! We used to milk almost 100 goats coming through the parlour 2 at a time ... So, you see why we were SO pleased to get the new parlour milking 12 at a time.

We did not start selling the milk until January 2008 - until that time we didn't really have enough to sell and it took us a while to get all the dairy and equipment sorted to a point where we could be licenced by the local EHO and Trading Standards. These were the very first bottles we sold to Macknade Fine Foods in Faversham on 26 Jan 2008 (centre of pic with white lids):

I know it probably seems odd to have taken a photo of this but this was a HUGE step forward for us. You can't believe how excited I was to put those first bottles on that shelf!

Before we starting selling the milk properly, we drank it ourselves of course. Previously, we had only ever tasted mass-produced supermarket milk and neither of us liked it very much at all. I can remember the very first time that we tasted our home-produced milk. Standing in the dairy, we had a small mug of milk each and neither of us wanted to be the first to try it. We both screwed up our faces in anticipation of something really horrid ... and then both of us burst out laughing and said 'actually, it's pretty good really!'. We were so surprised by the taste - fresh, creamy and not goaty in the slightest. Amazing!!! Even to this day, we have managed to maintain this freshness and flavour, as all our customers will testify. I think it has to be a combination of how we look after the goats and what we feed them.

We also dabbled with cheesemaking in my kitchen. Here's a pic of David taken in 2007 with our first ever cheeses in their moulds:

Of course, we didn't have a clue what we were doing and although it looked like cheese, it tasted awful!

Eventually, we produced enough milk to make it worthwhile doing proper batches of cheese and so we enlisted the help of the relatively new Kent Cheese Company (George Jessel and Geoff Parker) to make our cheese for us as we didn't have the equipment or experience to do it ourselves.

This arrangement worked very well for all of us until Geoff retired at the end of 2009 and I was suddenly thrown in the deep end and had to start making it all myself! I had been tutored by Geoff and had some idea of what I was doing but it's a bit daunting to suddenly be left on your own with 200 litres of your precious milk heating up in a cheese vat!

And the rest, as they say, is history. We've come a fair way since those two little moulds in 2007:

I now make goat's cheese once or twice a week (sometimes more at busy times) and I have also invented a couple of yummy new cheeses along the way. But, I am still very much a novice cheesemaker though and there is always so much more to learn. It's a never-ending experience. And, yes, occasionally it does go exceedingly pear-shaped for no apparent reason!! And there are also those occasions when you leave your brain outside the cheese room.

Any cheesemakers amongst you will know that leaving your paddle stirring when you add the rennet is not a good thing. For the non-cheesemakers amongst you - adding rennet causes the milk to clot and form curds. This happens in complete stillness ... Stirring the milk at this point is therefore not a good thing and so, having left my brain some distance from my cheese vat, I ended up with a vat full of something that closely resembled scrambled egg. Believe me - you only do it once!

Weather delays blogging

2012-01-04T21:43:00.000Z

Hideous weather yesterday. And I came to write you all a bit of blog last night only to find that the bit of string holding up my internet connection had been blown away. Hence the delay ... Rural mobile broadband signal is flaky at the best of times but in bad weather it just disappears totally!

So, anyhow, here I am. And a very big THANK YOU to everyone who voted for us in the Taste of Kent Awards. Voting closed at midnight last night and we finished in the Top Ten. Hurrah!!! Further results will be announced shortly so instead of voting, you all now have to cross your fingers instead and will us into the top three. Wishful thinking! But I am SO pleased that we got our names into the running. Thank you!

As I said, yesterday's weather was pretty grim and I hope that you all survived the wind and rain. I had already booked myself in to run down to our wholesaler in Sussex and so I loaded up the van in a torrent of water and drove down there. The motorway was horrendous and then the smaller roads were flooded with trees down all over the place. But I got there, minus a wing mirror taken out by a tree flailing in the wind, and they were very grateful. It's a standing joke with them that every time I go there (approx every two weeks or so) it is raining. In fact, the only time that it hasn't rained (or snowed) was the time that I managed to crash the van on the way home!

Needless to say, the goats stayed very firmly indoors yesterday. The only ones who had to venture out in the weather were the milkers who put Linford Christie to shame with their sprint from the parlour back into the barn. Fortunately, the back of the barn was fairly sheltered so they didn't get too wet.

Some of the girls are starting to look really pregnant now. I managed to snap a picture of Footsie goat standing up at the hay rack this evening .. she is the very large one in the centre of the picture:

There are 3 kids in there. And she's not due until 4 March. Goodness only knows what size she will be by then!

Footsie will be 7 years old this year and is a very affectionate goat who loves to have her ears scratched. She was born in Lincolnshire and came to us at just over a year of age. The first time she met David she walked up to him and bit him on the leg! But, over the years, she has become very fond of him as you can see:

Francesca, who helps us with kidding, also took a shine to Footsie and you could always tell when Fran had arrived for work as there would be this loud high-pitched call of 'Footsie-Woo' across the goat shed! Here's Fran with one of the little people from last year:

We did not kid Footsie last year and so Francesca has the added excitement this year of her favourite goat having babies. I am sure that she will be camping out with me in the goat shed for days beforehand, just in case Footsie needs her Auntie Fran!

And finally, in all that bad weather yesterday morning, one of these turned up in our yard:

This photo is nicked from 'Horse and Hound', but you get the idea. A poor lost hound made his way up to the farm yesterday. We figured that he was from the hunt kennels not too far away and David drove him back down there in the truck. Seems that all the hounds had been out for a run on New Year's Day and this particular lad had got lost and wandered off (obviously not one of the top hunting hounds!!). The kennels had been out for two days looking for him. So, he was reunited with all his friends - a good ending for him.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T21:34:00.000Z

Happy New Year to all!

Jane the Cheese sent me a text last night at 10.20pm 'Happy New Year! Thought I would catch you both before you retire'. Shame we were in bed and asleep by 9.30pm!! Must be getting old ..

New Year's Day is once again like any other day as far as the goats are concerned. Only the added excitement for me of doing the VAT return.

Here's a quick video of David feeding the little people. See how everyone runs about - it's always very exciting getting your breakfast! Both David and I have been knocked over on previous occasions but this morning he did manage to stay upright, despite the hordes of wee goaties.

Milking time is getting quicker as more goats are drying off - the down side is that there is a lot less milk in the tank! Fortunately, January and February are usually fairly quiet months for cheese customers and so we manage to keep all the liquid milk customers happy with some left over for a bit of cheese.

There is also less naughtiness in the parlour at the moment as Tinky Goat is dry and so does not come in for milking any more. She was scanned for triplets (though Michael thought that one of them might either be extremely small or not viable) but isn't due until 3rd April, so she has dried herself off in plenty of time ready for those babies!

GinnyPink, our huge great British Alpine, is always first into the parlour at the moment and David almost gets flattened every time he opens the gate. Noone gets in the way of GP - she is by far the largest goat in the herd, apart from the smelly boys of course! Here she is at the hay rack - she is the black goat behind.

This photo was taken by our great friend and artist Sue Clinker when she first met GinnyPink as a goatling in 2008 - GP is a bit larger now but still has that nice smiley face:

Bank Holiday for most people tomorrow but I will be busy making cheese. There is only a small amount of milk in the tank after a mammoth bottling session over the weekend for our wholesaler, but I need to get another batch of our lovely Shaggy's Beard camembert into store and ripenening ready for later this month.

Socks and artichokes

2011-12-30T15:43:00.000Z

As it was a bit chilly again today I decided it was time to test drive a pair of my Xmas socks when I went out delivering:

Angora and wool - gifted by Jane the Cheese. So far, so good. Lovely and toasty!

As predicted, a short delivery day today and the traffic was thankfully very light driving up to South London and back. My furthest delivery spot is Franklins Farm Shop in East Dulwich - a small but VERY nicely appointed shop that specialises in seasonal and British produce, sourced as locally as possible.

It's always a job to find somewhere to park nearby and I have had several run-ins with the local parking attendant. However, so far, he has been a very nice man and let me off both times he has caught me parking on a double yellow. But I figure that I can't push it too much and so recently I have been driving round and round in an effort to find a legal space! Today I was lucky and managed to park right in front of Franklins, so I thought I would take the opportunity to buy my fruit and veg in there, as I haven't got the luxury of my farmers markets this weekend.

So, what do you do with a Jerusalem artichoke??

They always catch my eye but I have never been sure what I could do with them.. Grasping the bull by the horns, I bought a handful today and have luckily found a recipe for artichoke and chicory gratin .. sounds yummy, so will give that a whirl over the weekend.

On my return to the farm, yet again I found a lot of very lazy fat goats lying around. Some of those young goatlings are starting to really look pregnant now - when they lie down, those huge fat tums just spread out:

Peaches goatling

The beautiful Johari - known to her friends as JoJo

If the pregnant ladies do not dry themselves off ready for kidding, we have to encourage them to stop producing milk so that all their energy is channelled into making themselves and their kids strong. We try and dry them off at least 8 weeks prior to kidding and so are now starting to look at the early deliveries. Some have dried off already (Foxglove and Footsie always get lazy in the winter and prefer to lie about eating hay rather than coming into the parlour for milking!) and others are well on their way to being dry.

Those who have been dry for a while automatically move to the non-milking side of the barn at milking time but the 'newly dry' are not yet in the habit and have to be moved across by the humans. As milking time can be rather busy, the best way to identify your goats is to spray a red mark on their backside so that you can spot them from a distance and separate them off.

Here's Moonstar sporting a red rump - not very glamorous but it helps the humans!

Anyhow - must dash! Nearly time for evening milking ...

GeeGee the Parrot gets her own blog!

2011-12-29T22:05:00.000Z

Seems that Sara was so impressed with our Ellie's blog that she has decided GeeGee parrot should have one too. GeeGee has many friends and admirers, not least in Sara's office, and so it is only natural that everyone would want to read about her.

So, if you fancy a change from goats, go to http://www.geegeeparrot.blogspot.com/ to read GeeGee's Parrot Tales. Very entertaining they are too ..

In the world of goats it was a relatively uneventful day apart from the two HUGE bales of new straw that were rolled into the milkers pen this morning. The weather was threatening to be a bit rubbish today and so the girls were showing absolutely no signs of wanting to go outside at all. When I looked in later during the morning there were a lot of very comfy looking goats just lazing around in their new beds!

They were certainly very glad of it after milking tonight when we had a sudden storm of gale force winds and sleet, just as the last two goats came out of the parlour. I've never seen Minnie and BammBamm move so quickly! Down the ramp, across the barn and in through the gate so fast it made everyone else jump and snort with surprise. I braved the elements to shut all the gates quickly and then we were all snuggly and warm for the night.

Tomorrow will be a short delivery day as many of the farm shops are still closed - gives us a chance to (hopefully) build up some cheese stocks in time for markets later in January when the milk yield is really going down!

Another relaxing day

2011-12-27T21:29:00.000Z

After the frantic action of last week, it was nice to have another relatively leisurely day today. In between goatie activities, I had time to catch up on paperwork and such like. I can now see my front room carpet again (it had disappeared under a sea of paper!)

I managed to get my 'kidding calendar' sorted out and now have a complete list of which goat is due to kid when and how many kids she is due to have. Kick off on or around 28 Feb, then we are going right the way through March and into April/May for the last few. Busiest weeks look to be the middle two weeks in March when we have about 70 kids due in 10 days. Sleep is over-rated anyway I think.

I have always slept in the goat shed during kidding time. I like to be near to the goats and would hate to think that one of my girls might be struggling during the night whilst I am tucked up in bed at home. The first year (in a smaller building) was a basic camp bed in the middle of the shed:

The second year was a bit more up-market as I got my own pen:

My lasting memory of that year was waking up suddenly in the middle of the night to find a rat running over my head. (OK - how many of you squealed when you read that?!)

The following year, we had moved into the larger barn and it was pretty cold to sleep in there just on a camp bed. I did think of putting a tent up in the middle of the barn but I think it would have freaked the goats out too much. David had a brainwave and suggested that we move the goat trailer into the barn:

It was absolutely perfect. Windproof (mostly), nice comfy mattress and loads of sleeping bags and quilts. Over the years I refined the number and type of layers required and got it perfect. And so I spent several kidding seasons in my trailer, sometimes in temperatures down to -11 degrees.

As we had much larger numbers to kid this year, there would be no space for my trailer in the barn and so we had to come up with an alternative. And here it is:

Kindly lent to me for the season by Jane (Cheesemakers of Canterbury) on condition that there were to be NO animals allowed inside. Yes Jane ...

She is intending to sell it in 2012 but I have hopefully managed to talk her into hanging on to it until we have finished kidding again!

Also today, I thought that I would have a go at shooting a couple of videos on my phone. Not brilliant quality but it makes a change from still photos.

The first one was taken this morning at the barn where the young female kids are living. A couple of them were play-fighting whilst everyone else was tucking into their hay:

The second was taken tonight in the main barn. Remember I have blogged before about being trampled by goats rushing to get to hay racks? Well, here they are - running to hay racks newly filled after milking this evening. I think you will get the general idea!

Just like the January sales ...

Merry Xmas everybody!

2011-12-25T21:26:00.002Z

A very Merry Xmas to everyone! Hope you all had a good day.

Our day, as usual, started early with milking and feeding all the animals. However, milking on Xmas day does involve a little more alcohol than usual and here is David enjoying a healthy breakfast of Bucks Fizz and Russian Honey Cake. Just what you need at 5.30am on Xmas morning.

Note Bucks Fizz elegantly served in mugs!

Yummy Russian Honey Cake from Wye Market

After milking we moved Navajo back in with the other boys and then David helped me chop all the boxes of fruit that Francesca had brought over yesterday evening. We ended up with 3 huge buckets full of banana, melon, apple, pears and apricots which we shared out and it was all gone in less than a couple of minutes. As you see, everyone was very eager for their Xmas treats:

Over to feed the youngsters in the other barn and then home to start getting lunch ready. Just David and myself and Marmite cat. Nice lunch - not turkey! - and then we loaded the doggies into the truck and drove over to see the Gracie Moos. We confused them by entering the field via a different gate to usual and we managed to get all the way across the field and put food into their troughs before they realised that it was us! Then we were spotted and they all came galloping across:

Nell and Ben are not so keen on travelling in the truck, but they are very happy once they are out of it:

Then it was time to go and see the youngsters again and fill their hay racks. Back to the farm and milking and feeding all over again!

Evening milking at Xmas is similar to morning milking in that it also involves alcohol. As we had to do a bit of driving about during the afternoon, we didn't really drink at lunchtime and saved most of our very nice bottle of 2007 Barolo for the evening. Seems that David may have had a little too much of it though as he seemed not to be entirely in control of his milking clusters .. Note the cross-over.

Best Xmas card of the season - received from Jane (Cheesemakers of Canterbury):

And the best Xmas text message received this morning from Carla at Winterdale Cheesemakers; 'Thank you for making Xmas morning so believable. The reindeer s**t worked a treat!'.

Explanation ... they have two young children (4 and 6) and, like many parents, set up their lounge as if Father Xmas had been to visit during the night. I supplied a small bag of fresh goat poo (the nice dry pellet variety) which they sprinkled liberally around their new lounge carpet to simulate reindeer poo. Obviously worked well!! Maybe I've found a gap in the market - we could start bagging it up and selling it for next year.

Back to normal tomorrow as I am off to spend the day making cheese.

They think it's all over ....

2011-12-24T21:42:00.000Z

it is now! HURRAH!!!! All cheese sold and delivered. All milk bottled and gone. Hurrah ... It's been a very long week of late nights, early mornings and frantic rushing about to get everything done in time for Xmas. The final event was an extra Wye Market this morning which was absolutely blinding. And now I have no energy left at all. I shall be forced to sit and eat and drink myself silly tomorrow. In between milking and feeding the goats of course!

Navajo has been a good boy and 'seen to' all his ladies, apart from one who still doesn't seem to have come into season. We will move him back in with the other boys tomorrow morning so that they can spend Xmas together.

Here's all the boys snuggled up for the evening:

From L to R - Larkin, Norville, Beamish, Fremlin and Max

Evening seems to be the time when Daramac lets himself out through his 'cat flap' and goes for an evening stroll in the main male pen. He checks out all the troughs to see if there is any food left, makes sure that the hay is up to standard and then stands up on the gate to have a look round:

When he's happy that everything is as it should be, he goes back into his own pen and lies down. Looks like he may be going back to Margate in a couple of weeks as his friend Gus is recovering well from his bad leg and is really missing his best mate.

Francesca, our assistant goatherd who spends a few months with us in the spring to help out with kidding, came to visit tonight and brought lots of treats for the goats. Boxes of pears, bananas, melons and apples have appeared in the goat shed so I have a busy morning ahead to chop that lot up ready for Xmas breakfast!

Meanwhile, as you can see, everyone is very busy getting ready for Santa Claus:

Hebe and Quince taking it easy

Little men, fast asleep

Xmas comes early for Navajo!

2011-12-21T22:31:00.000Z

After the scanning last week, we were left with 7 girls who were not showing as being pregnant. A further problem was that none of them were coming into season either ... the hormones had all gone a bit wrong somewhere. In this situation, the only way to get things back on track is a small hormone injection which kicks their systems into action.

Many people ask if we use hormones or antibiotics - they are referring to the routine use of these, sometimes in feed, which can be commonplace in some cattle dairy herds. Our answer is always a firm 'no' but with the caveat that although we don't use either routinely, there are certain specific situations when they are required and necessary. This is one such situation.

We injected the girls yesterday morning and so, this morning, there were a number of semi-waggy tails and bleating goats. To help nature take its course, we penned all the 7 girls into one large area and then set young Navajo to work. An early unexpected Xmas present for him! He has great attention to detail and is very thorough in his work - he just loves being in with those ladies!

This picture was taken earlier in the year when he was clean! I will try and get a photo of him tomorrow with his harem. I had forgotten how tall he is until I was walking him round to the girls this morning and realised that the top of his head was almost level with my shoulder (and I'm 5ft 10in). And he's not fully grown yet either.

Gracie Moos move house!

2011-12-19T21:21:00.000Z

Although it's December, the mild weather has meant that the Gracie Moos (David's pet cows!) are still outside. All the farmers are leaving their animals out grazing as long as possible as everyone is short on hay and winter feed this year. Sussex cattle are a particularly hardy breed anyway, but we do bring the pampered Gracie Moos into the yard for the winter.

We have recently taken on some new ground not far away from the farm and David moved the cows over there last week to give them some new grass. They now have a HUGE 18 acre field to trot about in! David or his dad go over there every day to check on them and so they are used to human contact. As soon as they spot a human at their gate, there is a chorus of mooing and a sound like thunder as they all gallop across the field. And here they are, several tons of beef approaching at speed!

It never ceases to amaze me just how big these girls are, especially as they exist purely on grass and very little supplementary feed - they get the odd mouthful of barley or lucerne as a special treat. Here are a couple of the older ones:

And those cute little calves have grown! Solid little people. And boy, can they run fast!

And just to give you some idea of just how much space they have now - those little dots in the centre of the picture are the Gracie Moos!

I don't know how much longer they will stay outside - just depends on what the weather does over the next few weeks.

Meantime, it was a late night making cheese last night. We desperately need more fresh cheese to sell this week and so I pulled a late shift at the cheese plant - went up there after evening milking and made cheese. Got back to the farm by 1am this morning ... yawn ...

Tomorrow I have to go and do some more deliveries to shops that have sold everything I delivered on Friday! And then it's up to Dargate to visit the Cheesemakers of Canterbury Open Day. If you are in Kent and have the time and inclination - Jane has opened up the cheese plant at Dargate for 3 days so that visitors can come and see cheese being made. We also have a number of other local producers selling their delicious produce including Rough Old Wife cider with their stunning warmed spiced cider. Warms the parts other ciders cannot reach!

Reindeer, donkeys and snow ...

2011-12-17T20:48:00.000Z

Well, the Radio 4 weatherman was correct - we did have snow yesterday morning. When I got up it was actually relatively mild and a bit drizzly. A good way into milking, the temperature suddenly dropped and it started to snow. We had a pretty good covering that lasted most of the day up here on the Downs - enough to be annoying but not enough to build a snowman. As I went out delivering, it looked like places lower down hadn't really had anything at all.

And today - glorious sunshine but freezing cold. Good for the cheese, but not so good to be standing at markets! It's silly hat season (and many layers) as demonstrated by me and her (Jane of Cheesemakers of Canterbury) at Wye Market this morning. Note festive holly decoration ...

The market was buzzing today and we were pretty busy for the whole morning. I am back there next Saturday on Xmas Eve and I think I will be very busy sorting out last minute cheese for everyone.

Today we had a visit from Paddy the Donkey. He comes to Wye every Xmas market and sells mistletoe for charity. Last year the weather was so bad that his owner could not get out of her property and so he missed the market. Today however, he was in fine form. He is such a gentle creature - he just stands and lets everyone stroke him and children sit on him.

Faversham Mission Brass Band did a sterling job of keeping everyone entertained with their brilliant festive tunes and I have to say that they did sport an excellent selection of silly hats. Obviously, not as silly as my own, but there was some stiff competition there.

And what of the reindeer? Well, that was provided by the Wife of Bath. Not in person, you understand .. the luscious restaurant in Wye. They have a stall on the 3rd Saturday of each month when they sell the most wonderful quiches and cakes and yummy bits and pieces. Today, Robert the chef had obviously been in the festive mood when he was making little chocolate cakes ..

Tomorrow - no markets for me but Jane will be very busy (hopefully) at Whitstable whilst other members of the Cheesemakers of Canterbury team will be at Cliftonville market. Another mad week ahead in the run up to Xmas and then it will all be over for another year!

Pregnant ladies and comfy goatlings

2011-12-15T23:18:00.001Z

And here she is, Moyra goat. Due to kick off the kidding season in 2012. She is a pretty huge goat at the best of times but is now getting quite 'portly' and still has just over 2 months to go. We have a daughter from her already - Cristal - and a granddaughter, Minerva, born this year. Moyra also has a twin sister Meryl, who is quite a lot smaller than her, but with a much longer beard!!

And just how many goatlings can you fit in a hayrack?

Taken on my phone when I walked into the barn this morning, so not the best quality, but there are actually 3 goatlings curled up in there! As you can see, everyone else looked pretty comfy as well.

Spent the day making cheese again today. Why does Xmas come when the milk yield drops and we don't have enough cheese to go round! It's a constant juggling act at this time of year to try and keep everyone happy. Priority is always given to the bottled raw milk customers and so cheese has to be made whenever we have enough milk left. If I ever get to be Queen, I shall move Xmas to the peak milk production time of the year - round about June/July should do nicely.

As well as making the cheese, I also have to do a bit of Blue Peter with it this time of year and make some gift boxes for Xmas. The Shaggy's Beard camembert always goes down well in the nice little wooden boxes.

A busy few days ahead now with deliveries and markets. This time last year we were battling the elements with the snow and the Radio 4 weather forecast this afternoon was promising a little snow for tomorrow morning. We shall see what the morning brings ..

Meanwhile, here is a photo of the dairy entrance taken last year when it snowed. We had to dig our way into the goat barn at one stage as the drifts covered the main door ...

Everyone's a daddy!!!

2011-12-12T22:11:00.000Z

Looks like all my boys have done their jobs again this season and everyone is going to be a daddy, including our new little men Bramling and Caffrey. Well done boys! I was particularly thrilled that Fremlin is going to be a dad again - I wasn't sure that he was up to the job this year, given the problems he has had with his back legs, but seems that I underestimated the old chap!

Michael came and scanned all the pregnant ladies this morning and it looks like we have over 120 kids due at the moment, with a few girls still to be scanned and confirmed in a few weeks.

Here he is scanning Dipsy:

When scanning the goats, Michael wears a backpack which holds the equipment and a set of special glasses in which he can see the scanned image. The scanning head is run under the goat's stomach - there is no internal work like you get with cows! When he is working in the field and scanning hundreds of sheep, he views the images on a large TV screen instead as it is easier and much quicker when dealing with large numbers.

Michael is very experienced and can tell us how many days pregnant the goat is, how many kids she has and whether they are viable or not. Occasionally, for example, he will say that he can see 2 kids but 1 looks like it may be having problems. We then know to keep an eye on that goat and we can also have her rescanned a few weeks later.

So, our big stroppy white girl Moyra will kick off the 2012 kidding season on 28 February or whenever she decides that the time is right. She will be closely followed by several more within a few days and then we get really busy towards the middle of March. So far, noone has been scanned for quads this year but we do have 5 sets of triplets due.

I was also delighted that some of our older girls are in kid - Flora, Betty and Wilma will all be 8 years old next year and Tammy (at 9 years old) is also due to have twins. This may possibly be the last time that these girls will be kidded but we will see how they all get on next year.

And Ginger goat? Triplets. Do you think that will stop her trying to climb over gates and squeeze through gaps? Probably not.

2011-12-11T21:32:00.000Z

All I seemed to have done over the past few days is to load and unload my van with boxes and cheese and gazebos and all the other assorted paraphernalia required for markets and deliveries! My poor little van is quite worn out!

Saturday in Balham was a beautiful but freezing cold day - pretty quiet though, as I think everyone was out doing their Xmas gift shopping rather than buying cheese. Not a bad day but certainly not as good as the last market in November. I expect that next weekend will be much busier, but I won't be there to enjoy it! Lenham market today was wet and cold and also fairly quiet but those customers who did venture out were spending, so that was good. A country dancing team came along and gave a short performance - myself and a couple of the other stallholders joined in. Great way to keep the feet warm. Sadly no photos though ..

Just a few more markets left for me now before Xmas - guest appearance this Thursday at the Charing W.I. market. I did it a couple of months ago for a Food Festival that was going on in the village. Seems that everyone enjoyed our cheese so much that they have invited us back for the pre-Xmas market. Always a nice cup of tea and a bit of cake at the W.I. functions!

Milking tonight was largely uneventful, apart from a surprise appearance from Peaches goatling. She was obviously too busy eating hay when we split off the milkers at the start of milking and so ended up being left behind, instead of moving across to eat with the rest of the goatlings. As the last milkers came into the parlour she was left on her own and so started to complain very loudly about it. We managed to coax her into the parlour and so here she is enjoying her tea in very unfamiliar surroundings!

What a brave goat she is! It does the goatlings no harm at all to come through the parlour from time to time - they get used to the machinery and the noise and so it's not so stressful and strange for them when they become milkers and have to do it for real!

Everyone is in for a busy morning tomorrow as the scanning man is coming to check out all our (hopefully) pregnant ladies. My last job for tonight is to sort out my list of girls with their possible due dates so that we can cross-check with what the scanner shows. Full report tomorrow night!

Ginger strikes again!

2011-12-08T22:54:00.000Z

Remember Ginger, the goat who likes to climb over the gates?

Well, since David mucked out a couple of weeks ago, she has been a bit miffed. As the straw level went down, so the corresponding gate level went up and poor Ginger can no longer quite reach over. David was pleased that he had put a stop to her naughtiness but, as I suspected, she was just biding her time before she found another interesting way to wind him up.

Last night we had Ginger in the parlour 3 times. The second time, I thought that my goat recognition ability had failed me and that it must have been a different goat that had already been in. Strange that she didn't have a lot of milk though, but nothing really unusual as Ginger is a 'maiden milker' and so doesn't produce enormous amounts. However, when she appeared for a third time, along with several other goats who seemed already to have been milked, we realised that something was not quite right.

As the goats left the parlour and went down the ramp, David went outside to watch what was going on. Sure enough, young Ginger goat pushed against the gates at the bottom of the ramp and let herself back into the 'milking' side of the barn. Then she ran along to the parlour entrance gate and stood waiting to come in. Again. Swearing under his breath and armed with various implements, David secured the gates in position thinking that would put an end to it.

And so, to milking this morning. Ginger came in and went out with the other goats. As predicted, she pushed against the bottom gates but found, to her disgust, that she could no longer move them. David smiled smugly and came back into the parlour. As he opened the entrance gate, there was Ginger waiting for him! Not to be deterred by an immoveable object, she had jumped over the gate and let herself back in again anyway!! David knows when he is beaten .. I think he has given up any hope of ever keeping Ginger in where he wants her.

Lazy goats

2011-12-07T15:23:00.000Z

Last night David loaded another enormous bale of straw into the milkers pen just before bedtime so that they would be nice and snuggly for the night. They also got a whole new enormous bale of hay. After milking, they just didn't know what to eat first! So, this morning when I switched the light on, there were a lot of very contented and very lazy goats lying around all over the place - not a single one was standing up!

I managed to snap a picture of Poppin as she woke up - note the front legs crossed and the yawn!

Needless to say, it wasn't long before everyone was up and about - some rather reluctantly - and the usual black goats were doing their 'Alpine' thing in the hay rack:

I sent one of the earlier photos of a black goat climbing in the hayrack off to the British Alpine Breed Society just out of interest. Imagine my surprise when I opened the December Newsletter yesterday to find our picture on the front cover!

The diary is already filling up with events for next year. I have been invited to speak at the Hadlow College Careers Fair in February when lots of students attend to hear speakers from various farming sectors and will be putting together an exhibition stand for this - I did something similar for the College earlier this year and it was a great success. I also already have one booking for a W.I. talk and Jane (Cheesemakers of Canterbury) and I are both looking forward to the Weston A Price Foundation Wise Traditions Conference on 17/18 March 2012. This is always a fabulous event and next year will take place over 2 days in Epsom.

And finally - what of Marmite Cat in this cold and windy December weather? Yep. No prizes for guessing:

Cold feet and chaos

2011-12-05T22:25:00.000Z

‘Cold feet’ describes my weekend, whilst David suffered from the ‘chaos’ bit! All will be revealed in due course.

The weekend started very nicely on Friday night as David and I joined the Cheesemakers of Canterbury for their Xmas meal. Lovely pub, great food and good company. Jane had also provided 3 bottles of rather nice bubbly to help celebrate their ‘Super Gold’ in the World Cheese Awards. Their signature cheese, Ashmore Farmhouse, was voted one of the best 50 cheeses in the world. Congratulations to all!

Here we are, with our best Xmas hats on:

Out early on Saturday morning to Wye market and the start of the ‘cold feet’ weekend for me. Wye was quite busy with a lot of regulars but I think that our next visit there on 17 December will be the busiest one with everyone getting their Xmas cheese. There is an extra market on 24 December but I don’t know how busy that one will be – perhaps a few last minute shoppers!

After a brief pitstop to get a sudden flat tyre sorted out on the way back from Wye, Jane’s daughter Kelly came back to the farm with me to spend the afternoon helping with the goats. She hadn’t seen the female kids in their new location and was thrilled that there was lots of room to play with them. Kelly loves to run round and have the kids follow her – a bit like the Pied Piper, she had all 54 of them trotting behind at one stage before she stood up on one of their boxes and got mobbed.

Quick sleep and then off to Parson's Green on Sunday morning. More cold feet!! It was perishing cold. The market was good but seemed a little quieter than the last time I was there - other stallholders seemed to think it was quiet too. Maybe it was too cold for people, or maybe they were all out doing their Xmas shopping.

Here's a piccie of my stall - also had our lovely handmade goat's milk soap on sale, which went down rather well.

But, the main highlight for me was meeting Sara, mother of GeeGee parrot. I did not know what Sara looked like but was expecting a mad looking woman with a parrot under her arm. I was therefore slightly taken by surprise when an immaculately dressed and elegant lady came up to the stall, leaned over and bleated at me! Turns out that when GeeGee was invited to come out to market, she refused. Too cold apparently. Wouldn't come out for breakfast to start with either, by all accounts. Eventually, she was tempted by some walnut and goat's cheese (obviously a parrot with taste) but refused to let Sara put her in her travel cage. And so, I did not get to meet GeeGee after all. I am sure there will be another time.

I did manage to have a lovely chat with Sara though and she was telling me stories about her childhood in Kent when she had her own goat Victoria. Apparently, Victoria used to keep Sara's pony company but when the pony died, Sara's mother decided that the goat would be lonely outside on her own and so she came to live in the house with the family. Apparently, she used to curl up to sleep in the kitchen in front of the Aga!

On the way back from market, I got a phone call from a rather harrassed David who told me that he had just spent the last two hours catching goats and clearing up the mess in the barn. Utter chaos apparently! The girls had got bored after David had gone indoors for his lunch and had decided to break out into the barn. They cannot do much damage but had apparently made a lot of mess, climbing all over the hay and straw bales and helping themselves to the new large bale of lucerne that had been brought in for them that morning. However, not content with that, they then proceeded to push the gates to the little boys' pen and let all of them out as well - the little meat kids had a whale of a time running about the barn!

Main problem for David, when he came back from lunch to discover the chaos, was that Bramling and Caffrey (our two little stud boys) were also roaming free and a couple of the milkers were in season that day. He is certain that more than one of them got mated and, it has to be said, Figgie goat did look rather smug and pleased with herself that evening! We could be in for a couple of little 'surprises' next spring. The occasion has been marked on the calendar as 'The Great Escape', so that any stray pregnancies can be traced back. Fortunately for David, the big males did not manage to get out, otherwise he would have had his hands full!!

Given all the lucerne that the girls had eaten, they did not really want any more food that evening. There were a lot of very fat lazy goats lying around at milking time. And just how fat can a goat be? Well, here's a rather unflattering view of Footsie goat - not a small girl at the best of times but I think you can get some idea of how much she ate from the size of her belly!

Taste of Kent Awards 2012 - Stop Press!!!

2011-12-01T22:11:00.000Z

Just checked the Taste of Kent Awards and Ellie's Dairy is currently running in the Top Ten for Kent Artisan Producer of the Year!!!!!!

Thanks to all who have voted so far .... please keep those votes coming. Voting closes 3rd January so still plenty of time left!

Mad women and parrots

2011-11-30T22:53:00.000Z

Do you have to be slightly odd to drink goat's milk? Or is it the drinking of goat's milk that makes a person slightly odd? One of life's burning questions to which there is no answer I feel. However, it must be said that many of my customers are rather unconventional and, in fact, one of my shopkeeping customers always complains that his shop is always full of 'mad people' waiting for the goat's milk delivery to turn up!

I would hate to think that we were boring! As I have said before, one of the absolute pleasures of doing farmers' markets is the opportunity to meet our customers personally and get to know them a little. I absolutely LOVE meeting all my customers as they are all such interesting and enthusiastic people. And some are clearly totally mad! Take Sara, for example. She is 'mother' to GeeGee the parrot whom we have met in an earlier blog. I have come to the conclusion that she is even more eccentric than I am - for those of you who know me, you may find that hard to believe.

But here's the proof ... Sara has mentioned in a couple of her emails that GeeGee goes with her into the office some days. There was me thinking that Sara probably works from home ... but no. She puts GeeGee into a ferret travel cage, covers her with a Primark 'Vuitton' bag and then takes her on the bus into the office! And what's more, GeeGee will be coming to visit me at my London market this weekend! I MUST remember to take my camera with me. I can't wait!

And when Sara does voluntary work 2 days each week, GeeGee is left at home.

Says Sara ... 'This is the eye of an African Grey Parrot underneath the duvet having the monday early am cuddle.. I do volunteer work 2 days a week so she is 'home alone'.. to sweeten the day, I get up 15 mins earlier than normal and she comes back into bed with me. Right underneath the duvet!' Now isn't that just the most spoilt parrot in the world?!

And to end the madness .. there was a great comedy moment in the parlour tonight when David started the circulation cleaning of the milking parlour, without replacing the milk filter housing. There was a shout as a huge jet of pressurised hot water shot into the air. He got absolutely soaked but sadly I was not allowed to take a picture! Saves him having a bath tonight though.

Enjoying the dry weather

2011-11-28T22:08:00.000Z

I have to say that there was a distinct nip in the air this morning when I went to milk the goats. I think that it's only the second time in the past few weeks that I have actually had to scrape ice off the windscreen. But a beautiful clear and dry morning.

The goats obviously thought so too. Despite the excitement of having a whole new bale of straw put in for them, most of them decided to make the best of the dry weather and ventured outside into the field for a few hours.

Gate leads to the yard area between the main barn and the field (to the right of picture). Building to the left of picture is the milking parlour.

Goats on a mound! This pile of earth was created when David dug the foundations for the new goat barn several years ago. It was only meant to be in the field temporarily, but the goats enjoyed climbing on it so much that we decided to leave it there!

Pandora checking whether the grass tastes good

So, how many goats can you fit on top of a mound of earth?

Coming to investigate what mum is up to

Just as an aside, I forgot to include in my Saturday blog that I almost had a close encounter with the Kent Constabulary on Friday night! One of my occasional milk customers lives down in the Weald and so we arrange to meet at a central point to save us both driving miles. The place we have chosen is a fairly large car park outside a warehouse that is closed at night - the car park is therefore always empty. I arrived there quite late on Friday night to find a police car parked up just across the road, watching my customer who was already parked and waiting for me.

The two policemen watched with interest as we both got out of our cars, money changed hands and car boots opened. Large boxes were moved from van to car and then both boots were firmly shut. As we got back in our cars, the police car started to move off as well and we were eagerly waiting for them to come and arrest us for dealing in unpasteurised goat's milk. Great disappointment when the car turned the other way and went off down the road!!

Bad behaviour in the parlour (again)

2011-11-26T23:00:00.000Z

Before starting milking we separate those who need milking from those who don't. So, all the goatlings (goat teenagers) and dry goats are moved to one side of the barn and all the milkers are moved to the other side so that they can all pass through the parlour.

Here's KiKi waiting patiently at the gate to come in:

And here's young David demonstrating how to milk a goat!

As the girls leave the parlour, they go down a ramp and along the outside of the barn to join all the goatlings etc on the other side. This ensures that goats only come through the parlour once and that we only have those who need milking. Nice theory ...

At the end of the parlour there is a small wooden gate which is opened to let the goats out onto the ramp. And it is here that the theory falls down ... certain goatlings have discovered that they can run UP the ramp from the outside and into the parlour as the gate is opened to let the others out.

The main culprit is young Bassey (as in Shirley) who appears regularly at the outer gate:

She stands and waits for the gate to be opened and then seizes her chance as she barges through in the opposite direction to everyone else going out:

The main reason for doing this, apart from annoying the humans, is to check that there is no food left in any of the food troughs in the parlour. And so, she works her way along every trough just in case ...

And no picture of the parlour would be complete without Tinky facing the wrong direction:

Feathered friends

2011-11-24T21:29:00.000Z

One of the nice things about doing new markets is the opportunity to meet a whole load of new and interesting people. One of my London markets has introduced me to one such lovely customer - Sara - and her beautiful African Grey Parrot, GeeGee ('pronounced like 'gee' in 'gee whiz' and she DOES whiz about a lot' says Sara).

I thought that as GeeGee also loves goat's cheese (and therefore counts as a customer!) that she should appear on our blog. And it makes a change from pictures of goats!!

So, here she is - meet GeeGee Parrot (also known as 'She-Who-Flies' and 'Miss Featherface'):

Sara keeps an old souffle dish full of water which makes a perfect ducking dish for GeeGee. The only problem is that Sara often gets as wet as the parrot!

It would also seem that she is great at helping with preparing dinner. Whilst Sara is cooking, GeeGee gives a hand with the vegetable peelings - here she is with a bit of parsnip:

Hopefully, we will have more pics of GeeGee in the future ... When Sara was younger she used to live in Kent and had a goat of her own called Victoria - hence her liking for our goat's milk. Now she lives in the town, she can't have a goat but it looks like GeeGee has plenty of character to keep Sara occupied!

Feeding time for the animals

2011-11-23T14:00:00.000Z

As I have mentioned on several previous occasions, goats are not slow in coming forward when there is fresh hay to be had. After milking all the hayracks are refilled with fresh straw and hay and when the gate is opened, it is like the first day of the January sales! It is always wise to stand well back and wait for the crowd to dash past.

One of the first books I ever read on goatkeeping contained a section on housing and the author mentioned that all doorways should be wide enough to accomodate even the largest goat entering at speed. This always comes to mind when I see the girls running to their hay racks, udders swinging. Even when they are hugely pregnant, they do not seem to slow down at all - those poor kids inside must get thrown around and squashed all the time!

David and I always joke that it's almost as if they have never seen hay before. To a visitor, it would certainly look like we never bother to feed them as they are SO eager to get to those hay racks.

This morning, after I had survived the onslaught of a mass of large hungry goats pushing past me, I decided to take a few pictures. And so here they are, stuffing themselves at the various hay racks:

There's that naughty black goat in the hay rack again!

I still have a number of little meat boys waiting to go to the butcher. But, as our butcher has recently burnt his arm very badly and is currently off work, it looks like they may well be spending Xmas with us. I could take them to another abbatoir but that would mean a longer journey for them and I am not particularly happy to take them anywhere else. And so we wait!

Here are the little chaps eating their breakfast this morning:

Look at those lovely horns! We don't bother having the meat boys disbudded like the other kids (no point and saves on the huge vet bill!) and so they grow the most beautiful horns. I do love my little men - they are SO handsome!

Where there's muck ....

2011-11-20T20:53:00.000Z

There is even more muck!!!!

David has spent the last 3 days mucking out the entire barn so that everyone is clean and ready for the winter. Still, he got to play with his new dung fork grab thing, so he was a happy boy. Amazing what keeps men amused :-)

And here he is toddling along in his tractor in the sunshine spreading some of last year's muck onto one of our fields:

And while everyone is starting to get ready for Xmas, it would appear that my Xmas cactus has got a bit ahead of itself:

In full flower with 5 weeks to go. I think it has peaked too early - there won't be a single flower left by Xmas Day!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous for the past few days and the goats have been making the most of the sunshine. Even though the big chaps are now indoors in the barn, we can open up the big front gates so that they can enjoy the warm sunshine. It also gives the place a bit of an airing as the barn is getting a bit 'manly' with all those hormones still raging.

One of my jobs tonight is to go through my mating list and see who is left. We have to make a final decision on who is running through the winter (ie, not being put into kid) and then I need to organise my scanning man to come and check who is actually pregnant and how many kids we can expect next year. And then I can book my nervous breakdown ...

Whilst looking for some more goatie pics to post on the blog, it suddenly occurred to me that I have never posted any of Ben and Nell, our two Border Collies. It would seem that I haven't got any up to date shots of them either - they are now about 18 months old. So, for the moment, here are a couple of pictures taken when they were puppies:

Ben - fast asleep at a couple of weeks old

Nell and Ben

JoJo has a boyfriend!

2011-11-18T22:03:00.001Z

JoJo is our beautiful Anglo-Nubian goatling.

Johari, to give her her full name, is our only Anglo Nubian. She came to us last year as a kid from one of the top UK breeders. Although she looks very different to everyone else in the goatshed, she fitted in extremely well and has made lots of friends. The other kids did look at her a little strangely when she first arrived and many of them were fascinated by those lovely long ears. But now, everyone has got used to her and they no longer stare at her or chew her ears!

As I got out of my van early this morning and walked towards the barn, I could hear an extremely loud noise. At first it sounded like someone had their head stuck in something and so I ran to the door and switched on the light only to find young JoJo standing up on the gate, wagging her tail and bawling her head off at the boys in the next barn.

We do not possess an Anglo-Nubian male and, although we could happily use one of our own boys on JoJo, we wanted to keep her kids as pure ANs. So, after milking I immediately called up another goatkeeper some distance away and booked JoJo in for a little amorous liaison later in the day.

However, Friday is my main delivery day and so David drew the short straw of having to load our young madam into the trailer and take her for a little drive. Apparently she behaved herself impeccably and was rather taken with young Dazzel. Here she is, meeting him for the first time as he peers over his door at her:

And here is the man himself ... just a kid at the moment but he will grow into a fine big male in a couple of years:

Hopefully, everything will go according to plan and in the spring we will have some small black kids with very long ears!

Ginger - the Houdini of the goat world

2011-11-14T21:24:00.000Z

Once upon a time there was a very naughty goat called Ginger. When she was very small, she would slide out through the bars of her pen and run around the barn. She would jump in all the feed troughs and sleep on the lucerne bale, until a human came and found her and put her back in with her friends.

The humans thought that as Ginger got older and larger, she would not be able to fit through the gaps in the bars any longer, but still she continued to squuueeeeeeezzzze herself out through the gate. She would run around the barn, eat all the best hay from the large stack of bales and would then curl up in a corner and go to sleep.

As Ginger grew larger and fatter (due to all the extra hay that she ate) she began to develop a small udder, even though she had never had kids. She started to produce milk and so the first 'maiden milker' in the herd had to join in with the routine of milking twice every day. The humans thought that having an udder would definitely stop her climbing out of her pen. Just goes to show that humans know nothing ...

Ginger has now grown so fat that she can no longer squeeze through the gap in the gate. But as she has also now grown taller, she just climbs OVER the gate instead.

And here she is ...

Checking the coast is clear

Getting into position

And over she goes!

Apparently, it's all my fault. According to David, Ginger only climbs out when she hears my van drive into the farm yard. And whenever I open the door to the barn, there she is waiting for me - usually with a large mouthful of something to keep her strength up!

Ginger is now about 18 months old and has been mated, ready to kid next spring. Many goats change character completely once they have kidded - they calm down and become much more friendly. It will be very interesting to see what happens to Ginger. Genetics are very powerful though and so I suspect that we will just end up with a couple of small very naughty kids who are taught escape tactics by their mother!

Modern Art in the parlour

2011-11-12T21:57:00.000Z

It would appear that David has taken up modern art in his spare time. That, or extreme boredom has set in! On entering the milking parlour yesterday I found two creations.

Exhibit number 1 - Water Pipe:

Two short lengths of water pipe balanced on a gate post.

Exhibit number 2: Feed Bins

Random lids. Too lazy to put the correct lid on the bin or an artistic statement?!

I'm going to try and sell them to the Tate Modern - see if they are interested in a bit of agricultural art.

Anyhow - to more important matters! Balham Farmers Market was excellent again today. Seemed busier than the first time I went there a couple of weeks ago and I certainly sold a lot more cheese. I also had a couple of pre-orders via email - one family came to pick up 60 pints of milk!

I have found the customers at both markets to be extremely welcoming and friendly. It is also absolutely delightful to be thanked by shoppers for taking the time to come up to London. They really seem to appreciate the time and effort given by the stallholders and recognise that everyone has a very early start and travel a long way to bring their products into town for them to enjoy. Once again, the weather was very kind to us but I'm sure that it won't last much longer!

Back in the parlour, I managed to get a photo of Willow being exceedingly lazy. Why stand when you can sit?!

RIP Cherie

2011-11-10T22:38:00.000Z

When you have livestock, there are good days and there are bad days. Sometimes there are very bad days. Today was one such day when we lost one of our lovely girls.

Cherie was a lovely little British Toggenburg - not even 3 years old. She was named after her father Cherokee and was mated to our white male Daramac last autumn. She was the last of our goats to kid this spring, giving us a little white female (Zola) and her little brown brother.

Although she had a slight problem with mastitis on one side of her udder when she kidded, she quickly got over it and had been fine ever since. However, about 3 weeks ago, she suffered another sudden bout and, despite all our efforts, did not respond to any treatment. On veterinary advice, we took the heartbreaking decision to have her put down and so she died quietly in my arms with all her friends around her.

Although little white Zola is a different colour to her mum, she has the same cheeky little face and a very similar character so Cherie will not be forgotten.

When it all goes quiet

2011-11-07T22:07:00.000Z

The only time that it's really quiet in the goat sheds is at feeding time when everyone has their head firmly stuck in a trough.

Usually we feed into troughs that are hung outside the metal gates so that the goats have to put their heads through to feed. This keeps the troughs clean and prevents the naughty goats from jumping in them.

Here they are - as demonstrated by Larkin with his current girlfriend, Bassey, enjoying their evening meal:

However, we are using temporary feeding troughs for the female kids in their new house and these are at ground level inside the living area. Getting the food into the troughs without being mobbed by a horde of small bleating creatures is virtually impossible. I thought I would try a different approach this morning and fill up their hay racks first as a diversionary tactic. Always good to have a plan, I feel.

Well, it worked very well for about 30 seconds and then everyone noticed that I was sneaking in over the back gate with sacks of food. Amazing how much speed a herd of small determined goats has over a short distance ...

Somehow I managed to get food into all the troughs without losing my balance ... and then suddenly it all went quiet. Just the contented sounds of munching for a few minutes.

As soon as they have finished eating, the naughtiness begins again and whilst some wander over to the hayracks or the water bowl, others head straight for me and I am flattened by a number of them jumping on me. Always wear old clothes when visiting small goats ...

Markets and mayhem

2011-11-06T21:43:00.000Z

My poor little van ... fully loaded up again this morning to sail up to Parson's Green farmers market. I hadn't been there before and so it was a whole new experience to find the end of the New Kings Road and the market. Why doesn't my 2006 map of England tell me that you can't turn right onto Putney Bridge! Fortunately it was easy to do a u-turn a bit further along the road and then come at it from the other direction.

This is another new market and seems to be doing rather well, judging by the very favourable comments from my immediate stallholding neighbours. It certainly proved to be rather a good day for Ellie's Dairy and our milk, meat and cheese went down very well with the good people of SW6. I look forward to my next visit there in a month's time.

Back at the farm, Daramac has decided that he wants to be in the same pen as the other big males. As I said yesterday, he is separated from them in his own area but the gates that surround him have vertical railings with gaps. Being a slim chap, he has discovered that he can squeeze through the gap and so he lets himself in and out of his pen as he wishes, using the railings something like a cat-flap! He squeezes out into the main area, does a bit of bleating and running about, winds Fremlin up a bit, and then squeezes back into his own private house, knowing that the other males are too fat to follow him. He seems quite happy though and the other boys don't mind him - they just seem to view him as slightly odd - 'ah, here's that mad white thing again. Ignore it and it will go away'!!

I think there must be something in the air at the moment as we are having all sorts of naughtiness in the milking parlour as well. Tonight we managed the '13 goats to a parlour' routine again as Dolores and Winky managed to jam themselves into the same stall. Here they are in the centre of the picture - Winky is the brown goat to the left and Dolores is the black goat to the right.

And yes, if you were thinking that the name 'Winky' sounds familiar .... Winky is the sister of Tinky who has also appeared in our blog. She is the small naughty goat who turns round in the parlour to face the wrong way. As you may gather from the picture above, Winky is also a small naughty goat. I think it runs in the genes as they both bear a striking resemblance in looks and character to their mother Cobweb. I blame the parents ...

And due to popular demand ... more small goatie pics!

But bear in mind that small goats grow into large goats ... One of those tiny people above grew up to be our first 'head boy', my beautiful Shaggy.

It's all go!

2011-11-05T21:35:00.001Z

First of all, let's start with the most important bit ... piccies of female kids in their new house. Here we go:

Here's Mum!!!
I tried to sneak in at the back and over the gate but I was spotted!

Lots of space to skip about and big boxes to jump on

Those hay racks are very popular!

Everyone seems to have settled in very well in the new barn and they all have so much more space to run about. Despite being so large and open, the barn is actually very sheltered from the weather and David has also put a row of large straw bales along the open side to stop any draught at ground level. so everyone keeps nice and cosy.

The big (smelly) males have now moved back into the front of the hay barn for the winter. It's always good to have them back indoors when the weather starts to turn wet. Although they have a huge covered area outside at the back of the cattle yard, they tend to spend their time out in the open snorting at all the girls and, as a result, get very muddy and dirty. Indoors, they can see the girls from a distance and snort at them in comfort!

However, uproar in the male household this afternoon as we took Daramac away from his ladies and moved him over to be with the other boys. Not happy. Not happy at all. You have never heard such a noise! As he has been a busy boy and has finished with all his ladies, he was due to return to Margate to be with his best friend Gus. However, poor Gus hurt one of his back legs very badly last week and so Daramac has to stay with us for the moment whilst Gus recovers.

We have penned him separately right next to the other boys while they all get used to each other. It is not fair to keep him on his own but, to put him straight in with our other boys would cause a lot of fighting - especially at this time of year when the hormones are raging! So, everyone has a chance to make friends before we either move him back to Margate or put him in with the other boys.

Larkin, on the other hand, is a very happy boy as he is now penned off with several ladies of his own. Heaven!

Wye Market was a little damp this morning but didn't stop those hardened shoppers from coming out, despite the fact that our cheese stall was located behind the largest puddle in the market. I think we either have to supply wellies for bad weather or construct some kind of bridge!

Off to Parson's Green market in London tomorrow.

And, amidst all the frantic activity, you will be pleased to know that Marmite had another busy day as well:

Moving house!

2011-11-02T22:30:00.001Z

An exciting day for all the kids today as we had a bit of a move around. We are running short on space for the winter and so have decided to move all the female kids to another much larger barn. After checking all the eartags and making sure that everybody had their feet trimmed, we were ready to go. It took us 3 trailer loads to move everyone and there was great excitement as they arrived at the new barn and started to skip about.

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to take any photos today as we were so busy sorting everyone out so I hope to make up for this in the next few days.

We have kept the little male kids in the main barn and also moved our two stud male kids back indoors. Caffrey and Bramling have been outside with the big males for a few weeks now but, as the little girls moved out today, I thought we would bring them back in with their friends. However, they are much bigger than all the other little chaps and, obviously, much more macho as they both still have their erm ... manly bits and pieces! So there was much running about and bleating as they started to chase the smaller kids.

You could see the look on their faces. 'ah ... smaller goats. Must be female. Let's go and snort at one of them and see what it does. Oh. It runs away. Looks like it's a boy. That's rubbish. Oh well, let's chase it anyway!'

Over the next couple of days David will be mucking out the barns where we had the kids so that we can move the big (smelly) males back indoors ready for the winter. Once they are back in from the cattle yard, then the Gracie Moos can come back up to the farm. It's all go at the moment!

Off to a quick market/food festival in the morning at Charing - very local, just a few miles up the road. Then back to the farm to unload the van and then reload it with a delivery of frozen milk for High Weald Dairy in Sussex.

Time for a cute goatie picture to make up for the lack of photos of the kids moving house!

Markets and meetings

2011-10-30T21:03:00.000Z

Well, our first foray into the London market scene went pretty well I think. Early start to get to Balham in plenty of time to get set up for 9am opening and had to leave David milking the goats (what a good man he is!) but think it is hopefully going to be a worthwhile exercise.

The stallholders were very welcoming and pleasant and the customers were all very enthusiastic about the goatie produce we had on offer. I believe that I am the only person doing raw goat's milk at any of the London markets and so word had already gone out via email from LFM that I would be at Balham. I had taken a fair amount of milk with me and had sold out well before the end of the market, which was very encouraging.

Several of the customers said that they would be coming regularly to buy milk and one lady rushed over to my stall saying that they had only come to the market because they had heard I was going to be there. How popular we are!!! It was wonderful.

The market manager was pleased with the stall presentation and several of the customers also remarked on how nice the display looked. This is the 'milk' end of the table ..

I always try to make an effort with a stall to make it interesting - plenty of information for people to read if they want to and always samples of cheese and milk on offer for everyone who wants to taste. Very important with goat produce as many people have a pre-conceived idea that they will not like goat's cheese. My job is to convince them otherwise! Not so difficult usually when they have tasted our cheese and milk.

This morning I left David milking yet again as I had to drive up to Shrewley in Warwickshire for my British Toggenburg Breed Society goat meeting. It's a long drive there and back in a day but it's only once a year and it's always nice to catch up with other goatkeepers. I was delighted to meet one particular retired breeder who I haven't seen for about 5 years. Graham bred some of the earliest goats to join our herd and was thrilled to know that we still have Footsie, Flora and Foxglove.

You have met Flora and Footsie in earlier blogs, but not Foxglove. Here she is, looking gorgeous at the Kent County Show a few years ago:

Like all the other goats we had from Graham's Mellan herd - large, stroppy and very confident! Also, very good milkers. All of his girls have given us lovely kids and although we have sadly lost Fancyfree, Fig and Firefly, we still have three of the original girls left.

Cheesemaking tomorrow - probably a batch of Ellie's but maybe Shaggy's camembert to get the stocks up. Will make my mind up on the way to the cheese plant in the morning!

Odd one out

2011-10-27T16:13:00.000+01:00

I thought we would start this blog with a simple visual goatie test. Can you spot the odd one out in the following photo of the milking parlour taken early this morning?

Yes, indeed. Well done everyone. There would seem to be someone facing the wrong direction.

Hello Tinky goat!

You may remember that I said the goats were starting to get naughty as they became more used to the parlour. This is one of the things that small naughty goats have discovered is quite fun to do. When they have finished their food, annoyed the goats on either side by grabbing their ears and exhausted all the possibilities for naughtiness in one direction, some of the youngsters are small enough that they can turn themselves round in the stall and face the opposite direction while they are waiting for the larger goats with more milk to finish. This is always good fun as you can watch the humans and have a nibble on all those lovely milking pipes hanging down from the ceiling. Great fun!

Well, we survived the visit from London Farmers Markets on Tuesday. Having met Cheryl at Ashford station around 11am, I then spent the rest of the day showing her around the goats and the various places where we make the cheese. There was also a fair bit of paperwork to go through, so we adjourned to Macknade Fine Foods in Faversham for lunch in their newly extended cafe. Very pleasant it was too!

I have to say that I have been very impressed with the LFM organisation so far – they are extremely thorough in checking out their stallholders. When I visited Balham market a couple of weeks ago, I also found the market manager to be very professional – he was meeting shoppers at the gate, had lots of information laid out for people to read and take home and, according to Cheryl, will also happily take food samples off your stall and walk around the market with them handing them out to shoppers.

Anyhow, hopefully we passed our test and I am certainly being allowed to attend Balham Market this Saturday, so it’s all systems go! It will mean an early start for me and I will almost certainly have to leave David finishing off the goats so that I have plenty of time to navigate the traffic and set up the stall in advance of the 9am market opening. I expect it will be pouring with rain – nothing quite like struggling with a gazebo in the rain!

On the cheesemaking front, it’s been another busy week. Made the usual batch of Ellies on Monday, cow’s milk Brie and Camembert for Cheesemakers of Canterbury on Wednesday and have a small batch of Fremlin’s Kentish Log sitting in the cheese vat today, ready for draining and moulding over the weekend. Then Ellies again on Monday and milk to Dargate on Thursday for Kelly’s Canterbury Goat hard cheese.

This time of year, the milk starts to drop off quite considerably and, with a growing number of bottled milk orders, we struggle to keep up with demand. We have to try and educate everyone that goat’s cheese is a seasonal product and, just because you can get it from a supermarket all year round, it doesn’t mean that Ellie’s Dairy has mountains of it all the time! It can take careful marketing ... keep enough going for everyone to have a little and look forward to the spring when supplies of milk rocket as all the new milkers come on stream!

Magic needles!

2011-10-24T21:10:00.001+01:00

At Ellie’s Dairy we prefer to try and treat any ailments with alternative therapies such as herbalism and homeopathy wherever possible. We have also used acupuncture on several of our goats in the past – mainly for joint and muscle problems - and have had fantastic results. We use a local vet, Monica David, who specialises in veterinary acupuncture. Prior to meeting us, Monica had not worked on goats but had spent her time with horses, dogs and cats. However, the principles are exactly the same – the question was whether the goat would stand still long enough for treatment!

Our subjects have ranged from a young kid with a very badly swollen leg joint to our dear Fremlin, who was starting to lose condition in his back legs. As you can appreciate, a large male goat needs to have strong back legs and so we gave Fremlin several treatments to try and strengthen his muscles to prevent his legs giving way on him. However, it is a naturally degenerative condition and so we cannot totally repair the damage, but Monica has managed to get him to a stage where he is now much fitter and stronger and is able to work with his ladies without falling over!

Although Fremlin is a big soft old boy, I was slightly concerned that I would not be able to control him when he was in the middle of a barn full of females and was having needles stuck in his legs. However, I needn’t have worried – he was extremely well behaved and just happily stood next to me for the full 15 minutes of his treatment. He was so relaxed that, on one occasion, he actually fell asleep and ended up on the floor!

This picture was taken one dark and cold winter evening - note the winter hat and number of layers that I am wearing. I am not actually restraining him at all - just giving him a nice cuddle! He would just stand like this with his head cradled in my arms.

During the spring, one of our girls was desperately ill but we managed to nurse her through a horrendous couple of weeks to an almost complete recovery. She could so easily have died but I was not going to give up on her as she clearly wanted to fight to stay alive. As many goatkeepers will know – once a goat makes up its mind to die, there is not a lot you can do. They are very strong-willed and have to want to fight. Siouxsie fought and won.

However, she has been left with a slight facial problem in that she sometimes has problems chewing her food and it can often end up packed in her cheek, rather like a hamster. Although she has gained weight since being so ill, she still could do with a little more and I wondered if some acupuncture might stimulate the facial nerves and muscle function so that she can chew her food properly and get all the nutrients that she needs. It’s worth a try anyway! So, Monica came over tonight and Siouxsie had her first treatment.

If you look closely you can just about see 3 of the needles on the right side of her face – 1 behind her eye and 2 in her cheek. There was also another one further down her neck. Poor Siouxsie! But, as you see, she was not bothered about the needles at all and was a very good girl. She will have several more treatments on a weekly basis and then we will see if there is any improvement. Fingers crossed!

I have my official visit from the London Farmers Market organisation tomorrow and so most of the day will be taken up with showing Cheryl around the farm and the various locations where we make the cheese. Wish me luck!

Thermals and sunshine

2011-10-22T21:40:00.001+01:00

Well I have to say that's it's been a bit of a funny week .. Seem to have been very busy but don't seem to have much to show for it! Sound familiar???!!

Most of my 'spare' time has been tied up with trying to get the VAT return done ... worth the time spent though as it looks like the Revenue owe us a bit again this time. Always nice to get something back ..

The weather is still gorgeous, although the temperature has dropped considerably since last week. It's officially autumn/winter in the goat shed now as both David and myself have donned our thermal t-shirts and hats for the early morning milking. It's chilly getting out of bed that early in the morning ... And dark ...

As the weather has been so nice, we have been trying to encourage the goats to go outside into the field to graze rather than stay indoors and eat our hay. Like most other farmers in the South East, we did not have a good hay crop this year and will be struggling to make it last through to next summer. So, before the winter sets in, we are trying to conserve as much as we can by only feeding a little hay. It always makes me happy to see the girls outside in the field - that's how goats should be, not stuck indoors in a barn all the time.

Some of them stayed indoors and just enjoyed the warm sunshine:

Or hung about in the yard between the barn and the field - nice and sheltered, out of the wind:

However, David relented after milking this evening and decided to give them all a treat by putting one of the large round bales into their new cradle. This was the sea of expectant little goatie faces all waiting for the tractor to finish so that the gate could be opened.

Once the gate is opened, you have to stand well out of the way to avoid getting trampled in the rush! It sounds like thunder as they all gallop across the barn. I expect to find a herd of very fat contented lazy goats in the morning!

No markets this weekend but I am trying to get things together ready for my first London market at Balham next Saturday. I also have my official visit from the market organisers this coming Tuesday to see if they approve of us and what we do. The rules for London markets are quite strict and they come to verify that you do actually produce what you say you do. Seems fair enough to me! So, looking forward to meeting Cheryl on Tuesday.

By the way - this blog has been live for 6 weeks now and we have had 1,244 pages viewed. Not bad eh?! Only 4 followers but there must be plenty of you out there dropping in just to read the latest news. I am thrilled that we are so popular. Hope I am managing to keep you all entertained!

Time for another cute goatie pic .. any excuse ;-)

So, how many kids can you fit in a bucket?! Three, it would seem ...

What's in a name?

2011-10-19T23:31:00.000+01:00

All our goats have names. Many people ask how we name the animals, so I thought I would do a quick blog on the subject. And yes, we do know all of them!

We have a pedigree herd and all our goats are registered with the British Goat Society. Their names consist of two parts - their herd name and their proper name. Our herd name is 'Shanvern' and so all the animals born in our herd take this prefix. 'Shanvern' is an amalgam of David and myself - David SHANnon and Debbie VERNon. Simple really ...

Goats that we have brought in from other herds have different names and as we started by buying in several goats, we have a nice selection of other herd names as well. Some examples are - Mellan, Zeila, Alailah, Wrotham, Moonlin, Dulyn, Langhome, Willowdown, Dresden, Monach, Laxfield, Tetherdown, Thameside and Patricaken.

Willowdown Quince and Willowdown Hebe

As for their proper names ... many serious breeders like to identify breeding 'lines' and so may start all their names with a particular letter. We have a few goats from one herd where one of the lines began with the letter 'F'. So, we have Flora, Firefly, Fig, Foxglove, Footloose and Fancyfree. Another breeder started with 'M' and so we have Mora, Marlin, Margot, Maisie, Meryl and Moyra.

Zeila Marlin

David and Mellan Footloose (known as 'Footsie')

Another goatkeepers' favourite naming convention is to begin with a particular letter one year and another letter the following year. For example, all goats born last year would start with 'A' and all goats born this year would start with 'B'. Next year would start with 'C' ... and so on ...

True to form, David and I took a totally different approach to naming our animals and so we normally use the names of characters from cartoons, movies, books and anything else that takes our fancy. Chaos theory!! No pattern whatsoever. The only general rule that we have is that stud males are named after breweries, beers or hops - hence Fremlin, Beamish, Bramling and Larkin. British Alpine females (black and white) are usually named after soul or motown singers - hence Nina, Aretha, Billie and Etta, to name but a few.

So, this makes our naming totally random. And it also makes it extremely difficult to remember everybody's names!

There are exceptions of course for names that we just like or which someone else has chosen. Francesca, who helped with kidding this year, has lived in the Kenyan bush for several years and so some of our kids this year have Swahili or Samburu names - Mamakina, Nibor and Nyaupe. One of our vet students was a Harry Potter fan and this gave us a huge selection to choose from - we have Hokey, Diggle, Dumble, Minerva and Hermione (and many more!)

Hokey and Diggle (tiny person on the right!)

The goats tend to learn their names as they become milkers as that is the point when their lives become a little more routine with having to come in for milking twice a day. Some animals will learn their names earlier but most only when they keep on hearing it called out to them. Of course, some names can sound similar and a call of 'Cora' will also encourage a bleat from Mora and Flora. And some goats will answer to anything if they think there is a chance of extra food!

Happy Birthday David!

2011-10-16T21:54:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday David! 21 again ... And what a beautiful day for a birthday! This was the view from the goat barn this morning as we were milking. Taken on my phone so not fantastic quality but gives you some idea of just how gorgeous it was being up early with all that mist around.

Remember the little chap who kept jumping in the hayracks?? Well, there was two of them at it yesterday and so I moved them both into another area in the hay barn with another group of kids so that they couldn't do it any more. Spoilt their fun! Kids in hayracks are just accidents waiting to happen as they invariably get their feet or legs caught up at some point and then we have nasty injuries or broken legs. I wasn't going to wait for that to happen and so moved them both out. They are having great fun making new friends and running about in the new area.

However, this morning, there was a further 3 naughty little people boinging in and out of the racks ... I could not move all of them and so David and I changed the fencing that the racks sit on in order to make it higher. So, now the racks are too high for them to jump in. Problem solved!

New improved and higher hay racks

We had already decided to give ourselves part of the day off in order to celebrate David's birthday. We don't get out much these days and so it was a rare treat. We even had a wash ..

I had already booked us a table at a fab restaurant in Tankerton (near Whitstable) called JoJo's. It is a while since we treated ourselves to a meal there and they have moved into new and larger premises - absolutely gorgeous. Here's a few pics from their website:

The food was stunning, as always, and it was great to see Nikki and Paul doing so well.

After a wonderful meal we took a short stroll along the prom and watched people enjoying the glorious weather at the seaside. The sea was absolutely calm - not a ripple in sight. Again, pics taken on the phone:

The second picture was taken in the direction of the Wind Farm but as the resolution is not so good on a camera phone, the turbines disappear into the mist somewhat!

The afternoon passed all too quickly and it was soon time to return to the farm to start the evening milking and feeding. No rest for the wicked ... or goatkeepers ...

Cheats never win!

2011-10-15T21:32:00.000+01:00

This morning Wye Market had an 'apple' theme and there was a competition for the longest apple peel. Pauline, our Market Manager, had provided apples and a strange peeling device (knives not allowed for health and safety reasons!) and shoppers and stallholders were invited to try their hand at creating the longest single peel. Having checked with Pauline in advance that we were allowed to bring our own apples, I arrived with two very nice Howgate Wonders (obtained from a friendly local fruit farmer). Here's a picture of Jane (Cheesemakers of Canterbury) showing off her nice pair:

As you see, HWs are somewhat larger than your average apple so we thought we had a fair chance at winning the competition. I was first into the ring and with my borrowed knife (thank you Enzo's Bakery) set about my HW. The technique is to peel narrow but deep.

Absolute concentration!

However, I hit an obstacle and my peel broke off at 60cm. Feeble! Still, everyone watching enjoyed tasting the apple.

So, then it was Jane's turn .... as her peel started to dangle precariously, she thought that it would be better to rest it on the ground to try and prevent breakage:

A good attempt at 107cm!

The gauntlet was down ... This was war. Round 2 ... I managed 76cm with a normal size apple and Jane lost her peel around 60cm. One all. We decided to call it a day at that as we had a queue of customers waiting to be served cheese!

The official judge decided that stallholders should be placed in a separate category (presumably for cheating!) and the competition was eventually won by the last gentleman to take part. Sitting on a straw bale he diligently peeled the entire apple without a single break. Respect is due ...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Daramac has been busy with his ladies. Two of our milkers, Hebe and Margot, had a sleep-over with him last night and I have to say that he was looking a bit weary when I switched the barn lights on this morning! He has also taken to scratching the top of his head on one of the metal pillars - this leaves him with a lovely red head as you can see ..

Daramac sired a lot of our kids last season - here are some of them when they were smaller ..

Waffle and hayracks

2011-10-12T22:38:00.003+01:00

I spent yesterday evening in the company of a charitable group in Sittingbourne called the Catenians. I had been invited to speak to the ladies of the group at one of their meetings, while the gentlemen discussed more serious business matters. Laptop and digital projector in hand, I sallied forth to regale the ladies with tales of goats and cheese. My allotted hour passed extremely quickly and the ladies all seemed to enjoy the talk and the many pictures of goats.

Everyone in the group was extremely welcoming and I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, especially as I had been invited to join the group for dinner, which was delicious. As a green-haired, lentil-eating vegetarian type, I had prebooked my meal with my host who had advised that I had a 'roasted vegetable bake' to look forward to. However, on arrival, it seemed that there had been a slight change of menu. Returning from the kitchen with a broad grin on his face, my host announced that I would be enjoying a nut roast with, yes you've guessed it, goat's cheese topping!!

I had prepared a cheeseboard with a full range of the Ellie's Dairy and Cheesemakers of Canterbury goat cheese and, so that the gentlemen could enjoy this as well, we decided to offer the cheese after the main meal. There were a lot of very positive comments about the cheeses, including one gentleman who said that he would be taking some down to his house in France on his next visit as he considered it better than the French goat cheese! I did notice that there were an awful lot of empty plates at the end of the meal .. not a scrap of cheese to be seen.

Pictured with Steve Goldsmith, Vice-President of the Swale Circle of Catenians, who was my very generous host for the evening.

I managed to get a fairly close picture of the Gracie Moos today as well - look how big those calves have grown in a couple of weeks!

And, jumping in hayracks seems to be the new sport in the goat shed. The British Alpine goatling that we have already seen was at it again this morning ...

And it seems that she has become a bit of a role model for the kids across the way ...

This little chap has discovered that he can bounce in and out of the hayracks very easily, so there is no stopping him now. Fortunately, noone else has copied him. Yet ...

And the big chaps also got a whole new big bale of straw in their pen this morning. As they spend so much time pacing around blowing raspberries at the girls, they tend to make part of their area extremely muddy, so we have to load it up with fresh straw on a regular basis to keep them comfortable and clean.

As you see, Norville found it extremely comfortable! The small black goat to the left of the picture is Caffrey (son of Max), one of our little apprentice stud boys who will hopefully be moving to Somerset later this year.

And here's some of the big fellas as a couple of the girls grabbed their attention!

From the left, you can see Larkin, Max and Fremlin behind him. Beamish is up close and personal and you can just about see Norville in front of Max. Navajo was taking it easy out of camera range!

Talented people and gorgeous things

2011-10-09T20:39:00.000+01:00

It's been a weekend of markets for me. I drove up to South London on Saturday to check out Balham Farmers Market as I will be starting there in a few weeks time and just wanted to get a feel for the place.

The market only started on 17th September, so it's still pretty new and it always takes a while for shoppers to get into the habit of coming to a market regularly. Not a huge market but some lovely stalls with delicious food and a steady stream of shoppers spending money (which is what we like!). And it would have been rude to go all that way and not buy anything, so I filled my bag with yummy goodies to bring home. Raw cow's milk and buffalo mozzarella from Alham Wood in Somerset, fresh ravioli filled with courgette flowers and ricotta, the most fabulous baked cheesecake you have ever tasted and freshly made salsa dip. Delicious!

Today was my local market at Lenham and, although we set up in wind and pouring rain, the sun did eventually come out and brought the good shoppers to our stalls. Lenham is classed as a 'country market' and features a lot of craft stalls as well as the traditional food and plant stalls. I always admire the craft stalls - those people are just SO talented, they make you feel very boring and plain! One such exceedingly talented lady is Claire Matheson who designs and makes the most gorgeous handmade scarves, handbags and jewellery.

These photos don't really do her justice but they give you some idea of her range. I am the proud owner of one of her bags (the large giraffe print one above) and it really is the most wonderful thing. I make no excuses for advertising her here as she is one of the most talented people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. If you are looking for unusual or unique presents, then Claire is your woman. She doesn't have a website yet but you can email her on exclusive_matheson@hotmail.co.uk. and she also does personal visits and party bookings. Fab ideas for Xmas ...

Back at the ranch, the goaties have been enjoying their new hayrack again today. Seems that the British Alpine goats are getting a head for heights:

The boy is back in town!

2011-10-07T23:15:00.000+01:00

My white boy Daramac arrived back from his vacation in Margate yesterday as planned. When he left us at the end of last season, he was only a kid:

But you know what kids are like ... they leave home and grow up. They grow beards and forget to wash. They start to think about girls. And then they come home again.

Like any male goat, he has developed a few bad habits and it's a good job that you can't view this blog in full 'smellyvision'. The odour of a male goat in season has to be experienced to be believed.

Walking a very large and powerful new male through a group of 150 girls is quite a challenge but I managed to get him in without any mishaps as we had the element of surprise on our side - I managed to unload him out of the trailer and get through the back gate of the goat barn before the girls noticed we were there. I put him straight in with a specially selected group of goatlings (goat teenagers!) and they immediately all snorted and ran to the far end of their area. Although they have been getting to know our on-site males, they have not yet had the opportunity to experience a large male at close quarters and Daramac was a bit more than they bargained for!

After the initial panic and a lot of snorting and running about, everyone calmed down. The goatlings are getting used to having him around and some of them are even brave enough to go up to him for a chat. He has settled in very quickly and is having a lovely time with his harem. Our other boys are a bit put out about the whole thing though as they are still outside at the moment and the new boy has gone straight into the barn. It's just not on, you know! Their turn will come ...

A goaty day

2011-10-05T22:34:00.000+01:00

Today was one of those rare occasions when I managed to spend the majority of the day with the goats. Usually I am dashing off somewhere to make cheese or deliver milk but today I was allowed to stay in the goat shed for the whole day and it was great!

Although it was a bit windier than previous days, the weather was still warm and sunny and the girls wandered out in the field for a short time. Quite a number of them were fluttering their eyelashes at the boys again - there are far too many hormones floating around at the moment! I have managed to get a few mated already but we will start in earnest tomorrow when my boy Daramac returns from his holiday in Margate.

Mac lives with another pedigree milking herd for most of the year to keep their stud male company and returns to his home for a few months to 'work' with our girls. Part of my day was spent sorting out the fencing for his area so that he will have plenty of room to relax with his harem of lovely ladies. He will have over a dozen goatlings living with him permanently as well as the odd milker coming to visit from time to time. I always think that our male goats have a great life!

I also managed to get a couple of photos of one of my little men with strange ears.

With his brother

When the two boys were born, their mum Pebbles was quite impatient for them to stand up and feed and she spent quite some time pulling them both up by their ears. We kept a close eye on her but eventually we had to separate them from her (just the other side of a fence) to let everyone calm down and have a rest for a few hours. She was able to see them and lick them through the fence but couldn't reach through far enough to pull at their ears. After a few hours, we put them back in with her and there was no further trouble. Both these boys should have ears that stick up but as you see, one of the little chaps suffered lasting damage and has the most wonderful little floppy ears.

Difficult choices

2011-10-03T21:30:00.000+01:00

I always find it extremely difficult to take my male kids to the butcher, as I have mentioned before. The worst part is having to choose who will go on a particular day and then carrying them out of the goat shed. All kids are special and all are beautiful (to me at least!) and, although we do not allow ourselves to have favourites, there are always a few each year who win a special place in your heart. It may be because they have a certain character or perhaps they have been unwell or needed some special attention when they were tiny babies, but for whatever reason, it is especially difficult when it is their turn to go.

This morning was one such day as I had to take the last of my little British Alpine men. He was the black kid who, with his sister, jumped on top of the feeder and ran around in circles (see an earlier blog). He had a very characteristic face and strange little bleat and was a very sweet boy. My only consolation is that he had a very happy life and will be greatly appreciated by the customer who receives him.

On a lighter note ... it would seem that Marmite cat has discovered a new favourite place to spend her afternoons. The window to my greenhouse is automatic and opens far enough in the sunshine for Marmite to scale the hedge and climb in. Once inside, she installs herself on the very top shelf of my wooden staging and snuggles down into a wooden trug to sleep away the afternoon in the sunshine. Her only problem is that she stays in there for so long that the sun goes in, the window closes and she can't get out again. So, when I come home in the dark from evening milking, I always have to open the door and let her out. It has become something of a routine now!

And finally - the Gracie Moos. I haven't yet managed to get a close up picture of the new calves as mums are very protective. So, here's a picture of them taken from my bedroom window instead! Note the 4 small brown lumps in the field - 3 calves lying together and the youngest just behind his mother further to the right.

Shorts and Santa

2011-10-01T21:36:00.000+01:00

I had a very surreal experience yesterday when I made a brief visit to one of the local garden centres, wearing shorts in the searing heat of the day and finding the place full of Xmas trees and Santa in the snow. I suppose that's what it must be like to celebrate Xmas in Australia! And again tonight - blistering hot day but almost dark by 7.45pm. Weird ...

Still, the good weather has meant a good turn out for the Broadstairs Food Festival which is going with a swing. Wye Market was pretty good this morning and everyone was enjoying the glorious weather. I don't expect that I will be wearing shorts for the next market in a couple of weeks though, especially as the long range forecast is threatening snow at the end of October!

I am also currently talking to the London Farmer's Markets organisation about the possibility of doing a few markets up in town. It's something that we have been considering for a while and I think that we really have to try it, just to see how we get on. There is certainly a demand for goat's cheese and, more especially, for unpasteurised milk, so hopefully we will have no problem selling our products. I am hoping to go and visit a couple of the markets next week just to get some idea of what I am letting myself in for!

More importantly, we managed to get our first goat mated today. Moyra, a rather large stroppy white goat, did not get in kid last year and, despite our best efforts (and those of our male Daramac!) she remained barren and not milking for the rest of the year. As Daramac is still with another herd at Margate at the moment, we had to select another boy to do the honours today. None of our males are related to her and so every one was a potential suitor but the winner would be whoever managed to get through the gate first! Not surprisingly, it was Navajo who seized the opportunity and pushed all the others out of the way as he dashed out to woo his lady. Job done, he then returned to the other boys with something of a smile on his face! If Moyra holds this time, we are scheduled to start kidding at the beginning of March 2012, a couple of weeks later than usual.

And so, in celebration, I thought we should have a photo of a white kid, just to get everyone in the mood ..

This tiny person was born at the end of February this year. Only a couple of hours old and mum decided that she must be feeling a bit chilly and so virtually buried her in the straw - just left her little head poking out.

Horses and Hayracks

2011-09-29T08:29:00.000+01:00

Great excitement in the goat shed today when David put a new hayrack in for the goats. We are constantly trying to find new and better ways to feed the goats and our current mission is to try and make it easier for us to get hay into the racks for the milkers.

At the moment it can be a bit of a scrum and usually involves me getting seriously trampled by a herd of excited goats. They are able to tell the difference between a bale of hay and a bale of straw from some distance. Straw is OK but not really worth getting up for if you are comfy. Hay, on the other hand, is always worth a dash to the rack. Goats do not care how many other goats or humans they trample to get to the best bit of hay and I am certain that, should I ever fall over with my bale, I would not reappear until the last stalk of hay had been eaten.

As well as small conventional type bales, we also have some seriously large round bales. At the moment, the only way to feed these is to break them up and load the hay into the racks by hand. Not only does this result in the scrum mentioned above but it also involves a lot of mess as the bales gradually unravel in the middle of the barn floor. David was determined to find another way of dealing with these and so has bought a large rack which will take a whole large bale (loaded in by tractor). The only problem is that these racks are not 'goat-proof' and so will require some modification. So, we loaded one in to see what happened ..

Everyone seemed to like it and we were pleased to see that the girls did not all try and eat at the same time. There was not quite as much mess as we anticipated with hay falling out of the large gaps, but we will still put mesh over these to minimise the amount of hay lost. Goats are very fussy eaters, contrary to popular opinion, and once hay has dropped on the floor and been trodden on, it will not get eaten. The other reason for the mesh is to stop the younger and thinner goats from climbing into the rack as it gets empty. We did see a couple of goatlings clamber in but they didn't stay in there very long as all the goats standing round the feeder nipped at their legs. We will also try and raise the rack up off the floor so that it is at a better level for the goats who tend to eat upwards, rather than downwards like sheep or cattle.

And so to the horses ....

Aren't they just fab?! These were some of the shires at the East Kent Ploughing Match at Sheldwich. I always love to watch the horse-drawn ploughs and all the horses looked magnificent with their leather polished and their brasses gleaming in the sunshine. The tractors looked great too, but I particularly like the old fashioned version on four legs!

It was a great day out and we met up with a lot of other local farmers who had also given themselves the day off work. The weather could not have been better and everyone seemed to have a good day.

Swings & Roundabouts

2011-09-27T18:11:00.000+01:00

An alternative title could be 'win some, lose some' ...

The only thing that Jane and I had in common this weekend was good weather!! She was absolutely rushed off her feet at the Eurofair whilst I was twiddling my thumbs at Brogdale. As always, the Eurofair in Canterbury was a resounding success and Jane managed to sell tons of her own Ashmore cheese as well as bucket loads from Ellie's Dairy. All our cheese was very well received and apparently the Shaggy's Beard and Fremlin's Kentish Log went down a storm.

Brogdale was pretty quiet and all the traders I spoke to had a very disappointing weekend. Certainly there were not a lot of people about. I think it may have something to do with the fact that they charge £8 entrance fee for which, as far as I could see, you didn't get an awful lot. The organisers need to do some serious redesign for next year if they want to encourage traders to take part.

As it was so quiet, I had time to take a picture of my stall. Note the complete lack of customers!

But the day ended on a less serious note as I returned to Dargate to unload and met up with Jane and her daughter Kelly who was getting to grips with a reconditioned trials bike that her dad (an ex bike racer) had found for her. Not to be outdone by the teenagers, Jane and I decided to go for a quick spin up the drive on this thing. Neither of us have been on a bike for more years than we care to remember and there was much chuckling as we headed off with me hanging on to Jane yelling 'don't go too fast!'. Needless to say, she ignored me and as we hurtled over the first speed bump in the road, we both became airborne. But a good landing was made by all and we continued apace to complete the circuit of several more speed bumps and a couple of corners before coming to a rather elegant stop in front of the dairy, much to the amusement of the teenagers who couldn't believe that the two almost-50-somethings could be so entertaining!

Next cheesey event this week is the East Kent Ploughing Match at Sheldwich, near Faversham. Jane is working on her stall there whilst David and I have given ourselves the day off to go and visit. It is always a good event and it gives David the chance to meet up with all the other local farmers before everyone goes into hibernation for the winter!