Homesteading

[Kev]

All things to do with goats.. 🐐

Discussion

[Kev]

Cows or goats..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73KgZDg7gqI

[Todd and Amanda]

New Here. I love my goats! Happy to share what I know and learn from others.

They provide the sweetest, creamiest milk. Here is my go to, super easy, goats milk ice cream recipe:

Ingredients:

4 cups of cold raw goat milk

1/2 – 3/4 cup sugar, maple syrup, or combo

3 pastured egg yolks

1 T vanilla

pinch sea salt

Direction: Stir well or blitz with an immersion blender. Pour into ice cream maker and follow instructions for your model. Enjoy! -Amanda

[Kev]

Oh lord that looks soooo good.. Hey, question: do y’all do any sugar production on your land at this point? — such as tree sap or sorghum, things like that.. or honey too..

[Todd and Amanda]

We have done *some* sugaring, definitely plan to make all or most our own maple/birch syrup and sugar at some point. Right now we tap a few maples, then birches when they’re done, and drink the sap straight. We consider it a spring tonic. Our girls, 1 and 4, love it too, it is slightly sweet and ice cold!

[Kev]

That sound so good.. Reminds me of fresh-squeezed sugar cane in the tropics, which is used as an invigorating tonic..

I’m guessin’ y’all have learned the ideal conditions for tapping trees in springtime — has to do with particular temperature ranges I’ve seen.. and I wanna say that an overnight freeze is okay (or ideal), with daytime temps warm enough, with direct sunlight to get the sap flowing and pulling goodness up out of the ground.. Something like that, yes??

[Ari]

Yum! Have you experimented/ heard about foraging, varied green fodder affecting taste? I heard letting them eat all kinds of things can get yucky tasting milk. Also trying to remember if those guys pass on PUFAS in milk like birds do in eggs.

[Kev]

I’m totally onboard with the idea that grazing animals always know what they need to eat for their health.. and also, that grazers kept for their milk will actually graze on the things *you* need for your health — a symbiotic relationship, where they serve your needs and help you out.. So here’s a perspective for you — what if the yucky tasting milk, or milk that’s a bit bitter, or milk that’s even sweet and delicious — what if it’s full of the medicine you need for your health??.. Many medicinal herbs are bitter, and some so much so it can be difficult for some folks to drink.. So to me, milk like that I would see as medicine coming from a higher level of intelligence and order..

It’s in the same vein as imbuing seeds with your saliva before planting them.. You give the seeds info. on your state of health, and then they know how to provide you with what you need for your well-being.. The nutrient profiles in plants aren’t constant and depends on many variables, and relationships with the soil and microbes and fungi.. they all work together.. and so, providing information on your state of health is like instructions for the plants to produce your food-medicine, as needed.. 😌

What do you think about that perspective??

[Todd and Amanda]

Speaking of saliva, two separate sources, a naturopath and a long time goat lady, have told me if I put the saliva of a sick person on the goat’s teat and wait 15 min then milk her, there will be specific supportive qualities(I would have called them antibodies before… not sure what to call them now, ha!) in the milk for that person. Very similar to the Anastasia method with seeds, and the way a mother’s body interacts with her nursing baby. So cool!

[Kev]

Oh woooow, you’re speaking my language with this.. This is amazing.. Beyond natural grazing, and the animals knowing what you need for your health, there seems to be other approaches you could use.. Say you imbue seeds with your saliva, and then the plants uptake the things you need for your health — but then you also feed those plants to your goats as well, so they produce milk that’s some sort of amplified next-level synergy.. And of course you could make copper and crystal necklaces for the goats to wear.. 😜

[Todd and Amanda]

Yes, definitely what they eat has an effect on the taste of their milk, just as a mother’s milk has slight flavors of what she has eaten, therefore introducing her babe to the flavors of the food he will later eat on his own. Their taste preferences change seasonally, too. Right now they are going for wintergreen leaves and white pine needles. However, the milk does not taste minty! Haha

[Kev]

Aww man, the combo of wintergreen (Gaultheria?) and pine needles sounds delish!.. 😉

[Author]

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