Thursday 28 August 2014

Milking the goat

We went to North Tyneside this evening to go to a community farm where the goat we are buying currently lives. We were there to practice milking her. Pinkie is a golden guernsey and she currently produces 2-3 litres of milk a day. We were hoping to collect her this Saturday but there are no animal movements allowed from the farm until the end of Saturday as a new calf had been brought on to the farm (regulations about animal movements are lengthy and voluminous). When a new animal is brought onto a farm, there can be no animal movements out of it for five days.

Anyway, we had a go at milking her and after a spluttering start, I gradually got into the swing of it. The next challenge comes with working out what to do with all the milk. We won't be able to sell any of it or any milk products until we have been registered with environmental health and have carried out all their requirements. That may be some time off. We need to start looking now at how to make cheese, yoghurt and butter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

lucky you! cant wait to get started but im still waiting for that illusive bit of land. good luck.

Anonymous said...

just read one of your blogs from way back about acorn flour. did you know roasted ground acorns also make great coffee! you have to soak and roast them in the usual way then grind them up and use as you would ground coffee. i cant drink any form of coffee made from beans, but i am fine with acorn coffee, it tastes great.