Sallygardens Smallholding

Making Goats Milk Yogurt

I have to extend gratitude to the wise Hedgewizard who has bestowed many a useful tip to Dan and I on our new polytunnel adventures. As Dan says when I post anything to do with the tunnel 'lets see what Hedgewizard says, because he always turns out to be right', and he is. Besides that, if you enjoy a humorous read, head over to his blog for a visit, you won't come away without laughing out loud.

So on this occasion I'm saying thank you because he posted this all about a new yogurt maker on the market. Since our goat kids were weaned a couple of weeks ago we have had a good 3 litres of milk a day, and at some point, you begin to realise you can't drink any more of it than you are, and that there is a backlog beginning to build up in the fridge! For some reason I thought making yogurt would be difficult and so I hadn't embarked on a research expedition yet, but seeing Hedgewizards post got me off my arse, reading my Home Cheese Making book by Ricki Carroll,  and Googling for more information. So, you can either buy the EasiYo, or you can make it as easy as pie if you have these things in your cupboards, as I did.

1. A cooking thermometer. I have both a mercury jam making thermometer, and a digital one, I prefer the latter
2. A thermos flask, or a plastic cool box
3. A litre of milk from your own animals or bought from your local shop. I use my own goats milk.
4. A small tub of live natural yogurt from your local shop.
5. Honey, nuts or fruit to flavour as desired.

Note : All your equipment should be scrupulously clean, and preferably disinfected

• Let your small pot of yogurt come to room temperature
• In a heavy bottomed pan slowly heat the milk to 180F/82C
• Turn off the heat and stand the pan in some cold water to cool
• When the milk reaches 128F/53C stir in the pot of yogurt
• Heat your flask by rinsing it out with boiled water
• Pour the milk into the flask, put the lid on and leave it for 12 hours...
• .. or if using the cool box method pour the milk into clean jars with tight lids. Place these in the cool box. Fill the cool box with hot tap water, close it and leave for 12 hours.
• After 12 hours pour the yogurt from the thermos into a clean jar and leave in the fridge, don't be disheartened if it seems a little runny. Or if using a cool box, simply remove the jars, dry them off and place them in the fridge
• Once chilled it will have thickened more. Yogurt made in the cool box may thicken better as it is not disturbed by pouring.
• Keep refrigerated and eat within a week
• Use a couple of tablespoons of your yogurt to start the next batch

If you find your yogurt is too runny you can experiment with various methods of thickening it which include adding a tablespoon of pectin (apple derived - used to thicken jam), agar flakes, milk powder or tapioca.

Before I thought of using a thermos flask or cool box I also had reasonable success by putting the pot of milk in the polytunnel on a hot day for 8 hours, and on another occasion I put it in the passenger seat of the car on a black plastic bag.  Both worked, just remember to remove the concoction before driving, or you could live with a stinky reminder for a very long time to come!

Once you have mastered making yogurt, its time to try a simple cheese. More on that to come soon.

Note : apologies to those who tried, but were unable, to leave messages on this and the previous two posts, there has been a problem with Typepad, who assure me that this bug has now been resolved. Thanks for your patience, please keep commenting, I LOVE IT, and it brings the blog alive.

Goat Keeping Course

This Saturday sees the first of our goat keeping courses. I'm busy finalising my notes and handouts, which is quite a pleasurable activity as I revisit my scribbles and find lovely nuggets of goaty information that I'd forgotten (short term memory non existent!). I love reading about the natural behaviour of feral goats, it really helps to understand where some of my girls behaviour stems from, and can assist me in how I approach keeping my own goats bearing these things in mind. For example a wild herd will have a dominant male king billy, but did you know theres also a queen? Infact, she is very important, and often takes decisions on when and where to forage, and urges the king to act on her que ... he invariably does, and the herd follow his command. Even if you only have two goats, it helps to observe them, and before long you'll figure out which is your queen. Treat her with the according respect and your girls will be happier! Give her a feed ration first, take her for milking first ... taking a goat from further down the pecking order will cause disgruntlement and a little argy bargy amongst the ladies will ensue, just so queen can reiterate her importance. Goat Husbandry, by David MacKenzie has a great chapter on goat behaviour.

I like to keep the courses small, informal and personal. Theres a maximum of four participants, and I will gladly run the course for just two. That way I can talk to each person beforehand and find out just what aspects they are most interested in, and I will tailor the course to suit them. So if you wanted to attend this course, and couldn't make the date, please do drop me an email and we can sort out a date to suit you.

Clay Pipes & Coffee

First thing in the morning I like to get the day started with a milky decaf coffee, made with no water, just fresh goats milk straight from the pasture, and a spoon of unrefined sugar crystals or organic honey. Usually the rest of the family are still sleeping, or just beginning to stir and I bring Dan his cuppa in bed where we ponder the chores for the coming day.

On this particular sunny misty morning my neighbour who owns the joining field to our goats was digging his potatoes into his lazy beds. We waved as I chatted to my goat girls and got the milking underway. Ten minutes and a litre of milk later he meandered over with a little gift he had unearthed. Its the remnants of a clay pipe and he proceeded to tell me a little of its history.

During an Irish wake the host would provide each of the guests with a clay pipe and a pouch of tobacco, which would be used for the duration of the wake. When it drew to a close the mourners would take home their pipe and place it to rest on the top of their barn walls. In years to come, they would get knocked off by various creatures in passing, onto the manure below. The manure would then be shovelled out and spread on the field, and hence rediscovered years later by those of us digging new plots for vegetable growing. Number 46 is imprinted on the pipe, we don't know the significance of this ... perhaps its a pipe size? or the 46th wake of the parish that year!

Goat Symbiosis

Keeping dairy goats is a huge commitment which is difficult to appreciate unless you have actually done it. Its impossible to explain the transition of responsibility that will take place in your life, its a little bit like readjusting to the changes a newborn brings to your home! Milking twice a day, every day, requires dedication. The actual hands on milking part is simply wonderful. Its a real level of co-operation between animal and human that requires trust and understanding, gently mixed with a slow and peaceful demeanour on the part of both participants!  Its the whole palava around the activity that takes up time ... washing and sterilising of equipment, jugs, bottles, etc, then boiling, straining and cooling of milk to pasteurise.  This is why we opted for meat goats, although they are crossed with dairy breeds, so milking is also an option, but not essential.

The spring sun has tempted me back to milking on a less formal basis! When I get up an hour early to perform this ritual, theres nothing like being out there in the field milking, watching the mist rise and the sun warm your back while the rest of your family sleeps, and I lean quietly against the warmth of my goat as she chews the cud and allows me to take some of her white gold.

If you are committed to milking a high yield dairy goat twice a day ... what if, say, you feel spontaneous and want to stay out late at a friends house, or go camping, or eat out instead of heading home before dark? You just can't do that unless you've milked your goat first, the goat must be milked or she could get mastitis which can be deadly (an infection of the udder). She trusts you to come and take your milk that you have initiated her to make for you. If you don't keep your side of the bargain and take it on time (give or take a couple of hours), she will be uncomfortable at best, and in danger at worst.

Our set up is now a lot more flexible. My goats have kids and I leave them with their mothers, that means I don't have to milk them. However, I can take a little milk from each mother, which won't be missed and this arrangement suits me down to the ground. As smallholders we are not after maximum milk yields, we don't need to remove the kids at 4 days old and hand rear them with replacer milk, so that we can milk their mothers. As a smallholder the set up is much more relaxed, and quite a bit more flexible. If I want a litre of milk, I can put the kids in the shed at night and milk a little from their Mums in the morning before I bring the kids back to them. They enjoy the rest now and then!

Once the kids go, we may continue milking for a while and then we can slowly dry them off over the winter by milking a little less each day. Milking in the winter months is far less fun, the romance wears thin heading out in the dark, wind and rain twice a day!

Goat Books and a Good Deed

Of late I've been devouring any book about goats I can get my hands on, and hounding friends for gems of information on these beautiful creatures. They are a fascinating animal in many ways and their psychology is intriguing. So far I've found two great little books 'Goat Husbandry' by David Mackenzie, 5th edition, 1993. A quick look on the inside cover and one can see he's been writing with authority on goats every decade since the 1950's! Thats some wealth of experience. The downside, to this, and to most available books on goats is that I find the feeding sections are difficult to understand and are laced with various mathematical equations for figuring how much of what feed is required depending on its percentage protein content to give in what quantities to which goat depending on a variety of factors. It gets complicated!

My favourite book to date has been 'The New Goat Handbook' (1987-not so 'new'!). Its fun, it has fantastically endearing photos of goats at their best, and the feeding section is easy to understand. The charm of this book is that its aimed at the smallholder scale ie those of us with a couple of goats, rather than the large scale commercial dairy farmer.

And how did I happen upon this charming book? I had ordered Goat Husbandry via Amazon from one of their second hand suppliers. The supplier then emailed me to let me know he also had The New Goat Handbook, and wondered whether I might be interested, he also mentioned that he loved goats but circumstances means he himself can't have any. Hmm, astute marking, I thought to myself, and declined the offer thinking I'd spent enough on goat books recently. Goat Husbandry arrived promptly in the post, and along with it also came ... The New Goat Handbook with the following note 'Hi Rebecca, have it anyway with my compliments, should make good bedtime reading. Thanks for sharing your blog with me, loved it. regards Eliot' Well what a marvelous thing to happen, what a gentleman, it made my day that did.... its made more than my day, I've been thinking about it a lot and will always look on this book with a smile and a nod to that generous soul. Thank you kind Eliot of Sevsbookery.

Birth Day

We have had our first ever birth on our farm ... meet Uisce, our newborn Doeling. Holly her Mum gave birth secretly in the dark of night. As her birth date neared I felt a huge sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of this beautiful animal. For two weeks I poured over books and websites about goat breeding, and posted questions on forums ... I just wanted to be sure I'd recognise the point at which I ought to call in a vet. What a combination of relief and shock that I should open the shelter one morning, bleary eyed and unshowered, to find this gorgeous perfect little doeling staring out at me all bedraggled and deshevelled (me, not the goat) ... her fist sight of the wider world, bless her! If I'd known I would at the very least have brushed my hair for the occasion!

I thought Holly would be anxious of me being near her with the new kid, and had planned to leave them alone to bond. But watching quietly I noticed the kid wasn't suckling so I intervened after checking with Holly first. She was actually very keen for me to help by showing the kid where to go for milk. She just didn't show the sucking reflex, so a babies bottle later (following advice from her previous owner), with a little of Hollys first milk in it, and Uisce sucked. I put her straight to Mums udder then, and we haven't looked back since.

This week I've been anxious to get it right for the maternity ward! Again, more research about how much and when and what to feed a newly lactating goat. What treatment and care she needs postpartum, particularly watching for mastitus and taking action to prevent it. Its a little difficult to guess whats right ... I need to milk some out to ease the pressure on her udder - enough to make her comfortable and reduce the risk of infection - leave plenty for the kid - again remove enough so the kid can get her mouth on the teat. Juggling.

There was also no sign of the placenta when I found the kid, so perhaps Holly had eaten it as they do in the wild (so the smell doesn't attract predators and to retain the nutrients so needed after kidding). If it hadn't come out she could be in big trouble with infection looming, so I've been watching her like a hawk, making sure theres no bad smell and that shes in good form, eating and drinking as normal (but taking into account she has just given birth too!). Being responsible for goats is an awful lot like the feeling I have for the health and safety of my own children!

Due Date Nearing

When our goats arrived one of them was in kid, due on 12th March. The lady I collected them from explained that if I watched Hazels udder, it would swell a day or two before the birth, and she could actually kid a week or two either side of the due date. I have to say that Hazel has been ever so tolerant of my having a quick grope of her udders every couple of days ... I have felt a little like Trinny & Suzannah, when they grab their latest volunteers by the mammaries while exclaiming how wonderful they could be if fitted with the correctly sized braziere!

So, a new day dawns and Hazel seems a little aloof and I notice her udders are definitely fuller. Theres none of the other textbook signs so I didn't get too excited because the goat book I've been devouring says udders can fill a couple of weeks beforehand. I've closed the girls in for the night now and have mentioned to my husband that theres something about Hazels demeanour today I can't quite put my finger on.  I hope the birth goes well and I feel very inadequate not having tended a goat birth, infact not having attended any birth except for those of my own daughters! Theres a point where reading books just can't replace experience and I'm most anxious that I won't know at what point I should call a vet if ones needed.

Getting Goats

On Thursday the whole family set off on a mission to the wilds of Achill Island to collect some Angora cross goats (not cross Angora goats!).

They are crossed with British Saneens Saanens. Angoras have a wonderful curly hairstyle, and British Saneens are a great dairy breed. We met the lovely woman who keeps a flock (or is it a herd?) up the side of her mountain, and she introduced us to the two we'd talked about on the phone. They were just what we'd hoped for, the opposite of what most people would imagine of a goats temperament. They are like big friendly dogs, and thankfully seemed to like us too! The deal done, their owner drove off down the lane to collect us some hay and straw from a neighbour ...

leaving us (4 complete strangers) to put the kettle on in her home.  She didn't even ask to see my 'I'm not an axe murderer' ID card. You can't beat Irish hospitality and a good dose of trust to lift the soul.

Before setting off on our drive home we braved the Atlantic winds on the beach for a bit.

We arrived home from our adventures at dusk, so the goats were shut into their goat house for the night. In the morning, they got their first tentative glimpse of their new surroundings.

Willow has two kids only three weeks old, and Hazel is expecting sometime in the next couple of weeks. We will have our first farm birth! We watched anxiously to see if they would indeed respect the electric fencing I'd erected for them. Oh how people frowned in disbelief when we told them these goats were kept successfully behind an electric fence, and only two strands at that. Thankfully these girls being a breed with shorter legs than the average dairy goat, and a bit heavier, more like a meat goat (which is what we were after) means that they don't need the usual five foot high fence with 2 strands of barbed wire plus one strand of electric fence to hem them in (a moat and crocodiles can help)!

It wasn't long before the kids were clambering up the stairs and onto the roof of the goat house Dan had made for them.

So what are they for? The mothers will provide me with some beautiful rippled fleece for my feltwork. I'm really looking forward to trying out some natural dyes such as blackberry and elderberry. We will put them to a boer billy in the autumn when they come into season, and breed them each year for meat.  During the summer months, I'll probably milk them too. I hope the pigs don't get jelous!

Paying Guests

Guess who's visiting us this last week?

Two little miss nosey parkers ... aka Daphne and Betty.

They are so sweet, I'm sure they think they are large friendly dogs! They are paying for their stay with a nice supply of goats milk.

Goat Exchange

The goat sitting is over and they have gone home. In return our friends brought us this fantastic box stuffed full of delicious fresh home grown organic food. I did get slightly more nutrition than I’d bargained for when I popped a fresh leaf in my mouth only then  to find half a caterpillar in my hand!