Cleaning out a closet this weekend we found a forgotten stash of goat swag. It’s Cinco de Mayo and we’re feeling festive, so we’re ready to share the goat love. Here’s the deal. We just launched Ten Apple Farm’s new Facebook Fan page, and want to spread the word. Become a fan (click the “like” button) anytime during the entire month of May and you’re automatically entered in a drawing to win one of these 15 fabulous prizes (and if you already like us, you’re already entered!) :

5 signed paperback copies of The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese

4 Year of the Goat t-shirts

3 signed hard cover copies of Living With Goats: Everything You Need to Know to Start Your Own Backyard Herd

2 Ten Apple Farm extra tall coffee mugs

and the grand prize….

1 wheel of aged raw milk Ten Apple Farm MonChaCha cheese, lovingly made by Margaret and aged in our cellar

Become a fan! Tell your friends! Get cool stuff!

CLICK HERE TO VISIT TEN APPLE FARM’S FACEBOOK PAGE

The 15 lucky winners will be announced on the Ten Apple Farm Facebook page during the first week of June.

Announcements, contest books, Cheese, gifts, goat, mugs, presents, prizes, t-shirt

Thanks to Little Guy, mama-to-be Toka awaits the blessed event

Two weeks ago, after much procrastination, we took Little Guy, the only buckling born on the farm last spring, to the Windham Butcher Shop. We had held off because we worried about Charlotte’s reaction–anxiety that turned out to be completely unfounded when she declared that she thought he would be delicious, and then asked if we could make his pelt into a blanket for her bed. (We shipped the hide to The Tannery, in Lander, Wyoming, and were told we could expect it, tanned, in a few months, just in time for Cha Cha’s birthday.)

I don’t think our children are exceptionally bloodthirsty, but I do think that they understand that the meat we eat was once a living being. Though they’ve seen us plucking chickens and have been prepared for absences from the barn, we’ve shielded them from the actual moment of slaughter, which is something I think we’ll continue to do until they ask to be present. We haven’t shielded them, however, from the reality that the flesh we consume had a life and a death, and that it’s our responsibility as farmers to make sure that both are humane. The girls are kind to our animals, eager to help in the barn, and anxious for the arrival of spring babies.

And so they were delighted when we discovered, just days after Little Guy’s departure, that Toka’s udder was beginning to fill out, and that her wide belly was wiggling even more than the usual gurgles of rumination. Because of Little Guy’s prolonged stay in the barn, the kids were together into sexual maturity and, well, nature took its course. We never saw Toka go into heat, so the date of conception is a mystery, but we’re expecting a baby goat or two in the coming weeks. In the spirit of the French: Little Guy is gone, long live Little Guy!

Goats breeding, goat, meat, pregnancy, slaughter