Notes from the farm: November 2018

November is here and so begins our quiet season. Most of our markets have finished up for the season, which keep us oh so busy all summer, and now is when we can start making plans for next year, and have some down time of course!

Part of making plans for next year involves mapping out our cheese creations for next year’s cheese club. The 2019 Cheese Club is extra special to us as it marks our final transformation from Happy Goat to Haltwhistle as we will be including both cow and goats’ milk cheeses. Adding cows’ milk cheeses to the roster opens up more aging possibilities. We’ve already started to make a few of the cheeses for next year’s club which will age all winter and spring (and summer for a special one) before being released. Check out last month’s blog post for more information of aging cows’ and goats’ milk cheeses. If you haven’t signed up for the 2019 Cheese Club, there’s still space available!

On the farm our somewhat unintentional breeding period has come to an end, and all of our mature goats should be freshly pregnant. An interesting thing seems to happen with the dynamic of the herd every year after breeding has finished. There is a hierarchy among the female goats that goes through a shift, but only during the time that they’re pregnant. It is most noticeable in the order that they enter our milking parlour, with the highest ranking coming in first, and this has already begun to change. The strangest part is that it will almost go perfectly back to normal once they have all given birth. Interesting eh? Well we think so!