The Farm

Our land is farmed applying organic and biodynamic principles. That means, we try to let our farm build an individual organism that is self sustainable.

We try to minimize the inputs we need from the outside and only market the surplus produce.

We have as many animals as we need to provide fertility to our soil (through the manure) on which we grow all the feed for our herds.

That way we create a cycle that can enrich and improve the health of animals and soil and create a unique taste and quality in all that we produce.

The Goats

We are milking about 200 purebred French Alpine goats. Unlike the white Saanen, the most common breed in goat dairy production, Alpine goats are very colorful and strong-willed. They are very curious, try to nibble on everything they can reach and like to get some special attention once in a while.

Horns

What might seem a bit unusual about our goats are their horns. Most goats in Canada get dehorned at a young age, to prevent injuries.

On our farm we do not dehorn, since we believe that having horns is part of the individuality of a goat. Instead we give them a bit more space, which works as well.

(you might find goats without horns in the pictures, these are from the original, dehorned herd we bought when starting out)

Leaving the kids drink on the mother

In order to produce milk a goat has to have kids every 1-2 years. Since dairy farmer want the milk, normally the kids are taken away at birth and raised by hand on milk replacer.

Our young stock is allowed to drink on their mothers, spending the day with them and only at night we separate them to milk the goats in the morning.

That way we try to get both, goats raised as naturally as possible and milk to make our cheese.

Seasonal milking

Today’s demand for a constant year round supply with dairy products leads to farmers having to breed their goats against their seasonality by tampering with the light in the barn or giving them hormones.

Our goats are giving birth to their kids seasonally, that means we breed them all at the same time in fall, which is what would occur naturally. Around New Years the whole herd stops giving milk and goes into pregnancy leave until beginning of March when kidding time.

The Milk

The soil, our farm is based on, the crops we grow and what feed we provide to our goats, the way we manage our pasture and select our breeding stock: all this is part of the taste of our milk.

We try to create a healthy, strong farm organism that lets our goats produce rich and tasty milk.

Since our goats are on pasture during the summer months but in the barn feeding on hay during the winter months, the taste of our milk varies throughout the year. This you might be able to taste in the cheese as well. Although you have to consider the ripening time of at least six months before we sell our cheese.

Since we are an organic farm, we do not use GMO!