Goat Milk

When my local connection to goat milk dried up, I found this summer's free issue of Local Table- A guide to food and farming in middle Tennessee. Page 5 had a spread on Bonnie Blue Farm, producer of award-winning farmstead goat cheeses. Located in Waynesboro, TN, it's not too inconceivable for me to take hour drive from my home on The Farm in Summertown. Of course I don't yet know if they would even sell me a few gallons of goat milk. But it's a good lead nonetheless.

This issue Local Table provides a 10 page local farm guide, including what the farm offers, their practices (organic, free range, etc.), what markets they sell at, and how to contact them. Using this guide I have found several other farms that produce dairy, though I don't know if any have goats.

Why do I want goat milk? First, goat milk is more easily digestible than cow milk, and many people who are lactose intolerant or even allergic to cow milk find that they can tolerate goat milk, and sheep milk as well. Also, goats are smaller than cows, so they consume less and require less land to graze on, so not only are they less of an environmental impact but also it more accessible for regular families to own goats, provide for their own dairy needs, and also supply some to their neighbors for some added income.

For more on the benefits of goat milk, click here.

Beyond the benefits.... I really want to make cheese, yogurt, and kefir (What is kefir). And if I have the choice of cow or goat I always choose goat. I worked on an organic goat dairy in Oregon called Ferns' Edge and I really fell in love with the whole production-the goats, the milk, and the cheese. Oh the cheese....

I am extremely interested in getting local organic unpasteurized goat milk, but people who provide that are probably few and far between. We'll see how my search goes. I'll take what I can get... My cheesecloth is getting impatient....