On Sunday, August 22nd, we decided to take a two hour tour of Harley Goat Farm in Pescadero, California, a little historical town within a few miles of the sea. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day making the environment all the more enjoyable.
Our tour guide, Janet, presented a very interesting lecture about goat husbandry, reproduction, milking and lastly the process of cheese making. I almost felt like I learned enough to buy my own goats and take on caring for them.
After we finished the tour, we were invited to sample goat cheese in their shop to which I helped myself. The farm sells four different types of cheese. There are standard goat chevres with an assortment of added ingredients such as apricot/pistachio, tomato/basil or cranberry/walnut combinations. You can purchase various shapes including logs, rounds or buttons. By allowing more whey to remain in the product, they also make a creamier type of cheese called Fromage Blanc. To this variety, other ingredients can be added including a garlic, parsley and chive combination. Lastly, they produce feta and ricotta cheese without additives. All of these cheeses are delicious, and I intend to keep buying them.
In addition to cheeses, they have produced several other products. Since they have a healthy crop of laying hens, one can buy fresh farm eggs in the shop. The chickens are used to fertilize the fields, thereby allowing a robust assortment of grasses to grow for the goats to munch. There were also other products such as goat milk soap and hand creams for purchase.
When we first arrived at the farm, we were able to wait in an area with a brightly colored flower garden next to us. As it turns out, some of these flowers were edible and used in the numerous cheeses. Once Janet arrived, we strolled into the meadow where the goats were and heard a goat care lecture. Although we thought that we were in an arbitrary field with nondescript weedy grasses, it was quite the contrary. The area was seeded with a multitude of grasses that are appetizing to the goat population. The goats are moved from one section to another, so that they don’t eat the entire plant. Instead, they only consume the tips and when removed from the area, the plants are allowed to rejuvenate. The goats are very friendly, loving the attention they receive from us, rubbing themselves all over our bodies. Their horns had been burned back, because the owner doesn’t want them to injure one another. It must hurt the goat, but the alternative injuries that can occur would probably be a worse situation. There were also two llamas in the field that have become the watch animals attacking and killing any predator that thinks that a young female goat would make a tasty meal.
Next, we observed the grain containers. When the goats become pregnant, their stomachs shrink, because of the developing kid. The farm feeds them a diversity of grains, since this diet is richer in nutrition and takes less room in their stomachs than the meadow aqueous grasses. In this way, the animal stays healthy and the milk they produce also remains rich.
We lastly entered the room where all of the cheeses are made. We were able to see the whey dripping from the bags of milk and the curd being pasteurized within the milk mixture. The whey is recycled into the goat’s diet, since it is very rich in protein and other nutrition that the goats need. After viewing this process, we proceeded to a quaint upstairs dining area where we were able to sample cheeses with our tour ending. We quickly hurried down to the farm shop to sample and buy an assortment of cheeses.
After we purchased our cheeses, we left the shop, drove a very short distance to the deli section of the country grocery store in town and had two tasty sandwiches made. While we were waiting for them, we noticed the store carried the delicious Harley Farms products and decided we were in the right place if their sales choice was these scrumptious cheeses. We ended our day with a picnic on the beach, watching the sun slowly descending toward the horizon and rejoicing over our new goat farm education and yummy cheese experience.
If you’re interested, you can set up a tour via the farm’s website and have an experience as pleasant as what we encountered.
Jennifer Horton Chadwick
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California Gypsy 