Got Goats?

You got goats? I do. And, I created a whole podcast episode to talk about what it means to keep them. I am what you might call a goat woman.

I have kept goats for well over a decade, and over the course of that time, I have learned so much about these amazing animals. There’s a wealth of information that I get to share from time to time whenever I meet someone who is interested in having a herd and wants to know about my years of caprine skills.

I tend to run in goat circles where I meet up with other goat herders to talk goat with some regularity. In fact, I could probably have an entire podcast devoted to exploring the theme of life with goats, but I wanted to at the very least include one episode in “The Positive Fantastic.”

To help me accomplish this goaty interview, I teamed up with my friend Jenava Van Pelt who has also kept goats and has extensive experience herself. We both have run a small scale raw dairy on our respective farms.

Although Jenava has chosen not to keep goats anymore, she knows the ins and outs of what is required to be a goat farmer. Part of what has inspired her to step away from the goat world is the time commitment and daily responsibility of having a herd. As of the recording of this podcast, Jenava has started to direct her energy to projects in floristry & the art of flower arrangements.

When I got to her place on the Mendocino Coast, we went for a walk in the woods and were rewarded with a plump harvest of black trumpet mushrooms that we cooked up for dinner. We then settled into her cabin in the woods to discuss what it takes to have goats and what you need to know before you dive into the caprine world.

We both have a deep love of goats, and also have a lot of history keeping goats. While this podcast usually focuses on the positive aspects of life and although there is certainly a lot of beauty to be had by keeping goats, our interview outlines more of the truisms of what you need to know to get started with a goat herd.

I certainly think that goats add a lot of magic to a farm. In addition to being fun to be around, goats offer up manure which can be made into compost, milk that can be a form of local nourishment, brush and grass clearing services that can be implemented to help the health of a landscape, and so on and so forth.

The truth is that really I don’t need to tell people about how great goats are —although I have kept a blog about the goats and some of the other farm animals for the last decade so that you can check out if you want more information about life with goats on the farm after you’ve listened to this podcast.

But what we both did feel compelled to share was the reality of what it really takes to be a responsible farmer. So, I hope you’ll tune into our caprine conversation. And take a look at my Youtube channel to see a video of my herd on the land.