This is an entry in this month’s contest “What Inspired You To Start Growing Your Own Food?”. Be sure to rate this article!
I hope this qualifies as “growing” your own food! I moved to the country about 13 yrs ago, at the age of 44. What a shock for a city girl! I immediately got my kids involved in 4-H so we could all learn about farming and ranching.
The kids wanted to show an animal and we had a good friend who loaned us some boer goats and off we went!
Once you get involved in this, it just snowballs into other areas, as we met so many folks who shared so much knowledge that we used to help us in our new lifestyle!
Then, I met a couple of wonderful ladies who had dairy goats and that was the “hook” for me! I tasted my first goat milk and goat butter and WOW! That is such amazingly good stuff, that I wanted my own!
I only maintain 2 nannies and an occasional visiting billy. They are so loving and happy to “give” delicious nutrition in a jar, every day!
We have cows, chickens and donkeys, but dairy goats are my favorite! I have come a long way from not knowing anything about farm animals to having our own beef in the freezer, our own milk in the fridge and fresh, free range eggs every morning! This IS the life!
Thanks Marjory for all the encouragement!
The prize for the winner of this months contest is valued at $100 and includes a copy of the “Grow Your Own Groceries” video set, “Alternatives To Dentists” video set, and 3 months of free membership in the Core Community. If you want to enter this month’s contest, write an essay on “How You Got Started Growing Food” and submit it here at this link: http://growyourowngroceries.org/contribute-here/
COMMENTS(0)
Dive in and learn; Beatrice was young school girl who was given a great gift, a milk goat at the age of 10 years. living in Uganda Africa. She nurtured and cared for that goat, and with its milk she saved money for education. Her dreams of getting an education and making a difference was like a puffy cloud in a dry desert, but she worked hard and was admitted to a local school. She excelled through hard work and won a scholarship that brought her to school here in the states. This is a true story aired on 60 minutes , january 2005, “Beatrice’s Goat” The moral of the story, what appears as a small and insignificant a gift as a milk goat can change and enrich one who respects and cares for those gifts. Just an example of how things snowball when growing your own food.
Not being raised around a farm although my dad was raised on goats milk, I always thought you had to boil goats milk to kill the germs, I was always lead to believe that it is alot of work and you have to stay home and never travel if you have farm animals. you have to get up at 5am and start working every day. I think it would be nice for kids in school to be taught how to run a farm, maybe some library books too. I never considered being a goat farmer as a career.
Yes goats milk is Awsome. I was raised on a dairy milking cows and loved it. So I wanted my kids to learn about farming too. I got goats because I could not afford a cow. They learned about goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, pigs, Llamas and how to grow a garden. They are now married and are teaching there kids Love it.