We haven’t made any cheese this year. A lot of people ask about whether or not we’ve been making cheese with our goat milk – I think it’s becomes many of them think that cheese is all that goat’s milk is good for. Part of it has been a lack of time, but the lion’s share of it has been because the boys have been drinking all of it!

These past few months have been a very sudden and surprising reminder that we do not have little boys any more. Okay, yes, they are still little, but not as much so. They’ve been going through milk so fast that if anything we often have a milk shortage. This stands in stark contrast to the last two years, where we were racing to try to use the milk before it went bad. Much like with the eggs, we’ve gone through periods of being over- and under-loaded.

So, in spite of what we had thought about 3 goats being sufficient, we find that we woefully underestimated. Part of the problem is that Lily, our yearling in milk, is not the greatest producer and we’re questioning whether or not a home dairy is a good place for her. Still, the fact of the matter is that we DO have 3 milking goats with more milk than we’ve ever had before, and it’s still not quite enough. Hopefully we can get all four bred this fall so we can have some cheese and butter next year.

On a better note: look at our peach trees!

See all those BB-sized green things? They’re peaches, and our two trees are lined with dozens of them. Even if we can’t have chèvre, at least we might be able to have peaches. Fresh peaches, canned peaches, peach pie – all of it. After 3 years, we just may have some fruit!