Scenes From Kite Day...

Kite Day Coyner Springs, Waynesboro VA

Kite Day was a great success!  There was wind and the kites were flying high.  It was a beautiful site seeing the goats with the kites flying in the background. 

Kite Day Coyner Springs, Waynesboro VA

We did not know how they would react to the kites. They could have cared a less that there was a 50 foot octopus flying in the sky! 

The goats drew quite a crowd. The people really enjoyed seeing them in action and asked a lot of questions.

Of course, the newest member of our herd was a big hit.  

She even put on a little show dancing and prancing around.  

Her mother said enough fun and games!  She took the opportunity to teach some forage skills.  This kid is foraging at 1 week!  What a show off!

Then there was Chloe...  She was a hit when she was awake. She is not used to all of this activity during the day. She works the night shift and sleeps most all day.

"Ho Hum, I'll let them pet me. Just wish they would give me some of that kettlecorn!"

She preferred laying on the hill and looking regal!

Notice Chloe in the background.  This is how she spends most of her days.  

A special thanks to my great nieces Lauren and Maran for helping me give out samples of our Autumn Berry Sauce!

It was great for folks to see the goats foraging on the invasive Autumn Olive plant and then to learn there is a yummy way that THEY could help remove over 5,000 plants from the environment!  Good on pancakes, waffles, ice cream, cheese cake.....

Wild Harvested Autumn Berries

Fields of Grace....

We are thrilled that we were able to purchase the floor of goats at the Rockingham county fair again this year!  We ended up with 85 of them. 

They were running jumping and playing this morning.  It must have felt really good to get out in an open space and eat green forage after being in the barn all week showing off their handsome selves!  They are such nice animals from good stock. The 4-H and FFA kids did a great job raising them to showcase their potential.  

 The title of this blog post is appropriately named. If we had not gotten them they would not be running jumping and playing this morning. These children's hand raised goats would have been immediately snatched out of their cozy show pens and thrust into the harsh environment of large pens and trailers heading into the brutal and heartless Northeast industrial meat system. Unbelievably that was not the worst possible end result. One particular buyer in our area is actively buying 4H/FFA fair stock at high prices and they would be on their way to medical research programs focused on highly infectious diseases including leprosy research. More likely though is the medical program where these children's pet are partially blown up by the army in a controlled way in order to train medics how to stabilize severe trauma victims of IED and land mine injuries.  With other options available, how could anyone choose to use young children's pets in that way? 


With the very real threat of that being the outcome for the goats in this sale I am afraid we did have both a smart price and a also a "heart" price. Unfortunately for us the sale price was a lot closer to the heart price so we REALLY need to find at least one great forage job for them to earn some income to make it up. 


It is true that most of our stock will one day die to become a very healthy meat product for informed consumers.  Until that final moment though, all the Autumn Olive Farms goat's lives will be good days and filled with all the fascinating antics and details that make the goat uniquely what it is. 
  
In fact, although we have one of the finest meat products that a human can eat we would gladly forgo the meat side of our business if we could afford to keep all of them as full time foragers. That would require us to become Boer Bok snowbirds to Florida! Know anyone in need of our services from November to May in a fine Florida setting?

Food For America...

Autumn Olive Farms Boer Bok loving the attention.

Would you like some hay?

 These are pictures from the Food For America day that the Wilson Memorial High School FFA put on this morning.  Food For America is a program where preschoolers go around to different stations and are able to get a hands on experience with farm animals, planting seeds, sitting on a tractor and even "milking" a cow.  



The FFA students did a great job.  It is never too early to learn about where your food comes from!  I'll bet there will be interesting discussions at the dinner table of these preschoolers tonight!

This is a baby lamb not a calf!

Chloe and her horse.

Jonathan and his show lambs.

"Milking the cow!"

Chaz and s show steer.

Mr. Lawson's sheep shearing demo.

Boer Bok on the menu tonight...

Would you like to try some Boer Bok in the Charlottesville area tonight?  You can head over to Duners  which is located 5 miles west of Charlottesville in the Village of Ivy.  They have quite an impressive menu which changes daily and you can preview it on their website. Chef Laura and her staff are committed to serving the best local ingredients that are seasonally available, including our  Boer Bok.  Chef Laura prepared our ribs as Spicy Chinese Local Barbecued Goat Ribs with Ginger Cabbage Slaw.  Sounds wonderful!

You can also go to C&O Restaurant

at 515 E. Water Street in downtown Charlottesville.  Chef Eric has prepared a Biryana Stew.  It is Boer Bok stewed with Indian Spices topped with a Mint Cilantro Yogurt and served with fried Yucca and sauteed local Spinach.  Oh My!  C&O is also committed to supporting local producers by creating spectacular dishes using locally grown products.