Meet Gemini

Frog Hill Farm Gossamer Gemini

DOB: 3/30/2006
Dam: Rosasharn's Twinkle Twinkle
Sire: Rosasharn CH Uproar +*S

Gemini came to us earlier this year with her sister Cassie. She was owned by Barbara Schultz, born on Frog Hill Farm in Foster RI.  Her birth story is tragic and heart warming at the same time. Gemini’s dam (mother) Twinkle came from Rosasharn Farm in Rehobeth MA. She was a beautiful doe with a mild temperament. Rosasharn Farm is an amazing goat farm where many of our top of the line goats in New England have been born. Due to Twinkle’s gentle nature she was easily pushed around by the many goats raised on Rosasharn Farm. Twinkle had trouble making it to full term in her pregnancies possibly due to the stress she was under. 

Rosasharn Farm sold a once again pregnant Twinkle to Barbara knowing she was going to a loving home. Barbara was starting a small goat farm so there was less chance of Twinkle being bullied by other goats.  Twinkle thrived on Barbara’s farm but when it came time for her to kid although she made it to full term in her pregnancy she had a difficult birthing. She was unable to deliver her kids on her own. The veterinarian had to be called. When the Vet arrived he had to assist the birth of Gemini and Cassie and in the process, Twinkle was injured and a few days later had to be put down.  Ann from Rosasharn Farm told Barbara she would come stay with her while they put Twinkle down if she could. Ann was awaiting births on her farm and wanted to first make sure none of her does looked like they might kid that morning. Everyone seemed fine so she went to be with Barbara. On the same day that Barbara lost Twinkle back on Rosasharn farm Twinkle's dam Eclipse who was not suppose to be bred gave birth to a gorgeous little doeling that looked just like Twinkle. They named her Twinkle Luna. I am telling you this story as an example of how farmers support each other. Farming is very rewarding most of the time but there are times when farming is tragic and difficult. This story is also an example of natures balance while Twinkle was leaving this world Twinkle Luna life began. And before Twinkle left she gave us Gemini and Cassie.

Gemini is a very sweet goat and like her mother a calm disposition. She came to me in milk. She was a very easy milker and very well behaved on the milk stand. When Gemini came into heat in early August we bred her to Percy. She is due to kid any time after Christmas Eve! Her kids will be the first winter babies born on our farm. We are anxiously awaiting her kids. What a wonderful Christmas present they will be!

HOW I BECAME A GOAT FARMER

My first time bottle feeding Shelby

I thought some of you might like to know about why I started raising dairy goats. My first passions in life are cooking and food. There is nothing better in the world to me than to have my house filled with my family and a comforting meal that I spent all day cooking in my kitchen. When my girls were younger I spent a lot of time in my kitchen preparing meals from scratch in an effort to save money and feed my family healthy foods. I made everything from my own breads to homemade tortilla chips.  I decided one day that I needed to learn how to make cheese.  In 2007 I took a cheese making class offered by Brianna from Terra Firma Farm in Connecticut. I came home after taking the class and said to my family "I think that I need a cow". Looking at me like I had lost my mind, they all said in unison “You cannot have a cow!” And my story begins.

Being the determined and (for the most part) rational person that I am, I agreed in that raising a cow on our small piece of land would not be very feasible, but how about a goat? I spent the following year learning as much as I could about goats from various books and the internet.

In 2008 I met my now close friend Melinda, who raised Nubian dairy goats.  I was able to visit her farm one morning in February. I showed up with a pad, a pencil and about one hundred questions. What I remember most about that day is the distinct feeling I had. I felt so peaceful there, and I didn't want to leave. Mel spent the next hour and a half with me answering every question I had from what veterinarian to use to where to buy a milk stand.  She was so patient with me, and before I left that day I had given her a deposit for two kids to be born in the Spring. I decided I would start with a doe and a wether (a fixed male).

April 2008 I brought home Shelby and Rusty, two Nubian kids. Shelby  was rejected by her mother, so I was able to take her when she was only two weeks old. I bottle-fed both Shelby and Rusty, and drove thirty minutes away to purchase raw goat milk for them. From the day I picked up my new kids Mel mentored me in goat husbandry; she was always only a phone call away. Mel taught me everything from disbudding my kids to having to assist in deliveries. I would not be where I am today with my goats without her. I am very grateful to her for her guidance and friendship.

Rusty

Shelby

Raising goats and farming became my way of life. I found it very grounding and rewarding. I was also very drawn to the people you meet and the connections that you make. In my experience, farmers are some of the best people I have ever had the opportunity to meet. They are hardworking, loyal, and generous people. I just fell in love with everything about farm life. I knew with everything in my heart that this is what I was supposed to do with my life. My journey raising goats and becoming self-sustaining began.

About three years later I went through some life changes and I found myself needing to work full-time outside of the house. By then I had acquired a Mini-Nubian buck, Cooper, and I’d kept one of Shelby's does, Bailey, who was now two. Shelby had kidded three times and continued to reject her kids every kidding. She was a wonderful milker, but I became very concerned that I could not care for her and her kids properly while working full-time. I was fearful of missing her kidding and losing her kids because she didn't know how to care for them herself. I had additionally lost the flexibility to bottle feed four-to-six times a day. I sold Shelby that year to a wonderful family in Foster, R.I., and I also found good homes for Rusty, Cooper, and Bailey.  By this time Mel had started raising Nigerian Dwarf goats. She suggested I switch to this breed because they were a lot smaller, great mothers, and easier to handle. I was hesitant to do so, because I felt that because they produce about 1/2 the amount of milk that the full-size Nubian breed does you would have work twice as hard to collect enough milk.

2012, she convinced me and I started my herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats. I fell in love with them and their milk instantly. By the end of 2012 I had purchased four does and one buck. Soon after, I met Tom and we started farming together. About one year ago I left my job to pursue farming full time. I purchased four more does, a buck, and retained three of the kids born here on Silk Tree Farm. In the coming weeks I will be featuring one goat from my herd every week so you can meet them and hear their stories.

Must be Monday! Here Come The Fall Scents

Must be Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! We were at 4 farmers' markets this weekend and will now be attending Wakefield / Marina Park Farmers' market on Tuesdays. It was a long weekend but a great one! As always we thank everyone who supports their local farmers' markets! 

Here at Silk Tree Farm we started off our morning with the usual milking and feeding chores. As soon as everyone was happy and taken care of I went straight to work pouring candles. I poured a few more summer scents and my first batch of fall scents. In addition to the return of the favorite scents be on the look out for some new fall scents to hit the stores and markets. 

Here is sneak peak at one of the new scents coming soon!

POMEGRANATE CIDER:  A unique scent of sugared apples and clove with a tart tangy kick of pomegranate. 

Fall candles will be covered with this fabric!

Monday Menu!

Oven Roasted Turkey

Creamed Swiss Chard

Tomato Avocado Salad

www.silktreefarm.com

Education in Farming

 Today  and this past Tuesday we spent the morning at Hillandale Farm.  They host a summer camp for young kids where they gain a wealth of knowledge about food and farming. We brought along two of our does in milk. We talked with the kids about how to care for goats and they got a lesson in milking. What a rewarding experience. To be able to spend time with these children and show them exactly where healthy natural food comes from.  Thank you Hillandale Farm for allowing us to be included in such a wonderful program!

Hoof Trimming

Milking our doe Cake

What's Happening Wednesdays ~ Here come the Turkeys

Our morning started out with the arrival of our baby turkeys which are now settled in nicely to their new home. There is nothing better than the sounds of baby chicks. One of our customers stopped by to visit just in time for her young son to see the baby turkeys and help us get them settled. He was so excited to learn how to hold them and give them water and food. It was a great experience.

Later in the afternoon our Veterinarian came out and vaccinated all our goat with their yearly rabies shots. This went a lot smoother than I thought it would. Each goat hopped up on the milk stand and enjoyed a late afternoon snack of Alfalfa pellets while she administered their shots. It could not have been easier. 

Wednesday's Meal:

Our Own Farm Raised Pork Chops 

(with sage from our herb garden)

Cabbage Leaves Sauteed in Butter

and

Tomato and Cucumber Basil Salad

Must Be Monday- Lets Play in the dirt!

Must Be Monday!

Weeding the garden consumed most of my Monday. Weeding is always very calming to me. I try to look at it as time to clear my head and just enjoy playing in the dirt. Once the weeds were under control I had time to plant the rest of my green beans, another row of beets and turnips. Life is Good!

Putting up Kale!

I also had time to get some kale harvested and stored for this winter.

The kale was blanched for 3 minutes and plunged into an ice bath then weighed out to 10 oz portions and packed in ziplock bags ready for the freezer.

I'm watching you.

Tomorrow I will spend my morning at HILLANDALE farm. They provide  a summer camp for young kids.  I will visit with the goats and talk about the value of goats on a farm and show the kids how to milk.

Monday's Miracles 

Monday's Menu:

Burgers (from local beef)
Roasted Root Veggies with rosemary and thyme
Arugula Salad with homemade feta and walnuts

Why I began making Silk Tree Farm's Goat Milk Soap.

I started making goat milk soap about 3 years ago. I have always tended to have dry skin, but I started having sensitivity issues to different products and I began suffering from eczema, so my journey in soap making began. I wanted to avoid commercial soap products, so I became determined to learn how to make my own laundry detergent and started researching how to make goat milk soap on the internet. I had heard that goat milk soap was wonderful for your skin and I had plenty of extra milk from my goats. I found a very informative YouTube video on how to make soap. I started with the cold process method but once I tried the hot process method I was hooked. I love the bars of soap it produced. Since I started making my own soap I have not had anymore problems with eczema and my skin is a lot healthier. the goat milk soap is very nurturing to your skin. Customers have mentioned that it has helped their children who also suffer from eczema.

I am now making soap twice a week for sales at the farmers' markets and for the local stores who carry Silk Tee Farm's Handcrafted Goat Milk Soaps. The sales of these soaps are assisting in my future plans of expanding Silk Tree Farm. I want to thank all of the customers and stores who support us.

Charlestown Land Trust Farmer's Market

Stop by and visit us at the Charlestown Land Trusts Farmer's Market every Friday from 9:30-1:00.

Located at:
Church of the Holy Spirit
4150 Old Post Rd.Charlestown

Grab yourself a bar of our own old fashion hot process goat milk soap. 

Lavender

Lemongrass

Sandalwood

Peppermint

Unscented

Our Hand Made Goat Milk Soap contains Olive Oil to moisturize and gently cleanse your skin. It is nutrient rich and high in antioxidants. It also contains coconut Oil, which is moisturizing with natural antioxidants. We add palm oil and milled oatmeal, for gentle exfoliating properties, and soothing affects. Honey is used to help keep skin hydrated. It also is full of antioxidants and can help treat minor acne by attacking the bacteria that cause the outbreaks while moisturizing the skin to aid rejuvenation. Goat Milk of course! Our very own goat milk contains alpha hydroxy acids such as lactic acid which helps remove dead skin cells from your skins surface, and vitamins particularly high in vitamin A, which helps repair damaged skin tissue, The cream in the milk helps boost the moisturizing quality of the soap.

Angel's Farm Reflection 23

Angel Arias                          Silk Tree Farm                        6/17/13

*This will be my last ost for the blog, as this Thursday was my last day interning on the farm, at least for the school year.*
That being said, today wasn’t really a “working day” as much as a day to just enjoy ourselves and find something to do that wasn’t work. Initially we’d thought we would go to the beach, and I’d brought swimming trunks in case we fell through with that. But, swimming in potential rain probably wouldn’t have been too enjoyable. I actually don’t think it ending up raining that day, but even so, there was the risk as well as the not-so-ideal weather. We pondered on what next to do, and ended up deciding to go hiking. We were also to going to go “crabbing”, which as one might infer, meant catching (and probably eating) crabs. However I’d never gone crabbing, so as how we could go about that I was unsure. Of course we went over it, and by tying a chicken wing (Yes, an actual chicken’s wing) to a string or something like it and tossing it out to sea, you can attract a crab who will attempt to jack your bait in a nonchalant manner; unknowingly walking into a subterfuge, which is the point at which you attempt to capture him in a timely manner so as he does not elude you. We grabbed a frozen chicken’s wing and a bucket of hot water to accelerate the thawing process, and we were pretty much set to go. I forget the exact name of the place, but it was a very large area that had previously been a military facility of some sort, complete with an airstrip and all. There were some paths that lead around the more natural parts of the area, so we parked and started following the pathways. It was a pretty versatile path, so there were frequent dichotomies in the path where you could go one way or the other. We walked over to a bridge and saw some blue crabs; I forget what their actual name is. Though they were rather unresponsive to the bait, and upon further investigation it was discovered that they were indeed, dead crabs. We tried to crab further out and in a few different spots, but didn’t end up catching anything. Other than that, we walked around the path and just looked around at all the interesting things there were to see. We found a tree that Cathy described as, “Something you would see in a horror movie,” and, “That looks like it would wrap itself around you.” I climbed up it for a little while before getting back down from it and getting back to the path. After a while of walking, nearer to the end when we were starting to leave the path, I started inquiring about poison ivy again. I’m not sure if I mentioned in my other reflections, but I don’t believe I’ve ever contracted poison ivy. I never really thought about it since Tom mentioned it on the farm a few months back. Since then, I’ve tried to see if I actually was allergic to it as I was curious. I tried once, but nothing, and then again, still, nothing. So this time I wasn’t trying to let anything get past me; it had to be the right plant, I’d have to rub it thoroughly. I had to be absolutely sure, vehemently positive, that I had touched, for sure and definitely, a poison ivy plant. So then, with identification assistance from Tom, I did. But so far, like I was kind of expecting, nothing. I’d say it was shortly after that that we left and got some ice cream. The place we went to was interesting because not only did it have ice cream, but it had copious amounts of chocolates and baked goods that were kind of unique. It even had gummy octopi, which were particularly interesting to me. We all got some ice cream, and then we headed back to the farm where we had lunch, ground pork hamburgers. Although I suppose that they would technically be porkburgers, not hamburgers. The pork meat was course-ground, meaning that is wasn’t really as texture-consistent as other ground meat, which was something that I was not familiar with. After we ate, we more-or-less just talked and not else until my ride arrived, for the final time. This sums up my day at Silk Tree Farm, and I'll be seeing everyone next time.

Angel's Farm Reflection 22

Angel Arias                        Silk Tree Farm                        6/6/13

Some things that we talked about were my time there, my ending time, and what the last day might look like. My exhibition is next Tuesday, so I won’t be there that day, and since pretty soon we’re going to be having a lot of things going on in my advisory, next Thursday will be my last day there. My advisor was also coming to the farm today to go over the RWL (real world learning) rubric with us, later in the day. After the things that usually go on in the mornings, like watering the fodder system, and straightening out what we were going to do for the day, we headed out and Cathy started trimming the goats’ hooves. I’d never seen this happen, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to and what was going to happen. Basically, using the milk stand, she stood them up, grabs one of their legs, and with a pair of hand-cutters, started trimming the edges of their individual hooves. It took a little while, since we were doing it individually, and especially since some of the goats were more cooperative than others. As an example, when they were standing up there, some of them would get upset and start kicking out because they were uncomfortable, but once they were feeling better, they stopped. After we were done with that, the greenhouse tomatoes were watered by Cathy while I grabbed some hay to cover the potatoes with. We started to pile it onto them like usual, and I’ll just take this time to say that the potatoes are doing very well. Of all the things that are growing, this is one of the things I am most proud of. I also used a hoe for the first time today, and I already had a vague understanding of how to use, but I was refreshed on how to do so before actually using it. In the back garden behind the goat pen is where I was weeding, I’d go down a between a row of vegetables, taking care not to run over any innocuous plants, until I was done with the row. I’d also get a bit distracted with grass, since grass is generally looked at as a weed at the farm. What I really mean by that is, anything that is growing that is not what you’re trying to grow, including grass, is a weed. I started tearing up chunks from the ground, until I realized that it was a futile effort and more grass is going to grow everywhere no matter how hard I weed. During the day, Cathy told me about how she was going to process at least some of the chickens on Thursday, and how she wasn’t sure about how she could work it out so I could be there on a processing day. I’d told her beforehand that I would greatly appreciate being able to be there on a processing day, because I really wanted to be able to experience it. It seems like a very important task on the farm, to me, at least. Nonetheless, she said that we could start getting the processing materials ready for the next day. That consisted of cleaning several bins with a hose and scrubbing them clean with a hand-scrubber. When all that was done, we headed inside, and before very long my advisor was there. We went over the rubric together, talked about and discussed what we thought I would get for scores, and then we were pretty much done with it. I gave my advisor a tour of the farm, and, since my advisor was coming, she was also driving me back, so I wasn’t taking the bus back to Providence. This concludes my day at Silk Tree Farm.

Angel's Farm Reflection 21

Angel Arias                           Silk Tree Farm                         6/3/13

In the morning I started off starting some grains in the jars. The sprouting system itself has developed very well and is continuing to. Last week sometime, we made some new holders for grains. As in, new containers to sprout inside of which we made by sticking with holes made by heated metal rods, and washing thoroughly. These containers were something stouter than the other containers, and I suppose that it is because of that reason that I thought it wouldn’t really do as well. Maybe I’d thought that because it was less stretched and thicker that it would be more likely to incur mold; but it seemed to be working really great. It may have even been denser than the other trays due to its smaller frame. Cathy talked about adding more seed to each tray, since they seemed to be doing quite well and she thought they could handle more. We did some more planting around the farm, in the front squares of land. Hauled up compost in buckets since the tractor wasn’t working, and planted a lot of plants that we extra of. Also, on this day, I was picked up a bit earlier than usual, so the margin to do things within was a bit smaller. We also checked on the worms and fed them (Just putting food in their container), and did a few other small things around the farm. This wraps up my day at Silk Tree Farm.

Angel's Farm Reflection 20

Angel Arias              Silk Tree Farm Reflection                 5/30/12

Today what we did was mainly planting, since one thing that happens quite a bit on the farm is having not much space and too many plants to get in the ground. There are also so many tomatoes – seriously, there are a whole lot of tomatoes. Even ones that aren’t in the ground, there are just a whole bunch in seed trays that haven’t found room on the farm yet. Something that I think I remembered in my subconscious but didn’t actively think about was that tomatoes are staked up on something, like a wooden rod. It somehow slipped my mind, but I guess I forgot how tall and large tomato plants can grow to. The plants in the greenhouse, which are tomato plants and cucumbers (The cucumbers were not intentionally planted, they were planted because of the vegetable debris and material that was left in the compost) also need to be watered with vigilance since they don’t get any rainwater. There’s a small side-section on the farm which now has a bunch of tomatoes in it, which Tom cleared out and planted in since we had a large amount of tomatoes left. Surprisingly enough, the JobLot onions we planted are actually growing fairly well, which was especially surprising since they weren’t in very well condition and a few of them very rotted. But nonetheless, we decided to plant them with good hopes and see what would happen. This summarizes my day at Silk Tree Farm.