Cheese and fun at the Vermont Goat Farm

On a recent trip to Vermont with two girlfriends, we visited Fat Toad Farm where they have about 50 happy goats.

Ladies lining up for milking time

The ladies (does) provide the milk for cheese and caramel sauce.  The men (bucks) do what men do and hang out by themselves having guy chat and telling jokes filled with bathroom humor except for the time spent providing occasional service to the women in the fall.  Three males support all those females.  Happy men.  

Their delicious cheeses and cajeta, a caramel sauce similar to dulce de leche but creamier and not as strongly sweet, may be purchased at the farm and at various stores listed on the website.  While visiting the farm, you can watch the cheese and caramel-making through the picture window in the production room.  Products can be purchased on-site and  I was pleased to see that a store in Washington, DC sells them, too! 

One of the interns explained to me that the male goats have a very strong scent as they get close to breeding season (October) and that the scent is apparently very attractive to female goats.  She said if I patted the males and then visited the females I would receive a lot of attention.  I chose not to pat the males; I could smell them from some distance and mentioned that I did not want to smell like goat, nor be too attractive to other goats, male or female. 

The young intern told us about how happy the younger goats are, even though they have only been separated from their mothers for a short time.  “They are getting really excited,” she said, “because in October they will be bred and then have their kids in the spring.”  I looked at one particularly glassy-eyed young gal and said sternly to her “enjoy your time now.  It may not be that great and kids are a lot of trouble.”  The intern seemed taken aback with my candor and moved on to other chores.  Really the goats do look very happy - plenty of food and water and a clean place to play seems like a pretty good deal.  The females that provide the milk spend much of their daytime out in the pasture grazing and making more milk.

Milking time

We went to the milking room and a very nice young man very patiently answered our questions and put up with us as we commented on the heavily-laden ladies who marched in for feeding and milking.  He carefully cleaned their teats and began explaining about the process and the importance of careful and timely intervals of milking to prevent mastitis.  When he started to explain mastitis, I stopped him and told him matter-of-factly that we all were mothers and had experienced mastitis at times during our breastfeeding days.  His color changed and he immediately busied himself with their udders, probably preferring not to make the connection between goat and human milking.  My friends said, “shhhh, you are embarrassing him.”  They were right, of course.

Fat Toad Farm in Brookfield, VT is worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood.  The goats' pens were pristine and the utmost care was taken in cleanliness in the milking area.  The goats are happy and friendly and love the attention.  It is very rural and there are several friendly dogs to greet you when you arrive.  The cheese is wonderful and their caramel sauce is fantastic.  

Goats are cool.  Some of the young ones were very shy, and others were extremely curious and friendly.  The ladies were ready to make their contribution to the cheese and caramel so other than minor curiosity about us, they were on their late afternoon, no-nonsense mission to eat and be milked.

See their website.

Fat Toad Farm