Wild Berries Arrive First

It seems like it's forever from when you first see flowers on your vines and trees until there is ripe fruit. This year it seems like it's taking even longer with a wet spring. Luckily, I got an early taste from the wild plants in the yard.
We usually try to keep the wild blackberries and salmonberries trimmed back because they grow exactly where you don't want them. But we were slow to trim this year, and they showed off small ripe fruit while the cultivated blackberries were still flowering. Even though they are small, they are sweeter and have more flavor than the giant cultivated ones.

After a good afternoon hunting, I scored a pint of wild blackberries and a handful of juicy salmonberries. It was just enough to get in some practice canning preserves.

The Crop Report

My 4H garden has a really great start this year. Even though it was cold and rainy this May, there has been enough sun to make a difference. I finally saw some bees too! They've been arriving too late in the year to pollinate the fruit trees.
My strawberries are leading the charge with one berry ripe already. The blueberries are close behind, working on some pale white berries. The blackberries and raspberries are yet to bloom.

I bought fruit trees at a sale last fall, Honey Crisp and Liberty apples, Italian plums, and a Montmorency cherry. Thanks to the bees showing up in time, they all have small fruits starting. New this year is a black Mission fig tree I found at Sunday Market. It already had large green figs on it. I hope I can find a spot in the yard it will like.

The compost pile is again sprouting some wheat and oats from spilled goat chow. Those naughty things! Rather than waiting for the oats to produce grain and dry, I usually pick the long deep green leaves and feed them to the goats. I have some corn seeds, but haven't found the best spot for them. I should hurry, though as it's nearly July!

Betty Babies, Finally!

We had pretty much given up on the idea that Betty would ever have babies. We drove her all around, even as far off as three hours away, to see various boys, but nothing worked. She taught us that babies weren't exactly necessary last year, by producing over 1000 pounds of milk, without having babies first.

Last fall, things seemed a bit different with Betty, so we took her in to see yet another boy, a young but very well pedigreed Toggenburg from a fancy show herd. We weren't exactly sure if she was pregnant, as she didn't look as amazingly huge as Flopsy.

This was Betty's lucky year! She had the cutest two baby Toggenburgs ever, a boy and a girl. Now that she is producing milk in the normal order, babies first then milk, she is giving an amazing amount, nearly equaling her sister, Jelly, well over a gallon and a half per day.

They went to the same farm as Flopsy's babies, who are getting in on the little Toggs' picture. We think the Toggs look like they are ready for business right off with their substantial Swiss snow boots, versus the dainty Nubian designer heels.

Flopsy's Big Surprise!

After a false alarm a month early, Flopsy finally had her babies. Surprise! She had three!

They are all girls. One looks just like Flopsy, one looks just like their dad, and one is black and white. How did that one get in there? It's been a challenge so make sure they all get milk, because there are only two places to drink at Flopsy's Cafe!

Luckily, a very nice family that loves dairy goats took all three sisters, so they can grow up together. Two red velvet cupcakes and an oreo surprise.

Planting Strawberries

Last year in my 4-h garden, I planted strawberries, blackberries, and tomatoes. The weather was cool and rainy all last summer, so the tomatoes didn't do very well, but the berries did great. I even won blue ribbons at the county fair for my blackberries and strawberries.
I've been having fun building boxes to display my soap, so I thought it would be fun to build planter boxes for my strawberries. I would have built planter boxes for the blackberries, but in Oregon you really can't tell blackberries what to do! I decided to make hanging planters to discourage bugs.

The planters were fast to make, using two 1x6 boards attached at a right angle with wood screws. The end is just a square with a hole drilled near the top to hang. I painted the ends like strawberries for a fun look.

Making Goat's Milk Soap

My goats give a lot of milk, so I am always looking for new ways to make good use of all their hard work. I recently found out how to make goat milk soap. It was fun and came out really nice

The only ingredients I used were my goat's milk, olive oil, and lye. I had to start with the goat milk frozen, so it wouldn't be damaged by the heat the lye produces. I had to buy the lye online. There are lots of different oils to use, but many make my skin itch, so I stayed with olive oil.
I started by putting the frozen goat milk into a large bowl and added the lye crystals. I stirred very carefully so it wouldn't splash. Once the lye had dissolved, I added the olive oil and started mixing with an immersion blender. After about five minutes the oil and lye saponify, which means it chemically changes into soap, and thickens into what looks like thin pudding. This is called a medium trace. It was then I could add fun ingredients. In the picture, I'm stirring in coffee grinds for a scrubby soap.

I carefully poured the soap into a mold. I use a PVC pipe lined with freezer paper. It will set up overnight, and I can slice it into fun round shapes. Since this is called the cold process method, the soap will need to cure for at least four weeks or more. It becomes more gentle the longer it ages. I'm excited to be selling my soap now in these cute little bags at a local farmer's market.

The Waiting Game

First, a goatie haiku:

Flopsy is pretty,
but she's as big as a house!
Kids are coming soon.


We are playing the usual early spring waiting game. Some of the goats have stopped giving milk, and some are still giving a little. Goats can give milk for 10 months of the year, but stop the last two months before they have babies again.

We had trouble this year getting everyone bred for spring babies. While some breeding sessions looked convincing, and all the best conditions were met, it seemed like nothing was working. We could have ordered expensive tests to know for sure, or just wait and see. So, we're waiting.

Coco Puff bit her date on the tail, so we're pretty sure there will be no babies from her. Jelly went to see a nice Toggenburg buck twice, but since she's giving more milk, not less, she's probably not bred either.

Ol' Mimzy waited until the last minute of breeding season to show any interest, and saw both a Nubian buck and a Boer buck. She's giving less milk, so that's a good sign, but we won't know more for another month.

Flopsy is simply huge! And, huge early. She went to visit a Nubian buck in October, then insisted she needed to go again in late November. She stopped giving milk as if the earlier session was a success. Maybe she just wanted to say "Hi" on the second visit. When Flopsy is this huge, she is resistant to getting up for anything, and sits under the feeder. The other goats know this and use her as a step stool or pillow.

Betty was our surprise this year. After two years of a cystic condition and no success with bucks, she seems to have gotten better, and had a successful breeding with a very nice Toggenburg buck. She stopped giving her mystery milk, and her sides are starting to show signs of life.

We think Flopsy's babies should arrive in March, followed by Betty's in April, and Mimzy in May. All this waiting and rubbing round tummies.