A Tale of Two Goats

Mary Doerr did not intend to be a goat farmer. When she purchased Dancing Winds Farm, which lies on 20 acres in Kenyon, Minnesota, in 1985, her plan was to grow organic produce. She carried through with her organic produce, but only for a short while. Then, along came Ida and Yogurt from a neighbor who no longer wanted them.

Ida and Yogurt were the first of what was to become a thriving herd of goats. They came to Mary pregnant, and within a year of buying the farm, there were nine goats and plenty of milk at Mary’s disposal. “I was using the milk in all my cooking, and making yogurt and ice cream,” says Mary, “and I still had more milk than I could use.”

Reviving A Lost Art

It was time for something new; time for an enterprise that made use of all of the excess milk her goats produced. “I bought a book about cheese-making made easy and started making cheese in my kitchen,” Mary recalls. Everything was experimental at first, and there were as many bad batches of cheese as there were good.

To make goat cheese, Mary first pasteurizes the milk and then, depending on the type of cheese, adds bacterial culture and enzymes to promote the formation of curds. After the milk mixture incubates, the curds are separated from the whey. The curds are shaped, then wrapped in cheesecloth to further drain and cure. Fresh chevre is ready after five to seven days, aged chevre is cured for 15 days, and feta is transferred to brine to develop for three more days.

It did not take long for Mary to begin marketing her cheese. After sampling her product, the organic company that bought her vegetables offered to buy all of the cheese she could make. Finally, in 1987, after juggling the organic produce and the herd, she switched her attention to the goats. “I am keeping alive a lost art,” says Mary. “The people who are willing to make cheese in small batches, who work with milk and willingly hang onto that art form, are few.”

Customers rave about her cheeses, which come in many different styles and flavors. The key is the lifestyle of the goats. Mary believes that successful cheese-making starts with healthy and happy goats. “Your cheese is only as good as your milk,” says Mary, “and your milk is only as good as your goats.”

Bombay Button

The goat herd at Dancing Winds Farm now numbers 36, including

* French Alpine,
* Oberhasli,
* Saanen and
* Boer breeds.

“I like everything about the goats-their intelligence, their mischievousness.” says Mary. “They are social creatures, and they don’t do what you want them to do. They don’t just follow like sheep.”

Mary also has five Cashmere goats she is using as an experiment in gathering their luxurious wool. Mary currently milks eleven of the goats, which produces 75 pounds of cheese weekly, specifically artisan cheeses, ranging from:

* feta and chevre,
* gouda and Camembert and
* other French-style cheeses.

Mary calls her aged chevre “Bombay Button,” after the unofficial name of the community-Bombay-in which she lives, and blocks of feta are available in plain, sun-dried tomato and basil, and jalapeno flavors. She also sells logs of fresh chevre plain, rolled in herbs de Provence, garlic and dill, or Oriental seasoning, with ginger and lemon pepper.

Mary’s cheese is naturally low in fat. Her goats produce milk between 2.8 percent and 3.2 percent fat, which is lower than cow’s milk (3.6 percent fat). She uses vegetable-derived enzymes, rather than rennin (which is from calves), with the curds so her cheese is exclusively goat cheese. This means it can be eaten by those allergic to cow’s milk and she opted to make it lower in sodium as well. While most feta is cured in brine that is 20 percent salt, Mary cures her feta in brine that is only 4 percent salt. Her fresh chevre is salt-free, and only a little salt is used to make the aged chevre. Mary sells her cheeses directly from her dairy at Dancing Winds Farm and regularly sells out at the St. Paul Farmers Market.

Guests Are Welcome

Dancing Winds Farm is also a destination for people interested in seeing the cheese-making operation in action or just interested in escaping to the countryside for a few days. Mary’s farmhouse, built in 1896, has been remodeled to include a guest wing, where she runs a bed and breakfast. Guests are welcome to participate in farm activities, or “just enjoy the healing energy of the goats and the relaxing country atmosphere.” By treating the goats like family, walking them in the pasture and letting them fertilize the fields, eat the weeds and frolic, Mary has found a balance between small-scale goat cheese production and a sustainable and healthy product-and her customers are glad she chose the trade.