Welcome to hollandgoats.com - not just another food blog. This is the story of a pet goat, quality cooking and wine pairing, self-reliance, DIY projects such as soapmaking, old-time wisdom and learning about the art of the process of life. And I happen to love blue-eyed soul music. Pinot was an accident pet, I”ll admit. You don’t really plan to get a goat, especially if you’re at a transitional living situation with your parents in their lakeside retirement community condo building.
I woke up on a Saturday morning to the question, “do you want a baby goat?” Well, my infatuation with goats already had its seeds watered by watching the other goats at his hobby farm. They seemed like mystical creatures who always smiled. Somewhat dazed, I said, “Sure.” Thinking “Jim’s getting a baby goat, and I’ll help take care of it.”
Later, about 20 minutes later on the drive, the truth was shared. “I’m getting five goats to raise and eat, you can keep one.” Talk about Sophie’s choice...my heart sunk, how would I choose? Even harder, now it was starting to sound like I had to be sole owner of this goat. Already roped into visiting the cute sanctuary of the goat farm, I was hooked. There was no turning back.
We arrived at the farm at the exact same moment as the farmer, our trucks meeting in a perfect T. It was one of those moments so perfectly calculated it was nearly unreal. No words were spoken, car doors opened and slammed shut, a farmer walked straight to me and promptly handed me a tiny black goat. My choice was made. This precious little creature would hours later become to be known as “Pinot”.
We ended up taking five goats home, and of course I fell in love with all of them, which created a problem for the coming months when Jim would joke about cooking them. Finally, Jim’s heart caved in, and he let me find other homes for all the baby goats. Since I had bottle fed and loved each one of them so much, they loved humans so they were perfect pets. I would have kept them myself, but again, the housing situation. I kept Pinot, and his misfit brother, Mohawk “Mo”.
Mo was referred to as the “lucky one” by the original farmer, as he was a difficult birth - his leg wrapped around his head. They almost killed him on the spot, but randomly he called a vet to help (pretty much unheard of in the goat dairy farming world...animals are livestock, not living things, but this was a newbie farmer with a heart.) So Mo stayed as Pinot’s best friend. Over time, we realized something was not quite right about him. He had dark circles around his eyes, he was always eating, he loved to lay and sleep in weird places -- food bin, wheelbarrow, anywhere. He looked like he was permanelty stoned. So, we loved our little no-nuisance Mo. He was chill, compared to Pinot. Since I had babied Pinot -- truly I gave Pinot his own milk bottle while the others had to suck off the bucket -- Pinot became a bit needy, crying all the time, now, still, whenever he sees me he cries until I let him out or play with him. But I still love him. But, Mo was the cool, chillaxed stoned brother.
Sadly, Mo’s lazy, food-friendly nature became his demise. On the first day of a snowfall, our little Mo was eating, as usual, from a barrel of hay, when because of the water weight of the snow, the barrel fell over and crushed him. We found him hours later. Our little stoner goat was not meant to survive a winter, he would have been a better beach bum goat.
Rumors floated around the barn that it was a goat murder, that Pinot was jumping on the barrel when the tragedy struck. Nobody knows, but we still have sad holes in our hearts from where Mo was. I had even made Mo business cards, we were going to let him go mow lawns. He would have really loved what he did, it wouldn’t have been work at all.
So, today, Pinot is a little over one year old. He’s playful, energetic, cute as can be. He’s still growing, so I’m not sure most of the time what I’ve gotten myself into. But by spending time with him, in the garden and at the farm, I’ve learned some of those self-reliance things.
I work as a writer, photographer and marketing coordinator for a wine company, so I spend most of time figuring out how to do things faster, with quality. I multitask like it’s a sport, getting excited when I learn a new keyboard command. Cooking, raising vegetables and watching the seasons of Pinot’s life and farm things, give me moments to take it reaaaal slow, the way things were done before. It’s back to process art. It’s the process of life art. And it's also the kind of stuff that's good to know given who knows where the world will lead us, I want to be as self-sufficient as possible.
So, let Pinot and I share what’s in store, what’s on the table, what’s the wine pairing of the seasons. Our tastes may differ, as he’s pretty much strict vegan who will always choose brussel sprouts over tomatoes, so most of the time I’ll share my favorite bounties from the garden, recipes, wine pairings, anecdotes, old-time wisdom and processes that really don’t make you any money or save you money -- but give you something through the process. And I will answer the question, "can you make a goat a pet?" and then, you'll all want to adopt the motherless male goats out there as your new best friends.
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