About Us

In Loving Memory of

“ Sunny Baby”

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About Us

Angelika & Slade Munter

600 Rudd Road

Lacona, NY 13083

315-387-2082

In 2004 we bought our place here in the Tug hill region and we had no intention yet to ever start raising our own food. At the time we had horses and a small flock of chickens for eggs. We moved here mainly because we wanted to have more room for the horses and more possibilities for trail riding.

However, our priorities started to change and we became more aware of the problems with the food we buy on a daily basis in the supermarket. Finally we were just tired of the meat and milk loaded with antibiotics and hormones and the seemingly increasing amount of food recalls.

Nevertheless, the decision to raise animals for meat was a very difficult one for me to make. I had always been one of those people who said,-“I don’t know how you can raise an animal and then eat it, I could never do that “

However, I am not a vegetarian, and even though I could probably go that route, that was not an option for my husband at all.

So I went back and forth on this issue for a long time.

What made me decide that this was the way to go, was the fact that I really could no longer with a clear conscience buy meat, milk or eggs that came from animals that had suffered in feedlots and factory farms.

It tends to get very easy to just be ignorant to that fact and avoid thinking about it altogether, but I was tired of being ignorant. How can I feel good about the food I eat if it came from an animal that had to suffer ? Animals had always been such a big part of my life, being active in shelters, rescues and animal rights.

But yet, I had been avoiding to think about the suffering of the animals that end up on my plate.

I no longer wanted to support factory farms and feedlots and the mass production of animals and animal products and that was the reason why I really could have not come to a different conclusion.

I have not regretted this decision even though slaughter day will always be very, very difficult for me and surely there will always be tears, but knowing that the animals we raised for meat had a good life, they were well taken care of, treated humanely and with respect makes it all worthwhile.

Of course as an added bonus, we also no longer worry about growth hormones, antibiotics or other unnatural substances in our food. And let’s not forget the fact that everything actually tastes so much better than anything we ever bought in a store.

In 2008 we felt that we were ready to take the plunge. After much deliberation, research and reading countless books on raising livestock and livestock husbandry, we decided that dairy goats would be the perfect animal for us to get started with. Choosing Nubians was really easy for us after that because we just fell in love with those beautiful faces, the long “dog ears” and the wide range of colors.

We had a well laid out plan to start everything very slowly since neither one of us had ever even been around goats or any other type of livestock.

Of course, “easing” into it did not work out quite as we had planned.

The plan was to start out with two baby goats just to learn basic husbandry skills before we had to dive into milking, milk handling, making cheese and so on.

Funny enough, we just did not seem to be able to find two bottle baby doelings.

We actually saw, this, our BIG year pass us by without being able to start our venture. So my husband “smartly” put out the word that we were looking to buy either two baby goats or two piglets or a calf, something, anything so we could get started.

Just as we were ready to give up, we were able to purchase a two week old Nubian doeling and a few days later a one year old doe that was already bred.

As I was trying to get a handle on bottle feeding a goat kid that absolutely wanted no part of this bottle feeding business, while also taking care of a pregnant goat, the word had apparently gotten around and in less than one month we went from NO livestock at all, EVER to three goats, two piglets and a calf all at once.

Now, we were very lucky as far as Dot our pregnant goat was concerned, because we did not really know when she was due and could not read the signs of nearing birth and of course were clueless about what to do anyway, she took care of everything for us. We missed the birth and when I walked out in the barn one morning, there was this spotted little baby goat looking at me. She was all dry and on her legs looking for that first meal.

Of course with the birth out of the way, I got now thrown right into learning how to milk a goat and once again, Dot came through for us, even though it was her first time for all of this too, she was very, very patient with my first awfully awkward milking attempts.

I have to admit, there were quite a few times during those first couple of months where I felt overwhelmed, feeling like we were doing just about everything wrong and wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. But with some beginners luck and my husband’s never wavering optimism and “we can do this” attitude, we actually made it through those first few chaotic months and everybody was healthy, happy and growing while we were getting a hands-on crash course on raising and handling livestock, milking, equipment and all the things I thought we still had plenty of time to learn.

By now milking has become second nature, I make cheese and yoghurt now, we have a flock of 25 free ranging chickens for eggs, we raise two dozen free range chickens for meat every year as well as Turkeys, Ducks and Geese. We also raise two calves and two piglets every year and have a small vegetable garden.

We have learned so much in those past 4 years and of course there is still so much more to learn as we continue to grow.

Even though we lost our beloved Nuby, this year we are adding two new girls to our Nubian herd, we have also become members of the ADGA and all our goats will be recorded and registered. We also plan on breeding our little Nigerian Dwarf for the first time and we are raising Silkie bantams as a new project as well.

I also would like to start making goats milk soap and more varieties of hard cheeses.

We don’t use any chemicals on our farm and raise our animals in a natural and holistic fashion.

We hope you enjoy the pictures of all the animals on our website, be sure to visit often as we will always add more pictures and updated information.

-Angelika 2012

Have you walked your goat today ?