Residing in Massachusetts | The Journey for Raw Milk: The Little White Goat Dairy & Davenport Farms

Its now been 25 days since my arrival back to the United States. When we last left off I had requested for help from all of you to acquire tickets to fly back from Morocco. Happy to announce that with much help from readers like you, I made it back to the US!

Since being back, my efforts with Stillness in the Storm have greatly increased and I have been able to spend more time connecting with nature, getting my hands dirty and working my body with physical labor. No room for complaints, only much gratitude to those who have connected with me and provided wonderful opportunities.

In Morocco its just now heating up, summer coming into full swing but here in Massachusetts you might be confused and still think its winter as its been in the 40's and 50's for the majority of the time since my arrival. Sure there have been a few days here and there where the temperature was in the 80's but there's also been days where we had to get a fire going. Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE the cold!

After being in Morocco for a year and three months I can certainly tell you that I missed many things from being in America. The beauty here is literally breathtaking, being surrounded by large trees, ancient rocks, bears, deer and all other kinds of animals, like hummingbirds. Being back has certainly placed me in extreme gratitude, I think anytime you leave a place and return to it you can't help but appreciate it that much more. The contrasting experience.

One thing which you may not think you would miss is simply being understood when speaking English. It isn't just the language barrier where others may not understand English but more so the relative culture and way of using the language. When you leave your culture behind and visit others you realize how differently we communicate on Earth. The events, people and things you may find funny or interesting may be completely blown off in other cultures or found to be strange or insulting. Its certainly a challenge attempting to explain yourself in a language that the majority of those around you do not understand and vice versa, while also trying to understand other cultures and their ways of doing things.

With that being said though, I absolutely would not have had this experience any other way. My time visiting so many new places will never be forgotten, instead it will be assimilated into my life more and more as time goes on. I say as time goes on because I feel as though there is lag between experiencing and gathering meaning from said experiences. I did my best in capturing my feelings and the images around me in my previous posts, be sure to check them out for hundreds of photos. Check my Facebook page for even more as I just recently started my blog.

Currently there is no set plan for what the next step is for myself or Justin besides expanding our blogs, helping out with home repairs and some landscaping/gardening. Giving back to Justin's family as they have been so generous to help us out with living accommodations and more. Also we want to network with other like minded individuals to help spread awareness on various topics covered on Stillness in the Storm, and we will have a more in depth post about that coming soon. Check out our blog sitsshow.blogspot.com.

Its funny how different cultures can be, here in Massachusetts we literally went on a small adventure recently to simply acquire what can be found just down the street in Morocco; raw milk. Many times people want to over generalize and say that one place is better than another but things are really just different, everywhere you go. I would almost have to say that TIME itself runs at a different pace in various places around the world. Being in Morocco it felt as if I was visiting 1950's America, but with cell phones.

We visited two farms, one for goat milk and another for cow milk. I have a feeling we will do a more in-depth post on Heritage farm soon but I can't wait to share the photos from this lovely place. I had never really interacted with goats on a personal level but at Heritage farm I got up close and personal. One of the goats there, actually the "mascot" of the farm, just would not leave my side. Continually by me looking for attention. (Photo Below)

The Little White Goat Dairy

This goat farm had Lamancha goats a special breed known for their milk.

From THE LITTLE WHITE GOAT DAIRY

LAMANCHA DAIRY GOATS

Our herd is comprised of LaMancha dairy goats, known for their mild mannered and sweet temperaments. Their milk is sweet and moderately creamy, making it perfect for drinking, culturing, and cheesemaking. They are also known for their ears - or lack thereof! They do not have upright earflaps like Saanens or Alpines, or droopy ones like Nubians. Their ears are more like humans - just a circle of cartilage. There's an interesting explanation for the distinctive ears that also relates to their hardiness.

The Spanish missionaries that landed on the west coast of the US in the 1500's brought goats with them on their ocean voyages to provide milk and meat. These short-eared goats occasionally showed an "earless" mutation that the missionaries disliked, and so these goats were set loose in the Sierras. Over the next few hundred years, the earless mutation became dominant, and the goats grew hardy adapting to the local climate.

In the early 1900's, other European immigrants brought Swiss and French Alpine goats with them to California that proved to not be very hardy in that climate. Breeders soon noticed the herds of "feral" goats and thought wisely to breed the more fragile European dairy goats with these nativized Spanish goats, and that is how the "American LaMancha" breed began.

LaMancha bloodlines, being relatively recently established, still show a lot of "hybrid vigor". They tolerate the temperature variations of New England very well, and are easy keepers. The many contributing gene pools lead to goats with sweet creamy milk of high production, medium body size, and variable coloration.

Our founding goats were bred by Linda and Paul Garwacki at Bitterblue Farm in Hampden MA. That's where we got our herd queen, whose registered name is Velveteen, but who we lovingly call "Little White Goat". Our new herdsire is Little Stevie Wonderbuck on loan from Bitterblue, bred at Huricane PM farm in Oregon. We are looking forward to meeting his kids in March and April of 2014.



Davenport Farm

Lastly here are some photos of the wooded areas surrounding me:

Stephanie and Jenn were kind enough to show Justin and I some of the places around here. We had a great time visiting these two farms and getting to see the beauty of Massachusetts. In much gratitude, thank you to these wonderful people and all the readers!

Until next time!