Farm Fest 2013

I'm back! We have LOTS of catching up to do; stories to tell, new ideas and recipes to try and to share, and as always, exciting things happening on the Homestead!

  We spent this past Saturday at Farm Fest, a local event sponsored by Mid South Lumber in Youngstown. It was a family oriented event highlighting the raising and care of farm animals: specifically chickens, rabbits, goats and horses, with lots of additional fun things for the kids to do: face painting, train rides, bouncy house, a Wild West show, pony rides and more.

 We brought a variety of our goats and set up a up a petting zoo,

gave milking demonstrations,

passed out samples of goat milk, cheese, yogurt and stew and taught the art of milking to the kids.

Some of my friends were there showing rabbits,

selling jams and jellies,

and entered in the animal costume contest.

What you don't see in this picture are the floral swim shorts and water wings on Zepher, the alpaca!
I'm pretty sure they won. Unless, of course, these were included in the contest as well...

Our favorite part of these shows is the time we get to spend meeting new people, exchanging ideas and talking about all the different aspects of HOMESTEAD LIFE... and the surprised look on every face when they try fresh goat milk for the first time and find out how delicious it is! I am of the opinion that the USDA has done a great job of discrediting the attributes, health benefits and taste of goat milk. (but that's another blog altogether!)

If you missed Farm Fest, we'll be setting up again next Saturday, October 19th at Sam Atkins Park in Blountstown, Fl for GOAT DAY. We'll have lots of delicious food to sample, goats to pet, homemade goat milk soap, milking and soapmaking demonstrations and milking games for the kids. We'd love to see you there - stop in and say hello!