Homesteaders

[RTFchickens]

I'm looking into buying some nigerian dwarf goats for milk. Any input?

 

[boskelli1571]

We got regular potatoes at the store. We let them "get old" in a dark closet, when they sprouted, we put about 2 inches of potting soil, then the potatoes halved cut side down. We covered them with a combo of soil and composted rabbit poop. Watered, and this is what we got.
We found some cool videos on YouTube about this too.

Were they 'ordinary' potatoes or organic? I have heard that most potatoes bought in stores now, have growth inhibitors to basically prevent people from getting a good harvest...I will be interested to hear how much your spuds yield

 

[Anna6]

I'm looking into buying some nigerian dwarf goats for milk. Any input?

For milk goat I would look into Saanen, Nubians, Alpine or Toggenburg. We have had Nubians for about 20 years and milk them daily.

 

[Raech]

Random question for all the bakers and drinkers. I live in a dry house so I don't know a lot about alcohol. But I found a recipe for homemade vanilla extract, and since I bake a lot I figured it might be kind of nice to make my own. You take at least 3 vanilla beans, that the insides have been used, and place them in a mason jar or glass container of some sort and cover with vodka and put the lid on, let it sit for 3 weeks or until a brown color has been achieved, and add vodka and vanilla beans as needed; lasts forever as long as it's at room temperature. But my question is will the alcohol(ness) evaporate or has my store bought vanilla extract always been a liquor?

 

[RTFchickens]

Just

Were they 'ordinary' potatoes or organic? I have heard that most potatoes bought in stores now, have growth inhibitors to basically prevent people from getting a good harvest...I will be interested to hear how much your spuds yield

ordinary potatoes. I will update you guys in a couple of months as to how they turn out.

 

[RTFchickens]

For milk goat I would look into Saanen, Nubians, Alpine or Toggenburg. We have had Nubians for about 20 years and milk them daily. 

About how large are your goats? How much milk do they produce? Can you eat their meat?
I'm new to goat keeping, in fact I don't even own any yet... I'm hoping to truly homestead, and be self sufficient for milk. We are getting to be self sufficient for meat, and vegetables, but no milk yet. Obviously we no longer buy eggs, courtesy of our chickens ;-)

 

[Anna6]

Milk production varies how fresh they are, the feed you give, how often and how well they are being milked out and how old they are.

At prime ours can give 1- 1 1/2 gallons daily. Milking is twice a day.

Nubians are big goats, can be used for meat and the milk has a higher cream then some. I think some of the other larger goats might at prime have even higher milk production but lower cream production.

Also flavor varies. It has been a long time but it might be why we choose Nubians, we preferred their milk.

We only bring in a buck, in tact male, for breeding.

A buck around, type of feed and how concentrated the milk is can contribute to "goat" flavor.

We sell surplus males occasionally as bucks, intact, but mostly as wethers, castrated pets or companion animals. If we eat a male we will castrated it when it is young.

Bucks that are not castrated will be smelly and meat is generally not considered desirable.

Goats are herd animals and will need a companion animal either another doe or a fixed male, wether.

Remember for the doe to have milk she needs to be bred. We normally do not breed our does till 2 years old. After she gives birth she will need to be milked about 3 times daily for a short time and the milk needs to be fed back to her kids. Kids will need to be dehorned and given some shots. Any males not kept for studs will need to be castrated.

Bottle feeding will help you handle the goats later on for milking. Also if they drink from the mother it might be harder to stop them from drinking when you want the milk for your family. At one time we had an accommodating doe feeding a grown buck through the fence.

Normally when we sell kids we include the service of dehorning, castrating and shots. If possible the new owners will be trained so they can be self sufficient. Try and find some one that does this for and with you. We were very fortunate that by coincidence we purchased our first goats from some one who trained us and was available for us.

We are still getting into chickens again. Haven't for about 19 years. It seems like I have a lot of chickens but few eggs due to buying older layers to at least have something and waiting for our pullets to start laying.

Having goats is very satisfying. I have now adult kids that live in an apartment and still fondly talk about milking goats and raising the goat kids. The younger children still living at home milk the goats and now take care of them. DH does the dehorning etc. We feel blessed to be in a position to be able to keep goats. One thing you will need is a safe enclosure to keep dogs and wild life out. As they are animals of pray it is hard for them to defend themselves.

 

[Anna6]

Were they 'ordinary' potatoes or organic? I have heard that most potatoes bought in stores now, have growth inhibitors to basically prevent people from getting a good harvest...I will be interested to hear how much your spuds yield

From what I understand they are sprayed with fungicides and something to prevent roots from sprouting. I know this doesn't sound appetizing and lately we have been eating them with the peel on. This treatment is done to extend shelf life in the store. Apparently crops grown from these potatoes might have foliage but poor crop production and or bad taste also. When we did it we had good leaf production, a few tiny potatoes that tasted really strong. I now have two rows of special planting potatoes from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply.

http://www.groworganic.com/seasonal-items/seed-potatoes.html

The ones we have are Org. Purple Majesty. I received them as a gift from some one that over ordered. Foliage is coming up and I will fill you in later. I do think DS put in too much mulch, the right amount of goat poo but not enough soil. We'll see. Our family eats tons of potatoes so if it works I will get more into the ground. We are in the midst of changing our soil ratio recipe.

 

[trsturself]

Interesting. I planted store bought potatoes last year and got tons of green but only a few tiny potatoes. I'm going to go buy some seed potatoes and try those this year!

 

[sepaditty1]

Random question for all the bakers and drinkers. I live in a dry house so I don't know a lot about alcohol. But I found a recipe for homemade vanilla extract, and since I bake a lot I figured it might be kind of nice to make my own. You take at least 3 vanilla beans, that the insides have been used, and place them in a mason jar or glass container of some sort and cover with vodka and put the lid on, let it sit for 3 weeks or until a brown color has been achieved, and add vodka and vanilla beans as needed; lasts forever as long as it's at room temperature. But my question is will the alcohol(ness) evaporate or has my store bought vanilla extract always been a liquor?

I will answer as a baker, since I'm not a big drinker. I have had this. Never made it, just used some made by others. I don't like it. Every brownie, cake, & muffin tastes very much like alcohol. I know the actual alcohol cooks out, but the strong flavor remains.