A few years ago our friend Reynaldo and his wife Bea, who live in
Piracicaba, retired and purchased a small farm about 30 kilometers away. Reynaldo wanted to make goat cheese and couldn’t
find a reliable source of goat milk. Plus,
like any new retiree, he needed a project.
So he bought a farm and more than fifty goats! Prior to retirement, Reynaldo was a professor
of agronomy so the shift was not as radical as you might think. Nevertheless moving from academia to farming
is a big change no matter what your field.
Today, much to everyone and especially Reynaldo’s delight, the farm is
thriving and produces magnificent food.
The farm is called Cabra Feliz or Happy Goat. There is an old saying in Brazil that when a
man retires and spends his days relaxing and enjoying himself, he is a cabra
feliz, i.e., a happy goat. The farm’s
name embraces both our friend’s disposition and that of the goats perfectly. Not that Reynaldo has much chance to
relax. There are now more than 100 happy
goats on the farm.
Lola in high gear! |
The place is a serious undertaking. The farm spreads over a hilly landscape, with
multiple fields in various stages of growth, re-growth and grazing. Reynaldo grows elephant grass for the animals
to eat in the barns and other softer grasses for grazing in the pastures. The animals are distinctly free range and all
milking is done by hand. The farm literally
hums with sound – rooster crowing, hens clucking, kids bleating, pigs
snorting and dogs barking mix with the noises of farm machinery
and wild bird song. In the evening, the clatter
of harmless beetles crashing into the veranda as they seek out light accompanies
the cocktail hour.
The farm has many buildings as well as the main house and a house for
the farm manager and his family. There are the main goat barn; a small barn for when the kid (baby goat) population soars
and a separate barn for the breeding bucks – it is not a good idea to keep male
goats in the same barn as the females and the kids. Male goats are a randy lot. Beyond the need to manage goat genetics for desirable
traits, no goat farmer can afford to ignore the perils of incest. The farm also has a pig barn; a chicken coop; a butchering
shop for both young male goats and pigs; and a queijaria – or cheese dairy
where the goat cheese is made; and various small storage and equipment sheds.
Reynaldo employs three people full time to keep the operation going and
a part time helper for the gardens. The
farm manager cannot read but is as knowledgeable about animal husbandry as
anyone. He also directs the recycling of
virtually everything on the farm. All
goat and other animal waste is composted and used for fertilizing the fields. The composting system is remarkably efficient
– the goat wastes drop between wooden slats that form the floor of the goat
barn to a lower level where the actual composting takes place.
Goats are gentle, sociable animals. Despite all the activity, the goats give Cabra Feliz a peaceful, tranquil air. When you approach a group of goats, they all
want to get into the picture.
They move gracefully together, arching their elegant necks over each. They love the hills and eat whatever grows. The small kids graze with their mothers and call to each other during the day in small, soft bleats. They are Nubian goats – the best milk producers. They have long lap ears and perky tails
that bounce up and down when they run across the field. When they become separated, they gambol across
the field until they find their mothers again.
It is a continuing process of grazing, moving, finding new grass, grazing
and moving again.
The Queijaria |
The Queijaria is one of my favorite places on the farm. It is fully set up with space and equipment to
pasteurize the milk, make multiple types of cheese, age, and after aging,
package the cheese. Reynaldo and Bea
visited artisanal goat cheese farms in France. They modeled some
of the cheese making after practices they saw there. Reynaldo specializes in chevre (French style
goat cheese). Recently he has been
experimenting with using activated charcoal ash. The ash makes the cheese surface more
hospitable to the growth of molds that improve the flavor of the cheese. He makes several other types of cheese also including
a queijo fresco or fresh cheese that is preserved with salt, goat Gouda, goat Parmesan
and lately a Parmesan style cheese with Roquefort veins. It is still aging but based on the other
cheese he makes, it will be delicious.
Reynaldo makes his own bacon, his own prosciutto and multiple types of
sausages from bratwurst to summer sausage to a goat meat and pork fat
linguisa. Needless to say there are
fresh eggs and milk every day and a wide range of different cuts of meat available. It is unrealistic to have more than three or
four bucks in a herd of 100 goats so the roughly fifty percent of kids born
male end up heading to the table before they are six months old. The piglets are bred for meat.
We spent the weekend there recently and left loaded up with goodies –
three kinds of goat cheese, two liters of fresh goat milk, a dozen farm fresh
eggs, a pork shoulder, a package of bratwurst and a package of
fresh cabrita linguisa or goat sausage that I helped Reynaldo make that morning. Along with the selection of fresh herbs and
greens I picked and stuck in my grocery bag, I had enough to keep Jeff and me
fed for much of the next week.
Joana, adorei a descrição do Sítio. E as fotos estão ótimas. Agora só precisa colocar umas fotos dos queijos e do presunto cru!
ReplyDeleteAdorei Joanna! Já virei leitora do seu blog! Escreva mais! Beijos Elisa
ReplyDeleteJo, it sounds so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteCabra Feliz is beautiful!!
ReplyDelete