First Post

So, this is the first Zlatah Farms post. Welcome to our page!

We've started our little hobby farm out here in Sunny Bakersfield...and this is our story:
     I'm Rivka, and I'm a single mother of three little boys and a co-founder of Zlatah Farms. I've always been fascinated by and loved animals and agriculture. In fact, my dad, Dovid, grew up on a hobby farm. So, when my little family had the chance to move to a home that had about an acre of land on it, we jumped on the opportunity!

     Since I had never had a farm of my own, I took out lots of books from the local library and did about a year of reading. When I felt that I had learned enough to try something, I went and got our first pullets (female chicks). We built a lovely little chicken coop for them in the back, although they also had the run of the backyard to scratch and sun, and be happy chickens. And so, we watched them grow. About six months later, we began to get our first eggs! What an exciting moment for us and the children! Thus began Zlatah Farms.

    A little while later, I discovered a very nice lady out in Tehachapi who had too many goats. We went and liked what we saw, and ended up buying several goats from her, two of whom were expecting kids! We spent the next year learning all about goats...I delivered a breech baby, we had to bottle feed a kid whose mama got sick, and of course, learning how to milk a goat! I also started to learn how to make cheese. Yum! We also tried out growing geese, ducks, and broiler chickens. Unfortunately, I had a bout of bad health for about a year and a half, and I couldn't keep up with the care of the animals, so my folks (the other founders) took over.

    My parents couldn't take care of all those critters themselves, so a lot of my little guys got sold off; but we did keep one of our fist goats, and another goat who was born on our land (both Nubians), as well as several chickens. Now, thank G-d, my health has been improving, and I've been able to help more and more with the farm. So, we've begun to rebuild Zlatah Farms. The names for the Nubians, by the way, are Tory and Zlatah.

    We've acquired another goat a couple of months ago, a pretty white Saanen doe (girl), who was awful thin when we got her, but is gaining weight nicely. Her name is Zelda. A couple of weeks ago, we got a cute little Nubian buckling (young boy goat), who's going to be the "herd sire" for the Nubians and the Saanen. We named him Chocolate Truffle. We're working on getting two pregnant Alpine goats from Solvang this winter.

    Meanwhile, we've also bought two Hampshire Ewes (female sheep) to try out. The sheep were named after characters from The Cat in the Hat; Sheep One and Sheep Two (instead of Thing). Yes, my kids named them. I hope to make yarn from their wool and milk them in spring--provided I can get a ram to service them. The feta cheese should be really good!

   G-d willing in the next two weeks we'll be getting a fresh set of chicks to raise. We'll also be trying our hand at soap making using the goats' milk over the next couple of months. I've also been starting to make soft cheeses again like ricotta, chevre, and mozzarella. We do have a cheddar wheel that is aging, too. Honey bees may be in our future, too! So things really are happening here at Zlatah farms.