Instead of staying at a campground on our way home, or in a Walmart parking lot, we decided to try another Harvest Host location in northern Florida west of Valdosta for those of you who know the area. Serenity Acres Farm was our destination for the night.
Driving in to the farm sure looks serene to us!
As we pulled in, Julia and her friends, 5 Great Pyrenees livestock guardians, came to greet us.
We parked under some beautiful trees that shaded our RV.
Julia told us not to leave shoes outside overnight because the dogs would take them, hide them in the sand, and bring them back out in perfect condition 3 months later.
And then we sat and enjoyed this view . . .
and this view.
Julia said she’d join us around 6:00 for a tour of her goat farm.
These structures are for the older goats for eating and sleeping.
Older males enjoying their dinner.
These younger goats are old enough to feed on their own and are ready for sale. Want a baby goat?
Some older females are also out in the fields. While they can no longer provide milk, Julia wants to give them a comfortable retirement.
As we’re walking toward the sheds with the milking goats, we walked through an open pen with some beautiful rosters and chickens.
Before we walked into this yard, we saw these 2 baby goats.
They started running and jumping around. Julia said baby goats, or kids, never walk; they run, jump, and twist.
Mama goats are always nearby. They’re bred every 2 years since they can give milk for almost 2 years.
The mother of these 2 babies died just after childbirth, so they get extra attention by the staff. They were so soft to pet and loved to be touched.
This barn is where the humans work.
a painting of goats on the farm
Julia and her husband have owned and grown this farm for 11 years. They started because Julia’s husband is lactose intolerant but tolerated goat milk well. As they bought more and more goats, they got up to herd of 100, they developed their soaps, milk baths, and body cremes with all natural ingredients. They also make yogurt and sell eggs and goats milk. Now they have 28 adults and around 20 babies. Let’s see where the work is done.
These stands are for the mama goats to be fed and milked. Before the mamas are fed, the babies are brought in to start learning how to be fed. Julia said that this early feeding time is chaos.
Next to the feeding room is the kitchen where the yogurt is made.
The farm has interns working here who want to learn how to work with goats and run goat farms. They live here on the farm and work hard but so lovingly with the goats. Some interns have stayed as little as 2 weeks and others have stayed for years. We’ll meet one intern in this post.
The pins in this map shows all the places where the interns have come from.
Behind the feeding area is where the soap is made.
This is the beginning of the soap making for Mother Earth soap. According to their brochure, they use only “plant and herb-based ingredients, oats, clays, honey, essential oils and phthalate-free fragrance oils to give each product its unique scent and feel.”
We saw more about the soap making when we came back the next morning.
And this is the final Mother Earth product.
Inside the packaging is information about the goats who produced this soap and the farm. Good marketing.
In a separate room, this display shows the products for sale. You can get them at serenitygoats.com.
Here’s the price list if you’re interested.
We had a great night’s sleep—until the guardian dogs detected some animal in the field next to us. We woke up to their barking as they ran to the gate next to where we were sleeping. The animal was smart and left, so the dogs were free to go back to their roaming.
Julia said we could come back in the morning to watch the mama goats being fed and milked.
the next morning
As we walked in to see the mama goats feeding, the dogs stood where they were and barked a little, but they didn’t come running to us as they had the previous afternoon. As we walked by them, they looked so tired from their night of working. Time for naps!
After the babies were fed in the same way, the mamas came in and jostled for their favorite spot.
And they jostled each other some more.
Finally they settled in and waited patiently (what else could they do?) for their breakfast.
As they ate, they’re milked.
Julia found that they only need to milk in the morning since most of the milk is produced over night. The animals are cleaned before and after the milking process, and the staff is constantly touching and talking to them..
Remember the purple square of liquid soap we saw the previous day? Now it’s hardening and changing color. The soap on the right is the unscented variety.
When the block of soap has hardened completely, it’s first cut into small squares.
Then the squares are formed into these rounds for drying. The shaved off soap from the corners (see the shavings in the package in the top of the picture) are used for the milk bath products.
Open-ended racks are used for drying the bars of soap before they’re packaged.
Goat soap is soft enough that it needs ridged soap holders so the bottom of the soap isn’t sitting in water after use.
One woman found that this soap solved her problem with rosacea and wrote an article about it for the New York magazine’s The Strategist. The next day the farm sold out of all of its soap from online orders!
Niko is the intern we interreacted with the most. Her goal is to own a goat farm in the north Georgia mountains. She’s learned so much that she’s almost ready to find some land. Hope we can go visit her.
Julia stays busy from working in the sterile kitchen to cuddling with her baby goats.
This transport military vehicle brought back memories for Barney. Julia’s husband bought it because he could.
Want some fun facts about goats? Here’s what we read on one of their brochures:
A baby goat is called a “kid.”
A group of goats is called a “trip.”
Goats discovered coffee beans.
Goats have four stomachs.
Goats have been domesticated for over 10,000 years.
Both male and female goats have beards.
Goats do not eat tin cans. They are very picky eaters.
Goats can learn their names and come when called.
Goats are burpers!
Goats’ pupils are rectangular, and they have 320 to 340 degree vision.
Goats love to cuddle!
If you want to go visit, you can set up a tour to learn about “happy goats & chickens, healthy farming, soap & cheese making, and have fun.” Here’s their contact information: 877-601-7373, info@serenitygoats.com, www.serenitygoats.com, and they are on FaceBook. The closest town is Pinetta, Florida, in Madison County.
If you go there or buy some of their products online, please let us know. We can’t wait to stay with them again on our way to Florida to see friends and family.
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Next stop is home . . . for a few days before taking off for our next adventure to see tulips in Holland, Michigan. It will be time to get out some cold weather clothes.
