Fannie Merritt Farmer : Christian and Lisa SegerLocation : Field Store , TexasSpecialty : Goat ’s milk dairy products
CallBlue Heron Farmthe farm that author Michael Pollan built — in a circuitous style , that is . After read his landmark work , The Omnivore ’s Dilemma , in the summer of 2006 , Lisa Seger and her husband , Christian , were goad into action .
“ We had both been concerned in the subject and in food political sympathies for a while , but our chemical reaction on finishing that rule book was that it was time to stop complaining and start doing something , ” she says . “ We just kind of know we had to farm . ”
“ We also know that there was already a batch of head being made in sustainable and organic produce farming , but that we were still really lacking in sustainable , humane and filmy protein husbandry , ” she persist in . “ We decided that was what we desire to do : We wanted to show that it is potential to farm protein while respecting the earth and the beast at that are central to protein production . ”Blue Heron Farm
Christian had already been having dream of moving to the rural area and owning goats , and Lisa had no real interest in raise nub creature , so they decided that a goat dairy was the best way to keep . By the finale of 2006 , the Segers had closed on a farm northward of where they were currently exist in Houston and the first five goats had already arrived .
tight forward to today : With 30 goats on 10 Accho , Blue Heron Farm sells cajeta ( a Mexican goat ’s milk caramel ) , yogurt , feta cheese and six variety of chèvre to Farmer markets and prize retailers in the Houston expanse .
Blue Heron Farm
“ I knew from the rootage that our news report , our cacoethes and our beautiful farm were not just worth sharing , but were also a central part of how to trade our products , ” Seger says . “ We want our customers to sense like our farm is their farm , too , and so we check that they see the manner the animals live as well as the way we handle and better the land . ”Blue Heron Farm
Biggest Success
“ The improvements we have made to our land . We bought 10 acres of terminally overgrazed bermudagrass , and through rotational grazing and a fiddling act of intentional overseeding , have slowly turned it into a more divers , resilient and productive tract . We ’ve seen striking weather variations in our almost nine yr here : hard drouth and emphatic flash implosion therapy . We noticed that our farm take longer than our neighbors ’ to fall down into quiescence and is the first to come out from it when these extreme weather upshot occur because our soil is healthy and able-bodied to absorb water , even from larger pelting event , with no overspill . We did that . And we are really proud of it . ”
Biggest Challenge
“ Climate change . Our weather has been whole erratic and seems to be becoming more so all the time . There is no room to plan for the catastrophic droughts and floods we have see , and there no longer is likely an even remotely predictable amount or absolute frequency of rainfall . If we had a bit by bit increase tendency one way or the other , farmers could make plans and conform , but when everything is happening on the edge of the bell curve , you pass a lot of money just trying to make it to the next season . ”
Firsthand Advice
“ Do n’t farm for the money . It ’s not that you ca n’t farm for a support : you may , and we do . But you will never be financially compensated for the amount of hard work you do . Here are my tip : Learn to last and farm frugally . habituate more brains than money to solve your farming job . Take your work in earnest , but do n’t take yourself gravely . ”
This article originally range in the November / December 2016 result ofHobby Farms .
Blue Heron Farm
