New Faces

Last weekend we visited the Carl Sandburg Home in Flat Rock, NC to pick up some new Nubian goats to be added to our herd.

Read more about our trip last year to their award winning farm Connemara Farms Dairy on the blog.

Round Mountain Creamery

On Saturday while picking up a new Nigerian Dwarf buck, Chestnut, we were told by a volunteer at the Carl Sandburg Home of a goat dairy, Round Mountain Creamery which was in the area. They were the first Grade "A" goat dairy in North Carolina. This creamery is located in Black Mountain on Old Fort Road just below Round Mountain approximately 25 miles south of Asheville, NC. They are located in the Blue Ridge Mountains on 28 acres surrounded by streams on all sides. They can be reached at 828.669.0718 to schedule farm tours and cheese tasting. Round Mountain manufactures soft goat cheese or chevre and bottled goat milk. In 2010, they hope to have some semi-soft and hard aged cheeses available. Soft cheese and goat's milk are available on their farm, Seligman E.G.G. Farm, Inc. If anyone would like more specific directions to this creamery or more information about it, let me know. "You can't get there from here - - it is one of those places."

Carl Sandburg Home

On Saturday afternoon of last week, we visited the Carl Sandburg Home, a National Historic Site, in Flat Rock, NC.

His wife, Lilian "Paula" Sandburg, was one of the outstanding pioneers of the American dairy goat industry. While her husband dedicated himself to a long literary career, Mrs. Sandburg pursued an ambition to raise and breed championship dairy goats. She and Carl's youngest daughter, Helga, established the Connemara Farms Goat Dairy in 1945 in Flat Rock. They lived and worked this for for 22 years until Carl's death in 1967. They processed and bottled milk for sale on the farm using quart-size cardboard bottles that had the "Connemara Farms" caps. They sold them to local dairies and individuals. The production and sale of milk were secondary to Mrs. Sandburg, whose primary goal was raising champion milk-producing dairy goat stock. Connemara Farms Dairy consisted of three breeds of dairy goats, Saanan, Toggenburg and Nubian. To this day, they continue breeding using the Connemara herd name and have Nubians, Saanans and Toggenburgs on the farm. In recognition of Sandburg's commitment and the positive experience of dairy goats provided to the public through the National Park Service, the ADGA provides annually the linear appraisal program to the Connemara herd free of charge.