Getting old and creaky knees!
Here at BOTL Farm, we value powerful matriarchs. Our goat matriarch has been benevolently ruling our goat herd since we got her eight years ago. Okay, it probably helped that she started our goat herd and most of the other breeding females are her descendents. Regardless, she’s always been a dignified, human-friendly goat that sets a trusting (and very vocal) example for others in her herd. Because she was our first goat, we didn’t have much experience with naming breeding animals and unfortunately (fortunately?) her name is Goaty McGoatFace (GMGF). Anyone remember when a boat name was crowd sourced from the internet and it ended up being Boaty McBoatFace? Well, this happened around the same time.
A few years ago, we noticed that GMGF started creaking as she walked. When she stood up from a nap, she clicked; when she stretched first thing in the morning, she popped. Livestock farmers are natural worrywarts, so we worried that she had arthritis, a mineral deficiency, or came down with some awful goat disease. However, there’s some interesting farmer lore (and a few scientific papers about reindeer) that suggests she’s healthier and more powerful than ever. And for the other worrywarts out there, we looked into it and she didn’t have any awful diseases or deficiencies.
All that snapping, crackling, and popping by GMGF is an audible signal to the other goats about what she’s doing and where she’s going. It helps them always be aware of what’s going on with her, so they can follow her lead.
As our herd grew, we noticed that other female goats started popping and crackling, and the level of noise directly correlates to their power within the herd hierarchy. GMGF remains by far the loudest, and the goat jockeying to be the next matriarch, Yasigi, is giving GMGF a run for her money. Notably, Yasigi is not the next oldest goat, but is a relatively young doe with a strong personality and some prematurely creaky joints.
BOTL Farm turns 10-ish
As 2025 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on all sorts of things. We’re reflecting on the fact that we “started” our farm ten years ago. When does a business start? How do you tell the difference between a passionate backyard operation and a farm? No one knows.
We’re not being held back by any of these distinctions and we’re celebrating our tenth-ish birthday.
Ten-ish years ago we officially registered the farm as a legal entity and had just gotten our first livestock (rabbits). We’d been beekeeping for years already but were living in New Jersey and New Haven, CT and just started looking for 40 acres of farmland. We were writing what would turn out to be a 35-page business plan. It was a bonkers, heady time and we had such outrageous ideas: our farm was going to be plastic-free, we were going to grow all our own animal feed, and have an on-farm commercial kitchen where we dry-cured our own sausages and prosciutto. The first two are laughable at this point, but we're still dreaming about the third. Alas.
Anyways, ten years ago we could still leave the farm together and we often got up to shenanigans with family around holiday times. That means it’s also the 10-year anniversary of one of our weirdest and funniest blog posts (and recipe?) which details a New Year’s adventure at an AirBnB in Charlottesville, VA. Ahh, to be young again. For the lulz, you can access this gem directly.
At least we have firewood?
This month brought a destructive storm with a warm snap, heavy rain, and 55 mph wind gusts. Ever wanted to know what a farmer does during a storm? They try to hide out indoors and relax, but it doesn’t always work out. During this particular storm, we had just finished up very wet morning chores and were just settling down to do some boring indoor stuff. We had the doors open (because it was almost 60F, which is much warmer than our house, but that’s a story for another day). A big wind gust came and we were able to clearly hear the sound of multiple trees and limbs breaking and falling down. So much for relaxing indoors, it was time to put on the all-weather gear and head back out.
We immediately saw a ‘branch’ of our old sugar maples broke off (by old, we mean 200 to 250 year old wolf tree). This ‘branch’ was larger around than we can hug and about 80 feet long. On its way down it fell onto another slightly less old sugar maple and took out a big chunk of that. Everything in its path was destroyed. The downed trees crossed multiple gates, fence lines, fence panels, and landed inside our winter goat paddock. Thankfully, no goats were hurt, but they were eagerly staring out of their shelters (waiting for the rain to lessen, goats haaaate rain) to get out and take a nibble of their newly added maple tree branches. The countdown was on to clear the trees and re-fence the goats before they ventured out of their damaged paddock. The farmers eventually returned to the house, weary and wet, but victorious that the goats hadn’t escaped.
New farm store hours
As you may remember, we sent out a poll last month about changes to our store hours. Thanks to the 1.3% of people on our distribution list who responded (survey fatigue is real) [editor notes one of us never fills out surveys]. Between your responses and our internal deliberations, we have a plan! We know change is hard and we look forward to torturing everyone with this.
As of February 01, 2026 our new farm store hours will be every Wednesday noon - 2pm and every Saturday 1 - 3pm (you may notice that Saturday didn’t change). Self serve pick-up (with pre-order) is staying the same as well, 8am to 8pm on your chosen day. The other thing that’s changing is the cutoff time each day of orders for the next day: it’s going to be 4pm (currently 6pm). That means if you want bacon on Monday, the order must be placed before 4pm on Sunday.
From now until January 31, 2026 our store hours are the same as they have been, see details below in the Find Us section.
Find Us
On farm store:
- Until January 31, 2026: Every Tuesday noon - 2pm, every Saturday 1 - 3pm. Pre-order
- Starting February 01, 2026: Every Wednesday noon - 2pm, every Saturday 1 - 3pm.
On farm self pickup: Every day 8am - 8pm. Pre-order only
Wooster Square Winter Market, New Haven CT: This market runs every Saturday from 10am - 1pm until the end of March. We will be there every other week. Dates we’ll be there in January: January 10 and January 24. Pre-order
Sturbridge Monthly Winter Dropoff, Sturbridge MA: This is a once-a-month dropoff starting October and ending February. Location is Deep Roots Distillery in the old mill building at 559 Main Street, Sturbridge, MA. The January dropoff date is January 10. Pickup hours are noon - 8pm. Pre-order only
Ask a Farmer Anything, Virtual Question Sessions: Monday January 12 from 7:30 - 8:30 pm and Friday January 23 8 - 9 am. Registration free but required
It's too many dates! Save me!
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