Get Your Goat

Hudson Valley Cheese & Mutton

by Sukey Pett and photographs by Jennifer May, November 27, 2007

The first thing you notice at Lynnhaven Farms is the activity, most of it animal. A peacock struts and occasionally screams. Four large white geese preen after a hot afternoon dip, and honk protestations at a stranger. A lop-eared Nubian goat patiently and prettily allows herself to be shaved by two young 4-H volunteers. Two young Nubian bucks eye me with interest. I look around at pens with La Mancha goats and Nubian goats and Boer goats, and realize I’m in caprineophile heaven.

Located in Pine Bush, Lynnhaven Farms is run by Lynn Fleming. Lynn is a big, strong woman with curly blonde hair and unexpectedly manicured nails, tomato red. Don’t be misled—Lynn is a farmer, through and through. She can milk a goat, trim their hooves, castrate the bucks, shoot a .22, midwife the does, oh, and by the way? Lynn Fleming makes some of the best chevre in the Hudson Valley.

Lynnhaven has three kinds of goats: Nubians and La Manchas, which are dairy goats known for their high-butterfat milk, necessary for cheese-making; and Boer goats, larger, stockier and used for meat. Nubians are tall and leggy, with long lop ears, like a hare, and high-bridged, long noses. La Manchas have straight faces, also known as “dished,” and look more like deer. Lacking external ears, they have round craters where their ears should be, giving them an appearance of incompleteness.

Descended from capra aegargus, or wild goats, these domestic cousins have lived and worked with humans since Neolithic times, over 10,000 years ago. Goats have evolved to survive on every continent except Antarctica; they live in deserts, on mountaintops, and everywhere inbetween. Goat hide has been used for carrying both water and wine, as well as being used for parchment prior to the invention of the printing press. Their milk is used for butter, cheese, yogurt, and soap.