UK: Meet the urban farmers raising goats in the middle of Bristol: ‘Why wouldn’t every city in Britain do it?
Goat farms on four wasteland sites allow urban dwellers to help produce the food they eat, keep costs down, and reap mental health benefits
By Clare Hargreaves
News
Sept 21, 2022
Excerpt:
At one site, Bridge Farm, an 18th-century stone building in the shadow of the motorway, I meet Carol Laslett, a former librarian and philosophy graduate who has been involved in Streetgoat almost since it started, seven years ago. Laslett and another member lead the farm’s two milking goats, Betty and Lillian, down from their hay-cushioned shelter on the hill, through their acre of bramble-studded scrubland, and into a stone-flagged milking parlour.
“It can be tough setting out for milking in winter when it’s rainy and dark,” says Laslett, as she ushers milk into a stainless steel bucket. “But once your head is nuzzled against a goat’s warm flank and you breathe in the sweet smell of hay, it can be magical. You forget everything else”.
Members of Streetgoat come from all walks of life. Those at Bridge Farm include a postman, a train driver, a trainee psychotherapist, a pilates teacher and a musician. For their milk, members pay an annual subscription of £70 and agree to milk the goats at least once a week – there are 30 households in total who belong to the scheme.
Yield varies according to the season. In spring, when the vegetation is growing fast, a goat will produce two to four litres a day, says Laslett. “In the winter it can drop to below a litre. Milkers fill their own containers to take home. Averaged across the year, the milk costs around £1 a litre, which compares well to what you’d pay in a supermarket.”
