Busy D's Acres|Busy D's Caprines

Today I'm talking with Courtney at Busy D's Acres|Busy D's Caprines. 

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00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company.

00:28 Today I'm talking with Courtney at Busy D's Acres in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. Good morning Courtney, how are you? Good, how are you?  I'm good. I'm a little sick of the weather.  I really, really wish we get back to the, you know, 79 for the high and a light breeze and the sun shining. This, this gray and hot and sweaty is pretty bad. Yes, it is very hard for us to get in the fields to cut hay and to get in our garden.

00:57 And on the other hand, it's been really great that it's been warm  and enough rain. Because if it was just out or if it was just rain, we would be all screwed. Those of us who grow things. So  on one hand, I want to complain on the other hand, I want to be thankful. So I guess we're somewhere in the middle. I don't know. Yeah. I'm so excited to talk to you because you make goat ice cream, goat milk ice cream. Yes. And you're only on

01:27 property creamery in Scott County, Minnesota, right? Yes.  So I need to know about you and how this happened and what you do. So I'll give a little backstory. The farm has been in my family since 1885. ah Our son is the seventh generation here. ah Back in  the 70s, my grandpa got rid of the dairy cattle and they switched over to Hereford beef cattle. So we had those my entire life growing up.

01:55 And then 10 years ago, we decided to get two Nigerian dwarf goats because my husband and I cannot drink cow's milk. So we're like, let's see how this goes.  Um, I chose the Nigerian dwarfs cause they're really high in butterfat. Cause I was like, well, maybe it'll be fun to try making cheese.  Um, and then here we are 10 years later, we're, uh, on farm licensed creamery.  Uh, we have four different kinds of cheese that we make. And then the ice cream.

02:22 And  my parents are technically busy these acres and we're busy these Caprines, but we're all on the same farm.

02:30 Oh, okay. So it's a family operation. Yeah. So my husband and I are the creamery, which is the Caprines. And then the acres is the entire farm.

02:41 Is there a Facebook page for Caprines?  Nope, it's all the same page because I run them both.  it's Busy D's Acres  and then Busy D's Caprines is in the parentheses.  Instagram is way more friendly that it lets me put both of them.

02:56 Okay, cool. Facebook won't let me put them both because they're too close in names. huh. Go Fig. Love Facebook.  I do love Facebook. That sounded really snotty.  Facebook has been really weird lately. So I don't  know what's going on with it. The algorithm is  sick. I think it's got a cold.

03:19 So  anyhow, uh I have questions about the creamery because  I know in Minnesota we have the cottage food license stuff, registration stuff, and I'm guessing the creamery is not cottage food because that would be really weird. Nope, it is not. I actually have my cottage food too. We've been doing farmers markets for  over 10 years, so I have the cottage side too, but

03:46 The creamer is actually licensed and inspected. So it's the Minnesota department of egg that comes out and inspects. actually have five different inspectors.  have one on our farm side, which is what the goats are considered. And then the milk areas, the milking house  and,  um,  the milking area. And then I have a plant inspector that inspects my, it's pretty much a commercial kitchen, but it's called a plant.

04:11 And then I have an overall inspector that oversees all of them. And then I also have the retail inspection. And then I have  a  lab officer that I have to do my own antibiotic testing before I process each batch of cheese. So  I need an honest answer from you.  Do you feel like there's too much overreach on the regulation or do you think that it's okay?  I am okay now  in the beginning with all of the paperwork and having to get everything

04:41 submitted, it was a lot. My final inspection,  was  way more, I thought it was gonna be way more than it was.  It was actually a breeze, like the final inspection, but there was so much beforehand. ah My dad was a union iron worker, so he read blueprints his entire career. So he actually made us a blueprint for the barn because I had to submit that with all of my barn planning.

05:04 So all of that beginning stuff like down to like where I was gonna have my milk filters with a cover had to be on that map

05:13 Wow. Okay. really specific. Yes. I had to have a detailed list of all my equipment with links so they could approve it. And they can tell you whether or not they approve things, but they cannot give you too much guidance because they are state workers. And so they cannot be biased, which I understand.  But somebody coming from, you know, just milking in a little makeshift milk house to becoming licensed, the milker was the hardest thing for me to find.

05:44 Mm-hmm.

05:47 Okay, so tell me again, how long have you been doing it?  We have had goats for 10 years and I've been in milk for eight years. And then I've been making cheese since we started having milk.

05:58 Okay, so eight years you've been in it with the milk. Yeah, we bred. So we started out with our first two does in 2016. And then in 2017, we got our first buck in weather. And then we had our first babies in 2018, May of 2018. So then we started milking in July of 2018.

06:26 Okay, so you're  kind of an old hand at this at this point. That's long enough to get your under you and grow a pretty decent business.  So  are you  happy with what you've built? Yes, it is a lot of work, which is good. I am not complaining because I'm happy where we're at. ah It's just, it's a lot of work with everything. And right now  my husband still works full time while we're getting this all the way off the ground and

06:55 Um, when I used to make cheese on the stove top, I could do it all in one day. Now with the size of batches that I'm doing, and then also with my antibiotic testing and my pasteurization and everything, it just adds more to it. Okay.  And  are your products, are your cheese, well, are your dairy products, not cheese products,  are your dairy products for sale off the property too? Yes, we are in a couple of local butcher shops,  um, in a couple of local farm retail stores.

07:26 Our cheese curds are most popular.  then,  um, second would be probably our spread. Our goat Vita is getting popularity. People it's, I have to explain that one to people. What it is, is it's Velveeta, but real cheese. So it tastes just like Velveeta. You can use it just like Velveeta, quesadillas, queso,  grilled cheese, homemade mac and cheese.

07:49 And then we do a crumble, which is similar to feta. And then we just rolled out our ice cream two weeks ago. That one took me a little bit longer to perfect with the pasteurization step because it changed the molecules of the fat.

08:04 Yeah, um, your cheese tastes like Velveeta.  I am quite positive that your...  I'm sure your version is way healthier than Velveeta ever had thought to be. Yeah.

08:19 Mm-hmm.  Yeah, I can't do Velveeta. We ate a lot of that when I was a kid and anytime somebody brings it up, I'm like, nope, I'm good. Yeah, the things that we can eat when we're kids and then now as adults, what we know is in it. It's like, oh no,  we're not eating that.  Well, I didn't love it when I was a kid and now I certainly don't want it. So, you know, it's partly bad too. Yeah. So I  have a question about goat milk ice cream.

08:49 Yes. it very different from cow milk ice cream or is it just ice cream? I, it's a richer flavor, which there are richer ice creams.  Um, because our goats are so high on butterfat, all of their cheese  and their products are a little bit more of that rich taste, but they are not that goaty taste.  Um, people, when it comes to goat products, milk, cheese, they don't, they love the goat.

09:15 flavor or they really don't like the goat flavor that like that tangy goaty flavor with our Nigerians what we feed them  and also with their high butter fat. Our flavors taste very in line with cow's milk.

09:30 Okay. And the reason I ask is because people are always like goat cheese is so good. Chev, chev, however you say it.  C-A-V-R-E.  I'm not a fan and I do like cream cheese, but I don't like goat cheese. Yeah.  Right. It's just, there's something about it that I can't get past. And I was like, Hmm, I wonder if that's a thing with the goat ice cream as well, but it sounds like it's not.

09:57 We actually don't make chev because I made it when I was testing out different cheeses. I've made pretty much almost every kind of cheese because before we were licensed, I had to  make different cheeses because I wasn't going to fill our freezer with a bunch of stuff, you know, personal. So I tried almost every kind of cheese. And I made chev and I have a couple of friends that I passed it out to that really like it and the consensus is they actually didn't like it because it didn't taste like chev.

10:24 They wanted the goatee flavor when they saw that name. So that's actually not something that I even make because it doesn't have the flavor profile people are looking for because it doesn't have that sharp taste to it.  Yeah, that's the thing that gets me. And it's the same thing with sourdough bread. I can't eat sourdough bread that has that sharp tang to it. don't like it. And I love that people love it. It's just not my thing. um So how many goats, is it rude to ask how many goats you have?

10:52 No, it's not rude. is a very common question.  Um, so going back to just to see how  goat math works, we started out with the two and then we got the two boys. We've got a couple more girls. And then here we are 10 years later, we have 66 goats, 38 of them are in milk. We have eight that are due in the fall. Um, we have four bucks that we run so we can mix up our bloodlines.

11:17 You're busy. That's a lot of hoes on the ground.  do you  machine milk them? Because that's a lot of goats to milk by hand. Yes, we do. So originally when we started, we actually made our own milker because we didn't know how the milk was going to taste. So we didn't want to invest in a milker. And then we ended up not liking it. So we actually made our very first milker with a hand vacuum seal pump  and two syringes.  And then we just used plumbing line.

11:46 Well, after a week or two of doing that and tasting it, decided, okay, we're going to invest in a machine. So we invested in a machine and then we just could milk one at a time with the machine. Well, then we had one goat that she take would take 20 minutes to milk on her own. So we had to go to two, to a bucket milkers. We can milk two at a time.  we had milked two at a time until this past May, when we started using our other milker and now we can do four at a time. So we have four stanchions, four goats at a time.

12:15 And my husband actually helps me at night so we get done quicker because it's a lot of goats. It is a lot of goats. And then the other question I have is, you have, you know how at dairy, cow dairies, I don't know how to this right. They have the coolers that the milk goes into. Yes. Do you have a cooler for the goats milk? Yes. So I have a bulk tank. So we milk in the buckets and then we dump into our bulk tank.

12:44 And then um our bulk tank, we have a little pipe that goes through the wall that I have a hose that goes from my bulk tank to my vat through the wall to transfer the milk to make the cheese.  Okay. And then I'm really not trying to be nosy, but there are people listening.  There are people listening. I'm sure who are very curious about how this works because  they may be 18, 19 years old and thinking  I would like to have a goat dairy someday.

13:12 but I don't know who to ask questions of. So I'm trying to help those younger people to come up the line. uh Do you do your own testing? know, cause at Dairy's they have to do testing on the bulk tank before they send the milk out into the world. So do you have your testing that you do as well? Yes. So every time I move my milk, I have to do an antibiotic test to show that there's no antibiotics in it. But then I...

13:37 also have to bring in to a  offsite lab every month, a sample that does, it's called my official test. So it does antibiotic testing to make sure there's no antibiotics in it, somatic cell and bacteria count. And then I send that to my,  to my state lab officer.

13:58 Good, so you're a very conscientious dairy goat person. I love that. Yeah. And I know if you're not a very conscientious dairy goat person, you don't stay in business for long. So it's very smart to do it the way you're doing it. um So  what else can I ask you? um Barring the making stuff with the goat's milk, is it fun for you to be around the goats or are they just a means to an end to have the goat's milk?

14:27 No, they're fun. So with the Nigerian dwarfs, they're the smallest of the dairy goats. So they come up to our like knees when they're full grown and goats are just really funny in general.  Um, if I am around, I can let them out to free range because they will listen to me and I can watch to make sure they're not eating hostas or the garden or something they shouldn't be. If they get out on their own, they can get a little naughty, but they are like, they do like their little Irish jig jumps  and they.

14:54 walk on their back feet and they're just, they're funny little animals and  they, headbutt each other. They literally will get back up on their hind ends and knock each other's skulls. It's just what they do if they're fighting or if they're getting introduced to  a new goat.  Um, we call it scuffle budding.  Um, but that's just the, and each goat has their own little personality.  I have some goats that will come in to milk just fine.

15:21 No problem. I have other ones that I have to coax them in every day They're fine once they get in and I have one goat where she does not like to be touched But she will come in every day and milk and she's a really good milkers. So they're just all different Yeah, my husband and I were joking one time because we lived on a tenth of an acre lot in Jordan before we moved to Lusor and I was saying I would love to get a couple goats and you can't have

15:50 goats on a tenth of an acre with a house and a four car garage. doesn't work. And definitely not in city limits. I'm sure Jordan would not have been pleased with us. But I used to joke about getting a goat or two and telling the city that it was a dog with a effed up feet and a broken bark. And the first time I said it to him, he almost peed his pants laughing.

16:16 from then on. was like, oh, that's one of those dogs with F to F to feet and a broken part. We would see goats and he would just giggle.  So yeah, they're great. I mean, I've talked about it a lot. I'm not going to get into it past saying that I had a friend whose parents raised goats when I was a teenager. And every spring when the babies were born, she'd call me and say,  can your mom bring you over? Babies were born last night.  And my mom, God love her, would drive me 35 minutes to go see my friend.

16:45 and hang out with the babies. So that's how much I loved baby goats and that's how much my mom loved me.  Baby goats are a whole nother avenue of fun because they just want to learn to hop around and  they're so funny. We've never put pajamas on them. We haven't gotten to that point, but I have done a lot of videos of them dancing.

17:10 They're super cute and  I love them the first 24 hours because  you can hold them and they don't jump. They don't try to get out of your lap. They're just like,  there's just like any newborn baby. They just want to be loved on. Yeah. So I was always thrilled when she would call me, you know, the next morning because they knew the babies were healthy. The babies were nursing and the babies were up and around, which meant that I was welcome to pet them all I wanted to. Yeah.

17:39 Her  dad was such a pain in my butt.  Oh my god. His name is, was, think he's still alive, Lou. And Lou was a trickster. He was  very sarcastic, very dry sense of humor. And he would tease me because I was so in love with the baby goats.  And every time he'd do it, I

18:03 I just look at him and I'm like, I don't know what you expect me to say. I just love your goats. If you don't want me to handle them, I won't.  And I guess I looked hurt enough that he would be like, Oh, Mary, no, it's okay. I'm just teasing you. Like, okay, how about you stop teasing me and just be impressed that I love your goats.  So it was rough and I'd go to school and my friend Elaine would be like, my dad loves you. I'm like, okay, good to know. Cause sometimes I really wonder.

18:33 if he just loves giving me a hard time.  I  wanted to mention before we get done, we've got about 10 more minutes to go. I've been talking about the fact that our barn cat was pregnant and she is just under a year old.  She is no longer pregnant. She showed up not pregnant on July 4th morning.  either she's not a good mom or the baby's died because she's  not.

19:02 She's in our yard too often to think that she's being a really good mom.  she  was due right on July 4th, because I know when she was bred. So it'll be a miracle if we see any kittens coming out of the pole barn in eight weeks.  I'm so sad.  I think that they died and I don't know why.  So that's the update on the barn kitties here, because we were talking about babies, so I figured I'd throw it in. ah

19:32 Our other barn cat that's a female, I think that she is newly pregnant. So hopefully she will have babies in September. Because you know how this is barn cats disappear or they get hit by cars. And we have we have four barn cats right now. We were really looking forward to gaining a couple. Yeah. I don't think we're going to gain any from this first litter because I don't think they survived. I'm kind of really sad about it. Yeah.

19:59 But there's nothing you can do on a farm as you know, you know how this goes.  Yes. Yeah. We just have two male kitties that are here. um My mom was a vet tech.  So our animals,  she spays and neuters them. Right now we just have two boys  and they stick around and they're the one is a really good mouser. So we're okay with that right now. We're okay with not having babies because strays show up here all the time.

20:26 Yeah, we've only had one stray show up. Well, that's not true.  had a very scary looking stray show up. I think the third summer we were here. This is our fifth full summer here, I think. um And it didn't look good. It looked ill. And  my husband dispatched it. He was like, no, we're not adopting that one. Yeah.

20:54 I felt really bad about it, but I was like, if he's sick, it's going to infect our cats and we don't want to have to kill a bunch of cats, you know? Yup. Yup. Biosecurity is a real thing on farms. Yeah. My husband's ah uncles live in Wisconsin and  on one of their farms, they had a lot of barn cats and people would drop stray cats at their place and there was no stopping anybody from dropping them.

21:24 And my husband in his teens helped his uncles hunt down at least 50 cats because there was rabies going around the cats. Yeah. And he tells that story and he tells it as a lesson. But to this day, you can see in his face that it hurt them to have to shoot those cats. Yep. So it's you got to be careful. um So do you guys have a garden too?

21:54 We do. Yeah. I couldn't tell you the size.  That's one thing that I've always been bad at my entire life is looking out and be like, how big is an acre? Like just growing up on a farm, I had no concept of how big things were. So yes, we do a garden.  We do a lot of our canning for ourselves. And then we also do a farmer's market. So we do canning for that too.

22:19 Nice.  Do you grow the usual suspects as I call it, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, kohlrabi, corn, potatoes? Do you grow all those or do you grow other things? We  do. We don't do any lettuce. I never get to it in time. It always ends up bolting. Next year, my goal is to try, now that the barn is done,  I'm trying to get it in in April early. um Yeah, do cabbage. My mom is like known for her sauerkraut. um We don't.

22:46 My husband is the corn guy. does popcorn over sweet corn just because it turns out better for him.  We do a lot of different varieties of squash and then melons. try to do some, our son loves watermelon. And then my dad's kind of known as the garlic guy. So we have a lot of garlic.  Nice.  I,  we have such bad luck with garlic. We don't grow it anymore. We've tried. Well, it just does not go well. Yeah, I'll let you know.

23:16 Yeah. We grow winter squash, fall squash, whatever, butternut, buttercup. What's the other one? Acorn. Yep. And I am a huge fan of those because I like the sweet winter squashes. really do. I will roast a butternut squash and eat half of it right out of the oven. Yes. So it's so good. We do one called candy roaster and it's ginormous.

23:46 um But you can eat it just the same as a buttercup.  You don't even  need any sugar. You can just do a little bit of maple syrup and butter and you're good.  Yes, the best seasons we've had with our winter squash are when you don't need to put anything on it. It's just you just scoop it out of the shell and eat it after you roast it.  We've had two or three years where the squash has been that good.  It's so good for you. So many people don't

24:16 know that winter squash has such a nutritional benefit for you if you just can bring yourself to eat it. Yes, we also do a lot of pumpkins. We use them as natural dewormers for our goats. So we plant like over plants of pumpkins  so we can get as much as possible to feed the goats in the fall. Now I have a question about that. Is it the pumpkin flesh or the pumpkin seeds or both that are natural dewormer? The pumpkin seeds.

24:46 Yeah. The raw pumpkin seeds.  Yeah, I think  that you can do that with dogs too. If your dog likes pumpkin,  they'll eat the seeds and I think that works for dogs as well. Yeah. And squash works too, but because we eat the squash, we try to do the pumpkins for the goats.  Yep. When my dog gets sick, her veterinarian told me that if she just has a sick tummy to give her  cooked up.

25:17 cannot think today,  Ground beef  and squash or pumpkin, you know, the flesh cooked  and rice. And just give her a little bit of that, see if she keeps it down. And then like six hours later, give her more and give her three days on that. And then see if she'll eat the kibble and not be sick again.  And it worked every freaking time.  So, and she loves it.

25:43 She sees me putting those three ingredients together on the island  and she is sitting at my feet just waiting for me to put it in her bowl even though she has a sick tummy. Yeah. I'm like, you're so weird if I had a sick tummy. I wouldn't want to anything, but you're right here ready to go.  She's crazy. Okay, so  I want to let people know where they can get hold of you or find you if they would like to get some of your dairy goods because I think it all sounds amazing.

26:13 Yeah.  um, call, text, email, I can give those  out.  and then also we have our Facebook or Instagram  and they're under busy these acres.  Um, and then it's busy. These Caprines, like I said, as a branch of the farm. we have a shared page just because it's all one when it comes to farmers market and everything. And then, um,

26:41 Because when I do our postings for like the garden and all that stuff, it's just so much easier for me to have one page rather than  multiple.  yeah, absolutely. It is so hard keeping track of different pages all the time.  I  keep it super simple. Yes. That's the to do it.  And I didn't ask the obvious question. Why is it called Busy Bees?  So when my parents

27:07 joined with my grandparents back in the  80s. Both of their last names started with D. So then when they combined as a partnership, that's what they named the farm. So it combined them both. And then  when we did it, because it was on the family farm, we wanted to keep it a link to it, but then also make it our own. then Caprines is um the species name for goats. just thought it was cute, the busy D's.

27:34 rhymes was busy bees and I was like hmm.  I wonder if there's something there with that too.  All right, this was a joy Courtney. I'm so glad that you are doing something that makes you so happy and it sounds like you're living the dream. Please keep doing the things that doing.  Thank you. As always people can find me at atinyhomesteadpodcast.com.  Hope you have a great day Courtney. Thank you again. Thank you.