Harley Goat Farm Dairy

We toured and had dinner at the only working dairy in San Mateo County tonight, Harley Goat Farm in Pescadero, on the coast 30ish minutes south of San Francisco.

I didn't bring my camera, but I had my iPhone...







There's a wonderful story about how the woman who founded it got into this business without ever planning to. This property was a semi-cooperative cattle dairy until, I've already forgotten, the 1950s?, when it went bankrupt after the arrival of factory milk farming in California in the 1930s. (The buildings are over 100 years old.) A couple bought the disused property to raise a family, later met some woman from the Santa Cruz mountains with a herd of goats that needed pasture. One thing led to another and now Harley is an award-winning cheese-maker. They've garnered foodie accolades and lots of attention and plan a major expansion next year. See? Life can be wonderful! ;)

We learned a lot about goat husbandry too, and got a very frank presentation about the realities of farm life. A couple factoids: If you keep goats in a small area, they will eat vegetation to the ground. But if you pasture them in a big area, they just nibble foliage tips. The pasture was only seeded once, 20 years ago.

Some pictures.







The goats loved Guy. Well, they're very social and enjoy human contact.



We wore funny hats to tour the dairy.





Curds and whey.



The goats are milked twice daily, each yielding half a gallon each time. Apparently, the milking is a relief to them and they look forward to it eagerly. They queue up for it once the gates to the milking palace are opened. We had to get out of their way.








The goats have llama guards. Dolly Llama and Fernando Llama.



Dinner is served upstairs, in the former barn.



We had four-course hors d'oeuvres plus soup before sitting down to fish, ravioli, and duck (all sourced locally, of course), and it topped off with a fresh warm ricotta dessert. Bring your own wine. We drank the sparkling water they provided and enjoyed conversation with couples from the Mission, San Jose, and Palo Alto.



Strangely, I was less interested in taking pictures once the food came out.



It's hard to get a spot at the dinner table. They do one dinner a month and fill up immediately. But I gather you can take tour easily enough. I highly recommend it.

Washed Ashore

My friend Trina and I checked out the Washed Ashore exhibit at the Marine Mammal Center today.

The Washed Ashore community project aims to educate and create awareness about marine debris and plastic pollution through art. Washed Ashore is sponsored by Artula Institute for Arts & Environmental Education whose mission is to provide opportunities to express and teach environmental issues through the arts.

Community members are working together to clean-up our beaches and process the debris into art supplies to construct giant sculptures of the marine creatures most affected by plastic pollution. This has resulted in thousands of pounds of debris cleaned up from Oregon beaches and an educational touring art exhibit to showcase the sculptures.

Meanwhile, we're dreading the arrival of Japan's tsunami garbage in a few years.





















The relatively simple bleached coral reef made from styrofoam looked very real.





There are a half-dozen more pieces on display at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands now through October 15. Admission is free. For those of you who don't know about the Marine Mammal Center:

Our mission is to expand knowledge about marine mammals—their health and that of their ocean environment—and to inspire their global conservation. Our core work is the rescue and rehabilitation of sick and injured marine mammals, supported by state-of-the-art animal care and research facilities, a corps of dedicated volunteers, and an engaged community.

Marine mammals are not infrequently found with gross injuries, even gunshots. When the COSCO Busan tanker crashed into the Bay Bridge in 2007 and hemorrhaged fuel into the Bay, oiled birds and animals found around the Bay Area were brought here for rehabilitation. When you come, you can see some of the animals currently under care from an observation deck. This is all located just a few minutes north of Point Bonita Lighthouse, by the way.

Weed abatement

The first rule of blogging is to always keep your camera with you. Because who expects a herd of beautiful goats weeding around the parking lot?



























Bye, goats!

Safari West

We spent Saturday night amid the mating calls of wild birds, ring-tailed lemurs, and assorted African ungulates.



These are the tent-cabin accommodations at Safari West, a 400-acre wildlife preserve and breeding facility in wine country.







We are not zoo-goers. Seeing wild animals in captivity is always a little sad. Unfortunately, animals in the wild, and even in nature preserves, are dying off at alarming rates due to poaching, habitat loss, and other threats. If it's captivity or nothing, I guess I'll take captivity--at least when the captivity is 400 acres of open space with a commitment to promote clean living and healthy reproduction.







Not all the animals share the same open space, but many of the ungulates did.





Most of the visit happens on this Korean War-era safari truck.



There was no touching of the animals or getting off the truck--which is how I like it. The tour guide identified all the animals for us and gave us tidbits. I paid attention, but did not take many mental notes. I took pictures and enjoyed the ride instead. (There were many more animals than you see here. A lot of the pictures didn't turn out well. Read Silke Tudor's lyrical account of her visit here.)







The guys below are Cape Buffalo, ornery creatures considered to be among nature's most fearsome animals. They were recently made famous in this YouTube video where a herd of them drive off a pride of lions



The animals are used to seeing the safari truck and most of them reacted to it with indifference. However the ostriches were more extroverted.



We saw many youngsters





and a few old characters.