Above: The girls and boys of Dirty Girl Farm, on a recent visit to Main Street Farm in Livingston Manor. Left to right: Cyndi Wright, Jesse Wright-Bourke and Lester Bourke, and Dexter, a 1-month-old Lamancha buck. Photo shared on Dirty Girl's Facebook wall by Diane Amoroso Riegal.
Want to get up close and personal with a dairy goat? You’re invited over to Dirty Girl Farm in Andes this Sunday between 11am and 3pm -- bring the kids and the camera, and be sure to wear your play clothes.
Delaware County's newest goat dairy and creamery operation just got its Ag and Markets license last August. Since then, the farm's milking, pasteurizing and cheesemaking have been going strong.
“People just see the animals and stop by,” said owner Cyndi Wright. “Sometimes they end up staying for hours. I figured, why not invite everybody at once? I’m Italian -- the more the merrier. If this goes well, maybe we’ll have a gathering every month, have some cheesemaking workshops.”
Visitors will get to experience all aspects of a small dairy goat milking, bottling and cheesemaking farm.
“We’re hand-milking eight dairy goats, and we have baby kids, bunnies and chicks. We’re a small operation, just 3.5 acres, and people enjoy seeing what you can do with a space that small,” Wright said.
A note of caution for city folks: Dirty Girl doesn't have its name for nothing.
“Please, dress for the farm," Wright said. "People from the city stop by sometimes in nice outfits, heels or whatever, and it’s the same story: ‘Can I pet them?’ they ask. ‘But your clothes!’ I say. They say, ‘It’s okay, I don’t care,’ and then they have a close encounter with an actual goat.”
Dirty Girl Farm, 539 Perch Lake Road, Andes. Sunday, 4.7.2013. Open house from 11am-3pm. No charge for admission. For more information, call (845) 676-4000.
Below: Dirty Girl's wares for sale at Pepacton Natural Foods in Roscoe.
