Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/54815
this page, clockwise from top, peter mulholland attends to a goat's hoof; mary brown, elizabeth mulholland's mother; modified milk bottles; valley view dill cheese. opposite page, ready position. is to do here and with my boys. So James attends and gives us a new perspective on breeding. While we like beautiful goats, production is our main priority. Because of that, every year, we make selections on whose daughters to keep and which ones we should take out of the herd and sell." They've stayed with the Nubian breed because they enjoy their unique personality traits and because they produce milk with a high butter-fat content, which makes for a mild, sweet, luxuriously textured cheese. "We are partial to them and like the idea of having one breed," Liz says. "Others might mix breeds because they want more milk volume, but we want to stay pure." The Mulhollands are also pure in terms of the lifestyle they allow their goats to enjoy, including good nutrition and care. For ex- ample, the goats eat hay that grows on or near the farm, which in turn is fertilized with the goats' own manure, so no unnatu- ral chemicals enhance the soil where the grass grows. Additionally, Liz is out in the barn to help any of her goats when they are birthing, and if by chance there is a complication, a vet comes to help. "When the babies are born, I am there unless it's in the middle of night," 139