Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/54815
Liz says. "We had a baby monitor in there for awhile, but that didn't work. Goats are noisy; they snore, among other things!" To date, more than 600 goats have been born on the farm, and those kids come right into the house and live in various rooms in card- board boxes, where they are bottle-fed. "I know when a birth is imminent; sometimes [the kids] just come and I practically catch them on the way out," Liz says. "Then, I bring each one into the house. They stay inside for two to three days, depending on the time of year." But when those kids start coming quickly and in multiples and the house starts to fill up, they are moved to the barn more quickly. "My mom makes the call on that; she is the nursery maven," Liz says. The Mulhollands don't use plastic baby bottles for feeding the kids, opting instead for recycled glass Corona beer bottles. The three dozen babies that might arrive in a few weeks' time are hand-fed four to five times a day at first, and then three times a day until they are finally weaned at eight weeks. Neighbors, friends, and family are all welcome to help, and, actually, "Anyone who dares walk onto the property at feeding time is handed a bottle," Liz says. "This year, we are breeding 37 does, and they average two and a half babies each. They almost always have twins, and triplets are more common than singles. Last year, 140 one doe, our best and favorite, Phyllis, had quintuplets. Her son, Philanderer, is a stud here," she says. Those 37 does will mate with seven bucks with names like Hugh He- fner, Spike Lee, Oblivion, Ken-Doll Carl- son, and Rockabilly, among others. Right now, Valley View Farm produces 6,000 pounds of cheese each year, about 1,000 of which are from a combination of cows' milk (from Appleton Farms in Ips- wich) and goats' milk. The Mulhollands plan to create aged cheese utilizing more cows' milk. They're also looking into build- ing a cheese cave for aging so that they can produce different styles of cheese. "Moving into making more cheeses with cows' milk is different. For one thing, get- ting to the final product takes more time. It could take three to six months for a cheese to be ready for sale. The fresher-style goat cheeses are out the door between one and four weeks," Peter says. What both Peter and Liz say they love about their life here is the up-front close- ness to the bare bones of life, nature, and the seasons, and that very straight line of goat-to-milk-to-cheese-to-table. "You feel like you are always crafting something new, driving to the next thing," adds Peter. "You need to be really close to it to suc- ceed, and the crafting part is really satisfy- ing. There's the farming aspect, and then this page, from left, farm-fresh eggs; henry, the mulhollands' son; swaths of cloth hold soon-to-be cheese. opposite page, cheese, ready to be enjoyed. from the milk phase onward, it's a two-part experience," Peter says. Liz agrees, add- ing that she also enjoys "running the farm, making the product, [handling] marketing and sales, the interaction with the custom- er, and community involvement." Peter sums up the couple's farm-work cycle, noting that they spend nine months of the year making cheese and two months making maple syrup. Then there are the spurts of time that the Mulhollands spend with their beehives to get honey in the spring, summer, and fall. They also sell fresh eggs and are known for their homemade ice cream, made with the help of Liz's grandfa- ther's old Farmall Cub tractor, which Peter hooks up to a five-gallon ice cream churn. "It runs at 35 RPM," Peter says of the churn, noting that they make ice cream for church gatherings and birthday parties. "It gives us a reason to bring out the tractor. The ice cream recipe is, interest- ingly enough, a recipe that Thomas Jef- ferson brought back from Europe and is simply heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolks," he says. Now there's a bit of historic preserva- tion that adds to Valley View Farm's own rich and delicious story.