Little Farm Goat Dairy

31/08/2026

31/08/2026

Cheese humour! Of course I'm going to share it here...

24/08/2026

Every year, in early August, our milk changes.

It happens before kidding starts, and it happens even though the does we are milking are not pregnant. They are milk-through does, some of them well into their second or third year of the same lactation. Yet as winter begins to turn, their milk seems to notice before we do.

The volume starts to rise. The fat and cheese yield ease back a little. And, for a few precious weeks, the milk becomes the sweetest it will taste all year.

I have noticed this for years.

Until recently, I didn’t know there was an old seasonal idea that spoke so beautifully to it: First Milk.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the beginning of February marked a turning point in the old agricultural year. The days were lengthening, lambing was beginning, and fresh milk was returning after winter. That seasonal moment became associated with Imbolc and Candlemas — with milk, new life and the returning light.

Here in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed.

Our equivalent turning point comes in early August.

We are still in winter. The mornings are cold, the grass is hardly racing away, and our kidding season is still two months off. But the light has changed. The days are stretching out again, and somehow the goats respond to it.

Even our long-lactation milkers begin to lift.

One of those does is Cadence — nearly three years into her first lactation and still producing an extraordinary amount of milk, with outstanding dairy conformation.

And fittingly, Cadence is also the name of the new cheese we introduced at the markets last weekend.

The name suddenly feels even more right.

A cadence is a rhythm — a turning, a change in movement, the place where one phrase ends and another begins.

That is exactly what early August feels like on our little dairy.

Winter is still here, but spring has started whispering.

The light changes.

The milk changes.

And the whole farm quietly moves into its next rhythm.

First Milk.

20/08/2026

This is a small class, limited to 10 people, and there are currently 5 spaces left.

20/08/2026

Cadence — a cheese found by accident

Some cheeses begin with a recipe. Cadence began with a mistake.

One weekend, the usual rhythm of cheesemaking at Little Farm got knocked slightly out of step. A batch of Ellie, one of our regular mould-ripened cheeses, was cultured at 30°C instead of its usual 25°C.

Five degrees. That was all.

But the next morning, the curd told us immediately that something quite different had happened.

Instead of Ellie's fine, dense curd sitting beneath a thin layer of whey, this curd was loose and open, with much larger pieces, submerged beneath an extraordinary amount of whey. Once ladled into its moulds, it drained faster than any cheese we make — even our chèvre.

We thought we might simply have made a rather odd batch of Ellie.

Then we tasted it.

The cheese was strikingly white, firm and dense, with a fine, slightly grainy paste that fractures rather than crumbles when cut. It matured much more slowly than Ellie, retaining the tight wrinkles of its Geotrichum rind instead of quickly softening into Ellie's buttery creaminess.

The flavour was different too: mild yet distinctly sharp, clean and milky, with a long dairy finish.

Perhaps fittingly, Cadence appeared in early August, at the time of year when we've long noticed the milk beginning its subtle seasonal change.

Our customers noticed too.

One regular compared its texture and flavour to a traditional Wensleydale, but with the characteristic brightness of goat's milk. Another enjoyed it so much that she rang us at home simply to tell us about it.

By then, we'd already made a second batch deliberately at 30°C.

It did exactly the same thing.

And so a cheesemaking mistake became a recipe.

We called her Cadence — because sometimes changing the rhythm leads somewhere you weren't expecting.

Cadence is the newest addition to our Namesake range of mould-ripened cheeses, each named for one of the goats in our herd. Snowy white, firm and finely textured, gently sharp, deeply milky and slow to reveal herself.

Discovered by accident. Kept on purpose.

06/08/2026

Story time...

This photo made me laugh, because I understand *exactly* what happened that led to that sign.

Despite standing behind a stall filled entirely with goat cheese, I’m regularly asked:

“Is it soap?”

One memorable market day, I was asked THREE TIMES if it was soap.

Then someone looked over the display and asked:

“Is it sushi?”

That was the moment I admitted defeat and asked my husband to make me a bright neon sign saying:

GOAT CHEESE

It now sits proudly above our main business sign.

And yes… people still occasionally ask if it’s soap. 😄🧀🐐

18/07/2026

Mid-winter at Little Farm

The sun slips away early, the ground is cold beneath our feet, and the goats gather on the highest point they can find to watch the last of the light disappear.

There is something quietly beautiful about winter evenings here—the dark silhouettes, the pale sky, and the herd standing together as though they, too, are pausing to take it all in.

The days are short, but we have turned the corner now. From here, the light begins its slow return.

07/07/2026

We'll have a special treat for Saturday’s Matariki Mākete!

On the Matariki Makete day (11th July, yeah, this Saturday), look for this Treasure map. It shows you what kind of treasures (gift sponsored by Amberley Farmers Market) are located. See tomorrow's post.

07/07/2026

Cheese Making Class

Sunday 26 July
11:30am – approximately 2:30pm
Sheffield Community Centre
14 Railway Terrace E, Sheffield

$90 per person

Join Andrea from Little Farm Goat Dairy for a demonstration class covering four cheeses you can make in your own home kitchen, using basic kitchen equipment plus a few cheesemaking essentials, such as an accurately calibrated thermometer, rennet, and culture.

We’ll look at how to make:

Mascarpone
Queso Fresco
Feta Style
Camembert

The class will also include a tasting of 8–10 of our goat cheeses, plus a tasty goat-cheese-based dish to finish. Coffee, tea, and biscuits will be served to start.

Come and learn to make cheese — and bring your appetite.

We may also have some cheeses available for purchase on the day, with a 10% discount for class attendees.

Please get in touch to book your place in the class.

30/06/2026

Dixie, the Breakfast Bandit

Meet Dixie, one of our cheeky Toggenburg girls and a born member of a very special family line.

Dixie is one of triplet sisters — Dancer, Dasher and Dixie — daughters of Serena, granddaughters of Kamana, and great-granddaughters of our illustrious herd matriarch, Magnolia.

Magnolia was a very dignified herd queen, with a quiet authority and presence about her. We suspect she would probably shudder at the behaviour of her great-granddaughters, were she still with us.

Because Dixie, it must be said, has not inherited Magnolia’s sense of decorum.

She is one of the more food-obsessed members of our herd of Toggenburgs, which is really saying something. Around here, Toggenburgs are affectionately known as Toggen-Hoovers. If a Toggy isn’t enthusiastically hoovering up her breakfast, then something is very wrong indeed.

Dixie isn’t actually one of the milkers this season. She’s busy raising her first kid, and technically has no reason at all to come in with the milking girls.

Dixie, however, disagrees.

Most evenings, when the milkers come into their overnight holding area to have extra feed and be ready for morning milking, Dixie does her very best to blend in. She follows the more seasoned girls with great confidence, as if she has always belonged there. Then, in the morning, when the moment is right, she hops straight onto the milking platform and gets to work stealing as much breakfast as possible before anyone notices.

Sadly for Dixie, her disguise is not very convincing.

But she remains optimistic. And fast. And very committed to the cause.

Every herd needs a character, and Dixie is absolutely one of ours — cheeky, clever, food-driven, and utterly Toggenburg.