Go Green: A Look Inside a Sustainable Goat Farm

Along Routes 5 and 20 in Bloomfield, sits an old bed and breakfast. But it is slowly starting to look like a farm. Stephen Lester and Sara Turnbull just moved in three months ago, and they have some big plans.

"Right now we have 19 goats and 10 lambs and right now we are just having them be our lawnmowers and letting them take care of our lawns and pastures so we don't have to mow them as frequently," Lester says.

The two majored in sustainability at Sterling College in Vermont. What they learned, they are putting to use here.

"We are being conscious of how many animals you have and what you're growing," says Lester. Turnbull adds, "it's important for us to source food locally. We like to make connections with the farmers we are getting our hay from because we are not big enough to grow our own hay right now."

The farm is named Chicory after this weed. Because here they are trying to grow weeds for the goats to eat. They plan to grow this heard of goats to produce more milk and they plan to pasteurize and bottle it right here. But they won't let the farm get too big. Being sustainable means being mindful of the footprint you are leaving on the environment.

"On the farm we use solar chargers and when we are milking the goat we have re-usable rags, things like that. Try to keep our waste down," says Turnbull. Sterling adds, "we try to stay more with the natural medicines whenever we can. They keep the animals healthier and pastures healthier too."

Further down the road they hope to grow their own vegetables and crops. They also plan to open up the bed and breakfast again too.