The Goat Gals

Brenda Shelley and Jacqueline Weilenmann had a dream of living in the country. Dragonfly Farm and Alpine Goat’s Cheese is the fulfillment of their dream.

It’s a dream you experience when you drive up the tree-lined country road that leads to Dragonfly Farm. You can hear it in the wind as it rustles through the surrounding barley, wheat and canola fields. You can see it in the inquisitive, care-free, mischievous and drop-dead cute expressions of the goats as they happily graze away in their paddocks among free-range chickens. You can feel it when you’re greeted by the bounding dogs or unexpectedly nuzzled by one of the magnificent horses.  It’s a dream you can smell in the organic herb and veggie garden and a dream you can most definitely taste in each of the peasant style goat’s milk cheeses that Jacqui makes with absolute love and care.

Refraction

Brenda was a fashion, travel and fine art photographer who spent many years in the U.S.A. Jacqueline fell in love with South Africa after coming to visit from Switzerland 8 years ago. Both have always been country girls at heart but, it was only when they decided that this was where they really wanted to be that they put their dream into serious incubation and pulled out all the stops to make it a reality.

New Light & Joy

Five years ago they moved from Cape Town to the sleepy little village of Napier. They bought a run-down old house and barn which was just begging to be renovated. They bought their first horse and a boere bokkie which, at the time, was to be a companion to the horse.

When it came time to collect the bokkie from a farm just outside of Bredasdorp, they discovered that the farmer also had a herd of British Alpine Goats he wanted to sell as he didn’t have enough time to spend with them.

Jacqueline fell in love with the goats and confessed that she had always wanted to own her own herd of goats and to make her own goat’s milk cheese. She had worked on a communal vegetable, fruit and flower farm, “The Ark”, in Switzerland for 6 years where she had tended to the cows and goats on the summer Alps. So she had all the experience they needed!

Brenda and Jacqueline convinced a friend to rent them some of his land to start farming the goats while they looked for a farm of their own. They renovated the house, converted their old barn into a cheesery and started making goats milk cheese. They started the search for a spot that would be suitable to farm with goats, keep horses and grow herbs and veggies.

They found just what they were looking for 1,3 Km outside Napier. It had virgin soil, had never been farmed, had water rights, was of a manageable size and had many, many dragonflies! Dragonflies, symbols of moving away from self-created illusions that limit growth and change, to a sense of self that comes with maturity.

Dragonfly Farm – this was where they could live in harmony with nature and create and prepare food with love and care, and make a difference. And so the work began!

Organic Swiss Style

Jacqueline designed the house along the lines of the Swiss Farm houses she grew up in where the animals live very close to the human’s. This principle of farming is to create an environment that is as organic as possible; kind to nature, the soil and the environment;  and provides the ideal conditions in which to make slow food cheese.

The house consists of a double volume steel structure, where the goats’ barn is to the left and the horses stables are to the right, the entire bottom level is used for work and the top section is for living. Brenda’s pride and joy, the herb; veggie and flower gardens, are at the front of the house. This is also where the menagerie of dogs and cats have their own space. The paddocks for the horses (and rescued donkey), the goat pens and the chickens are at the back of the house.

The Goat Gals (as they’ve affectionately become known in Napier) cleared, built, planted and created Dragonfly Farm themselves. It’s a 24/7 commitment that they regard as a blessing and approach with pure passion. They live by the old adage “do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”.

Daily Life on Dragonfly Farm

Jacqueline tends to her goat’s (each of which have names...and she knows them all!) with her foreman, Michael and his assistants. They travel to the neighbouring farms to cut Port Jackson’s as feed for the goats, and do their part in clearing alien trees - a favourite part of the goats’ diet.

She makes her peasant style goat’s cheese every day from 100% goat’s milk that comes straight from milking the goats to the cheese vat. The cheeses is available in plain, basil, oregano, garlic, chilli and Szechuan pepper.

Brenda is sales and marketing manager, and takes care of the business side of Alpine Goat’s Cheese. She is responsible for communicating with customers, distribution, marketing, advertising and sales, and selling the cheese at farmers markets and festivals.

New Visions

Their plans for the future are to build straw bale cottages on the farm so that they can have visitors, friends and family to stay and experience farm life first hand.  They’d like to breed with their horses; grow a wider range of food; grow the goat herd to fifty milking ewes; increase the cheese production; expand their client base and, of course, continue to live their dream with awareness, gratitude and respect. Always reminded by the dragonflies of life's brevity and understanding the importance of making every minute special.