{"id":21278,"date":"2016-04-15T08:36:54","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=21278"},"modified":"2016-04-15T09:10:27","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T16:10:27","slug":"friday-fun-fun-job-goat-cuddler-i-kid-you-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/15\/friday-fun-fun-job-goat-cuddler-i-kid-you-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Fun \u2013 Fun Job: Goat Cuddler. I \u201cKid\u201d You Not!"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are few things as cute as a baby goat (kid) …<\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_07\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In southern Virginia, February’s kidding season at Caromont Farm<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (a goat cheese farm a few miles south of the University of Virginia) has usually been a harrowing, hectic time for owner Gail Hobbs-Page<\/strong> and her employees when her baby goats run wild and her staff is run ragged.<\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_18\" <\/a>\"Goat-Cudllers_20\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But this year, Gail, an accomplished chef for decades who transitioned to goat farmer in 2007, took the advice of her staff and decided to use social media to enlist the aid of volunteers who signed up for four-hour stints helping to keep almost 100 new baby goats (kids) warm, dry, clean and fed.  Within a day the local NBC affiliate had a feature, and within two days the Washington Post<\/em> ran a story on the “Goat Cuddlers”<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_27-Worker-USE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gail, who is devoted to local agribusiness farming, was dubious about her staff’s suggestion of using the Caromon Farm’s Facebook page<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>– but joyously overwhelmed when she had over 2,000 requests from people as far north as Quebec and far west as California!  And all seventy-two of the four-hour slots were snapped up by young and old in just three days!  People are already requesting the opportunity to cuddle and snuggle with the goats during next year’s kidding season.<\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_01_Stella\" <\/a>\"Goat-Cudllers_03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_05\" <\/a>\"Goat-Cudllers_25\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

“Every year we work our butts off with these baby goats, and everyone gets a little run-down,” says Gail Hobbs-Page, who started the farm in 2007.  “I guess I really didn’t know how news works now,” says Hobbs-Page. “This—going viral—was never our intention. The phone is ringing off the hook.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_04\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“What I tapped into is some sort of need that people have to connect…to connect with something so innocent as a baby goat, and to connect with where their food comes from.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

http:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2016\/01\/goat-snuggles\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Gail explained that having the volunteers work at keeping the kids warm, dry and fed was critical not only for their well-being, but also "When they become milkers for the cheese operation, they're easier to handle. If we didn't do this on some level, you couldn't get your hands on them. They'd just run away."<\/p>\n

Caromont is a 120-goat farm that makes some 30,000 pounds of goat cheese each year to distribute up and down the east coast, as well as hosting gourmet dinners featuring … what else? <\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_14_Cheese-9\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Consistent with what Hobbs-Page feels is her devotion to responsible, artisanal farming she does not use any GMO feed, pays her help a living wage, and extensively interviews anyone she sells her goats to.<\/p>\n

But watching the volunteers in action this year helping to tend to her “kids”, Gail observed, "I'm not quite sure they need the cuddling as much as the people need to cuddle."<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Goat-Cudllers_30\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are few things as cute as a baby goat (kid) … In southern Virginia, February’s kidding season at Caromont Farm (a goat cheese farm a few miles south of the University of Virginia) has usually been a harrowing, hectic time for owner Gail Hobbs-Page and her employees when her baby goats run wild and […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}