Today I'm talking with Courtney at Busy D's Acres|Busy D's Caprines.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company.

00:28
Today I'm talking with Courtney at Busy D's Acres in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. Good morning Courtney, how are you? Good, how are you? I'm good. I'm a little sick of the weather. I really, really wish we get back to the, you know, 79 for the high and a light breeze and the sun shining. This, this gray and hot and sweaty is pretty bad. Yes, it is very hard for us to get in the fields to cut hay and to get in our garden.

00:57
And on the other hand, it's been really great that it's been warm and enough rain. Because if it was just out or if it was just rain, we would be all screwed. Those of us who grow things. So on one hand, I want to complain on the other hand, I want to be thankful. So I guess we're somewhere in the middle. I don't know. Yeah. I'm so excited to talk to you because you make goat ice cream, goat milk ice cream. Yes. And you're only on

01:27
property creamery in Scott County, Minnesota, right? Yes. So I need to know about you and how this happened and what you do. So I'll give a little backstory. The farm has been in my family since 1885. ah Our son is the seventh generation here. ah Back in the 70s, my grandpa got rid of the dairy cattle and they switched over to Hereford beef cattle. So we had those my entire life growing up.

01:55
And then 10 years ago, we decided to get two Nigerian dwarf goats because my husband and I cannot drink cow's milk. So we're like, let's see how this goes. Um, I chose the Nigerian dwarfs cause they're really high in butterfat. Cause I was like, well, maybe it'll be fun to try making cheese. Um, and then here we are 10 years later, we're, uh, on farm licensed creamery. Uh, we have four different kinds of cheese that we make. And then the ice cream.

02:22
And my parents are technically busy these acres and we're busy these Caprines, but we're all on the same farm.

02:30
Oh, okay. So it's a family operation. Yeah. So my husband and I are the creamery, which is the Caprines. And then the acres is the entire farm.

02:41
Is there a Facebook page for Caprines? Nope, it's all the same page because I run them both. it's Busy D's Acres and then Busy D's Caprines is in the parentheses. Instagram is way more friendly that it lets me put both of them.

02:56
Okay, cool. Facebook won't let me put them both because they're too close in names. huh. Go Fig. Love Facebook. I do love Facebook. That sounded really snotty. Facebook has been really weird lately. So I don't know what's going on with it. The algorithm is sick. I think it's got a cold.

03:19
So anyhow, uh I have questions about the creamery because I know in Minnesota we have the cottage food license stuff, registration stuff, and I'm guessing the creamery is not cottage food because that would be really weird. Nope, it is not. I actually have my cottage food too. We've been doing farmers markets for over 10 years, so I have the cottage side too, but

03:46
The creamer is actually licensed and inspected. So it's the Minnesota department of egg that comes out and inspects. actually have five different inspectors. have one on our farm side, which is what the goats are considered. And then the milk areas, the milking house and, um, the milking area. And then I have a plant inspector that inspects my, it's pretty much a commercial kitchen, but it's called a plant.

04:11
And then I have an overall inspector that oversees all of them. And then I also have the retail inspection. And then I have a lab officer that I have to do my own antibiotic testing before I process each batch of cheese. So I need an honest answer from you. Do you feel like there's too much overreach on the regulation or do you think that it's okay? I am okay now in the beginning with all of the paperwork and having to get everything

04:41
submitted, it was a lot. My final inspection, was way more, I thought it was gonna be way more than it was. It was actually a breeze, like the final inspection, but there was so much beforehand. ah My dad was a union iron worker, so he read blueprints his entire career. So he actually made us a blueprint for the barn because I had to submit that with all of my barn planning.

05:04
So all of that beginning stuff like down to like where I was gonna have my milk filters with a cover had to be on that map

05:13
Wow. Okay. really specific. Yes. I had to have a detailed list of all my equipment with links so they could approve it. And they can tell you whether or not they approve things, but they cannot give you too much guidance because they are state workers. And so they cannot be biased, which I understand. But somebody coming from, you know, just milking in a little makeshift milk house to becoming licensed, the milker was the hardest thing for me to find.

05:44
Mm-hmm.

05:47
Okay, so tell me again, how long have you been doing it? We have had goats for 10 years and I've been in milk for eight years. And then I've been making cheese since we started having milk.

05:58
Okay, so eight years you've been in it with the milk. Yeah, we bred. So we started out with our first two does in 2016. And then in 2017, we got our first buck in weather. And then we had our first babies in 2018, May of 2018. So then we started milking in July of 2018.

06:26
Okay, so you're kind of an old hand at this at this point. That's long enough to get your under you and grow a pretty decent business. So are you happy with what you've built? Yes, it is a lot of work, which is good. I am not complaining because I'm happy where we're at. ah It's just, it's a lot of work with everything. And right now my husband still works full time while we're getting this all the way off the ground and

06:55
Um, when I used to make cheese on the stove top, I could do it all in one day. Now with the size of batches that I'm doing, and then also with my antibiotic testing and my pasteurization and everything, it just adds more to it. Okay. And are your products, are your cheese, well, are your dairy products, not cheese products, are your dairy products for sale off the property too? Yes, we are in a couple of local butcher shops, um, in a couple of local farm retail stores.

07:26
Our cheese curds are most popular. then, um, second would be probably our spread. Our goat Vita is getting popularity. People it's, I have to explain that one to people. What it is, is it's Velveeta, but real cheese. So it tastes just like Velveeta. You can use it just like Velveeta, quesadillas, queso, grilled cheese, homemade mac and cheese.

07:49
And then we do a crumble, which is similar to feta. And then we just rolled out our ice cream two weeks ago. That one took me a little bit longer to perfect with the pasteurization step because it changed the molecules of the fat.

08:04
Yeah, um, your cheese tastes like Velveeta. I am quite positive that your... I'm sure your version is way healthier than Velveeta ever had thought to be. Yeah.

08:19
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I can't do Velveeta. We ate a lot of that when I was a kid and anytime somebody brings it up, I'm like, nope, I'm good. Yeah, the things that we can eat when we're kids and then now as adults, what we know is in it. It's like, oh no, we're not eating that. Well, I didn't love it when I was a kid and now I certainly don't want it. So, you know, it's partly bad too. Yeah. So I have a question about goat milk ice cream.

08:49
Yes. it very different from cow milk ice cream or is it just ice cream? I, it's a richer flavor, which there are richer ice creams. Um, because our goats are so high on butterfat, all of their cheese and their products are a little bit more of that rich taste, but they are not that goaty taste. Um, people, when it comes to goat products, milk, cheese, they don't, they love the goat.

09:15
flavor or they really don't like the goat flavor that like that tangy goaty flavor with our Nigerians what we feed them and also with their high butter fat. Our flavors taste very in line with cow's milk.

09:30
Okay. And the reason I ask is because people are always like goat cheese is so good. Chev, chev, however you say it. C-A-V-R-E. I'm not a fan and I do like cream cheese, but I don't like goat cheese. Yeah. Right. It's just, there's something about it that I can't get past. And I was like, Hmm, I wonder if that's a thing with the goat ice cream as well, but it sounds like it's not.

09:57
We actually don't make chev because I made it when I was testing out different cheeses. I...