Musings from Mamacita: Our goat herd matriarch, Sugar Muffin
November 16, 2009 Written by Chivas Skin Care
As we now have 14 goats in our Chivas herd, I wanted to write about what makes each of our goats unique.
Sugar Muffin is the first goat that comes to mind because she was one of the first two goats I bought from a breeder in Southern California just over five years ago. When I first decided to raise goats, I started looking for Nubian goats, which are the most common breed in California. However, when I laid eyes on Sugar Muffin and her sister, it was love at first sight.
Sugar Muffin and sister, Precious, are Chamoisee French Alpine goats having tan, brown and white with black markings on the head, a black stripe down the back, and black stripes on the hind legs. To me, they look like antelope or impala and since I have visited Africa a few times, there was no doubt I wanted these goats because they are truly beautiful, majestic, and stately. Quite honestly, I bought them just because they were the most beautiful goats I have ever seen.
Sugar Muffin (Sugar for short) did not have a huge udder like her sister, who we later nicknamed Dolly Parton because she was so well endowed! Ironically, the two does produced about the same of amount of milk. Just proves the point that “size isn’t everything.”
Over the past five years, Sugar Muffin has given birth to twins or even triplets and has been the best mother. Her kids are always extremely good looking with good dispositions. Since Sugar Muffin is the oldest in our herd now, she is the matriarch and she definitely rules. But she is still sweet and loving with me and is still my favorite. I love her.
With the abundant milk that Sugar Muffin and Precious produced, I was able to begin making the goat milk soaps that now are the foundation of our goat milk skin care line. If you’d like to learn more about how Chivas Skin Care came about, please take a look at our story here.
“Musings from Mamacita” is a column written by Donna Johanson, Chivas Skin Care co-founder. As the mother half of this mother-daughter venture, Donna often signs emails to her daughter Lauren as “Mamacita,” which is the diminutive form of Mom in Spanish. As the team grows, Donna will now sign emails to the rest of the Chivas team as Mamacita.
In her column, Donna will share stories about cooking, gardening, caring for her animals, and other news from the Chivas homestead.
