Medlar Meadows
Welcome! Here is an introduction about the team behind the scenes at our farm. My name is Lindsey Dean and I roped my husband, Doug into goats years ago when I fell in love with a little Nubian doe at a poultry swap. We have worked to build a solid herd and continue to grow with enthusiasm. We have a large family of eleven children. Our children love the farm life which make it possible for us to maintain a quality herd. They have learned responsibility and a good work ethic by milking, feeding, barn cleaning, etc. Our favorite saying is “Many hands make light work”. The love of dairy goats especially passed on to our eldest daughter, who started a herd under the name of Hidden Rose. We raise Nubian, Guernsey, and Lamancha goats on our eight acre farm in Georgetown, Illinois under both herd names. We are also the home of Senora del Pilar Spanish Mastiff livestock guardian dogs. Though central Illinois is very flat, we are very fortunate to have a hillside, which the goats of course love!
Our family requires lots of goat's milk. We have used our goat’s milk for a variety of dairy products such as ice cream, mozzarella, feta, butter, cream cheese, chevre, buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, and at least one hard cheese. Every child has his favorite birthday requested flavor goat's ice cream! One most favorite flavor is our "Goats' Track Ice Cream". We make a very special batch of butter for every Easter. We love the health benefits of goat's milk, especially kefir and yogurt. We have even dabbled in soap making. We truly appreciate the hard work of our dairy goat girls. There’s always a never ending use for our milk.
As our children have aged they wanted to try the show ring. Needless to say, they were bitten by the show bug! We show our goats at a few fairs every year, always going to our favorite the Georgetown Fair. We strive to provide competitive animals in the show ring while still maintaining usefulness at the farm with great milk production. We do put the does first before the show. If we feel it is too much stress on the goats, we stay home.
Why did we choose the herd name "Medlar Meadows"? Medlars are an obscure medieval fruit seldom grown in our modern times. They do not fit the commercial mold of “instant gratification.” They require patience and perseverance. They are brown and rock-hard when picked. Over a process of a couple weeks of room temperature storage, they soften and develop a delicious spicy applesauce taste. We see this fruit as symbolic of a by-gone era; a time when value was deep, not superficial. The medlar reminds us that some things are worth the wait which is our personal motto for the goats. It requires effort and perseverance to get that beautiful milking doe. You can have all the right genetics but horrible herd managment which will effect your outcome. In this fast-food, disposable society, it truly is the quintessential anti-modern fruit and thus the perfect example to illustrate our breeding program with our goat herd. And yes, we do have several medlar trees as well as couple hundred apple trees!
We thank you for taking the time to stop at our website and hope you had an enjoyable experience perusing our site. We try to maintain a small town friendly business attitude. We are willing to give some of our time to satisfy our buyers and spread the knowledge of goats which offer so much to the family farm. We felt so lost and discouraged when we first started with goats. Only a few farms took the time to answer our questions which left a lasting impression on us. We are still thoroughly grateful to Goldthwaite Nubians, Blissberry Nubians, Loveland Nubians, Stateline Dairy Goats, Davis Run Nubians, Six-Point Farm, Wild Mountain Country Nubians, and Goddard Farm Grade A Dairy to name just a few of the farms we have personally done business. We hope to give satisfaction and friendly help when we can to our customers. Enjoy!