"I’m a serial educator"
August 18, 2018 3:48 PM Subscribe
"A physicist-turned-farmer left L.A. for a mountain getaway. You can visit for goat cheese and cajeta." A mile high in the San Gabriels, on the far northern edge of the Angeles National Forest — about 1,000 square miles of looming mountains that fill the horizon northeast of downtown Los Angeles — a herd of Nubian goats forages amid the chaparral. It’s a small herd, as herds go, about 60 goats rustling through sagebrush and desert almond, buckwheat and scrub oak trees. Gloria Putnam is the goatherd of this motley tribe, and she walks among them, picking mistletoe tangled in an oak to feed the matriarch of the herd, an 11-year-old named Rosie. Piñon Ridge rises above them, bandaged with clouds. A trim red barn in the distance is the only spot of color.
I love this place. I've always wanted to do their Silent Walking Meditation with Goats [FB link].
posted by mykescipark at 5:19 PM on August 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by mykescipark at 5:19 PM on August 18, 2018 [3 favorites]
Like Grothendieck, was she working with category theory?
In August 1991, Grothendieck left his home in the Pyrenees, suddenly and without warning, for an unknown location....Some suggested that he had remained in the Pyrenees and become a Buddhist. Others maintained that he was living in the Ardèche, herding goats
posted by sammyo at 7:11 PM on August 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
In August 1991, Grothendieck left his home in the Pyrenees, suddenly and without warning, for an unknown location....Some suggested that he had remained in the Pyrenees and become a Buddhist. Others maintained that he was living in the Ardèche, herding goats
posted by sammyo at 7:11 PM on August 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
How do they choose which goats go into the tacos? The males? Article doesn't address that at all, curiously.
posted by nevercalm at 7:14 PM on August 18, 2018
posted by nevercalm at 7:14 PM on August 18, 2018
She might want to educate herself about the role of Caprinae in desertification before advocating that LA move to a goat based economy.
posted by fshgrl at 8:18 PM on August 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by fshgrl at 8:18 PM on August 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Truly amazing to read this article fetishizing an entire mode of farming and making a living that I saw disintegrate and die in SD and MI in the 1990s. Some real good white inherited bourgeois partying right here.
posted by Dokterrock at 10:17 PM on August 18, 2018
posted by Dokterrock at 10:17 PM on August 18, 2018
She might want to educate herself about the role of Caprinae in desertification before advocating that LA move to a goat based economy.
Huh? Where did she advocate L.A. going to a goat based economy? Regardless, Mother Nature beat her to it. Valyermo is in L.A. County, but a world away from the L.A. basin. It's on the western end of the Mojave desert.
Truly amazing to read this article fetishizing an entire mode of farming and making a living that I saw disintegrate and die in SD and MI in the 1990s. Some real good white inherited bourgeois partying right here.
WTF is this even supposed to mean? All I'm seeing is an odd story about a woman who's giving a go at making a living from her hobby. She seems to hardly even consider herself a farmer, subsidizing her herd with what she herself calls "agritourism".
FFS, the only connection I have to the story is that I know the area. I couldn't give a fuck less about farming goats or the products that come from them. But even a cranky old bastard like me can't find reason to shit on the story.
posted by 2N2222 at 2:08 AM on August 19, 2018 [6 favorites]
Huh? Where did she advocate L.A. going to a goat based economy? Regardless, Mother Nature beat her to it. Valyermo is in L.A. County, but a world away from the L.A. basin. It's on the western end of the Mojave desert.
Truly amazing to read this article fetishizing an entire mode of farming and making a living that I saw disintegrate and die in SD and MI in the 1990s. Some real good white inherited bourgeois partying right here.
WTF is this even supposed to mean? All I'm seeing is an odd story about a woman who's giving a go at making a living from her hobby. She seems to hardly even consider herself a farmer, subsidizing her herd with what she herself calls "agritourism".
FFS, the only connection I have to the story is that I know the area. I couldn't give a fuck less about farming goats or the products that come from them. But even a cranky old bastard like me can't find reason to shit on the story.
posted by 2N2222 at 2:08 AM on August 19, 2018 [6 favorites]
Huh? Where did she advocate L.A. going to a goat based economy?
It's more idle speculation than advocating, but she does bring the topic up:
It's more idle speculation than advocating, but she does bring the topic up:
“Is it scalable?” Putnam asks, as she follows her goats through the rabbit brush and scrubby ephedra, also called Mormon tea. “If there were enough people who wanted to do this, if you filled these mountains with goats and shepherds, could this be a food shed for Los Angeles? I don’t even know how to figure that out, but it’s kind of an interesting question.”posted by Dip Flash at 6:22 AM on August 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
As a physicist, I'd interpret that statement as "Sounds like a fun estimation problem" than advocating anything.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:03 AM on August 19, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:03 AM on August 19, 2018 [7 favorites]
It's a cool project, and I'm glad she's expanding to reactivate the derelict roadhouse across the way. When we visited, I was interested to learn that the goats born on the land are having an easier time digesting the local plants than their imported mothers did.
posted by Scram at 1:53 PM on August 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Scram at 1:53 PM on August 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
If she's reactivating a roadhouse, she's going to need the best cooler in the business.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:36 PM on August 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Sunburnt at 3:36 PM on August 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
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(To read about, that is. As much as I sometimes pine for the notion of living on a small farmstead with a few goats and other company, I’m not drawn to personally working on a hilly scrub farm and milking sixty goats every day.)
posted by darkstar at 4:44 PM on August 18, 2018 [2 favorites]