Goats! [Photos courtesy Blue Heron Farm.]

FIELD STORE—“Miranda’s a big eater, unlike her namesake,” Lisa Seger joked as she pointed out a brown goat with a white forehead nibbling some grass.

That goat, of course, is named after Miranda Lambert, the tiny blonde country starlet featured on the October 2011 cover of TEXAS MONTHLY. Many of the “girls” at Blue Heron Farm are named after country singers, a nod to Christian Seger’s time working as a roadie for musicians including Pat Green and, yes, Miranda Lambert. There’s also Emmylou, LeAnne, Carrie Underwood, Lucinda and Elle Mae, to name a few.

If you had driven by the ten-acre farm during the week after Labor Day, you might have noticed some different goats milling around that lacked country music monikers. The Seger’s idyllic farm turned into something of a goat refugee camp after they took in some 90 animals from two nearby farms threatened by the Waller County wildfires.

The tiny, unincorporated community of Field Store is home to three goat dairies, and the farmers are all close friends. When the evacuation order was called on September 5, the farmers from Fairwoods and Swede farms called Christian at the same time to see if they could bring their goats over.

“Our farm is surrounded by pasture that has been very heavily grazed,” Christian said. “There’s nothing to burn, so we figured the farm would be safe.”

A herd of 25 Nubian goats, known for their floppy ears and sweet milk, typically call Blue Heron Farm their home. The refugees from Fairwoods and Swede farms were a motley group of breeds, including Lamanchas, Alpines, Saanens and a lone Toggenburg.

Four times the goats means four times the milk, and the farm’s two refrigerators quickly overflowed with it. “The first batch of milk just got poured out,” Christian said. “We were all sick at the sight of that and so we had to come up with something to do with it.”

So Lisa decided to mix all the milk together and make chevre around the clock, using the Blue Heron Farm pasteurizer and another 24-gallon one brought over by Swede Farm. In a typical week Lisa makes 100 pounds of cheese, but during the fire they turned out 60 pounds a day.

Milk from each of the breeds has a different taste and fat content, so the resulting cheese had a stronger, more “goaty” flavor than Blue Heron Farm’s typically mild chevre.

The Segers used Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about the fire cheese, dubbed Fieldstore Fire Chevre, which was at hit at farmer’s markets throughout Houston. The cheese made it onto plates at Vic & Anthony’s and into Fluff Bake Bar macaroons.

The proceeds from the sales were divided between the farms, which helped dampen the blow of the blaze. “All three farms have had the cash flow to not be really hurt by this,” Christian said.

LeeAnne Carlson of Swede Farm said that milking the goats and making the cheese helped preserve some sense of normalcy. “It was a way to take the incredible uncertainty and do something productive with it,” she said.

The flurry of activity quickly attracted the notice of Eater and attention from strangers who just wanted to help, as well as from regular customers. Two good Samaritans who heard about the evacuation brought over bales of hay to feed the refugees, Christian said.

The fires, which would go on to scorch more than 8,500 acres, never got closer than 1.5 miles away from Blue Heron Farm. Both nearby goat farms were spared, though the fire did creep within 300 feet of Fairwoods. By the Monday after Labor Day, all the goats were back home in their proper pastures.

A week after the fire goats went home, a sense of calm had returned to Blue Heron Farm. A sign bearing the farm’s slogan, “spoiled goats, fresh cheese,” hangs outside the front gate. Lisa stood in her kitchen making feta cheese, the first batch since Labor Day weekend. Outside next to the kitchen, Christian milked the goats in small groups.

The wildfires, Christian said, are just a symptom of the larger disease: the drought. Nubian goats hail from the Middle East and Africa and cope well with the heat. But there’s been so little rain there hasn’t been enough grass for them to eat. Typically, the goats only need hay from October to March. But this year the Segers have had to buy bales through the summer.

“We used to buy $50 bales of hay for half the year and now we’re buying $100 bales each month,” he said. “The cost of everything has gone through the roof.”—SONIA SMITH.

Blue Heron Farm: Chevre, $10 per 8 oz, various flavors including Mediterranean, Greek, Chipotle Blend, Green Goddess, Breakfast Spread, and Plain. Feta, $10 per half pound. Cajeta (goat milk caramel), $6 plain, $7 bourbon. Where to find them: Tuesdays: Rice University Farmer’s Market, Houston. 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. Saturdays: Urban Harvest Farmers Market at Eastside, Houston. 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. 2nd & 4th Sundays: Magnolia Farmer’s Market, Magnolia. 12 – 3 p.m. 3rd Sundays: Home Sweet Farm, Brenham. 2 – 4 p.m.

Swede Farm: Goat milk: $10, half gallon, $6, quart. Chevre: $10, half pound. Ricotta, $10, half pound. Yogurt: $5, pint. Kefir: $5, pint. Chocolate goat milk: $5, pint. Where to find them: Saturdays in Houston: Urban Harvest Farmers Market at Eastside. 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. Saturdays in Austin: SFC Farmer’s Market – Downtown, SFC Farmer’s Market – Sunset Valley, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Daily: Products for sale at the farm, but call first.

Fairwoods Farm: Goats for sale seasonally.

Fire refugees.

Tagged: blue heron farm, chevre, fairwoods farm, fieldstore fire chevre, goat dairies, goats, sustainable farming, swede farm, waller county, wildfires