Við erum geitabændur

When we started thinking about putting up a mini mill in Iceland, back in 2016, we were contacted by goat farmers and asked if we would also consider to process the fibre from goats into yarn. We learned from them, that they had sent their fibre to similar mill in Europe to get it processed, so we knew the machines were able to do the job. So we said “yes”.

Vélarnar mættu á hlaðið alla leið frá Kanada  from Canada to train us with the process and we learned a lot and practised even more. After few months another teacher came from Canada and taught us more. Then we learned how to work with the fibre from the Icelandic goats and found out that it’s fibre is Cashmere,- which technically is the gold of fibres. The yarn we made was of something else than we had ever experienced,- then I am talking about yarn in general, not what we had been doing just for few months time. But even though I am brought up on a farm and so is my husband, we had neither of us ever farmed with goats and we knew so very little about them. When people started asking us questions about how to get the best fibre from them, our eyes turned gloomy and we just looked up to the sky. And since we are always eager to do as well as we can and not jump to conclusions without exactly knowing how or why something is like it is, we started exploring and looking for information. First on the internet and then with books. None of them in Icelandic.

You see; the Icelandic goat was nearly extinct around the 1960’s. No one was really interested in farming with them and most people looked at them as pets and of no use but making problems – crossing every fence and eating every flower and tree. Then Jóhanna Bergmann Þorvaldsdóttir in Háafell went into mission to save the Icelandic goat. She earned a lot of attention doing so, and people joined her, getting goats of their own and formed an organisation around them. Since then people are starting again to use what the goat provides, like the milk and the fibre. And today we have over 1.500 goats in Iceland. They are an endangered specie and need to be observed and cared for to keep their number.

Við fengum upplýsingar um geitabúskap með því að tala við Jóhönnu og fleiri geitabændur og með því að skoða vandlega það hráefni sem barst til okkar í spunaverksmiðjuna.
Við sáum mjög fljótt að ef við ætluðum að vita hvernig ætti að meðhöndla geitur, yrðum við að prófa það sjálf. Svo þið sjáið hvert þetta er að leiða okkur...

Við fengum okkur kiðlinga!!!

Haustið 2021 komu 4 huðnur og 1 hafur heim til okkar og geitabúskapur okkar hófst. Við fórum inn í veturinn og lærðum fóðrun og meðhöndlun af bókum og með því að spjalla við reyndari geitabændur. Því miður slasaðist ein og drapst af meiðslunum, en hinar voru hraustar og sprækar og mjög gaman að vinna með þær.Ég kenndi þeim að teymast um húsið og jafnvel úti og þær eru fljótar að læra.

Nú erum við búin að upplifa allra fyrstu fæðingu kiðlings á okkar búi og okkur þykir það býsna merkilegt. Burðurinn tókst vel, huðnu og kiðlingi heilsast vel og litli hafurinn er farinn að hoppa og skoppa. Það sem er enn betra er að huðnan hefur góða móðureiginleika, mjólkar vel og hugsar vel um nýfæddan soninn. Það er mikill kostur. Ég get varla beðið eftir að hinar tvær eignist sín kið. 

Við höfum lært alveg helling. En eigum enn margt ólært. Í framtíðinni væri til dæmis mjög gaman ef ég gæti búið til ost úr eigin geitamjólk. En núna fær þessi litli kall alla mjólk sem mamma hans býr til.. 

Öll animals ALL have names. All my 150 sheep, All my 30 cows, All my 16 hens… and of course the goats also have names,- when they are adult and to be kept on at the farm. This mama-goat’s name is Hrefna and since this is the very first goat to be born here, his name has to be Prince; Prins in Icelandic.