Cashmere goats are animals that normally live in the Himalayan foothills. They are mountain goats, who can adapt particularly well to very strong cold weather. They do not like damp climate. The climate they have at Oustamura is therefore perfect for them.
Each goat has a name and its very own personality. They are very likeable and when you can give them some time, some attention and care, they repay you a hundred times over.
Generally, cashmere goats are very good mothers. At Oustamura, we do not make cheese, which means that the kids can stay with their mothers and enjoy the milk to their fill.
What do the kids prefer after their mum? I think that would be attacking the sheepfold! It's an exciting game that consists in running as fast as they can around the sheepfold, stamping their feet on the ground to make as much noise as possible and scare their mothers!! This is so funny!
What do the goats prefer after their kids? Their barley ration. What a feast every night! They are so greedy…
Cashmere is the thin underdown mingled with the goats' longer outer hair. When the moulting season starts, I use a special comb that I made myself to collect the underdown.
Once the wool is collected, it needs to be washed, de-haired, carded and finally spinned to form balls of yarn.
I perform all this manually, with traditional farm tools that I repaired.
It's amazing to give a new life to these tools, to perpetuate old traditions.
When I'm working, I imagine the people in the old days, wrapped in their tasks. Generations spent countless hours working, repeating the same gestures over and over. Gestures that grew to become perfect over time, even extraordinary in their simplicity.
I am now where they used to be, and I hope I will be worthy of their heritage and that I will be able to give a new face to this beautiful farm, this beautiful countryside that saw so many generations of men and women devote their lives to it.
I humbly bow to all the work that was done before me.
"Once upon a time, a herd of cashmere goats lived in a very old sheepfold lost in the middle of the Mercantour mountains …"
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