Local Goat is farm fresh goat cheese made near Gingin

Since moving to Coonabidgee about 17 years ago, Julie and Gerald Drummond realised the kids were onto something when it came to goat milk.

It started with one pet Saanen goat, called Elvie, which then had twins.

A while later, the couple suddenly had a lot of extra milk after breeding one of Elvie's offspring and Ms Drummond took a one-day cheese-making class to make use of it.After making goat milk products for themselves, friends and family, a friend and cheese-monger encouraged the couple to put their cheese on the market.

In 2018, Ms Drummond quit her job to make cheese everyday for their business, Local Goat, a full-circle goat milk business operating just west of Gingin.

Ms Drummond said they purchased the 59.8 hectare property to preserve the bushland on it, and only use a third of the land for their business.

Today Local Goat has 20 goats which are used for milking, the herd consisting of Saanens, British Alpines and a couple of Anglo-Nubian crosses.

The Anglo-Nubian breed comes from the arid climate of the Middle East and doesn't produce milk all year.

However, the milk they do produce is quite rich, so Local Goat has combined this trait with its other two breeds to get the creamiest milk all year long.

The herd gives anywhere between 50 litres a day in summer to 25-30L in winter.

"In summer, we're just busy all day, everyday, I'm making cheese everyday, it's pretty full on," Ms Drummond said.

She said their goat's milk production tended to increase almost immediately after the winter equinox.

When the goats are producing less milk, the milk is more concentrated.With more solids per litre, the milk is creamier and richer.

"I have to tailor my cheese-making a little bit to allow for the extra solids," Ms Drummond said.

"We've learned that over the years and are quite in tune with the seasons and how it affects the animals."

During the day the goats feed on a pasture paddock, as well as the available bushland scrubs for roughage.

This section of land is divided into four paddocks, which is actively rehabilitated after the goats have grazed it.

The couple have ensured sustainability and soil health is at the forefront of their business, running entirely on 70 solar panels with battery storage, they are chemical free, use mineral fertilisers and live in a straw-bale house Mr Drummond built.

Ms Drummond said nutrition was one of the biggest focuses for the maintenance of their goats, ensuring to replenish the nutrients lost through milking.

While the goats are milked in the morning, they get a special breakfast of nutrient-rich pellets made by Milne Feeds especially for dairy goats in Western Australia and some seaweed meal.

"Some days they love it (the seaweed meal), some days they don't touch it, they know what extra nutrients they need each day," she said.

"You've got to start off with happy, healthy goats to get good milk and then everything else follows from that."

What used to be Mr Drummond's pool room, is now Local Goat's cheese room.

The cheese room houses a 50L pasteuriser, which heats the milk up to 69.4 degrees for 60 seconds and then cools it back down.

Fifty litres of milk can make about 50 wheels of camembert, weighing 120-140 grams.

At the time of Ripe's visit, Ms Drummond was making feta cheese.

"Just that process alone, heating it up and cooling it back down again, takes about three hours," she said.

Local Goat's feta cheese takes three days to make and then spends up to a week in a salt brine.

It's the fastest cheese to make, with camembert taking 14 days and the farmhouse romano taking at least three months to mature.

They also make WA's first ever goat milk gelato, which has been incredibly popular since joining the product range last summer.

It's been so popular, Ms Drummond has begun making the gelato in winter.

She believes the popularity comes from the digestibility of goat milk.

"The fat molecules are four times smaller than cow milk, so it's not in your digestive system for as long and breaks down more quickly," Ms Drummond said.

"It's much more soothing on your whole body, that's why people who are lactose intolerant generally can do goat milk products.

"It's been really nice to help people out in that way as well."

Ms Drummond said a lot of their sales came from the farmgate, but she also supplies to a handful of restaurants and stores in Perth.

She said the chefs at the restaurants she supplied to were fantastic to work with.

"They're just so supportive of WA producers," Ms Drummond said.

Just over two years ago, Local Goat joined AmazingCo, which offers mystery picnics aimed at showcasing local produce.

In this time, 3500 visitors have come through the gates via the mystery picnic company.

This month, the couple has offered farm tours as part of the annual Chittering Spring Fest, which runs until this Saturday, September 30.

During the festival, the Shire of Chittering welcomed visitors, with tours, events and activities arranged to showcase the region's wildflowers, food and wine, fresh seasonal produce and local arts and crafts.

Ms Drummond loves the tourism aspect of the business.

"It's great to be able to bring people to the region and hopefully educate people about living a bit more gently on the land," she said.

The couple said they would like to start offering tours of their farm to reconnect people with the land and educate them on the process of how their food ends up on their plates.

This impressive operation may sound like it's being run by two lifelong professionals, but Mr and Ms Drummond were both born and raised in Perth and learned everything about farming and goats along the way.

"We're probably not traditional farmers, we've just sort of found our own path," Ms Drummond said.

"It's been one step at a time.

"We've had a lot of help from the farm we bought our initial goats from, they were just very good at sharing a lot of their knowledge with us," she said.

Mr Drummond's background in horticulture certainly helped, however Ms Drummond had worked in offices for most of her career.

Her experience typing up workplace instructions and procedures and in quality control meant she was suited to cheese-making - a craft that due to its time and temperature-critical nature requires attention to detail.

"It's fabulous, a lot more hours than a normal full-time job, but much more enjoyable," she said.