Growing Gardens is very excited to welcome Mountain Flower Goat Dairy as part of the Growing Gardens team as of January 2021. We look forward to working together towards a shared vision of community while having mutual respect for the land that we share and cultivate.
Mountain Flower Dairy was founded in 2012 by Taber Ward and Jonathan Vaught. Taber’s vision was to create both an agricultural community space and a working dairy in the heart of Boulder. Taber put protocols in place to ensure sustainable animal husbandry and rotational grazing, natural herd-health practices, volunteer opportunities, raw milk shares, community education offerings, and youth programming. Taber’s ultimate goal was to enhance the conservation efforts of the historic Long’s Gardens property by supporting its legacy of viable urban agriculture and land stewardship.
The dairy started with a herd of 5 goats all of differing breeds. They were primarily selected for their strength as dairy goats but also used to educate the public on breed diversity and the many uses of the animal.
Mountain Flower Goat Dairy and Growing Gardens share the land generously provided by the Long Family, making it possible to continue our important work in the community. It was important to the founders of Mountain Flower to acknowledge the generosity of Long’s Gardens (which is an iris farm) and included an iris flower in the mouth of the goat on their logo. The name Mountain Flower Dairy came from our proximity to the foothills “mountain” and “flower” due to the fact that the goats share the land with the iris of Long’s Gardens.
In 2018, the goats started grazing on the east side of the Growing Gardens farm as the herds’ rotational grazing program began to grow. In recent years the rotational grazing program has expanded to include the entire 25 acres of the Long’s Gardens property with the goats grazing in the orchard and vegetable production fields on the east part of the property.
In addition, in 2016 both organizations began to collaborate with children’s programming, bringing Goats and Gardens Summer Camp to fruition, in partnership with the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department.
We look forward to the future – working towards a shared vision of community and enriching the lives of our community through sustainable urban agriculture.
