Hello from Hope Anchor Farm! Our names are Jeff and Elisabeth Jones, and our farm is located on 15 acres nestled in the foothills of Western North Carolina. Our focus is on raising show and milk quality Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats along with Heritage Breed Chickens. We strive to keep our numbers on the smaller side because one of our main focuses is on feeding organically and non-gmo as much as possible. We understand that what we feed our animals will eventually make its way to us whether through milk, meat or egg consumption.

Although we have had experience raising Alpine goats in the past, we purchased our first Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats in 2018. Jeff was experiencing some difficulty digesting cow’s milk but was able to handle goat’s milk without a problem. I (Elisabeth) started looking into purchasing milk goats since at that time, we were only raising heritage breed chickens. We were looking for a smaller goat that would be manageable for me (Elisabeth) as Jeff traveled a lot for his job. We met a neighbor with Nigerian Dwarfs who introduced us to a breeder nearby and after tasting the creamy sweetness of their milk, the rest was history so to speak.

We have learned a lot in the past several years about what we wanted to concentrate on with our herd and have made changes based on our desire to raise goats that will perform well in the show ring and on the milk stand for the homestead. Our herd is annually tested and all of our goats are CAE, CL and Johnes NEGATIVE. Our herd is also tested CM n/n.

We have also narrowed down what we were looking for in heritage breed chickens. We love so many of the breeds but wanted to keep our lives a little simple and concentrate on a few breeds that would meet the need of being gentle and multi-purpose with a little bit of fun thrown in for good measure. We are currently concentrating on the German breed of Bielefelder Chickens, Heritage Rhode Island Reds and Crested Cream Legbars. We have also hatched out a mix of RIR and Legbars which will produce a green egg layer since we must keep the grandkids happy.

We currently make goats milk soap and lotions, herbal salves and tinctures for friends and family, but we hope to have them available on our website soon. We have also recently planted a rather large orchard (for us) of fruit trees and berries which we hope to offer in the future as well.