The Quillet

Our farm is a suburban homestead on 2.5 acres in Albany, Oregon. We are a family operation, run by Nick and Tovee Esch, our two young daughters Indie and Ollie, and Tovee’s mother, Linda.

Tovee and Nick both grew up with animals and participated in 4-H, although (ironically) neither had nor were particularly interested in goats. Tovee showed dogs for years, and showed chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, and rabbits in 4-H. Nick grew up around horses, and showed sheep, llamas, and dairy cows in 4-H.

Nick and Tovee met by chance at the now-defunct BiMart Country Music Festival in Brownsville in 2016. They hit it off and the rest is history. From the beginning of their relationship they had multiple dogs, cats, chickens, a pet pig and a couple of pet Nubian goats. Over time, they moved the family to more and more property and they became interested in living a more agrarian lifestyle through homesteading and increasing self-sufficiency.

We purchased our current farm property in early 2021 and we decided to purchase a few milk goats for fun and personal use, with no intention of becoming breeders or showing. We got our first Miniature Nubians in April of 2021, purchasing two does in milk and one young doeling. We soon decided to purchase a couple of bucks also in order to be able to breed the girls and keep them in milk. Over the course of that summer, we fell in love with the goats and acquired a couple more girls to round out the herd. We came up with our farm name based on the cherry trees on our property and our location on Cherry Lane, and the old agricultural well located out in our back pasture, which used to supply the water for the neighborhood when it was all cherry orchards and when the first few suburban homes began cropping up.

By the end of summer 2021, we had joined several online groups to learn more about our new goats and get more connected with the goat community. This was the first year that the Oregon State Fair dairy goat show was back after the 2020 COVID pandemic, and people on these groups were rallying for anyone and everyone to come with their goats if at all possible in order to ensure that the show would make sanction. While we had no idea what we were doing, or if we even had conformationally nice goats, we decided to participate in the fair to help out our friends and relive our 4-H days. Several people ended up not being able to come at the last minute, and the show didn’t end up making sanction, but we had the time of our lives and we learned that we had accidentally lucked into some incredible animals in that first purchase and we won!

From that point on, we were hooked! Our performance goat program took off full force from there and now we are focused on becoming the best, most knowledgeable breeders we possibly can. Our goats are registered with MDGA, TMGR and we try to bring our animals to as many live shows as possible. We also participate in milk testing and virtual shows.

Recently we have also expanded our herd to include ADGA-registered Standard Nubians as well, and will be participating in showing, breeding, and milk testing them starting in 2024.