Sorrel is a beautiful little doe born on the ranch on March 3, 2020. Her mom, Fennel, is the daughter of Allspice, one of the first three goats Michelle and Jack bought in 2015 who has contributed significantly to the Stepladder herd genetics. All these ladies are named after some of our favorite herbs and spices, and Sorrel is the newest addition to this lineage. If you have never tried sorrel (the plant), try it in your next salad or fish recipe!
Although Allspice passed away about two years ago, her presence is still felt in the herd with her progeny. Her grand-daughter, Sorrel, currently shares the pasture with many relatives, including half-sisters, cousins, aunts, and her mom.
Sorrel is a very friendly and quirky little doe who absolutely loves getting scratches and going for walks with her humans. Because she was born 10 days before the Covid pandemic shut down the tours of the ranch, she has not gotten the same amount of human attention as many of our older does who were raised being a big part of our farm tours.
Instead, all of her human attention has come from those who live and work on the farm rather than from the dozens of guests that used to come to the ranch every day to meet the herd. We wondered if the 2020 group of pandemic kids would be less friendly than their tour happy older compatriots, but we have actually found that the 2020 kids are just as friendly and surprisingly more well behaved than the kids that we raised being loved and spoiled on the tours!
Kimchi was raised as a regular guest on our tours, so always wanted to jump on humans for extra attention and had to be retrained as she grew to be too big. Luckily, Sorrel has not adopted this same bad (though cute) habit.
The 2020 kids have been described by Michelle as overall less “diva-like” than the kids raised in the pre-pandemic years, as they are less prone to adopting some of the bad behaviors we have to train out of them such as jumping up on us and chewing on our clothes or shoelaces (just like a puppy!).
Anyone who has been on a tour before knows exactly what we mean here, as most of our tour guests used to leave the ranch with clothes that were either covered in goat slobber or muddy hoofprints!
Although Sorrel is a rather small doe, only weighing in at about 130 lbs. in comparison to the 150 lb. average of many of her herd-mates, she is not one to be underestimated. While she is not aggressive, she is incredibly tenacious and is strong and agile for her size, which tends to discourage the other does from trying to compete with her. She has quickly become the leader of the small band of compatriots who were born alongside her in 2020, and even has hierarchy over some of the older, larger does. She is always in the first group of does up onto the milking stand, which is usually a privilege that is enjoyed only by the older, more experienced does. But Sorrel has found that by using a combination of determination, intelligence, and agility, she is able to jump up onto the stand among the coveted first group of does to be milked.
She is now entering her second year of milking and is due to deliver her second round of babies on March 5, 2022. The sire of this year’s kids is Lyon - our mini-Lamancha that we brought into the breeding program in 2021. Because Lyon miniature, Sorrel’s babies will likely will most likely be quite a bit smaller than their regular sized compatriots (just when you thought they couldn’t get any cuter, we go and add mini genetics to the herd!). To read more about these unique genetics and the reasons we decided to add them to our herd, read all about Lyon here.
Become Sorrel’s Sponsor!
Sorrel happens to be one of the ten does who is available for symbolic adoption on our website. If you would like to stay up to date on Sorrel’s delivery and her progress through the year while also supporting her and the herd, you can sign up to be her sponsor here!