Charlotte Mandel

Mom & Pop Goat Farm, NY State

On this hand-operated farm of fifty goats, the family work 'round the clock. Breeding, raising, medicating, twice-daily milking, sanitizing cheesemaking utensils.

At the entrance stands a gallon size hourglass-shaped jar. The jar's tight cover is perforated – holes towards which flies are lured by odors of rot and decay, stinks adored by manure feeders who swarm into the goats' corral. A wriggling black mass fills more than half the jar – close-packed bodies, those at the bottom smothered by the steadily increasing weight of fellow-creatures.

lunch
whole grain bread
smear of fresh cheese