The Mohair of the Emerald Coast

The Farm of Happiness

This morning I have an appointment at the farm of Lydie Bourdais in La Fresnais to attend the shearing of her Angora goats. Twice a year, her herd of 23 goats lose their ecru-colored fleece.

Grégoire

With the easy contact, I particularly appreciate to meet new people and to discover the know-how of the territory

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The farm of happiness

This is an important day, the result of 6 months of work because here the goats are raised for their wool, a quality mohair wool recognized by the Mohair label of the farms of France.It is barely 10 o’clock and outside the temperature outside is still close to 0°! The small morning frost along the reach reminds us that winter is not over in the marsh. “We’ll be in the shed” Lydie warns me. I push the door, Lydie welcomes me with a big smile. Specialized shearer Philippe is already at work: in barely 10 minutes, Marjolaine loses her thick coat. Shearing a goat with an angular morphology is much longer than shearing a sheep with a rounded shape.

It’s Lumiere’s turn from a year older to go through the mower. She was born on the pasture hence her name. “I’m careful with the name I give them!” Lydie tells me, it’s just like us. The story started 13 years ago. After improving the quality of the wool, it is the quantity that Lydie aims for the years to come. A selected billy goat joined the big family last year. To make the music beautiful, the young conductor was named Mozart.

yLangevin - Mohair from the Emerald Coast (10)

In the herd, 2 castrated males will also give their fleece. Bigger and stronger, they will give 3 to 3.5 kg when the goats give 2 to 2.5 kg. Lydie stores each shearing in individual bags that she will sort later to eliminate strands of straw and other foreign bodies. The wool is then sent to the Tarn for processing. The performance of each animal is monitored and the wool is sorted into 4 classes based on the age, homogeneity and fineness of the animal. The first class will be used for socks while the last will be used for plaids and blankets.

“I get people to transform, I get people to knit, it’s a big human chain and at the end people carry around a little bit of me and a little bit of my girls.”

Goats have entered her life and require a lot of her time. Passionate breeder, Lydie is inexhaustible about her chipies.From Easter to All Saints’ Day, she organizes visits to the farm and the store. “I love it, it’s living, it’s to share that I do the visits”. She is also present at the market in Dinard every Saturday and participates in some farmers’ markets and fairs.