Every April, new pygmy goats are born at Clark’s Ellioak Farm in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Since they were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, farm manager Nora Christ said they started “coffee with goats” every Saturday morning where they’d livestream the animals.
“We just let them jump onto us and fall into our laps and answer questions about them and it was just a way to keep the customers connected to the animals while they weren’t able to visit them,” Christ said. “We didn’t want everyone to miss out on a whole year’s worth of baby goats.”
She said the timing of the coronavirus outbreak and its resulting closures was tough because they are only open during the spring, summer and fall.
“We have had bad seasons — rainy seasons — before but we have never had zero field trips, zero general public traffic,” Christ said.
She said that their location on Route 108 gets a lot of traffic and agritourism through the petting farm and attractions moved from the popular Enchanted Forest theme park on Route 40 that closed years ago.
Now, they have opened their doors to visitors again with some precautions.
All ticketing is done through their website, everyone over 4 years old must wear a mask and you can order a bag of feed to give to the animals ahead of time and pick it up when you arrive at the farm.
