From a very early age Josefa spent her holidays on farms. She wanted her future profession to have something to do with animals, but there was not a very good scope in this field of study at that time and she became something else altogether. She was very successful at her studied profession of Home Economist and worked in Germany's largest Catering company as a manager. Healthy nutrition and good varied meals were her main concern in the catering business.

 

 

 

HACCP and Din ISO 9002 then entered the professional kitchens and were implemented. This helped the employers to gain top billing in the market, but made bureaucrats out of creative co-workers. The planned standardization and wrong way of thinking wanted to turn good creative workers into robots and ultimately the kitchens, into vending machines. This she could not endure! Holidays on the island Tobago reminded Josefa of her life's dream. Hence, the new beginnings in Tobago and the life with the goats. She has a great love for her animals and her willingness to care for them does not end after just five days.
Her aim today is to bring people closer to nature again.

Why not come and spend your holidays on a ranch in the Caribbean?
A small piece of Agro-Tourism on Tobago.

 

 

Condensed Information about the entire operation:
Subject: Orange Hill Nature Ranch - Tobago -
Orange Hill Nature Ranch
Goat Dairy & Organic Farm
www.goatdairy-tobago.com

Summary of Operation
*  60-70 Goats are roaming during the day- at night  they are housed in individual stalls
* Production of Feta  Cheese (100 % Goat milk) , Yogurt, Cheese and Whey drinks
*  In peak season, baking of various kind of cakes, breads and desserts

Background
Orange Hill Nature Ranch lies in the middle of the remnants of a large estate which used to be a sugar estate.
In 1999 the first set of goats were bought  to start the herd.
Since  her husband left the business in 2001, Josefa Patients runs the farm solo.
She had learned the basics about cheese making in Germany. The rest she learned from books and trial and errors.
Many people think that the owner of a goat farm has to be rich, nothing could be further from the truth.
At this point it is worth mentioning that even though a holiday in the Caribbean could be very expensive, but Tobago belongs to the Third World category.

Currency is the TT Dollar. One Euro = 7.48 TT Dollar at this time.

 

HACCP

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a preventive system of food control. It involves examining and analysing every stage of a food-related operation to identify and assess hazards; determining the 'critical control points' at which action is required to control the identified hazards; establishing the critical limits that must be met at, and procedures to monitor, each critical control point; establishing corrective procedures when a deviation is identified by monitoring; documentation of the HACCP plan and verification procedures to establish that it is working correctly.

 

DIN ISO 9002

German quality management and quality assurance system with headquarters in Berlin.
The registered association works like a sort of "round table" at which manufacturers, consumers, hand workers, trade, service oriented businesses, scientists, technical supervision-organisation and the government sit together to formulate standard techniques and norms.

The rules cover rationalisation, quality control, security and the environment. These basic German norms are also accepted by foreign countries.

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