Big Magic
Meet the
Buffalo in your backyard. / Amy Olivieri
I just had the best day, and now my rainboots are caked in buffalo poo. BUFFALO poo! Yes, I am thrilled! You may be wondering if perhaps I’ve lost my mind a little? Or that I maybe just got in from Asia, where water buffalo are a little more common? Alas, neither of those things is true (do you really think I’d fly on an international flight with poo on my boots? Ew, domestic flights only.) No, it just so happens that I have a water buffalo in my backyard—and so do you. If you’ve, at this point in the article, gotten off the toilet in an underwear-around-the-ankles frenzy to go check if you do, indeed, have a water buffalo snacking on your geraniums, please relax and resume what you were doing. If you live in the Jacksonville area, you only figuratively have, not one, but three gorgeous ladies back there—Goldie, Luna (Goldie’s baby), and Lola. But they are literally in the backyard of Punita Patel, Akash Sharma, and their three medium-sized farm hands, Simrun (10), and twins Mira and Bella (8), on a start-up micro dairy in Ponte Vedra, aptly named, Backyard Buffalo. And I got to meet them! “Goldie is like a big dog,” says Punita of her first buffalo. “The way she looks at me and the way she licks me, how gentle she is—I’ve never felt threatened by her.” It’s pretty evident when you see Punita and Goldie that they have a special bond. It almost seems like they are soulmates in a way. They talk. “I fell in love slowly. The first day, just watching Goldie with my kids—how much joy she brings my family—that’s when it all really started.” Goldie came to the Backyard from a buffalo dairy in New Jersey after months of visits and research. She was already pregnant and had baby Luna four months later, here in Jacksonville. While they now live in separate pens, Goldie still keeps 22 | Quirky
an eye on her baby and is a bit of a helicopter mom— when Luna wanders to the front yard, she bellows as if to say, “Too far, love, waaaaay too far. Come back where I can see you.” (Luna doesn’t really listen.) Lola is stunning, and darker in color than Goldie. She’s new to the dairy and came from a not-so-great situation. Punita is slowly gaining her trust, mostly with handfuls of coveted alfalfa and her gentle energy. Lola is timid and, although still gentle, shows signs of being uneasy when approached. She is very pregnant and there will be a new baby in the Backyard soon. Soooo ... are you are wondering why one would keep a water buffalo or three, besides the fact that they’re super cute and their breath smells like sweet corn? (It does! And it’s surprisingly lovely to be breathed on by a water buffalo, which is the opposite experience of being breathed on by my dog.) There is a practical reason! “It all started with a cup of tea,” confesses Punita. “I was visiting my extended family in India, and there was something so comforting, so delicious about the tea. I couldn’t figure out what it was—I was convinced they were adding some secret ingredient. One day, I was at my
Goldie & Punita
Beautiful Lola
