Meet the Buffalo in Your Backyard

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 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 uncle’s house, and his tea tasted not-so-special. I found out he used cow’s milk—that’s when I realized … the secret ingredient was water buffalo milk. When I got back to the U.S., I was willing to pay any amount if someone would ship me a gallon of buffalo milk! There was no one. There are small buffalo dairies, but they were all making yogurt or cheese, and none would ship milk. I started going to farmers’ markets and approaching dairy farmers— trying to convince them how wonderful water buffalo are, and that they needed to get one. They would look at me like I was nuts, and thought I wanted them to milk a bison. They didn’t know that water buffalo is a dairy animal.”

Punita and Goldie have a special bond.

Is it eccentric to enjoy a cup of tea so much that you end up with a couple of 1200-pound animals in your backyard? Absolutely! But the most delightful things are born of doing something uncommon. I adore a person following their nose down a path where there are zero other footprints, but still they feel compelled by Big Magic to see where it goes. The tea led Punita down this new path, “It’s a cup of home. I had to follow my gut and just do it. I want to share the excitement that I feel about buffalo milk, but I was surprised, to the point that I was hurt, when I first started out—people didn’t even want to try it. They just didn’t know anything about it—it’s so new here.”

Well, this is very true. Seeing a water buffalo is pretty unusual ‘round these parts. But, now that we have them in our backyard, it‘s time to do some learning.

Punita says that, unlike dairy cows, a water buffalo won’t let down her milk unless she’s comfortable and happy. High-hoof, girl! I personally love that the buffalo demands she be treated well, she should! (I wish all animals had the ability to demand compassion and comfort.) But, this does makes milking much more labor intensive—and the milk more expensive—buffaloes already give less milk per day than cows in general. “It all comes down to the consumer—we want our milk cheap and we still want to complain that the farmer isn’t treating the animals right. Animals on conventional farms are treated like machines. To taste water buffalo milk, you realize how good it is, we have to get used to paying what it is really worth … this animal is not going to give up milk unless she’s happy. As an example, spent grains from Green Room Brewing are a particular favorite treat. Goldie got so used to them, but I ran out one day and gave her a different treat— she did not want to be milked!” (Apparently, we all need to pitch in and drink more beer from Green Room so that Goldie can have her spent grains!)

Goldie and Punita discussing life.

Punita is discovering there is definitely a niche, “I’m happily learning that there’s a segment of our local population who really cares about the compassionate treatment of animals and where their food comes from. They are willing to pay a higher price because they understand what it takes to produce food in a way that honors the animal, the land, and the farmer. Currently, we milk Goldie once a day and get just one precious gallon of milk. She’s milked by an enclosed vacuum machine to avoid contamination and we pasteurize the milk for safety. We use some, and I turn the rest into products to offer to the community.”

When asked about what the future holds for Backyard Buffalo, Punita says she’d like several more buffalo, and would love to share all she’s learning with others. “I’m hoping to open up paths for other small farmers that have been closed down because of the corporate-heavy farm culture in the U.S. My ultimate dream would be to have other small farms like this, and we co-op the milk and milk products. I’d love to work with other women and show them … Hey, this is how I did it and you can do it, too!”

Taste the difference for yourself! Punita offers free samples of the dreamiest yogurt you’ve ever tasted, and other products made from buffalo milk. Backyard Buffalo products can be found at:

The Neptune Beach Green Market @ Jarboe Park every Saturday from 2pm-5pm and The Harvest Basket, 148 Canal Blvd.,Ponte Vedra, Tuesdays 1pm-5pm.

/ thebackyardbuffalo.com