(WHAS11) -In Greenville, Indiana there is a goat cheese farm that has been green long before it became the hip thing.
They've been practicing their eco-friendly lifestyle since the 70's, and now they say others can learn from them.
Cute little faces, plenty of gourmet goat cheese, and putting the environment first-add that all up and you get Capriole Farm.
It is a goat cheese farm tucked away in Greenville, Indiana.
Judy Schad says they are green in their operation from start to finish.
In the barn with 500 goats, they keep their floor covered with straw and manure.
Many dairy farms use concrete floors.
"Periodically, about every 2 months, this is all cleaned out, spread on the fields, or composted on the gardens or on the field," explains Schad.
When cooling the milk to make the cheese, many farms use ice banks that burn a huge amount of electricity.
They use city water instead and reuse it on the farm.
"We capture that water that's coming out through these pipes, and it goes outside under the driveway into the pond where we can use it in the summer time to irrigate," says Schad.
The Capriole Farm looks for any way to cut down on energy consumption.
And once the cheese is complete, Judy makes sure they are being green in their shipping practices.
"We use newspaper and shredded office paper for insulation," she explains, "it's as good as Styrofoam if you can use enough of it.
Judy and her husband say if they can find ways to go green on the farm, city folks can do the same.
Capriole Farm ships goat cheese all across the country.
And they say they have even more plans in the works to make their operation even more eco-friendly.
