Southface welcomes summer and the sun with baby goats

By Maria Saporta

The sun has set on the longest day of the year — the Summer Solstice.

Southface, the Atlanta-based organization that promotes green building practices, held its annual ice cream party this evening to celebrate the changing of the seasons and the sunniest day of the year.

With temperatures in the mid-90s, there was no question that summer had arrived and that the sun was burning bright. That’s where the ice cream came in.

This year, there were a couple of special features — goat’s milk ice cream made with solar power.

In case people attending the Summer Solstice celebration didn’t catch on to the theme, two ladies with the DeKalb-based Goats-Op, brought two baby goats at Southface’s energy-efficient headquarters on Pine Street near the Civic Center.

Children surrounded the goats, giving them plants to munch on as folks tasted the various ice cream and sherbet offerings.

Two of the flavors — vanilla and peppermint — were made with goat’s milk. Southface used the goat’s milk in making its own ice cream using solar energy — so the celebration was billed as “Make-Your-Own Solar Sundae.”

Southface’s annual tradition to welcome the sun and summer is one of the warmest events of the year — goats and all.