So this really is just another part of the dream coming true. One of our primary goals in living on, managing and having a farm is to be able to provide the safest, most wholesome, humanly treated, lovingly cared for food we possibly can for our family. Yes. We take it seriously. Well, except for apologizing to each and every carrot we pull out of the ground. Everything from the economics of getting a chicken from ‘fuzzy’ to freezer, in feed cost and time commitment, to the value we place on knowing how they were treated…
Some of the animals on the farm are more pet the livestock. Really, until a month ago, the goats fit that bill. Fiber is fun, but neither Farmer ‘J’ or I knit with any diligence. Enter Ariosa. We are ‘borrowing’ her at the moment, and she will return home by the end of July (for fair season). She is a fiber goat, not a dairy breed, but she does well despite this ‘flaw’. Our biggest hang up with transitioning from a ‘work for money, buy food’ to ‘spend time, harvest food’ has been the impact on our schedule. We both grew up in ‘the White Ghetto’, and the flexibility to run here, and there, and back over there again is deeply engrained in our subconscious. Dairy animals have a way of impacting that. Even if you leave the kids on mom for a few months, you still have to be there, once a day, at the same time, to milk. It’s kind of like having another job. We weren’t sure how well it would work for us, and after several weeks, the novelty has worn off, and really, it’s cool. We all like the milk (even the baby, who will tell you “No” if you ask her, but at the moment she can only say “No”, unless it’s candy). We have made some yummy yogurt, and once we’ve gotten back up to a gallon in ‘reserve’ we will run a batch of feta and see how that comes out.
We are only getting a shy half gallon a day, and could use more, but we’ve heard of dairy goats giving up to a gallon per milking.. So we’ll just see what comes. Next up is saving the $ for a good bottle raised dairy goat. We’ll get her freshened in the fall and be counting the days till next spring…
Oh, and as far as the raw milk (gasp!) thing goes, read up on it if you want to pick a fight. I still think what we bring in from the goat yard is safer than the half gallon of organic milk we buy from the store. I know what the goat is eating, how she’s feeling, how the milk was handled, and soooo much more. In my mind, pasteurization is a band aid for a lack of trust and faith in our food system (probably well placed).
So here it is. One half gallon half gone, another one behind, and the morning quart chilling in an ice bath.

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