I Want A Dairy Animal

  I've come full circle. I'm ready to have a dairy animal again. Granted, there are a few obstacles in the way, like the fact that I live in town, no longer have ANY of my equipment, and have very little in the way of livestock-buying funds right now. But those are all minor obstacles that I have answers to, for the most part.

  No, the biggest issue for me is not where to put the critter/s (have two places available) or some such dilemma, but rather what kind of dairy animal to get! Goat or cow?? I really want a cow; financially, she would be the better option since I could easily sell and trade the extra milk. But... Cows are expensive, and I would need something like a Holstein/Jersey cross, or a Brown Swiss, since those are the two breeds I can generally tolerate milk from (for those into milk and all that, I have to have a cow that's specifically A1/A2. Any other kind is not nice to my stomach.). Jersey cows are abounding on Craigslist right now, and fairly priced. But I can't have a Jersey. *scowl* Oh sure there are some "HoJo's" and Brown Swiss for sale, but with the Swiss' averaging $3k, and the HoJo's around $2k, it really is frustrating to not be able to buy a little Jersey. Harrumph. Actually, I could buy a Jersey. But I'd have to pasteurize ALL the milk just to be able to drink it. Maybe I should go that route? I dunno'... To me that kind of defeats the point in a sense, as I'd really like to have access to raw milk. 

  Ok, so maybe a couple of goats? Go back to the old days? Well, I could. And might. But I wouldn't be able to sell or trade the milk, since people around here prefer cow milk (and trading milk for meat/veggies/fruit is a big reason why I want a dairy animal!). But at least the goats would be affordable. Or would they? If I got goats, then I'd suddenly need special fencing, a killer electric charger, really good shelter so the fussy ladies don't get wet, expensive hay.... But at least I'd know for sure that I could drink the milk. 

  Sigh. It's complicated. I think this post is becoming more of an incoherent rant. Sorry. I've been thinking about this so hard, for so long that I think my brain is just about fried.

 Anyway, feel free to throw in your two cents if you like. In the meantime, I'll keep scouring Craigslist.

I Am Humbled

  Oh phooey. I just found out that I'm out of milk. My jar in the fridge is empty as empty can be! Guess I'll have to pasteurize some more this afternoon, or tomorrow morning...

  Yes you read that right. I really did say "pasteurize". I've been in the raw milk business for roughly six years, I've shied away from pasteurized milk for pretty much that whole span of time, and if you ever wanted to get into a fist fight with me then just say something negative about raw milk. Seriously. I was also incredibly good at debating my case on why raw milk was superior, and why pasteurized milk was trash not worth even feeding to an animal. I may be horrible at arguing, but I could have floored a politician on this one subject. 

  Looking back now, I hate what I used to be... In my "passion" for what I did, I became such a judgmental wretch. No, more than that; I became elitist and proud. I won't deny the fact at all that I looked down on people who didn't drink raw milk. Shucks, at the time, this was a big deal to me! I was in a challenging business where I was not only dealing with high maintenance dairy animals that required precision in their care, but a business that was and is hated by the government. I had the hotline number for the FTCLDF (farm to consumer legal defense fund) in my coat pocket at all times, just in case a government federal official stopped by one day and told me to cease and desist... I could tell you exactly what the bacteria count multiplies to in a 20 minute span when milk is above 30 degrees Fahrenheit. I knew exactly what year pasteurization started and why. I knew the chemical changes in milk once you heated it past 120F. 

  In a nutshell, you couldn't have paid me to drink pasteurized milk.

 Excuse me a moment while I hide my face in my hands in shame and embarrassment over who I was. Gosh... Passionate? More like hard headed.

  A few weeks after I bought my first milk cow, back in 2012, I began to realize something rather ironic: I seemed to be intolerant of raw cow milk. I wrote a post about it, which you can find HERE. So what did I do? Oh the logical thing of course, and started pasteurizing the milk. NOT. That whole sentence is dripping with sarcasm. Nope, if I couldn't drink it raw then I'd just go without dairy altogether. After all, I wouldn't want to contaminate myself with that awful, ruined, chalk water, now would I!?!?! *Gasp of horror* I might -- DIE or something! Or -- get some awful disease! Or, or -- um... Hold on, I'll think of something... Um, I might -- be tempted to eat Lucky Charms cereal for breakfast since I'd have milk to pour over it!!! Gaah!!! Nooooooo! You'll never take me alive!! Man the cannons, boys! It's my way or the highway! And if we can't drink it raw, then we ain't drinkin' it at all!! Goodbye Lucky Charms! You never had enough marshmallows anyway!! 

 Sorry.

 I'll try to come back down to a level of normalcy now. Ahem. 

  With the almost-laughable realization that I couldn't drink the milk from my own cows, I made the seemingly simple decision to just go dairy free. So I did just that. For almost two years. 

  I really craved Lucky Charms cereal... And Honeycombs. Heck, I missed cold cereal in general! And I missed having a glass of milk to go with snacks. Life just isn't the same when you have to drink water with your chocolate chip cookie. Your life feels like a lie. My sister might not agree with me on that, as she is the quirky individual who dips her graham crackers in water before eating them, but I'd like to think that I'm on a slightly higher plane of "normal" than she. Even if I do eat ice cream with a fork, and never a spoon... Your life is still a lie though, trying to consume water and chocolate chip cookies in tandem!! Stick with me folks, stick with me!

  Then I landed in Missouri. Where I hand milk two Jersey cows almost every day (weekends off). When I first came, I tried drinking the milk, in hopes that maybe my system had changed over the years and I could tolerate the lovely dairyness again. Oh just think of the bliss! Milk, whenever I want! But nope. No luck. I. Felt. Horrible. This was borderline ridiculous now. Who ever heard of someone being intolerant to RAW milk!?!? Sheesh. I praised this raw milk stuff to the skies (farther than that, actually) for years. It was supposed to be this magic liquid that came just shy of making you immortal. This was just wrong that I couldn't drink it. 

  A couple weeks ago, my host family offered to flash pasteurize a quart of milk to see if I could handle that. Partly because they felt bad that I was having to be anti-dairy on a dairy farm (oh the irony! It's killing me!), and partly because they were curious if I was truly intolerant to the raw milk, or if it was an intolerance to milk in general. After a couple days to think about it, I caved and agreed to be a guinea pig. One would have thought I had just signed my life away or something... The next day, I tried a small glassful and waited for the usual feelings of being ripped apart on the inside because I had just consumed milk. 

 Nothin'.

 I felt great. All day.

  And the level of irony has just gone through the roof. I'm intolerant to raw milk, but can have pasteurized milk just fine. 

  You might say I did a bit of maturing that day. This whole "raw vs. pasteurized" debate suddenly seemed pointless and ridiculous. Milk is milk, folks! And the large dairies work killingly hard to make sure that their product that goes on the store shelf is the highest quality that they are capable of producing. I was done being judgmental. Here's how it goes folks: You drink your milk how you like it, and I'll drink it how I like it. No more bashing. No more saying one is better than the other. 

 I am humbled. This has long been a pride issue in my life, and it feels good to finally have come to my senses in this aspect. And now I need to make a note to pasteurize another quart of milk soon... It's been great having dairy back in my life. :)

 And can we please agree that Lucky Charms cereal needs to have less "cereal" and more marshmallows?

It Has To Be

I've been mulling over what to do now that my cow is gone. My mind has thought of little else lately; forever a plaguing question that quietly bubbled at the back of my mind. I'd wake up at 1:30am, and 3:30am to feed the little goat kid, and while sitting on the rug in front of the wood stove, in the dark with a baby goat nickering for me, I'd think... And wonder what I was to do with myself. 

I considered all my options, I came up with new ideas, I looked at old plans, and in the end came to one very specific conclusion: I have to stick to dairying. It just has to be.

Everyone has something that speaks to them. Something that holds their undivided attention and gives them that sparkle to their eye. For me, it is dairying. It is cows, goats, milk filters, and vacuum pumps. It is alfalfa hay, stainless steel, glass jars, and silicon inflations. I can't do anything else on this small farm unless I have the dairying to anchor me. Without my milk cow, everything suddenly seemed dull and colorless. The dream of having a flock of Texel sheep no longer seemed interesting... The idea of turkeys was unappealing. I wanted my cow back. And until I have a cow again, I feel unable to do anything at all... I need the routine of twice a day milking. I need the familiarity that comes with having a cow. After 5 years of milking dairy animals (four years with goats, one year with a cow), I've found that I'm just as bad as the cows themselves when it comes to wanting and needing routine. But when my world around me seems to be falling apart, whether it's family problems, personal problems, natural disasters, world catastrophes, or what-have-you, I have that wonderful familiarity of milking chores. To know that while things may be falling apart, I have stability, and a sense of "sameness" waiting for me in my barn. My subconscious automatically knows what to do when I'm milking. Every part of what I do is so ingrained in me that it's no longer a chore, but a wonderful routine that reminds me that I have an anchor in my life. While something in life is going wrong and I'm left in a whirl, I still have that grounding time twice a day where I can let go of every thought and focus on the task at hand. I need my milking time like a person needs water. Without milking chores, I'm like a ship drifting in the bay. I don't know what to do with myself. 

I feel lost. 

When I milk, everything literally has to be "just so". The cow has to be milked just so, the vacuum line coiled just right, the milking machine gets taken apart in the exact same way every time, and the jar lids *have* to match. I can't have a gold colored ring with a silver lid. 

I think a lot of this drives my family crazy, but I really can't help myself. Habit is stronger than will. I like my routine. I go out at the exact same time every day to milk, and I honestly don't know who gets more upset in the rare occasion that I'm late: The cow, or me. 

So as I've considered what to do with myself now that Mattie is gone, I've found that the answer is staring at me: I need another cow. I wince slightly at the thought; it's only been seven days since Mattie died. But I know that I won't be happy with any other farming venture until I have a cow to anchor me again. 

This is just the way I am. I have to have dairying in my life. It has to be.

Done Waiting.

Last February I was reading book upon book about cheese making. If there is one craft that has held my attention for an extended period of time (4 years and counting now), it's making cheese. 

But 12 months ago, I was getting rather fed up with all the books I had. They all called for cow milk. And I had goats. What's more, I don't really like goat cheese (unless it's a fresh chevre that doesn't taste "goaty"). I like cow cheese. So I was in a pickle: I had the wrong species for what I wanted.

Then Mattie, my Jersey cow, came along in July of 2012. The lightbulb came on at her arrival. "I can make cheese now!!" Or so I had hoped... Alas, Mattie wasn't giving enough milk for me to do any serious cheesemaking, so I stuck to quick "vinegar cheeses" that were fed to the chickens. But I knew the day would come... I eventually HAD to hit the point where I could make cheese, right? I was tired of making soft cheeses; I wanted the real thing. Gouda's, colbys, cheddars, jacks, and all those other really good ones.

My cow is due to calve in 13 days. When she freshens, she will start giving 8 gallons of milk every single day. Every. Single. Day. That's 56 gallons every week. There will be milk. It is time to make cheese. It's time to pull out the red cheese wax from the cabinet, hunt down the starters that are hibernating in the freezer, and see about investing in a fridge that can be my very own cheese cave. It's time to do this. Four years is a long time to wait for something. I'm done waiting. 

Mary Katlin's book, 'Artisan Cheese Making At Home' is probably my favorite cheese making book; and I've read a lot of them. She makes even the fanciest cheese sound doable. And uh, being the photography snob I've become, I also adore the high quality pictures she has in the book. Okay, so maybe I do sometimes judge a book by its cover... Shame on me. ;)

I'm not sure what my first cheese will be yet; maybe a Gouda... Or perhaps even a Cheddar. But I want it to be something that has to age long and quietly... So that 6-9 months from now I can slice it open and smile, knowing that I'm seeing the fruits from early spring. Inside each wheel is proof that good things come to those who wait. 

Four years is a long time to wait for something, Dear Heart. I'm done waiting.

Dry

It is official. Mattie, the Jersey cow, is dry for the winter.

I milked her for the last time yesterday evening, and reveled in knowing that I wouldn't have to do it in the mornings anymore. Not until March...

November was an interesting month with the dairy cow. She was ready to be done. Almost hitting 2 years of steady milking, I can't say that I blame her when it came to wanting to be done, but I needed to stretch her until the end of the month! So stretch her I did. She continued to drop as the weeks wore away, but we both gave it our all to see that there was milk every single day. She went from 2 gallons a day, to 1.5 gallons, to 1 gallon, to 3/4's of a gallon, to 1/2 a gallon, and then finally sputtered to 6 cups a day. It was hard having to turn folks away who have been depending on Mattie each week. It was hard having to give folks jars that weren't all the way full. But yesterday was our last gasp and the ol' girl has finally earned her three month's holiday. And I'm glad for both of us.

Today I cleaned out the milking parlor for the last time until spring. The floor was swept and then mopped, the goats' milk stand was given a final scrub, the vacuum pump was dusted and the power cord was coiled neatly. The milking machine was wrapped carefully and placed on top of an empty feed bin, the feed bucket was overturned. It is clean and quiet in there. We are done Mattie; we've finished for the year.

Mattie's due date is February 21st, but who knows when that calf will actually drop. If it's a heifer, then she'll stay as a future replacement milker. If it's a bull, then I may keep him as a working ox. Either way, I am excited for the first calf here at GSF and am happy knowing that I have a plan for the little tyke. 

Barn chores used to take me 3 hours to do, what with milking the goats and the cow, and then feeding/watering everyone. This morning it took me 30 minutes to take care of all 70 animals. It was nice.

But having dry animals does mean that I'm back to my annual dairy fast. I haven't had any milk since October, and won't have any milk until mid-March. Ouch. But it's the price I have to pay to have the winter off from milking animals in freezing temps and fighting with frozen vacuum lines. Pick your poison, I guess.

Well Mattie dear, you've done well. Now you get to laze around the barn and do absolutely nothing more strenuous than eating hay. What a rough life you've got, girl.

Exactly.

Big News!

My application for the Saturday Farmer's Market was accepted this afternoon!!!! *Squeeeee!* ;)

I will be sharing my booth with my friends from Plowman's Farm, who will be offering locally grown vegetables alongside my raw milk. :) The market manager said she might even have a spare fridge that I could use so I wouldn't have to buy my own. Score! I am so excited to finally get a booth at Oregon's most beautiful Market, and now I have a central drop-point for my milk! 

Oh and did I mention that we just *might* start this Saturday?!?! We'll see how things unfold, but it looks like we are zooming along! 

P.S. New to the blog and haven't seen the pics of this market? Check out THIS blog post!

I Don't Sell My Milk

So, I've been keeping y'all in the dark about what's been going on over here... It wasn't intentional, but once it started I got so busy that I just never got around to telling the entire story. 

   Quite a few people have contacted me in some form or fashion with their regrets that I would probably sell my cows now that I've found that I can't tolerate their milk. My response was always "Huh? Sell the cows? I didn't buy them for myself!" And then I remember that I'm getting these responses because I never fully explained their purpose. These cows ain't going anywhere. In fact, I hope to someday have more of them. 

 I've been selling raw milk straight from this farm for a little over four years now. According to State law, I could not advertise that I had milk for sale (it all had to be word-of-mouth), I could not deliver my milk, and I could not have more than 9 goats, 9 sheep (dairy sheep, that is), and/or three cows. that was fine with me for a long time. The biggest number of milkers I ever had was four goats, customers would come and pick their milk up, and everyone was happy. For a time anyway. In the last six months, I've found that dairying is my passion in life. Forget the dream of being a vet tech, never mind the thought of being a horse trainer; I loved my goats, I loved milking them, and I wanted this to be more than just a hobby. I was ready to expand and grow into a micro dairy.

But how to do that? Having a Grade A facility would cost an arm and a leg, and I just barely had the money to buy each month's batch of hay. I needed to be able to advertise what I was doing, I needed to be able to deliver, and I wanted to have a minimum of 10 goats. Hmmm, I'm already past the dairy exemption with these plans. I wrestled with this idea for, I kid you not, two long months. I looked for loopholes, I talked with folks, I brainstormed... And of course, the answer was right in front of my face the whole time. Duh.

 Enter Raw Milk Herdshares:

It was *perfect*. There was my gateway wide and clear. But wait, you say, what's a "herdshare"??? Dearie, it's the best thing in these here parts, that's what it is. A herdshare is what is sounds like: The seller splits his herd into "shares" and people become joint owners of a cow or goat (or sheep). The buyers then pay a monthly boarding and care fee to the seller, and in return they get 1 gallon of milk each week. For example: Let's suppose we have an average Jersey cow who is giving 5 gallons of milk every day (okay, in the real world there are days of fluctuation in production, but we're imagining here; right?). At five gallons a day, that makes for 35 gallons of milk every WEEK (5 gallons per day x 7 days per week). If each herdshare member gets one gallon of milk a week, then you could have 35 members. They each pay you a boarding/care fee at the beginning of the month, and in return you take their milk to a agreed upon drop-point in town (or where ever it is). 

 As it happens, Herdshares are legal in the state of Oregon, and these are becoming immensely popular. It was ultra nice for me, since now that I'm not selling milk (I distribute it!) I can have the number of animals that I want/need, and I don't have to worry about the dairy exemption. :)

 Once the idea of a herdshare finally came into my head, I was so excited I was practically hopping around everywhere! It was only April at the time, and none of my does were milking yet, but boy did I have ideas...

 Then the second thought came to mind: What if I got a booth at the Saturday Farmer's Market as a drop-point for milk? Oh goodness... Why can't I ever think small? Now I was really excited, but I also wanted to check this idea. Was it sound? Was there interest? I spent the next few weeks snooping around, talking with buyers at farmer's markets, market vendors, market managers, and anyone else I could think of. Since the Saturday Market was what I was eyeing, most of my questions went to folks who were there. What would they think of having raw milk at the market each week? Would it affect their buying habits? Would it help or hinder neighboring vendors? Did the managers feel that there was enough traffic that this idea could float? 

The feedback was staggeringly good. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE I spoke to was on fire for the idea. Vendors were ecstatic at the thought that it might pull in extra customers for them, managers loved the thought that it might bring in more traffic and would be something beyond the typical veggies, meat, and eggs. Customers got round eyed... Raw milk? Here? At this market? While speaking with a vendor, one lady was listening in on the conversation and finally interrupted to ask if I was really, truly thinking about bringing raw milk to the public. She got so excited she was almost vibrating. I figured that was a good sign.

   By the end of May, I knew something: I needed a cow. If I wanted to make this raw milk dairy work, then I needed what the public wanted: Cow milk. Hazel the Jersey/Holstein was the first attempt at this, and as y'all saw, it didn't last. You really do get what you pay for. Then some sweet friends offered me Mattie, and offered to do a pay-as-we-go deal. They knew my plans and my dreams and offered me a leg-up in getting this started while putting payments on the side until I got situated. My grandparents surprised me as well by paying for a huge chunk of the cow and further helping me get started with this. I was in business!

 Now, am I at the Farmer's Market yet? Alas, no! But I don't think there's a day that goes by that I'm not thinking about it. I have people already lining up for milk, so part of me wondered for awhile if the market would even be necessary; but I think I may try for it anyway. Goodness knows it would make life easier with that being a permanent drop-point. The nice thing about the Saturday Market is that it's year around, and you have a permanent booth. So I could very easily put a refrigerator in my booth and leave it there. There's electricity available and I don't have to tote my stuff back and forth each week. Kind of like my own little store... 

 What's my ultimate goal, you ask? Well, just know that dreams change, especially long-term ones. But right now, I'd like to someday see myself with 3--5 cows and 15--20 goats and doing 2 markets a week. I may never get there, but it's a goal. :)

So that's the deal with Mattie. Yes, I'm dissapointed that I can't have her milk, but I'm not worried about it going to waste. My breeding plans for the goats have changed over the summer and now I'm working toward each animal averaging 4,200 lbs of milk each season. I'm bringing in old bloodlines and doing a bit of mixing with new bloodlines to get this, so I'm excited to see how it turns out. 

 And at the end of the day, when all is said and done, I just love my dairy animals. Even if I didn't have any buyers for the milk, I love these girls. :)

GOaT Milk? I like mine Raw!

A Girl Dreams

Some girls dream of their own future home... They envision the curtains and the paint colors, the plates and the silverware; how they'll decorate, how they'll make it a home. 

This girl dreams of a dairy. Of concrete and stainless steel, of stark white walls and iron stanchions. A room, a facility, a place. I dream of how I want it to look; how I want it to be. With drains in the middle of sloping floors,   and windows facing South. Hot water at the ready, and the capability of milking 4--5 animals at a time. The thought of such a thing is enough to give this farm girl the shivers and a gleam in her eye. 

Lace curtains may come one day soon enough, but this girl mostly wants a dairy.

A Day of Raw Milk

A few months ago there was an outbreak of E.Coli 0157:H7 in raw milk that was sold on a family farm not far from me... Farming was their business, and it seems that they tried their best to produce clean milk. But after many were sickened from contaminated milk, their story got ugly...

After that outbreak, the big dairy farmers quietly began working towards banning raw milk in the state of Oregon. The State officials planned a get together to talk about this new law and guess who wasn't invited: consumers, and the raw milk producers. That's you, and that's me. Feel left out?

An interesting thing happened though, when the news of the ban filtered into the public. A handful of passionate, determined, raw milk producers got together and created something that had never been seen in this state before. It was a group that could hold it's own against the government if it had to, and it now goes by the name of the 'Oregon Raw Milk Producers Association'. Spearheaded by the amazing Charlotte Smith who runs Champoeg Creamery, and further bolstered by Mark McAfee, the ORMPA is an organization meant to help raw milk farmers produce the cleanest, safest, healthiest milk possible. Dreaming big, Charlotte planned a training day at her farm in which she hoped many raw milk producers would come and learn just how to go about our business in the best possible way. 

I'm not kidding when I say Charlotte was dreaming big. It's pretty rare to see two or three raw milk producers in the same room. We hide in the woodwork, unsure as to how much we should expose ourselves and our livelihood; trying to get as many producers in the same room just might take a miracle.

But miracle or no, I knew that I HAD to go to this event. I had no idea how I would get there, but I would walk the 34 miles to Charlotte's farm if I had to. Thankfully, two friends offered to take me there so after some hectic planning on figuring out who I was going with, I found myself situated in a friend's truck early Monday morning and headed for a day of raw milk.

Charlotte's farm is a lovely place that is both clean and tidy; I honestly wondered at first if she actually kept her three Jersey cows on her own property, the place was so nice. As we pulled up to the farm, a young lad (I'm guessing Charlotte's son) hailed us down and asked us if we were here for the conference. Oh dear... I had an extremely strong urge to tell him no, we were here to go buffalo hunting and knew nothing about a raw milk conference. ;) I suppressed the urge just enough to only say the words loud enough for my friend to hear, but now I wish that I had indeed said it; just to see what the boy's expression would have been. Yeah, I'm so naughty.

At the house, waiting to greet everyone was Mark McAfee himself. A bear of a man with a smile and a laugh as big as himself, Mark had flown his private plane up from CA, just for this occasion and I was looking forward to hearing him speak.

People slowly started filtering in as time ticked away, and it amazed me to see how many people were travelling to come to this event. Alas, we got a late start to the day as Mark found that he needed to park his plane in a different spot over at the airport. Hehe, can I have a plane of my own someday??

So, sitting in the world's most uncomfortable chair (wooden! Aargh!) I spent my morning listening and learning about things I knew, things I didn't know, things I was really excited to know... The first half of the presentation was wonderfully applicable as Mark went over handling milk, chilling milk, testing milk, caring for milking machines (and apparently he had never heard of a surge bucket milker, which is what I have!), caring for cows (goat people just had to imagine the word "goat" instead of "cow" that day), and I'm sure I'm forgetting some topics. My appreciation for chair cushions increased many times over in that span of time as I sat in my chair.

Lunch break allowed me some much needed stand-up time as well as giving me a chance to see who all had continued to sneak in during the presentation. I think I heard there was a head count of 50 people!?!? And of course, I was still the youngest person in attendance there. Sigh. Sometimes I feel like I'm never going to grow up. While at the conference, everyone had to wear name tags which was handy when I wanted to know who was who; but boy howdy did it give me a start every time when people would suddenly call me by name! "Who are you and how do you know what my name is?!?" I had numerous "Duh" moments as I remembered that my name was emblazoned on my shirt. My excuse is that I was a little sleep deprived and not feeling all that great that day.

To help wear lunch off, everyone got a tour of Charlotte's farm/creamery and I must say I was very impressed with everything. Her milking stanchion is to die for! When my money tree sprouts (ha) I am going to have to build one like her's. What amazed me the most though, was how simple everything was in the end. I'm sure Charlotte put a lot of time, money, and energy into building everything but I was tickled to see that it wasn't some fancy concrete/stainless steel/highly expensive area that would cost a fortune to re-recreate. It was small, it was simple, it was clean. I loved it. I got so many ideas on how to alter my farming/milking methods and I think I'm going to have to start implementing some of them.

By the time the second half of the presentation started, I was tuckered out. Still feeling the effects from the milk allergy (or whatever it was/is), I hadn't eaten in days and my brain was beginning to get foggy. I did my best at listening though, not wanting to miss out on anything and learned about the different harmful bacteria's to watch for in milk (campylobactor, e.coli, listeria, etc.), how to keep them OUT of the milk, how to test for their presence, and what to do if you find that some got in the milk. We also went over customer loyalty, building a customer base, what is in raw milk that makes it so good for you, and we looked at some awesome slides of raw milk, pasteurized milk, and human blood from beneath a microscope. I was all for raw milk before I came to the conference; seeing those slides confirmed it. I will never touch pasteurized milk again if I can help it!

My friend and I had to slip away from the conference a little bit early (I think there were only 10 minutes left) so I would get home on time and I was okay with that. I had just had an information overload and I was ready to rest and ruminate on what I had learned.

So, take away points?

• Pasteurization is harmful to milk and makes it harmful to humans. Don't drink it.
• We live in an era in which we can easily keep things clean! Therefore, keep the milk clean!
• Keep hot, hot; Cold, cold; Clean, clean; and Green, green. Which means, if it's supposed to be hot, then keep it hot. If it's supposed to be cold, then keep it cold! If it's supposed to be clean, then keep it clean! And if it's supposed to be green (think pastures), then keep it green!
• If you need a path to your milking parlor in the winter time, consider laying down a few inches of gravel and laying rubber mats over it (broken conveyor belts from logging mills work great). This keeps the cows out of the mud on their way to be milked.
• If you have mud, then something is wrong. Fix problem.
• For a grass-based dairy, you want a medium producing cow; somewhere between 3 and 5 gallons per day should be good. If you have a cow like mine (Mattie) who milks 8 gallons a day, be prepared to coddle them with grain!
• Raw goat milk can legally be sold in retail stores here in Oregon; you just have to have a license and grade A facility! (bummer!) Raw cow milk is still considered bootlegger.
• If you have a customer base for your milk and you find you need money to upgrade something, just ask for it. Often times, folks will donate to help a cause that is near and dear to them (in this case, it's their raw milk!).
• Contaminated milk is a real happening and is scary. Do absolute best to keep your treasured milk clean!!
• Enjoy raw milk!

The second ORMPA meeting is being planned already and I'm hearing whispers about it being held in September. Rest assured I will be going to that one too!

Charlottle blogged about the day over at her website and the first picture is a group shot of all of us. Can you find me in there? ;)

A Sneaking Suspicion

I have a sneaking suspicion about myself that I am not at all pleased about:

I think I am allergic to cow milk. Yes, even the raw stuff.

Last summer I traded some goat milk for some cow milk from a lady near me. I had a hankering for some raw Jersey milk so I was delighted to do this barter. The following days that I drank her milk were awful. My stomach hurt, I was crampy, and I just didn't feel good. Not having seen this lady's place, her cows, or her milking setup, I assumed this must just be a bad jar of milk and my body was reacting to the bad bacteria. I dumped the milk and promptly forgot about the matter.

On Thursday morning, last week, I realized that I had a serious glut of cow milk in the fridge and something had to be done about that! So that afternoon we made ice cream, yogurt, butter, cheese, and I started drinking lots of milk. I didn't touch my goat milk at all. On Friday morning (yes, the same morning of bedlam in the barn) I found that I didn't want to eat ANYTHING. I felt famished; ravenous. But the very thought of food made me nauseous. I didn't eat anything on Friday, save for a couple of forced bites at dinner which only made me feel worse. Saturday was the same. So was Sunday. Meanwhile, I was drinking all the raw cow milk I could (and just as a side note: the rest of my family has been drinking the milk too and they are 100% fine; so it's not a milk problem. It a "Me" problem). By Sunday night I felt so bad I wanted to cry. My body was starving for food; it needed nutrients but I couldn't bring myself to eat anything. I lost 10 lbs. in 3 days.

Monday morning was rushed and crazy since I was going to the Oregon Raw Milk Producers Assoc. training day with a friend (blog post about that soon), so for my breakfast I tried to have a banana and a glass of cow milk. I couldn't do it. I took two nibbles of that piece of fruit and couldn't do anymore. I couldn't even drink the milk, I felt so terrible. The rest of the day was pretty much the same as I tried to eat lunch and dinner but just couldn't. After four days of not eating, my body was beginning to shut down. 

The wheels in my head started turning on Monday night: Since I was gone all day, I hadn't had any milk... I felt hollow and light headed from my fast, but my stomach didn't hurt anymore. The idea that maybe it was the milk that was affecting me came into my head, but I brushed it aside. I LOVE the taste of Mattie's milk, and the last thing I want to be is allergic to it! The first thing I did this morning was to pour myself some cow milk... I drank half a glass and felt sick to my stomach. It was like someone pushed a button: drink the milk, on comes the pain. I skipped breakfast completely today, but knew I had to somehow get food in myself. 

Then I had a thought: What would happen if I had some goat milk? I poured another glass but this time with Metty and Sombrita's milk, and tentatively drank it. In twenty minutes I felt like a completely different person. The pain was gone, I was once again ravenous for food but this time the thought of food actually felt GOOD. I ate a big lunch with gusto and focus and I'm starting to feel like my old, perky self. 

While I was delighted that the goat milk helped so much, it saddens me to no end at the thought that I may not be able to have cow milk anymore. :( That just seems like a cruel irony; I have two cows and now that I've learned that I love these bovines I find that I can't drink their milk??? Good grief! It surprises me too, since Mattie is A2/A2, and supposedly even people who are sensitive to cow's milk can have A2/A2 milk since it's so similar to goat's milk.

We'll see though... I'm going to take a break from the cow milk and then slowly introduce it back into my diet. I ain't gonna' give it up without a fight.

What is Raw Milk, and Why Drink It?

I thought this You Tube did an excellent job at explaining raw milk. Very simplistic, easy to understand, and true. Quite nice. ;) 

Breaking The Fast

May 9th, 2012. The 10 month long dairy fast ended this morning with a big glass of raw milk!

Watching This Today

The video is 90 minutes long, and I think I'm like 20 minutes into it. But so far this has been intriguing to watch/listen to!

Which do you prefer? Raw or pasteurized milk? Why?

Lightbulb Moment

On occasion, I like to mosey over to a forum called 'Keeping A Family Cow', just to see what new knowledge I can glean over there. And today I hit a goldmine! Someone started up a thread about feeding sprouted grains to cows (in my mind I'm converting it all to goats though...) and I am intrigued! You can read the entire thread HERE (warning: it's 27 pages!).

Folks are saying that 2 lbs. of grain seeds turn into 21 lbs. of sprouts, and they're using the sprouts instead of grain. Shucks, I LIKE that idea!! How fabulous is that??? Grain is expensive in my area; especially organic. I pay $14 for 40 lbs. of barley, or 35 cents per lb. Now let's see... If I sprouted that barley that would create 420 lbs. of fodder, which would then cost 3 cents per lb. Hmmmm... And if I bought a 50 lb. bag of oats from a local farmer, which costs me $9, or 15 cents per lb. Then the resulting 525 lbs. of sprouts would cost .01 cents per lb.!

This is where my hair starts standing on end, and I start wandering around the house like a madwoman, calculating numbers in my dumbfounded mind, and cooking up more plots. ;) [insert evil laugh]

Just So

"Four to seven in the morning, then a full day of work, then five to eight at night. The chores. Milking. And it became more than work, became something of spirit or grace, almost a benediction.

 Out to the barn to feed hay and silage and clean the gutters and start milking. 

Not with machines.

By hand.

Much is made of bonds between man and animals, horses, dogs. But this is beyond that. The milk stool is set just so and the forehead is put into the soft warm spot where the cow's gut meets her back leg so that the stomach rumbles and gurgles as part of the person's thinking, breathing, low sounds and the hands work in a rhythm perhaps as old as all rhythms, the movement that is the giving of milk, so that the person becomes the calf and the cow the mother and the milk hisses and sputters into the bucket, into the white foam, unless the barn cat sitting in the aisle begs by sitting up and waving its front paws like a small bear. Then the stream is aimed and squirted into the cat's mouth, a quick move from the rhythm and back while the cat gulps and jumps up to sit on the cow's back to clean itself, the same back where it sleeps in the winter nights to stay warm."

~Excerpt from 'Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass' by Gary Paulsen

I love this little blurb from Gary Paulsen's book. He has captured the very essence of milking. This is what it's all about; you can't capture the same moments and emotions by using a milking machine. No, it has to be by hand. The milking stool is set "just so", and you lean into your dairy animal's warm, breathing side. You are lost in a trance. A meditation. A prayer. Like the ticking of the hands on a clock, the pulsing of milk going into a pail keeps time. Hiss, hiss, hiss, goes your dairy clock. Time is ticking... Enjoy the peace while you can. Some are called to prayer by the sound of a bell, others by the bellow of a dairy animal. It is time, they both say. Time to slip into a moment of nothingness and simply be. 

The last stream of milk is procured from her udder, and the moment is over. The 'Amen' is unconsciously spoken or thought. The prayer has ended. You breathe deeply, say 'thank you' to your animal, and you both part for the time being. Part until twelve hours have passed and you meet again to pick up where you left off.

You meet again, and the milk stool is set just so....

Interesting...

I'm not hugely into politics of this sort, but I thought this was interesting to hear Ron Paul's opinion on raw milk.

Got Milk?

If you do, I envy you. I don't "got milk". :( I've gone four solid months now, without a single drop of milk, and I am having a craving for some right now... Not just any milk either. I want some raw, goat milk! How I miss milking my girls, and then having a supply of that wonderful stuff in my fridge!! My breakfasts are now toast and tea. And after a couple months of having that for brekkers, you start wishing for that white liquid... [sigh]

 I may break down and get some raw cow milk from a friend (that's how desperate I am; I'm actually considering cow milk!!), seeing as my goats aren't even bred yet, and it's a five month gestation period before they kid, and I have milk again. Oy.

 So here's to milk... Y'all can raise your full glasses to the toast, while I hold my empty one. Wishing there was something in it... Phooey.

Coming Soon...

 When you have surplus goat milk in the fridge, and you have the ability to make soap you.....

Make goat milk soap! 

The goat milk soap has actually been a carefully thought out plot of mine for a few weeks now, my first "experimental" batch just finished curing. :)

To say that the soap is divine seems sort of like an understatement. The store bought stuff doesn't even begin to compare!

Made with olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter and fresh goat milk, this is a lovely indulgence. :)

Coming soon to local stores in McMinnville...

Would you like a pair of handcuffs with that raw milk, Ma'am?

I'm not exactly sure what I want to say in this post... Upon reading the articles in the below links, and then watching the YouTube, I wasn't surprised at what I saw/read, but there was still that feeling of outrage, helplessness, and  horror. It was that feeling of "You have got to be kidding me", and "Why am I not surprised?".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/8423536/Genetically-modified-cows-produce-human-milk.html
This link was what really made me mad. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with implanting human genetics into cows and thus making a mutant like this? I'm still up in the air about my opinion about cow milk (raw as well as pasteurized), but I do know that I wouldn't touch this new stuff with a ten foot pole!


http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/fda-dragon-slayer-speaks-out-on-amish-raw-milk-sting/
 I loved the video on this article! I was laughing out loud at the cow being milked on the Capital grounds!

I've heard a huge amount about Monsanto's methods of silencing people who try and tell the truth about their products, and here's just another example... It is scary to be sure, what lengths Monsanto will go to, to gag those who try to do what the reporters in the below video have done.




Another groan escaped me when I read another article about a new brand of milk that is being sold in CA.:

US - Ganeden Biotech, makers of the probiotic ingredient, GanedenBC30, and Foster Farms Dairy, the largest privately owned dairy in California, have announced the official debut of Dairy Balance milk with probiotics. 

The new milk line is one of the first to include the probiotic, GanedenBC30, and is one of only a handful of probiotic-enhanced milks currently available to consumers.

Dairy Balance is now available in more than 150 northern California locations, including CVS/pharmacy, Nugget Markets, Winco and O’Briens in the Bay Area and Sacramento region. Distribution to over 500 outlets is scheduled by the end of the year. Dairy Balance milk includes whole and 2% reduced-fat varieties and has a suggested retail of $3.49 for a half gallon."

The whole political tidal wave behind raw milk is staggering. It never ceases to amaze me to see what Monsanto, USDA and FDA are pushing next. The nation is in an uproar over a seemingly simple food: Milk. One side of the people fights for the liberty to have free access to this wonderful liquid. The other fights just as hard to extinguish all who stand up to them. It's a crazy game of tug of war... Who will win? The side that has the legal papers, government officials, money and power? Or the side that has people who believe in truth, transparency, health and freedom?