Buying Milk From The Store

I asked the waiter, 'Is this milk fresh?' He said, 'Lady, three hours ago it was grass.' Phyllis Diller

That is some fresh milk!  Unfortunately, for the first time in almost two years, we have NO fresh milk.  When Tricia got sick, we dried up both cows (Daisy & Rosie) and the goat (Annie).  There is no milk on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  In fact, we made a trip to the grocery store and picked up a carton of this stuff:

It's kind of a strange product.  Store-bought milk seems so thin and different tasting.  It is not as rich and creamy as milk straight from the cow.  The last time we dried up the cows, we didn't buy much milk at all.  We just bought heavy whipping cream to pour in our coffee.

We are certainly enjoying our break from not having to milk cows and a goat every day! One could certainly get used to this!  We need a milk maid.  That's what we need!  For ten years now we've hand-milked our cows.  Tricia surprised me the other day when we were sitting on the swing when she said, "Maybe when the cows freshen, we should look into purchasing an electric milking machine?"

In This Post from May we talked about how we had the cows palpated.  At that time, we confirmed that Rosie and Clarabelle were bred.  In fact, they have all been exposed to the bull and should be bred now, but we haven't tested Daisy and Luna. Rosie will calve in early September and Clarabelle in October.  If you look at ol' Rosie, you can see her girth is expanding.  Yep, she is "with calf."

We have about a month and a half break before we have calves on the ground and that means that we'll be milking again.  It is certainly a lot of work (unless we acquire the services of a milk maid and/or a milking machine!), but the benefits of REAL, FRESH, Milk are well worth the toil.  Until then, our milk will be "imported" in cartons instead of buckets.  We'll keep you posted as calving dates approach.