It’s been cold… and frosty… blades of grass crunching underfoot in the zeros and minuses that have been our mornings for the last month or more.. fires at night, and going outside to get warm.. since 1890’s floorboards are all well and good in summer (and in general… they’re pretty special), but my, they don’t provide much in the way of insulation in these temperatures…
I am almost at a loss as to where to begin… so i guess cows is as good a place as any…
When i left you unceremoniously some month or more ago, Tippi had just calved… and that sweet sunny event was recorded here, as is most everything that happens on the farm. I have been unable to record the birth of Willie, Rosie’s little bull calf. Well, i say *little* but that is a relative term. Willy’s a big boy, and in fact BOTH calves are now bigger than our freakish little angel heifer Luka who is most definitely a miniature something or other! They are both chocolate and sometimes i just have to check their bits to make sure i’m feeding or locking up the right calf, they are like twins… Oh my, they are so strong, and so healthy, it’s lovely to see them kicking up their heels and being wild like only calves can… they can run like the wind, no hope of catching them… you think you’re on top of the situation and then they break into a run and you realise they’ve just been strolling up to that point!
I have some lovely photos of Willy and Rosie. It was sad not to witness the birth of Willy. By the time we saw him for the first time he was up on his landlegs (or rather, finding them, like one of those articulated falling down toys that i had as a kid) and dry and already almost as big as his herd-sister sunny… sucking furiously… ahhh… nothing can replace mum’s milk when raising a calf…
Rosie and Willy
Rosie and Taniesha
Willy’s first day on earth
pretty boy
And of course this means… DAIRY! Yes, raw milk… 4 to 6 litres a day milked in the morning, squirt by warm squirt into the shiny bucket… Rosie is a placid and lovely cow, we are so lucky to have her and i cannot imagine we’ll ever have a cow so giving and unperturbed by our morning antics. I freestyle milk her, just squatting down beside her, not tethered or in a stanchion. She eats and then just waits until i have finished milking her, just in the middle of the paddock… she occasionally has a wander, and i follow her with the bucket, but generally she just stands there, waits, looks at me every now and again. We know the drill, and she just waits patiently while i do the biz with her teats… She knows that i let her baby out to suckle immediately after so she ’s not stressed about that and i milk her near the calf pen so she can see her boy, and she’s just happy with that.
We decided that we’d let Willy run with Rosie during the day and just lock him up at night, feed her lots and keep her strong so she makes lots of lovely milk overnight, enough for us and her bub. Raw milk is a delight that we do not ever wish to do without in our lives. It is so far removed from the crap that is in the dairy section of the supermarket it’s scandalous… We like to share our love of the creamier side of life, and feed any excess to our chooks and share with others in the local vicinity for pet consumption and cleopatra-style baths (it’s true)… and on that note, i’d like to draw our dear reader’s attention to this little project… a change in legislation around raw milk comsumption and distribution, and development of standards for raw milk production…
From Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine…
As you may already be aware, FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand)are proposing to change the laws relating to raw milk. They are asking for submissions from the general public.
The Nourished Community are undertaking a group blogging project, with which we hope to create a submission for FSANZ before September 17, their deadline.
Here’s the link to our working page.
We know that you are incredibly busy as is everyone in our industry, but please, if you can spare some time, help us just a little to direct FSANZ to Real Raw Milk Certification and availability to all Australians. We’ll likely not get another chance for at least a decade to have our say. Let’s say it now.
So I’ve been making yoghurt, based on instructions i found here but in my own homemade dinky little incubator, so it goes something like this (sorry i have no pics of this one, but yoghurt is so easy to make, you can do it a million and one ways. This just worked nicely for me, set well, wasn’t icky and slimy or too thin and so on…
To make the incubator:
1 esky that will fit at least 5 jars in it. My esky makes just one jar of yoghurt, which is fine, i can make it easily every day if i want.
Alfoil
4 jars to fill with hot hot water
Line the entire esky with alfoil, lid and all. That is all.
To make the yoghurt:
Cooking thermometer
Milk (as much milk as you want to make yoghurt)
Starter. I tbsp per jar. I used Valia cos i heard the cultures were best… i’d used Jalna before with not such good results….
Pour the milk into the saucepan on a middle heat not too low or high.
Heat the milk to 180F or 80C. Don’t let it burn. At this temperature I’m effectively pasteurising the milk. I’m trying different things all the time, and will let you know the results.
Let the milk cool to 54C
Place the yoghurt in the jar you intend to set it in.
Pour the milk over the yoghurt.
Shake the jar.
Place the jar in the incubator, in the middle of the 4 jars that you have filled with the hottest water from the tap. let there be space between the jars.
Put the lid on the incubator.
The yoghurt hould be set in 4-8 hours… well, mine was…
I will also try heating it to only 54C, because i’m not totally sold on pasteurising… I have tried doing it with the milk straight from the cow, without the heating aspect, but at the moment, me being not the fastest milker in the west, and with the outside temperature being so cold, the milk cools down too fast for that to work.
Ok, I’m doing this in installments. I have to try and track down some images of the ricotta we made, oh and there was the lemon passionfruit curd and the choc coated orange peel that ali made, and I just won the very local bakeoff with a gluten free lemon curd tart with chocolate ganache on a hazlenut and almond base, oh and now the animals are wanting to be fed, and i’ll post again soon…
Love in your backyard
The Dairy Mistress xx
