I saw an article about grades of dairy the same week I saw a very popular homesteading Youtuber post a video about her goat milking routine. I noticed that the way she does her milk makes it Grade E, which is the worst grade there is in terms of safety. I have watched a lot of videos and read many articles and have “always” (6 months of goat milking now!) ended up with Grade D milk, the second from the bottom. This article was eye opening and I switched over immediately to being a Grade B, which is the best I can do without purchasing a milk cooling tank for $800+ which would be ridiculous for the small amount of milk we’re getting. Now honestly the article (yes, I’ll include a link in a minute) fails to mention other factors such as people who milk goat after goat after goat before freezing the milk vs people who freeze the milk immediately after each goat, or the bag and teat cleaning practices that can affect the milk. So there are many factors. We strive to keep our milk as clean and safe as possible (shouldn’t everyone?). I love learning things like this (okay, link is here) so that we can become better.
A poem I learned in my Waldorf school days comes to mind:
“Good, better, best
Never let it rest,
Til your good becomes your better
And your better is your best.”
I think we can always do better though. We can always be better. Never stop improving. 🙂
On a different note, we watched a funny Youtube video with blind taste testing a few days ago. Today, dealing with monthly cramps that never improve regardless of diet (and CBD oil has never done a darn thing for any of my ailments…I’ve started to think it’s all just a scam), I stayed in bed and Christine did all the farm chores, which included milking all four of the does in milk. She milked the three goat breeds into separate jars and just gave me a blind taste test. Sorry, no video as I’m in PJs with bed hair, but I’ll tell you how it went. By the way, this was also inspired by my upset that lately I’ve been finding the milk a little “goaty” tasting and I’ve been blaming it on the Mini Nubians, our newest does. When a friend tasted some milk recently and said there was only a hint of goat taste, I almost ran outside to hang “For Sale” signs around the two goats’ necks. My love of goat milk has always been that it tastes like cow milk; the taste of goat products in grocery stores…bleh. I know, I’ve mentioned that a time or two, but it’s true. So when I taste any jars of milk in the fridge that have a goaty flavor I get really upset.
Soooo the taste testing. I told Christine there was no doubt in my mind that I could pick out which goats the milk came from. The first one, I told her, was definitely Felicia’s (the Nigerian Dwarf). It tasted creamy and good. The second one, ugh, was definitely the Mini Nubians. Then the third, delicious…wait…was that one Felicia’s? That one must actually be Felicia’s. Nigerian Dwarf goats are supposed to have the creamiest milk and this was the best tasting. Yeah…that must be it, and the first one was Kissy’s (the Mini LaMancha).
Christine laughed and told me I didn’t get any of them right. The first one, it turned out, was the Mini Nubians. Whoops. The second one was Felicia (eww, what’s up with that??) and then the third one was Kissy. Of course. Kissy is my perfect, perfect goat. Of course the best milk is hers. <3
Now, we can probably put the “goat milk tastes goaty with male goats around” myth to rest because our girls have been with the boys on and off this whole week. They’ve been licked by them, peed on by them, and well, you know. Their hormones DEFINITELY have been around the girls. And none of these milks today tasted goaty. The second milk didn’t taste goaty and it didn’t taste metallic (one sign of mastitis) but it just didn’t taste creamy and delish. I’ve been drying Felicia off slowly and giving her much less grain, but I wouldn’t think that would make her milk taste “bad.” And honestly it wasn’t horrible, it was just not something I’d reach for if given a choice.
So much to think about…over plum cobbler, which is delicious, by the way.
I’ve got bread rising and kombucha ready to flavor and homemade whipped cream on plum pudding…homesteading life is a good life.