Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Got Milk?

I was looking into a source for goat's milk around these here parts and was having NO success. I buy organic milk from the grocery store and wanted to see if I could get larger quantities of milk for a bit cheaper from a local source. My kids are inhaling the stuff and I can barely keep up! Right now, I am using a sneaky technique from the guru I will mention more about in a few lines by pouring half the gallon of milk into another clean empty milk jug and mixing it with reconstituted powdered milk. You can then freeze one or more gallons, though learn from my mistake and put it in the fridge until the froth has settled so it doesn't erupt like a volcano in the deep freeze...Yeah.

I was notified, however, that there is a source of raw cow milk and it is available to us via trade. Since all members of the previous generations of both Sam's and my families swear by it and how much better it is for you and oh-the-things-you-can-make-from-it, we are gonna give it a go. I'm even more excited by the prospect of being able to make the following from said milk: yogurt, cream cheese, butter, sour cream, heavy cream and buttermilk. You get buttermilk through the butter making process and cream cheese from draining yogurt and sour cream by letting heavy cream sit for a day or two and don't forget about the whipped cream from the heavy cream, too. Oh, and let's not forget about cheese! We go through cheese like it is going out of style! (There is a multipurpose trend in this domicile...one stop shopping, folks!)...I mean, hello!, what has taken me so long to get into all this?! Seriously, my grocery bill has the potential to drop drastically! Anyway, I'm just excited and I will try and document the occurrences as they take place.

Another thing I hope to be doing soon is dehydrating a bunch of stuff. I have had a dehydrator for a LONG time. I asked for it for Christmas once when I was a teenager. I know, I'm weird, but I wanted to make my own fruit roll-ups and dried apples and such. Anyway, it has hardly gotten any use and I intend to change that. I spoke to a lady in our homeschool group who is a grocery shopping, canning, dehyrating and bulk food storage guru. I'm still blown away by her ingenuity. I doubt I will ever reach her level, but I can incorporate so much more than what I am doing without much more fuss than I already make! Can't beat that.:) I'll keep you posted.

Glory to my God in heaven who makes it all possible!! You know God loves multipurpose, too. He did create the cow, after all!;p

2 comments:

Nessa and Jeebs said...

lucky- I wish I could find a source for raw milk here. Momma used to fresh milk and eggs from a lady that lived down the road from our cousins. It is sooooo much better for you- the stuff in the stores is completely devoid of the good stuff! My mom used to make butter or shake the cream back up into it and drink it for her heartburn when she was prego with Page. That's why he is a beast!

Nessa and Jeebs said...

oh and we have goat's milk at our health food store here, but I take this capra mineral whey- which is goat's milk whey and it is NASTTT- so I'd be afraid to try goat's milk blagh