If you look closely at the top of the milk jug in this picture you’ll see that it has my name on it. That is because it was delivered to me yesterday and left in the refrigerator in the farm kitchen at work as part of my new membership in a dairy. Roald and Amelia (my employers) have been getting raw milk delivered for a while now and I just picked up on the notion a few weeks ago. I looked up the website for the dairy and saw the picture of happy cows and my heart gave a thump. Organic Valley may be a coop and Wisconsin based and those are both very good things but … how can it compare with un-homogenized milk delivered in a glass jar right to “my” refrigerator by a nice guy named John? So … I signed myself right up and got my first delivery on Thursday. What with the membership starting fee and buying four jars as well as the week’s gallon costs me $25 but I’m totally happy with the price. Especially since I’ve already begun turning it into value added product. I rushed home from work last night and tried making my own yogurt for the first time, with pretty reasonable success! And after this my weekly rate will only be $7 a gallon. Turning half of it into yogurt, separating off cream for quiche and baking, and having out-of-this-world hot cocoa all the time will make that seven dollars very well spent. I want to try my hand at making buttermilk (which I use regularly in my pancakes) next but have thus far been foiled by the lack of active-culture buttermilk at the coop. I need something to start with. Read the rest of this entry »
