**Milk, milk, milk, and more milk! **
I have had my milk cow for about three weeks, and I have more milk than I know what to do with. That is a good thing, right? Seriously, I had to cut back from milking her twice a day to once a day as well. That was also partially due to her constantly escaping then me having to stressfully corral her back into her space then being late to milk and everything being an unimaginable nightmare. So finally, when I went out one night and she had broken out and completely missed a milking, I decided once a day milking it was.
What a stress reliever to go to once a day milking, but I’m still getting about two gallons of milk per session—most of the times around 2.5 gallons. I’ve learned to make cheese (ricotta, for the most part,) freeze dry my milk, and make yogurt! I also share plenty of milk with my dogs—they love it, and raw milk is super beneficial for your animals.
The whole middle row of my fridge is overflowing with milk, even with me drinking a lot each day—I never seem to get through it all. I’m on a constant rotation with making cheese for my meals or my chickens (yes, they love cheese,) freeze-drying, and simply drinking the milk. So far, it seems to work with how many jars I have.
One of the best parts of the milk my cow gives me is the abundance of cream she likes to gift me with. I love seeing a thick cream floating at the top of the milk after 24 hours. I use this cream as heavy whipping cream in recipes, make butter out of it, and make ice cream with it (my favorite!) Seriously, the ice cream made with raw fresh cream is INCREDIBLE! The cream just melts. I never realized how watered down store-bought ice cream is until I have made my own. I sound like an ice cream snob! But the ice cream melts into a thick, tasty cream, and I just don’t think I can have ice cream any other way now!
I feel abundantly blessed to have my own source of milk right here on my farm. As long as I keep her fed, happy, and bred then the milk keeps on coming! She is due to calve this September, and I can’t wait to see if she has a boy or a girl? Either way, I will be back to milking twice a day and sharing the milk with the calf. The cream will most likely decrease as she decides to give her cream to her calf, but I honestly don’t know what to expect. If I get more than two gallons a day, I definitely don’t know how the heck I will be able to keep up?
Having a cow has come with plenty of learning curves—like learning how to contain a cow, haha! I can laugh about it now, but I definitely was not laughing when I was chasing my milk cow around the property. I sure do love my fresh raw milk, though—even if it does take up my entire fridge.