Adventures With Alice, Part IV

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Here's a story about a lovely milkmaid. She milks Alice the cow every evening. First she gathers her supplies, including a stainless steel bucket, and gathers Alice into the barn. Then she washes her udder and teats, seats herself on the one-legged milking stool (made by her brother), and begins the rhythmic music of milk streaming into the bucket. It usually takes her about 20 minutes to harvest the milk, then it's time to feed Alice's baby. Now, Briana has a bit of a soft spot for the calf, so while everyone else calls him 'Jerky', she prefers to call him 'Jockey'. She pours some of his momma's milk into a bottle, and he eagerly goes after it, complete with the energetic head butting all animals seem to have. Finally it's time to head to the house and strain the milk of any dirt that might have snuck its way into the bucket, then pour the milk into glass jars to be refrigerated. We've been having lots of fun 'playing' with Alice's milk. Easton likes to drink his 'Alice milk' (as he calls it) from a half pint jelly jar. We've made and consumed lots of butter from her cream and we've enjoyed buttermilk biscuits and buttermilk waffles. We've made one batch of homemade ice cream, and are having some friends over for another batch this weekend. I recently made my first batch of yogurt which turned out wonderfully (thank you for the recipe, Dorcas!!!). Next on my list to try is mozzarella cheese. I have all the ingredients, I'm just waiting for the time to do it uninterrupted! Right now we have 3 gallons of milk in the house and 7 or 8 gallons in the fridge in the garage--and there are three families consuming her milk! Add that to the 10 dozen eggs out there, and I think we might open a grocery store!