Jacqueline P Vincent

It’s been a productive day, today. I wasn’t out of bed early, but all the tasks I set myself went smoothly and were successful. In a short time, I’d made yogurt, cheese, kefir and my SKOBY baby is growing. I’ll let you know about my kombucha adventure in another blog.

Why are we using so much milk? It’s because we’re getting free milk from a friend’s cow and sometimes it’s several litres a day. After the novelty of rich-straight-from-the-cow milk, making sauces, rice puddings and adding it to our breakfast, we ran out of ideas. But this beauty hadn’t run out of milk.

But before I get into milk products, I must tell you why we’re receiving milk from a Galega Rubia, (local breed of beef cattle). She was in calf and Candy, the owner, was concerned because the calf, in uteri, was big. As the mummy cow neared the big day, Candy and her husband, Suso, took turns sleeping in the barn. The big day arrived and passed, another day dawned and passed and, fed up with waiting, they went up to the house for breakfast. When they returned, the distressed mummy cow was pushing out a bull calf.

Although they did their very best, the poor calf died. However, mummy cow began the production of lactation and to prevent her succumbing to mastitis, which is painful in humans. I know I’ve been there. Cows can lose their lives. But boy, do beef cattle produce lots of milk. Within two days, she was providing milk for four human families. Although three months later the amount of milk is tapering off, she still produces five or six litres a day.

Thankfully, Candy pasteurises the milk and skims off the cream before she fills the bottles. Otherwise, I’d have to add clotted cream and butter to my recipes. I don’t think my waistline could cope with the extra calories, even though the thought of scones with clotted cream or butter makes my mouth water. That has been one drawback to having so much milk in our diet for three months; my clothes, shall I say, are snug!

After our third batch of three litres, we bought a yogurt maker, and we make our own which is delicious. A bit like Greek yoghurt, but creamier. I used up one batch of milk to make a rice pudding, enough for, if not an army, at least a squadron. Several portions remain in the freezer and a pile of crepes, which have frozen well, to eat at a later date. But what do we do with the rest?

Candy and Suso suggested cheese when I collected another few litres recently. Off I went to the chemist and bought a bottle of rennet. Later at home, I scrolled through the recipes on the internet until I found a simple, foolproof one. The recipe took two litres of milk and two and a half ml of rennet to make a tiny round of fresh cheese. Because I haven’t any convenient caves nearby to attempt cheddar, I made fresh cheese or farm cheese. There are plenty of recipes for you to try on the internet. Mine was a wiki-how recipe and worked well.

My last milky success of the day was a rich, fizzy milk kefir. We drink the kefir as a lassi; the recipe originating in India. Our kefir with banana and cinnamon was a delicious, nutritious substitute for lunch.

As it looks like she’ll be producing milk for a while yet, do you have any milk related recipes or ideas I could use?