In late May of 2008 we embarked on a new adventure. I traded 2 of the bottle ewe lambs and a doe kid to a fellow farmer in Terra Alta. What did I trade for??? None other than a beautiful Jersey milk cow, named Lily. Farmer Ben does a seasonal dairy, concentrating highly on pasture rotation. Meaning that the bulk of the nutrition comes from wonderful grasses, in the fall when the pastures stop growing, Ben dry's off his cows and they get a few months break before the lactation process begins again. Lily has a little age on her and Ben felt bad making her walk the 3/4 mile one way to the summer paddocks. He didn't want to send her to the livestock auction where she would enter the food chain in a different form. He knew I had been looking for one. When he called, I jumped at the chance. Reid said "you know, this is becoming a home for the old folks and outcasts" To that I replied" somebody has to love them!"
So the for the next few weeks my days were filled with Lily and I getting to know each other. Her getting used to being milked by hand, and me milking something with more than 2 handles! I also tried my hand at making butter and mozzarella cheese.
The kitchen was quite the mess by the time I had butter. I didn't have a regular churn, but I thought that I could make butter using my kitchen aid mixer and the big paddle attachment. At first it looked as though I would only get whipped cream, but decided to let the mixer go until I had butter or I got sick of listening to it run. After watching it for quite a while, I decided to come to my desk and do paper work. I soon lost track of time and the sound of the mixer, until I heard something that sounded like splashing water. I couldn't remember leaving any water running anywhere, but as I came into the kitchen I could see where the sound was coming from. The butter had finally formed and separated from the buttermilk. That was what was splashing, all over my counter, the floor and the wall behind the mixer! I had to laugh and told Cyrus, the border collie, that we had butter. He seemed a bit confused, but was glad to get to clean the milk off of the floor. Lily's milk is almost a yellow custard color, and her butter is a golden yellow.
