I'm Swearing Off Milk!!



Sabrina's milk for a day. Jar on right is 1/2 gallon.

Yup, that’s right folks….. Me, the big milk drinker will be forgoing milk!
Ok, not forever, but at least until the end of January.

After drinking whole, store bought milk for ages, I have become horribly spoiled to fresh, raw, uber healthy, perfect goat’s milk. So have my munchkins…

If you recall our "Dramatic Dairy Dilemma" you originally wouldn’t have thought my kids would have become as attached as I am to our fresh, raw milk, but they have been 100% converted.

Sabrina, my sweet polled Alpine is due to kid January 26th. This means she needed be dried up prior to kidding….

Sabrina with her March twin doelings on an unexpected cold spring morning.

Drying up is a process. There are several opinions on the best way to do this. I’ll share mine, though I promise it’s not the only way to go about this..

Some may think it odd that I’ve been milking Sabrina through her pregnancy, but I’ll explain that.

Some will allow does long, extended dry periods thinking it best to “give them a nice break”. When in fact these long times off do the owner's thought process a lot of good, but not so much for the doe or the long term health of the udder.

Kind of like those owners who put hats on their dogs… Yes, the owner thinks it’s adorable and it’s keeping Fido’s ears warm, but poor Fido wants to eat the stupid hat, vomit it up on your nicest rug and scream at you that he has furred ears for a reason…

As long as the doe is in good condition & maintained well, there is no reason for them to have extended dry periods. When an udder sits dry for long periods it can be harboring mastitis causing bacteria that is not being flushed out of the udder by milking and since the doe is not being milked the owner is often unaware of any issues until the doe freshens again.

So, ideally we keep the girls milking for the first part of the pregnancy and then begin drying up for the last 1-2 months of pregnancy. Does do need to be dried up at least a month or so before kidding again so they can produce colostrum for the new kids.

Now for our drying up process….. Sabrina has always been a great producer… We always got AT LEAST a gallon per day, even though she raised one doeling who stayed with her 24/7 & nursed until she was almost 7 months old. One day, when she was about 2 weeks fresh, we pulled Sabrina’s kids for the day & bottle fed them so I could get an accurate weight on the milk produced in a day without the kids stealing it. That day we got a lil over 14lbs of milk! For reference, 8lbs of milk is roughly one gallon.

Sabrina's udder 8 hours full at 1 month fresh

So… since she has such a great “will to milk” and produced well, I decided a slow process for her drying up… For about a month when I milked I didn’t fully empty her out.. I’d leave about ¼ of the milk in the udder at each milking instead of emptying her. Then I had about 3 weeks of leaving about ½ of the milk each time… This told her body the demand for milk was down, so her production gradually went down as well.

Then we went to once a day milking.. This was a nice change as I only had to milk in the mornings and wasn’t tied down in the evenings to rush home and milk on time. I had only meant to do this for a little while, but ended up milking once a day for a lil over 5 weeks… Liked the combo of fresh milk & less chores.

At the actual time of drying up, I simply stopped milking. I hear folks saying they go out and relieve the udder every 5th day (or whatever schedule) but there is NO NEED to go out and relieve the udder UNLESS she is filling to capacity and is becoming painfully full or is risking leaking. If she reaches that point you need to empty out just enough to relieve the pressure and prevent leaking, but no more.

I see people going out and emptying a few squirts on a doe who is no where near to being uddered up and the only thing this does is prolong the process and tells her body to keep on milking.

Silly 'Brina begging for treats... Her favorite treat being Mountain Dew!

When I decided to dry Sabrina up, the 2 days before I only milked her out less than half way and on the 3rd day I didn’t milk.

Not only did I not milk, I did not put her on the milk stand or do anything that was even close to our milking routine. She still got a bit of grain, but in a feeder in the pen instead of on the stand.

This is because for some does the whole milking process tells her body to let down milk… Sabrina instantly let down the moment she jumped on the stand and since we were drying up, I didn’t want her having any of her “Let’s Milk!” signals.

I did check her udder daily and thankfully it all went smoothly… She never over filled or leaked and now she’s officially “dry”.

I tried an organic cow’s milk from the store… Ick. Tasted the same as the non organic stuff to tell the truth… Watery, seemed thin and was, as my daughter so eloquently put it: "Just Blah."

I went to the health food store and bought a non- homogenized, low heat pasteurized cow’s milk… Not being artificially & mechanically homogenized it at least had the cream on it still, but instead of this smooth cream that’s blended in perfectly with raw goat’s milk, this cream was a big thick chunk that I had to poke at with a spoon in order to let the milk flow through the jar. The actual milk is ok…tolerable, but not fabulous. It is better than the homogenized cow’s milk (both organic & non organic) that I tried, so that’s a plus… For a quick summary on how cow's milk is homogenized click *here*.

Goat’s milk is naturally homogenized and doesn’t have to be artificially & mechanically homogenized like cow’s milk does & it’s so rich, smooth, flavorful & creamy…. Well to be fair, cow's milk doesn't HAVE to be homogenized either, raw cow's milk left in it's natural state is pretty good, but big dairy business doesn't seem to agree with me on that one...

I miss my goat’s milk.
I’m getting a silent protest to the “store bought milk” (which my kids now say that as if it’s a dirty word)..

Before, Tator alone would drink at least a quart of goat’s milk a day… If given a choice of soda (rare), sweet tea, water or goat’s milk at dinner time, they always chose milk. Now they choose tea or water….They sometimes hold out hope, check the fridge for goat’s milk before choosing. I have had the same gallon of store bought milk in my fridge for almost 2 weeks now and less than 1/2 of it is gone…

Ok, I’m done whining (for now anyways)… At least the wait won’t be too awful long.

My mom’s miniature doe, Keys, is due any day now, and Tootsie, the miniature Alpine doe I sold to my mom (who is also Keys' full sister) is due at the end of December. So I’ll go to momma’s, look pitiful, and she’ll send me home with milk to hold me over until Sabrina kids at the end of January.

Not to mention, not only will I soon be back in fresh milk, but I’ll also have baby goats!

I’m stating this publicly so y’all can hold me to it…. No matter how freaking unbelievably cute Sabrina’s kids are, I AM NOT KEEPING ANY OF THEM. So if you see me hinting around or being swayed by the overwhelming cuteness, firmly tell me “No!!”....... I really want a daughter out of Tonka, and since I have to keep my numbers low I can only keep so many. So, this kidding season I’m only planning on retaining a Lamancha doe, no Alpines retained until next year.



See?!?! The urge to keep them is hard to fight!



It's even harder to say no with this munchkin around begging to keep them all!

Thankfully I already have a few folks interested in bottle babies, so my goal is to move them out as fast as possible so I don’t get attached.

In theory this all sounds fabulous… Let’s see how firm my will power is at the end of January....…

Three Cheers For Cajeta!!

Aren’t yall in for a treat!! A double treat in fact…For once in my short blogging career I’m actually going to post something USEFUL instead of my endless babble (shocking eh?)…and of course the second part of this double treat is the Cajeta itself.

What is Cajeta you say??

Well it’s only one of the most divine goodies you can easily whip up in your kitchen.

Cajeta is a Mexican treat traditionally made from goat’s milk (you could use cow‘s milk if no goat‘s milk is available). It’s wonderfully complex, smooth and has an endless variety of uses! It is very similar to caramel, though I swear once you have a taste of Cajeta, caramel toppings from the store will seem bland in comparison. Caramel is mostly sugar based, whereas Cajeta is dairy based. This makes Cajeta not as sweet as caramel and the rich, creamy goat’s milk that is the foundation of Cajeta gives it a rich creaminess that caramel simply can’t touch.

So, lets get started! For the very best Cajeta, try and round up two helpers about like these I found:



Then of course you must start with the goat…Sabrina is the generous milk donor in this instance, though any willing dairy doe will do....give that girl a good scratching and a treat! She deserves it.



Now that you’ve got your fresh goat’s milk & helpers, your ready to begin.

You will need:

A large pot…get a big one as this stuff boils up to quite a big mess otherwise.
Wisk
Measuring Cups

Ingredients:

2 quarts of goat’s milk
2 cups sugar (I prefer to use Raw sugar, but any sugar will do)
1 tablespoon of pure Mexican vanilla extract. (If you have it, 1 plump, split open vanilla bean is great too…. Just don’t use imitation vanilla!)
½ teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of water.

The How To:

In your big pot (don’t use an iron pot), pour in milk, sugar and the vanilla and place over medium heat. Stir regularly until the milk reaches a good simmer and all the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat and add the dissolved baking soda. The kids LOVE this part! It bubbles up quite a bit after adding the dissolved baking soda (here‘s where having a big pot comes in mighty handy).

Let mixture sit for about 5-10 minutes…or for however long it takes for the bubbles to subside. When your bubbles have gone down, return to heat.

Adjust your heat so the mixture is at a brisk simmer, but not boiling. It needs to be simmering well enough that you still see some simmer bubbles while gently stirring.

Cook at this temp and stir regularly until the mixture turns a pale golden color. This is a divine culinary treat, and things of a divine nature take time….so get cozy & stir…. This isn’t a speedy process.

Once you reach that beautiful pale golden hue, you’ll need to stir more frequently. If I say “stir constantly” that sounds exhausting, so I’ll say stir almost constantly. Whatever you do, do NOT let it sit on the bottom of the pot unstirred after it reaches the pale golden color.

Cajeta in stages: #1 Foamy milk after baking soda #2 Pale Golden Color #3 Mixture thickens & darkens



Now the good part is coming. The more it cooks, the more you stir, the darker it gets and the thicker it gets. The constant mixing can get tedious so this is where your helpers come in:

Just look how well they stir! Told ya they were handy..

Once you reach a caramel-brown color, keep on stirring, but at some point in all this stirring, you can test it out. Drop a few drops in a dish of water, if a soft ball forms, the Cajeta is ready. You can also use a candy thermometer and when it reaches about 240° it should be ready…I don’t bother with the thermometer..It’s just one more item to wash afterwards.

Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit. You should have a medium thick sauce. If too thick you can add in hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency you like. If too thin, just return to heat and keep on a stirring until desired thickness has been reached.

This recipe should boil down to about ½ quart - ¾ of a quart of Cajeta. For variety you can also toss in a few sticks of cinnamon in the pot while your cooking and you can also give a generous splash (or two) of your favorite rum…

My kiddos love fruit slices & pretzels dipped in warm Cajeta…

Swirled in yogurt & on top of ice cream.

You can drizzle over cheesecake, brownies and apple pie. For a yummy Fall treat, drizzle over baked butternut squash…

Or if you happen to be impatient like me, you can eat it straight off a spoon!!

When I think ahead I chop up fruit while I’m waiting for the pale golden stage so there is little to no delay in enjoying this amazing treat..

The possibilities are endless!