A Year to Producing Our Own Raw Goat Milk

[Francie]

We moved into our house in May of 2009, and got 4 goats right away. We built that milking stand (that is stubborn Edna on the stand - I wouldn't dream of trying to milk her!)

We decided to breed Delilah the Nigerian Dwarf that fall. She had twin girls in April of this year. SO CUTE! And fun! We waited a week or two, and then started locking the babies up at night with some water, so that we could get some of Delilah's milk in the morning.

It's working! Right now I take about a half cup. Mostly for training purposes! I need a goat wrangler to help me, because after Delilah is finished eating, she dances around and wants me to stop milking! Big learning curve for me to do this - I have never milked anything except myself! LOL! And hopefully Delilah will one day soon give up and just stand there! After milking, we release the babies. I filter the milk, and refrigerate it as soon as possible.

The kids are starting to eat grain, and they've been eating browse and hay. I think we will sell the kids when they are ready to be weaned, and then we will get plenty of milk from Delilah by milking her twice a day.

This milk tastes wonderful!! Nothing like the pasteurized, dead stuff in the store. I am lactose-intolerant with pasteurized milk, but not with raw. Raw milk has the lactase needed to digest the milk sugar lactose. It has enzymes that kill pathogens. There are so many things in raw milk that are good for you, that are destroyed by pasteurization - especially ultra-pasteurization. I think organic, ultra-pasteurized milk is the biggest waste of money. So far we've made a little kefir, but mostly we just drink it right away. When the kids are gone, I hope to get a quart a day. I can't wait to make cheese and everything else. I think we will try to keep at least 2 milk goats. For various reasons, I am only able to breed 1 out of the original 4 goats we got. We'll have to figure something out.

More raw milk info:

http://www.realmilk.com/

[Karen Shattuck]

How exciting!
We are hoping to buy land this summer and get some goats ASAP.
I can't wait to hear more!