Goat's milk - fresh from source

For those lactose intolerant there is goat's milk which is a suitable alternative and tastes just as good. Goat's milk is also the blessed white substance that creates the most delicious ricotta cheese which is used in my ever favourite cannoli. That is why they taste different in Sicily, it is the goat's cheese! Ricotta sold in England doesn't always state if it is made with goat's milk but I think it is usually cow's milk - boo. 

We visited this farm out in the middle of nowhere and got to see an age old style of milking goats using special gates for where the animals needed to stand, these gates were in a stone wall that must've been there for hundreds of years. 

Everything was super ancient and the view from the farm where we took these pics was spectacular. This farm is very hidden, even to the locals, and is situated atop a hill overlooking thousands of acres of vineyards -just beautiful. 

At the farm, we stumbled upon a barn with a hidden secret. It was a church in the 1600s. The inscription on the door said 1641 - how crazy is that?! Jake took some great photos in there of a horse and its baby and we got some great shots of the farmers for the project. I wish I could show you all of the pics but I can't just yet, they must go to publishers first! 

The centuries old practice of shepherding and milking the goats was great to watch and sooo old except for one thing.... the mobile phone rang (!) and the chief milker answered it. It was kinda funny but he went on milking with one hand and chatting away - classic! 

Calving season in NZ
On the Hale farm in NZ my romantic notions of being Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie were quashed. I thought I would be churning butter in some Victorian frock, milking cows and hand feeding apples to horses and other farm animals who were all part of the farm family.

Instead I put on a blue one piece smock and green wellies and went to the cow shed (see glamour shot above - I know, Laura Ingalls would be appalled). There I witnessed the civilized entrance and exit of the cows to get milked by the slickest automatic milkers housed in a slick milking station. I am sure I am not saying any of this in correct farm terminology! Help me out Hale's.After this lovely parade to the milk utensils, the cows then walk causally back to their luscious fields to munch more green grass and laze around in the New Zealand fresh air. Not a bad life until some are sold for our steak dinners.I was there during calving season and this is a busy time for Mr. Hale. A few calves are born each day. They are then almost immediately seperated from their mommies (v.sad) and Mr. Hale and his farm hands have to teach these calves to drink from a fake nipple (see pic).

The calves are so cute and quite large for only being a day old, it is cute to see them act like little babies when they are learning to suck. They have milk all over their face and are a little wobbly when walking. They also behave like children; some are more aggressive pushing the others away from a nipple and taking up lots of space while others are just pushed out of the crowd and will not fight the bigger ones to get a feed of the milk.The milk is colostrum or the 'first milk' which is taken from the new mothers, it takes four days for that milk to exit the new mother's system. Colostrum is high in carbs, protein and antibodies which delivers lots of nutrients to the new calves.

Once all the milking is done a big truck picks up the milk (not the colostrum) and whisks it away. Almost immediately, Mr. Hale can get a reading on the internet as to how much milk was collected along with other statistics. How advanced...am sure Pa Ingalls would not fathom such technology way back when in the mid-west.

This milk is then sold and then turned into butter, powdered milk and other milk by-products that are shipped and sold around the world. I think the farm is connected to Fonterra the largest co-op in NZ which is owned by over 11,000 dairy farmers.

It was a lovely morning watching the cows and calves in the sunshine. We took a ride around the farm on the ATV and it was great to feel the crisp morning all around us. I am sure I will find a mom and pop farm with one lonely cow that I can milk someday! Maybe I will have to find a farm outside of Toronto that caters for farm wannabes like me.