Got Milk?

Oh yes I do! So my neighbors have this cow. No, it's not at the house but somewhere else... and once a day milk is magically delivered to their house. Alison and I decided that we wanted to have fresh milk and learn how to be Martha Stewart Africa, so we are paying for a liter of milk every other day. When the milk is delivered to the neighbors, someone dips out a 1 liter ladle that looks like a tin Nalgene bottle with a stick on the end... and then pass it through the fence and give it to our house guard. (This just cracks me up because all I see is an arm sticking through the fence with holding out milk) The guard then knocks on our door, we open up, pour out the milk, wash the container then give it back. Now the domestication comes in...

We have to boil the milk for 5 minutes in a big pot and be careful to not let it boil over. Then pour it into a smaller container and let it cool. Then it goes in the fridge. The next day we take it out, and pull back all the cream that rose to the top, as we pour it through a filter to catch the extra bits of cream. Milk is now ready... but there is more!

Alison just learned how to make butter, yogurt, and ice cream! Hooray! So butter we collect the cream for a few days, then mix it with a hand blender until it turns into butter and add a little salt. Yogurt requires a little starter yogurt from the shop and I haven't worked out how to do it yet, but Alison knows so I'm happy. And ice cream... well that's my family's business so if my parents ever get sick of CO, I'll have them move here and open up a shop!