:: milking Monday ::

walking Lady in, in brilliant Winter sunshine

On Monday and Friday mornings of late we have been learning a new skill - how to milk a cow!

The beautiful and placid 'girl' is a Dexter cow, which makes her a small breed and gives plenty of milk - yesterday we squeezed 5 litres out of her and our co-milker, Joyce, also took away another 2 litres before "Lady" was 'milked out' for the day.

Lady belongs to a lovely pair of pensioners a few kilometres down the road, who needed a helping hand with keeping this cow milked, after she unexpectedly lost her calf a few weeks ago.  For ex-city kids this is a pretty exciting and rewarding caper indeed.

Phoebe's learning this year is over-arched with a Farming theme, which fits rather neatly here, too.  Here she is having her own turn of milking - she really got the movement going smoothly and rhythmically.

A book we've read many times with Phoebe over the years that has been a favourite of hers is by Enid Blyton, called "The Children of Willow Farm". One of the characters, Benji, could make the milk froth the best in the bucket and I suspect from observing the vigour with which Phoebe tackled milking, she was remembering the story about Willow Farm.

What to do with all the wonderful, creamy fresh milk?  That has been sooo easy...yoghurt, puddings, chai tea and our first experiences of making home made cheese - Halloumi has been a success so far.  Next to try are: Ricotta, paneer and Labneh.