Fun Kat-fact time: For about fifteen years I milked goats. As did my husband, and my kids. We all milked the capricious heathens.
Not that I wasn't thankful for them, and I truly believe that growing up on raw goat milk made my kid's immune systems beyond awesome, but holy hand towels on a hat rack is milking and keeping livestock a chore.
So, as I am on a livestock hiatus for a couple years, let's just say I am enjoying my break, but I do miss certain things, raw dairy being one of them.
Especially since I have been wanting to try a bit of raw A2A2 milk to see if my body would tolerate it since all other dairy has been verbotten.
Well, a couple weeks ago I saw that I got some new neighbors and that they had started a raw milk dairy. Now here's the thing, I am super fussy about any raw dairy that I ingest. Cleanliness, animal husbandry, etc. ALL of those things are a big deal to me if I am going to ingest something, so as curious as I was about the place, I was also a bit hesitant to go there until I had more recon.
Well, it turns out that one of my long time friends, who's a goat dairy farmer, is friends with my new neighbors, so that was a mark in their favor. Then, I read the diet that they fed their dairy stock: alfalfa, non-GMO dairy feed, and kelp, and that was yet another positive.
So, my neighbor and I just went for it.
And I am so glad that I did. I cannot even describe to you how glorious my half gallon raw A2A2 certified Jersey milk is. I might have even poured myself a cup as soon as I got home. YUM!
Plus, Hoodoo Homestead is just an awesome set up. Everything from the animals condition to the buying experience is just so thoughtful and well-executed. And I know how hard it is to care for producing animals, so those folks have two new, very excited and satisfied and grateful customers.
Also, the milk didn't cause any of my normal symptoms of digestive upset, autoimmune flu-like achiness, or general malaise, so I am over the moooooon! That said, I am going to ease myself back into the ingesting of the dairy realm. Okay, I am also going to make myself some butter, lacto-ferment me some veggies and craft ginger beer with the whey, and so on. You all know me.
The other area of intensity over the past day has been the lavender. Now that it is all bloomed out, it is essential oil and hydrosol distilling time. Lavender for EO and hydrosol production has to be cut before 10AM, so I am up early every morning (like I am not anyway lol), cutting a wheelbarrow load of blooms.
I then wheel the blooms back to the hubs and we proceed to distill the fragrant awesomeness over a four hour period. The reason lavender products are so expensive is quite a few reasons fold. It takes a lot of time and flowers to get the product. Like, not counting the bloom cutting, it takes four hours to distill eight quarts of hydrosol and between one and two ounces of oil off of my lavendula augustifolia Munstead plants. (They are true English lavender, my French lavandin cultivar grosso yields more oil per the same amount of blooms).
I just finished catching the last quart out of the still and the temp outside is 91 Fahrenheit. I am certainly glad to be in my nice, cool abode.
Especially since my abode also smells incredibly delightful right now...
And on that note, I am going to go find some restorative ice water before moving on to my next task, whipping up an experimental batch of lavender fudge!
