Separation Day....

Last Fall, we decided to start getting things ready in hopes of having a small milk goat herd (or FLOCK would be the proper term....). We had our Kinders from last Spring, but wanted a bit more VOLUME.

While the Kinder milk is - by FAR - the best milk either of us has tasted, they don't give very much. After all, the breed is a cross between a Nubian and a Pygmy - what you end up with is a smaller version of a Nubian, with a small udder.

Wonderful goats, wonderful milk (pudding made from Kinder milk is "to die for"), just not much to work with - milk volume OR teat size.....

Since then, we've acquired some bred Nubians and another Alpine doe in milk.

We had hoped that the two Kinders would have been bred last Fall - thus we'd have February or March babies.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

I have been keeping an eye on the two all Spring. I have been increasingly sure that they are pregnant. Tonight, I put one of them in a headlock (Annie), lifted her hind legs off of the floor, and got a good squirt out of a teat! She wasn't impressed and gave me a "sad eyed look" to try to make me feel bad. I gave her a treat and a hug to make up.

I'll need to get her and Sally back up on the milk stand and "work" with them a bit so they can be milked.

Her - and her "sister" are "bagging" fairly well. Things are getting close.

It will be GREAT to have their milk - albeit - in small quantities.

Last Fall, we also bought a Cream Separator, in hopes of having lots of cream to use this year. While Alpine milk is lower in cream/fat content then either Kinder or Nubian milk, it does have some - and (at the moment) is what we have the most of.
We have been saving the milk for the past few days (freezing it) and decided that today was the day we would separate the cream and then....

MAKE CHEESE!

Over the Winter, I had built a sturdy "cabinet" in the kitchen to bolt the separator to. We have it handy, right near all of the supplies, stove, water, and utensils that go along with the process.

Since this was the first time we used it, it was a learning process. It didn't take long to figure out things like - what speed to turn it at, how fast it worked, the flow of milk out of the spout, etc, etc. It also didn't take much to figure out what we need to do to "refine" the process before next time.

As you can see - Deb tried to kill me by making me run the thing....



Actually, once you get it going, the gear reduction keeps it moving pretty good. It's not as bad as it looks....I'm not real sure how long it took but, it wasn't TOO long.

It's not a large separator, actually small when compared to the large models you see in antique shops or at tractor shows (or the ones we remember from our youth...) but, it does what we need it to do. One of these days we want to find one of those old antique models, just in case this one dies.

All-in-all, we ended up with right at a quart of good cream from 4 gallons of milk.



Now I get to make my "World Famous" Chicken Alfredo (WAY better then the Olive Garden....), and Deb is making Cheese Cake (maybe even with Blueberries, no less!).

I can't wait......