Goat Milk

[freemotion]

Since it is so hard to actually buy raw goat's milk, what if you found a breeder, went to look at goats, and ask for a taste of the milk? Several breeders, if possible. And ask how they handle the milk....be clever, ask like you want to know if it is a task you could handle because you are so busy, so they will be a bit more honest if they take shortcuts.

I'll have kids to sell for the first time this year and I would happily show a prospective buyer my routine and let them try some milk and if I had some, some of my amazingly wonderful feta. Ever have grated feta on buttered popcorn? Not store feta, REAL feta!

I made a garden chowder the other night and I used half cheddar from the store and half home-made feta. DH kept going back for more. He is not a big soup eater. Especially a veggie soup. It was the feta and the goat's milk that made this so exceptional.

Get goats! Just do it!

 

[PattySh]

I am so missing the raw goat's milk. I cannot drink store bought milk without severe cramps and an almost immediate trip to the bathroom! I can drink as much raw goat's milk as I want. I also think it really helped my joints as boy am I achey the last month or so. (I stopped milking in Dec) My does start giving birth hopefully somewhere around Feb 23 and I got smart and staggered the births til June so we won't be without milk again! Dreaming of making yogurt and cheese again and hoping for safe deliveries of cute kids. I am so excited I got my video camera fixed today!!

Edited to add: You can sell raw milk in Vermont, statutes are online.

 

[AlaskanShepherdess]

If the milk you tried tasted goaty then there was something "wrong". Proper goats milk will not taste goaty.

 

[whetzelmomma]

Even fresh raw goats milk can taste nasty under certain circumstances. In order to have the best tasting milk it's a good idea to follow these rules.

Keep bucks away from the girls
Keep a clean environment. If you don't you are more likely to not only get sick from your milk but also it will taste funny.
Brush down the goat and wash her udder before milking.
Cool milk as fast as possible. I keep my jars in the freezer, and after straining the milk into them they go back in the freezer for an hour.
Feed: the more sweet things they eat the sweeter their milk will be. Although my girls ate a diet with just a very small amount of grain with a tiny bit of molasses no hay and lots of birch leaves and wild rose leaves for a month or two before I bought any hay and their milk will still wonderfully sweet.
Breed can also matter, but even with a breed that doesn't produce the best tasting milk, it will still be very good if the conditions are right.

I do blind tests too. My mom gets some excellent raw cows milk (wonderful tasting!) and when I compare them the only way I can tell a difference is that my goats milk is sweeter.

Yep. If your wife tasted anything "off" it's because she was trying milk that was wrong, not because it was goat.