Because I have always worked full time off the homestead, I milked my goats and cows once daily. I'm retired now and still have goats and cows that are milked once a day. It's been 40 years, and I never had one case of mastitis.
Hey! I just googled why you dry up a cow before calving. I am so into learning everything you talk about. I have made my first butter and have gotten family interested in all of this too. I am going to try sour cream and yogurt and ice cream and eggnog. You have made my life so much fun. Thank you. I have something to enjoy and look forward to now. Thank you Thimble. You are a blessing to many you have never even met!!!!
What a wonderful video!! A milk cow is definitely a dream of mine. Our daughter was actually caught a strand of ecoli from either raw milk or undercooked beef. I believe one of her bottles went bad and she drinked it. Came down with flu like symptoms. Ended up taking her to the ER two days later and she had to have blood transfusions, etc etc…we spent 27 days in the hospital and this sickness caused her kidneys to stop functioning. It was a scary experience but by Gods grace, the doctors, and His faithfulness her body is healed and we still have our little girl. 🙏 pray that this won’t deter me from my passion for natural living and growing our own food. It’s been super difficult! Again thank you for this amazing resource with so much knowledge in one video. Will definitely be saving it for the future. I used to make goat cheese with the simplest recipe and it was delicious!!
Oh wow!! How scary! So glad your girl is OK! Definitely understand your trepidation. All the best on your journey and thanks for watching! So glad you found this helpful!
My grandma always had a milk cow. She melked her twice a day. To not separate the baby from the mother she let him drink while she melked. Wenn she finished let the baby drink for a while, then took some vaseline and massaged the teats, then took some poo of the cow and put it again on the teats. This way the baby stood away from drinking till the next meal, but still had the love of his mother. Of course she washed the poo very carefully before melking again ;)
Love this video! We have a sweet Jersey cow and follow a similar routine each week. I haven't had luck with hard cheeses so I'm going to give your cheddar recipe a try. But I do love making a batch of fresh ricotta -- so easy and we use it like cream cheese. I let the milk from the morning milking "culture" in a covered pot (no heat) until after dinner (for a better depth of flavor -- I'm in Maine so it's rarely hot here). Then heat it up (180°F), remove from heat, and add your acid medium (lemon juice, vinegar, or citric acid) slowly -- just a little at a time. As soon as you see the whey separate, stop adding the acid, give one more stir, and let sit for 5 min. Then drain in a flour sack towel to your desired consistency. I often get busy and drain it too long, but it's easy to throw some into the food processor, add whey back & salt, and then pulse to get the perfect consistency. You can add onions, garlic, basil, etc. for a great dip for carrots. I've also made a "pizza" version with tomato "powder" (just dehydrated tomato skins, powdered in the blender), oregano, basil, garlic, etc.
That sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!! We’ve made ricotta a few times but it hasn’t become part of our routine. Maybe we should play around with it more! ☺️
I am so glad to find your channel!!! Thank you for offering recipes for free and information for free... and to also do things as frugally as possible. We just bought a milk cow and your information is a blessing....seems like everyone wants you to pay for the information..
Thank you so much for how truly simple you keep things. You take out all the intimidation of milking your own cow. God willing, we'll be in milk next April. What I love most about our ladies is that so far they are the only selfsustained animal on our little homestead. It will take a big junk off of our grocery bill cause we love dairy! Love you guys!
Yay!! So excited for you guys! Praying that all goes well with calving a getting going with milking! You’ll love it and definitely huge on the grocery bill too! The best!! ❤
I’m so happy I found you guys! Love the simple and natural methods you use to make wholesome delicious recipes. Also love that you don’t include a ton of ads in your videos. Thank you for taking the time to share all your knowledge and experiences. ❤
Wow, thank you for all this info! I am just starting to make yogurt, butter and cheese and start a garden. You are making my life so much easier and plus a free ebook!!! You are a true blessing to people you haven’t met! Blessings for you and your family!
New to your channel, found you as i was searching for a simple cheddar recipe. Seasoned homesteaders but really enjoyed your young family reminiscing about those days
Thank you for such a straightforward video with recipes that keep the heating of the milk to a minimum. About freezing milk…do you skim it first? When it thaws, do you use it for drinking or just cooking? Can you use the thawed milk for yogurt? Thanks!!
I just found your channel. So lovely. I really enjoyed this video about your milk journey. I am a raw drinker and appreciate this so much. My goal is to get some land and a milk cow would be a blessing too. If you don't mind, what state do you all live in?
Recently discovered you guys and I love watching your videos! You make things so practical which I love - thank you!!! For making the sour cream, can you use the leftover buttermilk from making butter as the culture for the sour cream??
Awesome! Thanks for being here! So the buttermilk that's the byproduct of butter is actually a different thing than cultured buttermilk. But if you have raw milk, you can just let it culture naturally by leaving it out on the counter.
My family will easily drink 3+ gallons of milk a week. Thats not including our other dairy uses. I use at least a gallon of heavy cream and at least 5 lbs of cheese every couple weeks. I would use plenty of yogurt if it wasnt so expensive at the store.
Tried making yogurt, but it was runny. The flavor is good, though. What did I do wrong? Maybe our house is too cold? I used raw milk with the yogurt from the farm where I get the milk. Love your videos and story! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Sorry it was runny! Whenever I've had that happen where the yogurt was runny it was from my yogurt culture not being strong enough. I'd ask the farm how long ago they made the yogurt and make sure they didn't add any thickeners to it. That's always been the culprit for me!
Love this! I do have a question about the yogurt. I have made it in the instant pot but that was before we started sourcing from a local farmer for unpasteurized. Curious on the temp your crockpot warms milk up initially. Thinking it is that 90 or 100 below 110 degrees. Thank you for reading and for responding in advance.
I've never actually taken the temperature of it but I believe it heats the milk to at least 180 degrees Fahrenheit initially when it's turned on low for the 2.5 hours and then it drops down to around 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit for when you add the starter culture 3 hours later. Hope that helps!
I used to do this but because we are using raw cream, I haven’t found that it made a huge difference so I started skipping this step. If I was using pasteurized cream, I’d definitely make sure all the liquid was out! Good catch! Thanks for watching!
What a lovely channel. We are highly considering a family milk cow. May I was which Vitamix blender you purchased? I am trying to decide which one to buy for our homestead use and there are several different ones so I’m not sure which to get. The one you are using looks perfect.
Thank you! We love our vitamix and have had it for over a decade! They have really great customer service and we’ve had to use the warranty a few times for accidents on our end and they always went above and beyond. We have this one! amzn.to/3vfthwN
When you say buttermilk , do you just mean what you have drained off of your butter? I save my buttermilk and freeze it. But will that work in sour cream or do I need to do something to it first? We hat about 8 gallons a week and I’m so tired of mozzarella lol. I’d love to make some other dairy products
I use fresh cream to make sour cream along with cultured buttermilk (different from the leftovers of butter making). I'll add the buttermilk (from making butter) to ice cream along with the cream or in baking or our kids will just drink it. Hope this helps clarify! Thanks for watching!
Hey! Thanks for letting us know. I tried it now and everything seems to work ok. Have you had any luck since? If you're still having issues, let us know and we'll find a way to get it to you. Thank you!
