Always happy to help
Re: milking; I can tell you what I do - it's pretty simple.
Wash teats and bag in hot water with Ecover washing up liquid, dry. I just use old towels as wash and dry cloths. Make sure any flakey bits of dirt that could drop off into the bucket are removed - from around the bag, inside the back legs, under the rear part of the belly. Drying is important as otherwise dirty water from the washing could drip into the milk.
Milk into clean bucket.
As soon as possible, get the milk strained. I use muslin in a sieve over a jug. I wash the sieve/funnel and the muslin out each time, and give the muslin a boil wash maybe once a week. I buy it at £2.60 / m from my local handicraft shop so I just chuck it and tear off a new bit every few weeks.
I don't pasteurise. I store the milk in a cool larder. I put a lid on the jug to keep flies and passing airborne nasties out of it. I mostly drink or use up what I take within 24 hours, but in fact I find it lasts 48 or more no bother. You can put it in the fridge if you want, of course, and it will keep a little longer still.
That's it!
So my equipment is:
- 2 gallon bucket of food grade plastic (or stainless steel if you prefer)
- old towels
- pot for washing udder wash cloth (which I keep in the byre where I milk)
- old drinks bottle for taking hot soapy water out to the byre for udder washing
- big old mineral lick bucket which, overturned, is my milking stool
- funnel-shaped sieve which sits stably on the top of my 2L kitchen jugs
- supply of muslin which I tear into squares that sit inside the sieve / funnel
- 2L plastic jugs for decanting milk into
- plates / saucers for lidding milk jug if it isn't a lidded one
You
think you will want just a pint - but once you have beautiful fresh unadulterated Jersey milk on tap you will find lots of other ways of using it!
(And the dog or the cat, or the chickens, will be very glad to lap up yesterday's leftovers
)
Topic: Grinning like a cheshire cat! (Read 2723 times)
