The Gastrocast

It is just a tad Ironic that the Space Probe which cost a small fortune–probably better spent on more terrestrial problems–crashed in the ARCTIC ocean. How much more closer to a study of cold and Ice could it get?

From the Beeb

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The Podchef Chops an Onion–a tearful short film.

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I usually don’t agree with the statements in this blog.  (I hate to even point to it. . . .Another thing is they are too chicken-shit (oh, sorry that got fed to the cows they get their milk from) to have commenting turned on.)  For one, they are militant against Raw Milk–Bane of Society. As I have said before, Raw Milk is fine–it’s more often the producers who’re at fault. It helps build your immune system up and keeps you healthy. Raw Milk drinkers may, someday, be able to withstand the killer plauges–or, we could hope. . . . It is, by no means, a cure-all. And Raw Milk is by no means a certainty. Like anything, you must judge your tolerance for risk and know your sources. People break the law to get Raw Milk, transporting it illegally across state lines, etc. For me these issues are larger than just whether Raw Milk is good or bad for you, it’s that the Government shouldn’t be telling you what to eat.

But, I digress. In reading this post this morning, I was struck by two things. One, the level of deciet there is in food marketing–to the point of playing tricks with dating products; and two–exactly what I was ranting about in Gastrocast #28: so called "Organic" Companies using the name as cache to sell a product which is far removed from the tenents of what "Organic" is really all about–local, sustainable, and without pesticides, and MINIMALLY processed. So where do the big companies get off Ultra-Pasturizing so called "Organic" dairy products so they can be shipped all over the country?

Organic Milk (or Organic anything, for that matter) should be fresh–whether you believe in pasturization or not–local, and come from healthy, cows. That the cows are eating organic feed is another given. That they have access to fresh air and field EVERY day should be another given. Cows can and will eat anything, but that doesn’t mean they should. What goes in is what comes out.

Now it’s hard maintaining pastures–they need work. Milking is even harder. Believe me I know. I hand milked two cows twice a day for a year. That’s nothing, I know. But it did give me a taste of what it’s all about. I wasn’t the only one milking either. Usually 3 or 4 of us would milk. I was responsible for getting the cows into the stanchions and washing their udders down and preping everyone elses cow before beginning my own. As everyone else came into milk they would re-wash their cow’s udders, but my job was to get the worst of the muck off.  It doesn’t take long to milk a cow by hand if you’re good at it. Less than two hours a day (for both of them), if I remember correctly, for about 10 gallons of milk.
I was watching a show the other day where there was a segment on dairy–they showed the milking parlor of a large farm and the host of the show was taking off a milking machine from one cow and applying it to another cow’s udder. Common, I know. Two things caught my eye–1) no sanitaion between cows, no separation of milk for testing, etc. 2) the udders of both cows were filthy. Obviously because the milk is being pasturized, a little manure and mud in with the milk doesn’t matter. . . .
Back to pastures and hand milking–to get to the barn, the cows where I was working had to walk in from the fields. These fields were rotated through the seasons so they could have fresh pasture always. But the path close to the barn was a mudfest–a constant battle to keep the cows from mucking up the area around the barn was ongoing. Concrete isn’t really an option because it gets wet with rain and the cows slip and fall and there goes your investment in good natured, well cared for milkers. Vigillance and care and looking out for the cows well being was critical. We used a combination of drainage, gravel and hay to clean up the waiting area. The cows still came in dirty, but far less so than waiting, packed in, standing in mud. Cleanliness was a huge battle, but one worth winning for a great product–fresh, local, RAW milk. There might have only been 8 cows getting milked, but the whole herd of 50 came to the barn with them.

This is small scale, I know. But that’s what it will take to really mean something. One farm serving a 60 mile radius. Could it happen, again? Probably not, but if you can find one that will SUPPORT it. Because Farms, at the current rate, are disappearing faster than the ozone. And like the ozone, when their gone they ain’t coming back. We’ll be importing food from somewhere else because our Government was too short sighted and allowed big profit machines to wreck havoc with the food supply. Don’t think it can happen? It’s already begun and only time will tell.

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Click on the photo for transportation to the photo set.

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