I Will Never Drink Goat Milk, Part I

Vanilla, our first dairy goat with her 2015 set of triplets, Thomas, Betsy, & Bella

As you peruse our Russell Homestead website, you would be inclined to think that I was raised on a farm living off the land.  Not so.  I had a wonderful childhood (thanks Mom & Dad!) full of lots of pets – chickens, dogs, quail, hamsters, & cats, but we didn’t live on farm.  Since we lived in the woods, we didn’t have a garden.  Our milk and eggs came from the grocery store.  Still today, I buy food from the grocery store (there is certainly nothing wrong with that), but as a family we have learned to love living off our homestead when possible.  One of the biggest ways we do that is milking goats.  But there was a time when I thought I would never drink goat milk.

I’ve always been a milk drinker.  A cow milk drinker.  Growing up, I drank 2% milk from the store.  Sometime in my twenties, I developed high cholesterol, and switched to skim milk in an attempt to control my cholesterol.  Around the same time, my husband & I started realizing how much money we were spending weekly in supplying milk for our growing family.  We joked on and off about having a family milk cow.  We researched owning a family milk cow, and learned that a cow produces too much milk for our family.  So, we started looking into miniature cows, but were quickly deterred by the price and thought of needing to find a miniature bull every year as a stud. 

Realizing a cow wasn’t practical, we began joking about a goat.  Even while we joked about it, we both still thought that goat milk was probably disgusting and never really planned on drinking it.  In fact, over this time, we tried some goat chocolate milk that smelled like a barn when you opened the jug.  But somehow the idea persisted, and, surprisingly, it wasn’t me who took the first step. 

Corby, my dear husband, happened to see an ad in a local newspaper for a milking goat, and he called about the goat.  He happened to know the person, but the goat was already sold.  But, if you know anyone who milks goat, you know they are always interested in sharing their knowledge & milk from the goat (probably because there are few people who care about milking goats :-).  So, this person invited him over & gave him some frozen goat milk.  Bear in mind, I don’t know any of this.  All I knew was that he called me from work & said he’s bringing a surprise home.  He came home with a sheepish (goatish, maybe?) grin and jug of frozen goat milk.  We sniffed it suspiciously as it thawed in the fridge.  We took the first sip cautiously, looked at each other, and said, “It tastes like milk!”

Check back for the rest of the story!