Buttermilk!
Welcome to my goat milk laboratory.
A little back story: 2 years ago Amy almost died from milk fever 3 days after delivering 3 very healthy babies. She had an almost complete and sudden depletion of calcium and she produced very little milk. She had a miraculous recovery thanks to a very dear vet friend. I was told she is now high risk with another pregnancy, so we "retired" Amy to the pasture, a courageous survivor of the dog attack in 2006. Confident she was never with Noah, the buck who resided here for a month this winter, I was quite surprised to discover her very pregnant this spring. Could they have done it through the fence? A week ago today she delivered 3 kids, one was still born and 2 little girls are delightfully healthy, although petite. Because of her high risk of a repeat milk fever, I have been giving her calcium supplement shots twice a day along with an oral dose of calcium. She has sooooo much milk her teats were almost dragging on the ground. The petite little girls just can't keep up with her milk production. Perhaps a little too much calcium?
I am not sure, but I did decide to relieve her pressure by milking her just a little. The other day I mixed her milk in with the other 3 girls milk and proceeded to make yogurt.
I got buttermilk!
Amy's milk is the only variable in the other wise EXACT same formula I have been using for yogurt these past 10 years.
As best as I can figure, there is some calcium/chemical magic mojo that made buttermilk.
It tastes just as delicious as the yogurt, today I made soda bread with it and everyone at farm lunch Wednesday gobbled it all up with butter and strawberry jam. (the last of last years' jam).
I am putting buttermilk in the farm stand and I invite you to try it; make buttermilk waffles, soda bread, cornbread, what else? Use your epicurious imagination!
There are also eggs, spinach, napa cabbage, bok choi, lettuce in the fridge.
Now I will go back to the kitchen and make up some ordinary, extraordinary yogurt.
Did you really want to know all that?
Maybe you just want to see the little darlins and eat your yogurt/buttermilk.