Ok, maybe not. Cows are big, and the neighborhood would probably object if I were to fence off our central park and convert it to cow pasture, since there’s no way my back yard is big enough. And there’s the various problems of noise (“Mooooooo!”) and manure (flies and stink), not to mention the sheer work of feeding, milking, impregnating, and keeping it healthy. Oh, and what to do with the inevitable calf?
No, I can’t have a cow. I don’t even really want one. I’m happy growing vegetables but very nervous about all forms of livestock. But I need a new milk source since Golden Glen Creamery has announced (via Twitter) that they are no longer going to be bottling milk, opting to put their “original passion of cheesemaking & butters … back in focus.” So I’m looking for new milk: local, minimally pasteurized, non-homogenized, and bottled in glass. A cashier at PCC told me they would start carrying milk from Straus, but they are from northern California – not terribly local, although they have a cream-top version and practice minimal pasteurization and bottle in glass. Golden Glen is also recommending Fresh Breeze which is up by the US/Canada border and closer than Straus. They appear to also minimally pasteurize, but last I noticed they were bottling in plastic.
I’ll have to try lots of different milks this spring when I resume cheese making. And I guess I’ll have to decide which of my standards I want to compromise: minimal processing, local-ness, or glass bottling. Or someone who has the space and the gumption for livestock could contact me with a milk-share offer. But I’m not going to hold my breath for that.
Well, how about a pygmy goat. She could keep your clover/grass down to a proper height and be a source of fertilizer for your vegetables. You could train her to do her business by the compost. But on second thought, the idea of your wonderful tiramisu made with goat cheese sounds dreadful. Better find a cow.