I can get some cows milk,,,, how long with it last? if I can it,, will it still make butter or cheese? whats the best way to save it for later ?

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), December 16, 2000

Answers

Cow's milk stays fresh in the fridge for about 5 days, then begins to sour. You can still use it sour in baking. I don't know about keeping it longer, because only fresh unpasturized, non-homogenized milk is good for you. The ultra-pasturized stuff you can buy that has a long shelf life has no vitamins or enzymes left, so it wouldn't be worth it to buy it or make it yourself. If I had to have milk and couldn't get fresh, I would just use powdered. It's just about as good for you as what is in the store. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), December 17, 2000.

Stan, Our freezer is stuffed full of containers of frozen milk. Until the cow freshens, hope it lasts til then. We have frozen skimmed and whole milk. When thawed the whole milk still has cream rise to the top. Don't know about making cheese, but I bet it would be worth a try, and I'm sure the butter would be fine.

-- Cathey (uptain@familyconnect.com), December 18, 2000.

Hi Stan, From what I have read, the whole purpose behind making cheese is to have dairy products available when the cow is dry. Well made cheese stores very well and takes up A LOT LESS space than whole milk. A gallon of good milk gives a little over a pound of soft cheese, and significantly less hard cheese. You know how small a pound of cheese is, and cheese doesn't even need to be kept in the refridgerator if you have someplace cool to keep it instead.

Same with butter. If you want to make butter, make a bunch and freeze it. It freezes perfectly, and also keeps a very long time in the fridge if it's cared for properly. I think it takes around a gallon of cream to get a pound of butter. Think how much milk you would have to store to get that gallon of cream. Think how much smaller a pound of butter is than several gallons of milk.

You could probably make a kind of cheese or maybe butter from canned milk, but with all the natural enzymes killed in the canning process, I'm not convinced it would be at all tasty. Since they say canned milk is only good for cooking, and not for drinking, I'm betting the cheese and butter would be kind of nasty too. So much time goes into making cheese and butter, it seems like you'd really want them to taste good in the end. Just my two cents.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), December 18, 2000.

I always advise people who get our goat's milk to freeze it if they can't use it all within a few days. It does take up room in the freezer, but if it is cold where you are like it is here, there is no reason you can't just set it outside to stay frozen( in plastic containers).

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), December 18, 2000.