We are going to get some goats for milking. I want to make cheese or anything else from the milk, but we want to do so without using electricity or store bought ingredients. I know it can be done, because they did it in the past. any suggestions, ideas, recipes, things to look for.

We want dual prupose goats, so which ones are best, and which ones will work, that don't require lots of $$$.

I would also appreciate any info on goats I can get. We currently have ducks, emu, chicken, rabbits and pheasant, so I need some help. Would rather get info before I have an oops.

-- Wendy Antes (philllips-anteswe@mail.cpp.usmc.mil), September 17, 2001

Answers

Dont assume beause the pioneers did things they did them without store bought items. Dont assume the amish do things without store bought itmes. Dont assume you can be an island onto yourself. YOu need the outside world for things you cant create or process.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), September 17, 2001.

Wendy, I can't help you with your questions about doing without electricity or store bought items. We use those to assist us with our milk processing. However, I'm going to do a plug for one of our favorite breeds of goats. Kinders. Kinders orginated from a Nubian doe crossed with a Pygmy buck. They are considered to be dual purpose, for both milk and meat, vs milk/fiber (I didn't know what you were looking for). They lines we have are decent milkers and the kids grow very fast with good body lines. They have been very hardy and very enjoyable animals to have on our farm.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@Linkup.net), September 17, 2001.

In order to make most kinds of cheese, you need rennet. There are two ways of making your own rennet. One is to steep nettles in hot water, concentrate the resulting juice, and use it to curdle the milk (there are recipes for vegetable rennet). The other is to butcher a young ruminant (calf preferred as it is larger but kid or lamb would also work), remove one of the stomachs -- I think the largest one -- turn it inside out, clean it and scrape it and dry it. Then you cut off a small peice when you want to make cheese and use that for your rennet. Many cheeses also require a culture, something like yogurt or kefir for instance. If you do an on-line search for cheese- making, you will find not only web-sites, but also lists of cheesemakers who will gladly help you. There are also several good books on the subject.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 17, 2001.

Soft cheese can be made with anything acidic like vinegar or lime/lemon juices, it simply curdles the solids together, you skim off the whey (use it for baking bread or add as liquid to soup or stes) and moving the solids into something like a clean cotton towel (good pillow case materials work) just let it drip the whey out. Add any herbs you like. You have to flavor it or else it simply taste like cottage cheese flavored with lemon, vinegar or lime :)

Just like you can milk and angus cow or eat a jersey cow, you will want to find the best of both worlds with a goat. If you purchase a goat who has only nursed kids, she will make a very poor milker. Does become conditioned in only milking for the 3 months their kids are nursing them, and dry automatically. If you are talking about raising your goats with no grain, than the milking ability (will to milk) even plays more of a part in the stock you pick. Find someone who pastures their does a great deal of the time, a dairy doe crossed with boer, pygmy etc, would be fine and are very inexpensive now. Everyone is looking at their herds and decreasing the amount of animals they have, not only because of the terrorism but because of winter hay, grain prices are already rising etc. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 17, 2001.

Well Wendy,

I sent you an email answering your questions but it was returned. Please send me your corrected mail address so that I may send you how to make and use animal rennet as well as vegetable rennet.

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), September 20, 2001.

You're getting great advice here and I'll toss in my 2 cents worth. Years ago I made my own rennet by letting a week old kid drink it's fill, then butchering it a few hours later when I knew the milk would be partially digested. The kid-meat was delicious. I dried the entire stomach in the shade through hot dry summer days then whenever I made cheese I spooned a few pinches of the dried curd inside the stomach into lukewarm water and melted it. The up-side was that it was homegrown and "free". The down-side is that it was totally unpredictable. I buy vegetable rennet by the pint now and keep it refrigerated, not an "electricity free" solution. Nettle rennet is perfectly fine too, and by making large batches you'll learn it's qualities and be able to make consistant cheese. I do hope you are planning a "spring house" or other cool place for your dairy products.

We have dual-purpose goats bred over 30 years from an original Spanish goat/Alpine cross with many generations in between of la mancha for milk, and old-style nubian for heft. You might try making your own strain by finding nubian crosses and alternately breeding to the biggest, milkiest dairy goats you can find. Select your does from the broad loined, low escutcheound goats toward the end of the line in goat shows. Dual purpose goats will have loose udders between their thick, meaty hind legs.. a dairy judge's nightmare, but if you love meat and cheese, it's worth it.

-- Ellen (gardenfarm@earthlink.net), October 31, 2001.