Last weekend, I was quietly padding around the house when I heard my wife talking to the computer. I slipped up to the door and I could see her staring intently at the computer screen, and as she scrolled through the website I could hear her say in a throaty whisper, "Oh yeah! I like you." A few clicks of the mouse later and she was overheard pleading to the screen, "Come on, show me how we do it." "Yes! That is just what I like!" "Ooh, that is very interesting." Of course, I knew exactly what website was engaging her attention, it was her favorite cheese making link. And this time she had found a link that listed Lucky Layla Dairy, located just a few miles north of our house, up Jupiter Road.
With a toss of her lovely wavy locks, she caught sight of me watching from the doorway. "Hey fella! Wanna to go on an adventure?" She displayed a naughty smile, and told me about her discovery of Lucky Layla's, a source of raw milk linked to her cheesy website. The dairy, with its Jersey cows raised on green pastures, was on the north end of suburban Plano - just a few miles drive. I said, "Sure, let put my shoes on and you just tell where we are going to go." She was in high spirits. Going to go see some cows in their natural habitat and look for their raw milk products.
Luck Layla had a small sales outpost flanked by two industrial refrigerators a couple of hundred feet up the gravel drive. The rest of the dairy was zoned as a biological quarantined area - No Admittance without Permission. We walked into the sales office, scanned their milk, cheeses and other dairy products while other customers were grabbing what they came for and marching up to the cash register. Sue decided to grab the last gallon of raw milk and a piece of their Compesino Cheese. The milk was $8/gal and the green cheese was $6/lb. Sue had to sign her name on a sheet of paper acknowledging the hazards and risks of consuming non-pasteurized milk.
I find this world of all things "natural" at bit ironic. My guess is that the set of people who write letters and protest trace amounts (i.e parts per billion) of lead in cosmetics, emission of small amounts of formaldehyde in manufacturing or the minimal risks in natural gas drilling are basically the same set that eagerly pays 4X going rate for non-pasteurized milk. I figure e. coli, salmonella and listeria, though at times fatal, are "natural". For my money, chlorinated drinking water, pasteurized milk and regulated pharmaceuticals are sources of a prosperous American 20th Century. A public blessing. But on this occasion, we acknowledged the hazards and risks of this raw milk, signed the waiver and returned home.
Sue had the look of the naughty child, or the proverbial cat that ate the canary: "You know, I feel so naughty. Buying raw milk, it like contraband in my family." Her Mom was a public health pediatrician for the county and her Dad, as a veterinarian, worked for the Dept. of Agriculture inspecting dairy herds across western Washington to keep the public safe from contaminated milk. Besides having a cow or two on the place for family consumption - of course only after it was properly processed.
The gallon of viscous and creamy "contraband" milk was soon turned into a second batch of Parmesan cheese. The color of this contraband cheese is richer than the first batch made with the thin blue non-fat milk. They need to age for 10 months, then it will be a taste test. But, I have a feeling we will be signing more waivers and using Lucky Layla for future cheese batches.
With a toss of her lovely wavy locks, she caught sight of me watching from the doorway. "Hey fella! Wanna to go on an adventure?" She displayed a naughty smile, and told me about her discovery of Lucky Layla's, a source of raw milk linked to her cheesy website. The dairy, with its Jersey cows raised on green pastures, was on the north end of suburban Plano - just a few miles drive. I said, "Sure, let put my shoes on and you just tell where we are going to go." She was in high spirits. Going to go see some cows in their natural habitat and look for their raw milk products.
Luck Layla had a small sales outpost flanked by two industrial refrigerators a couple of hundred feet up the gravel drive. The rest of the dairy was zoned as a biological quarantined area - No Admittance without Permission. We walked into the sales office, scanned their milk, cheeses and other dairy products while other customers were grabbing what they came for and marching up to the cash register. Sue decided to grab the last gallon of raw milk and a piece of their Compesino Cheese. The milk was $8/gal and the green cheese was $6/lb. Sue had to sign her name on a sheet of paper acknowledging the hazards and risks of consuming non-pasteurized milk.
I find this world of all things "natural" at bit ironic. My guess is that the set of people who write letters and protest trace amounts (i.e parts per billion) of lead in cosmetics, emission of small amounts of formaldehyde in manufacturing or the minimal risks in natural gas drilling are basically the same set that eagerly pays 4X going rate for non-pasteurized milk. I figure e. coli, salmonella and listeria, though at times fatal, are "natural". For my money, chlorinated drinking water, pasteurized milk and regulated pharmaceuticals are sources of a prosperous American 20th Century. A public blessing. But on this occasion, we acknowledged the hazards and risks of this raw milk, signed the waiver and returned home.
Sue had the look of the naughty child, or the proverbial cat that ate the canary: "You know, I feel so naughty. Buying raw milk, it like contraband in my family." Her Mom was a public health pediatrician for the county and her Dad, as a veterinarian, worked for the Dept. of Agriculture inspecting dairy herds across western Washington to keep the public safe from contaminated milk. Besides having a cow or two on the place for family consumption - of course only after it was properly processed.
The gallon of viscous and creamy "contraband" milk was soon turned into a second batch of Parmesan cheese. The color of this contraband cheese is richer than the first batch made with the thin blue non-fat milk. They need to age for 10 months, then it will be a taste test. But, I have a feeling we will be signing more waivers and using Lucky Layla for future cheese batches.
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