Savor Sister Linda writing to you on this cool, fully alive Friday morning in the Old Pueblo, complete with a waning moon and birdsong. On cool mornings like yesterday and today, it feels wonderful to wrap palm and fingers around a warm animal teat when milking or when gathering warm freshly laid eggs.
Milk and Milking are a marvel. To quote Darina Allen of the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, from her Forgotten Skills of Cooking book: (her words capture me)
“Milk is a magic ingredient, literally the fat of the land, converted by the mammal into a complete food capable of sustaining life.”
“Milk is a magic ingredient, literally the fat of the land, converted by the mammal into a complete food capable of sustaining life.”
At the ranch we milk animals before dawn or right at dawn, but it wasn’t until I read Darina’s book that I understood that milk milked before dawn is “considerably higher in melatonin, the natural hormone that that helps baby calves develop a daily rhythm, and one that in humans allows us to relax and sleep.” Apparently in Ireland dairy farms sell “morning milk” to folks who need help sleeping.
HOMEMADE BUTTERMILK
(from Darina Allen)
2 cups whole milk (feel free and think beyond cows milk such as goats milk)
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon.
Combine the two ingredients and let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes; the milk will begin to curdle. Stir well before using and store in the fridge.
Buttermilk is great for pancakes, cakes, – and Darina Allen even offers a recipe for Buttermilk, onion Rings.
NOTE: Some feel that milk really shouldn’t be stored in plastic. I first heard this from Food Guru and chef Cheralyn Schmidt; and it was reiterated today reading The Forgotten Skills Cookbook. An ingredient in many plastics, bisphenol A, may lead to breast cancer and lower sperm counts in men. Because of this, you might transfer your milk into a glass bottle. I found a pretty vintage one that reminds me of what my grandparents used as children. And, because everything is connected to everything, and plastics are likely terrible for the environment, I like to purchase products that do not come in plastic, and say no to straws as well.
Savor the Southwest: 
There is another kind of buttermilk. It is the liquid that remains after butter is made. All the milk fat goes into the butter, and the liquid is a nonfat, tangy drink. Or you can feed the liquid to livestock. Before making butter, the creamy milk is often cultured(clabber). Thus the difference between sweet cream butter and cultured butter. Either way the result is a wonderful buttermilk to have for drinking and cooking.
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