Zen Cows

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Gubbeen

Today the cows are in “our” pasture. Every once in a while one of them will wander close to the caravan and then look startled and stare when she sees us inside. We had a funny moment when we were polishing off the carton of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that Rosie gave to us the other night, when a cow outside that looked just like the picture on the carton was looking at us. Walt said don’t let her see the ice cream – it was Chocolate Therapy flavor - or she’ll be shocked at what humans have done with perfectly good milk.

Reed’s been guzzling the raw cow’s milk all week because it’s so delicious, until Sunday night he was complaining about his itchy ears and I discovered hive-like blisters forming on them. Our first thought was poison ivy, but there isn’t anything here at the moment that would cause that reaction. My second thought was sunburn, but if he’d had that much sun the rest of his face would’ve been burnt too. Then yesterday when the bumpy redness was spreading to his face I realized: the cow’s milk sensitivity that we’d only suspected a few years ago must be real, and it’s been possibly exacerbated by the unpasteurized milk, delicious though it is. Sadly ironic for Reed, to be at a dairy farm and not be able to drink the milk. I did make a batch of yogurt from it the other day, though, and yogurt has never been a problem for him.

Cows are very peaceful, aren’t they? It’s pouring down rain and they just keep doing whatever they’re doing, minding their own business, not fussing at each other or hurrying.

So a herd of 120 milkers here at Gubbeen requires a cheesemaking staff of about 6 people working fulltime to make the cheese from all that milk and do all the things necessary to cure it and pack it for shipping. That doesn’t include taking care of the cows or milking them, or the person who comes in on the weekends to turn the cheeses, or market the cheese, for that matter. And that’s with a huge commercial washing machine that washes and sterilizes all the molds and trays and everything every day. My job today, aside from helping put the curds into the molds, was turning all the curing cheeses, and that took most of the morning just doing that, all by myself.