We’ve found a COW!

Posted by on August 9, 2011 in Blog, Uncategorized | 0 comments

One of the great benefits of living in Antsirabe was the close proximity to a Swiss missionary who had milking cows and as a result, twice a week, we received fresh milk delivered to our house as well as thick blocks of cheese.  Since our move to Mahajanga, we’ve had to return to UHT long-life boxed milk and we haven’t been thrilled about it.  It’s terribly expensive ($7 to $8 a gallon), the taste isn’t great and I often wonder what chemicals, etc, are in it.  We were desperate to find a cow when we moved here but we weren’t sure how possible this would be as the climate is hot and dry and only “hard core” cows live here.  The zebu, the typical Malagasy cow are the hard core worker cows and there’s tons of them, however, they’re not milking cows, producing maybe a liter a day.  I’m thrilled to say that God has once again, supplied our needs.  After asking several people, we were directed to the Catholic nuns who have 13 specially bred milking cows!  So now, twice a week, we pick up 3 liters of fresh, still warm milk.  As is the case with most things in Madagascar, once home, there’s still a little process involved before we can enjoy this goodness.  We need to “home-pasteurize” the milk.  We put it in a pot, bring it almost to a boil then turn it off, let it cool and skim off the cream.  I’m not sure who is more thrilled that we have fresh milk again, me or the kids.


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