Spring often bring an excess of fresh eggs and lots of milk. Hens resume laying their daily eggs and the goats give birth to their kids and produce milk in abundance.
Sometimes I'm challenged to find ways to use it all and not let it go to waste. (Although homestead dogs don't ever think it's a waste when I give them milk and eggs!)
If you're a "seasonal cook," then over the winter when eggs and milk are scarce you probably don't make cheese or angel food cakes from scratch, recipes that require a lot of milk and eggs.
But during the spring and summer when there are plenty of both milk and eggs, we can splash out on some luxury dishes.
Here are a few dishes to make when there are plenty of eggs, and some ways to preserve eggs when you have a surplus.
Now let's talk about goat milk. Of course you can use cow milk in these same ways, if you have a dairy cow instead of goats.
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How much milk does a dairy goat produce?
A dairy goat can produce up to a gallon of milk or more per day, depending on her breed, how long ago she kidded, whether you've weaned her kids, and whether you're milking once or twice a day.
Multiply that by the number of goats you're milking and you can see why spring can be a bit overwhelming for a goat keeper.
If you have an abundance of milk, here are a few ways to use it.
15 Ways to Use Goat Milk
1. The obvious way to use goat milk is, of course, to drink it fresh.
For the best-tasting milk, be careful what your does eat, keep the milk super-clean right from the udder, and chill it very quickly.
We always drink the freshest milk, fresh out of the goat that morning.
Are you wondering how goat milk tastes? You can find out in this post.
2. Stir goat milk into your coffee.
3. Use goat milk to make fruit smoothies.
4. Make yogurt, using a half gallon or a gallon of goat milk at a time.
5. Make some kefir using goat milk.
6. Cook with goat milk. Mashed potatoes, baked goods, light and fluffy pancakes, and macaroni and cheese are some of our family's favorite dishes that use milk.
7. Make farmers cheese. This simple cheese is perfect for beginners. Mixed with herbs, it makes a tasty dip for crackers, chips or vegetables.
8. Make mozzarella cheese. It's a little trickier, but it's also fun!
9. Make ricotta cheese. Ricotta is traditionally made from the whey that is a byproduct of cheesemaking, but you'll have a greater yield if you use whole milk instead of whey.
It's possible (and frugal) to make a batch of farmers cheese and then use the leftover whey to make ricotta. Doing this makes me feel like a super-hero!
10. Make fudge.
11. Make cajeta (caramel sauce). You might have heard of dulce de leche, which is caramel sauce made from cow milk. Cajeta is the same caramel sauce made with goat milk.
As a goat lover and a homestead gardener, I'm excited to also share my gardening tips with you - from planting seeds to enjoying the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor! You can find my gardening advice and insights right here, so let's dig in and cultivate some fresh, delicious produce together.
12. Make butter. Goat milk butter is white, by the way.
Since the fat globules in goat milk are much smaller than the fat in cows' milk, the cream doesn’t easily separate from the milk. This can be a tedious task, but it is possible.
Check out How To Get Cream From Goats' Milk: make your own butter, whipped cream, ice cream, and more by Leigh Tate, a small ebook available on Amazon. Leigh gives several options for removing the cream from the milk, and includes several recipes as well.
13. Make ice cream - again, the cream doesn’t separate easily. Instead, you can make ice milk or use a combination of goat milk and cream from the grocery store.
We've made vanilla, strawberry, peanut butter, peach, and even peppermint chocolate chip flavored ice cream and ice milk.
To make ice milk, just follow a from-scratch recipe that uses milk rather than cream. To make ice cream, use a combination of goat milk and purchased cream.
14. Give goat milk to your dogs, pigs and chickens.
Our dogs love goat milk; I give them some every day during milking season. In years when we raised pigs for the freezer, goat milk was a part of the pigs' daily rations too.
15. Make some wonderfully luxurious goat milk soap and shampoo bars.
In order to keep the milk sugar from burning in the soap making process, I use frozen milk when I make soap. So even if I'm not ready to make soap today, I freeze the milk to use in soap making later.
What is your favorite way to use goat milk?
You'll find all of my goat keeping posts here, from milking to goat health and more.
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You might also enjoy:
How Does Goat Milk Taste?
Why You Should Have Goats on Your Homestead
6 Must-Have Items to Milk a Goat
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