The Anti-Shopping List: Milk

Despite popular belief, milk does not come from grocery stores, school cafeterias, or gas station convenience stops. Cow milk comes from cows; rice milk is made from rice; soy milk is made from soy. The closer one comes to deriving milk from its original source, the less money is needed to pay for the complicated process that presents it for sale in sealed, labeled and dated cartons and jugs.

Buy a Cow?

A dairy cow's purchase price can range from around $750 to $2000, but the milk yield is so high, up to 10 gallons a day if milked twice a day, that it is definitely worth it. One cow could be the source of milk for an extended family, neighborhood or small community. A cow needs grazing land, hay in winter, a mineral block to lick and lots of water, and they are herd animals so it's probably best not to keep just one. If I could, I would buy one cow, breed her so she produces milk, then keep the calf for company. Keeping a couple of happy healthy cows is a large commitment, but they are such friendly creatures, and there's no fresher milk.

Get to Know your Local Farmers

If you can't invest in a cow the next best thing would be to get to know the people who already have some. Ask for a tour; show an interest. Ask to buy or barter directly on the farm. Some farmers will allow you to bring your own container to fill up, and some farms have more milk than they know what to do with. Imagine trading a loaf of your homemade bread for a quart of raw milk from a cow whose name you know. The relationships that could develop on a farm are so much more meaningful than the blind and thoughtless purchase of a packaged beverage at an automated check-out isle.

Make your Own Rice Milk

It is possible to make a milk beverage from oats, nuts and even potatoes, but what I had on hand today was rice. Instead of buying cow's milk, this time I made my own rice milk. I simmered about a half cup of brown rice in a covered pot with eight cups of water for a couple of hours until the rice was mushy. Then I set a colander lined with cheesecloth inside a large bowl. I poured in my soupy rice to separate the solids from the liquids, then let it cool. When the rice had cooled enough to be handled, I picked it up with the cheese cloth and squeezed out the most liquidy parts. I saved the more solid rice for a later project; most likely I'll bake it into bread. Then I added some more water to the bowl until the rice milk reached my desired consistency. I threw in a little honey, a splash of vanilla and a tiny sprinkle of salt. It is also popular to flavor rice milk with cinnamon. In a sealed container in the refrigerator homemade rice milk can last a couple of weeks, but it's so delicious that it probably won't!