Fresh Milk!!! and Rabbits

In the States, we don’t drink shelf-stable milk. It’s just un-American! I remember studying in France one summer while I was still at college and being horrified by the boxes of Parmalat milk (and a dozen eggs!!!) left on the kitchen counter of my host family’s home. The bacteria!! Why aren't these things in the fridge for goodness sake, I recall thinking (ok, my thoughts weren't quite so polite, but you get it) The concept of UHT milk just wasn’t one that had yet been embraced by the American public--as far as I know, still hasn't been. Fast-forward 20 years and here I am, once again surrounded by boxes of shelf-stable milk!

I see cows everywhere, or so it seems. So, where's all the milk? Well, it's taken me a year, but I have finally found a source (thank you, ANNIE!!!). Right here, in the heart of Accra, you can visit Nicholas Anang Chaeway, named National Best Urban Farmer in 2006 and get your freshly expressed milk for just 70 pesewas per litre (that's roughly 70 cents per pint). It sure beats 2 bucks a box, I'll tell you that! And, you can actually make yogurt with this milk -- and according to Annie, a whole host of other things, like BUTTER, but I have yet to venture that deeply into dairy processing. But yogurt...this is a big deal to me.

Containers labeled "yogurt" here, are not necessarily real yogurt with live culture...so, we bought a yogurt machine and some yogurt starter from Williams-Sonoma and thought we were set. But, we soon realized that the really good deal we were getting on that UHT milk from the Dip shop wasn't such a good deal at all as it simply would not turn into yogurt no matter how much we tried! But this milk we are getting, fresh from the cow, well, that makes divine yogurt!

Annie also mentioned that this farmer had loads of rabbits, a grasscutter (not sure how to put this into perspective for those of you unfamiliar with this animal...to me, it looked like the cross between a racoon and cheetah -- most often seen totally skinned, flattened like a pizza pie and skewered, and sold roasted on the side of the road!! anyway, I digress!), guinea pigs and dogs, and that her two kids LOVED going there. She gave me typical Ghanaian directions that do not rely on street names and said to call her if I couldn't find it. One day, I had 45 minutes to kill before picking up Chloe from school, so Ben and I set off on the adventure of finding this place, and we succeeded. So, right there in the equivalent of what would be that un-named neighborhood out by the Javitz Center in NYC, is Ghana's National Best Urban Farmer!!

When Ben, our driver, takes us on these little adventures, I'm not quite sure what he thinks. Is it horror? Entertainment? Disbelief? Who knows, but in this particular case, he actually got down from the car and spent quite a lot of time laughing. I'm guessing he was amused. We got a tour and the info we needed about milk collection, decided Chloe should have some rabbits of her own, and promised to be back in a couple of days to buy milk. As promised, Ben showed up with a container and got the 3 litres of milk I ssent him to buy. He was a bit horrified that the milk he got was HOT!! He had assumed we'd be getting milk out of the freezer that we had seen the day of our tour. He didn't understand that it was the unsold milk that went into the freezer waiting for some Dr. to pick it up to make yogurt with!

We've been buying milk for about 4 weeks now, and with Chloe's mid-term break this past week, we decided to take her and her friend, Carmen, for a visit. They had such a great time that the only way to get them to agree to leave was to promise them that they could return the next day! They are both pros at feeding the rabbits, and simultaneously mesmerized and terrified of the cows!

I couldn't get a good shot of it, but Nicholas has a real, live, Heiffer Int'l cow! So, if you ever wonder how your donations to Heiffer Int'l work, I can tell you that in this case, the farmer received his Heiffer Int'l cow and he has to give away any of this cows calves to other farmers. I'm not sure for how long he must do this, but at least for a couple of years. I asked him if he'd rather keep the calf and give away the cow and he said NO WAY!! It would be three years before he could breed and then milk a calf!

We've called a carpenter, taken him to the farm so he could look at the rabbit cages and we are awaiting his estimate on what it would cost to make a cage. As soon as we've got the cage, Chloe will have her very first pet! This is sure to be an adventure for us all.