TYDSITC - Fields of Melons

Fields of lovely muskmelon... cantaloupe we called it as children. One of my maternal grandmother's favorites and it seemed like every time, without fail, when we visited her (which was often) she had a icy cold cantaloupe waiting to cut open just for us.

Unfortunately this field of melons is rotting. It happens every year out here, this will be the fourth summer we've seen it happen. The first year I was appalled, and horrified at the BILLIONS of flies the rotting fruit produced. We really don't have that much of a fly problem here, since it is so dry and dusty, and the goats produce manure that consists of compact little dry balls (goat berrries!) However, melting melons are irresistable to momma flies, just looking for the perfect place to lay their tiny eggs. Ewww. The smell... sickeningly sweet. And the waste, when people are going hungry, it just blows my mind.

When I was growing up, you could find RIPE fruit in the store. Now everything is hard and green. Many people don't have an earth connection to their food, and don't even know how to ripen the fruit. The best thing to do is put it into a paper bag, fold down the top and let it set a couple of days. Check it once a day though, for perfection. But there again, where can you find a brown paper bag nowadays?

I came to a conclusion on the rotting fruit the other day. It occurred to me in connection with our picking the ripe peaches. We picked some perfectly ripe peaches, but by the time we got home, a couple of them were already dripping and bruised and mushy (still delicious though!). So I realized with regard to the melons... I guess the workers HAVE to pick the unripe ones, so that the melons will make the trip to the store without turning mushy before they get there. Being a gardener myself, I have always waited to pick vegetables and fruit at the height of freshness, and when perfectly ripe. I guess I've assumed that farmers did the same thing. But there is that issue of transportation, and waiting in the store to be purchased by consumers.

The other thing I was thinking... back in the "olden" days, stores used to have a warehouse in the back of the store. Nowadays, the "warehouses" are the 18 wheelers that are transporting our food. I remember when the store was out of something, you just had to find the manager, or someone who worked in that area, and ask them if they had any in the back. Almost always, they did. But try that now. They will tell you everything is on the floor, already stocked. So maybe, back in the "olden" days, the unripe fruit could sit and ripen for a while, before it was made available to the public.

I actually feel that I have some energy today... well, that is before I sat here at "Time Sucker". Prior to my sitting here, I was up at 4:30 to milk -- I promised the goats yesterday that I would NOT be out at 4:15 to milk, like I had tried to be on the days I work. I told them it would be more like 5am, lol. The problem with milking later, even that early, is the flies are already waking up. That means they are swarming the milker's legs and she kicks to keep them off her. More potential to spill that precious liquid gold!

My dh had to leave early this morning; he is such a dear. He fed and watered the chickens, turkeys and cows, to save me the trouble. I like this new arrangement. I get up extra early on the days I work to help him milk, and on the days I don't have to leave for work, but he does, he feeds and waters, so that I only have to milk, feed and water the goats. This makes chores much easier, as I have come to dread having to do ALL the chores myself. Plus, I am able to bring the milk in immediately and process it. If I have to do all the chores myself at some time, because it is already so warm out, I will have to bring the milk in and take care of it, then go back out and finish taking care of all the other critters. The milk needs to be chilled as soon as possible, otherwise we'll be making something like Grade F milk, as opposed to Grade A. ;-)

Little Stupid (affectionate moniker) gave us 3.7# yesterday morning. Today she gave me 3.3#. And it only took me ten minutes to get that milk. We are milking five does each morning. It takes much less than 10 minutes for each of the other does. Little Stupid just has these really tiny teats... Teat size really does matter! If the teat fills with a tablespoon of milk, you therefore can squeeze out 1 cup's worth of milk in sixteen squeezes. If the teat only delivers 1/4th of a teaspoon with each squeeze, then you're squeezing 192 times to get the same amount of milk! [Did you follow? There are 16 tablespoons in one cup of milk. Twelve 1/4th teaspoons makes one tablespoon. And twelve 1/4th teaspoons times 16 tablespoons equals 192!]

After I milked, fed and watered, I brought the milk in to process. I changed out my kefir's milk with some of L's milk. We have begun to again utilize the alcohol/water mixture that we freeze, to chill the milk faster since we are getting so much now. The mixture turns into a frozen slush and when you put jars of warm milk into it, the warmth from the milk is literally sucked out into the alcohol/water slushy mixture, cooling the milk quickly. We are getting from 1.5 to 1.75 gallons each day now. And that is only with one time a day milking, and eight kids on their dams in the daytime!

After processing the milk, I put in a load of clothes, then tidied up my truck, in preparation for the road trip dh and I are taking tomorrow. Oh, and I also took one ride around the property with my bike! Ds2 has been fixing up all our bikes, and he has mine rideable, but he says I need some replacement parts. I had forgotten how much fun it is to ride a bike! It was still cool enough out that I could ride fast and feel a nice breeze. I haven't been on my bike in at least a year. Ds2 has been riding his bike in an attempt to get more exercise.

Until next time.

Categories: goats, tydsitc, ponderings