Milk

There are 10 cows, 1 bull, and 3 calves at the shamba. Many of the cows are for milking. They get milked twice a day.

I mentioned earlier that they sell milk by taking it to the main road every day where it is picked up. They use a bicycle to carry the large jug of milk. It has a number on it that the creamery uses to identify where it is from and for purposes of their account and getting paid.

With our lunch, we were served milk in the traditional way. The cows were milked in the morning. The fresh milk was then boiled once, allowed to cool, then the cream was skimmed off the top. The process was repeated a second time. Then the milk was poured into a big, dried, hollow gourd. They add some finely sifted ash from the burned branch of a certain kind of local tree. All of this happened before our arrival. They then poured the milk from the gourd into cups. The milk was delicious. The ash added a slight smokey taste. If you would have offered me this at home, I would have declined. But when I'm a guest in someone's home in a different culture, I'm brave. I'm glad I tried it.