A Trip to an Ontario Dairy.

While visiting my friends back in November, I got to visit a local dairy, where my good friend Tina's husband Grant is herdsman.

About 2 years ago when I visited them, the dairy was in the middle of installing a new rotary milking parlor.

Rotary Parlor - can milk 30 cows at a time.

The dairy milks about 200 cows twice a day - once in the morning and again in the evening.  When the ladies are ready, they walk onto the parlor where a farm hand dips the teats in disinfectant, wipes them off, then attaches the milkers. As the carousel goes around the ladies are milked. An electric tag on their leg tells the computer what their average milking is as well as other valuable information.

You can see the girls anklets here.

Attaching the milkers.

Milkers attached.

When the cow is done being milked, the milkers automatically detach and drop behind them off the carousel. According to my tour guide Holly, Tina & Grant's 16 year old daughter, some cows have the milkers locked on.  They need to wait for a farmhand to come around and detach the milkers.

The dairy is so well organized!  And they are all about the health, comfort and safety of their herd. 

Deep sand is used for the ladies' comfort.

Feed rations are calculated for the different needs of the different groups.

 

 

A few days old replacement heifer.

The amount of work that goes into a farm like this is astounding.  And I am so thankful for a chance to get an inside peek at the operation.  Grant knows all his "ladies" by name & number.  While we were at the house, we had the most interesting discussion on embryo flushing and how they choose which bulls to breed to and what is available.  It was something we touched on in college, but I was in a general animal reproduction class so not so much detail, and when I worked for the equine vet, only one breeding farm was just beginning to do embryo transfers.

Young heifers in the new barn extension.

I'd like to thank Tina, Grant & Holly who raise sheep on their farm, Fat Duck Acres in Brinston, Ontario for being such great friends and wonderful hosts! And for helping me edit this blog post.

Wild Food Dinner!

I was fortunate enough to join some friends in Ontario, Canada last week at a Wild Food Dinner hosted by the Lanark Wild Food Club.  The best part was getting to try some foods I would never have been able to try!  My favorite by far was the roasted beaver.  Not something found down here in Cape May County. (This will be a photo heavy post!  Though mere words and photos cannot describe the taste.)

The menu was varied and all the food was delicious.  From the appetizers such as wild harvested mushrooms on toast with wild leek ricotta, venison sausage, First Nations smoked trout to the main dishes of venison roast & roasted beaver to the dessert of apple & wild plum strudel.

Wild Picked Mushrooms with Herbed Ricotta

Pickerel Fritter & First Nations Smoked Trout

Halved Baked Potato with fresh Pickerel & Wild Leek Butter

Salad of local bitter greens, fiddle heads, cattail palm, smoked trout, thinly sliced radishes & beets.

Close up of the Fiddle Heads & Cattail Palm

Puree of Butternut Squash & Apple with Apple cider and Maple Cream

Venison Kafka, Wild Blueberries & Local Cheddar

Roasted Beaver with Venison sausage stuffing.

Wild Plum & Apple Strudel

A nice Canadian Charonnay to accompany the entire meal.

 I even won a door prize!  I picked up a book on Edible Wild Plants, which I hope to utilize here at home.

Kudos to the Lanark Wild Foods Club for hosting such a fantastic event, all the foragers, anglers, & hunters who donated the food; as well as to the team of culinary students from St. Lawrence College Centre for Culinary Arts for such a delicious meal.

My friends have been forewarned that I will be making this an annual pilgrimage.  I am so grateful for good friends!