Marcia St. John and i have wanted to learn how to do our own, on-farm testing of our raw milk before sale, not just wait for the state to do it once a month. She got us an appointment with Edaleen Dairy(a large processor, kinda like dairy gold)where we could watch them test their milk in a lab.  This turned out be a very quick and simple process, which i knew, but i just had to see all the parts in the physical and ask a few questions.

The WSDA tests our milk once a month for overall coliforms, somatic cells, antibiotic and  other drug residues, and of course the pathogens.  I never thought i would say this, but i’m happy there is going to be a food lab here on lopez because i can use it.  I’ll need an incubator and some growth squares and then i can be extra sure the milk we are sending out is clean.

After the visit up in Bellingham i asked Marcia if i could come down and see her farm, St John Creamery in Lake Stevens.  She and i talked goats and natural remedies to some of the goat health issues we all have to deal with from time to time.  So i pushed back my ferry reservation(which i ended up missing), went to see her herd of 100+ Oberhasli goats and ended up buying two 4 day old doelings for our 2017 milkers.  They are so sweet, the breed that is.  Very mellow.  We have Alpines, and they are a rough bunch.  I told Marcia i might phase out of Alpines in to Oberhaslis.