Fresh Milk and Fellowship

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8 - From this entry’s title, you might be able to guess where we were headed next: yes, a working dairy. Considered small by dairy standards, the King Brothers Dairy Farm has 70 Holstein cows which are milked twice a day. The family-run multi-faceted operation also includes a number of angus cattle to be eventually sold for meat and acreage for raising crops as well. Our purpose in visiting was to see the dairy end of things, and so after fussing over several adorable three and four day old calves, we watched the real action take place. Ten massive Holsteins at a time were led into the milking bay, where they were hooked up to the vacuum milking device that monitors the milk flow and automatically stops when the flow slows so as not to harm the animal. The milk travels into a pump which then sends it to a refrigerated tank in the next room, where the product is rapidly chilled and held until it is picked up by a tanker truck every couple of days.


Kaila made many friends of the bovine variety by promising, "I'm not going to eat you!"

Mr. King and his sons were extremely gracious and open, inviting us into the milking bay to try our hand, literally, at the process itself, each of us getting a taste of what it was like to milk a cow the old-fashioned way.

Got milk, Kadi?

And speaking of getting a taste… Mr. King at last poured for us from the holding tank a cup full of the freshest milk any of us ever had; as we each drank from the cup, we shared a moment that was beautifully Eucharistic, a communion between ourselves, the animal, the land, and indeed the Divine spirit that is in with, and under it all.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite all that… truth be told, it weirded me out a little. But it was good milk, and it was without a doubt a special moment.

And finally, like the – ahem - “overly eager” altar guild member, Kaila happily consumed the remainder of the cup with no objections from the crew. Grateful for the day but increasingly wearied, we piled back into the van for the return trip to the church and on to dinner with our host families. Salúd!

Bottoms up!