The tour went like this: seeing where they process the milk,
seeing where they wash the bottles, milk-tasting, seeing where they milk the cows, milking a cow by hand, feeding and brushing calves,
buying stuff in the cool general store. You can buy their yummy milk in half gallons or pints, in any flavor (whole, skim, 2%, banana, root beer, strawberry, chocolate). Sometimes they even make the BEST ice cream, which tastes like when my dad makes it himself. We even bought some butter!!! There is a deposit that you pay them for the milk bottle, but you can get it back when you return the bottle to a store that sells Shatto milk.
We went with what I call my Protestant Homeschool Group (Shaping Hearts) on a Friday morning this month. Aron was off work and got to come, too. The cost was $4 per person, which included a tour that was over an hour long plus all the milk tasting you could want. I was pretty sure Eva was going to wean off of me when I saw the way she was inhaling the Shatto milk.
The sad part was when I asked, “What do you do with the babies once they are born?” I wish I hadn’t asked. Crybaby (me) learned that the calves only get to stay with their mothers for about a day (then they have to moooove out). They don’t want the calves to get attached to their mothers because then they are hard to handle (hmmm, sounds familiar). Plus the calves rough up the udders of their mudders (haha!). So the boy calves are sold and the girls are born into their mother’s profession. One cow has had TWELVE calves so far. Tresa said it’s almost enough to make her stop drinking milk.
Yeah, I get it. I drink milk, so I am perpetuating this. But I am an Open Wound at times, and it makes me sad that animals are separated from their mothers. Zoos also make me sad. And Sea World. Sue me.
Oh, and yes I did try out the milking machine on my finger. It hurt less than a breast pump.
By the way, if you read my earlier rant about MapQuest, you’ll appreciate the fact that the Shatto web site says to NOT go by MapQuest’s directions, and Mr. Shatto (who is very cool!) provides directions himself on the site.
The milk we bought (we called the pints our "milk babies"):
