To Milk a Goat

I decided to dedicate a post to the art of milking a goat. Marco and I have been diligent in milking our girl Claribel since she gave birth almost a month ago. We pasteurize the milk and then make alpine ice cream out of it...delicious!
The first step in milking a goat is figuring out a way to keep the goat still...which is practically impossible. Marco came up with a great idea. He screwed ankle straps onto the top of a picnic table. We place Claribel's back hooves into the straps to keep her from kicking the milk bucket while she's being milked. To divert her attention Marco sits facing her giving her apple slices (a much loved goat-treat.) While Marco gives her apples, I milk her. The secret to getting good tasting goat milk is to get the milk as cold as soon as possible. I use the bowl that came with our ice cream maker. The bowl is lined with a liquid that freezes. It's the perfect size and works like a charm. If goats milk isn't instantly cooled, it will hold an unusual flavor. Once I finish milking Claribel, I take the milk into the kitchen, strain the milk for any contaminates and place it on the stove top to pasteurize it. Milk needs to be heated to 165 degrees and held there for 30 seconds to be pasteurized properly. From there I allow the milk to cool, refrigerate it and the next day turn it into ice cream. So far I've made strawberry flavored ice cream, chocolate-coffee, coconut-almond and chocolate-rum. Goats milk is lower in fat, so the ice cream is more of an ice milk consistency.