Thursday, April 30, 2009

muffin memories

I went to the market the other day, armed with a full wallet of my doughy dollars. I hit some of my usual vendors and scored asparagus, carrots and some greens. Getting some eggs, the vendor reached in for a few and then gave me tangerines in exchange. Sweet! I thought about some carne, but Ted was nowhere to be found. Then, thinking of creamy items I decided to try my hand at trading for some yogurt. I made my pitch and was offered a most fair bargain. As I was stuffing my ceramic cups into my bag, making a mental note that I should trade for more yogurt in the future I heard something most delightful: "Would you like to try a sample of some of the milk we use for the yogurt?"
Hell yes!
Uh, I mean, sure, I'd love to try some. (Geez, I hope they like the muffins.)

After getting home, I took a closer look at the jar. It had a nice ring of fat around the top. A touch yellow and chunky, it spoke of no homogenization and light pasteurization. It was past the kid's bedtime, so unless I'm making hot cocoa, it is not likely I'll be getting into it tonight. One more look at the cream and I tore the top off, getting splashed as the hunks of cream cannonballed into my glass. I enjoyed a mighty glug. Suddenly, I'm five again. Racing my elder sister to the front door to get to the milk first so that I can eat the creamy plug with a spoon. All by myself. (And yes, I did used to get milk deliveries to my front door as a kid. Not that I'm that old, just that 30+ years ago, I lived in rural Sonoma County.)

This, is that milk. Or rather, represents what today's could be. Grass fed, local, served from glass. Only problem, this was a sample. Now, in theory, it could be, like, in the realm of possibility that this could maybe, like someday be an item at the market.............until then, I'll be baking up batch after batch of muffins, bringing them to market every week, hoping and praying for the possibility to trade for some more of this milk.

6 comments:

K and S said...

sounded like a delicious trade!

Mimi said...

I always love reading about your barter system.

I'm lucky to be able to get Strauss milk in glass bottles here with the cream top. It is soooo yummy. I wish you luck on future trades. That kind of milk is wonderful!

Unknown said...

Ah yes...that would have been Miller's Dairy Raw Milk.
Love, Mom

Vivian Mahoney said...

Love how you dredge up childhood memories with this post. It's hard to work out a barter system around here. You're very lucky.

Monkey Wrangler said...

Kat: Delicious indeed. Now, I plot out how to get more.

Mimi: Straus is our mainstay at home and has been now for more that 6 years, so, I couldn't agree with you more. (I've got so many of their milk caps, I should do a post about it sometime.)

Ma: Ah, Millers...........I can hear the bottles clinking as they hit the front porch.

Vivian: Thanks!

And, nice use of dredge.

Chiot's Run said...

MMM, you should do whatever you can to score more of this milk. We found a local farm that sells us raw milk from organic pastured happy cows. It's so delicious and we are even able to make our own cheese & butter.

BTW - I came across your blog while searching for sourdough pretzel recipes to serve at my Guinness 4th of July Party (the entire menu contains Guinness - even the ice cream :)