Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Milk and other non dairy related items

Well I'm a happy man. All I wanted from this trip was to visit a working dairy farm, preferably one that worked jersey cows. Well at 4.45 am I wandered up from our camp and met Keith, who patiently answered all my questions and gave me a few ideas. I'm pretty sure Lantanaland's cow project is going up the list when I get back. Only instead of a Dexter, I'll probably go and try and get and older Jersey from a dairy.

I thought there would be lots of cottage industry dairys over here, but milk is controlled by a very monopilistic company called Fontera. Think AWB for wheat if you're from Oz. Compare this to the choice I'm offered in SE Qld. I could buy milk at Woolies from at least four companies, plus I could get milk from boutique dairys at most delis. One thing you can't get at an Ozzie supermarket, which is one of the many reasons I want a cow, is in abundance here. Cottage cheese. The only stuff I can get back home is weight watchers crap which has so much removed from it, it resembles sawdust more than the original product.

The Wife continues to drive like a champion. She is going so well on the NZ roads I am thinking of enterering her in the Targa Tasmania rally next year. In a campervan of course. The roads here are like a politicians mind, twists upon twists upon turns with a loop de loop. A trip we thought would take two and a half hours took us five.

Admittedly we stoppped at a salmon farm so I could catch dinner. Normally at he I'd avoid such hijinks like the plauge, but I'm a tourist here, so I figure I get a free pass. It was a good deal too, fishing was free and the fish per kilo was cheaper than at home, plus a good deal fresher. I had hot smoked salmon pasta for dinner. It told me two things, buliding a smoker for Lantanaland has to go up the list and going from fresh made pasta to packet dried pasta is like coming off heroin with nicotine patches.

The food has been cheap and excellent, very fresh and the beer is a patch above most domestic Australian beers, Montieth's Summer ale the brew of choice today. Lifes good.







Lantanaland from the iPhone

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