[upbeat folk music]
- Inga: We follow the trail home towards the barn
to begin the morning milking.
[gentle music]
The morning milking always turns into
kind of a meditation for me.
It's the time of day
when I can just sort of really be present
and connect with my own thoughts and with the cows too.
You guys are really pretty today; yes, you are.
We start off by giving 'em a scoop of grain
with some added vitamins and minerals in it.
This keeps 'em really happy while they're in the barn,
and it also keeps them healthy.
[broom rustling]
After grazing the clover in the old hayfield,
their udders are full of this milk
that we're gonna use to make our cheese.
[bucket clanking]
Carrying out the daily ritual of milking cows
reminds me that I'm doing the same things here on my farm
that generations of my family have done before me.
The things that I'm doing here every day,
milking the cows, making the cheese,
are things I'm doing to build my future,
but they're a constant reminder of my connection to the past.
[vacuum pump whizzing]
As soon as that vacuum pump goes on in the morning
and I hear that clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk,
that sound of the pulsation, [vacuum pump clunking]
it takes me right back to being a kid,
milking cows on my parents' dairy farm.
Hey! [laughing]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
Here on the farm,
we're still a little old-fashioned.
We milk using bucket milkers.
We do this because we wanna treat the milk gently.
Instead of pumping the milk
through a traditional pipeline system,
I wanna keep the integrity and the butterfat of the milk whole.
By milking into a bucket
and then pouring that milk out by hand,
we keep all that fat and that flavor in the milk,
which then ends up in our cheese.
Thank you, girls. [clapping]
Let's go, thank you.
Let's move it, Toots, let's go.
Come on, Tootsie.
Let's go, Tootsie, come on. [clapping]
Good girls, good girls.
Come on, Toots, come on.
[upbeat folk music]