Day trip to MooJesus Dairy
Feb 28th, 2010 by Paul
One thing that really annoys me about living in Austin is the lack of a really good butcher. Don’t get me wrong there’s a few good places to buy quality meat ( Central Market, Wholefoods, etc ) however their butchers are generally too busy running a long counter with lots of customers to talk meat. When I have managed to get a few minutes with them I’ve found them to be fairly unknowledgable about non-standard isssue meats. Ask them about Caul fat, Pork Jowls, or heaven forbid a whole pigs head and they generally just tell you they don’t have any… No offers to get any in.
Anyways, because of this I’m always on the lookout for local farms that sell direct. I’ve found often the prices charged by the farms are very similar to that of CM and generally far superior being pastured, grass fed, etc. I stumbled across MooJesus Farm’s website and after a quick read knew that I had to go there. Not only pastured meats, but raw dairy!
We set out yesterday with some friends for the 90 minute trip and without major incident arrived mid morning. Pastor Gina the Matriarch of the farm/family greeted us as we walked into their little restaurant and sent us down to the milking shed where they were about to milk some cows. We wandered down a little trail and a few minutes later arrived at the shed.
Inside the shed we met a very polite young man who was washing the cows thoroughly from head to toe. We chatted with him for a while and then went outside and moo’d with the cows in the yard for a while so he could finish up. Not long after he called us in and made us wash our hands and put on gloves.
Just before we were due to start one of the cows let out and massive poop which splattered all over the place, managing to keep clear of the poop grenade we headed back outside while the washing process started all over again. They’re very serious about keeping their milk clean ( and should be! ).
Back inside and cleaned a couple of us got the chance to have a go at milking. I took a turn and was surprised at how much pressure was required to get the milk flowing. Obviously little calves have strong mouths.
After milking the cows we went back up to the restaurant and sat down for lunch. As well as being hardcore Christians the family also believe in a raw food diet. Almost all of the food served to us was grown at the farm itself.
The meal started with massive glasses of raw milk which tasted amazing. Gina then served us up a green leaf salad with a beautiful dressing of olive oil, garlic, cumin. I’m sure there was other stuff in there, but they were the dominant flavours. She also served us some raw crackers made with grains and seeds with a some raw butter and some herbed cream cheese, and some pepperjack cheese.
Following this was a bowl of spicy beef mince for me, and some vegetarian wraps which were collard green leaves filled with some fresh tomatoes, a pate made of nuts, yogurt and more. These were served with a large stack of fresh sprouts and portabello mushrooms in a delicious marinade. There were also a couple of sauces, one tamarind based, the other a spicy green sauce. Both were terrific.
Gina also gave us a bowl of dried kale chips with a slightly spicy seasoning on them to nibble on between courses.
Finishing the meal we had some chocolate truffles made of coconut and ginger and coated with a thin chocolate shell made from organic cocoa nibs. The truffles were so good that I totally forgot to take a photo of them …
After the meal we picked up our grocery orders. I got a gallon of raw milk, a 2 lbs pork shoulder roast, two sirloin steaks, a couple of pounds of oxtail and some lacto-fermented sauerkraut.
All up we had an excellent day. There were some lengthy delays in between courses for lunch which caused a few grumpy moments from some of us, but overall for me at least it was well worth it.
