Workshops on Goat's Milk

Last week was a really busy week, for all of us. Steve went out to the campo (countryside) every single day. On Monday Abby and I spent some time prepping for our goat’s milk workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday. The goal of the workshops was to talk about the nutritive benefits of goat’s milk and to give show them some uses for goat’s milk.

Tuesday we went to the community of Mil Bosque. While we met with a few women, Steve held a veterinary workshop for some of his male beneficiaries down the road. At our workshop, we first had a taste test in which the women were given a cup of cow’s milk and goat’s milk, and then asked to guess which was which. We did this to disprove the myth that goat’s milk tastes bad or has a foul odor. Surprisingly, none of the women guessed correctly! All the women thought the goat’s milk was cow’s milk, and vice versa. They were quite surprised when we told them the truth.
Then we talked about some of the benefits of goat’s milk and how healthy it is, especially in comparison to cow’s milk, and a substitute for babies if the mom’s don’t have milk and formula is not available.

Below, the women wait for the workshop to start.


We talked a bit more in depth about specific vitamins and why they are necessary for the body. We especially tried to emphasize the importance of milk to pregnant and nursing moms as well as children.

Then we asked one of the ladies to show the rest how to make cuajada (a type of farmer’s cheese) and we explained the process to make sweetened condensed milk. The one upside to making condensed milk is that it can be stored in any container with a lid for several months without spoiling. This is important as the vast majority of people don’t have refrigerators and have no way of storing any extra milk they may have. Because goat’s milk has a higher fat content (especially true for tropical breeds), the cuajada came out creamier than usual. Afterwards, we ate the cuajada with fresh tortillas, yum!

Below, separating the curds from the whey (solids from the liquid)



Me, stirring the pot of milk to keep it from burning.


The next day we went to the community of Yucul and repeated the workshop, although we added more in-depth topics of overall health and nutrition. I went over the basic food groups and tried to emphasize the necessity of each one. The women in both communities were really interested in the information and seemed to enjoy learning how to make the cuajada and condensed milk and I enjoyed getting to know the women more and interacting with them again. I counted the other day and realized that it’s been almost a year and a half since my last workshop!

Abby joking around with the women.