My Milk Lady has returned! The cows calved and had a nice rest, and once again I’m getting my recycled gallon jar of milk every week. She had to raise her prices because the price of hay and fuel have gone up so much, and although I assured her it was fine, I understood, I still found a surprise present of a dozen duck eggs in my box last week.

I don’t know if all the health claims for raw milk are true, but I do know that it’s worth what I pay for a real food product, produced and delivered by someone whose animal husbandry and food preparation protocols I can trust. There’s a specific pleasure in helping to support a local farmer and knowing that by doing so we’re helping to keep that land in farming and not subdivided or turned into a gravel pit (as her neighbor is doing). And I know the milk tastes great, that the yoghurt I make from it is not like any yoghurt I’ve ever bought in a store, and that my allergies and digestive system do seem a little better when I’m eating a local food product that comes with all it’s original bacteria. Same goes for my own sourdough bread.

As for the duck eggs — I used them in the funeral cupcakes earlier this week. I’m not wild about duck eggs — even for me, a dedicated egg lover, they’re just a little too eggy — but they’re fabulous for baking. They whip up unbelievably, and they’re very rich. So, now I have a nice little stash of duck eggs as well.

I’ve also got half a local lamb on order … spring is here … there’s local food again. And it’s been raining, that’s rain, NOT snow (knock on wood) for two days now. A nice, soft, soaking spring rain which is encouraging the arugula, spinach, broccoli rabe, mustard and turnip greens, and peas that I planted last week to start poking up out of the raised beds. Teeny little green sprouts.