The Home Dairy: Milk, Butter, Yogurt, and Simple Cheese From a Family Cow or Goat (The Homestead Starter Series Book 22)

Good milk starts with good habits. The Home Dairy is a practical beginner's guide to keeping a family cow or goat and turning fresh milk into butter, yogurt, kefir, cultured cream, ricotta, paneer, chevre, mozzarella, and simple cheese. Written for small homesteads and households considering their first dairy animal, it explains the daily commitment honestly before walking through housing, feed, milking, sanitation, milk handling, and the kitchen skills that make a home dairy worthwhile. Inside, you'll learn how to choose between cows and goats, understand lactation and breeding cycles, set up a clean milking area, hand milk with confidence, chill and store milk safely, evaluate raw milk risk, pasteurize when needed, separate cream, make butter, culture yogurt and kefir, use whey wisely, and understand the legal side before selling or sharing dairy products. The book keeps the focus practical, safe, and beginner-friendly so you can build real food skills without pretending the work is smaller than it is.