On the Road to Find Out

I have gone on a little about how good Dulce de Leche is, and this is set to continue, especially as I now face time away from the farm, without an endless supply at hand. However it’s times like these where we have to search for solutions. Which is why the last thing I did before I left the farm was get the recipe for making this irresisitible condiment (it manages to taste amazing with everything, I don’t know how it does it! Try it in a cheese sandwich – delicious!) and the great thing is it’s one of the easiest recipes ever. All you need is:

• 2 litres milk
• 500g sugar
• teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Then all you do is boil up the milk. Strain the milk after or find another way of removing any sediment that might be on the top of the milk. Add the sugar and heat to just before boiling. When it’s almost boiling add the bicarbonate of soda and then turn down the heat so it’s just above a simmer and then keep stirring til all the sugar’s dissolved and it’s nice and thick.

In the cheese room at the farm, Romina would sometimes add vanilla to the mix (added at the same time as sugar) but I prefer the unadulterated taste of Dulce de Leche.

Unfortunately, there are no recipes for fresh milk, but can’t wait to try this receipe with any milk I can find.

Dulce de Leche

“Sand?”
“Right here”
“Herbs?”
“Yep”
“Flour?”
“Here somewhere, yeah, got it”
“Juice of cactus?”
“Yep, over there”
“Horse’s tail?”
“Got it”
“Milk?”
“Yep, that too”
“Ash?”
“Also”

This was the conversation between Luis and myself just before we added all of these ingredients into a wheelbarrow full of fresh cow dung I had picked that morning. The next step; to mix it all together. Luis dove in without a moment’s hesitation, I followed a moment or too later, once he had broken the cow pats up a little bit so that they didn’t quite resemble poo anymore. The smell was a little over-whelming at first, but i flung a load of the herb-infusion in there and it started to lose it’s foul odour, and kind of just smell of nothing, which was a relief.

But what was this concoction for? For the trees of course. It was the Day of the Earth and those trees were ready for a little helping hand. We got the others and everyone went round the farm spreading it all over the tree trunks. I’ll have to remember to get the recipe before I leave.

For some reason, Juan decided I was the best person to be in charge of the cows. He was off to plant wheat in some nearby farm all day and needed someone to take care of them. You would have thought he would have chosen someone who actually knew what the hell he was talking about. But no, he chose me.

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