Since Lexy and Bella have been born I have been increasingly concerned about the fate of the vast majority of calves and their mothers who are separated within two days of birth.  Many male calves are immediately slaughtered (over 100000 per year in the U.K.)or raised for veal living in restricted pens until the end of their short lives.  The mother, who “as much as the calf wants to suck the cow wants to give suck”, has to suffer the separation so that we can drink her milk and her calf cannot.Three months later the mother will be reimpregnated  and the whole process starts again.  Last year, when we sold Barney and Larry to our friends in a nearby village, we were aware that they would be fattened and eventually killed for their meat.  However, they were in an open field, able to run around and enjoy each others company and the company of other cows. They were hand fed by their owners and they were cared for humanely.  The logical conclusion of my worry about the commercialisation of animals and the dairy industry is that I will have to milk my own cows, get a goat or stop eating dairy.  Yikes! Many who know have watched me slather butter on home made bread or even on cheese.  I consume tubs of ice cream and drown apple crumble in cream.  Help!  Today I began my experiments with pastry.  I usually make pastry with flour, butter and milk to bind.  This afternoon I used a recipe which consisted of flour, oil and water.  Fiddly to roll out and paler when baked but actually tasted delicious.  I made some strudel biscuits, some savoury biscuits, two jam tarts and a few mini quiches.  Experiments will continue over the next couple of weeks.