The market arrangements for milk in France are strange. He has a production quota that he is not allowed to exceed (he would get fined), he is only legally allowed to sell his milk production to a distributor, and the price he gets is fixed by the buyer. Alain has not seen an increase in the price he gets for milk in the 20 years he has been farming. If you have seen protests by French dairy farmers on the television, it is because it is being proposed that the price that farmers get be reduced by about 25%.
His quota amounts to the average output of about 24-and-a-half cows, so to make sure he maximises his revenues, he has 25 cows. Every day, he pours away about half a cow's worth of milk in order to avoid the fine. The local cats love it, and because this happens in a small scale at every one of the thousands of small dairy farms in France, there is no "milk lake" for anyone to complain about.
You can't get clotted cream in France, I have no idea why not. But there are plenty of recipies for it on the web, so I thought I'd have a go. Basically you take unpasteurised full cream milk, and leave it to settle so the cream rises to the top. Then you heat it gently for an hour or so over steam to sterilise it, and the cream clots. Then you leave it to cool, and then scrape the clotted cream off the top. Did it work? Don't know yet, but it doesn't look like it made much cream!
The milk heating gently over steam. If it works and I get enough cream, I'll invite Alain over for proper English cream tea :)
Newsflash: Clotted cream production successful! Will have cream tea this Sunday :)
P.S. I have noticed that this page comes up when people search for sources of clotted cream in France. I have found that Mascarpone cheese, though different, makes a good substitute, and is widely available in France.
