Raining Again!

Since it's raining again my outside plan got put on hold and I am trying to get a few urgent inside projects done.

First - Red Current Jelly. Made a bunch. The jars look lovely and it tastes quite good.



Second - Cherry Pitter. Found one at Hirschberg's Country Store in Baltic. It is good to live in the midst of various Amish communities. They still do enough traditional cooking and canning that you can find tools when you need them. This is not the pitter I grew up with. The ones we had were rather like a pair of tongs with a scoop on one side to hold the cherry and a rod on the other side that punched the pit out when you squeezed it. This new, spring loaded, self feeding, table top machine is rather like trading in a flint-lock for a lever action Winchester repeater rifle. Same basic function, but very different when it comes to efficiency.



Third - Cheese. The Feta is now in its brine. It cures there for two weeks. The Cheddar is waxed (no photo, it looks pretty bad) and in the cooler to age.

Now all I have left is clean up, chores, dinner, and 4-H. Should be an easy evening.

The great cheese experiment continues

Monday was cheese making day. We made a big batch of Feta. Today it goes into the brine to age for a couple of weeks. It looks good. Definitely smells like Feta.

We also added a a new cheese to the mix. Cheddar, our first pressed cheese. Reading through my cheese book it seemed pretty straight forward, but getting all the little bits just right was trickier than I anticipated. Temperature control was the biggest challenge. Keeping a constant temp in a water bath in the kitchen sink isn't easy. In the end, I think it will prove to be a bit drier than is ideal, but hopefully still pretty good. Waiting two months to find out makes it hard to gage. Thursday we will wax it and put it in cooler to age.

cheddar curds

pressing the cheese

Also made more yogurt and yogurt cheese. Those seem to be a hit with the family and our group of testers.

Rainy Day

After a fierce couple of weeks of summer, we are back to spring. The high temp was 76 deg. F. today. Nights have been in the low 40's. I've had to close the ends of the greenhouse back up to keep the basil from going squidgy.

Today it has rained for 20 minutes at a time every two hours. Lots of thunder and lightning. Cold.

All my outside plans got scrapped, so we spent the day doing inside work. We got a couple of rooms rearranged so the kids have a better play space. We also made yogurt cheese, mozzarella cheese, muffins, and pesto. We did get a bit done in the green house, including harvesting the first big tomato of the season. That will go nicely in the dinner salad (tomato, basil, onion, fresh mozzarella, and a nice olive oil/cracked pepper vinaigrette). Pair that with pasta and pesto, a fresh baguette, and a crisp Riesling, or an ice cold draft cider, and you have a perfect summer dinner (wish it was 15 degrees warmer (62 now, and falling)).

The greenhouse is thriving. Will be installing the center grow boxes this week. Those will house the herbs that we must have year round; basil, chives, dill, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, and garlic chives. I can't wait to get them settled in their year round digs.

The outdoor garden is in transition from cool crops to warm crops. The heat and longer days made most of the cool stuff blot, but we haven't had enough heat to really have the warm stuff thrive. Should have had more row cover on things. It's going to be grim at the farmers market next week. My planting schedule didn't factor in such a long cool spring, followed by an instant jump to summer, and then back to spring. Things are struggling. The only good thing is that all the other vendors are in the same boat. The greenhouse crops are saving us. They got us there first, and make it so we consistently have things that are fresh and local that no one else has.

The livestock are all doing well. May is starting to balloon. She has about a month and a half to go. The kids are growing fast. I'm still not sure I want 13 goats, but none of the new ones have showed anything to cause me to put them on the sale list. Porter and Chuck have adjusted to life in the mob. They are growing fast, and starting to explore the world of grass. They nibble, it doesn't contribute much to their diet, but that is how they build up their digestive system. Soon, grass will be better than milk. I can't wait!

Run over by the egg truck

The chickens, who a short time ago were on stew-pot row facing a short trip to rejoin the resource pool, have really kicked in the egg laying. I went out to put the days five dozen eggs in the egg refrigerator only to discover that there were already 15 dozen from the previous few days still sitting there. I don't like to have them sitting around more than a week, and business has been slow. It's pretty easy to use up the odd extra dozen making pasta or baking something, but 15 dozen with 5 dozen more being added daily was a bit much to deal with. (One of those cases where you worry about failure, and forget to plan for success.) After an hour of phone calling I finally found someone who would take them as a donation. (It amazes me how reluctant food pantries are to take perishable food.) The local Salvation Army food pantry agreed to take them, but when I got there to deliver them they were not really thrilled. Still, I hope someone got some use out of them. In the mean time, I have ramped up the marketing effort, and am preparing to add some other garden items to the list of things that are available now. Salad greens are still a week away, but if someone really wanted some I could probably put something together.

Made out second attempt at Chevre last night. It turned out much better than the first go, but it's still isn't up to what I can get at the store. Apparently, I had two problems with the first batch; too much rennet (which I suspected) and temperature. Apparently room temperature is somewhere in the 72 deg F range (both the starter and the cheese needed to spend half a day or more at 'room temperature'). This time of year my kitchen temp tops out at maybe 65 (on baking day, 62 is more like it), so the mini cheese makers were too cold to do their work. We kept everything nice and warm in a water bath this time with better results. Since we are getting more than 1/2 a gallon of milk a day right now and still have 4 more goats to freshen, three which are not first fresheners, we should have plenty of milk for the learning process. We also made Feta which seems to have worked brilliantly. Still don't know for sure, it needs to age until next week before it is ready to eat.

Feta waiting for brine

I thumbed my nose at the establishment in some previous posts and comments, and have since (on advice of counsel) stepped back a wee bit. I have now got a very well written (and legally sound) sample of a goat share agreement to work from, thanks to the lovely folks at Blue Moon
Dairy

I also got my taxes in on time. Death seemed preferable, but...one must pay the piper even when you don't like the song.

Hatching day is the 18th, can't wait!

Goat Cheese - First try at Chevre

I made our first batch of Chevre last night. It had finished draining by 4;30 this morning when I got up. Our friend Marjory, who shares our goat herd, volunteered to be one of my testers as I learn the fine art and science of cheese making. She is coming by this afternoon to get a sample of this first effort.

I found it a bit disappointing. It was a bit grainy and mildly sweet. I think the graininess comes from too much rennet (it's measured in drops and diluted. But how big is a drop?) I'm not sure about the flavor. I'm going to have to go buy some today and compare. It's been a while since I tried Chevre, and that was flavored.

Last year we made Mozzarella. It turned out quite well most of the time. Most of it we pulled out into long ropes, cut into sticks and let the kids snack on them. Much better than the store bought cheese sticks, and a lot more fun to make. We will be making more Mozzarella this summer.

I'm planning to try Feta next. That is something we eat a lot of. I've helped make it before, so I have a feel for the process. We'll see how it turns out.

Goat Cheese and Crackers

We made our first cheese this past week. It turned out surprisingly well. Everyone except Rowan liked it. Rowan is a Cheddar fan and Mozzarella is not his idea of great cheese. Connie was pleased that it wasn't exceptionally goaty and I liked the fact that it only took a couple of hours. Julia, who has had allergic reactions to every milk product she has ever tried, ate two pieces with no reaction at all. She even thought it tasted good. Now we have one more thing we can do with the milk. I'm not sure what we would do with a pound of mozzarella cheese a day, but we could easily make that much.

The chickens are doing well. We are still getting almost three dozen eggs per day even though they are molting. They seem to enjoy being back on green grass, and are doing a great job cleaning up the pasture. Their coop is movable, not perfect yet, but I can move it by my self even on the hills.

The grass has really started to grow and we have had the goats out doing some mowing around the gardens and the barn. They love it, and are learning the system of moving from the barn to the pasture. Since that first rodeo experience things have gone pretty well. The baby goats are growing fast. I'm looking for a buyer now so things will be lined up when they are ready. The youngest love playing with Julia and Rowan.



Crackers - (as in crazy) I went to the farmers market mtg to get signed up for a booth space and find out about policies, etc. There were very few people there and when it came time to elect board members I found myself elected. I guess I could have turned down the opportunity, but I had already opened my mouth too much in the meeting. Now I guess I can put-up or shut-up. We are having a marketing mtg tomorrow. I have some ideas but I know that I will have to take the lead on anything I suggest because the rest of the group is quite stuck in a rut. I'm glad I don't feel a need to save the world or anything like that. I don't know where I would find the time.

The weather has been strangely warm for late March/early April. It should get up to 80 today. Makes me want to plant tomatoes, but we should be back to winter by the end of the week. I think snow for Easter is a tradition.