I'm looking for a fairly easy cheese recipe in which I can use a mixture of goat and cows milk. I'm leaning towards Romano or Parmesan, but the whole idea of waiting a year to try my first cheese makes for a rather lame start to my cheesy adventures. I could go for some more instant gratification-style cheese products. Maybe feta??? Does anyone have a recipe to recommend?
We only have about a quart of goat milk right now, so first things first, I'm going to make some cajeta. Cajeta is a Mexican caramel sauce, akin to Dulce de leche. I foresee it having a starring role in my goat milk lattes during our Farmer Feed Thyself challenge next month. If I have to go cold turkey off of chocolate, I hope that I can at least appease my sweet tooth with a down-home caramel macchiato.
Come on out of the woodwork, cheese people. What's a good beginning cheese making recipe that works well with some goat milk in the mix?
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Six Ounces of Triumph...
...look just like this!
Yes, it's only 6 ounces. Six very hard-earned ounces! In fact I can honestly say that I haven't sweated and sworn over an amount of milk this bitty since I was the one lactating.
I would have taken pictures of our inaugural use of the Henry Milker, but even with my three assistant goat wranglers, things were hectic. Gertie was the least willing milker, Chardonnay the least fruitful (I seriously think she shut her milk ducts DOWN) and Fritzen the easiest and best producer. Considering her long history of pig-headedness, who'd have thought?
Our does' milk supply is beginning to wane, so this milker got here just in the nick of time. Now, if I can train my goats (and myself) to be up for using it twice per day, we might just be in business.
My fellow milk maids, enjoying a post-milking water balloon fight.
Yes, it's only 6 ounces. Six very hard-earned ounces! In fact I can honestly say that I haven't sweated and sworn over an amount of milk this bitty since I was the one lactating.
I would have taken pictures of our inaugural use of the Henry Milker, but even with my three assistant goat wranglers, things were hectic. Gertie was the least willing milker, Chardonnay the least fruitful (I seriously think she shut her milk ducts DOWN) and Fritzen the easiest and best producer. Considering her long history of pig-headedness, who'd have thought?
Our does' milk supply is beginning to wane, so this milker got here just in the nick of time. Now, if I can train my goats (and myself) to be up for using it twice per day, we might just be in business.
My fellow milk maids, enjoying a post-milking water balloon fight.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Container Growing - Hits and Misses
I came across a link on Dr. Earth Organics' facebook page about how to grow your own ginger root. Cool! Ginger is one of the more expensive, oft-used flavors in my kitchen, so this could potentially rock for me, right?
The instructions are super easy (find them here). Essentially, buy some organic ginger and plant it in good potting soil in your container of choice. Don't let it get too hot/cold/wet/dry, and in a few months, you've hopefully doubled your initial investment. Can it really be that easy?
This is me we're talking about. Does anybody remember the re-generate your celery thing from last summer? That gave me about 3 inches of new, skinny, pale celery before it up and died. Not one of my greatest hits.
Last year's container grown spuds didn't exactly wow either. But that was owing to a few things beyond my control, like my protective bird netting being mercilessly hacked by my chickens, slugs falling from the sky, and us selling the house and moving before the spuds had rightly finished up, amounting to 2 pounds of seed/waste potatoes producing 1 lb, 13 oz of sad little micro-spuds. I guess that the slugs and the hens got the difference.
In spite of my track record, I'm going to give the ginger a shot. It sounds pretty low maintenance, which is half the battle when you're a plant/pet/hairstyle of mine.
The instructions are super easy (find them here). Essentially, buy some organic ginger and plant it in good potting soil in your container of choice. Don't let it get too hot/cold/wet/dry, and in a few months, you've hopefully doubled your initial investment. Can it really be that easy?
This is me we're talking about. Does anybody remember the re-generate your celery thing from last summer? That gave me about 3 inches of new, skinny, pale celery before it up and died. Not one of my greatest hits.
Last year's container grown spuds didn't exactly wow either. But that was owing to a few things beyond my control, like my protective bird netting being mercilessly hacked by my chickens, slugs falling from the sky, and us selling the house and moving before the spuds had rightly finished up, amounting to 2 pounds of seed/waste potatoes producing 1 lb, 13 oz of sad little micro-spuds. I guess that the slugs and the hens got the difference.
In spite of my track record, I'm going to give the ginger a shot. It sounds pretty low maintenance, which is half the battle when you're a plant/pet/hairstyle of mine.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
I've Got One Sexy Chicken!
A few weeks ago, a local author named David Toht came by to take some pictures of our animals for a backyard homesteading book that he's written, due out this December.
He got my name from my cousin who lives up the road just a piece, who's family raises goats and honeybees. David was looking for Americauna/Aracauna chickens and LaMancha goats. Bingo!
So we welcomed him over to photograph our critters, on the condition that I could photograph him, photographing our critters. Here he is at work-
He seemed especially fond of our girl, Rosie the Ameracauna Hen.
Ro-Ro in the snow, November 2010.
He also took lots of pics of Chardy-girl, and those gorgeous blue eyes of hers.
As I said, the book is due to be published in December of this year. I can't wait to see if any of our supermodels made the cut!
If you're interested in pre-ordering a copy of the book, or just checking it out, please click through the following handy-dandy link. ;)
He got my name from my cousin who lives up the road just a piece, who's family raises goats and honeybees. David was looking for Americauna/Aracauna chickens and LaMancha goats. Bingo!
So we welcomed him over to photograph our critters, on the condition that I could photograph him, photographing our critters. Here he is at work-
He seemed especially fond of our girl, Rosie the Ameracauna Hen.
He also took lots of pics of Chardy-girl, and those gorgeous blue eyes of hers.
As I said, the book is due to be published in December of this year. I can't wait to see if any of our supermodels made the cut!
If you're interested in pre-ordering a copy of the book, or just checking it out, please click through the following handy-dandy link. ;)
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Grow Your Own Challenge - The Rules
I've read and pondered and researched and thought over the guidelines of this Farmer-feed-thyself challenge that we're gearing up for, and I've whittled things down a bit. Here's where we stand now on the rules and details-
*We still haven't picked a hard and fast date to start, but with the weather we're having (another no-grow spring), I'm thinking that we'll have to wait until August before the garden is giving us much of anything. So for now, let's say August 1st.
*We have massively refined our allowances. We will include -
*Coffee (fair trade, organic)
*Oil for cooking (domestic, organic)
*Seasonings/Spices (organic, fair trade)
*What is fair game -
*Anything hunted, caught, foraged, grown or otherwise produced by ourselves.
*Honey, if I can find someone to barter with. I'm not optimistic. :(
*What we anticipate eating -
*Eggs
*Goats Milk/cheese/butter
*Salmon/crab/clams caught/foraged by Bill & I
*Fruits & veggies from the garden
*Foraged berries, mushrooms, greens, etc.
*Our canned jams & jellies from last summer
*Our homemade beer & wine
*Hopefully, our own apple cider & rhubarb wine vinegar
I just know that the things that are going to kick my butt are the minimal dairy and the almost complete lack of carbs and sugar. I am going to be one bitchy sloth the first few days of this challenge, you can count on that!
I have a feeling that my great goat milking motivator will be that morning cup of joe. I have to have cream in my coffee, ergo, I'll have to milk at least once a day for my wake-up cup. This is the aspect of this challenge that intimidates me the most. Milking has not gone well so far, and the ladies are producing less now than the last time I tried milking. This could be rough.
Is there anything that I'm overlooking here? Do these guidelines sound pretty reasonable? I'm excited and nervous as hell to try this feeding myself thing. Cheer me on, friends. I need all of the forward momentum I can get!
*We still haven't picked a hard and fast date to start, but with the weather we're having (another no-grow spring), I'm thinking that we'll have to wait until August before the garden is giving us much of anything. So for now, let's say August 1st.
*We have massively refined our allowances. We will include -
*Coffee (fair trade, organic)
*Oil for cooking (domestic, organic)
*Seasonings/Spices (organic, fair trade)
*What is fair game -
*Anything hunted, caught, foraged, grown or otherwise produced by ourselves.
*Honey, if I can find someone to barter with. I'm not optimistic. :(
*What we anticipate eating -
*Eggs
*Goats Milk/cheese/butter
*Salmon/crab/clams caught/foraged by Bill & I
*Fruits & veggies from the garden
*Foraged berries, mushrooms, greens, etc.
*Our canned jams & jellies from last summer
*Our homemade beer & wine
*Hopefully, our own apple cider & rhubarb wine vinegar
I just know that the things that are going to kick my butt are the minimal dairy and the almost complete lack of carbs and sugar. I am going to be one bitchy sloth the first few days of this challenge, you can count on that!
I have a feeling that my great goat milking motivator will be that morning cup of joe. I have to have cream in my coffee, ergo, I'll have to milk at least once a day for my wake-up cup. This is the aspect of this challenge that intimidates me the most. Milking has not gone well so far, and the ladies are producing less now than the last time I tried milking. This could be rough.
Is there anything that I'm overlooking here? Do these guidelines sound pretty reasonable? I'm excited and nervous as hell to try this feeding myself thing. Cheer me on, friends. I need all of the forward momentum I can get!
Friday, June 17, 2011
And the winner of GGG Giveaway 3 is...
Commenter #5, Simcha! This loot is going all the way to Turkey!
Facebook me your mailing address, chicky, so that I can ship you your goodies. Thanks again to all who read and entered!
Facebook me your mailing address, chicky, so that I can ship you your goodies. Thanks again to all who read and entered!
The New Kid in Town
Our new roo, a white-crested black Polish, Thunder, aka Thunder-Bunder, Thunderbird.
Contrary to his tough moniker and his dashing good looks, so far Thunder has been striking out with the ladies. He is also extremely shy, and goes hauling-booty into the coop anytime anyone makes eye contact. At least he's not mean.
Our main plan for Thunder-boy is to mate him with Miss Curly, a frizzled hennie of the same breed. The literature on chicken genetics tells us that Thunder & Curl should have around 75% frizzled babies. I'm so excited! The only thing cuter than a frizzled Polish is a frizzled Naked Neck (check out the 6th photo from the top - tell me that's not freaking adorable!), and we'll hopefully get there in another year or two. ;) But our grand plans for frizzled chicks have to wait a while still, as Curly isn't laying yet, and is also still recovering from a bit of henpecking by the other girls. The lovers must, out of necessity, remain apart for the time being.
Thunder, with Curly in the neighboring run. So close, yet so far.
We put Gracie, our golden-laced Polish, in with Thunder for a little bit to see if there was any chemistry between them. THERE WAS NOT. Our mild mannered Gracie had Thunder practically climbing the walls to get away from her. Chicken-hearted indeed!
Even though he's not yet able to fulfill his husbandly duties, it has already been nice to have a roo around again. His feeble, sporadic little cock-a-doodle doo makes this place feel like a farm again. Love live the Thunder Bird!
Contrary to his tough moniker and his dashing good looks, so far Thunder has been striking out with the ladies. He is also extremely shy, and goes hauling-booty into the coop anytime anyone makes eye contact. At least he's not mean.
Our main plan for Thunder-boy is to mate him with Miss Curly, a frizzled hennie of the same breed. The literature on chicken genetics tells us that Thunder & Curl should have around 75% frizzled babies. I'm so excited! The only thing cuter than a frizzled Polish is a frizzled Naked Neck (check out the 6th photo from the top - tell me that's not freaking adorable!), and we'll hopefully get there in another year or two. ;) But our grand plans for frizzled chicks have to wait a while still, as Curly isn't laying yet, and is also still recovering from a bit of henpecking by the other girls. The lovers must, out of necessity, remain apart for the time being.
We put Gracie, our golden-laced Polish, in with Thunder for a little bit to see if there was any chemistry between them. THERE WAS NOT. Our mild mannered Gracie had Thunder practically climbing the walls to get away from her. Chicken-hearted indeed!
Even though he's not yet able to fulfill his husbandly duties, it has already been nice to have a roo around again. His feeble, sporadic little cock-a-doodle doo makes this place feel like a farm again. Love live the Thunder Bird!
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