Chevre

I made some chevre for one of my husband's customers. He mentioned to his customer that I happened to make goat cheese and his customer is having a big birthday bash this weekend so I gave him some to enjoy.  It is so simple to make and delicious too, not to mention it uses up at least a gallon of my abundant milk supply.

Chevre Recipe:
Warm 4-5 qts of milk to 80°F
add 1/8 tsp starter (I like Flora Danica) let sit for 2 minutes before stirring
put 3 drops liquid rennet in 1/3 cup cold water
add 2 tbsp of the diluted rennet mixture to milk

Let set for 12-18 hours until curd forms. 

                               

Scoop curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth.

Hang to drain overnight.

This is what it looks like when you remove from cheesecloth.  This is when you add some salt to taste and whatever seasonings you desire.  This batch I made garlic & dill. Yum.  That's all there is to it!

Plain chevre can be substituted for cream cheese and seasoned chevre goes well with crackers.  Plain chevre freezes well, just add seasonings after you thaw it. Fresh chevre lasts for two weeks in the fridge.

You can reuse your cheesecloth.  Wash it & then boil it for 5 minutes. I use the muslin type cheesecloth.

Turkeys

Our turkeys came yesterday.  My husband called me at 7am to let me know that the post office in Hartford, VT had called to rudley let him know that "our chickens are in & that we MUST come get them." Sorry to put you our Mr. Post Man. Don't you value job security? He was rude when I picked them up too. That's another subject! I packed up a heat lamp & some turkey starter crumbles before I left the house. They hatched out on 6/21/11 and shipped via priority mail through the post office in this box.

15 Bronze Breasted Turkeys, the minimum order through Welp Hatchery, occupied one half of this box. My children were estatic. "Mommy, do we get to play with them today at work?" I set up the heat lamp and plugged it in and wouldn't you know it, the bulb blew! A 200 watt light bulb came to the rescue and warmed them up quickly. My two legged kids played with them all day, making sure they had clean water and food and were doing ok. I packed them up after a long work day and headed home. Once home I set up a temporary brooder for them for the next week.

Next week I'll transfer them to the garden shed until they are big enough to go in the turkey hoop house where they will be moved daily to fresh new grass. Last year I raised Bronze breasted, a couple of White Hollands, and a one Bourbon Red. Seeing as I don't want to let them breed naturally I opted to just go with the Bronze this year.  Last year the bronze was 31 lbs dressed. The Hollands were 7 & 9 lbs and the Bourbon Red tom was 17 lbs. The Hollands and the Bourbon Red. could fly and the Bronze could not so it will be easier to keep them in this year.  I will probably sell all but 4.  This is what I have done for the past three years and it has worked out well.

My two year old gently holding one of her new turkeys.

"I wan dat un."

  

Summer Pasture

I feel so far behind.  The weather has not cooperated very well this year. Rain, rain & more rain.  We were all done with first cut haying last year at this time.  This year we are not even half done.  I haven't got my garden 100% planted yet either. I did give all the goats their summer haircuts and I did get summer fencing put up.  I moved my bucks out behind our house.  We let our back lawn grow up so they could have a place to graze. They like the fresh green grass & I like saving hay. Not to mention it cuts down on lugging hay. I don't feed my bucks grain in the summer, they don't need it.

Here they are happily grazing.

Monty munching away.

Here are Vigilante & Aonghas happy to have some green grass.

I used the electric netting fence from Premier1.  It is portable & easy to set up, take down or move to a new location. I like the shorter fence but this year it was on back order so I purchased the 42" which I do not like as well because it sags more. For what it is I will deal with it. I now have 5 sections of fence that are 164' long, enough to make three separate grazing pastures.

Yogurt

I love yogurt.  I like to have it for breakfast with some crunchy granola or cajeta drizzled on top. Yogurt is really easy to make.  Begin by mixing 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp instant vanilla pudding & 1 qt milk in a saucepan. Warm the mixture to 185°F, do not let boil. Once the temp reaches 185°F remove from heat and place container in a sink filled with cold water. Let the temperature fall to 112°F and add 1/8 tsp yogurt starter culture or add a couple Tbsp of your favorite yogurt for starter, make sure it has live cultures listed on the label.  Let dry culture rehydrate for 2 minutes and gently stir in.  Place in yogurt maker or something to maintain temp at 112°F for 4 hours.  Put in fridge and the mixture will thicken. If you like tart tasting yogurt keep at 112°F for more than 4 hours.

 There are many ways to make yogurt.  Some have no sugar, some use powdered milk and some use vanilla extract for flavoring, others use gelatin or pectin to thicken it.  Homemade yogurt will not be as thick as store bought yogurt.  I have found that by cooking it to 185°F my yogurt is thick and that by using the instant vanilla pudding it tastes like vanilla & perhaps it helps with the thickness too.  Experiment until you get the consistency & flavor that you like.

Cajeta & Goat Cheese Brownies

What to do with all the chevre & cajeta in my fridge?  I scouted the Internet again for new ideas on using up my yummy goods. I came across the Fat Toad Farm website & their recipe for brownies. The recipe can be found here: http://www.fattoadfarm.com/2009/fat-toaders-brownie-recipe.

Not only would this use up some chevre and cajeta but it would use up some eggs too- perfect!

I mixed up and cooked for 60 minutes per directions.  Boy did they look yummy!

And the taste test confirms that yes indeed they are yummy!

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've been making laundry soap for two years now. I began making it because I was using cloth diapers on my youngest daughter.  I was using All Free & Clear liquid detergent prior to making my own. The problem I was having was that after I washed the cloth diapers they still smelled TERRIBLE! After doing some research and spending oodles of money on an all natural powdered detergent (which worked, the diapers no longer smelled) I decided to try making my own.  I have been making goat's milk soap for five years and so it only seemed logical to make laundry detergent with it. At first I was skeptical about using powdered detergent but I didn't want to go through all the effort of making liquid detergent, finding a large container and dealing with gel after all, the powdered detergent I had tried worked perfectly. So I scoured the Internet for recipes. The one I use has my homemade goat's milk soap, baking soda, borax, washing soda and oxyclean.  I no longer have to use fabric softener and my clothes are just as clean as they were when I was using store bought detergent.

I packaged some up this weekend to put down in the farm stand.  I did not include the oxyclean in this batch so it is all natural. Using one Tbsp per load each of these jars is enough to do 40 loads of laundry.

Cajeta

Yesterday I decided to use up some of my surplus goat's milk.  I made Cajeta (pronounced ca-heh-tah).  Cajeta is a sweet Mexican carmael sauce made from goat's milk.  It can be used on anything you normaly use caramel sauce on, such as apples, cakes, ice cream, frappes, ice cream etc.

It is a simple recipe, but be warned, it took me three plus hours from start to finish.

I used the recipe from Goat's Produce Too! by Mary Jane Toth.

• 3 qts goat's milk
• 3 c sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Start by disolving the baking soda & cornstarch in 1 cup of the milk. Mix well to disolve any lumps. Combine with remaining milk & sugar. Bring to a boil , stirring constantly. The baking soda will cause foaming so make sure you use a pot large enough to compensate. Continue to stir until the mixture is thick & creamy, like caramel sauce. 

Once the mixture reached the caramel consistency I poured into sterile jars & canned in a water bath for 30 minutes. The 3 qts of milk produced 8 half pints of Cajeta.

Yum! I labeled & put some down in the farmstand.