Settling into a Delicious Routine

It's amazing how something totally new and overwhelming one week can soon become a natural part of life. It seems impossible that I have been milking goats for only 5 weeks! The twins are now 7 weeks old, big Dill is 8 weeks old. Twice a week I am cooking up a variety of mouthwatering chevre which never lasts long. I am now up to 7 cups of milk a day and soon will be milking all the goats twice a day...look mom 2 hands! An adorable family came by the other day to see the kids and put a deposit on Dill and Zeus, who they will name Toot and Puddles. We would have been heartbroken to let them go, except they were in many ways like a younger version of ourselves and there is something cool about imagining all the fun in store for them as goat owners. They will go to their new home at the end of the month. On an especially overzealous day, I ordered 500 deli containers so I can begin giving my cheese away to friends and last night we made a delicious new version: chevre on the bottom layer, covered with fresh pesto and a few slivers of roasted red peppers. YUM! Now as a reward for delicious goat cheese at dinner, we let the whole herd out to play. If someone starts running, they sprint after in a huge mass that can only make you laugh. They will run back and forth to the barn after the kids until they are all panting and ready for bed. Check out the video for a laugh. Chianti is still a mystery milker. To get any milk out of her, I need to hold up her udder with one hand just behind the teat and then squeeze with my free hand. This results in a slow process. I am still not getting the amount of milk that I should be. Everyone talks about the Quart for each milking per Nigerian Dwarf goat, but I only seems to get 2 1/2 cups at best. When I start to worry about this I have to laugh recalling just 5 weeks ago when I entered the kitchen proudly carrying my 1/3 cup of milk. Now a little more than a month later, I have a fridge full of fresh cheese and another month off from school. It's hard to worry too much!

The Long Awaited Chevre!

We added two goats to our herd, GoGo (short for Happy Go Lucky) is in milk and Tiger Lily is a sweet yearling from a good milking line who we will breed this winter. This brings us to a total of 8 goats, 3 are being milked daily. Next spring 4 will be able to have kids so we will have a barn full of babies. Because of this purchase, and my increased experience after a full month of milking, we are now in the milk! Looks like we are averaging 7-8 cups a day which means we have enough to make chevre. As the new goat settles in and our babies are weaned we will easily be able to double this amount I think. So much dreaming and planning that went into getting to this point that the cheese we made and brought to our friends' summer party last night was way more than cheese, it was a celebration of the whole past year!

The process takes almost 24 hours. After the evening milking, we put 2 days worth of milk in the pasteurizer. This beast has been laying in wait in the cupboard for some time and was ready to get to work. The directions are very old school. At the point where everything is plugged in and ready to go it says: "Now go about your business until you hear a loud buzzer." Every time I was inclined to stare at it in the 20 minute process, Chris would laugh and tell me to "Go about my business." While there is hot debate about the benefits of raw milk versus the health risks, I decided to play it safe with my cheese. I want everyone to feel completely comfortable eating it, including little kids and my older relatives whose immune systems are not as strong. I figure the fact the our cheese is made from milk that was in the goat hours before makes it infinitely healthier than anything I could buy, so I can give up the potential health benefits raw milk offers.

After pasteurizing I added the chevre packet of starter bacteria, rennet and malto dextrin. This premixed and measured packet is sold by New England Cheesemaking Supply. Later in the summer I will experiment with my own mix, but for now this makes the process super easy! Although there does not appear to be anything happening, the magic begins instantly. I cover the milk and set it out in the kitchen, and by the next morning after milking, it has formed into a substance that looks and smells a bit like yogurt.When I moved the pot, the cheese moved as one jiggly mass.

At this point I knew we were going to have cheese, but there was still another 8-12 hours wait until we could taste the product. Almost exactly a day after we had begun the process, the curds had stopped dripping whey and we were ready to add delicious herbs and arrange our cheese plate. Tess and Lila have both been helping with the milking this week and are getting really good, so we divided the cheese into 3 parts and each made our own delicious recipe. Tess used fresh and dried Dill with a citrus blend of salt. Lila used Herbs de Provence and salt, I used fresh ground black pepper, salt and rosemary. 3 girls + 3 goats + 3 days=3 delicious cheeses. We watched the cheeses like they were our children all the way to the party and observed with proud smiles as all three disappeared within minutes after arriving. MISSION accomplished! It was smooth, goatie and delicious. Honestly, I think is was better than store bought goat cheese.

Second Cheese

Oh what fun to experiment and have such delicious results! Chris' mom Jill and her husband Bill were staying for a couple of nights so we dragged them into the fun of our second cheese making experiment. They came to the barn and witnessed first hand the struggle of a beginning dairy farmer. If this blog serves any purpose I hope it is to share the reality with others interested in getting into goats. It seems every website I read only talks about the ideal. I am enjoying a good dose of reality!

When we bought Chianti, the woman described her as a "project goat" who would take a lot of work to tame, but would be worth the effort due to her milking heritage. We have tamed her and she welcomes our affection now, but I think her body is still not ready to relax enough to let down her milk for a human. Some days I actually can not even coax a squirt out of her. On other mornings, she gives me a small ray of hope. Not exactly a dream situation for someone dying to make chevre. Bonnie, is producing 2 cups a day (we are only milking in the morning) which is still half of what is considered normal, but we are learning. It is so cool to feel the milk fill her teat before each squeeze and to see her calmly look over her shoulder at me that it keeps me getting up early each morning. I have always been a big time sleepy head, so this is big! This morning I treated myself to sleeping in and decided to leave the kids with their mamas. It was heaven to sleep late after all these weeks and even with less milk I had enough to make my second batch of cheese!

I stuck with the beginners ricotta, but tried a different variation I found in Ricki Carroll's book Home Cheese Making which suggests less time draining the curds (just 1 minute) and adding a dash of baking soda and 3/4 tbs melted butter to my 4 cups of milk. It was way more smooth in texture and and more flavorful. Again just a couple hours after milking, the cheese was made and gone! Talk about FRESH! This cheese tastes like any ricotta in that it doesn't have that goat taste we are looking forward to, but all the fresh herbs from the garden gave it a lovely summery flavor.

Tonight we are thinking about the reality of selling our two boys at the end of July. They are so loving and snuggly, none of us can imagine letting them go. The vet comes this week to give shots and elastrate them which will be good since they are getting a bit randy already. We are also looking into buying a few more does! Chevre by the end of July! Stay tuned. Tried a really dreamy cheese at the Cheese Iron in Scarborough that I would love to copy. It is small balls of chevre marinated in olive oil, rosemary, and peppercorns. Theirs had some sheep's milk mixed in and was from France. So good you could eat it on anything.

More on our farm website! Can you tell I'm having FUN!?
http://www.sunflowerfarm.info

First Cheese Making Adventure!

A year in the making...but really only took an hour and a half to make! Finally we reached a predictable 2 cups per day milk collection. To any respecting goat dairy person, this would be seen as a problem, to me it is pure joy! As the goats and I work through the milking process, (it is amazing how much hand strength all those little squeezes take!) my ultimate goal has been just to have enough to make cheese. When I found this simple goat cheese recipe on serious eats calling for just 4 cups of milk, I knew I was in business. The steps are easy:
•Steam/Boil all spoons, bowls, pots, cloth you intend to use.
•Add 4 cups goat milk (super fresh from my lovely goaties Bonnie and Chainti-mostly Bonnie since Chianti is hording her milk for her twins and I find that hard to argue with as a newbie.)
•Slowly heat to 180 F, stirring. (It took me 15-20 minutes)
•Remove from heat and add 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice.
•Watch the magic as curds form almost instantly!
•Spoon curds into cheesecloth, I bought the fancy butter muslin and it worked great!
•Hang and drain for an hour until drips start.
•Add delicious things-1/2 clove garlic grated, pinch of salt, herbs de provence, aleppo pepper, fresh dill and parsley to garnish.
•Set in airtight container in fridge.
•Enjoy.

The fun of this is beyond any cooking I've done before because it is so tied to the farm and garden, all the animals and plants I love and ultimately is a treat for the people I love most! What could be better? So many variations to try, I'd like to work on getting it a bit more moist, maybe a touch of olive oil would be yummy. More soon for sure.
Also must mention, our 25 baby chicks love the whey mixed with a bit of their feed, so nothing went to waste!

Day 3

1 CUP of milk from from Chianti + A nice note from a woman who has an online goat blog=HAPPINESS. It takes so little to get the wings of hope beating again. This morning Chianti was actually relaxed and let me milk out the udder the kids have been ignoring. Bonnie, well, let's just say the award for bucking bronco goat of the century is still hers hands down. Read today that a Nigerian Dwarf goat can give 2 quarts a day. Half a gallon! That means goat cheese is still in reach. I even read that one family with 2 goats had so much milk that they got fat on goat cheese in their first year of milking. Sounds Creamy...I mean Dreamy!

Day 2 Milking

Ok, so I woke determined to increase my 1/3 cup bounty. Bonnie was a total wash. I decided to see if I could just get her to stand on the milk stand without dancing a wild jig. Finally a bit defeated I put her back with her kid, determined to try again tonight. She can get her head out of the milk stand so I will fix that and then try again when she has a bit less freedom.

Chianti went much better...on one side. I got more out of her than both goats combined yesterday. One side is FULL of milk and she seems happy to have me empty it. The other side seems kind of empty and I can only get a few tiny squirts out. I think we all need a lot more practice. Maybe twice a day milking? Or maybe I need to call in an expert for advice. I probably need to be careful not to create one side wonders or the poor goats will be walking lopsided and I will never get enough milk for CHEESE...which I somehow still believe I will make despite the general lack of milk. Good things take time. Just as I was about to proudly measure my meager milkings (I would guess I had a 1/2 cup), Chianti decided she was done and put her foot in the bowl while laying down.

Day 1 Milking

Dill is now a week old, Luna (born on a full moon) and her brother Zeus are just 3 days old. I haven't had the heart to separate them from their mothers yet at night, and since Fias Farm (which has been elevated to God like proportions in my mind as the answer to all things goat) waits two full weeks to begin milking I figured I am OK. This morning after months of eager anticipation, I decided to give it a whirl and begin getting the ladies used to the drill. I woke up early, reread the milking instructions and went to the barn with all sorts of purpose and determination. I returned to the house about an hour later with a 1/3 cup of milk. I imagine one day (hopefully not too many days from now) I will look back on this morning and laugh. I imagine on that day I will have chevre dripping deliciously in cheese cloth in the kitchen and loads of fresh milk waiting in the fridge. For now, Minnie the barn cat had a delicious morning treat and I am trying to focus on the modest wins of the day. Both goats jumped willingly onto the milk stand. They let me milk them from one side while there was food, and there were no injuries to goat or human. I now more fully understand the expression, there is no use crying over spilled milk. Tonight's mission...milk both sides, 1/2 cup total! My dreams a bit smaller in scale today.

Goat Dreams

Two years ago we started our journey with the purchase of 2 Nigerian Dwarf Goats. Bonnie (a doe) and Don Pedro (a whether), won us over with their antics and affection and we found ourselves spending hours watching them.

In the second year, we started dreaming of goat cheese. OK, I will admit I tend to leap over every early step to the end and really was dreaming of owning a goat dairy that made the best marinated Chevre in the state/universe. I know...I had never milked a goat at the time so feel free to laugh loudly. Secretly, I still believe it will happen one day. Even if it doesn't, what fun is life without outrageous dreams?

In the year in between, we bought a bred doe and watched her like proud parents for the months leading up to her freshening. Now cue the real laughter. We stayed up all night on her due date in a kidding pen prepared for this big moment. There were Christmas lights twinkling, fresh shavings on the floor and all sorts of stainless steel milking equipment shining brightly in the kitchen. I could taste the goat cheese. I had read every book and blog possible, been to the Vermont Cheesemaking Festival, toured Maine goat farms on Open Farm Day, and taken a class at local farm. So, when Chianti began pawing the ground and trying to sit on our laps, we just knew this was the moment. Many sleepless hours and hopeful blog posts on Goat Beat later ("Sometimes they go way past their due date right?"), we discovered Chianti had what a man at the Cumberland Fair called a "Precocious Udder". Meaning a tricky one that looks to be developing because a doe is pregnant, but actually is just a way to make the new goat owner with crazy dreams look very silly. She is still my favorite goat even after her false pregnancy, and it helps that I believe she truly thought she was pregnant too. My friends at work will forever have a wealth of ammunition when they want to make fun of me.

This Christmas, a visiting Buck Renga came for a holiday and finally the magic happened. Five months later, we are now a step closer to those crazy dreams. Three sweet kids are in the barn, healthy and scampering and unbelievably cute. And truthfully although that goat cheese is still a faraway dream, for now, it is dreamy enough just to spend hours in the stalls holding our first kids.