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!