Gracey

A new face is present on the farm. That's nothing new, as we have had many new faces born on it this year. This one will be staying a lot closer to the home front for several reasons. Her name is Gracey and she is a 6 week old. I have been looking for a Calico since loosing my last cat to an attack by the neighbor's dogs. Who have since then gotten rid of the culprits. But that was after one of them killed one of our baby goats. UGH!

At first she was not too sure about her new surroundings and having to leave her mommy and siblings. Hiding under or behind something was her usual response to our presence. But now she is feeling more at ease. She is a grey, white and orange kitten. Not at all a calico like I was looking for but none the less still a heart tugging ball of fur.

I am excited to see her eat a little more solid food and sipping from the water bowl. Though at times she will look at me with the most pitiful cry that any mother could relate to. . . begging to nurse her mommy. She has begun to explore her surroundings with timid steps. Even forgetting herself and playing a little this morning. I even received a leg rub complete with purring after her breakfast. It's wonderful to see her play and bat at items in normal kitty fashion. It tells me she is happy here and I am happy to have her.

Gracey helping shell peas~ "I'll chew off the end for ya"

I have had a cat in my life most of my years, sometimes more than one at a time. They have been companions and my listening ear when I have found myself all alone. With my husband's job requirements, he has to be gone frequently over night. Even though they aren't much of a conversationalist or intruder deterrent. They have always been a comforting presence in my life. Keeping me from sleeping alone in an empty house.

Welcome to the family, Gracey ~

Deborah

Mount Pea-ly Conquered!

Yea!!!!! Mount Pea-ly was finally conquered yesterday after 3 days of climbing it ( I mean shelling it). Final results, 10 sore fingers, aching neck and 16 quarts safely tucked away in the freezer. I wonder if I will recover in time before the next 2 bushels of Colossal are ready? I should have known they would be ready just when Lon was pulling a 48 hour shift. So he missed all of the fun! Though I was really thought they would wind up being ready this weekend in the middle of my granddaughter's visit. SO GLAD they came early.


Lon and I have been trying to stay on top of the produce coming out of our garden. We have been blessed with a good crop this year and have put away several things for our Winter pantry thus far. Yesterday's efforts took the form of 13 pints of chopped tomatoes, 1 quart of tomato juice, 8 quarts and 5 pints of Dill pickles. Then from Mt Pea-ly and additional 11 quarts of Pink-eye Peas. Found strawberries and blueberries at the grocery store at a reduced price still in great shape. So I froze 2 quarts of blue and 4 1/2 quarts of straw and 2 quarts of peaches from my neighbor down the road. Plus I set some Ginger Gold apples I bought at a farmer's market to dry in the dehydrator for some yummy snacking.



I had started some goat cheese the day before and set it out to drain in the midst of our busy, cluttered kitchen. Mid afternoon I took it out of the cheesecloth and mixed in a little sea salt. It was quite tasty on some seasoned crackers. Though a little drier than I had hoped, not sure if it was the heat in the kitchen or the extended time of draining that caused this or both. Had been extremely busy morning, but it has a great flavor. Often I will add herbal blends to make a flavored cheese. Yesterday was just too busy and I was pass the point of being creative. So plain Chevre it is. We decided it would work great on a salad or pasta dish. Which is good as I have a menu planned for both of those items next week.


I am keeping a running total on the sidebar for my own records. Not that I am trying to boast or anything like that. My intent is to encourage all the gardener's or want-a-be ones to try to increase your healthy eating with fresh home grown goodness. You can't find it in a can or processed package. It will take time and effort on your part. It doesn't have to be a large garden, ours is about . But the benefits out weigh any excuses you can come up with.

As the commercials say -"What have you put in your wallet (freezer/pantry)?

Deborah

It's Cheese

The pages of the calendar have flipped to the day my first wheel of cheese is to be ready. We have been anxiously waiting for a taste test of our efforts from a month ago. Making it was fun, challenging and a learning process to be sure. Having seen success in a friends efforts with Caerphilly. We decided to jump into the vat with the same recipe for our first official pressed cheese.

It all started 4 weeks ago with a large pot of goat's milk being gently heated, cultured and processed into curds. Every wheel of cheese starts in the same manner. Different temperatures, cultures or setting times is the only difference in making cheese, soft or firm.

This is what "Little Miss Muffet" enjoyed until an ugly spider sat down beside her. Once heat treated, cultured and given time to set. The milk will coagulate into curds = protein clumps. Which are cut into cubes and dipped out of the remaining whey. By the way ~ Whey is useful for many things. I've been known to feed it to the chickens and the dogs think it's the grandest treat ever. I've given it to my tomato plants to ward off blossom end rot, after all it is full of calcium. Adding it to my loaves of bread, boosts the nutrition and gives them a softer texture too. But one of my new found joys is to make Ricotta out of it. I can't describe the wonderful flavor and texture of a batch of fresh made. Very creamy unlike the store bought version. A diffinent treat eaten on crackers or by the spoonful if I'm feeling generous to my self. Plus it is out of this world atop a plate of pasta.

Once sufficiently drained the curds are packed into the cheese press for increasingly amounts of time and pressure. After the pressing process which can take up to several hours to overnight. The cheese is aired dry for a couple of days. Before being aged in a specific temperature and humidity for the variety of cheese being made.

We were proud with the first wheel we had made. It made an impressive picture to me. At this point we don't know if we have succeeded or not. As sometimes looks can be deceiving. Waiting to eat it will be hard.
I was sure to mark the calendar for the end of the 4 week aging process. But choosing to wait one more day till Lon could be home for the unveiling and tasting. During the last few days of air drying before aging the wheel. We had to tackle a renovation in the kitchen that couldn't be put off any longer. In doing so, I failed to monitor the cheese as closely as I should have. Waiting what the recipe described as the needed drying time was too much. But we didn't find this out until after it had been aged for a month.

The wheel was pretty to look at but came out dryer than we had planned. Lesson learned, don't always rely on recipes written for generalization. Every one's kitchen and house has varying degrees of moisture and temperatures in them. Even having a fan circulating air can make a difference in the final outcome. Cheese making is an art to be sure. With each attempt one would hope to get closer to making a classic batch of cheese.

Since ours came out too dry to cut easily for eating on crackers. We decided after tasting what seemed to be a Parmesan flavor. That the best way to use the cheese would be to grate it.
That way we could use in on top of homemade pizza, pasta dishes or sprinkled over salads.

Which took minimal effort with a good crank grater. Yielding 3 jars from our first hard cheese attempt. We tried it over some pasta with a home grown medley of squash, tomato, garlic and onion the same night. Yum, Yum! What some would deemed a failure tasted like success to us.

Looking for a new recipe to try ~

Deborah

Late to Bed ~ Early to Rise

I know the title of today's post is a little off from what you usually hear it stated. The old saying is "early to bed, early to rise makes one healthy, wealthy and wise." We have found that statement to be true. For if one is to make the most of the days given them. Then we need to be rested (early to bed), then up making the most of our daylight time (early to rise). The end results of this bedtime schedule are many and worth pursuing. One is becoming healthy ~ by getting proper exercise through physical activity, restorative rest for our bodies and eating the balanced nutritious meals we have time to prepare. Two, by being in our best healthy shape we are able to be productive workers. Using our time in ways to either generate money or save it for future use/needs. Which leads to being wealthy both financially and emotionally. Practicing both of these disciplines as a lifestyle is a sign of wise person. Of putting into practice principles that help, not hinder as some would think.

The hard part for us is making it work on an ever evolving farm. As those of you who have ever lived on one could attest. There is never a shortage of work, projects and chores to be done. My to-do list is always longer than my day. After several days and weeks of that kind of pace. It also tends to be longer than my energy level too. The past 2 years has been a daily search for ways to make things work easier for us and to help life go smoother in general. As we have steadily built this farm from the ground up. There are days when one or the other, even both of us feel like our efforts are going backwards. We will decide to change one aspect of our schedule or how we do chores. Only to find it doesn't work as well as we thought it would or something unseen pops up and requires a different avenue to be sought. They key I have found is to be flexible. As each area of the farm has grown so have the chores, challenges and chaos sometimes. But I don't want to give you a negative picture here, for the blessings are worth the effort to have one. Even on those days when we want to throw up our hands and say "I can't do this."

This past Spring and the Summer months thus far have been opportunities for growth both in the farm and ourselves. Most people have the mindset when faced with "difficulties" to see them as a negative force in their lives. Something to hinder, cause them trouble or look like an impossibility. I've learned over the years and even still have to remind myself at times when faced with what appears to be a hard task or roadblock. That they are simply opportunities to learn something new, fine tune an already learned skill or stretch myself physically, emotionally or spiritually. Which are all worth stretching and beneficial to round me out into the person I was born to be.

The new changes this year of a larger garden and increases in livestock. ARE blessings in themselves and what you would hope to happen on a farm. Even though they have served to push us a little physically, caused some frustrating moments and had our heads together to find some solutions to what we were facing. Our days long, our tasks many, the needs great, our bodies exhausted and our spirits lagging just a bit. For we were seeing too many days with a late bedtime due to the demands of the farm and Lon's full time job. Struggling with rising with the sun and having an energetic body ready to face the new day. Playtime was missing from our weeks as well. Which reminds me of another old saying "All work and no play leaves one a dull boy/girl."

Talking out "opportunities" is a great avenue towards finding solutions. Instead of muddling through the days and wishing life was easier. Which really doesn't work in the long run. For us the facts of what we were facing wasn't going to change that much. We had planted a larger garden, there were still big construction projects to be done, our goat herd had increased with the new births and new challenges would faced us each day. How we faced them could be changed though. The answer for us was to get back to the early to bed and early to rise.

A decision to start earlier with the chores would allow Lon to help out even on the days he had to drive into work. Giving us a chance to share the load, to start our day in the cooler hours of it, of spending more time together doing what we love, allowing us more free time in the middle of the HOT summer days we are experiencing and having our evenings free for more personal pursuits. To do so required my getting up earlier than I had been, preparing our dinner meal in the early afternoon and making sure we stop our labors instead of working till the last ray of light left the sky. Another thing we decided to implement is having a day set aside other than Sunday, just for leisure, play and rest. Our bodies may not always be at rest on these days, but we try to have our minds at rest. Minimal chores are done; water, food and safety for everyone. Then we don't think about, plan or problem solve any aspect about the farm. It's like a mental vacation from our work.

So far we are doing pretty good with our efforts. There will always be days when something comes up, an emergency or an illness. That can throw a "monkey-wrench" into the plan but it helps to have some flexibility and a go with the flow mentality. Then simply getting back on track the next day. Life is never the same from day to day, year to year or even person to person. It would be a pretty dull one if was.

Rising to meet the opportunities,
Deborah