Recipe Thursday - Making Monterey Jack Cheese

Not being able to purchase cheese making supplies in my local area I ended up ordering some off the internet. Last week finally the kit I ordered arrived. I was so excited! Finally I was going to be able to make real cheese! The kit I ordered is called from cheeseconnection.net and was supposed to come with everything needed to make hard cheese and the recipes as well. Since I am a beginner cheese maker I thought maybe a kit was the way to go so I could experiment for a bit with different recipes and then order more supplies once I decided which cheeses we like the most. The cost of this kit was $29.99 plus shipping. As it turns out... It was way overpriced for what I received and I won't be ordering from this company again.

Not only that but of the 10 different hard cheese recipes I received in the lovely little booklet sent with it, only one... ONE! can be made with the supplies sent. I was pretty disappointed. Sigh..... Lesson learned.  At least I have the recipes and can order my supplies elsewhere. The two main ingredients missing are Thermophilic culture and citric acid. There are other items which would have been nice but cheese can still be made without them, such as the colorant used in cheddar. I don't plan on coloring my cheese anyway so no worries there.

I figured I might as well get started as my fridge was loaded with milk waiting to be used and since I can only make the Monterey Jack with the supplies at hand that's what I did.  Here's how it went. Be forewarned! If you decide to make this cheese you need to have a lot of free time. It's not difficult but there is a lot of waiting time so you need to be around for about four hours.

Monterey Jack Cheese

Ingredients Needed:

2 gallons whole milk

1/4 teaspoon Mesophilic culture

1/2 teaspoon liquid rennet or 1/2 rennet tablet diluted in 1/4 cup cool, unchlorinated water

1 tablespoon cheese salt

2 gallons is almost too much for my pot but I managed to fit it in...  just!

Heat the milk to 88 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have fresh milk from today's milking this is pretty easy as by the time you strain it, the temperature is almost perfect. Add the Mesophilic culture and slowly mix it in without creating bubbles. Not sure why but I was very careful. Cover and allow to ripen for 30 minutes while keeping at 88 degrees. All these temperatures were pretty easy for me to maintain but I'm not sure how easy it would be without a wood stove to place the pot on. I found if I put the pot on the far end of the stove the temperature stayed perfect.

The little thermometer that came with the kit came in handy but I had to find a holder to make it stay in place as it didn't come with one. 

Add the rennet and again slowly stir without creating bubbles for 1 minute. Now cover and let it set for 30 to 45 minutes at 90 degrees. Using a long sharp knife cut the curd into 1/4 inch cubes. Now let set covered for 40 minutes. 

The curds are cut but hard to see as they started to sink right away.

Slowly heat the curds by 2 degrees every 5 minutes while stirring slowly to keep curds from matting until the temperature reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This took me about 38 minutes and I really didn't stir the whole time... Maybe every 2 or 3 minutes I would give it a nice slow stir, probably should have done it the whole time but I'm not good at standing still for long.

Drain off the whey to the level of the curds and set for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes while maintaining the temperature at 100 degrees. Wow! I just spent 3 hours making cheese!

Now we are almost there!

Ladle into a muslin lined colander place over the sink or a large pot to drain. I'm not draining the whey down the sink! Sprinkle with cheese salt and mix gently then allow to drain for a while. I think I left it about 5 minutes.

Put curds into a muslin lined mold and press with a three pound weight for 15 minutes.

I filled an empty jug with water until it was 3 lbs and used it as the weight. The mold in the kit was too small so I found a lovely bowl with slats in the bottom to use as a press and the slatted lid to give some room between the bowl and the plate so the whey would have room to press out.

Remove from the mold, peel away the muslin and turn cheese over. Redress with muslin and put back into the  mold. Press at 10 pounds for 12 hours.

I filled the jug up with water and it was almost heavy enough. Then I popped it all in the refrigerator over night. Not sure if you are supposed to but I just didn't feel right leaving it out over night. Need to do more research on this....

Now you are supposed to let the cheese air dry for 1 to 3 days at room temperature turning twice a day until dry and then wax it. I don't have any wax. This cheese is supposed to be aged for 1 to 4 months or 60 days if you use fresh milk. I figure there is nothing we can do but eat it fresh until I get more supplies. 

Of course I had to taste it. Yum! It's very mild at this point though and I can't wait until I have the supplies to be able to age it.

2 full pounds of cheese made! 

Also linked in to Frugal by Choice, Carol's Chatter, The Morris Tribe, Laura Williams Musings, Prairie Homestead, Natural Mother's Network, Not Your Ordinary Recipes, Thirty Handmade Days, Simply Sweet Home, Petal to Picots,  Simple Home Life, Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons and A Rural Journal's blog hop.

A New Beginning

We went for a drive today. Although the roads were pretty mushy and hard to get around on we had a lovely time. Of course getting out of our driveway was the biggest hurdle but when all was said and done we weren't too covered in mud. So, we toddled off down the road to see what we could find. We had a destination in mind and a container to hold our treasure we were going to pick up.

Treasure.... It may be a weird word to use but for us that is exactly what we were getting.

Mountain Man made a comment which stuck in my head. It went something like this, "you know if you would have told me 10 years ago I would be driving down a country road going to pick up some chickens from a neighbors I would have thought you were crazy, isn't life wonderful?" Yup! Chickens! Can you see me grinning? Cause if you can't you aren't looking hard enough.

Now I know most of you reading this will be saying, chickens? But you already have chickens? right? Sigh...  Well, there's a story I have been unable to write and I'm still not sure I want too but needless to say most of our laying hens, the ones you have seen in previous pictures, are no longer with us. Neither is the dog who was entrusted with their care and until one fateful day appeared to be their able protector. So, for about a year now, no chickens have graced us with their presence. Until now that is...

When one of the neighbors called to say she had some laying hens for us if we wanted them we decided it was time. Actually it was past time and so about a 1/2 hour later we were on our way back home with soft clucking sounds coming from the back of the truck. I love chickens..... They are the perfect farm animal. They will eat almost anything, which means they get pretty much all the kitchen scrapes so nothing goes to waste. They lay the most delicious eggs , which to me are almost the perfect food, and the young roosters, if you have too many, taste fantastic in the soup pot. What's not to love?

The rooster is one of the survivors and is a brother of my favorite rooster Fuzz Butt who did not survive, He is a mixture of a few breeds but very pretty and gentle. I think the hens are Black Copper Marans but I'm not quite sure. Needless to say, it doesn't matter I'm just so happy to have them here.

Checking out the new digs.

Hmm.... this place isn't so bad.

Settling in to relax.

It will be some time before I let them outside to the run and I'm a bit worried about the owls and hawks around here but lets give them time to settle in for a bit before we worry about that. If nothing else they will have supervised outings for a while.

Frugal Tuesday - A DIY Solar Power Fix

One of the biggest changes today was waking up to power! I think unless you live like we do you might take your power for granted. You get up in the morning and turn on a light or faucet without thinking about it. Not us. Our power is turned off at night and it doesn't get turned on in the morning until we have enough to run the necessities, or we end up charging for a bit. Especially on rainy days. But today the batteries were charging long before we woke up thanks to Mountain Man's new invention. The sun is funny up here. It rises in the east and sets in the west just like everyplace else but where it rises changes with the seasons.

This photo is courtesy of Nuffield Foundation's lesson on Astronomy found here. Of course it is not exactly like this at our house but it gives you a good idea.

In the winter we can watch the sun come up and set from our living room windows, not so in the summer. It actually comes up behind the house in the north east and makes a huge arc through the sky. This means that it doesn't hit our solar panels on the roof until about 9 am or later even though it has been up for hours. 

This has bugged us for some time but the cost of purchasing a special device which tracks the sun and turns the panels with it was cost prohibitive. So what to do? The fix turned out to be easier than we thought. (Hmmm...  Sure took a long time to figure out though as we have been here for a five years!) Mountain Man found an old satellite dish mount with pole and all. He then commissioned a neighbor to weld some pieces of metal together to create a holder for the panels. The metal post was cemented in the ground as it needed to be stabilized well due to the high winds we get here at times and then the panels were attached. 

We now have two panels which can be moved in any direction to catch the sun. It only takes a few minutes every day to go out and change the direction but what a difference it makes! As long as we set it to where the sun rises we will have power to use before we even get out of bed all summer long. Well, as long as its not too cloudy!

So, what was the cost of this wonderful fix?

Satellite pole/holder Free (There are a lot of these just laying around it people's back yards so they are pretty easy to find.)

1 bag of premix cement $7 (This pole already had a LOT of cement around it otherwise you would probably need about 5 or 6 bags)

The metal and welding for the frame $60

Total cost $67 

We do have to go out a few times a day to change the direction it is pointing but its not a big deal and only takes a few minutes a day. If we aren't here we don't use electricity so will just set it to face south like all the other panels. 

Way to go Mountain Man! It certainly takes a lot of ingenuity to deal with all the things which can arise when you live the way we do but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Also linked in to Mind Body and Soul and Frugally Sustainable's blog hop.

Spring Rain and a Shaggy Visitor

Last night as I watched the rain pour down, again, I just shook my head and wondered where it was all going to go. Seriously, more rain? The water level is higher than I have ever seen it and the rain just keeps coming down. I wonder if some roads or bridges will be washed out. I have no way of finding out however because right now we can't even get out of the driveway. I guess there could be worse things than being rained in, it could be snow! I'd rather deal with the rain... Thankfully the forecast is calling for some sunshine in a day or two and we are so hoping they are right. I need to finish planting my garden and it will require a few days to dry out before I can even walk in it.

One cool thing the rain brought was a few little ducks who decided to take up residence for a while in a puddle close to the house. It was fun to watch them through the window. Hmm....  sometimes I wish I was more like the ducks and loved the rain as much as they do.

We also had another visitor over the weekend. He or she has been here for as long as we have and so far has never bothered our livestock... Lets hope that continues as I would hate to have to not have him around. We love watching this guy hunt. His huge leaps and pounces are huge sources of amusement. Usually due to his shyness we only get glimpses of him and that most often with the binoculars. Obviously however, he was being braver yesterday and decided to do some hunting close to the house. He played peekaboo with us quite a bit but Mountain Man was finally able to capture a few pictures. 

Then finally, he was successful and trotted off with his catch. We have many rodents around here and really appreciate his efforts to keep the population in check. 

You can see his coat is still shedding out and is pretty shaggy right now. Hope he comes back for more rodent dinners soon! 

Sunshine! Ahhh...... What a lovely sight!

Last night when the sun went down it was still snowing and the temperature was dropping. So, not nice! I fully expected by the time we woke up we would have a snow covered ground.

Thankfully, when we woke up this morning the sun was out. What a difference 12 hours makes. Wow! So excited to have sunshine!

The forecast says the rain may come back on Sunday but I have decided to think only good thoughts and to enjoy these next two days of sunshine. Now if only I can leave out some of my inside chores today and spend the day outside. Hmmm.....  We don't really need sweets for the weekend do we?

I would love to get back out in the garden today! Just before the rain/snow started I was able to get a few rows of veggies planted and would love to plant more. Since we plan on living almost exclusively off what we grow/raise here planting and good weather are extremely important. For the last few years I have had a lot of difficulty with the garden. The soil needed fertilizer and I didn't have a tiller. Although one of the neighbors was kind enough to till the soil for me, it was still difficult to work and I had no way of tilling in any manure. 

This year things are much different! Mountain Man insisted on purchasing me a good tiller so I would be able to finally have a decent garden. I wonder how many women would like a garden tiller for an anniversary present? Ummm...  Pick me! 

There she sits! The ground is too wet today to till or plant but maybe by Wednesday if the forecasters are wrong. Until then my lonely rows that are planted will just have to be all by themselves.

Raspberries planted and Saskatoon's waiting for a spot to go.

Two rows of Yukon Gold potato's planted. Mountain Man ran into a sale the other day and happened to pick up WAY more seed potato's than we need for just us (9 boxes!) but I figure I will plant them all and maybe sell a few of them this fall. 

Well, I'm off to see what I can accomplish today! Have a fantastic weekend everyone! 

Recipe Thursday - Country Skillet Breakfast (Hash)

We woke up this morning to snow. Snow!! I'm not impressed and a bit worried for our fruit trees but there is nothing I can do but wait and see what happens. It doesn't seem to be sticking to the ground but if it keeps up who knows. Arggg..... I'm in need of comfort food.

I discovered (OK I knew it was there but just forgot) I had a 20 lb bag of potatoes which I need to start using up and it got me to thinking about what I could make with them. Potatoes aren't something we typically eat a lot of as I try to steer clear of starchy food. I figure with all the bread and sweets I make we don't need a lot of other starches. Well, at least my hips keep telling me I don't.

So, what to make? Then I remembered a meal my mother used to cook. Its so simple you have no doubt had it a few times but sometimes making something from your childhood can bring back some interesting memories. So, I set about trying to make it exactly like my mother did.

One of the interesting tidbits about this recipe is we always called it "hash". Nowadays I figure that name is probably not appropriate but us kids were always asking mom when she was going to make hash again. Usually I got stuck peeling the potato's. Even the flavors from that time are probably not as appreciated in today's world where one can purchase anything one craves but I really enjoyed this blast from the past and Mountain Man would like me to make it again.

Country Skillet Breakfast (Hash)


2 medium sized or three small potatoes, cubed. You can also used leftovers from the night before.
meat from last nights dinner or if all else fails a few hotdogs, sliced or diced
1 large tomato, chopped
5 or 6 eggs (6 is best but mom always used however many she had on hand or how many were needed for the people there)
1 cup diced or shredded cheese, whatever you have on hand
parsley
garlic powder
salt and pepper

Gather all ingredients and chop, dice and slice as necessary.

I didn't have any meat or potatoes left over from the night before so had to start from scratch.

Pour a bit of oil in a nice large cast iron pan and start frying the potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Once they are starting to brown nicely and are almost done add the meat.

Fry until the meat is nicely browned. Mmmm.....  Makes me hungry all over again just looking at it!

In a medium sized bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. I didn't measure the spices so just add salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley to taste. You can add other spices as well if you like. Everyone has different tastes when it comes to spices.

Pour this mixture over the meat and potatoes. 

You can choose to scramble fry the eggs into the mixture or just turn the heat down real low and allow it to cook until the eggs are done.  Growing up we always ended up scrambling the mixture as we were in a hurry to eat and the pan was so large.

Breakfast! Yum! Of course you have to have ketchup on the side and I like a bit of hot sauce on mine too. 

Also linked in to Sugar Bee Crafts, Dandelion House, The Shabby Nest, Kitchen Fun, Simple Home Life and The Nourishing Gourmet blog hops.

And the Rain Comes Back Again

I'm sitting here with my morning beverage and listening to the generator run. Not a sound I like to hear very often as it means we don't have enough sun to run what we need. We are always at the mercy of the weather here, not just for our power but for everything. We did have a few very nice days last week and were able to get quite a bit of work done outside. The ground dried up and I even was able to drive my car up to the house from the end of the driveway! Nice! Not that I had anywhere to go but I hate to have it sitting half a mile away. Maybe some day we will be able to put in a proper graveled drive but right now if the ground gets too soaked I have to leave it there and take the quad to it if I need to go anywhere. So that is where it sits again this week, luckily we were able to get it out yesterday before the ground soaked up too much of the rain.

The rain has caused other little problems too. The goats refuse to leave the barn. These girls are total princesses! They don't like to get their feet wet. They don't like to go anywhere I am not. We just shake our heads at their silliness. Don't they know they are farm animals? So there they are sitting high and dry in the barn calling to me because they are hungry and refusing to go out and eat. I guess they figure I will bring the feed to them? Silly goats. Today I refuse. Although the clouds are threatening rain so far all it has done it spit at us a little bit, not even enough to get wet. I feel like a bad, mean mommy but what am I to do?

I have spent a lot of time with them over the last weeks since we brought them home trying to teach them to be goats. At first they refused to go out to the pasture as it was a big scary place and they were jumping at their shadows constantly. I ended up taking a lawn chair out with them and sitting there for hours on end. Calling them back to eat every time they got spooked; usually by the wind or a bird flying overhead.

Then I finally graduated to taking them out and slowly leaving them there as they got down to the business of eating. Of course I had to jump the fence and walk away across the field as if going somewhere other than the house or they would just run to the barn and call to me. Then finally one day I decided to lock them out of the barn and see what they would do on their own. It took a few hours but finally they went out to the pasture. Of course they came running back every 15 minutes or less to see if I was coming out but eventually they learned to stay there longer. I finally thought things were improving but now it's cloudy and spitting a bit and they refuse to go anywhere. Sigh... I'm totally stumped. What to do? I have a lot of things I want to get done today and standing out there with them today is not something I want to do. I spent about 15 minutes with them after milking but as soon as I left they went right back in the barn.

I just walked out to check on them again and the only one who would even stick her head out of the barn was Silver Doll. Yep, I have princess goats. Well! Too bad for them today because I have other things to do. Bad mom or not they are not getting any more of my time until milking time. Really! I'm not going out there again! Nope, not going to do it........ crazy goats.

Frugal Tuesday - 10 Ways We Save Money on Entertainment

Yesterday's post was rather entertaining, to experience and to write, and I thought it might be a good idea to actually explore the wild side of entertainment when you live pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Wild.... Ummm... right....

Having chosen to live a life close to the earth and having it for the most part sustain us doesn't give one much time for entertainment for the much of the year. Some people seem to think that living like this is. in some way, easy and simple with no hassles. Where you sit in your rocker on the front porch in the evening and just enjoy the time, chatting about the day or whatever. That doesn't really happen.... Not that we wouldn't like it to once in a while. Mostly the porch is used for a short sit down while we eat or chat for a bit and then it is back to work. Especially during spring and fall when the days are long and every minute of sun is needed to get the chores done. The rest of the time when we might perhaps have time to sit on the porch it is either too cold or the hordes of mosquito's chase us in.

So what do we do for entertainment when we actually have the time? Like in the winter when there is nothing much to do, when we just need a break or it is a rain day like today. There a a lot of people out there who spend what I would consider hordes of money on entertainment but out here the reality is that if you want to have money for the necessary things entertainment takes the very back seat on the bus. A drive into town costs around $20 right now and if we wanted to see a movie it would be a six hour round trip. That is so not happening!

We don't have cable and while we do have a small TV, it is only used for special occasions when we really want to watch a favorite movie and we have a lot of power built up in the batteries. Most of the time when we want to watch something we cosy up on the sofa and watch it on the laptop. We have found you don't have to spend a lot of money to have good clean fun so have taken a chapter from a time when things were a bit simpler. Of course we do use modern gadgets like the internet! How else could I write a bog? Here are a few things we do which really don't hurt the pocket book.

1. Go for a drive in the country side: While this can cost a bit of money in gas, it gets us off the farm, which is sometimes a needed break. Of course if we take the quad is costs much less and we see a lot more wildlife.
2. Yahtzee: Mountain Man is really good a games and he trounces me time and a gain. Of course every once in a while I get him back. 
3. Chess: I know I could put these game in one category but they just don't seem to fit. I am really bad at chess! Inevitably I groan when I see the board come out but Mountain Man is determined to teach me how to play. 
4. Netflix: It is really inexpensive so a few years back we signed up with Netflix and enjoyed movie after movie as well as many shows we had missed, however, after a while it seemed we had seen all the good ones so discontinued our plan. We may go back to it this winter if they put some new movies out.
5. Make something: We both are rather crafty and you can find a lot of things we have made on the Frugal Tuesday page. The main criteria for anything we make is that it must not cost much, preferably nothing, to make. 
6. Read a book: I have found thousands upon thousands of free ebooks on the internet and using our little Android which has at least a 10 hour battery life I can read for nothing. Sure saves money as I love to read and the library just doesn't seem to be an option as I never know when I will get to town again. 
7. Music night: We both love music but come from very different backgrounds so have completely different tastes. Sometimes we will spend an evening... or even a whole day on the internet finding songs we love but the other person hasn't heard. This is especially difficult for me as Mountain Man knows so many songs and often can even tell me what year it was produced as well as trivia about the band. So I will go out of my way to see if I can find songs he can't name. It may sound corny but this is a very entertaining past time.
8. Watch a movie for free: Recently we discovered YouTube has loads of free movies but some of the channels are hard to find. One of our favorites is this one. Some of the latest movies we watched and really loved are: Shenandoah, How the West Was Won, (these movies have been delisted but you can still view them with the direct links I've posted), and Sargent York.  Of course they are very old movies, but who doesn't enjoy Jimmy Stewart movies or the Andy Griffith Show. For some reason we seem to connect with them more than the newer movies/shows out. We really like good clean movies from a time when swear words and sex where not considered par for the course. 
9. Write a blog: I can't tell you how much fun I have had writing this little blog and I hope you continue to enjoy my efforts. 
10. Watch the wildlife: This is a huge one here but unless you live in the country might be harder to do  Of course there are a lot of smaller birds and animals to watch too. We have spent a lot of time lately watching the ducks and geese fight for space on the pond and as I write this a fox came a long and got one of them. There is always something going on!

So if you are looking to save some money think about staying in or at least around home. You would be surprised what you can come up with to do for free or almost free which can not only be fun but can also bring you and your family a lot closer.

Also link in to Mind Body and Soul and Frugally Sustainable's blog hop.

The Babies Get Spoiled

Mountain Man is a softy, there is no living it down and no denying it any more. For a big burly man who hunts, traps and has butchered or helped to butcher many an animal he is at times, at least to me, a conundrum. Here is a man who tough in every sense of the word. He is a he man, a man's man and a man to "ride the river with". He now sports a big bushy beard and has a tendency to dress very backwoods country. Which is why I call him Mountain Man. Yet for all his manliness he is a total pushover in some ways. I have proof!

It all started when we brought home the two male goats. Of course it might have something to do with them being bottle babies and cuter than anything else on four legs. Or it could be that they are always calling Maaa. Seriously? I thought goats were supposed to say Baa. Nope! These boys insist on saying Maaa or Paaa. I'm telling you there is some sort of conspiracy going on here but needless to say we are both hooked and until they start to smell as all billies will tend to do during mating we can't help but love them. I expected this of me but didn't expect it of Mountain Man.

So there we were, working away outside trying to get the garden ready. So much to do! Thankfully the weather has been fantastic and we have found ourselves spending all day outside working on a ton of spring chores. Of course the "boys" won't let us pass by them without calling to us or doing some silly thing to make us laugh. We enjoyed this for quite some time but then Mountain Man decided they were bored and needed something to do. In short. They needed toys...... Toys? for goats? yep....

It's not like we were going to spend any money on this. No way! But baby goats being kids are easily amused, a wooden box and a tunnel are all it took. The wooden box is old nesting boxes from the coop as it is being redone and the the tunnel is an old piece which he found at a neighbors. Everyone around here tends to keep odd things as you never know when you might need them.

Now we are more entertained then ever and the boys are very happy indeed. The first place they go every morning when put into the run is straight to their toys. 

Apparently it is also good for teething...

It took a long while for them to figure out how to stand on top of the slippery round tunnel.

Nemo about to fly.

A great place to relax after all that play.

A high flying leap. 

Best buds.

Yep, our goats have toys.... Still shaking my head over this one but what a great idea and the entertainment factor is always a plus.

An Award and My Nominations

The rain is pounding down today but that is perfectly OK because I spent all day yesterday in the garden and my raspberries, plums, apples and cherries are now all planted. Yes! Finally! It took us a while to start planting them as the ground was still too cold but yesterday the conditions were perfect and aside from a little sunburn on my back all went very well.

Twice now I have been nominated for blogger awards and have not given the wonderful people who nominated me the recognition they deserve so as the rain pours down and before I start my baking I thought I should take few minutes to say thank you, so....

A huge thank you to the "farmer" from Farmpartment for nominating my blog for the Liebster Blog Award. The Liebster blog award is meant to highlight up and coming blogs that haven't yet amassed a large following (less than 200 followers). Those nominated shout for joy and then nominate 5 other deserving blogs and in this way pass the love around. I suppose it is a bit like a chain email but who doesn't like to get nominated for an award and get a bit of help getting noticed?

So, now comes the task of finding 5 other blogs to nominate. It didn't take long to find a few well deserving writers to nominate.

My picks are:

Misquito Creek Farm: This is a great information pack blog which I return to again and again. I have enjoyed watching and reading about life on this farm and plan on trying her recipe for homestead cheese very soon.

Haggy Housewife: Every time I arrive at her site the caption "start your day with a smile and then get over it" cracks me up. A wonderful little blog loaded with  information and recipes all done in a humorous and creative way.

Frippery Farm: Gwenivere at At Drop the Shoe is funny, quirky and just plan fun. Her live is always interesting to read about and her writing is inspiring, not to mention she takes a lot of pictures.... I like pictures!

My Old Kentucky Homestead: Katy always inspires and and highlights the important things in her life in a lively and interesting way. I love her writing style and the wonderful pictures and video's of her life.

The Anonymous Homesteader: A new little blog I have really enjoyed reading. While she/or he remains anonymous and doesn't post pictures I find myself looking forward to reading every post and wondering how she is doing today.

Take a few minutes and check them out if you have the time. I have sooooo much to accomplish today and a sad little lady in the barn with a sore leg that needs some attention. Have a great day everyone!

Recipe Thursday - Canning Milk

Life has sure changed a LOT since our small goat herd arrived. I don't mind waking up at 7am to milk and although my hands are still hurting slightly every morning I am pleased with my progress and my growing ability to milk all three of our ladies twice a day proficiently. I love hearing them call to me as I walk into the barn. Their cheery Baa's are a greeting I will never tire of. The only problem is what to do with all of the milk? Mountain Man and I have determined that we do not want to purchase milk from the store at all anymore but I am very aware that we will have a few months when the girls are dried up and gaining weight to give birth again. What to do? I will be making a lot of cheese and am excitedly waiting for my cultures and rennet to arrive but what about baking? For that matter milk to drink during that dry period.

Since we moved here I think I have spent more time doing research than anything else. There just seems to be so much I don't know. What I found was conflicting information. Many websites indicate that it is not safe to can milk or butter at home. This includes any product with milk in it such as cream soups. If you are interested in the reason why take a look at this article which includes links to other sites. I was stumped for a while on what to do and whether or not it is safe to can and use/drink home canned milk. To some extent I have to say I'm still not quite certain. However, during this time of research I happened to make a phone call that sort of changed everything, at least for me. It was during the time we were looking to purchase milk goats. I noticed an ad in the local paper for goats for sale and called the number listed.

Unfortunately the goats had already been sold but I spent probably an hour and a half on the phone with a complete stranger. It's not that unusual for me to do something like that. I have found the only way to learn is to ask questions and so when I find someone willing to answer the conversation can go on for quite some time as one question leads to another, and so on, and so on....

The lady in question had grown up in an Amish community and still lived mostly in the Amish way, the wisdom she had to impart will stand me in good stead for years to come. One of my queries of course involved canning milk. She informed me that the Amish use home canned milk all the time and she had never heard of anyone becoming sick from it. Not only that but they canned it using a water bath canner.

While I can not conceive of using a water bath canner for any low acid product this conversation really opened my eyes and I have stopped being quit so concerned. I still think we have to be very careful and am not sure if we will use the milk to drink or in anything that is uncooked. I know my home canned milk will not have the nutritional value of fresh milk and I've been told it tastes quite different but even having milk to cook and bake with over those dry months will make a huge difference. Perhaps next year I will try to have one of the ladies bred to kid in the fall so we have fresh milk all winter.

Once I had decided to can milk I again found a LOT of conflicting information. The recipes I found ranged from 10 minutes to 25 minutes of processing time. I decided to err on the side of safety and processed our milk at 10 lbs of pressure for 25 minutes. The process is laid out very nicely by Razor Family Farms at this URL. As well as on Mother Earth News at this site.

I am not in any way advocating you can milk at home as I think everyone has to make decisions for themselves regarding food safety but for Mountain Man and myself this will be a part of our lives. I can't wait to find out whether the wonderful cream you can see at the top of the jars can be used to make butter.

Have a good day my friends! I am off to do some gardening.

Frugal Tuesday - Don't Throw Out the Whey!

Now that I have started to make cheese I am left with liters and gallons of whey and I just can't bring myself to throw it out. What to do? A gallon of milk only makes about a pound of cheese and the rest is leftover whey. That means a LOT of whey for each time I make cheese and the thought of dumping it down the drain makes me cringe. It is so full of protein and other nutrients I had to do some research and see what I could come up with. As it turns out there are so many ways to use it I will never be throwing it out.

First of all there are two types of whey, sweet and acid. Sweet whey is what is left after making cheese with rennet and cultures. Acid whey is from making any cheese using vinegar, citric acid or lemon juice, farmers cheese, 30 minute mozzarella and ricotta are often made this way. This is the way I started making cheese and am hoping very soon my rennet and cultures will come in the mail so I can make mozzarella and other cheeses. Sweet whey can be used for any of the items listed but acid whey is best for only certain items. Although I have to put a disclaimer in here as I have used acid whey for some of the sweet whey uses with great results and a few of the item I researched didn't specify which type of whey to use.

Best uses for acid whey (Sweet whey can be used for all)

1. Reconstitute fruit juice and add loads of nutrients and protein.
2. Make lemonade with some of it. Here's how. 
3. Feed it to farm animals such as chickens, dogs, cats and pigs. If you are making your own chicken feed whey has a high protein content so can add much needed protein. Just make sure you offer them fresh water along with it. Even cows and sheep benefit from whey when some of their water is replaced by it. Some animals will prefer sweet whey to acid whey.
4. Marinate your meat in it. Here's a recipe for Moroccan chicken I plan on trying. 
5. Feed it to your plants. Here's how.
6. Add it to your shakes to add protein and nutrients,
7. Cook your pasta, potatoes, oatmeal, polenta and rice with it. It does change the flavor slightly, but it is delicious!
8. Put it on your hair. Whey (acid or sweet) is great for your hair and can be used for a simple cleaning (rub in and rinse off) if your hair isn't very dirty or as a conditioner (leave in for 15 minutes then rinse) for afterwards. It also supposedly adds texture to limp, fine hair when sprayed on and then styled. The conditioner is especially great when acid whey is used as it has vinegar in it which is great as a conditioner just on its own. 

Sweet Whey (also all items listed above)

1. Drink it. There are a lot of people who love it but I'm not sold and think it is an acquired taste. Doesn't hurt to try though!
2. If you have sweet whey you can make ricotta cheese from the whey. Here is a great link on how to make it. So simple! And you have two types of cheese from one gallon of milk. 
3. Make bread (This is the very first thing I do. I love the way it tastes!) you can find my recipe here. 
4. Use it in almost any recipe calling for milk or buttermilk. Of course I don't think it would taste right in a cream soup but I haven't tried it yet. However, any baking is fair game! Just be aware it will change the texture a bit. Here's a great site on how to use it in baking.
5. Use it to lacto-ferment vegetables such as sauerkraut and other veggies. 
6. Soak your grains in it. If you are into grains a few tablespoons of whey can add great nutrients and make them more digestible.
7. Make lacto-fermented gingerale
8. Make a Whey and Honey face mask.
9. But it in your bath water as it is great for your skin. One to two cups per bath.
10. Use it to sooth a sunburn. 
11. If all else fails put it on your compost bin. It will improve the nutrients in your bin.

I certainly feel much better now that I don't have to throw away all those wonderful nutrients. If you have any other uses for whey which you have experimented with let me know and I will add them to my list!

Also seen on Our Simple Farm, Frugally Sustainable, Natural Mothers Network, The Prairie Homestead and Mind Body and Soul blog hops.