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churning butter

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Gettin' Cheesy

So you have cows, goats and sheep (yes, sheep!) but you have no clue what to do with all that extra milk you're not drinking. As Mrs. D sits by the window with the winter sun streaming in, shamelessly eating her boxed macaroni and cheese, she can think of several things. Besides making soap, of course. Two of them are "ageing" in her refrigerator right now, but with this cooler weather, she is about to move them to the "cheese room" in her workshop. One cheese is still in the press, to be removed tonight or tomorrow. One is currently suspended in cheesecloth from her cupboard door, to hopefully achieve a thick, creamy consistency and a mild, mellow flavor that will disappear into greedy tummies before the week is out.

Cheesemaking is one of the oldest and tastiest ways of preserving milk. Although it is nice to have one's own cave in which to age the curds, as mentioned above, even a refrigerator will do in a pinch, 'til the weather cools down. Several cheeses can even be eaten without ageing, such as cottage cheese, ricotta, feta, mozarella, cream cheese, and too many more to mention here.

This month Mrs. D is going to explain how to make a very simple cheese that you can even make with that store bought milk you got on sale but never drank. Whether fresh or storebought, start by getting it out of the fridge and pour about a gallon or so into a large container with a lid. Set it on the back of the stove, if you're not going to be using it, or in the oven with just the pilot light, or somewhere warm and draft free. We are going to let it set overnight.  In the morning, or sometime the next day, lift the lid and sniff. It should smell pleasant, but slightly acidic, and should not yet be curdled. Stir gently. If it feels slightly thicker than when you put it in last night, it is about right. I am not sure that store milk will thicken, but just check for a slight acidity. This is called ripening the milk. 

Now we are going to stir in an acid to make the solid cheese curds separate from the watery whey. Use your choice of one of the following: 2 teaspoons citric acid or 1/4 cup vinegar or 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Add to milk and stir gently for 2 minutes to completely incorporate it into the milk. Separation should occur immediately. If milk is too cool, put it back in the oven with just the pilot light for another few hours, or heat slowly on the stove. If separation does not occur immediately, continue to gently stir in tiny amounts of your chosen acid until it does. When the milk is curdled and the whey is separating, continue to stir gently and slowly for a few minutes. This helps force more of the whey out of the curds.  Now line a colander with cheesecloth, and put it in a large bowl if you are saving the whey for other purposes. Carefully pour the curds and whey into the colander. With all the curds in the colander, tie the corners of the cheesecloth together and lift curds up. Hang this "bag" somewhere it can drain for a few hours. When dripping slows or stops, put bag back in colander and untie. Rinse curds in warm water to remove more whey. Salt if desired. Hang bag again to drain water. Put curds in a bowl and stir with fingers or a fork. Now you decide. You can eat the cheese just as it is, put in omelettes, stir fry, or add some milk and use as cottage cheese or ricotta. Mmmm...

One final note.  Mrs. D had been getting frustrated with her cheeses for years, trying to achieve identical results every time. What she didn't take into account was that homemade cheese is a living art.  Many factors influence a single batch, and the most important thing is not to be able to duplicate mass produced store bought cheese, but to produce a food that her family and friends can enjoy, or at least laugh about with her.

Back to that boxed mac 'n' cheese...hey, it's organic;)

Thanks,

Mrs. D

Copyright (c) 2007 by Robyn Dolan

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Wild Goat Milking

Isn't this the California dream...move to the country, get some goats and chickens and live off the land?! Then Mrs. D tried to milk that confounded goat and discovered exactly why that animal is so often chosen to depict the devil.

So she worked with the creatures, fought with them, bribed them, and still they did the "bee stung me in the butt dance" and the "drama queen 'I'm being cruelly slaughtered' bellow and feint".  So Mrs. D had to look at other options.  Besides the freezer, there was the possibility of building a milking stanchion. This marvelous example of ingenuity, along with some humane hobbles, possibly a belly strap and a bucket of sweet feed can make a milker out of the orneriest critter. And so we proceed...

For best comfort and convenience (Mrs. D's own!) she wanted the critter up off the ground, so she needed to build a stand about 18”-24” tall, 15”-20” wide and at least 40” long.  She used a couple of old wooden planter boxes, laid a highway railing across them and put an old piece of plywood on top of that.  The stanchion is under the barn so one side is a stall panel and the other is secured with t-posts. Next in order of importance is the feed box/neck hobble. 

Mrs. D put a raised feeder on top of her stanchion and fixed a lead rope to the pole end of the barn.  The homestead milkers wear collars, so the goat’s collar is clipped to the lead rope and she greedily keeps her head in the feeder which is generously supplied with tasty morsels. As for the other end, on a good day, when said doe is not being the drama queen, humane velcro hobbles are gently wrapped around her back ankles during the milking.

On a normal day, said drama queen is gently but firmly wrapped around the midsection with a horse halter which is fastened to the stall panel to prevent her from laying down on the job.  The horse halter was chosen over a rope or belt, as it puts some width around the creature’s belly so she doesn’t wriggle out of it.

Now catching that rascal is a whole 'nuther story.  An enthusiastic teenager has been Mrs. D's best solution.  There are no roping tricks she can pass along.  When Mrs. D grabs the rope, the goats stand 2 yards away and laugh at her.  However, the milkers allow themselves to be handled in exchange for goodies.  It’s just the standing still for milking they have a problem with.  Thanks to the wonderful technology of the milking stanchion, Mrs. D's homesteaders enjoy fresh goat milk on their cereal every morning.

Thanks,

Mrs. D

Copyright (c) 2007 by Robyn Dolan

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Now Mrs. D picks up the process in the winter evenings with carding.  Wool cards are similar to those square, spiny dog brushes, but with smaller spines. She takes small pieces of wool and fans them out across one card, then brushes them from one card to the other several times, separating the fibers and cleaning out the little pieces of this and that stuck to the wool. She puts the clean, carded wool aside and keeps working.  Once she has a good pile of clean, carded wool, she can start spinning.

The basics are the same whether using a drop spindle or a spinning wheel.   She ties a leader, or already spun piece of yarn to the spindle.  She starts the spindle spinning and guides and twists the fibers as they pull through.  The spun yarn winds itself around a bobbin.  Every so often,  the bobbin needs to be emptied and the yarn wound onto a niddy noddy, which is a simple frame to hold the yarn.

Once she has about 80 yards of yarn on the niddy noddy, she will take it off, wet the entire "knot" and hang it up to dry with a weight at one end. This will set the twist of the yarn. When it’s dry she’ll start on another one of those winter night projects that keep her warm twice - once while she’s crocheting and then again while she’s watching it snow under a nice cozy blanket.

Stay warm,

Mrs. D