freemotion
Food Guru
That is a major accomplishment! Yep, I timed myself in the beginning, too!
Feta!!! Easy and delicious! Wonderful grated over buttered popcorn, too....
NoobieChickenLady's Journal - SS Score and Mah Kitteh is HOME!! Yay!
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That is a major accomplishment! Yep, I timed myself in the beginning, too!
Feta!!! Easy and delicious! Wonderful grated over buttered popcorn, too....
ohiofarmgirl
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great work! dontcha love it when it all comes together! i wouldnt try and rush... you'll get faster as your hands get used to it and frankly if she's not done eating.. you'll just have to stand there and say "geez are you done YET!?!?"
you are doing a great job!!!
feta = fab! i had some that i left in my fridge and forgot about. honestly i thought i ruined it b/c it was really goaty. well i re-found it after a couple months and it was just beautiful
yay!
nothing like a wet stinky stompy goat! i milk in our pole barn garage and it sounds like its about to cave in when its really pouring! we try and run out there between cloud bursts but it doesnt always work out so well
you are doing a great job!!!
feta = fab! i had some that i left in my fridge and forgot about. honestly i thought i ruined it b/c it was really goaty. well i re-found it after a couple months and it was just beautiful
yay!
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noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
Thanks you two Free, I'm taking your example & handling Shadow's tiny teats & udder while feeding her on the stand. She's sorta hunching down, but not kicking or struggling. She gets her last bottle tonight.
Feta & yogurt it is, I have everything but lipase and that isn't a required ingredient so this weekend we'll give it the old college try. I'm running out of quart jars so I have to make room with something. I bought several cases at the end of the season, where did they all go?? Oh yeah, canning...
It's raining something terrible here, little flecks of ice keep hitting my window but it's 74 degrees. The lights just flickered and we have warnings & watches, the sirens have gone off a couple of times. We live in a mobile home. I head home at 5:30, about an hour. Ya'll send some words up for us.
Free, I'm taking your example & handling Shadow's tiny teats & udder while feeding her on the stand. She's sorta hunching down, but not kicking or struggling. She gets her last bottle tonight.Feta & yogurt it is, I have everything but lipase and that isn't a required ingredient so this weekend we'll give it the old college try. I'm running out of quart jars so I have to make room with something. I bought several cases at the end of the season, where did they all go?? Oh yeah, canning...
It's raining something terrible here, little flecks of ice keep hitting my window but it's 74 degrees. The lights just flickered and we have warnings & watches, the sirens have gone off a couple of times. We live in a mobile home. I head home at 5:30, about an hour. Ya'll send some words up for us.
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
You got it! Stay safe
freemotion
Food Guru
I'll take running out in rain, hail, and blizzards to milk any day of the week....but I've watched and waited and finally ran out in LIGHTENING storms and I was scared out of my wits! Yikes!
If you can get ahold of some gallon jars, those are the best for saving up milk for cheesemaking. You can skim some cream off if you'd like if you use big jars. You will read everywhere that you shouldn't pour warm milk into jars of cold milk, but I did just that for a year and had NO problems at all. It was fresh and sweet.
Leave the gallons as undisturbed as possible and the cream will form a seal on the top, keeping the milk quite fresh. Put the full jars way in the back of the fridge, where you don't have to move them at all until you are ready to make cheese. This advice is for later, when you are getting a gallon a day and you finally go buy that five gallon pot so you can make huge batches of cheese once a week! It takes the same amount of time to make a four gallon batch as it takes to make a one gallon batch. You just need a really big pot.
Also, you will need a restaurant-size skimmer for stirring it, and a super-long knife for cutting the curds if you use a big pot. I got a wedding-cake knife from a restaurant supply for this. It has to be long enough to cut the curds on the diagonal in the biggest pot you plan to use.
OK, this seems like early advice, but you will see!!!
If you can get ahold of some gallon jars, those are the best for saving up milk for cheesemaking. You can skim some cream off if you'd like if you use big jars. You will read everywhere that you shouldn't pour warm milk into jars of cold milk, but I did just that for a year and had NO problems at all. It was fresh and sweet.
Leave the gallons as undisturbed as possible and the cream will form a seal on the top, keeping the milk quite fresh. Put the full jars way in the back of the fridge, where you don't have to move them at all until you are ready to make cheese. This advice is for later, when you are getting a gallon a day and you finally go buy that five gallon pot so you can make huge batches of cheese once a week!
It takes the same amount of time to make a four gallon batch as it takes to make a one gallon batch. You just need a really big pot.Also, you will need a restaurant-size skimmer for stirring it, and a super-long knife for cutting the curds if you use a big pot. I got a wedding-cake knife from a restaurant supply for this. It has to be long enough to cut the curds on the diagonal in the biggest pot you plan to use.
OK, this seems like early advice, but you will see!!!
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noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
Cool, thanks! I've only made labneh, vinegar cheese & mozzerella so far, but feta seems very doable.Mom has instructions to save all of her gallon jars. She buys the gallon jars of pickles, pickled eggs & pickled pigs feet
I think with a baking soda soak & a nice hot wash they will be fine for the milk, that's what I use to soak my beans & store large amounts of dried stuff, but they all have stuff in them right now. The sugar doesn't taste pickly, so I guess milk will be fine.
edited to correct word
ohiofarmgirl
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dang, Free - all good ideas.. humm.. you should start a cheese thread...
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noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
Well, we made it through the night
It was pretty peaceful after a couple of hours of heavy rain & light sleet. Still warm, so now it's all muggy. There were 4" of standing water in my yard when I got home, yuck. Thankfully the rain slacked off considerably during the night and a good deal of the water drained off by morning.
Dixie was serious wet & dripping from her udder (silly goat, go in the shed!) so I just milked her out onto the stand rather than chance dissolved dirt dripping into the milk.
This morning I caught a break and she was relatively dry. Here's the cool part. DH was exhausted, the alarm went off for about 5 minutes while I was pouring coffee & getting dressed in the bathroom. That hardly ever happens, so I knew he was tired. I turned the alarm off & let him sleep. Then I did my first completely solo milking!!
No DH to distract the wether & baby. I just took 2 bowls & the hook on feeder out & set them in place. Then I brought out a bucket of feed, got Dixie on the stand with a small amount of feed, set Shadow & Lucky some feed & hurried over to the milking stand.
I washed, milked her out completely (3.8lbs), both sides, dipped her, checked her hooves & eyes and she was done. Woo Hoo!!
DH was expressing amazement at how our little homestead is coming together. Bees, rabbits, chickens, goats, gradually improving soil, perennial food plants, improved fencing, enouraged stands of native edibles, small rainwater system (couple of plastic barrels for watering plants), permanent raised beds. Granted, we still have a lot to do, but we can actually see some progress now, instead of feeling like we are churning our wheels. *happy sigh*
Back to work!
It was pretty peaceful after a couple of hours of heavy rain & light sleet. Still warm, so now it's all muggy. There were 4" of standing water in my yard when I got home, yuck. Thankfully the rain slacked off considerably during the night and a good deal of the water drained off by morning.
Dixie was serious wet & dripping from her udder (silly goat, go in the shed!) so I just milked her out onto the stand rather than chance dissolved dirt dripping into the milk.
This morning I caught a break and she was relatively dry. Here's the cool part. DH was exhausted, the alarm went off for about 5 minutes while I was pouring coffee & getting dressed in the bathroom. That hardly ever happens, so I knew he was tired. I turned the alarm off & let him sleep. Then I did my first completely solo milking!!
No DH to distract the wether & baby. I just took 2 bowls & the hook on feeder out & set them in place. Then I brought out a bucket of feed, got Dixie on the stand with a small amount of feed, set Shadow & Lucky some feed & hurried over to the milking stand.
I washed, milked her out completely (3.8lbs), both sides, dipped her, checked her hooves & eyes and she was done. Woo Hoo!!
DH was expressing amazement at how our little homestead is coming together. Bees, rabbits, chickens, goats, gradually improving soil, perennial food plants, improved fencing, enouraged stands of native edibles, small rainwater system (couple of plastic barrels for watering plants), permanent raised beds. Granted, we still have a lot to do, but we can actually see some progress now, instead of feeling like we are churning our wheels. *happy sigh*
Back to work!
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- #219
noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
The weather that was here last night & today gave this state a disaster. I'm not sure how bad it is, but 30-40 miles south of my hometown there was a huge tornado on the ground for over an hour. I imagine it is pretty bad at the moment.
Keep the folks of Valley Park, Yazoo City, & Durant Mississippi in your thoughts & prayers and any others who may be in the path of this beastly thing. I'm headed that way when it settles down to see if I can help with any cleanup. So far, no one I know personally was injured or lost, but there were losses I do know.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/24/AR2010042401435.html
Keep the folks of Valley Park, Yazoo City, & Durant Mississippi in your thoughts & prayers and any others who may be in the path of this beastly thing. I'm headed that way when it settles down to see if I can help with any cleanup. So far, no one I know personally was injured or lost, but there were losses I do know.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/24/AR2010042401435.html
ohiofarmgirl
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holy cow!! glad you are alright... this is the season, huh? wow!
we were supposed to get the big storm but it never happened. we're keeping a weather eye to the sky tho....yikes!!
glad you're safe
*hugs!*
we were supposed to get the big storm but it never happened. we're keeping a weather eye to the sky tho....yikes!!
glad you're safe
*hugs!*
