Friday, December 30, 2011
Dropping the Ball
Even at the height of our production we are considered a micro-dairy. Our large vat insert maxes out at 35 gallons and generally during the higher yield milk months I'm making cheese 3-4 times a weeek. However, currently we are a micro, micro-dairy. My recent batches of feta and also my last two of chevre were just under 5 gallons each. And it took me all of my legal holding time to gather that much milk. At this rate we may be done with active cheesemaking within the next 2 weeks.
Done of course until the 50 or so does that are pregnant start kidding in mid to late February. Enter the time of no sleep... Last year our farm produced around 148 kids between February and July 4th weekend, most of them born between mid/late February and April. We're often asked what we do with all those kids. Well, last year some when back to Old Mountain Farm, friends we were leasing goats from (or in some cases had bought does from with kids back conditions) and a couple groups of young wethers went to a friend who raises them and sells them as pets - goats make great pets or companions animals. All the others we have sold, except for 28 or so that we still have here, some still for sale but others bred this year to kid in the spring or the younger ones who we'll grow out this year and make a decision on them for next year.
I'm please to say that this year we had kids travel to Alabama, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, Maine, and other points around the new england area. Some even went to show homes which we are very excited about. We are quite busy with the farm and cheese so while we have the milk testing part in hand, we haven't had any goats in the show ring. This year we have goats on the show circuit in a couple places plus just this week 2 of our young does went to 4-H show homes! I can't wait to see what this next season of kids brings.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Cheese - Not just for crackers
Since it is the holiday season and, for me at least, baking is a part of that season, I have been on the look out for a special, holiday-ish treat to make, in addition to our favorite chèvre truffles and goat milk fudge. When I saw this recipe I new this was what I'd been looking for. The recipe was originally featured in Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, and was from Moira Sommers, Co-Owner/Chef of 3 Sisters Cafe in Indianapolis, IN - Blueberry Goat Cheese Pie.
We won't cut into it until tomorrow but looks wise it was a complete success!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Mmmm Pie
Rob (my boyfriend) works for the Central VT Council on Aging. The Council hosts a senior meal on Christmas day and they were a little pressed for donations of food for the meal this year. So last night I made 2 kinds of cranberry sauce - regular whole berry cranberry sauce and orange cranberry. I was planning to make two pies tonight to donate as well but Rob suggested we do 4 instead - so of course we did!
Clockwise from the top left we made pecan, blueberry (my first blueberry ever!), apple and pumpkin. Tomorrow night I'll make the pies for our own family Christmas celebration: French Silk (Rob's favorite) and a new pie for us this year: Blueberry Goat Cheese Pie with Basil. I'll post picture of those tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Only 5 shopping days left!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
As if...
Breathe
Also a big hit is our new Spanish Garrotxa-styled aged cheese - Tordera. Both markets sold out completely in less than 2 hours. Tordera has been the first aged cheese that was really mine from conception. I am enamored with most Spanish cheeses, most because there are many I haven't even tried yet - all I've tried I have enjoyed. I had quite a bit of expert help with this one too. I had the opportunity to work with Enric Canut at the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese - one of the foremost experts in Spain on cheese. It was through his teaching that I was able to produce this lovely little cheese. We have a little work to do to improve rind development, really want a velvety grey rind, but it will come. In the meantime, the flavor of this semi-soft cheese is right where we wanted.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Holiday Market
I made Honey Spice Dog Treats (with our chevre), Honey Lemon Truffles (with our chevre), Chocolate Chevre Brownies (they are about ready to go in the oven), and considering some cranberry walnut chevre cookies as well. In addition we have our usual "Goat Note" note cards, goat milk soap, and CHEESE!!!!
The addition we are most excited about though is the first public outing of our new Spanish style goat cheese. Tordera, named for a Spanish river in the Catalonia region, is made from pasteurized milk and aged only 45 days. We are also aging a few wheels at various lengths to consider the potential for producing it from raw milk as well. If you are at the St. Johnsbury or Montpelier area farmer's markets stop in and see us for a sample of the newest addition to our cheese family!
Spanish style cheeses have been a large influence on our recent cheese making. It helps that the cheese maker in charge of making such decisions is smitten with Spanish cheeses and recently had the opportunity to work with one of the foremost cheese experts in Spain, Enric Canut. You might even see another new Spanish influenced cheese (or two!) coming out this spring.
Just a note to market goers, this may be the last market until February where you can get our chevre. The girls are drying out in preparation for kidding, which will begin in mid-February, and eventually we reach a point where we aren't producing enough milk to make cheese.
Christmas Goat!
I was a little worried that she was going to try and eat his beard here but she was a very good goat and just offered a little nuzzling. A good illustration as to why she was the sweet little goat that we selected for a visit to Santa. Not all the young kids in our herd are quite as sweet!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
A friend in cheese
We took a break around lunch time and shared a wonderful salad of sprouted greens and heirloom tomatoes & avocado, accompanied by what else? Cheese! I brought some cheeses home from my cheese event on Saturday and Gail was kind enough to bring two cheeses from her own home cheesemaking. Along with 3 of our cheeses (2 lactic proovings and our new Spanish cheese), we had quite the cheese plate to accompany our salads.
Among those making an appearance on our cheese plate were Grafton's two new cheeses: Shepsog and Red Vask. Both were good but Shepsog, a mixed milk (cow/sheep) cheese, was our favorite among the two with plenty of lovely earthy flavors and a nice finish. Red Vask was good, but nothing we would go out of our way to buy - just not enough bang for us in the flavor department. However, if you like a nice mellow cheese it's a very good choice.
Our new Spanish cheese, made in the style of a Garrotxa, was also on our cheese plate. We are very happy with it's development. The rind reminds me of a river rock, but when you cut open a wheel a beautiful semi soft snow white paste is revealed. Initial tastings have been great, I can't wait to take it to market for the first time this weekend to see what people think!
I think Gail had a good time "playing cheese" and I hope she comes back again. I had a great time having a partner in an otherwise fairly solitary job.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Santa!
Today mom is headed off to Maine to bring some goats back to Olde Mountain Farm, and Rob is off working (some big IT install at one of his offices), so I'm holding down the fort at my house and hers - which really means I'm feeding and pottying all the "house" dogs and making sure there are no major goatastrophes. All in all it makes for a pretty quiet day around here. I did have one special task to do today - pictures with Santa! We selected one of our younger goats to have pictures with Santa and it was hillarious. She was quite the attention getter when we walked into Agway, but admittedly we certainly weren't alone. We were actually in line behind a duck for photos!
The photos are supposed to be ready on Friday so watch for them!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
It's Alive
Did you ever think about the paper or packaging your cheese comes in? Not a big deal if you just buy Kraft, but for fresh artisan cheeses it actually can make a big difference. Someone from Jasper Hill brought 4 different versions of the same cheese, each packaged in a different paper at the same time. It was interesting to see how the cheese evolved in each of the wrappers, and how it completely ruined it to package it in clear plastic wrap. Artisan cheese are living breathing things and if not given a breathable environment they literally cook themselves to death - this does not make for an attractive cheese.
We even had some great cheese to practice wrapping, of course if we wrapped it we had to take it home :) Guess what I had for dinner!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
One of those days
It was however a beautiful day here on the farm. We had a lovely blanket of snow last night or this morning, and things were flocked in snow all day. Of course the end result is that inevitably the weight of all this wet snow will pull down branches or sometimes a tree - today, an older tree or at least part of it. Something to add to the to do list before the snow gets too deep. Someday we'll get ahead of that list and there will actually be nothing left to check off. Hey, a girls gotta have a dream!
In the meantime, missed deadlines and downed branches happen and we keep moving forward, remembering to take time to enjoy the beauty around us and all the joy it brings to us.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Little Goats, Big Cheese!
The quality of the milk produced by our "girls" is vital to the success and quality of our cheese. We work hard to select cheeses that are suited to our milk type. Currently I am pretty hooked on Spanish cheeses. Our goats compare to the milk solids (fat, protein, etc.) of their goats, making our milk well suited to produce some of the Spanish style cheeses. Watch for some exciting new Spanish style cheeses coming out of our aging room over the next several months.
Keeping up
My day starts with morning feedings, moving milk from the cooler to the vat and then pasteurizing the milk. We don't always pasteurize milk but we are legally required to for any cheese we make that is sold younger than 60 days old. So all our fresh cheeses (feta & chevre), as well as any young aged cheeses must be made from pasteurized milk. While the milk is pasteurizing, this takes a couple hours, I pack any orders that are waiting.
Yesterday I made one of our Spanish style cheeses that are still in development. Our goal is to sell this cheese at 45 days so it would need to be pasteurized. We are planning to age a few wheels of the early batches of this cheese to see how aging improves the flavor before we make final decisions on the long term plans for this cheese. We may actually make some from raw milk and age them longer depending on the results.
After pasteurization is complete and the milk is quickly cooled down to the right temperature I add my starter cultures and allow them to ripen the milk, waiting for just a small change in the pH before I rennet. Once I add the rennet the milk begins to change, becoming a gelled consistency. Once the gelled milk is at the right firmness it's time to cut it into curds. The curds are then treated to a process of washing, heating and stirring until they are the right size and consistency, again I'm also looking for a certain pH here as well.
Once the curds are ready I pack the curds into cheese molds and begin the pressing process. Yesterday my last flip and press of the cheeses came around 6:30pm and I was back out around 8:30pm to remove them from the press and molds. All in all it was about a 14 hr. work day yesterday. Not too bad, but hard to find time in there to post here. I'm working on it though and hope that as our race to finish pre-winter tasks comes to a close I'll be able to take more time to write.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Just another day
Today I headed down to Bob White Systems, a local supplier, to pickup some additional cheese matting for the aging room, a new curd scoop, some calcium chloride, and of course the latest issue of Culture Magazine! I realize that task alone isn't exactly fodder for a blog post but what was striking about the trip though was how evident the damage was from the last of this years two major floods to hit our state, Hurricane Irene. We took Rte 14 into Royalton and I have to say that the power packed by a flood never ceases to amaze me. You can still see the level of the flood water by the debris it left behind, a ghostly image of the flood waters that once swept through, weaving trees together like a tapestry and leaving unexpected objects in unimaginable places.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Things that grow in the night
My first batch of cheese allowed to bloom was a nail biting moment which spanned months. I didn't really have a plan, just an unaged raw milk tomme and a beautiful bloomy rind dream. I bravely removed my chosen tommes from the brine and placed them on the aging room shelves. I anxiously flipped them every day, watching for the first signs of the feared deadly "la fleur." While I admit my reflex at the first signs of any color was to run for the brine and wash it away, I did refrain and learned to enjoy patting down the new flora that grew and even looked forward to seeing new colors as the rind continued to develop. Fortunately, the first batches turned out amazing. And months later the cheese was more incredible. Unfortunately, all the cheeses that were unsold between that first batch and all the cheeses I put away from the spring make season that followed were victims of the May flooding in our area. The flood is a story on its own for a future post.
Jumping ahead in time, past a tumultuous summer in the aging room, we are finally starting to see cheeses we are happy with, and many beautiful flowery rinds. I may be a young cheesemaker but I feel like while our first year has been full of ups, ACS & ADGA wins, and downs, I couldn't have imagined a better learning opportunity and I have certainly become much braver about my willingness to let the scary things grow in the night.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Farm Markets
We were pleasantly surprised when we learned that there was a spot for us at the winter market! It was great to arrive today for our first winter market and find that we are situated close to our summer market neighbors, Gaylord Farm, and right in between the delicious Butterfly Bakery and who else but Mt. Mansfield Creamery.
It was great to be situated right next to another cheesemaker and have the opportunity to chat a little in between customers. I also got a chance to meet another local cheesemaker who is also vending at the winter market, Molly from Sage Farm.
All in all a great day.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Snow White
I don't recall ever really appreciated the qualities of milk before now either. When we were kids I remember getting milk delivered in the early morning hours, and how fun it was to go collect the bottle of cream line milk fom the silver treasure chest on the front porch. Sometimes there would even be orange juice at my grandmothers. I remember the feel of the ice cold glass bottle in my hand, the beautiful color of the milk and the way the cream rose to the top. I never thought about the farmer who milked his cows so we could have that fresh milk. I never wondered what breed of cows they were, or what their rolling herd milk fat average was, or what kid of solids they had. Have I truly become a milk geek?
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Mmm. Chocolate.
I had a glass one, you know one of those cheapo ones you buy at the grocery store, but it cracked when I was using it so not only was I out a candy thermometer but I also had to throw out the entire batch of confections I was making. I managed to find a nice metal one, but while using it today it seemed like it was taking an awful long time to get to soft ball stage so I used the water test and augh, it was well past, almost to hard ball stage! This explains why I had so much difficulty with the last batch of carmels I made.
Of course all of this is in preparation for the upcoming holiday markets. I don't make chocolates all year around, although one of my cheese instructors encouraged me to enter the truffles into a cheese competition - apparently there is a confections category - who knew! I did manage to make two kinds of truffles, the first is just a plain chocolate truffle sweetened with maple syrup (you really don't taste the maple), some are salted and others are just plain chocolate, and the second is a lemon honey chocolate truffle.
And last but not least, I made some honey spice chevre dog cookies too.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Flocculating
There are actually other similar services in many areas and it is a great way to find wonderful foods, often from farmers in your local area. Near us we also have the St. Johnsbury Food Alliance which tried their hands at an online market this fall for St.Johnsbury area folks. The Central Vermont Food Hub, focusing on bringing their customers food from producers in Washington County, VT. And recently a friend of the farm became involved in yet another local food/farm to the people type service for folks in the Charlotte/Shelburne area - yourfarmstand.com. As a food producer it's great, and allows us to extend our reach to the consumer with relatively low overhead.
So back to my milk (which by now has flocculated) - working with goat milk today, making Feta. Feta is actually a good cheese for the home cheese maker to start out with. The basic process is simple and there are several tutorials on YouTube even! Actually, what isn't there a tutorial for on YouTube? Our Feta is made from our own recipe but as the process really isn't that different across the board, we think our secret really has more to do with our milk. Time to cut the curd!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Tis The Season
Yesterday we took samples of two of our developing cheeses. The first is a Spanish style cheese from pasteurized goat milk. We opted to go with a pasteurized milk vs raw milk as our goal is to sell the cheese when it is young. Although I have to say that I recently tried a piece of the same type of cheese from Spain that was a bit older and YUUUUMMMM! Our version is looking lovely. With its earthy blue-grey rind it resembles the surface of a rock, but once I pulled a plug from the center of the cheese a beautiful, creamy white center was revealed which melted in my mouth, full of flavor. I can't wait to see what it is like in another couple weeks.
The second cheese represents our first attempt at a goat milk blue cheese. Blues are tough, but in my opinion, when they are good they are among the best. When they aren't good thought they can be horrible, really horrible. I've been told that its just not possible to make a good blue cheese with goat milk. But after tasting a Italian Goat Gorgonzola, I respectfully disagree. So, a few months and a fair amount of research later I've come up with a modified recipe for a blue that I hope will lead us somewhere. Also on the table for future development is a goat/cow blue, in the style of a Spanish Valdeon (a traditional aged Spanish cheese, wrapped in sycamore maple or chestnut leaves), but wrapping our version in a more Vermont leaf: sugar maple. This will be a project farther down the road as it isn't exactly the right season for fresh maple sugar leaves, and I'd like to gain a little more hands on experience with making blues first.
While our all goat blue is months away from being available, if all goes well our newest Spanish style aged cheese will be available before Christmas.
Just one of those days
NOTE: I typed this late last night (Sunday) but fell asleep without posting it. Oops!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Here we go
Monday I started 3 lactic cheeses which, if all goes as planned will be ready for sale right before Christmas.
Tuesday I started a special aged cheese. It's actually a little R&D we are working on so this particular cheese is a cross between that and something special for some friends.
Wednesday I made mozzarella, again part of the R&D project.
Thursday I set some Cream Cheese, more R&D.
Friday I set our weekly batch of chèvre, which I'm about to go out and set to drain. That is a record total for us as far as varieties of cheese made in a week, 7 in total this week. Phew!
Friday, November 25, 2011
Blog on...
So, without further ado, I am going to start blogging every day. From Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving I will write something, anything, about life here on the farm as a goat tender/cheese maker. I don't expect to experience any moment of enlightment or great revealation, just the day to day life on the farm.
So it begins...
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Books & Blues
On the inside of the cover (front and back) it has some great old ads for farm & dairy machinery like milking machines, butter churns, and even dairy salt & rennet.
Part of the reason I wanted this book (besides the fact that it's an old cheese book) is the section on blue cheese, Stilton specifically. I am currently absorbing everything I can about blue cheese in order to develop a goat milk blue. Much of the written work out there is on cow milk or blended milk blues so I'm trying to learn everything I can about blues to make decisions about things like what time of year to make the cheese, what recipe, what style, etc. Milk changes characteristics from spring to summer to fall. So, learning more about the changes in our own milk chemistry and combining that knowledge with what I learn about making blue cheese will, I hope, help me make some good decisions.
Stay tuned for more... after all, even farm-girls get the blues!
Monday, March 21, 2011
This little pig went to market...
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Immortality
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Cheese again!
Mom and I started our new season by attending an affinage class at VIAC at UVM. It was great to learn some new ways to describe cheese and gain a better understanding of what some of the flavors we were tasting really were. While I was not quite ready to bring some of our cheese with me for the class to taste I did send some off to our instructor for her input on how we were doing. Great Job! was the subject of her email back to me with her comments so I think we're on the right track (phew!). I admit it was quite nerve racking to send my hard work off to be evaluated by someone else. I was quite nervous about the process, but oh so pleased with the return.
We're only a week or so into the new season of cheese making. Much of the new milk we're receiving from our goats is still going to feed all those new babies. However, I have managed to get two small batches of Greek Feta into the cooler as well as our first batch of chevre this week - which I'll be taking to the Waterbury Farmer's Market on Saturday. Our farm store will officially open on April 1st but we are already starting to stock it with some of our marinated feta and Winooski Tomme. We have a new aged cheese coming out this spring, it will be an raw milk aged cheese. Look for it at a market soon!