Continuing adventures in mold-ripened cheese

I told you I'd try again, and I did! There was no problem with humidity being too low this time. We definitely wound up with more edible cheese, although there are still a couple wrinkles. That liquid between the rind and the curd is quite pungent -- more pungent than we enjoy. I read that geotrichum candidum is supposed to keep the rind from separating, so I think I'll put a pinch in my next batch. Maybe that will help? Any other suggestions? Other than the liquid part, this cheese is deliciously addictive!

Hard decisions

Mike and Jonathan just unloaded 100 bales of hay, which brings us to about 200 to get us into April. Jonathan, Katherine, and I talked about how much hay we're feeding every day, and it's mind boggling -- five bales a day! So, now we have enough for about 40 days. Even if we did buy more hay, that would bring us to more than 600 bales for this winter, which is ridiculous. I don't even want to think about how many dollars that totals.

We'll start seeing a few blades of green grass in March, and the lawns and pastures will be solid green by early April. However, it can't be counted on as a serious source of food until May. It just doesn't grow very fast when it's still cold outside. So, something has to change.

I just emailed pictures and info on seven sheep to someone, so if she buys them, that will reduce the number of sheep by more than 25%. The other obvious reduction that can be made immediately is in goat wethers. My mother always told me, "Never say never," but you know, there are times when you think that it's perfectly safe to say that you will never do something -- like, "I could never butcher one of our goats." Part of me says that it wouldn't help that much, but then three goats is 10% of the herd, so that would make a difference, especially when one of them is a standard-sized goat, so he probably eats as much as two of my Nigerians. There's a part of me that has no trouble talking about this, but there is also the part of me that can't seem to pick up the phone and actually make the appointment with the slaughterhouse.

Homesteading group created

For those of you who want to read about homesteading more often than I post,

or who have questions completely unrelated to what I'm posting about on a given day,

or who want to share a story about something that happened on your homestead,

or who are thinking about moving to the country to embark upon your own amazing adventure,

I've started a homesteading group on Ning. There is a discussion forum where you can post questions, respond to other people's queries, post photos, create a blog, post a video, and get to know other people who share the same dreams. There are individual discussion forums for a variety of livestock, plus a forum for the farmhouse kitchen and another forum for the garden.

You will have your own page, where you can create a blog or link to your existing blog. You can post photos and videos and visit one one-on-one with other members. You can advertise animals for sale. You can make your page as public or as private as you want, as Ning gives you several levels of privacy from which to choose.

So, if you'd like to learn a little more or share a little more, head on over to Modern Homesteading and check it out!


Visit Modern Homesteading

Apple cinnamon muffins

I rediscovered this recipe recently and have been enjoying these warm muffins for breakfast. When my children were younger, I made these a lot! Cinnamon just seems to beg for whole wheat flour. As you know, I'm not a purist when it comes to using whole wheat (I do love my French bread), but when cinnamon is involved, it just doesn't taste right to me unless you use whole wheat flour.


Mix together:
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. salt

Add:
1 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. honey
3 T. melted butter
1 egg

Once everything is mixed together, add:
one apple (peeled and chopped)

Fill muffin cups about half full and bake at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes or until top of muffin springs back when touched lightly. In other words, if you poke it gently, and the muffin now has a dent in it, it's not done yet. This recipe makes a dozen muffins.

For more posts on food check out Fight Back Friday.

Hay and horses and goats and sheep

It's amazing how every now and then something knocks me down, and after spending a few hours in bed, things look a lot clearer. Today it was a migraine. I got only three hours of sleep last night, and then I woke up with a migraine, which just got worse and worse until I finally surrendered around noon and went to bed. I couldn't sleep for a couple hours, so I just laid there thinking. One of the many things going through my head lately is how fast the animals are burning through the hay. The front of our barn was filled with 500 bales of hay in November, and we only have about 150 left, which is not enough to get us into April when the grass starts growing. I've left two phone messages for one hay man, and he hasn't called me back, which I'm thinking is bad news. I emailed another person, and she responded right away, saying that they didn't have any extra to sell.

When I look at how many animals we have and whether or not we need to sell or butcher any, I always think that it's not a problem to take care of one more and one more and one more and . . . And I seriously underestimated how much more hay would be eaten by the new additions to the farm this year: two cows, six sheep, and another llama. Then I remembered something that a speaker said at the conference earlier this month: to be sustainable, you need to be producing your livestock feed on your farm. Yeah, that was a goal initially, and I forgot about it somewhere along the line. Now I understand why people and businesses put their mission statement front and center, where they're looking at it every day.

So, here are some obvious observations and solutions. First, I need to say good bye to the two horses that are here. When we moved out here in 2002, we had more than enough to feed our livestock, so it seemed like the nice thing to do to take in a horse that needed a home. My daughter had a horse, and he would be happier with a pasture mate. So Merlot (pictured above) came to live with us. He has EPM and severe arthritis in his hock. He can't be ridden. His owner said she was only looking for free pasture board. She would take care of all the vet bills, farrier bills, and other upkeep above and beyond feeding. That lasted until she got divorced a few years ago, and she stopped paying his bills. And then when my daughter's horse died three years ago at the ripe old age of 30, Merlot was very upset. I emailed the owner to let her know that Buddy had died, and I asked if she'd like to move Merlot to another farm where he'd have an equine friend. Her response ranked right up there as one of the meanest emails I've ever received. She suggested that I have him put down if I was going to "abandon" him, and that was the last time I ever heard from her.

So, I really need to find a new home for Merlot. I'm hoping there is someone out there, who is at a place similar to where we were eight years ago -- plenty of pasture just sitting there waiting for someone to eat it. I also need to contact the other horse's owner. What other horse, you ask? Well, after Buddy died, and Merlot was unhappy, I allowed another person to bring his horse here for free pasture board. I guess I'm just hopelessly optimistic. I haven't heard from the guy in almost two years, so I hope he responds better than Merlot's owner. It will be sad to say good-bye to the horses, but I can't deny the fact that they're eating pasture and hay that my goats, sheep, cows, and llamas could be eating.

I have also wound up with nine unproductive goats, and their feed bill is certainly adding up, especially when three of them are la manchas. It's very frustrating that I find myself with five wethers. The first two were born here seven years ago, and I kept them simply because no one ever bought them. (One is pictured at right.) Then I decided to keep the mini mancha wether because I was going to train him to be a cart wether. I have recently come to the realization that training a goat to pull a cart is not something I will have time to do in the next few years. I must admit, I can't do everything! I also have a la mancha wether, who I bought as a buck, but after he kept jumping fences and getting in with my Nigerian does, I decided it was too risky to have a full-size buck on the farm, so I castrated him, thinking that I'd train him to pull a cart too.

The final wether is a great example of what happens when you hold an animal without a deposit. A therapeutic riding stable contacted me and told me they wanted a couple goats for their petting zoo, and asked if I could donate them. Sure, I said, enthusiastically. I decided Nick and another goat would go there, and in spite of many offers to buy him, I kept refusing to sell him, because he was going to be donated to charity. They kept saying they'd be ready to accept him in another month or two. He is now two years old! In case you're wondering, the ninth unproductive goat is Star, the first goat I ever bought, who is now 11 and enjoying a well-deserved retirement! It's time for me to sell the other eight. That would cut my goat herd by 25%.

And I really need to start selling sheep. I had wanted to keep my flock at around 20, but this year it has crept up to 25, and they eat 25% more than 20 sheep. Really, I think I should reduce it down to about a dozen sheep. That was a very nice number as I knew all their names and pedigrees. Now I'm out there trying to read ear tags and figure out who's who. The rams are still a quarter mile away from the ewes, so there will be no more accidental breedings this year.

I can't believe the numbers got away from me like this. I need to continue evaluating what we're doing and what animals are here, and see if there are any other ways I can reduce hay consumption. There is one more hay man I can call. If he doesn't have anything, then I'll probably be losing a lot more sleep in the coming weeks. This is not the ideal time of year for selling or butchering, but I'll have to start making some hard decisions.

Starting seeds

This was last Thursday ...
This is today ...

What's the big deal? Remember when we attended that conference earlier this month, and I said that it's a miracle that anything ever grew here? Well, one of the first things I learned is that seeds really do need warm temperatures to germinate. We've been starting seeds either in our house, in the pump room, or in our basement. The latter is about 60 degrees, which is way too cold for most seeds to germinate, which explains why our germination rate was so low and so slow! Since the house is 64 degrees, that's not much better, so I realized that I needed to invest in one of those seed-starting mats. And from the looks of my first attempt at starting seeds, it looks like it's worth every penny.

The seeds are germinating much faster than ever before! Several popped through the surface on Sunday, which is only three days after being planted. Once they're up and growing, I can remove them from the mat, and they should keep going at our normal basement temperature. Then I'll start another flat. This is also a good idea, since you should use succession plantings -- a little today, a little more in a couple weeks, and so on, rather than planting everything at once. That way, if you have trouble with weather, insects, disease, you won't lose everything. It will also spread out the harvest.

Winter: The egg-free season

Yes, it's just an egg. It's not a big deal to 99.9% of Americans who buy eggs 365 days a year without a second thought. However, almost eight years ago, we made the commitment to only eat our homegrown eggs, so an egg in January is a big deal to us. Chickens don't lay when the days get too short, so we don't usually have any eggs from December until March. The only reason they have eggs in the supermarket is because those chickens live indoors under artificial lights that fool their bodies into thinking that it's spring year round. Yes, we could artificially light our chicken house, but I figure that if Mother Nature says the girls needs a holiday, who am I to argue?

I've grown to love eating seasonally, and I find a lot of wisdom in it. When we're not doing much physically, we probably shouldn't be eating a lot of eggs. We probably should be eating more dried beans, cabbage, squash and root vegetables that store well for winter consumption and are low in fat and calories.

As you might recall, all of our old hens went down south in December and became stew hens. They were three to five years old and each averaging only an egg a week in summer. We have 47 New Hampshire red pullets that were hatched in September and will reach egg-laying age right about the time that the sun comes back in March. We also have two crossbred pullets that were hatched last spring. No doubt that is where this egg came from, as well as the other one that we found the next day. The good thing about being on an egg-restricted diet right now is that in March we will be drowning in eggs. We'll be eating creme brulee pie, French toast, quiche, pound cake, scrambled eggs, omelets, egg salad, and anything else we can imagine that contains eggs. After a month of eating eggs at meal after meal, we will get tired of them.

Mold-ripened cheese failure

A couple weeks ago, I started a St. Maure cheese. It's a mold-ripened cheese, similar to brie or Camembert, but it didn't have the same dire warning as the latter two about being difficult to age. Also, the directions said you could mix the penicillium candidum with the milk to make St. Maure. You have to mist the finished cheese with the mold for brie and Camembert, and I don't have an atomizer. The St. Maure seemed simpler. I thought there would be less room for error. Well, maybe not ...

As you can see, the mold is sporadic. It's here and there, but definitely NOT everywhere as it should be.


The mold did, however, migrate to cover the bottom of the drying rack. Yes, I know this is not an official cheese mat, but it seemed like it would work. Wrong again! The mold wrapped around the rack, and I could turn it upside down without any cheese coming off. I wound up chipping off the cheese.


And you can see how it turned out. It is definitely not a smooth, creamy style cheese, which I think it should be. Yes, I did taste it. It was delicious -- the taste reminded me of something between Camembert and cream cheese, except it's harder and drier than cheddar.


Although there were no warnings about keeping temperature and humidity just right during aging of St. Maure, it is obvious that the cheese got too dry. I will try this again, as the flavor was heavenly. We just need to work on the texture.

Two gray days

It's been overcast and slightly frozen these past two days. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

New website!

I mentioned we were working on it a couple weeks ago, and it's finally here. You've probably noticed that the blog looks different. It's been integrated into our new farm website. From here, you can visit any page on the website and learn more about us, our animals, and the products we produce on the farm. I hope you'll take a moment to check it out. Don't hesitate to let us know if a link isn't working, or if you find some other bug. We announced the new site last night on Facebook and received some feedback from a couple people on things that didn't work (and an embarrassing typo). I think it's all fixed now, but if you find something wrong, please let us know!

Thanks to Katherine, my youngest, who designed the banner and provided a lot of the photos. Thanks also to Sarah, our apprentice in November, who contributed additional photos.

Kudos to Margaret, my oldest, who has designed every Antiquity Oaks website to date. I do the writing and choose pictures; she does all the coding and design work, which is the hard part! She doesn't use any kind of program like Dreamweaver. She taught herself HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, so she builds sites the old-fashioned way from scratch. The challenge with the new site was integrating it with Blogger. I was jumping up and down and squealing like a three-year-old on Christmas morning when she got it to work. It's been fun having her home from college the last few weeks, and we're sure going to miss her when she leaves later today.