Our Normal Abnormal Life

In many ways, our life hasn't changed much. We milk goats, make cheese, plant the garden, eat at home and don't socialize. This is pretty normal for us. Now that I cannot visit my Mom in the nursing home except through the closed, glass door, which we did for the first time today, we seldom go anywhere. While we were in town today we went to the store. Frank stayed in the vehicle while I went in to get apples. I wore gloves and cleaned my hands with an alcohol soaked wash cloth when I was finished. I took note of some of the store shelves while I was in there. The produce section was fully stocked. There was very little pasta, no spaghetti sauce in jars or cans, and only a few cans of spaghetti-o kinds of foods. There were no dried beans or flour of any kind. Many of the canned vegetables were sparse. I didn't go down any other isles, so that is my report for the grocery store today. It is a smaller, local grocery, not the Wal-Mart type.

A few weeks ago we stocked up on animal feed, filling every container we have to the brim. That will last us well into summer if not beyond. We stocked up on fresh apples and cabbage, too, but that's about the only store bought items we wanted/needed. The new air lock version of making sauerkraut has taken a backseat to the fermenting crock again for now. Even though it will take us months to eat the full crock that is percolating away at the moment, that's okay. It's nice to know we have months of nutritious, probiotic kraut awaiting our dietary needs.

Most of our routines haven't changed, so here is a pictorial of some of the things we're doing during this normal/abnormal life. We're still making cheese and sourdough bread, although we have started making tortillas out of most of the bread dough, just because we like them. We eat them fresh everyday with a little butter and salt. The dough freezes and stores well in the frig, so I can take out what I need for each day, let it come to room temperature on the cabinet, then cook them when we are ready to eat. If we do happen to experience a collapse, making small, daily batches of dough for fresh tortillas will be easier than trying to bake bread or rolls. Just a thought I have had when we transitioned to making daily tortillas.

Bread dough in the bowl, cheddar cheese in the stock pots

Some of the seedlings are now in the garden. If we get a frost, we'll need to cover the tomatoes and squash. 

Seedlings hardening off from the greenhouse

Tomato seedlings

The large tomato that grew in the greenhouse over the winter.

Whey from cheese making to water in the tomato seedlings.

Tomato seedlings

Carrots

Yellow squash

It's been very wet and muddy for about a month now.

This week we had record high temperatures in the 90's. This weekend we will probably have a frost. It reminds me of the challenges farmers are having with the food supply and the issues with the solar minimum and how it affects weather extremes. The Ice Age Farmer is listed on our blog roll. He has some interesting things about the solar cycle and food supply. The pepper and beet seedlings will have to wait for the frost to pass to be planted.
 

Peppers

Beets on my planting wagon.

We thought a few more hoses were in order.

Frank used a garden hose to fill our storage tank from the water well by the greenhouse. We can use it for the garden or drinking water if necessary.

The world? Our country? Outside of the virus, the economy is on the verge of imploding. The effects of the virus don't appear to be near as devastating as the hysteria and overreach of the government indicates it was 'supposed' to be. There is some underlying sinister plot in play that hasn't raised it's ugly head into the light of day yet. When it does, I don't know if it will have the ugly head of a fire breathing dragon or the boot of the man upon our throats. It is difficult to find any clues or facts (how to know what is true or not is impossible anymore) that lead to any logical conclusions at all.

And then there are the 'essential workers' that have received their "papers" for safe travel to and from work. When I hear the term "Papers, please." it makes me think of a World War with major restrictions and controls upon the activities of societies across the globe. We know a man that received his "papers" a few weeks ago indicating he works in an essential industry, then received a comment recently with the same scenario. Is there a time coming when all travel will be restricted without official "papers"?

Phone apps are being developed to track people that have been infected, are suspected of being infected, have been vaccinated (once it becomes available) or haven't, and probably who is using all of that 'dirty' germ laden money. With many, many people staying home or drastically restricting their travel voluntarily due to fear, those that are out and about will be easier to track. Why is this really desirable? I don't really think it has anything to do with a disease.

So, we will continue to stay home, order a few things online to be delivered and continue our normal/abnormal life. There are times when the vision of what we see coming down the road is almost paralyzing. Other times, we continue our daily routine, just like any other spring, only with the feeling we need to keep an eye out over our shoulder for that sinister overshadowing that creeps ever closer. We used to say the storm is coming, get prepared. Now? The storm is here and it's too late.

We would really like to hear what you think and what is happening in your area. When it rains, it rains on all of us. We are all in this together. Speak up now while you still can. You never know when something you say may help another.

Until next time - Fern
 

Fern's Farmhouse Special

This is one of those meals that needed a name, so we just made it up. Most people would think 'Food' was a strange title to a blog article, so Frank named this dish for us.

There is really not much special about this dish, it's just something I came up with since we have limited our carbohydrate intake. It's healthy, tasty and I make plenty of it. It's not particularly attractive, as in a pretty dish, but we don't care. What's neat about it is that almost all of the ingredients came from our farm or homestead. We know how the meat was raised, the milk produced, the cheese made, the vegetables grown and how all of it was processed. This is what makes this meal a 'Special'. We've almost come to take our homegrown food for granted, but not quite. Anytime the food on our table constitutes a homegrown meal in it's entirety, we take note, and enjoy every bite that much more.

Okay, on with the meal. The first ingredient is ground goat meat or chevon. About half the time I think I spell it wrong and put chevron, so if you run across that somewhere in this blog, sorry about that. I season the meat with sea salt and fresh ground peppercorns, then brown it with about half of a large onion (store bought) and any sweet peppers we have on hand. I just picked these peppers from the plant I transplanted into the greenhouse.

When the onions and peppers are starting to brown, I add two heaping spoonfuls of our canned garlic and a pint jar of our canned

yellow squash and let it heat up and blend in with the other flavors. By the way, I strain the liquid off of the squash into the pig bucket. I do this with any liquid we aren't planning on using in cooking. I even rinse out milk and kefir jars and put this milky water in the pig bucket. I really like using these liquids to increase our meat supply instead of pouring it down the drain like I used to.

While the squash is heating, I grated a little cheddar cheese and got out the salsa and fermented jalapenos. I haven't told you about the jalapenos yet. I fermented two quarts of jalapenos in the same kind of crock we use for sauerkraut. I inoculated the peppers with kraut juice when I started them, then left them in the crock for about three weeks. They taste great, still very tangy and stayed crunchy. Thanks to the reader that recommended we try them. I have four pint jars of peppers stored in the refrigerator now along with the usual four quarts of sauerkraut.

Now that the meat and vegetables are ready I dish them up, add some salsa, peppers and cheese. 

This type of meal has the possibility of endless variations, the only limitation is your imagination. So go create your own 'House Special' with whatever ingredients your family enjoys. After you do, see how many of those ingredients you can produce or store for the long term. The uncertain, difficult days ahead of us, will require good, healthy, home cooked meals for comfort and much needed nutrition. Practice now while you can.

Until next time - Fern
 

Great Homegrown Nachos

We had all of the ingredients handy for making nachos, and it sounded like a great evening meal. The more I thought about it, the more interesting it sounded. Here is the way we made them.

The ingredients we used include:

Some of the jalapeno peppers that were left over when we canned up six pints last night.

A few of the onions we grew this summer. Growing onions has never been successful in our garden. This is about as big as they get. We'll try again next year and see if we can master growing that vegetable to normal size.

Some of our salsa we put up in August. We grew the tomatoes and peppers for this salsa. We had to buy the onions (see above) and cilantro. This is the first time we have tried our canned salsa this year. We have been able to keep a fresh quart in the frig most of the summer.

Chevron roast from a wether we butchered last fall. This was a nice hind quarters we cooked up last month. I like to freeze up the extra meat in quart size freezer bags to use later in meals like this.
 

I use corn tortillas that we fry up. We use olive oil for anything requiring oil when we cook. 

Cheddar cheese. This was the wheel that stuck in the cheese press when we made it. I wondered how it would come out.

It had some spots of mold here and there and the general surface was a little bumpy. I decided to cut off a thin layer of the entire surface.

It won't go to waste. Pearl, our Great Pyrenees, loves cheese. The cheese is a very nice mild flavored cheddar that has aged for five months. 

After I fried the chips, I diced the onions and roast for the first layer.

Then I added some peppers and salsa.....

And topped it with shredded cheddar.

These nachos were some of the best we have ever had. No, really, they were! Part of the reason is that we raised the goats that gave us the milk that made the cheese. Another part is growing the tomatoes, peppers and little onions. Then there was that wether that was born here that we butchered and cooked, he tasted really good. It always amazes us that we can harvest and eat from the work of our hands. And it tastes good to boot!

Until next time - Fern

Waxing Cheddar Cheese - Finally!!

It may not be standard practice to blog about an experimental goof-up when you first start blogging....but I did. That is just part of life. Mistakes and experiments that flop are all part of learning and living.....at least it is for us. 

So, with that said, we made cheddar cheese again. And  this time we used two cheese presses like we had in the past.  

We start off by putting the curd in the press for 20 minutes at 15 pounds pressure. We tighten the press down until it feels right.

After 20 minutes, take out the cheese, turn it over and press again for 20 minutes at 30 lbs. pressure.

At this point I pour out the whey that has been released during the first press. There will be more during the next few presses, but this is most of it and it can get messy.

After the cheese has been pressed twice, remove it from the press again and put on a new cheese cloth. Return it to the press for 2 hours at 30 lbs. pressure.

 

Frank noticed how I had tightened down the cheese press a while back and gave me some advice. At first, when I was trying to figure everything out, I wasn't paying attention to the alignment of the follower (the wooden or metal disc used to press down on the cheese) and the large screw handle used to push down on it. Several times I had it pretty crooked which wasn't working very well and eating away some of the wood around the hole in the wooden follower shown above. So, if you use these types of presses, make sure you have them aligned correctly or you may cause some damage. 

After the 2 hour press, remove the cheese, put on another new cheese cloth and press again for 24 hours at 40 lbs. of pressure.

At the end of 24 hours, remove the cheese and set it out to dry. This will take three to four days depending upon the humidity and temperature of your house.

Here are the two wheels fresh from the press.

 


Drying
Day 1 - darker rind beginning to form



 

Day 2
The rind is quite a bit darker, and feels drier to the touch.

There is not much cabinet space left to work with - 2 wheels drying and 2 more in the presses.

Day 3 was busy and went by without any pictures. 

On day 4 for the first batch of cheese and day 3 for the second batch, I decided it was time to wax all of them.

 Some of the cheese we made last year is a little dry, others have a good texture. So I am going to experiment, yet again, and see how these compare when they are aged.

This is my cheese wax pot. We had a small sauce pan that had been cooked dry and was discolored so I chose it to use for the cheese pot. Whatever pan you choose to use for wax needs to be dedicated to only wax because it is very hard to clean up. The wax is heated in a double boiler because it can explode if exposed to direct high heat. You have to be careful not to get water in the wax because it may pop similar to water in hot cooking oil.  

One of the great things about cheese wax it that it can be reused. When it is taken off of the cheese, wash it with warm water, dry it carefully then store it in the cheese pot. I need more wax for these four wheels, so I cut another piece off of the five

 pound block I bought and add it to the pot. I buy the wax in bulk, and keep some extra on hand just in case I can no longer acquire any more.

The first year I made cheddar, I had some mold grow inside the wax as it aged that gave it a bitter after taste. I read everything I could find about taste and made changes in the ripening time which will reduce the acidity. I also read that keeping the wax at 220 degrees will help kill any mold spore that may be on the cheese. And the third thing I read said to brush on a layer of vinegar to kill any bacteria that may be on the surface of the cheese from handling or sitting out to dry. So now I do all three of these things each time I make cheese. 

I label and date the cheese when it is waxed. If there is anything notable about a particular batch of cheese I put that on the label.  The ACV stands for apple cider vinegar.

For these two batches, the 'more dry' and 'less dry' comments will help me remember my experiment to see which one has the more desirable moisture content.

There are two methods of waxing - dipping and brushing. I choose to brush it on because it uses a smaller cheese pot and much less wax.  The brush I use is made for waxing cheese. The bristles will stand up under the high heat of the wax.

I coat a flat side first, then 'paint' around the edge, finishing up with the other side. I try not to make a mess and waste any wax, but as you can see it is drippy, so I have a piece of waxed paper on the cabinet.

Starting in the top, right corner and going clockwise: first wheel - no wax; second wheel - one layer of wax; third wheel - two layers of wax; and fourth wheel - three layers of wax and ready to have a label attached. Some books recommend five or six layers of wax, but I find three works just fine.

  
I 'paint' the label on after I have completed the three layers. I cover it with just enough for it to stick because I will peel it off when I wash the wax for reusing.

There. Four more wheels that we can eat...........in January! 

While I was waxing these four wheels of cheese and writing this post, I thought it would be interesting to show one of last year's wheels. I was surprised to see that the next one ready to eat was waxed one year ago today!

I try to take the wax off in just a few pieces. It makes it easier to wash.

After the first piece is off it is pretty easy to remove the rest.

Peel off the label.....

This wheel tastes like sharp cheddar! Yea! It is a little drier than I would prefer, but this is one wheel that is a success...one year later.

Making cheddar cheese definitely goes along with one of Frank's old sayings - Postpone gratification for long term gains. We have lived by that motto for years and it has always served us well.

Until next time - Fern