Herb Cheese & Planting Roses

We have another respite from the rain today with some sunshine off and on between the clouds. I went out yesterday and pulled back some of the free mulch, from the hickory and pine trees, off of the plants that are peaking up in the herb bed. It's about all I could do since the ground is super saturated right now. We have slowly been building up the milk supply in the frig to the point where we can start making a couple of batches of cheese a week. Last week we made a small batch of mozzarella with one gallon of milk. When we have plenty of milk, I make two or four gallon batches of mozzarella and freeze the extra. For now, we are making fresh cheese to eat, and we're very glad to have it. Once our three young does, Lady Bug, Cricket and Penny, kid and begin producing enough milk, we will have way more than enough to really ramp up our cheese production. First up will be cheddar since it needs to age at least three months to start having a mild cheddar taste. We have been out of homemade for quite some time and once you get used to it, store bought just doesn't hold a candle to it in flavor, freshness, consistency and nutrition. 

So today I made a fresh, pressed herb cheese. It is the same recipe I used last year, with the same ingredients, but only the second wheel of herb cheese I have made. I mentioned last year that I thought it would be good as a pepper cheese, and that will probably be the one I try next. After that, I think I will try one with oregano and maybe marjoram. Both of those plants are coming out in the herb bed, so by then I should be able to use fresh herbs in the cheese.

Oregano peeking out, March 15th

Here is a pictorial of the cheese I made today. As I mentioned in the article last year, there are other cheese making articles that will show you some of the specifics of the process we use. If you have any questions about any step of this procedure, please let me know and I will address them to the best of my ability.

Time to dust off the old cheese press

These are the multiplier onions I accidentally planted, and then dug up out of the garden last year. They've been waiting all winter in this tub on the porch to be planted in the herb bed where they belong.

One of the garlic patches

The garlic is doing well. I chose the largest of this bunch.

The curds are ready to heat and cook down

Time to pour off the whey

We save the whey in plastic jars for the dog, cats and sometimes chickens.

I had to crumble the curd so I could add the garlic, onions and salt.

Last year I thought the cheese was a little dry, so I didn't press it as hard, and I only left it in the press for three hours.

Frank wanted to taste the cheese right after I took it out of the press. I warned him that it wouldn't taste like what he was expecting. He only ate half a bite and said it wasn't any good. Then he asked when it would be good. I told him tomorrow or the next day after it has time to sit and let the flavors blend together.
 

The recipe recommends putting the cheese on a plate covered with plastic wrap. I chose a bowl and our reusable food wrap instead. After the cheese was in the press, I had three hours to do other things, like feed us lunch. 

We received the rose bushes we ordered in the mail today, which we opened right away, then started them soaking in water. Since they are bare root, they needed to be rehydrated and kick started before I put them in the ground. I guess one advantage for them now is the fact that the ground is so saturated. There will not be any shortage of moisture for them to get off to a good start, not to mention that we have a chance of rain everyday this week starting again tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise I would wait a few days for the ground to dry up before planting. But I think these bushes would be better off in the ground than sitting around another few weeks waiting for better conditions.

 

I planted four rose bushes last summer that had been living in pots on the porch waiting for a permanent home. Plants here have to be willing and able to live in rather primitive conditions without a lot of TLC, or they just won't make it. These bushes are a mix of red and cream colored roses.

That being said, three of the four are budding out and seem to be doing just fine. The verdict is still out on the fourth one. It appears the upper branches are dead, but maybe not the rest. We will see. [After I wrote this I found this leaf budding out toward the bottom of the plant. Yea!]

One of the main reasons I am planting roses is for the nutrients in the petals and rose hips. We also have many wild roses growing around here and there. I used the rose hips I picked last summer, which weren't very many, to make rose water for the last batch of lotion I made. I thought that was very neat.

The new rose bushes are called Harison's, which is the name given to the classic Yellow Rose of Texas. You see, Frank and I are Texans, that have been transplanted to Oklahoma. If you are from Texas, you know how we feel. We will always be Texans. That's why Frank requested I find and plant the Yellow Rose of Texas here on our homestead. And since these roses will have to fend for themselves in our semi wild yard, I bought four of them, just in case some of them don't make it.

I gave the roses a small dose of this great barnyard compost.

I saved some extra coffee grounds to give to these new bushes since they prefer a slightly acidic soil.
 




I've said a little prayer that they will do well. Just for Frank. It's nice to be able to do something special for your spouse, even if it takes years to accomplish. I envision a big, wild entanglement of rose bushes all over this fence with beautiful, yellow roses that I can pick to adorn our table. This is one dream I do hope comes true.

The herb cheese is beautiful and I really get a great deal of satisfaction making it. We will have some tomorrow with our lunch. I hope it's edible then.





By the way. Yesterday at our small country church we sang Brethren, We Have Met To Worship, and it really touched our hearts. We both went back and looked at the words again. Here are two different versions of it, one very country, and one with a church choir. If you care to listen, I pray it touches your heart as well. The second verse really stuck with me. "Brethren, see poor sinners round you, Slumbering on the brink of woe; Death is coming, hell is moving, Can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers, And our children sinking down; Brethren, pray, and holy manna, Will be showered all around."

Here is the site of tomorrow's planting

 








I hope to get the cole crops into the garden tomorrow before the rains come again, so the next post may be a little muddy. I'll let you know how that goes and how the cheese turns out. Spring is just a few days away and life on the homestead will get much busier. We will get the garden in, and spend time tending it. I have many, many more seedlings to grow, especially for the herb bed. After we kill off all of the weeds and scrubby tree stuff at the end of the garden, we will be starting a new comfrey bed. The extra strawberries that have spread out into the garden area will also be used to start a new bed. More baby goats will be arriving in a little over two weeks, and that means more time milking each day, especially with three young does to train. I haven't gotten much more done on the rag rugs, but it will be sitting here waiting on me when I am ready to pick it up again. Life is good. It would be so much easier to sit back and be lazy, and I am actually pretty good at that, as well. But there is nothing like having plenty to do. It keeps you going, learning, dreaming and accomplishing. Blessings to you all.

Until next time - Fern

Fresh Herb Cheese

Well, it was time to try a new cheese. I ran across a recipe for Garlic and Chive Cheese in Mary Jane Toth's book, Goats Produce Too! and decided to give it a try. You can look back at some of the other cheese making articles to see some specific techniques like using a double boiler, what the curd looks like when it is ready, using a cheese press and making buttermilk culture.

This is a very simple cheese. The milk is heated to 86 degrees before adding buttermilk and rennet. Let it sit for 45 minutes covered. Then slowly raise the temperature while stirring the curd until it is hot to the touch. I was unsure of how long to heat the curd using this method. I would rather be given a specific temperature, but this time I had to make my best guess. I think I might have cooked it too long, or got it a little too hot, I'm not sure.

After the curd was cooked, it was time to pour off the whey. Next, the recipe called for rinsing the curd in very warm water, another new step I hadn't done before. Then, after the curd drained in a colander for about 10 minutes, it was time to add the salt and herbs. The recipe called for garlic powder and chives. I don't have garlic powder, and my chives didn't smell much like onions. So I substituted a small head of garlic and two small green onions from the top of one of my multiplier or walking onions. The amount of garlic powder was 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. After I chopped up this small head of garlic I figured that was about right. The amount of chives was to taste. Well, we like onions, but I wasn't sure how strong the flavor would end up being. I didn't want it to be over powering, so I only used two small green onions.

The curd was starting to stick together after it drained in the colander, so I broke it up with my hands. Then after I added salt, garlic and onions, I mixed it in by hand again. It just wouldn't work with a spoon.

The next step was to put it into the cheese press for several hours.

Finished. Remove and chill for 6 to 8 hours before slicing. Well, by now it was bedtime so we weren't able to try it until the next day. We jokingly said we may just have it for breakfast. But we didn't.

We did have some for lunch. It is a pretty cheese, and has a nice, subtle aroma of onion and garlic. It is a very mild tasting cheese, with a very subtle taste of herbs. I could have easily added twice as much garlic and onions and it wouldn't have been a strong flavor. I also think I pressed it a little too much because it is drier than I expected or than I would prefer. So, next time I won't press it as hard or as long. Another factor that can affect the moisture content of the curd is how high the temperature is, and how long you cook it. That is another adjustment I will make.

Other than that, it is a very nice, fresh cheese that doesn't take a lot of time. Frank thinks it will make great grilled cheese sandwiches. I am already thinking about the different herb combinations I will try with this recipe. I think it would make a good hot pepper cheese, too, which I like. Basil, parsley and oregano would also be a good combination. I think I will be experimenting with this type of cheese all summer. It will probably freeze well, too. Right now we have four kinds of cheese in the frig to eat up. We made mozzarella last week. I thawed out some Chevre, a soft cheese, and mixed in some salt, dehydrated onion, dill and parsley. We have been eating it with celery, carrots and crackers with our lunches. There is also some 10 month old cheddar that we made last July. It's getting pretty sharp, but it's very tasty. We are cheese happy and the frig is running over with milk. So what will we make next? I might just try some Colby, who knows? Learn something everyday. Learn from your successes. Learn from your failures. But don't just sit around. Try something and enjoy what you learn from it, one way or the other.

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