Saturday, May 28, 2016

Herbed Chevre Spread


Now that I've got my hands on a goodly quantity of local goat milk, I can try my hand at cheese!  I've made mozzarella from cow's milk a few time before, which is a little more involved than this recipe. Chevre is surprisingly simple to make. I justed heated the milk to 86 degrees, sprinkled in the chevre culture, stirred it a bit, let it sit over night and then drained the curds in cheese cloth for a few hours, then mixed in 2 tsp sea salt.

Now I have a ton of goat cheese to play with!

1 cup chevre
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp fresh grated lemon zest (from my tree)
1 clove fresh garlic, minced (from Schaner Farms)
a handful of fresh herbs from my garden, minced: parsley, thyme, chives

Mix ingredients together.

Serve with Prager Brothers bread, olives, and almonds from Terra Bella Farm.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Pumpkin + Fungi + Goat Milk = Puppy


Recipe for a stuck puppy:
  • Take a front yard that doesn't get much sun
  • Spread a dash of low-temp compost
  • Wait a few weeks until several volunteer pumpkin vines appear (note: do not add water because these are volunteers and you don't know if they're edible and you just want to see how they do)
  • Let grow for several weeks until powdery mildew appears (which is why you don't grow squash on purpose in the first place)
  • Remove all mildewed leaves
  • After doing some online reseach about natural remedies, take 2 cups old goat milk that you traded your backyard chicken eggs for but didn't use up fast enough and spray it all over the pumkin vines
  • Stir briefly, in your mind, wondering about what new pests or problems the fragrant goat milk will bring.  Wait 30 seconds...
...and the neighbor's puppy wiggles under the wood fence and get stuck between that and a chain link to lick the leaves and cry.

Next, break into the neighbors yard and try to cajole the puppy back into it's yard.

...and that was my morning.