New Market

Last night we went to the first meeting for the Madeira Farmer's Market. Had a really great turnout. Several of the vendors I know from the Hyde Park Market - so it should be a really good market.

The market will be every Thursday from 3:30 to 7:30 on Dawson Road - right in the heart of Madeira. There will be a nice variety of products to choose from - several meat vendors, a lot of veggie farmers, a lady selling snow cones (those should be nice in July and August!!), a lavender farmer (oh how I would love to have a lavender farm!), a bread baker, a beekeeper with plenty of homegrown honey and, of course, me . . . The Goat Lady!

The Hyde Park market will start this weekend - weather permitting! Though it doesn't sound very encouraging. I think they are expecting rain all weekend. The Anderson market doesn't start until the end of May.

It will be so nice to be back at the markets!

A New Adventure

We are trying something new here on the farm. To give you a bit of background on the events that lead us to where we are now . . . One of my egg customers is a beekeeper and we have been swapping honey for eggs. Great deal for me since I eat honey in my oatmeal every morning and I bake with it alot!

The other day, Al (the beekeeper) was talking with my husband and mentioned that he is always looking for new places to put his hives - light bulb!!!! Why not here? If this turns out to be a good spot, maybe I can set up a hive or two of my own. Al said that he would show me all the "ins" and "outs" of beekeeping.

Our bees and a brooder box were delivered this morning. This is exciting! I will keep you all informed of my adventures as a beekeeper (fortunately, I am NOT allergic to bee stings!!!)

Aspects of my job that I don't like!

We took Chloe to the butcher's this morning - the hard part of raising animals for food. I had no choice. She has become extremely difficult and hard to manage (in fact, I believe she may have killed two goats). She started out as a good breeder. But the last two years, she has been a terrible Mom. This year, she gave birth to her babies and left them in the snow - I found them dead later that morning.

She also has learned how to get out of the pens. We have 4 pens for the goats - the first pen is our "baby" pen, the second pen is for our dairy goats, the third pen is for our meat goats and the last pen is for our bucks. Chloe has learned how to get out of each - I have run out of pens. And I can't have her wandering around unattended particularly since we live on a very busy road. She could also teach the other goats how to get out and that would be a major disaster!

Yes, I could have sold her but I won't sell a problem goat - makes me look bad as a breeder. I want people to know that when they buy a goat from me, they are getting a great goat.

I won Chloe in a 4-H raffle 6 or 7 years ago. Never won anything before and here I win a goat! Thank you Chloe for being part of our herd. I am sorry things turned out badly but I am assuming that you are now in the big pen in the sky. Enjoy!

Goat's Milk Ricotta Cheese

Boy, it is so good to be making homemade cheese again! Life is good again! This recipe is so easy to make (for some reason, it doesn't work with store-bought milk -you need whole milk).

Goat's Milk Ricotta Cheese

1 gallon whole goat's milk (doesn't have to be pasturized)
1/4 cup vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
3 T butter (melted)
1/2 t baking soda

1) Heat the milk to 195°F. (Do not boil; this will result in a "cooked" flavor.)
2) Slowly stir in the vinegar a little at a time, watching for the clear separation of the whey. If the whey is still milky when you have added all the vinegar, increase the heat to 205°F. (Adding too much vinegar will give a sour taste to your cheese.)
3) With a slotted spoon, gently ladle the curds into a colander lined with butter muslin or several layers of cheesecloth.
4) Drain for 1 minute. Place the curds into a bowl.
5) Add the butter and baking soda and mix well. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

I put the ricotta on a salad last night - yum! so good!

FINALLY Goat Cheese!

Yesterday I made chevre cheese - boy, do I love that cheese! First batch of the season, so you know I am going to savour this! And it is so easy to make!

5 T cold water
2 drops of veggie rennet
1/4 t culture (I get mine from the Dairy Connection)
1 gallon goat's milk

Heat goat's milk to 72 degrees
remove from heat
add 1/4 t culture - mix well
Add the 2 drops of rennet to the 5 T cold water
Add 2 T rennet water to milk
cover and store in a warm place (I put mine in the oven with the oven light on)
8 hours later you should have a large circle of curd swimming in whey
Drain the curd in cheese and let hang until the whey stops dripping
Add salt and/or herbs - enjoy!

Babies and Other Stuff

I think "baby season" is now over. The two boer goats (Sahasa and Cooper)I thought were bred (pregnant), apparently are not. I am a little disppointed, but those things do happen. Remember last year where only 2 of my dairy goats got bred. Life on the farm! The 8 babies we got this year are all doing fine - growing big! And I am getting a lot of milk from my dairy goats. Haven't had much time to experiment with cheese and am trying to get motivated to make soap.

Too many things going on in my life right now. My husband collapsed this past weekend at the New Richmond Easter Festival and we spent Easter weekend in the Cardilogy Unit at Mercy Anderson Hospital. He goes to his Cardiologist today and probably will have a ton of tests to find out what happened. He is OK - I think he looks very tired and pale. But, God will take care of him. I believe things happen for a reason. God wanted him to stick around here for a while, so let's get him fixed up!

We continue to have problems with our neighbor who seems determined to make our life as miserable as possible. Why do people do that? He has taken to throwing trash on our property and took a chain saw to one of our trees (definitely on our property). We called the police. When we met him, he told us that he did not want anything to do with us and was going to build a barrier between the two properties. Since that time, he has cut down almost every tree - so much for the barrier. If he doesn't want anything to do with us, then leave us alone. I do pray for him - that is all I can do.

The Easter Bunny did bring us something special this Easter (well, not the Easter Bunny exactly, more like my son Nathan). We now have a German Shepherd puppy named Nikki. Apparently, someone abandoned Nikki and a couple of Nathan's friends found her. They were going to take her to Dog Pound (where she would mostly like be put to sleep). Instead, Nikki is now sleeping under my chair. We needed another dog like . . . Oh well. What is one more animal!

Gardening at last!

I cleaned out part of one of my raised garden beds and planted several varieties of lettuce and some spinach. It felt so good working in the soil. I missed my gardens during the winter. IF we had flat land and the money, I would love to have a greenhouse so I could grow year round. Maybe next year, we (meaning my husband) could build a cold frame.

Good news is my asparagus came back from last year and growing fantastic! I planted them all wrong (it helps to read the instructions!). But, whatever I did, it worked. You are supposed to dig a trench to put the roots in and eventually fill in the trench as the plants grow. I dug a small trench and completely covered the roots. When I realized my mistake, I decided to make mounds instead of trenches (which was probably a good thing as our soil is mostly clay). Anyway, I didn't kill them and it looks like we will be having fresh asparagus!!!

I am going to try horseradish again this year. For some reason, my son would always mow my horseradish plant last year. This year we are putting up the "invisible fence white flags" around the plant so he knows exactly where it is.

Enjoy the spring!