Cheese and Soap School

Our third day spent at Stony Knolls Farm with Jan and Ken Spaulding was thankfully indoors. What can you do with the all of that goat milk when the does start producing? Well two good ideas to start with are cheese and soap. For thousands of years mankind has milked goats and made cheese. Goats are such a compact animal and easily managed. They are a natural choice for the small family with children. Goat milk is an easily digested source of vitamins and calcium. If you are lactose intolerant, chances are you will be able to drink goat milk and eat goat cheese. The molecules are smaller in goat milk and closely resemble human milk. I personally feel that we have destroyed anything good in cow milk the minute it is processed. Raw milk is safe and healthy as long as you know the person milking is clean and handles the milk in the correct manner. The milk doesn't taste "goatie". I was so surprised at how clean and good the milk tasted. Jan and Ken are very careful and clean while milking and straining the milk. The goats are clean and healthy and produce wonderful milk. However, there is an abundance of milk with a limited lifetime and something has to be done with all that bounty. So, one natural choice is cheese. The class started in Jan's kitchen. It was spotless. After Goat School she made cheese and soap so that the class could see the finished product. We jokingly told her to write a cookbook in her spare time. She has between midnight and 4am as free time. Who needs sleep? When we arrived this big ball of Chevre was already hanging to drain.

Jan then went through the whole process explaining the different steps so we could see this process from beginning to end. The time frame for Chevre is 3 days from start to finish. So the next time you are at a farmers market and you question the price on the Chevre, just remember how time consuming it is. That person really puts their time, energy and love into cheese making. Beats the heck out of buying it from a major conglomerate with giant machines any day in my book.

After the Chevre has drained it is ready to mix with your choice of seasonings. Jan mixed our batch with Herbes de Provence. This with crackers is a meal! This spreadable cheese can be used on wraps, on baked potatoes under the broiler, spread on bagels like cream cheese, and on white pizza. The refrigerator life for Chevre is about 2 weeks.

Jan taught us how to make feta. Feta is the wonderfully tasty cheese from Greece. It takes a whole gallon of milk to make 1 batch of feta. It is wonderful cubed and marinated in canola oil and herbs.

Last but not least was her 30 Minute Mozzarella. I think this is a favorite cheese for most people. Here, Jan is showing us how to stretch the mozzarella. She has gloves, pots and utensils specific to cheese. Stony Knolls Farm is licensed by the State of Maine and is a working farm in every sense of the word.

Jan served a tasty chicken vegetable soup with her own bread for lunch. Most of the students attending Cheese and Soap School were from the Goat School over the weekend. It seemed like old times with good friends. Anyone who wanted to get into the soap making was welcome. Jon was the first to volunteer when asked. Jan hand stirs her soap. It is a process that is necessary. It does take time and stamina to keep stirring so the fat and lye/goat milk slurry mix does not congeal.

After the mixing was completed, Jan added scent, and oatmeal to the pot. She uses molds to form the bars.

John wanted to try to make a soap ball from a bar that Jan had made the night before. The soap remains soft for about 24 hours. It made a perfect ball and he was amazed at how soft his hands were when he washed the soap off. That is one of the true pluses with Goat Milk Soap. If you have never tried it, please, pick up a bar at your next farmers market. It takes time and love to make and you will not be disappointed.

Hmm..... soap ball.

Jan had a tray full of soaps that she is letting cure. Soap has to air dry for about 6 weeks to let the free radicals from the lye dissipate. The bars become hard and long lasting. If you keep the soap dry it will provide many washes.

It was kind of sad leaving all of our friends. Thank goodness for the internet. We will be able to keep in touch. We had a wonderful time. I highly recommend Goat School to anyone who is interested in raising goats. If you get the chance please check out this issue of Hobby Farm. There is an article with great pictures about Stony Knolls Farm featuring Jan and Ken Spaulding. Thank you both for welcoming us into you home. You guys run a top notch operation there. Much love and prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm.

Kelly

Fall- Officially Here

Well there is no doubt about it, Fall has arrived. We had a hard frost last night and the garden is prettty much done for. Just the other day we put 4 quarts of brussels in the freezer and I hope we can go and get another batch in the next few days as these are not really affected by the cool weather. We have also learned that here in upper Maine a summer garden is really a fall garden. So much of it is just now coming fully ready and then the frost gets it. We have absolute bucket loads of green tomatoes out on the now frost killed plants. How fair is that? I did get a bucket in on thurs of ripe ones and another of Italian peppers. We will just have to put up what we can. I did manage a huge pot of apple butter over the weekend and sent some home with the kids. Even Teddy took some back to college with him. Kelly made 4 wonderful zuccini breads with pecans and we have already devoured one.
Kelly's big accomplishment was getting some of the Christmas Soaps made. She did a big double batch of Gingerbread with pumplin flakes and several Holiday scents with stuff like cranberry seeds in it. It smells so good upstairs where it is all drying. It takes 4 weeks to harden and for the lye to ?dissapate or ?react or whatever it does. To turn into good luscious soap. The website still is not up so you can't get it yet but hopefully soon.
The chickens were free range for 3 days but are now back in their coop. We made a lovely door to the yard and set the girls free. They were delighted. So were we. We just got such a kick out of them that we sprawled in the grass and watched them for hours. They ate grass and chased crickeets and carried on when they got a grasshopper. How funny they are 46 hens and 2 silly roosters trying to guard them. Then yesterday we spent hours in the flower garden getting the new peonys from Canada planted and weeds pulled and dirt moved it low areas. Today the hens came in while we were asleep and chewed up flowers left and right. They scratched big holes and generally tore things up. So they are banned until we can figure out how to keep them freely home on the range and out of the garden.
Our neighbor Chris came and cut down the pasture grass along the fence lines while we were asleep also. Now we can get the new posts in and the fences started.
We took Leah, Kelly's daughter and her sweet baby to the pediatrician yesterday so she could get a persistent ear/sinus infection treated. I hate it when the babies are sick, they just don't understand why they feel so crummy and she keeps pulling on her ear. Hopefully in a couple of days she will be better.
I have a new great niece Wren. Welcome to our world. I miss your mommy and my sister has sent me beautiful pictures of you. Know that you are loved. Well thats about all for tonight. We keep our friend peggy at Hidden Haven and her daughter Melody in our prayers and for all our servicemen and women. From the far north....Alex

Back at last

Well what do you know, the computer at work decided to let me on. You never can tell what its going to do. I know it has been quite a while but let me try to get all that we have done in some sort of order. In July we picked 19 quarts of strawberries and made our first preserves. Well we made some preserves and some syrup. Pectin , it seems is magic and we are novices at its control. We have about half the jars (about 25) that are just too soupy to be called preserves. But its good on ice ceram. And the freezer has a goodly amount in their natural state. Our chickens have matured nicely. We now get about 30 eggs a day and are selling them. We are talking to a caterer and that would be sweet if they want 12 dozen a week. We got 25 cornish cross roosters to raise as meat birds and I will not be sorry to see them go. All they do is eat and sleep. And they are not nice when you go in to feed, they peck at your legs constantly and spur you. So I say " to the freezer with you old buggers" and I will keep my affection for my sweet brown hens. Ted built us another set of nest condos as 9 was not enough. The girls were pushing and shoveing and laying eggs everywhere. Now they are much happier. The weather has been an issue for us all summer. It rained here in upper Maine for a month straight, every day. No one could get hay cut. Well some did but not us. The fellow who was supposed to cut our hay does not like to square bale but has both a square and round baler. He gets half the hay for the job. This year he thought he had a lease on a much bigger field a so kept putting ours off till the rain started. When it finally ended we had hay and weeds and his lease fell thru so he came and cut ours. Then his square baler wouldn't work so he round baled everything, except sheep want dry hay and we have no tractor to move round bales. So we have an empty barn and round bales sitting out in the rain. He on the other hand can use round balse and has the tractor. Go figure. So Kelly and I have decided to go to the USDA and jump thru their hoops in the hopes of getting a loan for a tractor mow bar, rake , and baler. With 20 acres of hay we can do our own. So additionally, due to weather, high grass, and general lack of funds we still don't have our fence posts in or fence wire purchased and up. We did , however make a trip down to Skowhegan and check out the Tractor Supply Company. What a candy store! They tell us one is coming to Bangor next year. I can't wait. We have a pellet stove paid for and are waiting and waiting for Lowes to get it in. We've been 5th on the list for a month. Pellets are also reserved thru our feed store. The sheep are coming in January so we have much to get ready. The second side of our old barn is now all cleared out and just a few repairs needed for the sheep to come. I have to build a bunch of doors before winter gets here. Now kelly has decided to get some dairy goats. I have to find out about mixing the goats with the icelandics and what the differences in care are. Her Soap making is going great with many different kinds of wonderful all natural goat milk soap. Selling well. If we can ever figure out how to get the web site up and running you can all see it. Now she is going to make bath bombs and maybe lotion. I have started making cheese. So far Mozzerella and ricotta and soft chees spreads. A neighbor has goats and lots of lovely milk and is going to teach me to make cherve though I still can't pronounce it. Lets see what else... Teddy, Kellys youngest is off to college this last weekend. Phones and says he loves it so that is good. The house sure is quiet. The bees are doing well according to Kelly. I still look from an allergic distance. The back of the house has the siding completed and all the kitchen cabinets are in. We built a huge island around the chimney and it has lots of custom stuff like tall sheet pan cabinets and cutting board slots and soda can bins and is all tiled. We took down the wall that was so cold in the kitchen last winter and found..surprise, no insulation at all. nothing, just the ouside boards from when that end of the house was a barn 160 yrs ago. So it is now insulated and sheetrocked but has yet to be painted. All the bedrooms upstairs are finished. Floors are done, walls painted and decorated. Thats 5 rooms. All that is left up there is the hall and the yet empty bathroom. Someday!We did end up with some tomatoes squash cabbages brussels, lots of Italian peppers and onions. The grape vines are ok as are the raspberries but the blackberry didn't make it. The blueberry bushes look fair. Our asparagus patch lots like it will be ok too. Some of the trees are already changing. The days grow perceptably shorter up here and I made a big double batch of homemade bake beans. Must be fall coming. I am headed to NH in Oct for my eldest sons wedding and have been clothes shopping, which I hate. but I finally have something to wear. Kell'y birthday was last week and mine is in 2 weeks and so time marches on, right over us. All her kids were up last weekend which was loads of fun. Good to see them and the grandbabies. well thats it for now. Glad to be back. Alex

New Week, New Exhaustion

Well, here we are at the beginning of another three nights on. But boy have we gotten a lot done in our time off. On Friday Kelly's daughters family left the farm for their own apartment. And their baby now has her own room. Saturday was a shopping day. Groceries, Wal-Mart, Feed store etc. With some laundry thrown in for good measure. Oh, and we got the new freezer. Sunday was sunny and warm. Actually Saturday was too for the first time in weeks. So we mowed and trimmed and tended gardens. Jasmine had a ball feeding new mown grass to the chickens. They had great fun eating it. Kelly got all the tools out of the kitchen now that construction has narrowed its scope to walls and ceiling. She spent most of the day cleaning house. Ugggh.We unpacked some more boxes that have been stored since last July. Like getting Christmas presents. Sunday late at night we stole into the coop and put the sleeping roosters into the carry boxes. No muss , no fuss and only the occasional squawk. Nothing like the dead of night by flashlight for unpleasant tasks. Early Monday morning we were off to the butcher.Jason's Butcher in Albion ME. Now I have never done this or seen this done but where we went was very clean and very humane. Also very quick. We handed them the chickens (actually Ted and I- Kelly stayed in the truck to avoid crying) and they put them in cones to kill and bleed them. Then to a big hot vat and off came their feathers. Now they no longer looked like our chickens , just food. Then they were thoroughly cleaned and packed in ice. But the chickens before and after ours were HUGH. Seems Layer/meat breeds mean layer and not much meat but meat breeds are big. So we have 40 smallish chickens in the freezer and we are going to order 25 big breed chicks right away to have ready by fall. Sunday night Kelly and Tiffany made two batches of soap. Tuesday Kelly and I drove Jasmine and her Mom back to their apt in NH after a nice summer vacation with us. We will all miss them and hope they can get up for awhile before school starts. Wednesday Kelly and Ted did business in town and I did piddly things around the farm like hoeing weeds and peel a couple of cedar logs for fence posts. The garden is still pitiful. Out of 6 long rows of corn I think we have 5 plants. No beans came up. We lost all the tomatoes,and most of the peppers but I'm replanting some of those. We have cabbage, Brussels, Spinach,onions and squash. We have one lone pumpkin plant. We have 2 baby grape vives, 2 blueberry bushes , 2 rasberry and 1 blackberry plants. About half the asparagus came up and it is so thin I almost missed it and weeded it out. Herb garden is doing well. And we unfortunately have a whole section of garden thick in thistle. We will dig all that out and burn it this weekend. We are all kind of tired. Kelly cut the new soap to harden in the evening. Today was very lazy. Hate to get too tired when we have to work all night. Ted however made a beautiful 9 unit condo for the hens when they get ready to lay. So now the farm is quiet with just 4 adults and only one rooster- Sampson. We'll have to see what we can do about that. I miss the noise. posted by Alex