Hermione and Mina still wait for me by the gate to milk them, even though I stopped milking last Monday. Being milked means getting a special treat of goat grain on the milking stand, so they look forward to it. Instead, they are now sharing the feed trough in the barn with the rest of our little herd. Our sheep Gus is just wondering what all the fuss is about.
Come On, Woman!
12 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
Remembering Paul
11 Sep 2011 3 Comments
Today is September 11th, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. My husband and I spent ten years in the volunteer fire service when we lived in NY’s Hudson Valley. We shared a Firefighter of the Year award from our fire company and also volunteered with IBM’s Emergency Control Brigade. That’s where we met and served with Paul Tegtmeier – a funny, caring guy. Someone you’d gladly partner with in an emergency. His lifelong dream was to be a NYC firefighter and he finally got hired on at age 40. Paul was on his way to work when he saw a plane hit one of the towers. It’s believed that he joined up with a crew without signing in just as they headed to the towers. His civilian shoes were found at the firehouse and his car was parked a few blocks away. It is believed he died in tower 2, but his body was never recovered. I can’t hear the words 9/11 without thinking of Paul. His bravery and sacrifice are not forgotten.
Everybody Loves Corn
10 Sep 2011 2 Comments
Houdini the rooster and Augusta the sheep share breakfast together. It’s actually sheep and goat grain, but contains lots of corn. Gus could easily toss her head to get rid of the chicken but seems perfectly content to share. That’s a good girl, Gus!
Tis the Season to be Stinky
09 Sep 2011 6 Comments
Rudy’s happy that it’s breeding time again. He’s being all lovey dovey to anyone who will put up with him. Since his mating season grooming plan is to become as stinky and disgusting as possible (He likes to pee on his beard. Ick.), I am not someone who puts up with him this time of year.
Make Your Own Butter
08 Sep 2011 9 Comments
in Recipes
Making butter at home is really easy. Purchase a small carton of heavy cream at the grocery store, pour it into a mason jar larger than the amount of cream you purchased, put a lid on it and shake. It takes between 5 and 10 minutes, so make sure you have a friend available to help shake it. When you start seeing solids in the jar, shake it a bit more and pour off the liquid. Rinse the solids in cold water a few times, pouring off the water after every rinse. Drain the solids, stir, add a little salt and pop some bread in the toaster! I’ve been making goats milk cheese for about 5 months now, and have noticed a bit of cream rises to the top of a jar of goat milk after sitting in the fridge a few days. Getting a decent amount of cream from goat milk is difficult, it requires an electric cream separator which usually costs more than a pasteurizer. I decided to scoop whatever cream I could get off of each jar, a little over a teaspoon. I put it all in a jar, shook it, and 5 minutes later we had goat butter and it’s delicious! You don’t need goats to try this at home, just a carton of heavy cream. Give it a try, you’ll impress just about everyone you know!
Happy Days!
06 Sep 2011 8 Comments
Yesterday was my last day of milking for 2011. Yay! It’s been twice a day since April, I actually feel like we could get away for a few days if we wanted to. Goats are seasonal breeders, they need to be dried off to assure they can get pregnant again in the Fall for Spring kids and then we’ll have milk for 2012. Mina, Bella and Hermione gave me two and a half quarts this morning. That’s also yesterday’s batch of chevre drained and ready to be salted. Today’s my birthday and also our 24th wedding anniversary. And marks one year since our wonderful daughter Tracy decided I needed a blog for my birthday so it’s a blog anniversary, too. Happy days and thank you again, Tracy!
Fortressed
05 Sep 2011 1 Comment
Pumpkin vines run really far. I planted six seeds the first week of June, and the vines ran outside of our invisible deer fence enclosure. Someone told us that deer will stomp a pumpkin to get at the flesh so my husband extended the enclosure for protection. It’s fortressed, we’ll see if it lasts until Halloween!
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
04 Sep 2011 12 Comments
Careful inspection should reveal something that doesn’t belong in our garden. I’m sure one of our kids will get it…
Best. Cake. Ever.
02 Sep 2011 6 Comments
My friend Lora, who’s my farmers’ market space partner, designed a cake for our friend’s lamb camping weekend. It featured a coconut cake with a layer of home made lime curd and a layer of home made lemon curd. And coconut cream. And magical fairy dust. Just kidding about the coconut cream. 😉 It was the best cake ever. A lime in the coconut cake. She designed the topper in polymer clay (so artsy and talented). She won a Food Network cake decorating challenge. For real. She’s amazing and generous and bakes amazing things. Come to the market on Friday morning and you can find out for yourself. She left at 9AM this morning, she sold out that fast!
Sweet
01 Sep 2011 3 Comments
Mother and daughter CoCo and Elsie relaxing in the afternoon sun. Elsie’s the only 2011 kid we kept. She’s a beauty!
Missing Willow Farm 