cheese and whey

Homemade cheese: a revelation! So fun, so delicious.

I used whole milk this time. I followed this recipe, except mine didn't curd up as promised, after the cooling phase, so I heated it up again and added 2 tsp of citric acid I had leftover from canning tomatoes in the fall. Then I strained it and squeezed out a lot of the whey. It ended up about the texture of feta, and so tasty!

Especially when it was still warm... oh, the goodness!

There was much more whey left than I'd thought there would be- well over a quart.

I'd recently read an article on whey, and was intrigued by the health benefits of this vitamin and mineral rich stuff. And, I didn't want to waste anything. SO... after reading about lots of ways to use whey, I used it all up!

I drank some.... apparently some people drink a lemonade-type drink made with whey in the summertime, and I could see how that would be good, in a tangy way.

I fed some to Echo. He loved it, more than he loves most other things.

I washed my hair with it, and I must say that I am having a good hair day. Soft and shiny, lots of body!

Most successfully, I made some whole wheat ciabatta, replacing the water in the recipe with whey. It was delicious.

The sunshine speaks of spring

It just seems brighter, doesn't it?

When we've had duck and/or chicken losses to predators, its always been in the springtime and early summer- mammals seeking extra easy nutrients to help prepare them for the work of denning. Friday morning around 4am I woke up to a coyote howling not far from the house, the roosters answering back. This morning there were fox tracks on the driveway.

Marsh and Marais, our bitchy geese, will hopefully make anything that comes close feel sufficiently scolded and sissified that we won't have any losses of ducks or chickens, but if we do, we do. The foxes and coyotes and raccoons were here first. Our three lines of defense: chicken wire, an old limpy dog, and some hissing, flapping mini-dinosaurs. Never will we shoot or trap- oh, I cringe! Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer outlines the many reasons to be pro-predator far more eloquently than I would ever be able to.

Following the fox tracks, I paid a visit to the chicken coop. Its inhabitants surveyed the lay of the land briefly before unanimously determining it was still too snowy.

One little banty didn't even look outside, staying snuggled up beneath the next boxes.

What are you hiding, girl?

Oh me! Oh my! There are about 25 eggs in that wee nest, each about the size of ping-pong ball. We're going to insulate under that corner of the hen house this afternoon, in the hopes for some homegrown chicks.

Fortnight's Lonely Hearts show is tonight! Tune in at 6pm CST here.

After my semi-successful endeavor in yogurtry, I'm inspired to try cheese-making. Today: ricotta.

One last thing- how fun is this Jam Labelizer? Check it out to make custom label designs for homemade goods and everything else. I played around with trying to make a label for my box full of lip balm tins.

Hope your weekend is sunshiney and relaxing! Emmylou Harris is on top of it.

yogurt!

This was my breakfast this morning. Garden strawberries (a surprise from the back of the freezer!), backyard honey, and homemade yogurt. A delight!
I've been wanting to try this for a while, and after a lengthy conversation about homemade yogurt over the weekend with friends, I was inspired to try it.

I used a gallon of 2% Organic Valley milk.

Heated it to 170F...

Then let it cool to 112F before mixing in a half cup of already prepared yogurt.

I tried two methods for "incubation." One friend recommended putting the warm milk mixture into a crockpot (OFF) and wrapping it with towels. Another recommended putting the mixture into Mason jars and keeping them in an insulated cooler filled with warm water.

I left both overnight, and in the morning found runny yogurt. Both the crockpot and the cooler batches were about the same. I strained it twice through cheesecloth.

Now its about the consistency of greek yogurt, and I like it. I also like that this yogurt will cost about 25% of what an equal amount would have cost at the co-op! I put yogurt on everything from chili to french toast, mix it into curries, and use it as a base for sauces and dressings. (My current favorite- mixing equal parts yogurt and pesto and pouring onto boiled potatoes. Mmmmm.)

tapping

We got the first part of this year's maple harvest going today, a good two weeks earlier than we started last year... February 20 vs. March 6. New set-up this year, too. Here's last year's operation, with lots of 1 gallon non-lidded buckets hanging on the taps themselves.

Sometimes we had to empty these smaller buckets twice a day, and it made for lots of spillage and bugs.

This year, we've gotten smarter. Non-toxic tubing leading right through the covers of 5-gallon buckets resting on the ground!

This is nothing compared to the set-ups of some of our neighbors- blue tubing snaking through the woods, all leading to a thousand-gallon tank- but we're feeling pretty clever.

The next step is a redesign on what and how we evaporate the sap. Last year, we boiled 40 gallons of sap into 5 gallons of syrup using deep pots on an old cookstove in our yard. It took a long time. Weeks, really. Over dinner tonight we discussed designs for a homemade evaporator. Is there a way to build a maple sap evaporator slash wood-fired pizza oven? Oh, let's hope so.

Maple syrup and honey, both eternally lovely, have ascended the ranks of pantry royalty for me. The hale and hearty Jake has not eaten refined sugar for more than half of his life, and I'm determined anew, after some recent reading, to join his ranks. Wish this sweettooth luck... and a long and prosperous syrup season!

Three Things That Made Today a Happy Day

1. First outside run of 2012! Ran 3 miles in the sunshine of the late afternoon along the West Fork of the Kickapoo. Beautiful!

2. Red lentils and poached eggs for supper. Delicious!

3. Early bedtime with my book. Loveliness!

I've been thinking a lot this week about how much I love this life, and how lucky I am to have it.