Geek.Farm.Life

Comment by India

May 21, 2007 @ 3:37 am

Hopw you’re better soon, Misty
India

Comment by misty

May 21, 2007 @ 5:55 am

Thanks, I hope so too!

Comment by Sherri

May 22, 2007 @ 12:29 pm

Hi!
A friend sent me the link to your site. I’m a couple of hours south of you in Indiana. We have just shy of 14 acres and half of that is woods. I have a dozen assorted laying hens, 3 dairy goats, a Great Pyr LGD (who wants to be a porch dog) and around a dozen cats. I also like to spin and knit, but with raising a toddler along with working a full-time job I haven’t touched my wheel in over a year. :(

Did you make the butter from cow’s milk or goat’s milk? I’m getting about 8lbs a day from the one doe I’m milking and I’ve been skimming off the cream and freezing it to make butter from later. I’ve only been a goat owner for about a month so all this is new to me. I’m going to try my first cheese-making experiment this weekend. :)

Comment by andrew

May 22, 2007 @ 1:38 pm

Hi Sherri!

Wow, sounds like it’s busy down there! What type of goats do you have? We would love to hear more about your farm.

The butter is made from goat milk. Skimming would just take too long and it leaves most of the cream in the milk. As I’m sure you know goat’s milk is naturally homogenized so very little fat floats to the surface. We use a cream separator, and 3 gallons of milk makes over a quart of cream which ends up making about 1 lbs of butter or so.

I did a sound seeing tour of separating cream last year at this time, you might find it interesting, it’s available here:

http://geekfarmlife.com/2006/05/15/sound-seeing-cream-separator/

I also guess it’s very timely that we’ll be talking about making cheese in the podcast then.

Comment by Sherri

May 22, 2007 @ 4:29 pm

I thought it must be goat’s milk butter since it’s so white. I’d love to have a cream separator but it’s out of my price range at the moment, so I’m stuck with skimming. I let the milk set in the fridge for 24-48 hours first and I can get 1-2 tablespoons per half gallon of milk.

I have 2 LaMancha doelings and a LaMancha/Toggenburg cross who’s a 2 year old first-freshener. I also have a deposit down on a Mini-LaMancha buck that I’ll be driving up to Wisconsin to pick up later this summer. I have photos on my blog if you’d like to see them.

Comment by misty

May 23, 2007 @ 8:04 am

Hi Sherri,

Even though cow’s milk might naturally be a little more yellow than goat’s milk, color is added to all of it, I believe.

We’ll have to get together sometime since you don’t live that far away!

Are LaManchas the ones with teeny tiny ears?

Comment by Sarah

May 23, 2007 @ 10:51 am

Thanks for another great podcast - I particularly appreciate the bee info, as I stumbled on a stack of ‘deeps’ and ’supers’ (as I now know to call them) recently.

It’s interesting to hear the northern perspective - I garden at latitude 30dN, on the Florida Panhandle, and tomatoes here are Not Easy (better find some shade for them) whereas peppers are.

I’m looking forward to hearing about cheese. I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ and she advocates making cheese at home so much that I am jonesing for my own fresh mozzerella.

Comment by andrew

May 24, 2007 @ 10:21 am

Hey Sherri,

On your way up to Wisconsin if you feel like a small a detour via our place you are more than welcome to come visit.

The cream separator was a big splurge, but oh how much I love having our own cream/butter. It allows us to save a lot more milk and if I do it right this year should give us butter for the next 12 months. I just made 2 more lbs this morning. If I can do 2lbs a week for the next few months we’ll be set!

Sarah!

I’m glad you’re enjoying the shows. Where I grew up tomatoes were a challenge since it might freeze just as they started turning red. I never thought it could get too hot for them. :)

Home made mozzarella can be made really easily with citric acid. It may lack a bit in flavour but it was one of the first cheeses I made. Plus I think it can be made easily with store bought homogenized milk too. Maybe that’s the one I’ll do for this weekends show, hmm, not sure.

Comment by India

May 24, 2007 @ 10:25 am

The mozzarella sounds like a great idea for the show ;O)
India

Comment by Sherry W

May 25, 2007 @ 12:54 pm

The comments on feeling sad about killing food animals are interesting. When I was a kid I was told right out which animals would be around for awhile (dairy animals, breeders, egg layers) and who was going in the freezer.

It makes sense that if you raise an animal and care for as well as small farmers do, there is a tinge of sentiment when they meet the axe. Yes, they are not pets but you rasied it and fed it and watched it grow. I think that’s a good thing- you respect the animals and where dinner comes from.

Comment by India

May 25, 2007 @ 3:03 pm

I have friends who breed Hebridean sheep, and a few other rare-breeds. They eat their animals, all of which are given names. They subscribe to the idea that naming the animals helps prevent them being kept at the emotional distance that allows ‘us’ to abuse them in intensive factory situations.
I don’t know where I stand - being a soft townee, I don’t think I could eat something I’d raised, whether or not I’d named it!
India

Comment by andrew

May 25, 2007 @ 8:02 pm

Hey Sherry W and India!

I think since we’ve started raising our own animals for food we do respect our meat more than we used to. It’s one thing to pick up a one chicken out of 200 from the freezer at a grocery store. Yet after you raised your own animals up and butchered them it seem different.

None the less, I’m always pleased to see the feed bills go down after butchering. :) Plus the meat does taste so good.

India, mozzarella sounds like a good idea. I’m not sure on the naming idea, but everything else sounds great. Both Misty and I wish we could raise herritage sheep and goats, but oh well, there’s only so much you can do.