Ingredients: 1 gal milk (80% Zirlke goat, makeup whole cow grocery), 1/8 tsp chevre starter + about 1/3 of 1/4 veg. rennet tablet (couldn’t find exact specs and recipe called for starter that included rennet)

Made according to recipe

While it was heating, I made a mold from a pickle container poked all along the sides with a heated carving fork.

Ingredients: about 1.25 – 1.5 gal Zirkle goat milk, 1/4 c cider vinegar, 1 T salt (a bit too much, but spilled…)

Notes: made as directed except:

• Drained in colander 15 – 20 minutes
• Transferred to 4″ mold press (wanted 6″, but realized too late they didn’t include the large follower)
• Pressed at 20# for about 10-15 minutes, realized milky whey was coming out & didn’t want to lose butterfat, reduced pressure to as low as possible for about an hour
• Increased to 20# overnight
• Increased to 30# for a few hours
• Increased to 50# for a few hours

Ingredients: 1 gallon Zirkle goat milk, 1/4 c cider vinegar, 1 tsp salt

Notes:

Made as directed, except:

• Drained for about an hour in a jelly bag
• Mixed in salt
• Pressed at 20# for a few hours and 30# for a few more hours

Bouncy, light cheese, nice flavor. Sweet and mild.

Now that they’re bigger, weighing them is a little trickier. I tried taking them out individually and weighing them outside the hoop, then letting them run around a while before opening the door. As soon as they fine the door, they rush back in with their friends. But then I saw a big hawk way up high scoping us out and decided I’d be better safe than sorry (which reminds me: I need to dangle shinies to chase away hawks when I put up the poultry fence), and moved my operation into the coop.

Here’s the ideal setup: A long upended box with my scale, notebook, and a cup of scratch on top. If they have the scratch up there, they’ll nibble it quietly sitting on the scale instead of flapping away. Keeping them up high gets the others of their backs and makes it easier on mine.

Patty, Black Australorp.1140g (2.5#). Adult weight: 6.5#

Cathy, Black Australorp. 997g (2.2#). Adult weight: 6.5#

Zoe, Cuckoo Maran. 1290g (2.8#). Adult weight: 7#.

Peanut (Dominique). 834g (1.8#). Adult weight: 5#

Faith (Welsummer). 986g (2.2#). Adult weight: 6#

Inara (Golden-Laced Wyandotte). 1065g (2.3#). Adult weight: 6.5#

Kaylee (Buckeye). 1058g (2.3#). Adult weight: 6.5#

Bridgette (Ameraucana). 845g (1.9#). Adult weight: 5.5#.

Buffy (Delaware). 1029g (2.3#). Adult weight: 6.5#.

Ingredients:

• 2-day old Zirkle goat milk
• liquid animal rennet, calcium chloride per instructions

Notes:

• Let milk ripen only 20 minutes
• Added calcium chloride first, 20 stirs
• Added rennet, 20 stirs
• Let curd set up only 15 minutes before checking for clean break
• Cut the curd & it was finally like the pictures–looked about like soft tofu
• Did a crappy job cutting, especially the angled cuts, yikes
• Stirred gently and heated to 98 degrees slowly, but not as slowly as recipe says (about 3 degrees per 5 minutes, better than last time but faster than should)
• Kept the temperature within 2 degrees of target for all but last 10 minutes of cooking curd–accidentally let it get to 102 very briefly (maybe a minute) before cooling it quickly back to 98 in ice bath, then keeping it there for duration
• Poured off whey easily, salted, and pressed per instructions, but dallied a lot fucking around with different pressing implements for various weights–can’t wait until next week, when my real press arrives!
• Yield was easily twice was previous tries were (by volume, anyway), and almost filled cheese mold to the top!
• Cheese was very moist and squeaky!

• After 13 hrs (whoops), just a tiny bit of tearing after unwrapping, mostly just seemed like that stupid hard cheese kit mold really forced the cheese through the sides because the follower I cut for it was too big (fine when I put it in, but the stupid mold is really tapered, so the pressure just went sideways when it couldn’t go down more)
• I was worrried it didn’t get pressed properly because of that, but I went ahead and trimmed and salted it (pulverized salt in the food processor–read about it somewhere, produced a very fine salt that was easy to rub in
• After about an hour, the cheese had already made a big puddle of whey, so I decided to rinse it, rewrap (this time in some cheap, thin cotton sheeting I had on hand), and repress it with a smaller follower. I’m going to press again for maybe 6 hours and see how the new follower (which is almost an inch smaller than the current level of the stupid tapered mold) is doing.
• I can not wait to get my new press! I should have waited the extra 2 days.
• Pulled it out of the press after 12 hours, salted & set out to dry on the cutting board, alternating with sushi mat.
• This time, normal moisture, but a little more than I’d like, and it looked pretty oily. Checked the troubleshooting section & realized it’s pretty warm down there because we’re keeping the doors shut due because of the cats, so no circulation. I put a small desk fan on the cheese overnight & it looks good, so I’ll keep with that.

Ingredients: whey from Farmhouse Cheddar 4

Notes:

• I can just do this recipe now. I let it set longer to precipitate out more cheese
• This is my preferred whey ricotta for eating fresh
• Wonderful replacement for whipped cream (more substance, holds up better, nice tang) in shortcakes and gingerbread
• I drizzle or mix in a bit of honey for sweet dessert topping

Ingredients: whey from farmhouse cheddar 3 + mozzarella 3

Notes:

• seemed to produce as expected
• pressed in homemade sour cream tub press for 24 hrs, but realized didn’t drain too well–follower was too big after certain point
• repressing for 12 hrs with new homemade mold/follower made from plastic spaghetti sauce jars, much nicer fit.
• pressed on 2 folded sushi mats to allow drainage, inside jelly bags
• really like the jelly bags–going to buy some leeners bags and see if they’re the same material
• after repress, nice and firm cheese
• soaked in wine brine with fresh rosemary springs, seems even firmer and very deep wine color

The mold makes a very nice little cheese!

Finished product:

Tasting notes:

Smooth, dry, crumbly cheese with mild flavor. The edges have a nice wine flavor. Next time, I’ll press herbs or peppercorns into the exterior before soaking. I also might try soaking in hard cider or sweet wine.

Ingredients:

• 2 gallons home-pasteurized blended goat milk from Zirkle & Sundog milks
• liquid vegetable rennet
• calcium chloride
• culture, etc., per instructions

Notes:

• was worried milk wouldn’t work after Mozzarella 3 problems; but maybe mozz just needed to set longer before pulling curds
• stirred in rennet about 30-45 seconds only
• didn’t check regularly for clean break, but checked at about 25 min and was able to cut; seemed perhaps a little bit overset
• cut both directions, but curds were sinking before I could do much in the way of diagonal cuts
• heated a bit too quickly (more like 3 – 4 degrees per 5 minutes), then maintained temp and stirred 45 min per recipe
• curds were various sizes, nice and squeaky
• pressed per instructions; changed cheesecloth with new dry cloth before final pressing
• overall, looked nice and solid, a million times better than that first try!
• my only concern was that maybe too much butterfat leached out? whey was still fairly milky afterwards

• Cheesecloth did stick to cheese a bit and ripped cheese slightly in spots. Don’t know if it was from contamination, or the dry cloth getting mashed directly into the still-soft cheese at 50# of pressure for 12hrs
• Aged from 6/10 (after pressing) to 6/13, then moved to fridge to chill and waxed 6/14
• Forgot to wipe down cheese before waxing. Didn’t see any visible mold, but there was lots of salt, and wax had trouble adhering to a few pinholes. I dribbled wax into holes with a chopstick and that seemed to fill them in
• Aging in 55 degree fridge

1. Keep chickens for eggs and amusement, and buy some feed/supplies locally
2. Buy local eggs in the meantime
3. Bought a side of local natural beef
4. Having the pasture hayed so I don’t have to buy outside hay for the sheep
5. Getting sheep this summer (growing my own wool, learning about livestock, supporting local economy through sheep purchase and local feed purchase)
6. Using local contractors and some local materials for the fence
7. Made my coop hoop out of mostly recycled or locally-purchased materials
8. Buy local goat milk to support my lame cheese-making adventures
9. Make tasty cheese, even if it is not the cheese I’m setting out to make
10. Don’t shop at Walmart or Sam’s (but do still shop at Target and Costco, who at least treat their employees far better)
11. Really limit/consolidate trips out of town
12. Buy most of our gas in town
13. Grow herbs and a few other edibles
14. Belong to a CSA for vegetables
15. Buy flowers from local business (think this is net good; surely she doesn’t take extra trips to Topeka to get them, or she couldn’t afford to sell them with the price of gas so high)
16. Compost generally
17. Use compostable places for events
18. Use rags and cloth napkins instead of paper
19. Recycle almost everything
20. Reuse and salvage stuff, including furniture, fixtures & building materials
21. Incorporate recycling dropoff with other trips
22. Consolidate trips as much as possible

Here’s something I’m not sure about:

Buy a lot of mail order when I can’t buy local–I think this uses less resources, as the UPS/mail routes are already in place, than my driving a gas-guzzler to and fro. Recycle packing materials. But they’re still being produced in the first place. My gut feeling is that it’s a net savings, because Topeka retailers would also be using similar resources for distribution, etc.

Ingredients:

• A gallon or so blend of CZ and Sundog goat cheese, pasteurized earlier in the day. Later learned my new thermometer is off a few degrees, but it was never more than 48 or less than 45 degrees even with adjustments & I did it for exactly 30 minutes, but the “troubleshooting” note suggested trying a different brand of milk if the cheese didn’t come together, because that meant it was pasteurized too hot. Despite that I used their instructions.
• lipase (good flavor)
• liquid veg rennet, and rest per recipe

Notes:

• Followed the recipe pretty precisely, lowering the temp 5 degrees for goat milk
• Went to pull the curds as directed–they had seemed to set up and had pulled away from the sides of the pot about half an inch or so and the whey was clear, per the recipe–but they were much softer than before. But since before I ha a tough cheese, I thought I’d give a whirl.
• The whey that came out after I scooped the curds was milky white and stayed that way–looks like milk. I guess it will improve the ricotta. Sigh. More ricotta.
• From the beginning, they didn’t hold together well, an no amount of kneading changed that.
• Eventually, I added back in a little of the milk for a smoother consistency and got a product with the flavor of mozzarella, but a soft, grainy texture. Tasty but crap, how much freaking mystery cheese do I need?
• Was great in chard and green garlic fritata and ham and asparagus scramble.