One needs the patience of Job, no wonder "blessed are the cheesemakers"!
My good friend Bill and I, decided to try making camembert cheese from Laura's goats milk. Bill's kitchen is more sophisticated than ours, so we used his fuel stove to heat the milk. It seems the most important thing is to maintain a temperature of 32 degrees C. Not easy when the only thermometer to use was his elbow! We added the starter, left for 90 minutes, added the rennet. left for 60 minutes, cut the curd, stirred gently for 15 minutes, left the curd for 15 minutes. Put the molds (cut off downpipe), on a sushi mat, poured off the whey, ladled the curds into the mold, covered and left for one hour to drain.Then gently turned upside down, did this hourly for 5 hours, when the cheese was about 35 mm high, sprinkled with salt, then after 10 minutes, painted on a milky solution made from a commercial camembert's rind. Now the aging at about 7 degrees C , and 95% humidity, for 2 weeks. Then wrapped for a further 4-6 weeks.
One needs the patience of Job, no wonder "blessed are the cheesemakers"!
2 Comments
Some days it all feels like it comes together, the veggie garden producing, lamb chops for dinner and goats milk in the fridge.
Some of you may wonder what happens to some of our projects, well here goes.
Baby bottle bunnies: we managed to raise three of the five and though they are not as big as their peers they are doing ok. I am not sure why two died but until we got them eating solids, the amount of milk they drank seemed barely adequate. Fish: The fingerlings have been released into two dams. they are tiny so it will be a long time before we need the tartare sauce. There are plenty of creatures that will want to get to them first. The rain we are having is great as the dams are filling. Calves: The little girls have settled in and figured out where the food is, it is tempting to feed them heaps but we have been advised to be careful cause making them fat will negatively effect how they milk later. Goats: After the great summer debacle, when I was in charge, as Laura was away, one kid died and anther got really sick. Things are looking up,and Laura is very excited that the buck is coming Saturday to start the breeding all over again. She is milking once a day and producing two litres of milk. Next on the agenda ..a camembert style cheese! Sheep: The main event, are eating grass and gaining weight in preparation for joining in a couple of weeks for an early spring lambing. When the busy time will start again. There is a lot of discussion about superphosphate, but we have found it is essential to stimulate the native grasses, along with some clover, to produce a bulk of feed initially. The sheep then spread the manure and fertility, and overtime, a build-up of humous occurs. Ideally we then add the phosphorous via the animal, by always having a mineral lick out for the sheep. Every time an animal leaves the farm it takes with it a bucket of minerals, and these need to be replaced! We sowed a very poor paddock with sub clover and left it ungrazed for a year, the hayed off clover made a layer of organic matter and the soil was much spongier after this time. I have heard people say that "super" makes soil more acid, but believe that it is apparently the legumes conversion of the nitrogen to an available form for the plants, that causes the acidity.
The Canberra Royal Show is on tomorrow, and we are entering a very small team. It should be bigger but being busy and distracted I have only three sheep prepared. The young ewes are beautiful and wild, the ram has been to the show before, so he at least leads. Who knows what the day will bring.
Martin and I attended Joel Salatin's Masterclass "You can Farm" on Sunday at Kiama. It was convened by Milkwood and it was wonderful. Very well attended and packed full of inspiring information about how to turn a block of land into a productive, profitable farming enterprise. He is an inspiring innovator with an enthusiasm for educating about possibilities and developing young farmers.
My scratch notes say: Farming should build soil Perennials build soil Seek ecological self sufficiency Animals move - portable infrastructure (you can farm on borrowed ground) Sanitation - rest and sunshine and compost bedding. Portable and plentiful water. Stacking Function over form Become the whole component in the chain Wellness is the terrain we create Diversification in everything. Repopulate farms - join with young people and a million other ideas - READ HIS BOOKS. This year we are very pleased with the progress in the veggie garden, after the late frost knocked things about the warm weather turned things around and we got growth. Even though it has been dry we have the luxury here of plenty of good quality water, so everything can be kept moist in the heat. We have been eating from the garden since before Christmas and the cooking has been getting more creative in order to use what we have. There have been some very pleasing meals, like rabbit stew, with mash potato where all the ingredients have been home grown.
The glasshouse that was but back together with gaffer tape after winds blew the panels out, has provided a good environment for tomatoes, without it I don't think we would have any ripe until next month. I just need to learn how to keep the plants in there under control, it is becoming a challenge to see what is going on. The next six or eight weeks is the ideal time to sow those pasture seeds. We have a paddock that was heavily infested with serrated tussock, and thus had to use flupropanate, the long acting herbicide specific for serrated tussock. This killed many of the native grasses, so I have just thrown out with the super spreader a mix of superphosphate, sub clover, and strawberry clover. Clovers can be successfully propagated by aerial spreading, and can of course fix the nitrogen making it available for the grasses.
Clover seed needs to be inoculated with the bacteria that perform the nitrogen fixing, the sub clover came with a pre inoculation coating ( blue), but the strawberry clover needs to have the inoculant mixed with the seed prior to spreading.( a fairly simple operation, but the seed seller will do it for you) All we need now to achieve success is some regular rain falls for a month or so! I have been fortunate enough to receive a ticket to the "You can Farm Masterclass" with one of the world's most innovative farmers: Joel Salatin, thanks to the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority who funded the ticket. The Masterclass explores setting up thriving, profitable and ethical small farms. I have heard Joel speak before and found his presentation riveting and came away with a head full of ideas for our farm. Polyface Inc, Joel's family farm is the hands on model for all he talks about, a farmer talking to other farmers. This model is taking off in so many places as it benefits the land and the people who work with it in such a positive way. I am particularly interested in his direct marketing model. Sunday at Kiama, can't wait.
Martin has just returned from a road trip to visit friends, and brought back two little calves. These calves are another round in the search for the perfect milking cow. Our first attempt was "Blossom" who could "kick for Real Madrid"! After three years of trying to settle her, she has been retired (won) and been put out to pasture. The next cow to arrive,"Patsy", stands beautifully if we milk her in the crush, but freaks at the bail, a work in progress. Now "Daisy and Dolly" have arrived and I am determined that we make them Australia's quietest cows that beg to be milked. Only two years till I know whether this plan is a success.
|