Rules

As many of you who know me may be aware, I am a compulsive rule follower. It makes me super anxious, and even physically uncomfortable to anything "against the rules." Even a perceived rule or something I think other may disapprove of makes me all squirmy inside. I drive the speed limit. I don't clock in early at work. I am always on time. I can't help it.

So of course I looked up our state laws regarding raw milk and cheese sales. And it turns out it is cool to sell it, but I can't advertise for it's sale and I can only sell it "at the premises where produced." So not Portland. Also I can't produce cheese for sale. So what are we going to do? I'll tell you what. We will make up some rules, because then we can follow them, and following rules makes everything more comfortable. For me.

Rule 1. Milk:
We can only sell milk at the farm. Please do not ask me to bring you milk to Portland. I cannot transport raw milk off of my farm for sales. Of course you can always ask me if I have milk. Like "Will you have a half gallon of milk available on Friday?" Or "Will there be a gallon of milk available on Saturday?" That way I will know to set it aside for you in the milk fridge and not make cheese or ice cream or yogurt with it. I will still update the blog with the days that I am at the farm too. But Mike will be there on days that I am not, so even if I am not there you can come to the farm and pick up your milk.

Rule 1.5 Milk Availability:
Please note that I can't guarantee milk availability if you don't ask. There will likely be a gallon or two in fridge most of the time, but I would hate for you to make a trip down and find that I have just added culture to the last of the milk. This is mostly for people who live outside the coast area. You can leave a comment in the blog, email me here: megansaddress@gmail.com, or call or text me here: 503-781-9457. It's just that easy.

Rule 2. Cheese:
I can't sell cheese. Period. The problem here is that I want to make lots of cheese and have people eat it and then tell me what they think about it and then make more cheese better than the stuff before until I am very very good at cheese! The main thing here is please don't leave me any comments about "can I buy some cheese?" or "how much is cheese?" The answer is "no" and "no cheese for sale." I will still blog about making cheese and about what cheese I have for eating now. And I will still have cheese for friends to taste. But not to buy. If you are interested in my blog and my cheese you can ask me if I have chevre, or feta, or cheddar. I love to talk about cheese.

That's it really. This way we are all on the up and up and poor Mike won't have to listen to me fret to myself. Thanks!

Thursday, May 19th

Thursday Update!

This week I will be at the farm until Saturday and then up to Portland on Saturday afternoon. I will be back to the farm on Wednesday the 25th. Holy smokes! It's lovely outside! And there is so much to do!! So much gardening, trail clearing, land maintenance, standing in the middle of the big pasture and talking about fencing for hours, and so much milk! So I have been making cheese like crazy. I have decided there is no reason to not experiment with some more complicated cheeses that may not turn out. I have been very brave. And there will be lots of new things to try in the weeks and months to come. I love delayed gratification.

This Week We Will Have:

• Milk: but not quite as much because I have been using it all up
• Chevre: a new recipe, with hopefully prettier presentation
• Feta: in a very salty brine, it's pretty good, but not great, and better after a few minutes of soaking in fresh water
• And to the new aging "fridge": 2-lb cheddar cheeses (2), 5-lb Caerphilly cheese, Mould ripened soft goat cheeses (6 small, and 1 bigger one)

Other Farm News:

Garden:

Lots and lots of new baby sprouts. I love this time of year because you can check on the garden five times a day and see new things popping up every time! Finally all the onions are in. This has been a lot of work for me because I loathe planting onion starts so it has taken a lot of planning to get other people to do it for me. I am a very excellent planner. It has also been fun to see how some of the warmer weather plants are doing so much better in the greenhouse.

Barn:

We are having increased mice issues in the barn, so we got a cat off of Craig's List. The cat almost immediately disappeared and we haven't seen him since. He sat by us for a second and then made a huge flying leap and disappeared into the scary part of the barn. But we have seen evidence of him every day. Like that scene in that movie Funny Farm when they get that dog that runs away and you just see him streak by every now and again. Poor kitty. But I have faith that we will come around. We just want to build him a kitty palace and feed him treats every day.

Also there is a new basketball hoop in the barn AND Grace can now ride her bike without training wheels!

House:

Big progress on Grace's new room. This is the first big remodel and we are feeling really excited about it now. Almost all the dry-wall is up and we will be ready to spackle and paint next week. Pictures soon, I bet.

Exploring....

We had a nice walk today in our large pasture and took our goats to our big maple tree.  

Cheese Supplies

I have had some requests (I like to say it that way, Julie, because it makes me feel more important) for information on where I get my cheese supplies. It's not a secret of course, so let's make this a linky post and I'll tell you.

Cheese!

The physical store I go to is at Kookoolan Farms. Link! http://www.kookoolanfarms.com/

They have a self-service honor store (they ask that you make an appointment for your first visit). It's open every single day! They have a huge chest freezer full of cultures, moulds, rennets; dry ingredients like ash, citric acid, salts, waxes; and equipment like presses, molds, forms, cheese cloth, drying mats, aging boxes, books galore. It's awesome. Nothing you can't order delivered to your house, but sometimes you just want to shop in a store. They also have milk, eggs, chickens, other seasonal stuff. AND they have classes there.

Of course you can always order stuff off the Internets and people will just drop it off at your house! Here are some:

• http://www.cheesemaking.com/
• http://www.thecheesemaker.com/
• http://www.madmillie.com/
• http://urbancheesecraft.wordpress.com/find-diy-cheese-kits-portland-oregon-and-west-coast/ (info on where you can get cheese making kits in Portland)

If there are people who are interested in making your own cheese in your house, I have some information about places to get real milk (cow and goat). In my experience I have gotten better cheese and higher yields when I start with raw milk, even when I pasteurize it myself before beginning. I think it's because it's fresher and all the proteins and fats and friendly bacteria are shiney and new.

Post Post:

There will be cheese on Saturday. Probably chevre and feta, maybe squeeky cheese curds!

Good-Bye Little Bucks

Yesterday we butchered the buck kids. My dad came to help and Grace and I prepared to hide in the house and ignore the situation. But we were all surprised though. Verdict: not so bad.

Grace and I were in the kitchen. Probably making cheese or preparing to make cheese and Grace starts peeking out the window and giving me little updates. "Mom! it's hanging already," "Mom! the skin is off," until ". . . Mom . . . I kind of want to see it closer. Is that bad?" So we walked down the driveway and one thing lead to another and the next thing you know we were having a very hands on anatomy and physiology lesson. We saw all the organs and veins and Grace asked clever questions, as she usually does. And then we backed off when they did the second kid. But we did see it. And it was so quick. Really. Zip-zip.

And honestly this feels like some sort of farm turning point for us. We can do the unpleasant things too. Not just the warm fuzzy stuff. We both feel like if we are going to eat meat we should be willing to do the deed ourselves. Raise up an animal with care and respect and dispatch him quickly. And we did. And the meat looks lovely. Plus it's so quiet in the barn now. Those boys were LOUD.

Cheese tangent:

After the butchering was all done and cleaned up Grace went home with my dad to spend the night and Mike and I went into Carlton to by some (a lot) of cheese supplies. I got new forms for soft cheese and hard cheese and new cultures, both replacement and NEW cultures. (I know! I got shivers too!). AND all kinds of moulds and some new books. YAY. Plus we had the super best lunch at this place in Carlton called The Horse Radish. Wine flights and cheese plates. It was completely delightful. Carlton. Who knew?

Cheese recommendation from Mike: Truffle Stack, cow milk cheese, Mt. Townsend Creamery. This thing explodes in your mouth. It's creamy and gooey with a lovely bloomy rind that just intensifies the mushroomy earthy truffly awesome-ness.

Cheese recommendation from Megan: Humboldt Fog, goat milk cheese, Cypress Grove Chevre. I can't even talk about how yummy this one was. It was like a layer cake of strong goat cheese yum. Bloomy rind with ash underneath and layer of ash in the center. It was almost dry/crumbly in the center and creamy up along the edges.

Thursday Update:

Check this out! Two weeks in a row. This week is a funny week. I will be home on the farm from Thursday, May 12th - Saturday, May 21st with a random Monday (the 16th) in Portland. The babies are starting to taper off on milk, so we have a little more to play with too! I plan to go cheese crazy this week!

This Week We Will Have:

• Raw milk
• Feta: very likely Monday
• Squeaky Cheese Curds: which I fully expect Grace to demolish tonight
• Chevre: probably Monday and maybe again on Saturday
• (almost certainly) Un-named soft round cheese cut into little wedges

Other Farm News:

Garden:

My garden is starting to grow all kinds of babies! Almost all the seedlings that went into the garden are still alive. Some one ate the pumpkins, but I went sort of crazy planting those, so I will investigate the bug/slug issue and put more of those out. PLUS I have brand new baby spinach, kale, turnips, beans, flowers, and ASPARAGUS! Listen, I know it's the middle of May and this sounds like an April garden, but it rains like crazy here and we had to prepare the beds, so everything is late. I am especially excited about the asparagus. Asparagus means we get to stay here; it's a long term investment. And after having moved nine times in the first nine years of our marriage, permanent seems like an unknown luxury. This is the longest I have lived in one house and not been thinking of moving. Bliss.

The Garden

Asparagus Starts

Broccoli

Cawley-flower

Chickens:

The first six chickens are big enough to go outside. Today is their first day and they are eating like retirees on a cruise ship. You would think I hadn't been feeding them. Mike protects his animals like someone is constantly plotting their death, so he is securing strips of netting over the chicken yard to protect them from aerial assault. This in addition to chicken wire dug down to protect from weaselly things and electric fencing. The girls will have plenty of open area to free range, but Mike likes to make sure they have a fortress to escape to if they need it.

The Elder Chicks

Goats:

Well the boys have reached about the end of their time with us and on Saturday my dad is coming to help us get them ready for their new home in the freezer. They are not very big and are not going to yield a lot of meat, but if they hang around any longer the will need to be castrated and have their own buck yard, which we are no really willing to do this year. No we will get a little stew meat and call it good. The ladies are all doing very well, of course.

Here is a picture of the new barn setup: