One whey, or another...(sing it)

Lee has met his soulmates. We've always been astounded by Lee's athletic talents - he's just a natural gymnist. It seemed entirely natural that he would choose Goats as his particular farm animal. His goal for his goat project, on the other hand, was equally astounding - he wants to make goat cheeses. Now you have to understand, cheese making requires patience of the utmost degree, quietly standing and gently stirring. "Quietly" and "Gently" have not been in Lee's lexicon, up to now.
But we strongly believe in the boys having the opportunity to experience the challenges and rewards of having an animal to be their responsiblity, their pals, and possibly their farm income. Hence "Collin's Cluckers" - a successful venture, at this point.
Thanks to our good neighbors Jolene and Tom (the sheep neighbors), we have been visiting a very successful goat farm. Stardom Farm is in the process of reducing the size of their herd as they prepare to embark on upcoming retirement traveling. So Lee and I have been doing our research, talking to the Kornelys, and dreaming of our future little milking herd.

Stardom Toggenburgs have consistently won top honors up to national level at goat shows. There are a few Nubians in the herd, and Lee fell in love with their long ears and quirky personalities. It's hard to resist the kids, but we eventually decided that we should start with does already in production, since afterall, the goal is CHEESE! We would have to wait 2 years for milk, if we took one of these charmers.

While waiting for more pieces of our planned joint venture in a milking goat herd to fall into place, we decided we could at least start practicing cheesemaking. With a gallon of fresh whole goat milk, we made our first cheese - Ricotta. So easy, and so yummy!
Once the curds form, they separate from the liquid portion of the milk - the whey.
After draining the curds in a colender lined with butter muslin, we enjoyed experimenting with flavors - here we mixed in fresh garden herbs.
A divine cracker spread! Another delicious variation - drizzle honey over a bowl of warm ricotta, sprinkle with toasted pecans, and use as a spread on crackers, waffles, etc. Or eat with a spoon, which was MY preferred method of enjoying the fruits of our labor!
As we munched on cheese and crackers, we discussed what to do with the whey. When we get into regular cheese production, we are going to have a LOT of whey. Some could be shared with Than and his planned project - feeder hogs. But we soon discovered, there are a gazillion uses for whey. So we started with a simple one - Feather Light French bread.

May I just say, this is a WONDERFUL bread. Light but substantial, with a slight tang from the whey. Golden tender crust. Oh yeah. We'll be making this again, you betcha!
But that only used 3/4 c. of whey. OK, how about whey lemonade? Simple - stir dry lemonade mix into a pitcher of well-chilled whey. The first sip tasted slightly creamy to me, like lemon pie filling - how good is THAT?! Some of the gang like it, some don't. Jayden drank 3 glasses, and had more with dinner!

So here are some of our rewards for first cheesey adventure: Ricotta (which has many uses, like stuffing manicotti, layering in lasagne, and a base for spreads, just to name a few); a delightful bread; and a refreshing, wholesome drink with lots of nutritional value.
Whey can be used just about any way you would use whole milk. It has a slight lemony tang from the citric acid used to percipitate the curd. But in most recipes, it is un-noticable. Here, the whey was used to make the dumplings for our dinner pot of chicken and dumplings.
It's been fun, searching out recipes for making cheese. And one whey or another, we will find uses for that wonderfully versatile by-product: WHEY.

Grab your fork...

A gardener's soul has many little moments of joy and fulfillment. Here's one of my favorites. Creamed Peas and New Potatoes. When you first poke those little peas into barely warm soil, and slip the seed potatoes under their staw covers, you probably have visions of this "comfort food" lurking in the back of your mind. At least I do.
As I picked the peas a few evenings ago, I realized time was almost past to enjoy another pot of pleasure. This delicacy requires meticulous timing of peas and new pototoes; once the peas are done for the season, the potatoes are just about past the "new" stage. I know, you can use frozen peas. And possibly find some little red potatoes at the market. But it's just not the same...

A shallow probe around several Yukon Gold potato plants yielded some nice thin-skinned spuds to go with the final picking of the Green Arrows.

The house trolls can always be recruited or otherwise bribed to help - especially when it's close to dinner time, they are hungry, and they can make a game of the work (a Reese's P-B cup to the most peas podded...) Thanks, fellas.
A twist on the cream sauce - Lee had just made a batch of ricotta, so we used the whey instead of whole milk. More on that project next post. Basic white sauce: knob of butter, some flour, milk (or whatever) - stir together over medium high until it thickens and bubbles.
Boil the spuds until just barely done, steam the peas for about ninety seconds, then combine the veggies in the cream sauce...
stir in a couple shakes of sea salt and a grind of pepper...
and grab your fork! My oh my. I could founder on this stuff.

The only thing that could improve this dish is some fresh herbs. Some chopped dill, or a bit of basil chiffonade...now THAT is gourmet! And when it's just for me, I indulge.

Unfortunately, some of the house trolls aren't quite convinced that gourmet is necessary. They are still struggling with the concept that peas are edible...

The Wright Family Album

After taking 79 pictures, with props, staging and special lighting effects, we're still trying to decide which to use for the offical 2008 Family Photo. So enjoy these for the time being, and maybe we'll get a few more up for you all to "vote" on...

We'll call this one "Cord Wood"...that's the winter wood pile they are sitting on...

This one is labeled "Old Farm Machine"...and that does NOT mean grandma, thank you very much...
We think it's an ancient combine. It's part of the "Back Forty Museum", consisting of various old cars and farm machinery stashed at the edge of the woods by previous owners. Fascinating stuff.

For a closer browse of faces, double click on the photo. Just be sure to hit your blue "back button", not the red "X", to return to the post. Otherwise you will be kicked out of the post completely. And have to start all over finding it. I hate it when that happens to me...

Quiet Hour

The peaceful hours just before dusk are a cherished time for me. For one thing, if it's been a hot day, as most are now, the air cools and a light breeze fans the heat from the day. This is the time I most enjoy in the garden.
The sandhill cranes call from across the fields, frogs pick up their evening chorus from the pond, and birds are taking their last dizzy spirals above the garden. The setting sun touches the swallows with gold as they swoop low over the plants, snatching bugs on the wing - bless the swallows!
A time for pure enjoyment. Quiet, golden, solitude. "In this quiet hour, Let me see Thy face, Lord, Feel thy touch of power". Words from an old 1920 hymn. The simple melody touches my heart. You might enjoy listening...

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/q/i/quiet_hr.htm

I browsed the strawberry beds for the last handful of sweet ruby morsals, bursting with sunny flavor and passionate color. Little treasures, the best of the season. All the more cherished because they are the final gifts from our happy strawberry beds for this season.

A bowl and kitchen shears now accompany me for any stroll through the garden - there are always some crisp lettuces to harvest, baby zuchinni and cucumbers to search out from cloaks of leaves, herbs to snip for a morning omelet. This evening the peas were suddenly at the right stage for the first big picking. That's the way peas are, they poke along, poke along, giving a teasing filled pod here and there, then when you aren't looking they ripen in a rush. Fat little new peas - the "pop" of a pod splitting beneath my thumb makes me smile in anticipation!
The sky stages dusk with glowing color and cloud shapes, changing from moment to moment. Sunsets here are incredible, with towering thunderheads catching the light with more drama than any stage hand could manage for a rock concert. I stand and watch in complete awe, saturating my mind in the peace and beauty of the vision.
Each day brings it's separate joys, each evening special gifts of grace and peace. I am so grateful.

Especially for mosquito repellant.

Weed 'n Feed

We're very pleased with the progress in this year's garden - after a long cold wet spring, we've finally hit the long hot humid days of summer that make gardening in this part of the world so rewarding. A late start, but we are now optimistic that most of the things we planned on canning or freezing are going to produce fairly abundantly. The tomatoes are making me nervous, but they are working on it.
Our most rewarding experiment so far has been the earlier and thicker mulching. Weeding has been a fraction of what we did last year. And the mulch is successfully holding the moisture in this very sandy loam so that watering is done only weekly - except seedlings in the succession plantings, which I water daily until they are established. So weeding is minimal, and now we're well into the feeding part of the garden! Feeding the family, that is.

Here's a backside view of the strawbale chicken house, with the "pop hole" they exit from. We put the chicken house next to the garden so that in the fall we just switch the fence opening and they spend a couple of happy months scratching through the mulch and garden debris, de-bugging and fertilizing as they go. Nothing is too good for Collin's cluckers - those are happy girls, let me tell you.
Although the photos are kinda small, you can get the general idea. In the background by the white hoops, the slave detail is working on the last picking of strawberries.
The boys always help me lay out the boardwalks before planting, and it's fun to throw in a little whimsy like the triangles, which make nice planting plots for things I want to keep a closer eye on - such as lettuce seedlings, which need to have a good amount of misty watering to sprout and then it's stand back and grab the shears for salad! We doubled the basil, just past the light green lettuce, there is just no such thing as too much basil...

The veggie garden always needs flowers, too, to break up the monotonous green. Marigolds, zinnias, batchelor buttons, cosmos, and of course sunflowers. Although we didn't plant any sunflowers this year. There were about a hundred volunteers - we left some where they were and transplanted others to the sides of the garden.
Broccoli has been on the menu about every third night, a dozen plants are keeping us well-fed.
Beyond the broc the new raspberry rows are getting established, and then there are the peas.

See? Peas! "Green Arrow", for those who need to know such things.
The bush beans were reeeeeeeaallllly slow taking off. Thought we might have to replant. But here they are, on the verge of blossoms. Note the heavy straw mulch. There's a good half a ton of grass clippings there, too, from cutting the extra long grass after the riding mower was down for about six weeks. All the taller green sticking up? Sunflowers. They're taking over...
See? Sunflowers. If you look closely (or click on the photo, it will enlarge), there is a BUG on the tip of one of the petals on the very right, half way down.

I think I mentioned last year, the biggest challenge to a successful Wisconsin garden has been the bugs. I would happily settle for Northwest slugs, at least you can see the nasty buggers before they eat the whole zuchinni. I'm gaining an extended midwest vocabulary - top of the list is a variety of BUG POISONS. I've always gone with organic deterrants, with good success in the Northwest insect skirmishes. But these guys are something else. They sip my old standby "Safers Insecticidal Soap" for breakfast, snack on Rotenone for lunch, and stand up on their hairy hind legs to see what's for dinner (besides the plant they have decimated). It's war, I'm tellin' you.
I did find a good organic spray that has a variety of essential oils that seems effective against a creature I don't even know the name of yet - and the spray is made in Port Orchard, WA, close to my old garden. It figures.


I mentioned the garden slaves. They finished the strawberry picking, after several hours in 90 degree high humidity. Their reward? Getting hosed. In the nicest possible way. COLD water.
Carrie doused herself, then took on the punks - they were begging for it. Poor little slaves.

One hour after this photo, when all the garden work was done for the day - the temperature dropped 20 degrees as a storm front blew in, and by dinner time it was thunder, lightening, and heavy rain. What they call a "doozy" around here.

At least I didn't have to water the garden.

Oh, brother...

Someday, in the distant nebulous future, these two will look back at this photo and recall the day they were best buds - well - that hour they were best buds. Umm - 90 seconds; that might be closer. Yah, that was about it. Immediately following the click of the camera, one shoved the other, and off they went...

The oats on the north (left) side, and the corn on the south (right) side keep the pursuit going in a straight line to the back forty. Max(yellow shirt) is running for his life, Jayden (red shirt) hot on his heels...
That little dude can make tracks! Jayden has slowed to a walk - that's the way it usually goes, Max just wears down the competition (or mom, or brother, or gramma, as the case may be...) and then turns it around by disarming the situation with his infectious laugh. Besides, he has the stamina of a rhinoceros.
I just don't know what to say about this one...every time I think of a possible caption, I look at the flower Lee is wearing, and the expression on his face, and give up.
Amanda does too. Give up. On brothers.
Good thing she loves them.

(We were working on achieving a photo session out by the old combine in the Back Forty Museum, a Family Portrait being the goal - more on that later...)

Help, help me, Rhonda (I know - that dates me)

Here are two of my most favorite people in the whole wide world. They enrich my life in so many ways. Most specifically, with a rowdy gang of grandkids :)
It's almost unfair to catch them in such an intriguing pose. What was she expressing?? Why is he so serious - or were there devious thoughts going on there??
And I'm almost afraid to ask about these smirky smiles....
But these photos surely need defining labels. Help me out here, folks, I'm brain dead this evening.
I'm curious what your first thought - idea - inspiration was when you scrolled down these photos.
Hmmm. I better get the punks in on this - their imagination knows no bounds...

Use your imagination...

Does this remind you of anything? Pink. Frosting. Come on, you know -

No? How about now...
I knew you could do it.

Regards,

Queen Frostina

Fourth of July - Oh My!

Picture in your mind a moist, densely textured, vanilla infused, cream colored, from-scratch cake

slathered with a thick (we're talkin' about an inch here) vanilla cream cheese butter frosting that actually doesn't need the cake - just a spoon - a BIG spoon...

decked out with fresh patriotic blue berries and tartly succulent raspberries...
and you may come close to what we scarfed up for dessert on the Fourth.
We made two. And quietly saved one in the frig for the Fifth.

Now that's MY kind of fireworks!

Farm Fresh

You won't find "Collin's Cluckers Eggs" in any store, or even online. They are only available fresh from the nest at two sites: the farm house or the cabin. Unless you are one of Collin's lucky customers - then those gorgeous double-size glossy brown eggs are delivered right to your home!
Collin reports that he loves to just hang out with the hens, that they are good entertainment. He enjoys the egg chores, too. We get a kick out of gathering the eggs in a wicker basket, makes us feel like real "farm folk"!
One of the popular features of Collin's service is that the eggs are dated on the day they are layed.

That is, if they pass the rigorous quality check.
Only then do the spotless eggs receive their mark of approval - the date.
Very few fail the quality test.

But there's a place for those rejects, too ---Farm Fresh Omelet.

Three eggs (started with two, until one of the eggs in process accidently got cracked) are fork-whipped with a tablespoon of water, then poured into a medium hot omelet pan with a teaspoon of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil, for those of you who don't watch Rachael Ray...)

As the eggs start to set, gently lift with the fork to let liquid egg run underneath. Continue the process until almost all egg is set. Leave some a little shiny, or the omelet will be too dry.
Sprinkle with snipped herbs fresh from the garden - lemon thyme, basil, garlic chives (chives don't overwhelm the other herb flavors as onion would), parsley. A tablespoon of grated cheese of choice completes the simple filling.
Fold over, and....
slid onto a prepared plate. Sprinkle with more fresh snipped herbs, and grated cheese. Viola'!
Garnished with the tips of garlic chives and a sprig of flowering thyme...
this was enough for Collin and me both - a tasty, quick and easy Farm Fresh dinner!
Now if you decide to come visit, just be warned, these omelets are always on the menu. You may be forced to eat them for breakfast - or lunch - or dinner. You may also have to eat a slice of toasted fresh Honey Wheat bread, with fresh strawberry jam - if you don't object, of course.

What's the point of having a farm if you can't boast of "Farm Fresh Food"? Now this is livin', folks!