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.