Holy Goat's Milk Butter, Batman!!

My Nigerian Dwarf goats make the creamiest milk on the planet.  From one quart of milk, depending on their stage of lactation, I get 1/4 - 1/2 cup of cream or more.  Late into their lactation it is MUCH more, but I can find many things to do with what they give me now.  Lately, whenever I make a hard cheese, which uses 3-4 gallons of milk, I skim off some of the cream that has settled into the top of the jars.  I've been saving the cream for making caramels, but it's more than I need for the little candy business.  

So, I decided to finally make butter with a pint of cream!!!  Honestly, I don't know why I haven't done this before, since I've been milking Nigerians for the past 6 years.  Butter-making always seemed beyond reach for some reason, too much work or not enough equipment.  After watching a YouTube video about it [blush], I was confident enough to try.  In summary, I was blown away by how easy it was to make butter and how amazing the final product tasted.  

Before drinking your lovely goat's milk, be brave (like Batman) and scoop the cream off of the top.  Milk that has rested in the refrigerator for at least 6 days (up to 10 days) has the most cream.  Transfer 1 pt of cream into a clean quart jar with a tight lid.  Then, shake, shake, shake!!  In about 10 minutes you'll get to whipped cream, which is SO yummy.  Keep going, and viola you have a clump of early butter and some liquid whey.  Don't be confused, this is NOT buttermilk.  True buttermilk is a product of fermentation.

 

 

Once you have a nice clump of butterfat, pour off the liquid and rinse the butter in cold water several times.

Transfer the butter into a small covered dish, pressing out as much liquid as possible.  Then salt to taste and store in the refrigerator.

This will keep a surprisingly long time, but I expect you'll eat it before then.  Serve it on fresh bread, fry veggies in it, make cookies or candy.  It is delicious in every way.

New View

We are moving to a greener sun-filled small acreage with a view and better schools for our children.  I haven't bothered sharing pictures of the house because it's filled with mold, rotten foundation, windows and walls that need replacing.  It is also half our current living space.  Aside from that, we love it.  I've said it before and will repeat once more, I'd rather live in a shit-box with a view than be restricted by taxes, shade or soil.  We spend so much of our time out-of-doors that occupying and heating a large space becomes silly and ecologically ill-founded.  This property has excellent potential for gardening and solar power, meanwhile our savings will go to purchasing a boat for fishing Lake Champlain.  My winter down-time will be put to good use scrubbing mold, replacing wood, learning drywall basics, building a NEW goat house, and planning an orchard and garden.  I keep telling myself that I can do anything I put my mind to and this project home will be what we make of it for better or worse. 

Meanwhile, the view from a short bicycle ride to the local winery and town beach have me swimming in dreams of retirement.  If I can put homegrown food on the table each night, we could do this earlier than anticipated.

YOU can expect new posts addressing gardening in shade/sand compared to sun/clay, as well as keeping meat critters (rabbit vs chicken) and miniature dairy goats in small suburban locations.

Guest Blogger Postings

The newly established Vermont Farm and Garden Exchange has been a wonderful source of information and opportunities to barter farm items, but most of all it has introduced me to extremely generous folks with interests similar to my own.  Every locality should have such a dependable resource and connection to their community such as this, in my opinion.  Being graciously offered the opportunity to contribute to their blog forum, I have written two posts, which I will reference (and provide links) here instead of repeating the information.  The first was an introductory approach to making a soft cheese from fresh goat's milk entitled "Easy Home Cheesy" and the second, a cursory guide to processing acorns for human consumption named "Robbing Squirrels".  I hope you will enjoy them both.

I have many posts to contribute to my own blog.  At the moment, however, the time dedicated to actually tending a farm is keeping me off the computer, temporarily.

Busy Days

May is turning into a blur.  We have been that busy.  I admit there is something addictive to accomplishing an overfull workload in a short amount of time.  I can only conclude that there is some evolutionary advantage to multitasking the day away that fuels our innate urge to do more.  It may be best described as squirrel-like behavior, darting frantically across an expanse furrowing nuts so quickly away that one has little chance to eat.  I am certain that it is genetic, if not contagious.  My sister exhibits this phenotype, working full time at a high-stress job with three young kids in sports while running marathons on the weekend.  I spin my wheels in other ways, but come nowhere close to her beloved insanity.

This month began with sending the goat kids to new happy homes, which meant weaning, deworming, hoof trimming, shots and demonstrations to new owners.  Last week we added two new goats to the herd, a yearling doe from remarkable milk lines and a week-old buckling with even better potential.  It's good to add some genetic diversity every year.  I have no interest nor enough knowledge to begin line-breeding (inbreeding) our animals.  We want to improve our foundation herd by breeding to the best dairy quality animals that we can afford.  Of course that sounds like an advertising line, but I want to be a responsible breeder with an eye on conformation and dairy potential.  I want our girls to have what it takes to win in the show ring, if my daughters ever chose to exhibit with 4-H.

We will pick up our piglets this week.  Of course, there's much work that still needs to be done before then.  I converted our old milking stand (formerly a failed garden cart) into a crate to transport the piggies.  Today, I will finish installing their electric fence and get the food/water stations ready.  The orchards in our area have apple pumice for the taking, so I'll plan a dumpster dive adventure for the two little boars.  As a heritage cross of Tamworth/Berkshire/Old Spot, they will grow until slaughter in November.  I have 4 gallons of whey waiting for their arrival and at least three households worth of compostables.  Any volunteer pumpkin or mystery squash plants get transplanted in the piggie patch for fall eating.  Having the pigs will also push me to set aside time for more homebrewing, since any spent grain will find its way into their slop trough.  

Every two or three days, we spend the morning hours making a hard cheese.  My goal is to put up 24 2.5 kilo rounds of Gouda for our annual consumption.  We really cannot eat any more than this without damaging arteries.  We've been dairying for two months and with seven 3 lb wheels of cheese, I'm already a third of the way to this goal.  Any excess cheese will be used to barter for other edibles we've either run out of or would like to have.  We have exchanged cheese for perennial starts of sunchokes, horseradish, rhubarb, pickles, garlic, and a half pint of cassis, which went entirely too fast. 

In the meantime, we have also achieved two long-term goals by starting an outdoor mushroom patch and fishing Lake Champlain from a boat.  I'll post some other time about the mushrooms, if any chance to grow.  Taking the girls (4.5 and 1.5 yrs old) fishing in a canoe was a better adventure and provided a solid dinner of yellow perch.  It would have made my father smile, I think.    
   

Sugarin'

Last fall, we found a homemade hobby maple syrup evaporator for sale just down the street from us.  It was a great craigslist find and the seller even delivered it for us.  Excitement aside, there are a few issues with this setup.  First, the built in thermometer is at an improper height to be functional, which is not a big deal except that we don't have another that is long enough to reach into the sap with the dial out of the steam.  The steam that comes off a good boil is impossible to see through, so a temperature reading is very important to make sure the sap is not about to burn.  Then the welded baffles that serve to increase heating surface area do not meet up well with the curved pan, creating a space that is impossible to clean (old toothbrush and much cussing).  Finally, the flue pipe could use some added length.  I managed to melt the edge of my polycarbonate roofing on our first boil...whoops.

However, it is just the right size for 20-30 taps and was a very modest investment.  We don't have enough trees to justify several thousand dollars of start-up cost, especially if we decide that it's no longer enjoyable.  So far, it has been a big treat from the open-fire boil we employed last year with one of my cooking pots that is still blackened.

We had five gallons of sap to try out this evaporator on the second weekend of February.  Last year, we hadn't placed any taps until the end of the month.  The weather has been unpredictable to say the least.  Recently, the temps have either been too cold during the daytime or above freezing overnight.  Sap won't run without a good freeze a night and near 40 degrees during the day.  Collecting sap is a breeze without the usual three feet of snow, so we have placed more taps than we originally planned.   It's great exercise with a toddler on my back.  Maybe that will burn off the calories consumed in maple syrup covered pancakes every Saturday from now on.  

Milking room converted to sugar shed.

Morel Luck!

We were out in the woods again, spending a fantastic mosquito-free 70-degree day, to remove downed trees from our trails. It appears, the old aspen/poplar trees that filled our lot after the logging days have reached their mature age and are dropping quite regularly. This means we will soon have a stellar view of the river to the north, but the number of falling trees is a bit scary and has to be dealt with in some way. Novice chainsaw homeowners have arrived! My husband and I tag-teamed the kiddos and trees, with him stepping aside so I could wield the saw on Mother's Day. The gas fumes got to me after a bit and I yielded power. Having spent a few hours Saturday burning a huge pile of tree brush (our neighbors love us!), I didn't need my head swimming any more from asphyxiation. Just as I was finishing up, my 3 yr old was ambling down our long trail to bring me water when she spotted and picked our very first morel very much by accident.

I've spent the last two days of down time looking for more mushrooms, but have not had any luck. Wandering aimlessly about the woods with my eyes tired from focusing intently on the camouflage of leaves, I've a renewed appreciation for the efforts our forebears made to domesticate crops. Foraging for food would make for a difficult existence, indeed. This little treasure was sliced thin, fried in butter and divided three ways. Delicious and memorable!

Tap, tap, tap

After three years of deliberation, we've finally put in our first maple taps. It was a family affair with the baby in a front carrier and the three-year old eating snow. My husband and I did a dance around who would use the battery-powered drill. It was a freebie from my folks, so technically it's mine and I've used it more than him since most of the buildings were my projects. However, after two days of charging, the battery will last for about 10 min. So I didn't want to be holding it when the drill wound down to a low squeal of exaust. I'd rather it petered out in his hand because, frankly, I would have pitched it in the snow in frustration and we wouldn't see it again until late May. Neither of us wanted to do it wrong and be blamed later for our failings. We did our usual thing and shared responsibility. I did the first tree and he got to finish up with the last two. This way, I could blaze the path to my liking and not be holding the drill when it died, and he could follow example thus escaping blame. We've always spit things right down the middle. Every relationship has it's own comfortable nuances.

I marked the sizable maples in our back lot two years ago, in the fall when the leaves were blazing red. Last year, I collected plastic jugs from our apple cider purchases and looked into getting a large stainless steel kitchen pan for the evaporation step. We haven't yet found a pan for boiling outdoors. But I figure that we probably steam off a gallon of water a day on the woodstove and it's still dry indoors, so why not put sap in the pot. It never boils, but there's definitely evaporation going on. It's worth a try. With only three taps we have the potential to get three quarts of syrup at the end of 6 weeks, which in our area costs about $30. Daily collections in knee deep snow is great exercise. So I should be in excellent shape after six weeks AND have three lovely quarts of the "liquid gold" for FREE. In all seriousness, life really doesn't get much better.

Inexpensive Improvements

Some of my earliest memories are of walking the grounds at public estate auctions and begging my parents for a hot dog from the vendor wagon. Mom and Dad have an appreciation for antiques, although I think their unwaverable thrift was what beckoned them to these events. They filled our childhood home with beautiful old furniture that, as my mom would say, told loving stories of other people in different times. I attented my last auction right before leaving for college. My mother let me bid on a $20 curved leather-inlaid coffee table that I have since carted up innumerable stairs to dorm rooms and later into apartments. It has suffered scratches and dings over the years, but looks graceful in the living room of our home aside some of my parent's favorite antiques.


My best garage sale find was a $2 Hamilton Beach coffee maker that I bought more than 15 years ago and we use to this day. Since discovering Craigslist four years ago, we have made a very deliberate effort to reuse items people don't want or need before buying them new. I recently found my favorite pair of jeans at a consignment store for $4. The front button was missing, but this just gave me an excuse to wear a belt. Great finds are easy to come by when you live near a college town. Students rarely have the time or inclination to barter when they are moving, both literally and metaphorically through a turbulant period in their lives. I've also found great recycled building materials for our goat shed at a downtown shop devoted to reselling deconstruction salvage (two wood frame windows for $5). This hasn't always been convenient, but overall it has been a good experience dealing with sellers in our area. We have bought furniture, baby items and, most recently, a few things for our farm.





Several years ago, we assembled a seed-starting rack from used components. I bought each 6' stainless steel rack, with four shelves, for $25 from a local catholic church. The shelving had previously been used by nuns for storing their canned preserves. They only needed to be cleaned. We use one for books and two others for tools in the garage. The fluorescent light fixtures and bulbs are in rough shape, but they were free from my farm internship.




About two weeks ago, I found a very old and still functioning dorm refridgerator for $40. It will make an excellent cheese aging cave. This was so much more exciting for me than it really should have been. My guess is that it works better and lasts longer than anything I could have bought new.