Thursday, July 8, 2010

cheese, hay and pictures

Yesterday I made some cheese, a different kind though - it's called Paneer. It is pretty close to how I make the vinegar/easy cheese, slightly different, but then you press it for an hour. You can see the recipe here. Instead of using books as the recipe shows, I used a 10 lb can (canned food). It isn't very flavorful, but it is yummy! I made one using lemon juice (as the recipe calls for), and then another one using apple cider vinegar (because one of my brothers does not handle lemon well). I might try regular white vinegar next time.


Things that have gone on the past few days are. . .

. . . making lots of pickles. . .

. . . zucchini marmalade. . .
this is really good, way better than I thought it would be.

. . . dozer rides. . .

. . . fireworks. . .
this was on the 4th.

and Rosie, when she was in the stall (she's out now) - her coat is so shiny!!

Just got another load of hay delivered! Need hay now, or have you thought about storing hay for winter?? We've got it here! Email or call (918-598-4007) for prices and pick-up times.

Have a good day,

Suriyah

18 comments:

Candi said...

Suriyah,
Do you all keep your bucks with the herd year round??
We just got a buck this year and right now he is separated from the does. I was wondering what you do.
BTW, Rosie looks GREAT!!

Linda Foley said...

So what do you feed Rosie that has her coat so shinny?

Good Goats said...

Patient Acres - no we do not keep the bucks with the does at all, never. Our bucks and does share a fence line, and so when a doe is in heat we can tell. If it is time for her to be bred, we bring the buck of choice out, let him do the deed and put him back.

Linda - well, Rosie gets what we feed everyone else which is a simple pelleted grain (14.5% protein/3% fat) - she gets 3 lbs a day total, pasture and alfalfa/orchard grass hay at least once a day. Feeding this way, our goats have done GREAT on it the past year (ever since switching to this hay).

Suriyah

Linda Foley said...

No loose minerals? What brand is the pelleted feed? (if you don't mind telling). Thanks

Good Goats said...

Sorry. . . yes they have loose minerals. We use Redmond, and copper boluse 2x a year.

The brand of the feed. . . well, we buy it in bulk from a local mill that is called Moore Farms. I don't think you could find it anywhere else than there though.

Candi said...

Ok, another question! Only this time it has to do with milk by-product:)
Have you ever made fruit flavored yogurt or Chevre with the goats milk??
I just made a batch of plain chevre and am looking for what to do with it:)

Good Goats said...

Never made Chevre, but my sister makes yogurt all the time and has made fruit flavors before. For one, she just put a spoonful of blueberry jam in it. Yum!

Experiment is the key, LOL :)!

We also make cream cheese. . . it is super easy and so good!

Linda Foley said...

I agree with GG... and I would add, goats milk can be used just like cows milk.

How do you make cream cheese? I LOVE cream cheese!

Good Goats said...

That last link didn't work.

http://thefamilyhomestead.com/
makecreamcheese.htm

Hopefully this does.

That is the recipe we use.

Linda Foley said...

The first link worked fine. Thank you!!! I have all the ingredients to make so will do so soon...

Candi said...

ok, Suriyah, maybe you or Linda can help me. Can I use cultured buttermilk instead of the mesophilic culture called for in the cream cheese?? If so how much?? I don't have the mesophilic on hand, but do have 1/2 gallon of buttermilk :)

Linda Foley said...

Patient Acres, she would know much more about it than myself, but the buttermilk was mentioned in the link she provided, it says it just takes longer. One thing I would like to mention is to make sure the buttermilk has 'live' cultures, just as when you purchase yogurt. Sometimes I have had a hard time finding the buttermilk with live cultures. If it doesn't say so on the label, I don't purchase it and use yogurt instead. But buttermilk may be what you have to use for the cream cheese. I personally have some Mesophilic-M in the freezer and some rennet. I would love to hear how yours turns out.

Candi said...

Linda,
I recently made cream cheese using fresh cows milk and cultured buttermilk. It turned out GREAT, but when I tried the same recipe on goat milk it didn't set up at all. The recipe was something like 1/2 gallon of raw milk & 1/2 cup of CBM. I figured cow's milk had something goat's milk didn't.
On another note, My buttermilk is fresh cow milk and BM culture from New England Cheese. I've used this for other goat milk cheese recipes (like chevre) and it worked, But I wasn't sure how to substitute it in a recipe that called for the 1/4 tsp. Mesophilic M culture.

Linda Foley said...

That is interesting PA ~ hopefully Suriyah can shed light on this...

Good Goats said...

Sorry for not getting back to ya'll sooner. . . haven't been on the computer.

Anyway, I have never used buttermilk in cheese recipes although in recipes that call for it, I have used the mesophilic culture instead of the buttermilk.

I read something somewhere, sometime (can't remember real well, LOL) that you do 1/4 cup buttermilk in place of the mesophilic culture (in 1 gallon of milk). Sorry I'm not much more help here!

Candi said...

Thanks Suriyah!
I'll try the 1/4 cup of BM this afternoon and let you all know.

Candi said...

I tried the cheese recipe using the 1/4 cup of cultured buttermilk and it came out as sour cream...It had to hang for 12 hours in case cloth to reach this consistency,though. So now instead of cream cheese for our bagels, we have sour cream for our baked potatoes :)

Good Goats said...

Well good, at least it's edible, LOL :)! Thanks for doing the experiment ;).