I rode on a tractor!!

Hello loyal blog readers! My apologies for not posting yesterday. You see, the internet connection that we have here is very unsteady, and it sadly went out yesterday. Its also out today but I am blogging from my phone (that's right, I couldn't bear letting you down two days in a row). It won't be long because my thumbs are already getting tired but I do have some things of import to update you on.

First, emily and I are making our first batch of goat cheese! Indeed, it is a fresh chevre (the soft, spreadable stuff you usually see in logs). After the goats were milked last night, we took that milk and had to get the temperature to 86. The milk was literally right out of the utter so it was WARMER than 86! Therefore we had to add cold milk to cool it down. At this point, we added the culture, stirred it, then let it sit overnight. This afternoon the curds and whey had separated, so we strained it through cheesecloth and hung it for about 8 hours, pressing it at the end to release the water. At first it had a yogurty consistency but now its quite dried out. There has to be about 3 lbs of cheese there. For the night we rolled it into a ball, put it in a bag and stored it in the fridge. But I think tomorrow we're gonna salt it and maybe add some herbs too. We'll see!

Its amazing to me how easy the process of making it is. Basically you need access to the raw goat's milk (admittedly difficult to find) and the culture (easy to find). The other work invovled is mostly just waiting and nursing every now and again. Who knew!

This week we're gonna work on a brie, and I'm pumped about that. Plus last week I'm not sure if I mentioned that we made goat yogurt, and some of it was too watery so we strained it and now we have what's like a sour cream with a goaty flavor. Wild, but tasty!

The other exciting thing I need to report is that I RODE ON A TRACTOR today!! That's right. City girl on tractor. It was a load of fun. We were using the tractor to transplant peppers. So, the tractor went along and made holes along a row, and we rode on chairs behind filling each hole with a mini plant.

What's nice is that I've now seen several stages of the growing process: planting, creating the beds, making the holes, transplanting, weeding, newspapering, and, of course, harvesting. We're supposed to get into irrigation pretty soon and I'd alsp like to learn how to make compost. Hopefully those are on the agenda.

I do have photos to go along with today's post, but since the internet is down I can't upload them. However, make a mental note to come back and look for the pix in a couple of days if you are interested!