Making yogurt:~day 23

Prior to the last couple weeks I’ve made yogurt a few times successfully and I even  posted a how-to last year.  I’ve also goofed making it on a handful of occasions.   It’s kind of like bread making.  You make a few good loaves and you get all cocky then you screw up a few and your back to being humble.

My friend recently shared how she makes it and I like her method best.  I have yet to screw it up!  I’ve been making it weekly for the past month from raw organic jersey milk.  One of my other friends delivers to me weekly.  How lucky am I?  Fresh, raw milk in a glass jug delivered to my house every week.  The milk is good for about a week and I usually try and make the yogurt with it just before it is about to turn but not always.

Initially I bought a small container of plain Greek yogurt for a starter. After the first time making yogurt I used the previous week’s yogurt as a starter.  I make a quart at a time but it would be easy enough to double the recipe if you wanted.

1. Bring 1 quart of milk to a gentle bubbling for approximately 10 minutes.
2. Turn off heat, let stand for a couple minutes.
3. Take out approximately 1 cup of warm liquid and place in jar of choice.
4. Add 2 Tablespoons of dry milk & 2 Tablespoons of yogurt.
5. Shake in jar.
6. 15 minutes later or so add remaining liquid to jar, shake, wrap in towel and place in dark area overnight.
7. Refrigerate in the morning.

THAT’S it!  This recipe is very forgiving so if you mess one step up it may still come out.  (I’m talking from experience here)  Last batch I flavored with vanilla extract and honey, next batch I plan to add maple syrup.

Give it a try, it beats buying it in the store and you know exactly what the ingredients are.

Wicked Easy Yogurt - day 4

This recipe comes from one of my co-workers. I will make it again for sure!

Supplies needed: 1 gallon of milk, 1 small plain Greek yogurt, cheesecloth (a fine strainer may do the trick)

• Pour milk in pot and heat to 190 degrees, whisk as heating.


• Cool to 120 degrees (I place the pot in a larger bowl with cool water running into the bowl until it reached temperature)


• Add yogurt


• Place in a container, then I put it in one of the kids insulated lunch boxes. My friend says she uses a cold/hot bag


• Place it in the oven overnight


• In the morning pour onto cheesecloth and let drain 2-4 hours


• Stir & refrigerate.

I typically do not care for plain yogurt but I liked this. Just had to add some granola to spice it up a bit. Next time around I may try to flavor it. Anyone have any experience with this? I could use a little direction. I am also curious as to how long it is good for?

Spring Fishing

What is a dad to do when he is home alone with his boy on a warm spring day? Updates

• Animals: Returned "Romeo" a boar we borrowed. He arrived on April 1st and returned home this past Sunday. We think he did his job, he at least gets an "A" for effort. We are hoping our two sows will be having piglets in July/August. Not ideal timing. Next time around we will plan for spring piglets rather then fall.
• We hope to get our electric fencing up within the next couple weeks and get some cattle out in the pasture.
• Broilers are really close to freezer camp. Maine Man has almost completed the plucker. He just needs to attach motor. Pictures and post to follow.
• We have babies! One of our does had a litter. Not sure how many? I'd say at least 4 by the picture. I did not want to disrupt them so I just put my camera in the hole of the box and snapped away until I caught a glimpse of them.
  

• Garden is coming along. We have lots more planting to be had over the next few weeks. The greenhouse is another project that needs to be done. Not sure when we will have the time. One of MM's buddies gave him plastic for it. Only problem is that it is 3 feet too short in width. Not sure what we are going to do with that. Too bad it wasn't too short in length instead. That would have been an easy fix.

• Food: I have been doing a little experimenting (imagine that!) with raw milk. This week I made butter for a first. Skimmed 1 gallon, end result about 2 tablespoons. It was very tasty. Note to self: don't bother unless you have a milking cow in your backyard an an abundance of cream. I also attempted to make yogurt. Bought the culture at the natural food store and incubated it using a crock pot with water. Did not come out very well. Consistency was good but it seemed a bit tart. Not sure what I did wrong. I never buy plain yogurt, just flavored so it could have been that? Will experiment again sometime!
• With some of that milk I had to use up I also made this grape nut pudding recipe. It is at the bottom of that post. MM ate it up in no time. If you are looking for a really good chocolate cake recipe with peanut butter frosting this is what I made for Leah's birthday. I made it for the first time last year for MM's birthday, it is now a family favorite!
• Leah has been cooking up a storm. She nearly killed me school vacation week. I think I gained 10lbs and had a bad case of dish pan hands. Damn I need a dish washer! It is the top of my I NEED list! This past weekend she made some really yummy peanut butter balls and she plans to post the recipe sometime soon on her blog.

• Community Treasure Chest aka the "tote" from here on out. That adventure has REALLY taken off. I started with one tote in circulation but others wanted to join along so I started a second. It has been SUCH A SUCCESS! My buddy Miki is starting a third except she is putting a little twist on it making it a couples tote. I have received great feedback from the members. Everyone so far has been happy with the goodies they have scored. SO VERY excited at the responses! I think I may have even inspired a women I work to put one together with some of her friends. If you haven't considered getting one of these started in your neck of the woods I suggest you get on it.

Necropsy Findings

"Oreo" Necropsy Findings
* Lots of abdominal fluid

* Rumen was absolutely FULL (impacted) with very dry feed material. Rumen papillae were bunted, which may be secondary to the impaction, but we also see this in animals that ingest "toxic" materials. (No evidence of this in Oreo)

* Bladder was completely distended & unable to be expressed (i.e he had a urinary blockage which we see commonly in male goats) This caused fluid backup into the kidneys leading to some kidney damage as well.

Conclusions

Oreo had evidence of both urinary blockage and an impacted rumen. We did not find any foreign objects that were obstructing passage of feed in the GI tract. We cannot conclude which one of these was primary & which one of these was secondary at this point (i.e. did he get the urinary blockage first which led him to feel bad, go off feed & become dehydrated leading to the impacted rumen OR did the rumen impaction happen first & then he acquired the urinary blockage secondary to too much grain since that's all he was eating when he was sick? As stated, we cannot conclude based on necropsy findings. Oreo did not show signs of urinary blockage when we saw him last week, did he show any signs of straining at home? Also, unfortunately, we were unable to see the bladder on the x-rays we took because the rumen was so big it covered the whole abdomen.
Hope this provides some answers. Sorry again about Oreo & sorry we cannot offer more conclusive reasoning for what happened. Please do not hesitate to call with any questions.

Click here if you want to see the pictures of the procedure but enter at your own risk as they are graphic. (the pictures are displayed backwards, no patience to fix..sorry)

Some my think why share this?
The reason I share this is for educational purposes.

I am devastated by his loss and feel responsible. In hindsight I look back at what should of or could have been done.

Oreo had intermittent symptoms prior to getting really sick. He was having intermittent bloating and some times inactivity. I did not see as much, the couple times it happened I was working and John had told me about it.

I think the Sunday before he died was when we knew for sure something was wrong. I then consulted with Amy and she gave me advice and called my breeder whom told me to use probios with a couple other recommendations. Not having any probios on hand I used yogurt instead. We did that for a couple days and he only seemed to be getting worse. John called me at work on Tuesday of last week and said that he had taken a turn for the worst (in the necropsy report she wrote last week but he really had been seen 3 days prior to the day he died). While at worked I called around and spoke to a farm Vet and he was a bit of a pessimist and kinda scared me off but I do recall one thing he said "with a male goat you always have to rule out a stone" regardless of of me trying to convince him that he had a blockage of his GI track.
I called by breeder once again and she recommended a Vet that she has used for her goats. I called made him an appointment and begged John to bring him in. They x-ray'd him finding the rumen impacted and put in a g-tube and mineral oil and off they went. Again the next day I was working a 12 H shift. John diligently cared for him. That next morning I spoke with the vet and we scheduled the surgery for the next morning. The night before surgery I went out to check on him and he was unable to get up and was blatting. I got him up and started rubbing his belly and walking him and he seemed to improve. Regardless I called the vet as I could see his condition had deteriorated. His breathing was rapid for a few days and I mentioned it to everyone I spoke with. The vets thought it was from the pressure on the diaphragm which I am sure is accurate but he was heading into respiratory failure and died a couple hours after I dropped him off for surgery Friday, just before they were going to administer anesthesia is what I was told.

What should/could I have done differently?

Given him probios. I think it was good to start with the yogurt but I should have went to the feed store to pick that up right away.

I wished I was home on the days he was really sick, maybe I could/would have advocated more.
Maybe I would have more time to research, figure out what was going on.

He was straining but we thought it was to poop because after he did he always pooped a bit, I'm not sure if John mentioned it.

I should have listened to the key words that vet gave me over the phone, "with a male goat you always have to rule out a stone". If it would have stuck in my mind I would have had that ruled out. Kind of like a person with chest pain in the ED, we always rule out that it is not their heart.

Trapper Creek had made a comment that if calves "are removed to soon from their mothers, the rumen never does have a chance to develop properly, the proper enzymes they need for rumination just aren't present and they have a difficult time." I wonder if that is true for goats because we bottle fed our babies because I thought it would be "a good experience" for Luke and Leah. John thought I was nuts but went along (it's easier than resisting) but looking back he was right. God I hate it when I say that. :) To do again I would have let them stay with their Momma until they were weaned.

Live and Learn, right! That is what it is all about. We are new to farming and we will make many mistakes as long as long as we can learn from them and admit to them I guess that is all right.

Thanks to all my fellow bloggers for all of your support. Thanks to Amy who contacted me right away after reading my comment asking for her advice. BIG thanks to my breeder Melonie who has been an awesome resource as she always has been. Thanks for all your concerned phone calls and e-mails and thanks for giving us a break on Smores (pictures to come). He really helped Annabelle, Luke, and I deal better with this sad event. Lastly, a thanks to My Maine Man for all the time and effort he applied to save that little buggers life despite his supposed dislike of goats. :)

RIP Oreo!

Independence Days Challenge - Week 15

Plant something: I have started onions, broccoli, kale (1st time growing), cauliflower, peppers, lupines (from saved seeds), red & green cabbage. As soon as I complete this post I am off to plant more.

Harvest something: Cilantro & dill will be harvested by the end of the week. Sap is flowing from the maple trees.

Store Something: barley, spices, really nothing to speak of. Today I plan to make up some pizza dough and freeze several batches.


Manage Reserves: Consolidated everything into one freezer. A couple times a week I go "freezer shopping". Sure beats going to the grocery store but we are still very dependent on that.

Cook something new: Nothing nutritious but fun to make. Last night Luke & I made Stickjaw For Talkative Parents from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He brought the recipe home from school yesterday.


Here is the recipe if anyone wants to do with your kids or grandchildren.


Supplies: piping bag with nozzle

baking sheet lined with baking parchment

2 egg whites

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 pkg. toffee or carmel candy

food coloring (optional)


1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees

2. Whisk the egg whites and salt together

3. Gradually whisk in the sugar until the meringue mixture is very stiff and shiny.

4. Spoon the meringue mixture into the piping bag (with nozzle in place)

5. Pipe a little meringue onto the lined sheet. Rest a candy on top and cover completely with more meringue. (method is to pipe like you were putting soft serve ice cream onto a cone... that circular motion)

6. Bake for 1 hour or until dry and crisp. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

*We added green food coloring to spice things up for St. Patty's day.

This week I also made a new blueberry muffin recipe that was very tasty. It called for lemon yogurt and I only had plain so I added a dash of lemon extract.


I am interested in hearing from others on how they cook with barley. This grain is something I have not used much except in soups.

Reduce Wastes: I dropped my old square Nokia cell phone in the dish water a few days ago and I was sure it was ruined. I placed it in a bag of rice (MM's idea, he's such a smarty pants) and 2 days later my phone was fully functioning. We also recycled a cell phone given to me by my buddy Mary. MM now has a phone that works all the time and it holds a charge longer that 5 minutes. I could not tell you the last time I renewed my cell phone plan. It drives Mary nuts that I do not renew and get new phones. For me it is not all about the money although I try to be a conscious spender. It is more about using things up until there nonfunctional.

Learn a new skill: Not sure if this is a skill but we learned how to tap Maple trees. This weekend we will boil it all down and learn to make sap. Here is one of the websites I used as a reference it anyone is interested. I am keeping a tally of the sap we gather on the side bar under my harvest keeper. We will see how much syrup we get in the end. Hopefully enough for a pancake breakfast. The ratio is something like 40 gallons of sap = 1 gallon of syrup. We are obviously not doing this for the quantity but for the experience.

I also have bought the supplies (camouflage fabric) to make these blinds for Luke's room. I found the link posted at Like Merchant Ships. If you are interested in frugal living & creative ideas this is a blog you must visit.

Work on community food security: I am planting, planting...running out of space. Very excited for this years garden. I just signed up to be a part of a forum based out of Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association called Eat Maine Foods.

Regenerate what is lost: There is very little food waste in the house between rabbits, chickens, pigs, and dogs. I do not even have scraps for my compost pile anymore :(

Not sure which category this may fall under but recently a made a window cleaner that I finally like.

1 cup water

1 cup rubbing alcohol

dash orange essetial oil, dash orange coloring

Tid Bits

Kiddos started school last week. Exciting for them and us.

This hen escapes from her pen every morning and heads for the barn to lay and egg at the top of our sawdust pile.

The turkeys are free ranging for now and enjoying the final days here on the farm.

I have dehydrated a couple batches of tomatoes so I will be looking for some recipes come fall.

Our goat Oreo has been very sick with what I initially thought was bloat. I was treating him with pepto, and belly massage as suggested by my breeder. At first he was more active and the girth of his abdomen seemed to go down. Yesterday he took a turn for the worse and John called me at work. I called a local vet that was willing to take a look at him, with some resistence John brought him in. (remember he is real frugal and the thought of spending money on a "farm animal" nearly sent him over the edge) Oreo was found to have what they believe is an impacted rumen. They took an x-ray, placed an oral tube and gave him some mineral oil which we are to continuing to do and if it does not resolve the only other option is surgery which they say does not have a good success rate. Oreo is Luke's goat and his cat Annie was hit by a car last week. :( I guess that is how it is on a farm. There is life and there is death. We are hoping for the best but it is not looking good. Thanks to Amy whom gave me advice and suggested the mineral oil, and yogurt, you were right on!

Priorities constantly shifting….

I am constantly re-evaluating what is important to me in my life.  As I do chores I have lots of time to reflect upon what makes me happy and what does not.  When we first started this journey I wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible.  Over time I have realized how much time and effort this truly takes.  I have since taken the attitude that I will do what I can and I will outsource what I cannot.  In reality some times it is less expensive to do that and there is no denying that it is not so labor intensive.

This year I am not so into milking….just not feeling it!  Don’t get me wrong I love the act of milking.  It is meditative and rhythmic in nature allowing me time to pause and use all of my senses.  But caring for milking goats is time consuming and with the amount of goats I have not an inexpensive adventure.  Regardless, the number one reason why I have decided to only milk for a few weeks this summer is because it is nearly impossible to leave the farm for more then a day when you have a dairy animal.  There are very few people in this day and age that know how to milk and only a handful willing to learn.  It is a fairly easy task once you’ve practiced a few times but it does take a little skill and forearm power. 

 

Flower Girl and I milked two of our dairy goats for the first time last night in the rain.  We took a few pictures on my phone but the quality was marginal.  We will milk for the next couple weeks and freeze the milk in hopes to be make lots of soap for the Common Ground Fair this fall.  FG has yet to hear back if she and her brother’s applications have been accepted.  Until then we will think positively.

 

As far as drinking and cooking milk…. well I must confess I have been SPOILED with fresh raw organic Jersey milk that is delivered to my house in a glass jar weekly at a cost of $4.50/gallon since last summer.  If I feel ambitious and want to make cheese or something I just order more.  We are not big milk drinkers so some weeks I have leftovers and I make yogurt with it.  Now I want a dairy cow…lol.  Not now but maybe someday!

 

 

So with that said I have 2 of my dairy goats out on borrow for the summer.  They are at a friends farm that I know will take good care of them.  My other two does will also go out on borrow soon.  It would have been a shame to dry them up when I knew people wanted to milk for the summer.  The only goats that will be on the farm this summer are Dolly my Alpine goat and Johnny my naughty billy goat.  I would love to think I could put them in with the cows but I am not sure how that will work out.  Time will tell!

On a final note in follow-up to posting from my phone.  It works but is best for very brief posts.  The image quality is not even comparable to my Canon but I still think I will use it from time to time to share brief tidbits of the madness.

Praying for sunshine!!!  We were on vacation this week and it has been raining nearly non-stop since last Sunday.  Thankfully we went camping last weekend instead of Memorial weekend.  I have not finished or started any of my planned outside projects: plant the garden, open the pool, and clean the outhouse.  I have mostly cooked and cleaned.  My house is cleaner then I care to admit.  I’m even caught up on folding laundry which only occurs about once a year here.  Cheers to brighter days ahead!

Happy New Year - day 1

It is hard to believe another year has passed us by. When we are young the time doesn't seem to go fast enough and as we get older the years seem to fly right by, funny how that is. Not much for resolutions here...same old, loose a few pounds and such. Each year I like to pick a theme and stick with it. 2 years ago I proclaimed that it would be the year of the berry. We planted strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries that year. Last year the theme was bread and even though it took me until November to get a grip on it I did it. Found a recipe that was easy to make and now we have homemade bread readily available. This year I will be the Year of the BEE. Will see if my dreams come true....they usually do if I wish hard enough;) In addition to that I will be writing about my experiences with making gelato, yogurt, and feta cheese, and soap just as soon as I attempt it. Before you know it the greenhouse will be in full swing. We've already talked about starting some seedlings inside. Cheers to a New Year filled with new adventures.

Keep Growing

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One of the best parts of having a garden is in the midst of preparing lunch you can run and grab something to add to your meal. This morning before heading out the door I ran out and picked a dozen raspberries to add to my yogurt. Gardening is just plain old good for your mind, body, and soul!....Just saying ♥

To the OR he goes

Oreo loves yogurt, good thing because that is all he has been able to eat the last few days except a little hay.

See how bloated he is.

Our treatments are not working so there are 2 options and we have choose to try and save this little bugger. He is heading to the OR in the morning for a rumenotomy
The kids and I will be having a lawn sale and hopefully I can talk then into selling their chinchillas (that they rarely pay attention to) and I have a bunk bed to sell to help fund this madness.
The estimation is $300. Hopefully I will have pictures to follow. I am going to see if they will take some pictures in the OR, doesn't hurt to ask right?
STAY TUNED!

Savoring the Moment

Maine Man & I were off today and the kids were in school. Unusual occurrence here on the homestead. He planned to go out back and gather wood since we only have a weeks worth left. We have burned about 7 cord this season. In my mind I was reviewing the endless list of things I could do then decided to go along. I find that sometimes you just have to say hell with it, "it can wait". It all to easy to get caught up in the routines of life.
That is something I love about the kids! Their spontaneousness (I'd say I just made that word up because spell check is not finding it) , their ability to completely change my focus for the day. They do that too me on a routine basis. I never regret it!

Any how, we gathered some wood then went for a walk on the trail.

There is still lots of snow but regardless it was a gorgeous day.



Even Callie thought so. She loves going out back. The minute she has the slightest idea we are going out back she goes ABSOLUTELY mental until you hit the trail.

We gathered bows for the goats to munch on.

MM stacks the down brush to help house the wild critters (rabbits) in the long Maine winters.

Even though the snow has been melting slowly and most days have been cool. The preparations of Spring are still underway. I planted green peppers and cauliflower and plan to start more seeds over the weekend. A green house is in our future....post to come. We have lots of peeping chicks and ducklings in our wood room. We sold all but the 20 chicks (rhode island reds) we are keeping and 10 ducklings(khaki campbells). MM always orders by th 100...uggg. I SO want an incubator but I also long for a new camera, pressure canner, and a dishwasher. That is my WANT list for 2009.

On Sunday we are going to tap our two maple trees. I look forward to that adventure. Another first! On a final note I am dreaming of finding a local source of raw milk so I can give homemade butter making a try. Then maybe I'll progress to yogurt and/or cheese making. Maine Man grew up drinking raw milk. I have never even sampled it.

Nature’s Goodness

Over 4 gallons of maple syrup put up for our consumption during the coming year.  Pancakes, waffles, warmed over ice cream, in smoothies, homemade pop, drizzled over yogurt or by the spoonful.

For my foodie friends that use cheesecloth right steady and are tired of buying it.  I recently discovered this washable filter material at the natural food store. It washes up easily and it is heat tolerant too.  It cost about $2.50 and I’ve already used it many times…for broth, syrup, and cheese making.  I wish I knew about this stuff long ago but I’m happy to have discovered it!

Jeb, our pesky pup.  He went out on his first hike last night with me a CB.  He walked 2.75 miles of our 3 mile hike. He’s definitely a keeper!