Fermentation experiment, cheese making, chicks...

As promised, here's the follow-up post on my carrot experiment.

I found a recipe on fermented dilly carrots I thought sounded good.  Here's the link. Dilly carrots   I cleaned & sliced up 2 pounds of carrots.   I added the dill, garlic and brine.  Not difficult by any means.  The jars are now sitting in an out of the way, dark place.

Dilly carrots with pickle puck & pickle pipe in use.

A friend shared the name of a local dairy farmer who sells raw milk.  Hurray!  Andy Birdsell has been a dairy farmer most of his life. Joshua & I took a trip over to his place & got 3 gallons of milk.  $12.  Not bad for raw milk.  Friend Gena Stout took 3 half-gallons jugs, leaving me with 3.  So, I made some creme cheese.

I like making cheese.  It's not difficult & it tastes great.  I know I've discussed making cheese before.  I've discussed making Feta and Ricotta.  Here's some images from yesterday's session.

Bringing the milk up to temperature

The required culture

Here's how the curds looked after setting at room temperature for 12 hours

Suspending the curd to drain the whey

While the curd is draining, I had to decide what I wanted to make with the whey.  I usually use it to bake bread.  I wanted to make something different.  So today I chose to bake a cake.  I found the recipe on Pinterest. Farmhouse buttermilk cake recipe   King Arthur Flour is one of my favorites brands. I can always find that special item I'm looking for in their catalog.  And I buy their flour for my regular use.

I substituted whey for buttermilk.  Otherwise, this is the recipe I used.

Friends Karna & Gena & I have been dyeing lately.  Mostly indigo dyeing & shibori for them, hand-dyed skeins for me.  Gena will be making a presentation on natural dyeing for the Master Gardeners.  We had a good time taking pictures & dyeing skeins for that event.

Skeins just out of the dye pot are green. 

Skeins turn blue with exposure to oxygen

Indigo & cochinal dye pot

Our source materials

 Three weeks ago, I set the incubator up. I loaded in 30 eggs.  Over the past few days, chicks have been hatching out.  There are 10 little fluff balls running around in the brooder.

Summer is here!

Well, summer is finally here.  We've been having hot weather this past week.  The high's have been in the mid to upper 90's.  It was 98 at one point in the day yesterday.  That makes for a lot of sweating!

John, Joshua and I spent some time talking with Ariel yesterday.  We all went out in the driveway and demonstrated many ways to actually start a fire.  She's 10 years old now, old enough to learn how to handle a lighter or matches safely.  She learned how to stack her tinder.  How to feed a fire.  How to restart a fire.  Build a fire bundle to take somewhere with her.  And most importantly, how to put a fire out.  We also made sure she understood that she should NEVER leave a fire unattended in the dry woods at this time of year.  Running for your life from a forest fire is horrifying!

I recently finished a crocheted baby blanket for my youngest niece, Felicia.  Her baby's due in September.  I made it from 100% pima cotton.  It washed up nicely, and should last the baby many years.

Crocheted baby blanket

I used Knit Pick's Crayon yarn.  It's a great yarn!  Too bad it's discontinued.  Oh well.  I have a pretty good stash of it, so I can use it for some time to come.

I've been teaching Ariel some baking skills.  We've made soft pretzels, strawberry shortcake, made some ricotta cheese and then baked whey bread and cinnamon rolls with the whey.  She's really liked them all so far.

We bought some fresh, dressed rabbit from a local lady on Tuesday and I made some fried rabbit.  Leftovers went into rabbit stew the following day.  Both were very yummy.  We still have another rabbit to cook and I think I'll try some hasenpfeffer.  Hasenpfeffer.

All the chicks that hatched 2 months ago have gone to their new homes.  We still have 2 bantam chicks and 3 week old RIR chicks.  Very cute, all of them.

Rhode Island Red chicks

Bantam chicks

Cheese and other things...

Our friend, Michelle, came and visited for a few days this past week.  That's why I haven't done any blogging...  I was busy with other things.

The chicks are 2 weeks old now.  They're doing very well.  One is a lot smaller than the rest, but I think it will catch up in good time.  I have no idea if it's the one who was hatched last or not.  I could just be smaller.  Not every Rhode Island Red is as big as other's.  That's just the way it is.  But, they're all healthy.  They have their flight feathers on and are starting to get tail feathers.  They look kinda awkward at this stage.

The weather has been stormy.  We got 8.5 inches of rain over the past week.  Which is good, because that means we're out of that awful drought from last year.  It's not good because some of the bigger local rivers are above flood stage.  My friends, Gena and Kevin live right on the Spring River.  So far their safe and sound.

Michelle and I took a long walk down to the NW corner of our property.  There's a 3-season spring there and we decided to see if we could build up some small pools and have some deeper spots.  I'm hoping I can modify it somewhat and put a few small fish in there.  If I can get it to remain wet all year round, maybe I can turn it into a nice natural pool or something.  I'm researching how exactly to do that without hiring a backhoe.  In other words, I want to do it myself.  Naturally.  Without making a huge impact on the natural setting.  I'll have to take the camera down there with me and document my progress.

When we were looking for property we wanted a place that was wooded, away from the main road, without neighbors and with running water.  This lovely place met all but the last criteria.  Now, it seems there IS running water for 3 seasons.  We didn't realize the stream/creek was ON our property until we had the land surveyed.  Now I know for sure that there IS a spring down there (at least when it's the "wet" season).  We know there are fish in the stream further down on the neighbor's property.  So, if it runs enough that fish are on their property, maybe I can make it so there are fish on OUR property.  I'd really like that.

Michelle and I decided to do some cheese making on Friday.  We made mozzarella.  We tried making ricotta too, but the recipe we used for the mozzarella used up all the milk fat, so the ricotta didn't turn out.  Oh well.

Michelle's husband Jerry works for the State Park system at Powhatan State Park.   Check out their web site. Powhatan State Park

Playing with fermentation

Yesterday, our friends Jim and Beth Saxe brought us some "fresh from the cow" whole milk.  Man, I'm excited.  So, I decided to spend the day making "fermented" food.

You see, my friend Gena Stout brought me a kombucha "mother" last week.  And it's been fermenting for the past 8 days, so it's time to remove some of the liquid and refresh it.

OK first to the milk.  I'm going to make it into cheese.  I usually get my milk from my friend JoAnn McElderly.  But she has a large family and so I've kinda been squeezed out.  So when Beth offered to pick up my jug and bring me some milk I was very enthusiastic!  Yes Yes Yes!

I usually make a batch of mozzarella cheese, then process it a second time and make ricotta.  The left over whey goes into a batch of bread.

But today I decided to try a new recipe.  Feta is a cheese we really like, so I decided to try making it.

I get all my cheese making supplies from The New England Cheese Making Company.  Here's the link to their site.  New England Cheese Making Company

I decided to learn to make cheese after Gena came over one day and taught me how to make mozzarella and ricotta using the microwave.  That was a fun day!  And boy that cheese is tasty!  That's when I decided to get my own cheese making supplies and some books.  I started with the Complete Home Cheese Making kit.  Complete Home Cheese Making Kit.  Don't forget to order red wax if you want to make some hard cheese.

Later, I also got the The Deluxe Goat Cheese Set Deluxe Goat Cheese Set.

The recipe I'm going to follow today for Feta is found on page 7 of their little handbook from the Home Cheese Making Kit.

Feta Cheese
1 gallon whole mike
1 packet Mesophilic direct set culture
1/2 rennet tablet crushed and dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water
Cheese salt for brine

I started by heating the milk slowly to 86F using the indirect heat method.

Heating the milk

I then added the started culture and stirred.  I kept the milk at this temperature for 1 hour.

The culture is very important.  Different cheese are the result of different cultures.  This direct set culture gives the milk the distinctive flavor associated with Feta cheese.  Having the right culture for the cheese you want to make is very important.  After making this batch of cheese, I need to order more of this particular culture.

While I was holding the milk and culture at 86F, I crushed my vegetable rennet tablet and dissolved it in water.  I only needed 1/2 a tablet.

Here it is, dissolved.














After an hour had passed, I added the rennet to the milk and allowed it to rest for another 1/2 hour.

Milk with culture and rennet resting at 86F

While the milk was resting, I started working with my kombucha.  I hadn't tried kombucha before.  Gena is a real fan of it, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Here's a Wikipedia article about kombucha.  Kombucha.

If you're interested in starting a kombucha culture and don't have a friend with some SCOBY to share, here's a site that can help you get started.  http://www.kombucha.org/

The SCOBY is the "mother", the culture.  SCOBY is an acronym for symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.  Again, here's the Wikipedia link.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOBY.

It doesn't look so bad...  Here's mine, after 8 days.

Kombucha with scoby on top

I simply used a ladle to remove most of the liquid, filtered it through a coffee filter and put it into a new jug.  I hope to invest in a ceramic crock with a tap so I won't have to use a ladle to get my daily dose.  But for now, this is the method I have to use.

The dark jug will help keep my tea fresh

I put a small piece of my scoby and a little liquid aside for another friend who wants to try it.

To add liquid to my culture, I simple made a new batch of sweet tea the way I always do.  Once it was cool, I poured it into my kombucha vessle.  Here's what my finished kombucha tea looked like.

Kombucha tea is slightly sour and fizzy

I still had to time to let my cheese rest, so I decided to make some pickled eggs.  My banty hen Pebbles has been laying up a storm!  I have 15 eggs from her and I'm not ready to incubate them... so pickled eggs it is!

To make pickled eggs, you start my hard boiling your eggs.

Then you have to put pickling spices in vinegar.  I got my recipe from an old cookbook I have from 1955 "The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook" by Ruth Berolzheimer.  The recipe I'm using is on page 307.

Pickled eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mixed spices
2 cups vinegar
12 - 16 eggs

Since Banty eggs are so much smaller, I added 6 large eggs from my Cochin chickens.

I used McCormick pickling spices.  I boiled the eggs for 15 minutes.  Then I drained them and then covered them with cold water.  I left these to set for about 1/2 hour while I went back to my cheese.

By now, my curd had formed and was nice and firm.  The curd is adequately firm when you see it separating from the edge of the vessel and when a finger inserted makes a clean break.  It looks like this.

Curd "breaks" when touched

I broke the curds up, then let is rest for 10 minutes.  While it was resting, I cracked my eggs and put them into the jars with vinegar and spices.  Here's the finished product.

Eggs in vinegar and spices

Now the jars go in the fridge for 7 - 10 days.  These eggs will keep for several months.  I could also heat the jars in a pressure cooker and seal them.  They'd stay good for several years that way.  But we eat our eggs much too quickly to bother with canning them.

Now, back to the cheese.  I gently stirred the curd and slowly raised the temperature to 96F.  I stirred it every 10 minutes or so.  The curd sinks to the bottom and the whey comes to the top.

Curd on the bottom, whey on the top

I lined a colander with cheese cloth and poured the curd into it.  The whey just filtered right through.  I want to make some bread using the whey, so I saved it.  Here's a picture of the curd draining.

And the whey collected at the bottom.

I transfered the curd to a fine mesh bag and hung it to drain.  I squeezed as much whey out as I could.

Curd draining

After it had drained for 45 minutes, I placed the entire bag into the brine solution.

Curd in brine

The brine is made from 1 1/4 pounds non-iodized salt (cheese salt) in 1/2 gallon cool water.  I also added 1 tsp calcium chloride and 2 1/2 teaspoons vinegar.  The cheese will remain in the brine for 12 hours.  It should be stored at 45 - 55F, and eaten within 10 days.

Now that I had my whey, I could start my bread.  The recipe I will be using comes from the New England Cheese Making Company brochure "Goat Cheese" on page 5.

Whey Bread

4 cups whey
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons bacon fat or tallow
1 1/2 tablespoons dry yeast
4 - 6 cups white flour
1 tablespoon salt

The whey was already warm.  I heated the honey and bacon fat until it was warm (about body temperature).  I added the yeast.

Bacon fat, honey and yeast

I added this to the whey.  I then added enough white flour to make it the consistency of honey.

The dough, ready to set aside

I took my thin dough, covered it with a towel and placed it near our wood fire.  Later this afternoon, I'll add the 4 cups flour and salt, knead it for 10 minutes... and bake it following the same procedures I did earlier this week when I baked bread.

I'll post pictures of the bread as it's rising and when it done.  That will probably be tomorrow morning.

Update 3/4/13

Here's the picture of the bread after it came out of the oven.  It tastes as good as it looks!