Just a Menu

Today's Menu:

Breakfast: Bacon, Over-Easy Eggs with Cheddar, Gogurt with Blueberries
Lunch: Mache Salad with Green Onions, Pecans, Grated Ricotta Salata, and Sweet Oil and Vinegar Dressing; Cod in Cream Sauce
Evening Snack: Leftovers - "Fried" Chicken Breasts, Cole Slaw, Green Beans, Dark Chocolate, and Wine

Ingredients in Today's Menu from Sweet Garden Farm: Eggs, Gogurt, Mache, Green Onions, Ricotta Salata, Cabbage, and Carrots

Goats in the Snow

Here are Tigger and Una during the height of the big snowstorm yesterday afternoon. When bad weather comes I close the roof on the little porch and one of the doors to the barn so the snow/rain doesn't get in. They do like to stand at the door and look out.

They are nice and cozy inside with their own water bucket, hay feeder, bench and lots of fresh straw. They also have their mineral feeder inside with them with free choice kelp and baking soda. They stayed in the barn all day yesterday, but finally came out today when Cousin Carrie dug paths for them to walk to the gate and to their cable spools. They're all set now, but they do seem a little unsure of all of this white stuff...

Fresh Cheese

I made three little fresh cheeses for our church's women's Christmas Party as shown in the picture. They did turn out especially nice. The one on the left is flavored with smoked paprika, the middle one is garlic and chives, and the one on the right is cracked pepper.

These were done with a basic soft cheese recipe: starter culture, rennet, setting overnight, draining for two days in molds, salted and aged for one day, then served. The smoked paprika and the garlic and chive cheeses both had the flavorings layered within the cheese, but the cracked pepper was just on the outside. They looked so pretty on the plate. It was fun!

And Then There Were Two - Good Bye PJ!

As I posted here back in July, PJ was loaned to me by a friend because I needed more milk. It was a perfect arrangement for both of us. However, my friend decided to sell PJ, and, although I think she is a great goat and I'm very fond of her, I did not want to buy her. She really didn't fit into my long term plans. So, I have returned PJ to my friend as PJ has been sold. I am back down to just Tigger and Una.

It seems so quiet in the barnyard. Most of the head butting was between Tigger and PJ. There's not much action between Tigger and Una as Una pretty much lets Tigger be Herd Queen without argument. Three goats just seemed much more like a herd.

My friend says she will loan me another goat next year after kidding, so that should work just fine. And, of course, I plan to keep two doelings from next year's kiddings (if I get two), but they won't give any milk until Spring of 2011.

I switched to 1x a day milking this past Wednesday, and totally stopped as of today, so no more milk until the end of March. I'll miss the milk and I'll miss milking the girls. I really do enjoy it, but I guess we all need the break.

Bye PJ, we all miss you! I sure hope your new owner is good to you!