Sweet Garden Petals

Tigger kidded a text-book perfect quad delivery on Sunday morning, three bucklings and one doeling. She did a great job and I'm so proud of her. I plan to keep the doeling, so, ladies and gentlemen, presenting "Sweet Garden Petals."

Petals was the smallest and the last to be born, so she was pretty stressed afterwards. She couldn't stand and it was difficult to get her to nurse at all.

After some expert advice, I gave her some extra selenium, a shot of nutri-drench, and started feeding 1 oz. every two hours. By the last feeding last night she was sucking down 2.5 oz. Today she has gotten increasingly strong, now able to walk around and is nursing very well from the bottle.

Petals will join Tigger and Una as a milk doe for me next year about this time if all goes well. It's certainly hard to imagine the sweet little thing actually giving birth like Tigger did on Sunday!

I was getting pretty concerned about her yesterday morning, but she is really thriving now!

Welcome to the world Miss Petals!

I love Turnips -- Who knew?

Eddie's uncle plants a large patch of turnips in the field behind our house every year. Since we built the root cellar last year, we decided we should really store up some turnips for the winter. So, my dad, Eddie's cousin Carrie, and I picked more than enough turnips to last us all through the winter and stored them in our root cellar.

I tried a simple saute with them, OK, but nothing great. Then I tried a turnip and apple saute, better. Next I found two other recipes, Turnip Supreme (turnips and cheese), and Glazed Turnips and Carrots... WOW! So good! The recipes both start the same way, then at the end you add either brown sugar or sour cream and cheese. Here's how it works:

Turnips Supreme or Glazed Turnips and Carrots
2 T butter
2-3 turnips, cut into small cubes
salt to taste
pepper to taste
3/4 c. chicken broth (bouillion works fine)

For Glazed Recipe: 1-2 carrots, thinly sliced, and 1-2 T brown sugar
For Supreme: 2 T sour cream or yogurt, and 1/2 - 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Melt butter in large skillet over medium low heat, pour in turnips (and carrots if making the glazed recipe). Stir until covered with butter, then let cook for 4 minutes without stirring. Stir, then let cook for another 4 minutes. Add chicken broth, cover and simmer for 8 minutes. Take off lid, turn up heat, and let water cook off. When mostly dry:

For Turnips Supreme: Stir in about 2 tablespoons sour cream and 1/2 to 1 cup of cheddar cheese. Let cheese melt and serve. YUM!

For Glazed Turnips and Carrots: Stir in 1-2 T of brown sugar. Let melt and serve. YUM!

Eddie and I found that we did not like the leftovers from these recipes. The turnip flavor was way too strong in the leftovers. So, clean it all up at the first sitting!!

Little Tomme -- Vegetables

I cut into the little Tomme this past Friday night. I'm very pleased with it. It is just a mild little cheese. I thought it would be a little softer, but it's nice and firm with a nice rind as you can see in the picture. It never developed any mold at all, so I never put vinegar on it or oil. It simply sat on my kitchen counter for three weeks. I've wrapped it in wax paper and put it in the fridge now to keep it from aging any more.

To the left see the assortment of vegetables grown right here that I used for our main meal today. The turnips I picked in the field behind our house. Eddie's uncle actually grew those. They've been in the root cellar with the carrots. The green, red, and purple sweet peppers are from the freezer. It's kind of like having a grocery store right here at the house!

Today's Menu:
Breakast: Quiche, Sage Sausage, Yogurt (yes, yogurt -- I've run out of frozen gogurt) with blueberries
Main Meal: Chicken Fajitas, Glazed Turnips and Carrots
Evening Snack: Beef Brisket with homemade mayonaise, apple with peanut butter, dark chocolate, and wine

Ingredients from Sweet Garden Farm: eggs, cheese, and milk in quiche, peppers and cheese in chicken fajitas, turnips (see note above), carrots, and eggs in mayonaise

Little Tomme

I made a little Tomme on January 27. It's been drying/aging on my kitchen counter since then. It's developed a very nice rind and a lovely delicate aroma. I plan to cut into it the end of next week, or at about 3 1/2 weeks of age. I'm hoping that it is just a nice mild cheese.

I don't have any goat milk right now so I used two gallons of Trickling Springs milk that I purchased at Whole Foods. It is gently pasteurized, and not homogenized at all.

The Tomme hasn't developed any mold, probably because it is so dry in the kitchen. It is February after all, and we have a wood fire going all of the time in the room. I'm so anxious to taste it! Of course, even if it turns out great, it will be different using my own raw goat's milk. But, it would be nice to know that I have the process right.

Today's Menu
Breakfast: Apple Gouda Sausage, Pumpkin Breakfast Bake, Gogurt with Blueberries
Main Meal: Country Fried Steak, Steamed Green Beans with Sweet Oil and Vinegar Dressing, Pecans, and Shredded Ricotta Salata
Evening Snack: Salami, Cheeses, Melon, Wine, and Dark Chocolate

Ingredients from today's menu produced on Sweet Garden Farm: Chevre, eggs and milk in breakfast bake, gogurt, milk in gravy, ricotta salata and melons (all but the eggs were from the freezer). The green beans were picked at the farm next door last summer.

February 6, 2010 Blizzard

We had about two feet of snow here in Maryland with the big snowstorm yesterday. Happily for Tigger and Una, Cousin Carrie dug pathways through the snow so the girls could move about. Tigger is six weeks from her due date, Una is seven and a half weeks from hers. I can hardly wait to have new babies and fresh milk!!

Just like last year, Tigger looked really big early, but she doesn't seem to be getting any bigger now, so she probably has triplets in there again. Una is definitely bigger than last year, so I'm still hoping for twins.