Goat Cheeses ~ Varieties I've Been Learning To Make

Goat's Milk Camembert

 

Learning to make good cheese from our goat's milk has been a pursuit of mine for the last couple of years.  Chevre was the first cheese I made, it's quick, fresh, and delicious, a very rewarding cheese to make since everyone loves it.  However, I dreamed of  making  Cheddars,  Gouda's, Parmesan's, and the French style cheeses that I so wanted to try but could never justify buying from the store because they're so expensive, the Camembert's, French style Coulommier's Valencay's, Chaource's, St. Maure's, and on I could go.  I wanted to try blue cheese as well, though I was warned it could contaminate the cheese cave with blue cheese spores. 

 

The first year I aged several waxed cheddars in the refrigerator where the temperature is around 40 degrees.  They turned out pretty good at 4-6 months old.  This gave me the confidence to keep going, my dream was to turn out great cheeses so we never had to buy them from the store again.  

 

The ideal temperature to age cheeses is around 50-58 degrees and they need high humidity.  Waxing, I have found to be the most fool-proof way for me to turn out consistently good cheddars.  This year I'm also aging 4 natural rind cheddars in tupperware in the wine cooler/cheese cave.  I wash the rinds with a salt water brine, and the tupperware keeps the humidity high.   I'm looking forward to tasting one soon. 

 

 

 

Zolena our Lamancha dairy goat, and Jersey our Nubian dairy goat.

 

These two girls have been our main milkers, they produce two or more gallons of milk per day during the prime Summer-time months, and through the Winter I still have been getting a gallon of milk every other day.  Right now, in the middle of Winter as we are winding down our milking, I focus more on making yogurt and kefir.  This is the time of year we have been enjoying pulling out our aged Cheddars, and Caephilly's, and are getting ready to try the Gouda's soon. 

 

 

I bought my cheese press from Hoegger goat supply and it has worked wonderfully for me.  Every year I've also been adding to my collection of cheese molds, and good books.  The Cheese Maker's Manual by Margaret Morris has been a great source for recipes and tips.  I also checked out every book from the library on cheese making, and wanted to keep Gianclis Caldwell's, The Art of Artisan Cheesemaking.  I will be buying that one soon.  There's quite a learning curve to making cheese, and plenty of research and developement go into producing really good cheese. It take patience to age them, the part is  fun part is pulling them out of the cheese cave after 6-12 months to cut open and see what we have.  Sometime's I wish I had added more salt, or let it age longer.  Once I made the saltiest Feta, it was completely unedible, by accidentally leaving it in the salt brine too long.  I make notes on what I've made, and each hard cheese is numbered and labeled, so I can continue to grow by experience. 

 

 I have had many people want to buy my cheese, but alas I am not licensed.  I've looked into getting licensed , but like so many things I truly enjoy doing, if I got too big and turned it into a business I wouldn't have time for all the other fun things I enjoy doing.  So, for me cheesemaking is for our family and close friends to share with. 

 

Goat's Milk Blue Cheese with pears from our orchard

 

Raw goat's milk Blue Cheese timed to be ready exactly when the pears were ripe.  In case you were wondering... yes, this was an absolutely divine combination and soooo delicious to eat.   You may not know that Blue Cheese is actually very easy to make, and is much less time consuming that Cheddars.

 

 

We grow delicious figs, they are perfect for the cheese tray.  I have stirred many a pot of curds and whey as the curds slowly heated to the right temperature.  By the way, did you know that whey is a super healthy drink, after I make cheese and drain the whey, I refrigerate a quart of the whey to chill and drink while it's still fresh.  This is one of the delights of being a cheese maker, fresh healthy whey, loaded with vitamins and minerals.  Sometimes I also make ricotta with the whey, or I give the surplus whey to the dogs and chickens.

 

 Fresh Cheeses air drying and cheddars drying after cream waxing.  First I cream wax then wait a week to apply the final thick wax.  The cream wax helps prevent mold and bacteria under the main cheese wax.  I have found a window slightly open with a screen that's not in direct light will allow good fresh air flow around the cheeses.  The fresh cheeses especially like to have air flow when they're drying before putting them in the cheese cave.

 

The wine cooler/cheese cave

 

This wine cooler/cheese cave we found on craigslist has been the perfect solution for aging our cheeses, it maintains a temperature of around 54 degrees.  It is large enough for me to grow into as a cheesemaker,  I can produce more aged parmesan type cheeses that take a long time to age, and it gives me room for tupperware containers for the soft aged cheeses.  Inside the containers are chevre and ricotta on the top, hard cheeses, camembert's, and feta's.  I had to find balance with the fresh cheeses, you only want to make enough to eat within two weeks then make it fresh again.  If I had Camemberts available everday I might eat way too much cheese, so I space them out, and sometimes let them run totally out.  My children love the cheddar cheese in all things like omelets, grilled cheese, pizza etc.  

 

 

Goat's milk blueberry cheesecake

Late March in Pictures

Little Eli

Snowdrop's little buckling Eli has lot's of spunk,

 he likes to jump off the highest rocks and run the fastest.

First Day Outside

Our beautiful Lamancha goat Zolena gave birth to triplets a few nights ago, 2 bucklings and a doeling. Our kidding season is now complete.  I've been having fun this March with 8 goat babies running around jumping, leaping and playing.  Spring smiles!

Kisses Say, "I Love You"

Our little Golden Retriever puppy giving kisses to Dad.

Good Morning Alarm Clock

We  have 2 roosters born and raised here, they have 25 hens between them and each has their own faithful harem following.  They're the early morning alarm clock around here, and when I say early, I'm talking around 4:30, the first crows happen slowly, then increase as the sun rises.  Luckily we enjoy our roosters and their crowing.  It helps that they're not too close to the house, so the sound is nice and lets us know the sun will be up soon.

"The Redheads"
Our family has beautiful redhead girls, daughter Tessa and our little girl dog Summer.

Playing in the Spring Sun

I'm enjoying life with all the goat kids this Spring.  

This little Nigerian  Doeling is adorable and loves to crawl in my lap for pets, I'm thinking of the name Elsie for her.  I'm trying to have them all named with E names, since that's the letter for the year for the ADGA, the American Dairy Goat Association.  

Last night on my way home from town, I paused to admire the 

evening painting in the sky and the beautiful silhouettes.

Ruby Red Rhubarb

Rhubarb pie baking season has officially arrived

This Morning

I took my camera out this morning to capture a little of my daily routine.  I am bottle feeding the 5 little doelings that are in the bottom right corner. They get fed first in the morning, I sit on a stool with them clamoring about with 2 bottles.  They have to take turns, and that's easier said than done.  As I'm feeding them, I watch the sun rise through the meadow.  It lights up the house, highlighting the smoke coming from the chimney, then it lands on the goat feeder, which is where Jersey and Dahlia are laying and waiting for breakfast and milking.  

I feed the babies first, then the goats and chickens, next I milk the three does.  After that I feed the rabbits, the feeding order goes by who is the loudest and the goats win.  Mornings are busy with roosters crowing, goats calling to be fed or milked, and kids jumping about playing all the while.  The rabbits are quiet and always fun to say "hi" to when I feed them in the morning. After I got back inside this morning, I decided to sit down and put together a photo collage for my 365 project that I'm working on.  I'll tell you more about that in another post.     

Spring Goat Kids

Our little Nigerian Dwarf dairy goat Snowdrop had beautiful triplets one week ago.  The next day was sunny and 60 degrees, so in the afternoon I brought them all outside for about 15 minutes to enjoy the sun, meet the other goats and take a few pic's, then I hurried them all back into their cozy nest in the barn.  Snowdrop had twin doelings pictured above, and all three kids pictured below with the dark handsome buck on the left, we may keep him for the Fall breeding season.  I love all of the colors and markings each kid this year. 

Our Nubian Jersey and I were up all night this past Thursday night as she delivered twin doelings pictured below, they are melt your heart cute, and are miniature replica's of Jersey. She was bred to a Nigerian, so these are miniature Nubians.  We are lucky this year to have 4 doelings so far, now just our Lamancha Zolena is left and she's due this Friday, I hope she has at least one doeling too.

    We've been loving all the Spring babies and new life everywhere we look! 

The Goat Herd

The grass  is beginning to grow again, the robins are singing, and Spring kids are just around the corner!  Jersey our Nubian, Zolena our Lamancha, and Snowdrop our little white Nigerian Dwarf are all pregnant and due to kid in 2-3 weeks.  I milked up until the first of January and since then the goats and I have taken a nice break.  We sure do miss the fresh milk though, and will be happy to start milking again in several weeks.  We have an all girl herd now since we sold our buck Cowboy back in January.  He went to be a herdsire at another farm with some nice Nigerian Dwarf does.  We also sold Joon last Summer to a nice family who were just getting into goats for their family milk supply.   The two young cute little Nigerian Dwarf does are from Snowdrop and Cowboy last year, their names are Destiny on the front right and Dahlia behind her.   

Snowdrop has Two Doelings

In a textbook delivery on Sunday, Snowdrop delivered two beautiful doelings.  I was able to be there with her through the whole thing and give her love and support.  It was warm and sunny outside and she had a fairly quick labor and delivery, which made it nice.  Snowdrop is a wonderful little mother, and her doelings are the most adorable tiny little girls.  That's Danny peeking in to greet them, he went to his new home yesterday.

The Spring Goat Menagerie

Spring time goat kids are so much fun, I have a smile on my face everyday, whenever I'm out spending time with them during my three or four daily rounds, I always stop and take time to socialize with them.  This time of year we walk through the dandelions together, and I watch them all play just like little kids, they are sweet and funny, as they leap and twirl about, chasing each other and head butting their friends in mock fights, their all time favorite game to play is King of the mountain on the rocks or big stump. They will grow up unbelievable fast, all the more reason to take the time to simply enjoy being with them in the Spring.  I've been taking pictures and keeping daily records of what needs to be done on my schedule of disbudding, deworming, shots,  feet trimming, nutrition, and mineral needs. 

Zolena gave birth to twins, a doeling and a buckling on April 13th.  I was right in the middle of having family in town for a few days, and the time she chose to give birth was during a late afternoon when I was in the middle of  making dinner for 14 people.  My husband who was checking in on her told me she had just given birth to the second one when he peeked in on her.  I ran out along with everyone and we all got to greet our newest additions to the goat family.  We ate late, because I had to take the time to get my basket and tend to all of them and make sure Zolena delivered the placenta and both of them began nursing well.  She's a wonderful mother and our superstar milker is back to providing milk for our family, while at the same time producing plenty of milk for her kids.

We are keeping her! ... meet, Deegie

 Another "D" name, also from the Jean Auel Mother Earth Series,

 just like her mother's name Zolena is.

It's hard to believe that just 2 years ago we didn't have goats in our life.  They have become such an enjoyable hobby for us, and we have learned so much new information through studying books, magazines, websites and blogs.  Every trip to the library would bring home  new books on goats, and second hand bookstores are where I've bought most of my collection of books on goats.  Both my husband and myself have been captivated by their wonderful spirits, and now we can't imagine a life without them. 

It has taken us time to fence three areas, one is a paddock and stall for kidding, another is the main pasture and barn, and the third is a buck pasture.  These came in stages over the last couple of years, and we have continued to work on all the parts.  It simply takes time to get all the things you want for goats, the cream separator is still waiting, the milking supplies, disbudding iron, tattoo kit, fencing, gates, feed, dewormers, and minerals were at the highest priority.  The time, labor and money it takes to raise goats properly with good quality feed and attention to their needs must be taken into consideration. 

One thing I had been asking my husband for was a covered movable feeder.  We looked at several designs and then he combined some ideas and came up with his own design.  It was made with scrap materials we had on hand, some wood from salvaged pallets, some from trees we had milled, along with left over roofing, just enough to cover it.  I'm lucky to have a husband who is always gathering building materials, as well as one who knows how to build strong things that are able to with-stand goats climbing all over them.

Joon and her doeling named Darlington,

 the other doeling is Donegal, and the buckling is Dartmoor. 

All names from the Brittish Isles.

Several days ago I started separating Joon and Jersey's kids at night and milking them both in the morning along with Zolena.  Finally I have most of my does in milk, they are still milking kids as well.  Joon gives about a quart or a little less, Jersey a little less than half a gallon, and Zolena about three quarters of a gallon (she's not separated from her kids at night).  I tried separating Danny and Dublin, Jersey's kids at night when they were two weeks old, I did it for two days and felt they were too young, I then decided to wait until they were a month old.  I actually began when they were 5 weeks old and Joon's were 4 weeks old.  They have all adjusted and actually have fun playing together.  I give them their own alfalfa pellets and grain, and the big does don't gobble it all down,  they have a feeder filled with alfalfa and grass hay, and they can take their time to eat, play, and all go in to sleep together on their side of the barn.  The first night I separated them it was rather noisy until it got dark, then they all settled down and went in to sleep. 

 Now comes the fun part of having goats, I have milk to work with... finally!!  My plans are to make cheese every other day and I want to start by making chevre, mozzarella, feta, cottage cheese, and yogurt. 

 



Hurray for Spring kids

and healthy milking does!

The Goat Herd and Fall Breeding

Earlier this Fall was the start of our breeding schedule, Jersey was the first up since she never did get pregnant last year and I wanted her to have a chance to be the first to kid next Spring.   All of the other goats were curious and of course our handsome buck Cowboy was too, he has really grown and matured over the last year into a nice buck and we all love his great personality.  Jersey's due date should be around March 15th, Joon the first of April, Zolena the middle of April, and Snowdrop the first of May.  I timed it so they were all about 2 weeks apart, then each one can have the use of the birthing suite and the nursery paddock for a couple of weeks. 

"Poppy Patch Ride Um Cowboy" is our buck's official pedigreed name, his Dam is Poppy Patch Dutchess, a  winning show goat, his sire is Algedi Farm Honeymoon Bay, plus he has  Ponders End, Rosasharn, and Twin Creeks in his bloodline.  Excellent udders are in his lines, I'm hoping he'll produce some fine offspring this coming season. 

Jersey and Cowboy flirting through the fence, this picture was taken in early September when she first went into heat.  Most goats are seasonal breeders and begin going into heat around the first of September and every 3 weeks they'll come into heat  until they're bred, the heat cycles will last through February and even early March if they don't get bred.   I wanted to wait until the middle of October to breed Jersey so she wouldn't be giving birth in February, mid March was the earliest I wanted to go for weather reasons.  Our buck is a Nigerian Dwarf, and I'm using him to breed all the does to, both Snowdrop and Joon are Nigerian Dwarf, Jersey is a Nubian, and Zolena is a Lamancha.  This means I will have first generation miniature Nubian and Lamancha's.  I don't know that much about the miniatures other than some cute one's I've seen on Craigslist and some websites of Farms that specialize in them. I'm still fairly new to goats so this will be an exciting Spring to see the new goat kids. More than anything I'm using what I have, if I had a Nubian buck I'd use him for Jersey, and a Lamancha buck for Zolena, it's simply not practical to have 3 bucks for my situation.  I really like having 4 does and 1 buck, that is a nice ratio for me, and if I can get all 4 does in milk over the Summer, Fall, and early Winter I will be thrilled and have plenty of milk to make cheese.

The courting began with an audience of curious does. 

Joon, our cute little Nigerian doe was the first goat we brought home, I'm still milking her everday and have since she weaned her twins in the middle of July.  Joon loves being a milk goat and will even let Kaley milk her.   I have grown attached to this charming goat and her sweet curious personality.  She was bred to Cowboy the first of November for kids due the first of April.  Come Spring this farm will be hoppin with baby goats.

twins for Joon

Calypso and Comet

Last Friday Joon gave birth to twins, a doeling and a buckling, our first kids born here at Applegarth.  We had been getting ready for them all last week by setting up a separate paddock and stall just for Joon, cleaning her area and filling it with fresh straw, gathering all the supplies I thought I might need in a basket set by the door, plus I spent time reviewing every book I had on goats and what to expect for my first kidding.  The last year I also followed several blogs that focus on milk goats and read all about their birth experiences, so I did feel somewhat prepared.  Still I was nervous and anxious because I didn't want her to go into labor without me there. 

I watched for the signs that would indicate she was going into labor soon, a full and shiny udder, soft nickering, a pinkish discharge, and of course the days.  A normal gestation for goats is 150 days, but does can give birth anywhere from 145 to 155 days.  Finally last Friday morning, day 148, I went out to feed everyone breakfast and noticed Joon stayed in her stall and wasn't interested in eating.  Upon checking her, I noticed a pinkish discharge and watched her lay down and could see she was in labor, I thought it was still the early stages.  So I quickly finished feeding everyone and ran to get my husband,  he had one more gap to fill in the stall so the new kids couldn't slip through into the big goat area. The timing was good because he hadn't left for work yet. While we were in the big barn where he was cutting a piece of wood, we kept hearing all the goats calling, I wondered why since I had just fed them.  As I ran over to check what was going on, I realized they were trying to tell me Joon was giving birth and having her first one.  By the time I reached her she was cleaning up her first doeling, it was that fast, like 10 minutes from when I first saw her.  I ran to the house as fast as I could and grabbed my basket by the door and sprinted back out to help dry her doeling.  She was all black just like her mom, except she has grey ears from her dad Cowboy, she is so cute! 

Applegarth's Comet and Calypso

Being new to all this I was so surprised how active a newborn goat is, once dry she was crying and crawling all over both Joon and I, it was a noisy affair and Joon was still in labor.  After almost an hour and a half of  pushing during the second birth, I started getting concerned for Joon and thought my first delivery I'd be going in to help straighten out a kid or untangle kids.  I also knew the little doeling was getting hungry because she was stomping her foot and crying as she looked at Joon.  I had read that new kids need to nurse within an hour, and every time Joon stood up, we tried to get her to nurse, and she couldn't get the hang of it,  then Joon would lay down and push some more, I was getting worried.  After two hours of pushing I began to pray in earnest for her as I watched her push and cry out and still saw nothing.  Finally the pinnacle happened with one huge push and I saw a large form begin to emerge, she continued pushing and I realized she was giving birth in a breech position and that's why she was having such a hard time. Imagine touching your toes, he was coming out bottom first, and he was a big strapping buckling compared to the little doeling.  As she pushed I helped ease him out carefully with each push, by the time he was born I breathed a huge sigh of relief, I didn't realize I had been holding my breath.  It was an emotional moment, and I was thankful to be there for Joon. 

Joon was thrilled to finally welcome him and she licked him all clean, then laid her head down for a much needed rest and dozed, she was exhausted.  I dipped the bucklings umbilical cord in iodine and then his feet, I had already done the doelings earlier.  I also gave them some probios, a probiotic, and some vitamin E and Selenium, stuff I had read is a good idea to do.  I was getting anxious for Joon to get up and nurse them, as the doeling was going on two and a half hours, finally once rested after about 20 minutes Joon got up and the kids began to nurse, thankfully.  She is such a good mom!  I waited not knowing if there was another kid to be born, but soon after nursing she passed the placenta uneventfully and the final part of the birth process was over.  Once we were all done I got Joon some fresh water, alfalfa, and extra grain.  She also wanted some probios and licked it up, her body must have needed the electrolytes after all that. 
 
It was so amazing to all of us that when goat kids are born they are only wobbly on their legs for a few moments and then are running around and will crawl all over you.  Joon is so proud of them, and Cowboy too looks on at his first offspring, I went over and congratulated him.  All the goats wanted to know how Joon was and it was fun to watch them and see Zolena peak in to give updates to everyone as I held the doeling up for her to see.   We are going to name the doeling Calypso, and the buckling Comet, he has white mark on the center of his head, and is so cute too.  Both are C names, every year the American Dairy Goat Association has a letter for tatoos for that year, if you want to name your goats by that letter it helps to  remember the year they were born, this year it's the letter C.

Sugarcreek Joon and Comet

breedings by the moon

One and two day old nubians at My Enchanted Acres Farm

This is what we're hoping for five months from now! Cute kids from Jersey.  We went back for the fourth time to get Jersey bred, the last 3 breeding's haven't taken, well two haven't taken, one she had just gone out of heat so wouldn't stand for him, and the two before didn't take.  Kim and Tony, owners of My Enchanted Acres, and the original breeder where Jersey was born, own 40 plus nubians, and have bred them for over twenty years, said this has been a weird year for breeding's with the weather and other factors.  So this time around we tried another buck, his name is Reign, and his genetics are real dairy, which is what we're looking for, he also has a band around his middle kind of like a belted galloway, so is unique looking.  This time around, she also gave Jersey a shot to help her egg burst to aid with fertilization, this will be our last chance this year, so I'm staying hopeful.  Jersey seemed to like him and it was a full moon, maybe that will help too.  The moon was so spectacular to look up at as we drove home with her.



Jersey and Reign



Some of her nubian does inside the barn.

Everyone was curious about what was going on.

In the rabbitry, Hazel our Champagne d'argent doe that I thought was pregnant was not or she would have had her kits by now.  She was the one I never did actually see mate with Filbert, after watching them for fifteen or twenty minutes I just left her in the cage with him for the day, thinking they would.  Well, in her natural instinct she must have known better than I and wanted to wait.  Our outdoor rabbitry isn't like a burrow that wild rabbits can have their kits in that is cozy and warm, while they have protection on the top and sides, the air from the front and below, at thirty degrees is cold for babies, even with lots of hay, and a nest, kindling in cold weather can be deadly for them.  From now on I'll wait until March for any rabbit breeding's, so they can kindle in April when it's warmer.  Yesterday Hazel and Filbert had a full moon rendezvous, she  should  kindle  around the next full moon.

snowy weekend



Josie and Summer watching the goats beside me.

They all take off running through the snow.

 "You never know they might come back."

 "And we all know... Zolena will get us with head butts, just to let us know who's boss around here." 

The puppies have grown up with the goats and know them well enough to give them some respect.  They also know that Zolena just plays with them and gives them mock head butts, that's why Josie doesn't look too scared.

This is our sweet and funny Zolena, always clowning around with us and the other animals.  She's a Lamancha dairy goat and is our main milker this winter.

Everyone likes to watch Dad building things.  Over the weekend he worked on

a goat fencing project all through the snowy days.  He had lots of company.

A newly installed gate, and fresh concrete posts he made a couple of weeks ago.  

Stormy and Zolena love to play the game of head butt. 

You can see Joon in the distance, she's pregnant and is about halfway through her 5 month pregnancy.

"Enough running around in the snow we're ready to eat and lounge for awhile in our goat cave."  The basement of the chicken coop is the goat barn for our first winter until the new barn is built this summer.  The chickens have the second story, and the goats the lower level, they're totally separate quarters.  The goats all love their cozy little barn, it's on the short side, but once inside it's about a foot above the taller goats heads, it's warm and dry, and they all seem to like it just fine, this is where they sleep, ruminate, and hang out.