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

Garden Pictures

 David Austin Rose Munstead Wood

 

 My daughter came out with the camera and snuck in a few pics of me watering the garden.  This is one of my favorite Summertime rituals.  Actually as I sit in the January rain and dark... I can hardly wait for the need to water again!  The lovely mornings or evenings doing nothing but watering the vegetable garden with the light playing over the water and plants.  We have so much rain here most of the year that there is rarely a need to take the hose anywhere to water.  Water-logged is normal state for the plants around here!

 

David Austin Climbing Rose "Shropshire Lad"

 David Ausin Roses have become my latest addiction in the garden.  Once you begin by getting their catalog, you fall in love and must have new varieties to add, I escpecially love the climbing roses.

This is what I talk of around Mother's Day.  The one above Kaley got me for Mother's Day this past year.

 

My patio overlooks the vegetable garden, I have a small Bloodgood Japanese Maple in one corner.  A couple years ago I bought eight of these trees for a super good deal.

I have one concrete raised bed, with the eventual plan of continueing to add them one by one.  However, at the moment I'm happy with just my mounded raised beds.   A greenhouse is what we need, that one element so important to grow food year-round in our climate.  Last year my tomatoes that I started extra early, thrived all Summer long, then they got blight just as the huge crop of Roma Tomatoes were about ready to turn red and ripen.  I had been looking forward to canning them all Summer, then they were destroyed by blight in an instant.  It made me realize how important a green house is for our self sufficiency plan.  To be able to garden year round is important to me, and to be able to grow tomatoes and peppers that need heat!  Now, cherry tomatoes I can grow, this year I will focus on both red and yellow cherry tomatoes.

 

Dahlias, Plums, and Roses from the garden

 

During the hot and dry time of the year I water frequently.

 

 

 

 



 

 

Homegrown Food

 A snapshot of my counter at the end of last Summer. Cheeses freshly waxed in the back, vegetables fresh from the garden, and our farm raised Chevon that is surprisingly delicious.  Getting ready for slow cooking a goat stew.

 

 

 

 

The next best thing to living off grid

Over the last week we've made some decisions to go back in time even more.  After realizing we had to fill the propane tank yet again, and wondering  how it went so fast, I decided it was time to make a change with my attitude towards our energy consumtion.  The price of propane keeps going up and we have to fill our large tank about twice per year, at twelve hundred dollars a pop I'd rather only fill it once per year.  As I took a long look at our indulgent consuming of energy as a family, I had to reassess what was important.  I'm happy to report that I've had a real paradigm shift over the last few days.  I excitedly talked with my husband first about it, and of course he was supportive, then I talked with the kids about it and we've decided to make a game of seeing how much we can save on our energy consumption, and how self sufficient with our power usage we can be.

After researching what uses the most energy, I discovered that my gas oven and range that I love is on the top of the list, right along with my propane clothes dry, and our on demand propane hot water in both the cabin and big house.  We have lots of dishes and laundry and I hadn't been thinking much about it as I filled the hot water into the sinks and ran the clothes dryer everyday, and took nice hot showers twice per day.  These are all just the propane users, and do not include our power use with lights, small heaters in the kids rooms, the toaster, dehydrator, refrigerators, and clothes washer, we don't own a microwave or dishwasher, thankfully. 

Just like our food bill, this is one area we can have direct control over and make some cuts to save money.  Know the things you can control and the things you can't.  Money represents time and work and is getting harder to come by and quicker to disappear in these times.  I don't know about you, but as we watch the chaos in the middle east and our own country totally out of control with it's debt, it's sobering to realize we're in way over our head as a country and no one knows how to fix it without major cut backs.  Cut backs that no one wants to change and make.  I think we're all aware our country could have a massive financial collapse if we keep going without correcting this problem.  Underlying concerns are one of the things that are causing us as a family to prepare the best we can for an uncertain future.  I know we can't control what's happening in our country on that scale, but in our own little world we can make the choices that are within our control. 

Sure we could continue consuming and work hard to pay for it all, like we always have, but now we've decided as a family to keep it simple in our life. I like the idea of going back in time with our thinking to a time when people knew how to live by their own power. 

So what are we doing differently.  We have a woodstove going everyday, so we're hanging our clothes to dry around it, and cooking over it as much as we can. We also pulled out an old wood cookstove we've had in the shop for years, one that we are going to work on and refinish so we can bring it inside for cooking and baking.  I love my gas stove and will still keep it all set up, I've just been unplugging it and turning off the gas, so the pilot light doesn't run continuously burning up precious fuel.  I won't be blow drying my hair, and the small heaters in the kids rooms are not going to be used, we'll each get 5 minute or less showers once per day.  I'm also keeping two large pots of water on the woodstove so when I do the dishes I can fill up the sinks with it.  Every little bit will help, and we all have an attitude of adventure in making these changes. 

This mindset of living from your own power is the next best thing to off grid living.  We're still connected to the power grid, it took my husband 15 years of living here without it before he got our property hooked up.  Now as I suggested making cut backs, he at first questioned putting up a clothes rack around the fire for many reasons including looks.  So he ended up thinking about it and made a removable rack with copper poles, that easily comes down when we have get togethers with friends and family.  He used materials that we had to make it and I am thrilled to be able to hang my clothes to dry for free.  When summer rolls around we'll set up our outdoor clothes line to hang laundry to dry.

We continue onward with our journey to living more simply and self sufficiently.

Cutting the fat in these economic times

In the old days to cut the fat literally meant to cut the animal fat (ie. butter, cream, salt pork) out of the diet because there wasn't money for it, or it wasn't available.  Nowadays to cut the fat literally means budget cuts and families, schools, cities, states and countries around the world are having to do it.

The economy in our neck of the woods isn't great, it's not as bad as some places in the US because we're less than an hour from a major city, Seattle.  Not everyone has been directly affected by this economy, but if you have a home you have most likely been affected by decreased values.  If you have a job, lucky you, be thankful, hopefully it's one you enjoy and not one you're just doing because you have to bring home the bacon so to speak.   Many people including ourselves have been hit hard by the downturn in the economy, both of us having careers in the housing industry.  We don't see how the economy is going to get better any time soon, at least the housing which is at the heart of so many things.  My husband has been a carpenter his whole life and had never been out of work, there were always jobs and referrals for new jobs.  Now carpentry work is scarce, we have some jobs as Spring nears that are hopeful, but this time of year is lean.  Together we talk about the economy and are concerned about what's happening, we don't let it drag us down, but we're acutely aware that it could get worse before it gets better.

In the midst of it all our family is still strong, healthy, and financially sound, we have a scrappy adventuresome attitude... it's called Faith, and it's the all important daily ingredient!  Our overhead is low and we don't have to work ourselves to death just to maintain, we have more time than money, but it's our choice how we productively spend that time and how we spend our time making money.  I recently had someone who knows me well mention that maybe I should go get a job at Boeing because they're hiring.  I thought inside to myself, me at Boeing?  I would wilt, that's not my dream, vision, or calling.  Sure we'd have more money, but what about quality of life, I wouldn't have much of a garden, how would I do all the things I do around the house and tending to every one's needs.  If we were in dire straights, yes I would do it and make the best of it, but we're not in dire straights, we're just cutting the fat, staying home more and making it just fine.

Our choices to cut the fat and our overhead make it where we can live this life we have chosen, one of self sufficiency without having our hand out to anyone.  I've talked about this topic some already but wanted to share again because I feel it's important to hear what other's are doing to survive right now in these challenging economic times.

So what have we cut, the first to go was tv and movie rentals several years ago, we now occasionally check out movies from the library.  The second to go was cell phones, when I got out of the real estate business two and a half years ago, we had 2 adults and 2 children on the phone plan and another one wanting one, so it was a big expense and not one we wanted.  Now if you need a cell phone for your business that is important to keep, we have done just fine with a land line.  We cut back on sporting events, and now just focus on school sports which is nice because they usually last 3 months verses select soccer year round.  We rarely go out to eat and almost never go to movies, we try to stay home more and drive less, and we really coordinate our outings to do as many errands grouped together as we can.  We're a ways out of town so this is important for us.

We've had to cut back on buying meat, nuts, boxed cereals, and luxury items like good cheeses, wines, and ice cream.  Now on the rare occasion when we do get these items we truly savor them.  Maybe you're getting a picture of why I'm dreaming of making my own artisan cheeses, brews and ice cream.  I like this kind of fat and now I want to learn to make my own, so it's not cut, it's created.  I love good artisan bread, but it's expensive, so I learned to make my own.  We cut buying a coffee at Starbucks while out, we make our own at home.  We cut buying new clothes, furnishings and household goods, and buy used at our local Goodwill.  When we need building materials we go to the salvage and scrap yards, most of our buildings my husband has built with our own trees milled, and he's used materials from the salvage yards. 

We're careful with our power and water use and are taking shorter showers, turning lights off and doing less laundry, if it's not dirty don't throw it in to be washed.  Our children are good sports and understand and they are not deprived in any way, they're all warm and well fed and have plenty of time themselves with us and each other to grow and develop. 

We don't have credit cards, the last one we paid in full and shredded several years ago when things started getting tight, so we are never tempted to buy things we can't afford or don't need and we discuss daily where we're at and what we need to do.  We've made choices to invest our money into fruit and nut trees as long term investments, and farm animals into shorter term investments.

Being scrappy has taken on a whole new meaning for us these last couple years as I've watched my husband take jobs he never would have normally have taken.  For years he had bigger homes and barns he was creating, now work consists of small carpentry jobs, tree work (he's a good lumberjack) and whole variety of other things.   He's done many hard physical jobs where at days end he's dirty and exhausted from head to toe, I like to make sure he has a hot meal as soon as he gets home and let him know how proud I am of him and his work ethic that's so strong and diligent.  The fun part is I also get to see him have time to work on projects at home, happy and free, and time to be together and plan.

Come the first of April I get to go back to my plant nursery job on weekends, a job I enjoy and for that I am thankful.  So you can see it's not all roses, this life of ours, but it's real and we're scrappy, and through Faith and hard work it pays in another kind of richness, one of simplicity in home and family, where you can sleep through the night and have peace in your heart.

testing our self sufficiency skills

This last week has had it's share of highs and lows for us, we lost our power, phone, and running water for 3 days, and the snow came down hard for 5 days straight.  Needless to say we got to test our skills.  In my last post we were still in the fun part of the snowstorm, we had cozy showers and running water, laundry and a phone line, hot water and power.  Before the lights even began to flicker we had already begun to gather water in vessels and lay out the candles on the table, just in case.  Wednesday around noon the power went out, and the snow continued to fall hard.  It was kind of fun the first day and night with no power, then morning came and another day, and another day, and the snow continued to fall.   We had the phone line for the first day, and then that went dead for 2 days.  We chained up the truck to get into town, and all through town it was compact snow and ice, our school district was closed all week, and the kids had fun playing and reading.  I stayed busy with the animals, and cooking and cleaning, and continued to milk Zolena through it all.  We had 4 kettles on the wood stove to heat water for washing and cooking with, some had melted snow and some water was pulled up from the hand dug well.

If you saw the weather for Seattle we're very similar only we're about 50 miles NE  in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, our temperatures are often 10 or 15 degrees colder because we're 20 miles inland from the Puget Sound, and the Pacific Ocean.  Just down the coast where my Mom and Dad live in Coos Bay, Oregon, they're so near the ocean it rarely freezes or snows and the snow almost never sticks to the ground, it melts right away.  Here now a week later and we still have snow on the ground, it has warmed up, but the driving is still slippery.  I don't like to drive in icy snow, so I've been happily home-bound all week, we've had plenty of good food and so have the animals.  Plus I've been getting alot of great exercise hauling warm water heated on the stove to everyone. 

There is a whole new appreciation for a wood burning stove when it's you're sole heat source (which ours always has been) and your main source to cook on, and heat water with for washing dishes.  It also becomes the central focus in the evenings with candles around for light when there's no power.  Even with a well the water doesn't flow from the sink without the electric pump, the toilet doesn't flush unless it's refilled in the back, and the shower doesn't work at all.   Luckily for me, I took a shower right before the power went out for those 3 days. 

I had a whole list of what I was going to do everyday this last week, and I pretty much had to put it on hold and just go into survival mode, tend the animals, chop wood, carry water,  make meals, and clean.  The beauty of the snow in mid January is nice,  then we had too much snow, almost 2 feet, and then freezing rain, and then the cover to my  chicken aviary was near collapsing and the pen for Stormy and Cowboy needed to have the snow removed daily.  I was outside getting snow off areas that could collapse, the snow became hard to walk in, and we all got a little cabin fever.  I also had the duty of shaking off all our edibles and ornamentals around the garden and yard,  making sure branches stayed intact.  When the rain finally came and it began to warm up, we  all cheered, now today it's still melting and the wind is gusting with some high winds around 50 miles per hour, our winter weather is finally here.

Nearing the end of the 3 days we had some renewed discussions on independence from the power company and have a real desire to see our windmill operational, we've had one for years, and just need a high tower, a real high tower to get above the tree line.  We talked about ways to build the tower and the batteries we'll need to store the power, along with many of the nuts and bolts of actually making it a reality.  Back in the late 70's, my  husband lived out here for 10 years with no power, phone or running water, that was back in the day when many back to landers started out just the same way. 

Still today you could start out and buy or rent land, build a small cabin or modular home,  put in a wood stove and small kitchen and live.  It's amazing how simple people lived for thousands of years and how far we've come in such a short time.  How many of us could survive without power for a month, or two, or more?  I'm sure we all could if we had to, but wouldn't it be a little nicer with heat and a way to cook, and a piece of land to grow food.  Our whole electrical grid is so fragile, the possibility of it going out for awhile is very real.

Homesteading ~ Self Sufficiency

I had no idea when I started this blog, that the homesteading movement would begin as a small wave that would turn into a very large one like it is now.  More and more people are jumping on board and realizing the need to be more in control of their world by growing food and getting more self sufficient.  There was the back to land movement back in the seventies, but I was too little to know much about it.  Many people now want some control of their food, not just fruits and vegetables, but their meat and dairy too... I'm one.

We're tired of buying food we don't know where it came from, and how inhumane the animals were treated.  We're willing to learn what our ancestors knew for thousands of years.  Meat is special, not for everyday, but for occasions that we can share it, and know where it comes from.  There is a need to learn the ways of old, and to be keepers of the home.

Butchering a fatted young rooster was for a Sunday meal.  Breadmaking was done one day for the week.  Seasonal eating was the norm, and asparagus was a spring treat, just like strawberries and cherries were summer sweets.  Honey was extra special, and herbs were for healing.  Homemakers knew how to make cheese, butter, yogurt and ice cream.  Cheese was often made in the spring when the grass began to grow lush and long, and the cows had rich milk. 

There was no boxed cereals, or packaged foods.  We used to know the source from where all our food came from.  Life and death on the farm was normal, and the kids participated in all aspects of it.  They knew the pig was going to be butchered in the fall, and good ham and bacon would be on the menu.  Everything was fresh, dried, fermented or canned.  Even refrigerators and freezers are new to this era. 

We need to go back and learn, I'm speaking to myself, my squeamish self, that has never butchered an animal, letting my son do the deed.  I want to get meat chickens and raise them for our family to be ready for Fall butchering.  You see I'm learning too, how easy it is to buy meat in cellophane and not think about the animal that used to be alive, where did it live, in what kind of conditions...I want to know.

If you've ever read Michael Pollen's "Omnivore's Dilemma"  you'll get a glimpse of what grocery store food is like.  Corn is the base of many products, way more than you'd ever imagine, even the animals we eat are fed corn.  In reality the best thing for most animals to eat is grass, fresh greens, things that are alive and full of vitamins and minerals.  The ability to be free and live without stress in a small farm with love is what I want to achieve for my animals.  I'm willing to learn, right along with a whole generation who have forgotten how it's done. 

My dream is to be more self sufficient, we're still a ways off, but are on the right track.  I appreciate talking and learning from others and see what small steps they're taking.  Some of you are raising cattle, pigs, and sheep, I'm not there yet, but we are raising animals on a small scale, like chickens, rabbits, and goats for milk.  These can be raised even in most cities now, as more people want grow their own food.

How can you start?  By doing a little every year, perhaps you could start by growing a garden, planting fruit trees, and learning to make bread.  If you're in an apartment you can grow sprouts, possibly even get rabbits.  Shop at farmers markets, source local raw honey and fruits and vegetables.  Know where you're food comes from, meet the farmers and growers.  This could set you on a path to moving to the country and starting your own homestead, or a whole new lifestyle change for the better.  It's exciting to sit down to a meal and know much of it came from your own land.  That is richness to me.  I'd love to hear what you're growing, raising and doing to be more self sufficient?

Home Made Laundry Soap ~ A Big Savings!

The most exciting thing I've discovered this last week is home made laundry soap.  How easy it is to make and how incredibly clean and bright our clothes are.  I haven't done the calculations on the savings myself but have read others say that it is pennies per load for the cost.  My cost is kept real low because I make all my own bars of soap now. 

This is a very simple recipe for home made laundry soap, all you need is;  Borax, washing soda, A bar of soap (any bar will probably do, however if I had to buy soap I'd use Dr. Bronner's pure castile soap, I've also read in other home recipes they call for Fels Naptha, or Sunrise soap), and water.  You can find all of these ingredients in the laundry isle of most grocery stores.
Here's the recipe for the smaller size batch, for the extra large family size batch look at recipe below this one.

Home made laundry soap recipe;

You will need a large pot to mix everything on the stove.  First put 4 quarts of water on to boil, then grate 1/3 to 1/2  bar of soap, pour into the water to melt. Heat on medium until the soap is fully dissolved.  Then add 1/2  cup each of washing soda and borax and stir until those are dissolved.  Turn off the heat and add 2 more quart jars of water.  Stir real good, your pot should be quite full.  You still need to add 2 more quarts for a total of 8 quarts (32 cups) of water.  This makes enough to do 64 loads of laundry using 1/2 cup per load. It will thicken up as it cools and you will have a gel like soap that dissolves nicely when you do your laundry, even on the cold cycle.   If you have old laundry detergent bottles these would be great to reuse, or any easily pourable plastic container would work great for you to store your laundry detergent in. 

   

Large Recipe (makes enough for 160 loads of laundry)

You will need an extra large pot to mix the ingredients on the stove.  First put 10 quarts of water on to boil, then grate 1 1/2 bars of soap, pour into water to melt. Heat on medium until the soap is fully dissolved.  I then add 1 1/4  cup each of washing soda and borax and stir until those are dissolved.  Turn off heat and add 5 more quart jars of water.  Stir real good, your pot should be quite full.   You will then add 5 more quarts of water (I did the last 2 steps in a bucket, because my pot wasn't big enough) for a total of  20 quarts (80 cups), I actually made mine a little more concentrated and didn't add the last 5 quarts of water.  This makes enough to do 160 loads of laundry using 1/2 cup per load. It will thicken up as it cools, and is a gel like soap that dissolves nicely when doing laundry.   

I just made this extra large batch of home made laundry soap and am thrilled with the results.  I am so excited because of the full realization since I began making soap, of just how much money I can save our family overall with making bars of soap, dishwashing soap, and now laundry soap.  Just think how important soap is in our day to day lives, we bathe with it, wash dishes, do laundry, clean our houses, along with many other things.  Now imagine you can make it all, simply and inexpensively.

Next on my desire to learn list is making shampoo's, lotions and lip balms.  One thing leads to another you know.  I also need things to do indoors on the cold wet days, which I hope will be getting warmer and sunnier.  Do you make any of your own home products that add up to big savings?  I'd love to hear about them. 

back to the basics

I spent about 10 minutes this morning kneading my bread dough thinking about what I had just said to my husband.  It all started with me idealizing about making all of our own bread all the time, so when I declared to him this morning,  "Don't buy any more bread, I'm going to make all of our own bread from now on."" if you're at the store just buy Bob's Red Mill, whole wheat flour, rye flour, and unbleached white flour, please."  He looked at me sideways and said, "Are you sure?"  He knows I have good intentions, but lately I've turned my routine upside down, learning to make soap, reading, studying, and practising making it.  I haven't made bread in several weeks, we've been buying Dave's bread, which is very good, but expensive. 

I am making a commitment to bake bread consistently, not sometimes when I feel like it, but everyday until I get 10 loaves in the freezer.  Then I'll just make it 2 or 3 times per week and make 4 loaves at a time.  I decided as a homesteading wife I wanted to make this a priority.  Plus this next month I want to learn to make crackers and bagels, which I've always wanted to try and never have.  The biggest thing with making bread is to get into a routine.  I always make sourdough bread, and have gotten my starter back going strong again over the last few days.  Last night I added about 4 cups of flour and enough warm water to make a good dough, and added my cup of sourdough starter, by this morning it was bubbling away.

This morning I removed a cup of the starter, and created another batch for tomorrows baking.  To the  3 1/2 cups of starter I added, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1/4 cup of sweetener (preferably honey, and molasses)I also use sugar sometimes, 2 teaspoons salt, and 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour added in slowly(I use whole wheat, and some rye)  I add these all together, knead for 10 minutes and then put in greased bread pans, let them rise for 2 or 3 hours, then bake.  Sometimes I make the loaves free form, they're just longer and flatter.

It feels good to have my day started with bread and rolls rising, chicken stock simmering on the woodstove, animals all fed, and tucked inside to wait out the rain and wind we're having today.  The dishes are done, the laundry is going, and I'm taking a few minutes to write, before I start my next batch of soap.

Fast forward now to dinner; chicken vegetable soup with lentils and rice, fresh bread, and a seasonal cabbage and root vegetable salad.  Homemade honey mustard dressing, with salt and cayenne for spicing the soup.  The good news, we will have enough soup for tomorrows lunch and an after school meal. 

One of my goals is to get back to the basics of being a homemaker, and keeping our homestead  humming with good smells from the kitchen, homemade bread, soups, stews, pasta's and salads.  To have a Spring cleaned home, filled with cleanliness, harmony, organization and peace.   To have the animals, clean, dry and well fed.  And to have my gardens growing to their maximum for food production.  I'm planning to plant more root crops before April 3rd, then the moon begins to wax or grow again, and it's time to plant above ground crops.  You can see how this whole planting by the moon rhythm works.  It reminds you to get the crops in regularly, and your successive planting just happens effortlessly. 

I have also been wanting to talk more about the herbs in my life.  I grow mint, both peppermint and spearmint, the spearmint is usually the one I dry for making tea throughout the year. I grow and dry thyme, parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano, tarragon, basil, and lemon balm.  I also freeze the herbs in pesto sauces. In addition to these I have a good collection of dried herbs I can't grow, ones I've gathered from here and there, mostly PCC, our local Co Op. Various herbs for health and healing. I have gone through phases of regularly using herbs, mostly in herb teas, I just brew the loose leaf herbs in pint and quart jars just like loose leaf tea, then strain into a teacup.  Remember the scripture in the bible where He says' I give you the leaves for the healing of the Nations. Well I believe there is healing in the herbs.

I am going back to the basics of regularly making herbal teas, they are both delicious and nutritious.  We all had some herb tea tonight after dinner, even the kids love herb tea.  Tonight I made mint, licorice, nettle, ginger, lemon and honey.  Jason has a minor cold, so I added golden seal and wild cherry bark to his, both are to aid his body in healing.   

Here are a few of my herbs lined up on a shelf in the kitchen.  I have these small jars to store them, and then a larger container that is kept cool and dark for longer term storage, I then just refill the smaller jars when they need filling.   The many health benefits of herbs is something I've found interesting, and studied for years. 

Taking Stock ~ an emergency supply list

Today as I was spring cleaning, my thoughts kept going to the people of Japan, and what they must be going through.  I have prayed for these polite, kind people, for their safety, comfort, and healing. They have gone through so much tragedy and heartache over the last 5 days.  I keep wondering what would happen if we had an earthquake of that magnitude.  We live about 20 miles inland, so don't have to worry about a tsunami, but the whole West coast is vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunami's, and we have family along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California.

I remember the panicky feeling of the last 3 (big ones that you can feel) earthquakes that I've gone through here in the Northwest.  We are part of the Pacific Rim, ring of fire, where earthquakes happen with some regularity...always when you least expect it. We all know we're due for one, the last big one we had here was 10 years ago,  it wasn't a real bad earthquake, but we all remember it.  We don't have tv to see all the images of Japan, but we can see them on the internet, and read about it all.

4 years ago, I began to think seriously about self sufficiency, and what we'd need to do to live off the land as much as possible.  We've been working towards that goal steadily by building gardens, planting fruit trees and berry bushes, getting chickens and rabbits, and investing in a seed bank of heirloom seeds.  I've bought many vegetable seeds over the last couple years through Baker Creek Heirlooms, and Territorial Seed company.  I've also learned to collect some of my own seeds from year to year.  The chickens and rabbits would need food, they could forage for some of it, but not all, in an emergency I'm not sure we'd be able to get to town to get their bags of feed, or even if the feed store would have it in stock.  This is a dilemma I haven't figured out, other than to buy more bags of feed to store, rather than buy as we need it.  I have dogs and cats, and need to plan for a 3 month supply of food for them too.  Buying an extra bag of feed as often as I can, and rotating the feed, so it never gets too old is going to be my new plan.

Today as I worked, my mind kept going over things we'd need to survive for weeks or even months without power or running water.  I hope we don't have an emergency, but we should all prepare, and think about what we'd need.  A good goal is a 3-6 month supply of food and water, along with necessities like tp, female products, toothpaste, floss, soap, first aid supplies, and whatever else you want or need to have in reserves.  We probably have a 3 month supply of food that could carry us into summer, not that we'd be eating like we are now, but we could survive.

For heat and water here's what we have.  We have a woodstove and plenty of firewood, so we can cook and heat our home.   We have a dug well that can pull up water by hand with a bucket, it's a deep, concrete lined, underground gravel filtered well.  We could use this water for doing laundry, dishes, and watering the garden.  Our main 500 ft. well requires power for it to bring up water.  We also have metal roofs that can collect rainwater in tarps, if we needed to. We have a  30 gallon plastic barrel that we can use to store drinking water, and I will be filling that, we also have 10 glass gallon jars I am going to fill with drinking water.  We will look for more large gallon glass containers for water storage.

For food this is our leanest time of the year, in the Fall we have an abundance from the garden and fruit trees.  Currently in the pantry reserves we have glass gallon jars of beans, rice, lentils, wheat berries, oats, whole wheat flour, corn meal, baking soda, baking powder, canning supplies like salt and vinegar.  We also have peanut butter, olive oil, easy soups like miso soup, beef bouillons, puddings, noodles, dry milk, and canned foods, along with many other smaller food items I've gathered.  A couple years ago we invested in a hand powered grain mill from Lehman's, so we can grind wheat berries and grains into flour for bread.

I need to write up an emergency supply list.  Here's what I'm going to do; take stock of the pantry, look at what I'm low on, put aside water, check my first aid kit, and refresh what I need, buy extra animal feed, and every time I go to the store buy a few extra things to stash away.  I'll only buy things I regularly use, and will   buy more wheat berries, grains, peanut butter, sugar, salt, nuts, tea, coffee, canned fish, and more powdered milk (I don't normally use, but for an emergency it's good to have).  I will also begin my garden in earnest this weekend.  Starting many seeds inside, and planting peas, radishes and greens outside. 
Throwback at Trapper Creek's  blog has some great articles she's written about  preparing for self sufficiency you may want to check out too.

warmth of the fire

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We all gather around the fire for warmth and cooking on these snowy winter days.  I have soup, vegetables and grains cooking on the stove.  Bread is rising on the lower right of the fire, and kombucha tea and sourdough are staying warm on the mantle... A normal winter day  Of course even our dog Summer likes to stay warm by the fire.  Our woodstove is older and well used, it needs a good cleaning and repainting, along with a new damper, but it sure puts out the heat and does a great job cooking food.  This time of year we almost never let it go out, and bank it at night to easily start up in the morning. 

We live in the upstairs of the barn and use the cabin daily for showers and sometimes cooking, as we are still slowly building our big house, which is in the sheetrock stage and has been for a long time.  In the lower level of our barn is a woodshop, and has it's own woodstove.  The cats live in the lower portion, and enjoy the fire when it's going down there.  It's still snowing outside, and is starting to turn to rain a little today.  You can see Kaley in shorts (just in from sledding, and removed all her snow gear), the kids don't seem to feel the cold like adults, I will bundle up warm on these cold winter days.  March will be here this week, and I'm looking forward to Spring days in the garden full of sunshine and warmth, we're getting close, maybe this will be the last snow of the year.

I haven't been able to get in to Seattle to pick up the rest of my soap making supplies, namely the Lye (due to the weather).  I drove all over to every store I thought would have lye in our town, and no one had it, I guess lye is not a popular thing people buy these days.  I had no idea this would be such a hard item to find.  I know the store Zenith in Seattle will have it, so hopefully the snow will melt, and I can get down there on Tuesday or Wednesday.  I have everything else ready, and just need lye and cocoa butter.

Wherever you are, I hope you're warm and cozy too.

an evening ritual in the garden

During the summer and fall when the garden is overflowing with abundance, I have an evening ritual of going out to the garden to pick our dinner.  Depending on the time of year I harvest many different fruits and vegetables, looking at this picture tells me it's late summer, the beets, potatoes, blackberries and blueberries are ripe.  The rhubarb and strawberries don't give it away, because I have them all season here.  I have early strawberries called "Benton" and later strawberries that go until frost called "Tri Star" we have a lot of strawberry plants,  plus I have given away as many as I have.  That tells you how fast strawberries multiply, it's amazing.

I took this picture one evening after I had leisurely strolled through the garden picking as I walked, deciding what to make for dinner.  I might have made stir fry with the small zucchini's, sunburst patty pan squash, baby carrots, and broccoli.  I usually have a salad picked along with root vegetables, and whatever else I can find that's ripe.  I bring pounds and pounds of produce out of my garden all summer and fall. 

 

Rhubarb does well in our climate all summer long because we're so mild.  It's one of the first to start producing  something edible from the garden, and it's a perennial.  I make lots of pies with rhubarb, which is also called the "pie plant".  One of my favorite pies is strawberry rhubarb.  I have good success in our climate with broccoli, kale, cabbage, peas, potatoes, and all the cool season crops.  I can actually grow many things, just not the heat loving ones like melons, tomatoes, eggplant.  

Beets do well in our climate, last year I planted 4 different types, they are a true dual purpose vegetable, and one of my most valuable.  I love the greens while they're young, and the beet roots when they're mature, they last well into the fall and early winter, and some last through winter and are a pleasant surprise to find in the spring.  Today I actually harvested a few vegetables for dinner, salsify, parsley, and a few beets and turnips that I found while digging, it was nothing major, but I am thankful. 

Broccoli is harvested all the way to Thanksgiving, and it is also one of my most faithful crops, along with tomatillos (which come up like weeds everywhere in my garden). Salsa verde is what I make with tomatillos, lots of it.  Some years I can grow tomatoes, not the big ones mind you, but cherry and plum tomatoes will usually ripen.  I can grow basil if started indoors early, and still have pesto in the freezer, one of my favorite breakfasts is sauteed vegetables fresh from the garden with pesto, feta, and a couple poached eggs.

I'm starting to get back in the garden mode, and am looking forward to painting the empty canvas once more with radiant colors and vitality.  I love to eat rainbow foods from the garden, and have been missing them.  Today as I spent several hours digging, weeding, and helping my garden look more orderly, it felt good to get my heartrate up and see the results of my work.  The temperature was around 45 degrees, and a little windy, but I bundled warm with a hat and gloves, and with my faithful dog Summer by my side, we happily worked away. 

Tightening the belt a little more

I know I haven't talked much about how the economy has affected our family, but it really has on many different levels.  I was a realtor for 12 years, and J was a carpenter for over 30 years, these industries have been hit hard in our neck of the woods .  We've had quite the change in lifestyle, some new doors have opened, and some old ones have closed.  

We've had to make decisions over the last 2 years on what to cut out to keep our monthly overhead balanced.  TV was the first to go 2 years ago, when they made you have the black box or LCD tv's, we decided we didn't need it, nor did the kids need the distraction.  We still can watch movies, I miss it at times, but mostly I think it's been positive, especially for the kids.

We let the cell phones go next about a year and a half ago when I left the real esate business.  With the two oldest girls, my husband and I on one cell phone plan, that monthly bill was one of the first to go. After 12 years of being attached to my cell phone, this was a freedom I actually enjoyed.  We are happily back to a land line only, kind of like going back in time :)  We are also too far away to have high speed internet, so just a dial up connection.

We decided to simplify on many levels, our entertainment stays closer to home, with things like trips to the library for movies and books, going to the river to swim and pick blackberries in the summer.  We hang out at home more now, enjoying our work here, and getting together sometimes in the evenings with friends for conversation and a meal.  We also go out a several times a month, just Jarin and I, to enjoy dinner and an artisan brew at a local grill/pub.  People in the community gather here, some that we've known for years, many that greet us have known J for 30 or more years.  This is what happens when you stay put in a community and let your roots go down deep, you make friends and will know and see them as you all grow older.

I think it's healthy for families to be together at home, doing things like cooking, gardening, tending animals, and doing chores.  I will tell you though,  it is harder with teenagers, they don't want to just hang out at home like I do.   They want things like cell phones and cars.  We help them get their license and first car.   However after that they have to get a job and pay for their car insurance, cell phone and gas if they want to drive their car.  Because they have to work and make money, it gives motivation for them to learn self sufficiency at a young age.

It's important to me that my children have time for books and learning things on their own at home.  I've learned they will get creative given time.  Last year my son Jason was homeschooled, he was 15 and wanted to study many new things on his own.  He has a great attitude and is a self manager so I agreed.  In that year he learned to make his own gun ammunition by melting lead, filling the bullets and reloading.  He learned to tan hides, hunt, studied guns, passed his hunter safety class, and learned about our native species of plants and animals.  He ran the rabbitry, and  learned survival skills, he even made his own garden area that he tended through the summer and grew corn, green beans and pumpkins.  Learning what the soil takes to grow things, he worked hard weeding and watering all on his own piece of land.  I don't think these things would have happened if he'd been sitting in front of the tv.

Our daughter Tessa is 13,  and for 4 years she played year round soccer, she used to be a goalie for a select soccer team, this is a major time commitment (for the kids and parents), along with the gas bill for driving all over to tournaments.  She has taken the last year off, and is now looking forward to doing school track this Spring.  This is in our budget, select soccer no longer is.  Tessa is also learning guitar, and is our biggest reader, she is enjoying her time, reading, learning and growing.

Kaley our youngest at 10 is just happy to have everyone around her, she loves to help me in the kitchen cooking and baking, and helps me around the house with a happy heart.  She is our funny girl, and keeps us all entertained and laughing at her jokes and little shows she puts on.

We've also cut back on how much meat we eat, and are planning to grow more of our own this year.  We want to get 15 or 20 cornish cross chickens, and raise them for the freezer.  Our plan is to produce as much of our own food as we can to carry us through lean times, and all be well fed.  I make almost everything I cook from scratch, and cook many things like soups, stews, corn bread, rice, eggs (many different forms), salads, casseroles, potatoes, rootcrops, and winter squashes.  Foods that are nutritious and filling that aren't too expensive.  Growing a vegetable garden and having fruit trees and berry bushes helps us to eat like royalty  during the growing season.   

Over the years we've never invested in the stock market, but we have invested in honeybees, fruit trees, chickens, rabbits, fencing, and building materials.   Most of all we've invested  in our home and land to have it all paid for, always building with cash as we went, this has been the priority for years.  Living frugally is just what we do and has become a way of life.

thanksgiving weekend

I decided to start writing again today after 3 years and 8 posts. Over the last few years we have been working hard at our dream of living self sufficiently. This year I truly felt it was beginning to happen. Many meals came from the land, and I noticed I didn't go to the store near as much, our animals began producing protein for us, and I had the beginnings of a small orchard, and some nut trees growing.
We have 16 chickens now, 5 rabbits, 3 cats, 2 bee hives, a large garden, @ 60 fruit trees, a great pyrenees livestock guardian dog, and my faithful golden retriever "Summer", plus 5 children, 2 have since moved out.

The garden produced for months, and I still have much for the winter, we have honey, an extra rooster for dinner, eggs from the hens, jam on the shelves (even a jar of salal jam... it's delicious by the way), herbs for healing.  We have pumpkins for pie, hubbard squash to enjoy in January, seeds saved for next years garden,  and new inspiration.

Sometimes you never hear from the ones working so hard to achieve their dreams, because they don't take the time to sit down at a computer to write... too tired, with all the work. Winter slows everything outdoors down for me to think, so I plan the garden, think about what I'll do differently, what worked, and what didn't. As with every year new lessons are learned, some the hard way. There is a learning curve to everything.

3 years ago when I started this blog, I wrote 8 posts, I was in the thick of teenagers, working hard at making money, (during a challenging time as a realtor) and in the thick of life.   Over the last 3 years, I had  a mini creamery in my kitchen for a couple of months, and practiced all the different things I could do with fresh raw cows milk.  I studied herbs, and bought a pharmacopoeia, so I could cure things the way they did in the old days.  I got chickens the day my husband said he thought it was time to get them, I had been wanting them for so long.  I went out and bought 24 of them, and lost more than half to the chicken keeping learning curve in the first few months.  I studied rabbits, and have lost my share along the ways, wanting my animals to have freedom, and being naive was an expensive lesson to learn.  I've always studied about gardening, farming, soil, and the history of the pioneering spirit.  Another reason I didn't write for that time was because we were unsure of putting our life out there so to speak, those of you from my husband Jarin's generation,(born in 1950) will understand.  For both of us, now just feels right to start again.

I'm no longer selling real estate after 12 years, and have chosen to follow my heart and the direction it calls me to go, we may have less money but will be richer in so many other ways.  Don't get me wrong, I do have to figure out a way to make money, and I will.  I like to pull my own weight in our marriage, plus it just feels good to have your own hard earned money.  I've thought about many things I could do to make money to tide me over until I can make it at my ultimate plan of having an edibles nursery and selling bare root fruit trees, unusual fruits, berry bushes, and herbs.  I'm working on this part of my dream but won't see much money for several years, rootstocks and fruit trees take time to propagate and grow to a good enough size to sell. 

So for now heading into winter my goal is to begin to write about it. I have a renewed energy from others as I actually sat down today and read their blogs.... which I honestly haven't done for several years. So let's see if I can stay dedicated to writing and revealing what works for us on our farm to be truly free from debt and self sufficient.

Rain and more rain

I guess the weather is a pretty good indication of whether I'll be on my computer or not, right now it's pouring outside and the forcast shows rain for days. This is my 4th blog entry, I'm still learning about the world of blogs, and reading many that are of interest. So many of you out there have a mission, and are able to get your messages out, and use this as a platform. I work at my regular job of real estate mostly from home, or appointments close to home, I try to work regular hours, but when the weather is nice, I find time to be outside in the garden. btw. real estate is a great business for moms, I have 5 children, and have been able to work around their schedules for 9 years now.

I have been pondering the concept of multiple streams of income, and what I can do to make money doing what I love (gardening), I'm sure there are others out there who are making some money from their farms. I have wondered if anyone has started an online business selling from home. I am thinking of starting a website to sell fruit, nut, and edible trees and shrubs. Pondering all the costs, and the best way to create a website. I'm looking at doing it myself (using Dreamweaver) I have never built a website, but as a homesteader, I am adept at doing things independtly to save money, and plus I love creating stuff. So if anyone does read this, and has learned a great way to diversify on their farm I would love to hear about it.

The concept of mulitple streams of income, is that you should have at least 6 or 7 streams, be they your jobs, investments, inventions, creations etc. My husband and I have talked about ways to diversify, because you never know when one stream may dry up, and if you have other sources then you're not totally dependent on your day job. Plus for the homesteader at heart ,this puts you in control... and wouldn't it just be nice to work for yourself, and build your own business the way you want to.

Any thoughts or suggestions?