Its Really Got My Goat's Cheese

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how I got my goats together. One was called Willy the Billy and the other called Gertie. After a few shenanigans, one boy kid and a new milk stand later, we were ready to start milking.

 

Gertie is a treasure to milk. She loves her daily routine and gladly runs down to the milking stand and jumps up happily, ready to begin. She's not the most prolific milker, but after rounds of teas and coffees, the cat's percentage and the weekly spillage, we still have enough left to make some cheese.

We thought we'd try our hand at something simple to begin with so we started with some soft goat's cheese much like ricotta. This was so easy. We just heated the milk to 37 degrees celcius, added a few drops of rennet (later we discovered lemon juice works too) and waited about 20 mins for the milk to turn into curds and whey. We cut the curds into squares with a knife (this, by the whey, feels really good), wrapped it in muslin and hung it over a bowl to drain.

A few hours later, we had goat's cheese. It was astoundingly easy and tasted really good. In future I may add a few herbs and some salt and it would be just perfect. We made this several time and received lots of positive reinforcement, which both Jess and I are really into.

Buoyed by our own success and feeling rather cheesy, we decided to make one of our all time favourites.

“What does a cheese say when he looks in the mirror? HALLOUMI!”

The beginning of the process is very similar, however after the cutting of the curds we then let it sit for half hour, then heated it all up again (whey included) to 38 degrees Celsius. After this we made a very simply cheese press from a saucepan, with a steamer on top, lined with muslin, poured the curds and whey in and placed a plate on top, with something heavy on top of the plate. We left ours overnight, because we started late, but I think an hour or so should do it.

The next day, once it was firm, we sliced it up, sprinkled salt over our segments (we may have overdone this a little, but luckily we're a salt loving group) and heated the whey to 85 degrees, poaching the halloumi slices, which show ready when they float to the surface and can be removed. We had a sterilised container ready with left over whey (with added salt) and chucked them in. This kept in the fridge for a day before we were ready to eat it.

We cooked couscous, roasted vegetables and fried up our halloumi with it. It was fantastic. Our whole group loved the meal, and James, who was working nights, came back and devoured all the left overs at 4 in the morning. He was really happy. It was the first time he'd ever seen anything like it.

We've started putting our left over milk in the freezer, ready for our next cheesy project, which we think might be mozzarella.

So as the mad rush of spring and everything that comes with it draws to and end, I thought I'd take a look back over April, May and June. Spring at Cerenety gets all the animals a little frisky. We have mating alpacas, rowdy rabbits and horny hens,... we have ewes giving birth, orphan lambs to bottle feed, baby rabbits popping out here there and everywhere, rescue baby crows and goats with false pregnancies. Whoever said living in the countryside was an education certainly got it right!

So how did we do? Well I'll start from the very beginning: 

We're hoping that our visiting male stud alpaca, Adam lived up to his name and our 2 females are currently with child (or with alpaca). Attempting to wrestle Adam back into the van after he had 'done the deed' is an experience I'll never forget. Thanks to our big, strong volunteer Daren, we managed to 'tame the beast' and get him home. The gestation period of alpacas is 11 months, so we're hoping that they'll be due sometime around March 2013.

The rabbits and chickens don't take so long, they start in spring and give birth in spring, so we currently have tiny baby rabbits and a host of chicks. Somehow one of the eggs managed to roll underneath our sitting duck, who was extremely confused when a chicken hatched out from underneath her. We are therefore rearing 'Chuck' (an ingenious name thought up by my aunt combining chick and duck!) in a slipper in the house. She/He is doing very well, if a little baffled by it's parentage.

Our own lambs that were born on site are doing fabulously. Their mums Mini and Nancy, which were our first orphans from 4 years ago, are brilliant. Farmers often take the smallest lamb away if a ewe has triplets but we were able to leave Mini with all of hers as she has lots of milk and has looked after them extremely well.

Our orphan lambs finally seem strong and healthy now. Unfortunately we had some fatalities which always happens when you're raising orphans, however we have also had some miracles. Over the last few months Lambzilla has suffered from eye infections, joint infections and parasites, but with some medication, much work and A LOT of love and attention from everyone here at Cerenety, he seems to have come through the worst of it and is now running around the field, bleating pitifully at all passing campers in order to get cuddles. We also have Dotty, Heatie, Cleo and Tommy, all of which have now been weened and are strong and healthy.

Finally our goats, Gertie and Daisy suddenly started fighting one day last week, which was very odd as they are usually joined at the hip. We discovered that Gertie was having a false pregnancy. We therefore decided to get a Billy goat to cover both our females, giving us kids next spring and more importantly a never ending supply of warm frothy milk. So yesterday we went to Holsworthy to pick up a 3 month old billy goat. We have named him Willy the Billy, and he's very happily munching hay in one of the stables as I type.

So... after the craziness of spring, I'm ready for what the summer will bring. Ponies to train, sheep to shear and Flipper to play with. The fun never stops!

Celli

First post of the year

So it seems over night, life at Cerenety changed dramatically for the better.

Short days of freezing hands, feet, noses and asses followed by long nights of boredom finally gave way to spring last week. And the whole of Cerenety celebrated. 

Goats started springing, ponies began to gallop and roll, sheep upped their trotting and alpacas decided it was time for some lovin'. Spring has definitely arrived.

The grass is starting to grow at Cerenety and with it the snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells. Provided that Daisy and Gerty (our very friendly goats) don't munch them, the flowers should be here for some time yet.
We're working hard now that the days are longer. We've put in a new shower in the field, built a huge new chicken area for our revered egg providers, created a shelter to give sanctuary from the British rain and made a small nursery of indigenous plants and trees.


 I'm also in the middle of completing some slightly more exciting (if not quite so useful) tasks at Cerenety. Yesterday I managed to teach my collie Flipper to jump almost every fence on the land... Torrie the pony can now shake hands for treats... and the alpacas have had an interesting (if unusual) haircut.
Well at least i'm not making towers out of orange pith like I was a month ago...



All hail spring!!!