Blog Update!

Ok, so making cheese is a bit of work. Today I made Ricotta and Halloumi (grill-able) cheese, and I've got a batch of Buttermilk Cheddar going right now. I'm excited about FINALLY being able to use the cheese press that I made a few weeks ago (right before going on a soft cheese -- read: cheese that doesn't need pressing -- binge). Here's the new one. Notice how it does not require two walls and a half dozen other things to stay up. I like that feature best.

I also fixed up the updated chicken coop. It kind of fell apart while I was out of town, and although when balanced correctly it stayed up, it was not easy to get into. Now it should be fine.

The top part (with the blue tarp) was the original coop. Hannah and Ali helped me make the bottom part. It needed to be a little bigger, since we doubled the size of our flock from four to eight. The chickens like it more too because they can roost higher off the ground. Hopefully they will feel safer that way. In the past, we've had chickens decide to roost in trees and on the fence at night, necessitating late night capture of wayward chickens -- not fun. Hopefully we will be able to let them out into the rest of the enclosure soon. When we did last week, they all escaped into various neighbor's yards. Apparently, they are small enough to get through holes in the fence that the bigger chickens cannot.

I have been having a lot of fun at farmer's markets lately. I was really hoping to have time to do some canning this year... I wanted to invent a salsa recipe designed to go on burgers. I think that may have to wait until next year though, as I'm running out of time this summer. Unfortunately, because of pests, we have not been able to have gardens in this house. Two pests in particular: Bella and Heidi.

Heidi demonstrating why we don't have a garden. Bella getting into something she shouldn't.

Nope, fences don't help.

Enjoy your week everyone! I think I'm going to have a glass of home brew beer and watch some Big Bang Theory...

Making Cheese Is Not Work.

Work. Eight hours a day. Five days a week. Vacations, holidays, sick time.

Makes me tired just to think about it. No wonder people come home and zone out in front of the TV. No wonder I come home and zone out in front of the TV. But that's man's lot in life, right? Not necessarily. I read somewhere, probably in a book by Daniel Quinn, that hunter gatherers work approximately 25 hours a week. No vacations or weekends, of course, but does one really need that after a 4-5 hour day? And this work isn't manufacturing auto parts or talking to rude people who think its your fault their wireless modem doesn't work. This work is gathering tubers. Or making baskets. Fishing, sometimes. That's my idea of a nice weekend right there. And that's how we have evolved to live for tens of thousands of years. Screw farming, what we should really be going back to is hunting and gathering.

That's how cheesemaking feels to me. Its pretty cool. I could probably do five things while making cheese if I wanted to. Tonight I am making robiola (recipe at the end) and blogging. And talking with Emma and Hannah and Ali. And having some homemade mead.

To make this cheese I bring the cheese up to temp, add starter, wait for 4 hours, add rennet, wait overnight, and then cut curds and mold the cheese. Now that is a chill cheese. (By the way... in the last post Ali suggested that she messed up my Robiola cheese because the curds didn't form well. Nope, not at all. I tried a store brand milk and got burned. Use Praire Farms.)

The next question is of course how to incorporate this into life, and that's something I haven't quite worked out yet. I suppose Ali and I could move to the UP and pay cash for a bunch of property and just live, but that's not very realistic. We like seeing other people sometimes. And watching TV. Permaculture might be an acceptable compromise, we'll see.




http://www.cheesemaking.com/Robiola.html