Post by barefootfarmer on Jan 8, 2018 9:12:45 GMT -5
Nelly is 1 week fresh and giving 8 gallons a day while her daughter Ella is 3 weeks fresh and is pushing 6 gallons as a first time freshener. I really need to up my cheese making game.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I've hit the point of too much milk. We kept Nelly's heifer calf while Ella's went back to her original owner as agreed. We have four hogs that needed to go in to the butcher since before the holidays but there wasn't room for them. They will be going in by the end of this week. I had downsized the chickens last summer to less than 24 layers. We downsized the beef as well for the winter. Primarily because we need to go through and re-do fencing this spring.
I guess we could get another pig or two, but I don't know if I could sell them. Once I stopped selling milk, it seems that my pool of buyers of my pork dried up too. As it is, we still have a half hog in our freezer and we'll be putting two of the current four in my freezer if a buyer doesn't step up soon. Our family has shrunk down to just two who eat pork.
So far my cheese making isn't going the way I had dreamed. I've got vinegar based ricotta coming out of my ears and I'm working on my second batch of feta. The feta recipe uses 4.5 gallons at a time. I'm using my cream separator to feed my coffee with cream addiction. But it seems that I'm having a hard time finding a recipe for hard cheese that is quick and true. Today I'm going to try the queso fresco recipe that uses both rennet and culture- I think I read where Kelsey recommended one. Two of us are yogurt eaters, but even that doesn't use up enough milk.
Part of my problem is that I really only have Sunday and Monday to spend time on making cheese uninterrupted. I've still got a 3 hour commute the rest of the week until June. I need some ideas for cheese that can use a lot of milk but not take up my whole day making it. Maybe that's just not practical with my schedule right now. I do have an extra fridge with no freezer that I could use to age cheese, a food saver, a pint or more of single strength rennet, a lot of various cultures and a cheese press from homesteader supply that is supposed to make a 5lb batch of cheese, oh- and a roll of those plyban sheets. I wish I could have someone come to my kitchen and just walk me through a few recipes using what I have on hand. I feel that I get so overwhelmed with all different recipes and ways to do them that I freeze.
I don't want to add more animals to the farm to use up the milk. I do want to make cheese my family will love. Definitely feeling overwhelmed and less than confident in my abilities right now. Open to suggestions.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I've hit the point of too much milk. We kept Nelly's heifer calf while Ella's went back to her original owner as agreed. We have four hogs that needed to go in to the butcher since before the holidays but there wasn't room for them. They will be going in by the end of this week. I had downsized the chickens last summer to less than 24 layers. We downsized the beef as well for the winter. Primarily because we need to go through and re-do fencing this spring.
I guess we could get another pig or two, but I don't know if I could sell them. Once I stopped selling milk, it seems that my pool of buyers of my pork dried up too. As it is, we still have a half hog in our freezer and we'll be putting two of the current four in my freezer if a buyer doesn't step up soon. Our family has shrunk down to just two who eat pork.
So far my cheese making isn't going the way I had dreamed. I've got vinegar based ricotta coming out of my ears and I'm working on my second batch of feta. The feta recipe uses 4.5 gallons at a time. I'm using my cream separator to feed my coffee with cream addiction. But it seems that I'm having a hard time finding a recipe for hard cheese that is quick and true. Today I'm going to try the queso fresco recipe that uses both rennet and culture- I think I read where Kelsey recommended one. Two of us are yogurt eaters, but even that doesn't use up enough milk.
Part of my problem is that I really only have Sunday and Monday to spend time on making cheese uninterrupted. I've still got a 3 hour commute the rest of the week until June. I need some ideas for cheese that can use a lot of milk but not take up my whole day making it. Maybe that's just not practical with my schedule right now. I do have an extra fridge with no freezer that I could use to age cheese, a food saver, a pint or more of single strength rennet, a lot of various cultures and a cheese press from homesteader supply that is supposed to make a 5lb batch of cheese, oh- and a roll of those plyban sheets. I wish I could have someone come to my kitchen and just walk me through a few recipes using what I have on hand. I feel that I get so overwhelmed with all different recipes and ways to do them that I freeze.
I don't want to add more animals to the farm to use up the milk. I do want to make cheese my family will love. Definitely feeling overwhelmed and less than confident in my abilities right now. Open to suggestions.