What to do with the whey after making cheese

I decided to learn to make cheese~ even if it isn't cost effective. Well, maybe it is. Every year I try to learn to make something new. I've never made cheese before so ....why not now?  Last week my cheese failed. So this week I bought raw milk from the Amish, added citric acid powder to the recipe and .."Whallah" !! Excellent mozzarella !! 1 lb of cheese. It was fun and excellent fun watching curd formation, solids and the final elasticity as I stretched it in taffy like motions.Doggone HOT though to work with. Fortunately I had rubber gloves from a rotisserie kit.

End result, right here. I salted the whey for to cook the mozzarella, so then I had ALL THIS left over !! Mozzarrella on the left....whey on the right. Salted whey.What to do with all this whey ???   One heck of a lot of waste and expensive to toss to the curb.

Here we go~   make bread.Just leave the salt out of the recipe. 

Lots of it.~~"Tis a terrible curse I'm under", says my Irish. ( Is THIS what I should be doing on my vacation week?......YEPPER !)  

Loaves, sandwich rolls, hot dog rolls, Italian bread.And I STILL have more to boot. Well, tomorrow I'll use the remaining whey for rye bread and whole wheat, if there's enough.If you're a homesteader, you KNOW that all is not learned in any one year. I have made bread sine the 1970's but never consistently and I never perfected my recipes. This year, cheese and bread making will be my new attention. The ONE THING I wish I could perfect is BAYONNE ROLLS !!!!   Bought at Reith's Bakery on Ave B.  (SIGH!!!!~~~  OH, to have their recipe !)  I wonder if it was the water???  Newark Bay??? Kill Van Kull ")

Making Jewish Rye Bread: the GOOD STUFF!

I have been searching for the great Jewish Rye bread recipe like you find in the deli section of the grocery store.It has a flavor I have never been able to duplicate..... until NOW. HAH!!   I found it. For years I've followed recipes and it never had that great taste.So, I shall share it with YOU~~~~below I will post the website but first my findings on this. It suggests malt barley extract....USE THAT one. I had a can of malt barley extract which looks like molasses. The other choices were malt ( as in a can of Carnation Malt) or honey. Been there, done that. Not the answer.You can buy malt barley extract online and it will last you a VERY LONG TIME because all you need is 1/2 TB per loaf. If you want to know WHERE to buy it locally, ask me and I will tell you.As you read the recipe, skim down to comment 163 where 'BILLIE' tells you to brush it with a cornstarch solution. This is for the glaze. Don't use egg wash. Use this.

Here is a white bread recipe.Here is also what happens when you don't pay attention. The bread came out yummy but lop sided because I let it rise too much on the last rising in the baking dish.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/01/new-york-deli-rye-bread/

Pottery Crocks

I do love making sauerkraut and it must be made in the cooler months of fall & winter to turn out right, according to the old timers up here. I think it has to do with the cabbage. There is Early cabbage and the later cabbages that mature in the fall.Tonight I am breaking down the last of my sauerkraut crocks. This is a 12 gallon crock that I bought  in early February from my favorite little store down the road from me.He attends Farmer's Markets and auctions and keeps his little farm store/deli stocked with all kinds of useful items. Anyone need a horse drawn plow?? He has 2 that are refurbished. So, on a day in February, I walked into the store and low and behold, there's this 12 gallon crock sitting in the corner under the produce shelves."What a purdy thang !! " I thought. I must have it.I checked for a 'DING' when I flicked it with my thumb and index finger and it sang !   "How much is that crock back there?", I asked.   "I dunno. Is there a price on it? I think there is", the store owner said. We both searched but saw nothing.So he said"Would you give me $68.00 ?" and "Yes", I said I would. I carried my groceries to the car and the owner carried the heavy 12 gallon crock.

As we approached the car door  we both saw the $75.00 price written on a piece of masking tape that blended into the coloringof the crock. That's why we missed seeing it.I had already paid for it and had no more money$$$$. But.....righteousness is the higher level of living if you are a follower of Christ. You must pursue that and not the loop holes of the Pharisees and Lawyers that Christ rebuked. And so, the next day I found $7.00 and went back to the store and paid the difference.

Tonight I broke down the last of the sauerkraut for the year.I attempted last week but it had little flavor. I waited a week and tonight it has that BITE that makes me love it so!!  

50 lb bags and a farm

It seems that there are 50 lb bags every place I look. Horse feed, chicken feed, sheep and goat, dogs and cats.You may not like snow, but it does have it's value to me . I can transport 50 - 100 lbs of feed via toboggan across an acre or 2 with little effort.

I just bought a 50 lb bag of semolina flour because it makes the best pasta. Whatever will I do with 50 lbs of semolina flour? Divide it 3 ways between friends who are like minded. Semolina is too expensive in the 20 oz. bag distributed to grocery stores to make it worth your time going to all the trouble to make. However, buying in large quantities drops the cost dramatically.Semolina flour also makes great pizza dough.I also buy 50 lb bags of carrots and divide it with my daughter.They keep in the cellar refrigerator for many months. 

I store my flours in gallon glass jars that I get free from places that make subs and use sweet peppers or pickles. They will give them to you.They are great storage containers and keep out those wormy webby evil creatures that make their homes in your spice rack . Plastic containers just don't keep them out.

Bullying and abuse in the animal kingdom

We are all aware of the abusive acts that humans impose upon animals and other human beings who cannot fight back.,but I have seen similar  miserable behaviors dished out by animals and birds.Animals are territorial and they are jealous. They establish a pecking order and will kill the weak.Sometimes they will share and go to great lengths to help others and other times ~ "It's all about me".I noticed that when my children were growing up that 2 friwnds together got along fine, but not 3 friends. The third caused conflict. I have seen the same pattern with horses.My third horse was always tip toeing into the barn to get at a morsal of hay and at the slightest whim was chased out.I've had roosters freeze to death in the snow because the head honcho refused to allow him into the coop for warmth. I bought a winter coat for my Belgian and had one ordered for the Percheron. It turned out that the one for the Belgian was a few inches too small. Therefore I switched and ordered a larger one for the Belgian and gave his to the Percheron cross.Even though he was wearing his new coat, he grew angry that the Percheron(Misty) had his previous  coat.He bit her, he chased her, he refused to allow her into the barn to eat.After 24 hours he was a better boy and got over it but he lost respect in my sight.Now, ONE of them figured out how to open the chain on the gate!!!   Wide open 2 days in a row !!   I want to know who's doing that?  (I'll bet it's the goats).

My pretty girl Misty

This is my pretty mare Misty. She's a Percheron.Quarter horse cross who is jet black and beautiful! (The camera flash creates brown highlights that are not her characteristic colors)

She's a beautiful horse who needs training and I'm fed up trying to progress at my place because of soggy wet ground or frozen ground that inhibits any activity here. 

So I called my friend Melissa McHenry who trains horses and is a real sweetheart and adores horses and the next thing I knew.....Misty was being trailored to Bloomsburg for training camp. 

I had to sew her coat with fishing line because she tore it up by her withers.But only good ol' DUCT TAPE would do the real job of holding it together (hidden from sight).And so I posted 60 different purposes for duct tape that will get you out of a jam (on F.B.)

She nickers across the driveway to other horses. She's a social gal who loves company...and people (:>

Winter Sports for Chickens !!

The new group of Leghorn chickens have finally made it out of the cellar and into the nursery coop outside.They hatched from the incubator and 25 peeps yelled Happy New Year !!!!  Now, seven weeks later,  12 of them were crowing in the cellar.Yes, I have 12 roosters in this bunch.Now they are becoming acquainted with their new house,whispering to each other,"WOW, this is a mansion!". They scratch through the fresh pine shavings and can actually run around.

This little guy stayed glued to the door and kept looking outside , probably in wonder of the environment around him. "You mean there's more to life than the four walls of that brooder?" 

I believe in winter sports for chickens , so I took them for a toboggan ride across the farm .I have five brooders similar to this one but I prefer to make less trips so half the chickens went into each trip. 

I actually think they liked it. They had never seen the sun before.Their parents live in the adult coop on the other side of  the house, about 1.5 acres away.Eventually they'll join them.I still have 25 Jersey Giant peeps in the basement , but they are still little.They will take over the nursery coop in another 2 weeks or so. I shall look forward to new crowing from the bottom of the cellar stairs.

The daylight hours are growing longer and egg laying is dramatically picking up. Some renegade hens send me on egg hunts to the spring house, under junked appliances out back and now recently......this is why you must remember to close your car windows at night. A sudden leap in the car while you're racing against the clock to get to work........just might make you late. This is why I must always keep an extra clean uniform handy , waiting to greet me from its hanger. I never know WHAT experiences these animals will bring on any given day.