Blessed are the Cheesemakers

Mmmm...raw goat's milk.  Milked by my own hands.

There's that yummy cream climbing up the sides.  I scoop it off every morning before we drink the milk. Once I have a cup or two of cream, I make butter.  I've already done it once and it is delicious!  It's not quite as hard as cow's milk butter.  Toast with some real butter and some blueberry jam given to me from some friends and I'm in heaven.

I decided to try my hand at goats cheese.

Curds! We have curds!  That's all goats cheese is, the curds of the milk.

Curds dripping from a cheesecloth.

The leftover whey.  I tried to make ricotta out of it but failed miserably.  Next time I'll just boil rice or pasta in it, in order to get the good protein out of it and into our bodies.

Cheese!  I didn't actually get to eat any of it; I gave it to my grandmother.  I'm making more tomorrow and can't decide what kinds of herbs to put in it.  Should I go with an herb-y cheese and put dill in it?  Basil?  Or go with the more palatable approach and put honey or cinnamon in it?  I'm looking forward to experimenting with it.

We got some chicks from Murray McMurray Hatcheries.  They came in the mail!

20 Buff Rocks and 10 Dark Cornish, straight runs.  We've already decided to let the roosters grow to about 5 months and butcher them all at once.  The Dark Cornish are supposed to be good meat birds, but also good brooders.  The plan is to keep the flock going on it's own, so hopefully we'll have a few hens go broody and raise some chicks of their own next year.