Goat Song

My daughter, Candace, makes regular runs to the library and periodically brings me books that she thinks I'll find interesting. Lately they've been on gardening and farming. Um, I wonder why?

Of all the books that she's brought me - this one: Goat Song written by Brad Kessler, absolutely captured my heart. I just about couldn't put it down.

Goat Song is Brad's journal about he and Dona's (his wife) fresh experience in the world of farmsteading acquiring a few Nubian dairy goats.

It's a journal that involves food, culture and language says Mark Kurlansky and he (Brad) seduces with words.

I couldn't agree more.

"An urban dweller drawn to the land starts a pastoral life with goats on a small farm in Vermont. Wonderful descriptions of how people from many different cultures have both a spiritual and a poetic connection with being a shepherd" writes Temple Grandin.

I think that's why, in this season of my life, I was drawn and continue to be so. There's nothing so special as sharing a good read with the one you love and as I read portions to my pastor husband we had moments where we laughed and cried and pondered a bit more deeply - through Goat Song.

Goat Song

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2010/03/goat-song.html

Goat Milk Cheese

I mentioned here that I've been interested in reading "goat blogs" and after going from link to link ( do you ever do that?) I ran across this little farm in Canada and the post below on making goat cheese caught my eye.

The owner of Joybilee Farms in Canada writes:

Now that the garden has been blasted with frost, I have time to make cheese. Our pure bredSaanan milk goats give us two gallons of milk every morning. We milk only in the mornings and let theSaanans feed their babies (plus any other goats that find the udder) during the day.

We are milking 4 goats. I make cheese 3 times a week, on alternate days. 2 gallons (8 litres) of milk makes about 1 lb. (500 to 700 grams) of hard cheese. We go through a lb. of cheese each week so that leaves two lbs. each week, for putting by for the winter. We milk only in the mornings and let the Saanans feed their babies (plus any other goats that find the udder) during the day.

Robin made a cheese press so that I could create hard cheeses like cheddar, brick, and Monterrey jack cheese. Here's what it looks like:

The container is a plastic food safe jar, top cut off, that I punched with a heated knitting needle to create drainage holes. I line it with a curity gauze diaper (purchased just for cheese making). Place the drained curds in and press with an oak follower, turned by Robin on his lathe, from recycled pallet wood. The stand is a piece of plywood, sized to fit into a kitchen sink. The holders are a recycled broom handle.

The weights are created from new, clean, building bricks. Each brick weighs 5lbs. and 4 are needed to press a hard cheese.

My cheese recipe book is The Cheesemaker'sManual by Margaret P. Morris
This manual combines both the scientific and practical aspects of small scale cheesemaking. For both the home and on-farm cheesemaker!

Over 50 different recipes for fresh, soft, hard and washed rind cheeses. I like the fact that it does present scientific explanations and not just recipes. That makes it possible to do your own trouble shooting.

Another book I use is Mary Toth's, "Goats Produce, Too" which has recipes and is much more basic, but a good starting point.

Goat Milk Cheese

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2009/09/goat-milk-cheese.html

The Benefits of Goat Milk Lotion and Soap

The other day, I was reflecting to a time in my life about twenty-five years ago when I raised a few dairy goats on a little "farm" in North Texas. And, lately, I've been thinking about goats again. And recently started reading some "Goat Blogs." Mary at Annie's Goat Hill is one of them. As a matter of fact - she makes (and sells) goat soap and lotion of which I recently sent in my second order cause I LOVE the stuff!

On a side note about the benefits of goat soap and lotion:

Did you know that goat milk is the only milk that contains capric-capryllic triglyceride, which helps moisturize the skin and contributes to the softness of the soap? And, did yo know that goat milk contains over 50 nutrients, minerals, acids and enzymes that serve to nourish and revitalize dehydrated skin? No joke - it does!

According to my new goat magazine "people have been using goat milk for centuries to improve skin and enhance beauty. The ancient Egyptians considered a milk bath the ultimate in luxurious living and Cleopatra regularly bathed in pure milk. Modern science has discovered that goat milk soap has a pH similar to that of human skin and regular use of goat milk soap will maintain a moisture balance that results in smoother, softer skin." It's true. I think I need another order from Mary before you all buy it up.

The Benefits of Goat Milk Lotion and Soap

http://lylahledner.blogspot.com/2009/09/benefits-of-goat-milk-lotion-and-soap.html