Cedar Green Farm

These days, one finds chèvre in boutique and gourmet restaurants, served with fresh sourdough. But chèvre, or cheese made from goat milk, is possibly the oldest way of making cheese. Many cultures for many centuries have made many forms of chèvre. But for today, we will focus on the soft, spreadable cheese North Americans know by name, and by price.

We try to keep some goats in milk year round, so when a few are kidding we are always drying up a few. This way we can have fresh milk daily. Sometimes we have 5 or 6 goats in milk at the same time so there are times when we are almost drowning in milk. This is the time to preserve it: make yogurt, ice cream, or cheese.

I have made cheddar, mozzarella and chevre fairly often, but the easiest to make is probably chevre. So, let’s make cheese!

Equipment and Ingredients:

• 1 gallon of fresh, raw goat milk
• Thermometer
• Colander
• cheesecloth
• Large Stainless steel pot with a lid
• Stainless steel stirring spoon
• Measuring spoons
• Small glass jar
• Mesophilic culture (I use M100)
• Rennet

Directions:
 

1. Sterilize your equipment so you the only bacteria you grow is your cheese culture!
2. Warm the Milk
   Warm the milk to 86F. Remove from heat. 
3. Add your culture
   Allow the milk to cool to 76°. Sprinkle in ¼ teaspoon of direct set mesophilic culture. Allow to sit for a minute or two and then gently stir in to fully incorporate.
4. Prepare the rennet
   Dissolve 2 drops of liquid animal rennet into 5T of cool water
   Add 1 tablespoon of diluted rennet and gently stir in an up and down motion. Do not over mix.
   Allow the cultured milk to sit, undisturbed, for 18-24 hours at room temperature. 
5. Drain the curd
   Your cultured milk should be nicely thickened. If you notice a greenish liquid around the cheese don’t panic. It’s whey.
   Place 3 or 4 layers of cheesecloth over a colander that is inside a pot or pan. Gather up the corners of the cloth, tie together, and hang in a convenient location. Allow the cheese to drain for 6 – 12 hours, depending on how dry you like your cheese.  Use the whey in another recipe or feed to your animals.
6. Salt, flavor and enjoy!
   Remove the cheese from the cheesecloth, put into a large bowl, and salt to taste while stirring. You can also add herbs, dried fruit, nuts, garlic or chives. Try it on a slice of fresh sourdough or a cracker!
   
   Note: Looking for cheese culture and rennet in Canada? Check out Glen Gary Cheesemaking and Gourmet Warehouse.
   

Make your own apple cider vinegar from scrap apples!

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 gallon water (4 litres)
• Apple peels and cores

Instructions

1. Collect your apple peelings and put them in a gallon glass jar/container. Those large pickle jars from Costco, or from the thrift store, work perfectly. Even a large glass cookie jar will work.
2. Once your jar is filled with peelings, cover it with a water/sugar syrup made from 1 quart of boiling water with 1 cup of white sugar dissolved in it. Your peels might float a bit. Some people weight it down with something so they don’t float. I don’t bother.
3. Set your jar in a cool, dark-ish location (I used my laundry room) and cover the jar with cheese cloth and an elastic, making sure it is thick enough that fruit flies won’t get in. Because they will try!
4. Stir once a day for 1 week.
5. After a week, strain the apple peels through cheese cloth and allow to drain over a bowl overnight, to collect the juice. Then give the cheese cloth a good squeeze, and feed the apple peels to the chickens/pigs.
6. Pour the strained juice back into the jar and cover with cheese cloth again.
7. Stir once a day.
8. Store in a cool location out of direct light for 6 weeks or until it tastes as strong as you’d like it.
9. Bottle and store in your pantry or fridge indefinitely. Enjoy!

Notes

If you notice mold on your apple cider vinegar at any stage, skim it off and keep going. I have never experienced mold growth but have read that it can happen.

Some people weight their apple peels down during the first week so no apple peels are exposed to air. They have a tendency to float. You can do this if you like, but as long as you stir it once a day I don’t think it is necessary, and I never bother.

Try this with other fruit peels! Peach and pear make a lovely, delicate vinegar.

The Green Gardener’s Soap makes a beautiful, hard bar of soap combining the nourishing properties of hemp oil with the rejuvenating and anti-aging properties of green tea.

Ingredients

• 32 ozs. Palm Oil (Sustainably Sourced)
• 27 ozs. Coconut Oil 76
• 16 ozs. Hemp Oil
• 15 ozs. Olive Oil Pomace
• 10 drops of Vitamin E Oil
• 13 ozs. Lye (Sodium Hydroxide)
• 30 ozs. Green Tea (yes, make up a batch of strong tea)
• 4 ozs. Peppermint essential oil or oils of your choice.
• 1-2 tsps. of Kaolin Clay (Optional)

Instructions

1. Combine the oils in a large pot and melt until almost totally melted. Turn off heat.
2. Combine the lye with the green tea.
3. Take the temperature of both and add the lye mixture to the oil mixture when the temperatures are the same. As long as the temperatures of both are within 5 degrees F of each other, and are between 90F and 120F, you can combine them.
4. Blend with an electric hand mixer (stick blender) until the soap reaches trace.
5. Working quickly to avoid cooling, separate ¼ of the mixture into a different bowl
6. Pour the rest into your prepared mold.
7. Quickly mix the clay with the ¼ batch. Then pour on top of the soap that is already in the mold.
8. Cover with plastic wrap and then wrap the batch well with a towel.
9. Store in a warm place (70 F) for 24 hours.
10. Remove soap from mold and cut into pieces.
11. Place soap pieces on edge on a towel where they aren’t touching each other (kind of like dominoes) so they can harden and finish the soap making process. Leave for 3-4 weeks before using.