Spring Rains

I love the green after a spring rain. The clean smell. The hope that the leaves finally come and my allergies going with them... A funny thing age. I use to hold it over my sister that I was not allergic to everything and didn't have asthma like she did... Well, it comes to you in time...

Dr. Brown died. He was a Food Science Proff at Cornell. He dealt with the cheeseheads like me. I was disappointed when he wasn't at the PPS meeting last Wednesday. I liked the conversations with him. He challenged me and we always had a conversation that made me think about where I was going with various cheese projects. I didn't always agree with him, but what is a friendship if you always agree on things? I made a brief appearance at the funeral. I missed the calling hours and didn't know him that well, so didn't feel right in staying and all. I liked him and I have this thing about funerals and people I like and respect. You will be missed Dave Brown! Darn it, you will not judge my cheeses at the NYS Fair!

I am hopeful and frustrated. The lean months are better this year, but they still bring stress. The lack of computer has made this especially difficult. It looks like it is not as easy to reclaim the computer as I thought. Library visits... This will be remedied with a new computer and eventual fix of the old.

Farm stand will be open in a couple of weeks!

Lambs are getting bigger. Moose is second in line for a calf. Grass is growing. I start cheesing again pretty soon.

I will be looking into the idea of the book on starting a dairy processing business.

April showers bring May flowers

With homeschooling, we have this opportunity to teach Claire these wonderful poems and sayings that go with life. Some of them we learned in school, others from parents or books. Claire likes to improvise when she cannot remember some of them. This is a favorite one today as there are no sun rays beaming down to earth and after lessons, she was relegated to runnign errands for us and our neighbor (with Dave). Me, I have to go to library to use computer.

Email is not working great on this computer, so I will try another one. Maybe. I may just go home and forget about trying to stay in contact with the world outside of Madison, NY.

Dave asked to have our farm de-listed with our agent. I am not sure how he worded it, but he is eternally going to try to make things "smooth" for the relationship with him and whomever he is talking to ont he phone. He can be cuttingly to the point with me, but he is a huge softy with others. Tom may try to sell his farm as well. Can we put them together for a price that will make all people happy? He is in pain and I hope he stops this whole idea. Milking cows was not suppose to be penence for sins.

In moments of stress, I accidently double paid my cheese loan payment last month! Scrambling to make up for that. Never pay bills while stressed. Never do anything financial when stressed.

Got blue cheese cultures. Want to play with this one blue recipe. The devon milk and a blue is hauntlingly good. I have cheese supplies to sell in the farm store now. Will try to get some of that together as soon as I can. Hope to officially open it on the first weekend of May. I finally got a reluctant ok from Dave. I think it will only be good. The cheese was decent this make and I have local products collected for sale. I did give up Hamilton. I need a local outlet. The Peppermill may be a good location as well. Leslie suggested I think about it. I like the idea. We will see.

Happy spring! (sheep are out, sure sign of spring for me).

Waiting Sucks

Ok, I should not start with a bad word. I am not a patient person. I try hard to be, but I vent. I need to and will buy a bottle of wine tonight...

We are trying to sell the farm and the cheese business. It is not because I don't like what I am doing or am not making money. We have family health stuff to deal with in MA. I am tired. I can make cheese anywhere.

I have offers for the cheese business. If we stay, do I sell this? What do I do then? If it is here will it make the farm easier or harder to sell? There is over 600# of cheese in the cooler. Do I retail it local? Do I wholesale it? Do we open the farm store like planned as though we will be here always? Should I make more cheese? Should I just take the whole thing with us? Do I sell and repopulate a plant somewhere else?????

I hate unknowns like this. Especailly when I have to deal with a variable tempered husband who is less fun to live with when there are so many unknowns.

Next thing to ponder... where? Washington County NY, VT, Berkshires, NH... All have their plus and minus arguments. I just want a simple farmstead and make cheese. I want my Kerry cows and maybe a devon or two for butter and blue cheese. I want calm and order. (what was that calm and order?).

I got the plant and the Cut and wrap room cleaned. I did leave that for a day. I hate to do that, but I hurt so much. It was a nice thing to ponder everything with the steam coming from the vat and the cool breeze from the cracked open window. I have to finish the boiler room and get the next round of cheeses waxed. That will be tomorrow and Thursday. Tomorrow I will have to confirm that people are or are not coming to the cheese workshop this weekend. Did that again... you know they say they are coming... I don't market and then they don't send deposit. Busy life means loose ends.

Think happy cheese thoughts!

Beeswax

I officially have over 600# in the coolers now. Beeswaxed all the Gouda. Have a lovely burgundy colour I made for the Havarti and black for the Dunlop. Cut hand bad while chipping out beeswax. Had to have Tim (cow breeder) drop off the arm length gloves to make cheese yesterday. Also dropped one of the wheels in the wax (hand hurt + thin wheel = splash). Wax makes a mess.

Beeswax is hard to work with. Brittle. You have to use another "oil" to work with it. Vegetable shortning, olive oil, mineral oil or whey butter are the better ones to work with. It imparts a mead flovor through the cheese. Works nice on gouda. Not so good the cheddar types.

I am tired, but happy that cheese making is coming along as well as it has this year.

It Took the Radish

Well the computer finally took the radish. It limped through taxes and responces to the MOA signing for the Kerry Cattle Society and then it kept throwing errors at me. I am now at the library. Have a cold. It is blustery. I made about 90# of cheese in that little vat of mine! Woof!

Have over 500# in the coolers now. This is nice. Waxing left and right. Dunlop, Havarti (one batch), Honey Gouda...

People are interested in the farm. I don't think the message is getting out there correctly. After the computer thing is sorted, I'll be working on that...

Have to keep going. I only have 30 minutes on this thing.

New Farmers

I was a new farmer once. I was and am still a hopless dreamer. Marge thinks that is why we get on so well. Dreamers actually have a possible job in life. They call them "Planners". This can be a Conservation Specialist (doing conservation plans), CNMP plans if you want to consider extra large farms, Financial Planner (so not me), consultant who does business plans... A lot of non-profit, educational and government types also have this planning bit about them. See there is more to dreamers than just pretty clouds to look at!

I have to do this talk about Business Plans tomorrow. I like the process of business planning. Dave thinks it is a waste of time. Sucks to be perfect! I like it because I can put all of the contingencies in paper and then use this as a "To Do" list. Being organizationally challenged, I need "to do" lists to function.

Business Plans can serve a few functions. They can get you financing. They can assist you in planning an new enterprise. They can be adapted for a grant to make it sound like you know what you are talking about... I've used them for all of the above.

My farmstead cheese business plan was the most fun to write. See, I am an obsessive planner if I use the words "fun" and "business plan" in the same sentence. It is different than a term paper. More like a strategic plan.

I am roughly on plan. A few things like a compressor that cooked Christmas cheeses in November, a boiler guy that didn't give me what I asked for and then charged me more for it... Little thinks like that were kinda planned for. After the nervous break down... I started to make more cheese.

I am making cheese most every day right now. Gouda yesterday. Havarti today. Over 60# of cheese and after my talk for the New Farmers program my county extension person is hosting, I will be making yoghurt and setting some milk up for Quark. Cheese cheese cheese. A great thing happened today too. A local woman came by to get milk for cheese making. She is going to try ricotta and fresh moz. I sold her a half-pint of rennet. She is getting into the whole cheese thing.

Right now I also have to revisit the Marketing Plan. Package design, labels, UPC codes, etc, regional focus this year... Wooohooo, more cheese, more planning!

New Cheese Season

I did survive the winter. Winter is still here, but I am more opptomistic about things. A lot has happened... All cheesy things too.

Got to go to Long Island to help with the shooting of an t.v. show called "Kitchen Nightmares" with this chef Gordon Ramsey. The premise is that he goes into a restaurant in trouble and tries various things to help them succeed rather than fail. This restaurant was an Italian one. Tuscan influence I believe. I was there to make sure the fresh mozzarella bit worked out. I had many contingencies planned for. Even brought stuff to do the direct acidified version if needed (tricky for a newbie who needs it "on" for the camera. They did do a good stretch for the camera. He got bits about the making of the actual curd wrong, but he did do great for such short notice and only working with this buffalo moz. in the UK. It was fun and I enjoyed the whole bit.

After that, I went up to Orford, NH to work with Bruce and Christine Balch with their 100% milking devon herd. BOY was that milk different than Kerry and Ayrshire milk. Very high fat and solids. Like working with jersey milk, onlu not musky like that milk can get. I liked the color, the clean smell and the way it made a lactic curd (quark). Any of you considering a blue cheese, get yourself a herd of these cows! I am impressed.

I did learn that I do not like the vats made up there in NH. The man was helpful and did take questions at all hours, but the vat had a 2 degree difference from the top to the bottom for a raw milk cheese. The agitator was very quick, even at the low speed and you have to be a rather tall person to work in the 35 gal. vat. It was designed to be a chevre vat I guess. That is about all I would recommend it for.

Started to make cheese for the year. Commercial batches, not the stuff I do on the kitchen or cut&wrap room counter. Made my standard, gouda. Dave and I piped over the hot water from the propane hot water heater to help stabilize the cook temperature. That made things better.

I have been experimenting with blue cheeses for the last month. The devon milk intregued me. I have this bloomy rind/blue thing in mind using those Italian molds I bought 3 years ago and never fully utilized. That and I will play with bloomy/surface rind cheeses with those moulds regardless of the blue thing going on..

Computer is not in a happy place and has to be replaced.

Sheep had lambs. I think the high grain prices will spell the end of many flocks this year. I already heard about a couple rather large flocks selling out. Too bad. They use to be such a great "beginner" farmer animal. I love the calm, simple needs of a sheep. They are also wonderful for children to work with. Who can resist lambs in the spring? They are Maple Sugar for me (early spring thing).

Have to get back to getting farm stand ready for the season...

From COMFOOD about the election from another Farmer

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/14/7062/

The Capital Times <http://www.madison.com/tct/>
Jim Goodman:
Clinton, Obama must answer to farmersJim Goodman ?
2/14/2008 7:12 am

The Wisconsin primary is less than a week away, and I have some questions for the Democratic candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.I would like to be enthusiastic about this election, I really would. After the past eight years, who wouldn't be ready for the "change" that they talk about? Even the Republicans are talking about change.It seems, however, that the American people may have little to say about what that change will be. The media have already decided who the viable candidates are, and the superdelegates may decide who the Democratic nominee will be. We are supposed to act like a nation of sheep and just go along, but perhaps this time we won't.Wisconsin is a state where agriculture is still important, and while farming may not be as glamorous as, say, politics, we still have more people engaged in agriculture-related jobs than any other occupation in the state. Still, when politicians come to Wisconsin, they may do the obligatory photo op on a farm, but they spend their time courting the voters in the big cities. So what are Clinton and Obama promising people like me -- people who spend more time worrying about cows than poll numbers?Many farmers in Wisconsin don't have health insurance. I'm lucky because I do. It's not very good insurance; it's expensive, and it doesn't pay for much of anything. I need to be really sick before I can collect. Clinton and Obama both say they have a health care plan. I don't think they do; they have another insurance plan. They want people to have insurance, but insurance is not health care. They're looking out for the insurance companies, not the people. They should support giving us the same coverage they have. Put everyone in the plan -- if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us.As farmers, we are told we need to compete in the global marketplace. They have both said they want to level the playing field so we can compete fairly with farmers around the world and we will win. No, we won't; we won't win, and neither will farmers anywhere else in the world. Clinton has some history with agri-business corporations Monsanto and Tyson and the world's largest food retailer, Wal-Mart. Is it part of their corporate philosophy to let farmers win?Both Clinton and Obama support biofuels as a means to end our dependence on foreign oil, yet corn and soy production is based on oil -- diesel fuel for tractors, oil to manufacture crop chemicals and fertilizer, oil for transportation and processing. They both want to increase auto fuel economy standards, but not for 18 or 20 years! Why not now?They both support local and regional food systems -- buy fresh, buy local. Good, but what will they do to make it work? Will they take food out of trade agreements and encourage American farmers to grow food instead of commodities? Or will food, like health care, be just another money maker for corporations?Will they cap subsidy payments and give responsible farmers a chance? Will they encourage a set-aside for marginal land that should never be farmed? Will they restore government purchase of surplus crops to establish fair and stable farm and consumer prices?Do they plan to do anything to rein in the power of multinational grain corporations? Those corporations now dump our cheap subsidized grain on southern nations, undermining the local economy and, as in Mexico, driving farmers off their land and across the border to work in the United States. There's your immigration problem; our corporations created it, and walls and fences won't cure it.Do they know the term food sovereignty? It is a simple concept. It recognizes the right of people, all people, to grow the food of their choice -- food that is nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate. Food sovereignty demands that food be healthful, green, fair and affordable. The only problem some might see with this idea is that people would profit, not corporations.The candidates' support for local and regional food systems is sorely needed, and I hope they agree that we need to let the rest of the world feed themselves.Obama's campaign recently told the Bush administration that he didn't really need any foreign policy advice from the architect of the worst foreign policy in a generation. Bush's agricultural policy is just as bad. Change it.Jim Goodman is a farmer in Wonewoc and a policy fellow for the Food and Society Fellows Program.Jim Goodman ? 2/14/2008 7:12 am

Exhausted

I think I am beyond finding an answer anymore. I will never get it right. I am not put in a position where my decisions will make a difference anymore. I am just a simple housewife on a simple farm in the middle of the state of New York. Only I am not simple and this farm is so far from simple. I could get it right. All of it right. I am just not suppose to. Then it would work and everything would be OK and people would tell me what a great person I am.

Is it wrong to want to leave because you are alone? I see food trends and livestock management trends before a lot of people. I tell them all about it. They make money and I am left with a not so simple farm. It is harder when the people around you laugh at those incites and then someone where you should be makes that money. Someone in some place where you want to be, not here.

I have moved beyond burned out. I was there 7 years ago when people were not truthful about their interests in the Stafford Slaughterhouse and when in my innocence I said something about it... I was made irrelevant. I am still living with that irrelevance and I have no desire anymore. I let people tell me how I should feel or what I want to do. That was not and is not me. It is easier to bark and growl like that dog chained to the dog house... ignored...cold...

I see morons here trying to pretend they are the next guru. The big one, the con-artist and his foolish followers looking to spend money on a dream he will crush once he has spent your $60,000; $120,000; $250,000. I don't have the money, but some fools part with it and some hill billy farmers want to be him. I saw through it and I was made irrelevant.

I make rash decisions to survive stress. They don't always make sense then either. I just don't like anger or people yelling. I hate anger. I cower like the dog again. Afraid. I am here. I hate people who take advantage of other people. I hate people who don't care. I hate people who make others feel bad only because they do. I hate feeling powerless. I am here.

We are going to sell this place. The push over the edge was health issues in both sides of the family. I cannot tell you where we will be. I know I will be making cheese. I love making cheese. It gives me purpose. We will not budge much on the price. It is worth it. We have done a lot to this place. Someone can make A LOT of money with this cheese business. Again, someone else, but we have to leave. It is time to let someone else make a lot of money...

Selea died today

My daughter's favorite farm animal and companion at the swing set died this morning. We had a grave site service with Claire Dave and myself. She is in the garden with a tea towel and cardboard box from Christmas. Claire is upset. We took her to Symeons form lunch to cheer her up. She enjoyed the meal, but did seem so quiet in the car. It is a sad day for Bear.

South Wind

Woke to smoke and Dave with a scowl sitting in the green chair. Dave tends to be like this. I cannot remember if he had pants on though. The south wind was pretty strong with this storm coming through and the draft is touchy with certain south winds. Smoke! Once you get her up and hot, boy the place is warm, be lazy and the smoke comes in.

Next, no water pressure. South wind again. Seems Dave forgot that when a cold south wind is forcasted, we need to move the brooder light into the cubby hole (workshop area where pressure tank is for the whole place). Mr Grumpy stormed out of the house confident that one of my Kerry cows broke a water line again and his day would be ruined. Nope. He didn't put lamp in cubby hole. Worse yet, the boiler got more of an arctic blast that expected and the whole blooming thing was frozen. I almost died.

For those of you who have a steam boiler to heat your cheese vats, what is one think cast iron hates? Frozen water. My day seemed doomed. I have learned to have this calm "will my world just calm down" demeaner that I didn't have in my youth. I switch heaters from cheese plant and water heater room (turned on that one evern though I don't use it lately). A copper pipe burst, but so far... Funny how religion comes with desperation... I don't think that boiler had so many prayers associated with it since it was made!

Made some rum/tea brack to cheer the spirits.

South Wind use to mean warmer weather. I think I need to go back to a place where south wind means warmer weather.

Chicken Love and Costume Dramas

I was watching an old copy of a BBC costume drama. I watch them in the cold winter. They make me dream of being somewhere other than the arctic tundra. Maybe I am just an old sap. That or I miss my youth and the ability I had to just go when and where I want. Cannot just go to Paris on a whim for the weekend with a farm, child or husband to find sitters for. I don't like soaps or romance novels but some Bronte or Austen and I am there through two or three VHS tapes even with poor sound quality and my reels needing cleaning! My peace at horrid hours of the evening for a dairy farmer!

On the couch as I am getting up I find one of Claire's new Poultry mags. The british small holder one with the children in it. She loves that one. I like chickens. They have this peaceful thing about them like sheep do. A kind of equilibrium with the world.

When I was little, our neighbors had this farm. We lived in this cul de sac on the edge of their farm. The farm was eventually an island with developments surrounding it with possible roads ending on the edges of their fields. The place had tobacco sheds, a tidy New England barn with halls and rooms they said their father and uncle hid things during the rations in the war. In the cellar they had this chicken area. Not so much a room if I remember. Nests were wooden with tobacco leaves in them to keep the bugs out. Like everything else on the farm, tidy...

It was their place. The pride they took in it that got me into this "farm thing". We could set the clocks to Stanley mowing his lawn. My mother liked to watch them bring the milk cows (a guernsey and a jersey if my memory is correct) up the lane. They had this horse Chubby. A cross of Belgian and something. Maybe 15hh. I'm thinking Suffolk, but who knows anymore. They used him to cultivate tobacco. I use to love to watch Adolph cultivate tobacco. When the horse was tired, he'd step on a few plants.

Back to the chickens (I'll tell you about Katey, the jump roap and the heifer later). Britt and I were exporing as was our job at the time. It usually meant going to the farm to see if we could beg a tour of the grey barn. We saw this hen. She was limping or something. Just not right. We figured that to be nice, we'd catch the hen and show Stanley or Adolph so they could fix her. To make a long story short, we were caught "chasing chickens" and sent home. I was horrified. I was in love with everything about that place and it stuck that I was thought as mean enough to do that to them.

If I had Claire with me then... things would have been different. She doesn't have this fear of failure and she has this uncanny ability to walk up to any chicken and pick it up. She has even trained one of her birds (Salea) to swing on a swing with little protest. Chicken chores generally mean she hasn't collected eggs yet, or fed or watered them. She is basically on the floor of the chicken coop talking to and holding one of her birds... Mean old mum then has to open the window and ask if chores are done yet! She loves those birds.

Winter

It is dark and cold in Central New York in the winter. I dread going down to the lower shed to feed animals. I love to watch them eat and to visit with them, but the blast of cold coming down from Rte 20, across the pasture and slap into my face! We have changed buildings and slopes of things, so the drifts and wind currents are different. That and Dave snapped the dog run line with the spear and never found it necessary to fix it (it was a mistake you see), so my only support life line going down the hill from the side poarch to the sheep shed is, well gone. I tried the sled that I use to bring grain down, but well... a 50# sack of grain on the stomach hurts after taking a spill over a bank.

I think I mentioned my lack of grace once before... Marge is even naming a cheese after me "Grace". At least the wheel chair ramp is down. Poor Marcia has to be lifted into the house, but at least I don't do any more splat dives...

The aging/farmstand structure is done. Well the structure is. I am awaiting the final $$ to give to the great contractors on that project and to finish the guys that installed my boiler incorrectly and charged me for doing it wrong and then just looking at it! I got some aging shelves for Christmas. Thank you Dave. We dug the ditch by hand and pick on Christmas Eve. The ditch will be for the electricity line.

Hank still hasn't paid me for the bank charges he caused after bouncing a check to pay for the workshop I did for his organization back in August. I gave up a Farmers' Market and everything! I am becoming cynical about non-profit agencies that are here to help the poor disadvantaged farmer. If we get paid for product and services, we aren't poor then are we? I think he missed the idea. Well live and learn. I will not do workshops for non-profits unless I see the money up-front any more.

Shaun Lord bought two of the IN Kerry cows from me. She is a great person and I like how she has consistently improved her herd of Dexters. I have Kelmscott Larry up to Dependa Bull. I have to run up there to visit him and to get those measurements and all. Patti Adams is drawing Kelmscott Seamus at K State right now and Dana Wakefield has drawn Mountain Shade Ebon. They represent the three Kerry families in the US.

Looking for an intern for 2008. Someone interested in doing Farmers Markets, working on rinds and who is interested in developing their own cheese. With David's health and Marcia not in the best physical shape, I need to have more flex time while at the same time expanding the cheese side of the business. I think that there is real potential for someone who is really interested in becoming a cheese maker to try some things out while someone with more experience can help. That and they will have access to awsome organic milk, markets, etc...

Visiting with other cheesemakers

I got to see the Amish cheese maker today. Found this lovely little Raw milk cheese plant in Richfield Springs. Dan is a decent sort, clean and simple place, nice cheese. I like him.

Dave, Claire Tim Powers and I were on this road trip. We picked Tim up. Tim took us over the river and through the woods. We had no idea where we were by the time we got there. Got to see a lot though and there were plain and pretty roads along the way. Took Rte 20 back (needed to get Tim some Stewerts coffee and us some petrol). The trip made sense when we got back to Rte 20.

Met the other wanna-be cheese maker. Andelo. He, like Rosemary Belforti, is trying to make a cheese using Kefir cultures. Interesting. Reminded me of some of Brian Rivington's creations he made in our plant last summer. Rind is too dry, paste is yeasty, doesn't have strong goat flavor... Claire liked the older cheese. Not so much his younger one.

He has this neet goat barn and was in the process of making the milking parlor. I'll get photos developed and see about pasting on the blog at some time.

Would love a digital camera, but we need to make it through the winter. Maybe for my birthday...

I bought two wheels of the Caerfili for the market this weekend from Dan. I am short on aged cheeses and he is in need of thinning his inventory. He is learning. I think that he will become a very good cheese maker with time. He has the Margaret Morris book and is an inquiring mind. Something about him makes me think he'll do pretty good.

A couple of more cheesemakers on Rte 20 corridor and we can get a trail! Need that cheese cluster. Want the tourists!

My goats milk project is not so good. Looks like the volume is slipping with the quality. It was 1 mil. SCC again. I have to toss the wheel most likely. I don't need a "late blower" in the cooler. I'm going to put it into a seperate smaller cooler and see what happens. It will be an educational cheese for future workshops, not something I want to sell. I've already dubbed it "Stinking Goat". Some people seem to think that milk for cheese can be crap. Well, no. It actually has to be better than the stuff going into the UHT ultra-filtered bottles of fluid milk-food that supermarkets pass off as a dairy product. You want good-bugs working, not not-so-good bugs working. Neet thing if the goat boys get that.

Our herd will be drying off February/March. I need the goats milk until then. We will be milking about 6 cows until April. I'll be making a lot of cows milk cheese until then (and supporting the whole deal with cheese sales). Daunting yet somehow I like this challange. Bout time the cheese stepped up to the plate.

Splat Dives

My back hurts. I am squerming in my seat. Had to check bank balance for hundredth time. Did market deposit and all it did was cover some moron's bounced check and the bank fees. Thanks! No more favors for anyone. I cannot afford people anymore. I do workshops again, it is on my dollar. No more helping organizations use them as fundraisers or projects to check off of grant projects!

So, the splat dive. We have this handicap ramp outside of our house. It is our way to make the house more inviting to my mother in-law. She is in a wheelchair. I am determined a few times a year, however to try this ramp out to see how far and fast I can do a splat dive onto the ground! I think I have wheel chair envy!

Landed face down. Knee and left hip were involved somehow. Belle showed that she does care. Tail quiver. Tongue crazy trying to lick mud off face and I bring her back to house. Poor pup. I bet she never saw a chubby woman do such accrobatics before!

I am having more conversations with people who are actually interested in sustainable agriculture and great food this year. There was this shift of people in the region this last year. I am finally encouraged. Even looks like Green Rabbit is sold! I hear it is a young couple interested in farming. Great!

Brought Lorenzo home yesterday. Dennis MacDonald did the hauling. I like him. I do think he figures I'm off, but he is game to see what is next on the agenda here. Lorenzo promptly chased sheep, harassed the Kerry cows on the south pasture and jumped the fence to have closer discussions with the Dexter bull doing clean up breeding on the heifers (and now dairy herd). Too much testosterone.

Gailen Bridges finally sent the pedigree info on the KY Kerry cows.

Things are working out slowly. I am just pissed that people can still take advantage of my passions and cause wreckage in my finances just when things are starting to look up (again). A couple more days of wholesale sales and I'll be sorted, but damned if I help again!

chevre and Steve Baker

Well we finally did it! Charles Farnham Sr. dropped off the first load of goats milk. Had to take sample to Verona Labs to get it tested for SCC and antibiotics. Made Chevre. 25 gal. for the first batch. I was relieved. I was dreading 60 gal for the first batch.

Seemed decent. Goats milk does smell different than cows milk. I've done it before, it is just a smell that takes me a bit to get use to. Thank God it is good milk. I'll get results tomorrow.

We couldn;t kill the broilers (gone mini-turkeys). I gave them to Steve Wratten. In our negotiations for the birds I saw the meanest little white bantam rooster! Dave has been asking for one for his cousin for 5 years! I figured it was an even trade! Steve moves fast with a net! Got the rooster and came home. Dave visits it a few times a day and is grinning from ear to ear! It is pretty with pink legs and a stut about him... Dave named it after Stave Baker. He was a friend from MA who had a run in with the first bantam rooster. Apparently the story goes that Chris Bruelman (when he ran the auction some 20 years ago) let it go from the box at the Northampton Cooperative Auction and it terrorized theplace for weeks! It will be fun to see how this revenge project goes. I hope he lives happily in the haymow on this pretty little farm on Rte 12 in Sangerfield!

We Must Be Crazy

I have had nothing but emails and calls from people asking my opinion about Farmstead Dairy Processing. 16 requests for workshop information at the Farmers market! I know I am getting cheeky, but two people in 24 hours tell me they are into goats and cannot stand the idea of drinking the milk let alone the cheese! You gotta like the stuff you make. Passion comes from your love of something. You don't love it and all you are is talk.

I did arrange for two workshops. One in November and one in December. I can handle workshops right now. I do like doing them when I am in charge. (I get paid that way) I'm going to lay off consulting after Marjorie and Dave get up and going. They have the most viable of the projects. I like them all, I just need to focus on the me part of things. It is affecting the business, especially this year.

I do make goats milk cheese for a bit, but I will tell all after the first batch. Dave is so not amused with me. I need milk. Sorry.

Karen Baase came by with this Dairy Profitability facilitator. Sorry facilitator, I liked our conversation this morning, I just don't remember your name. I was being a good girl and answered their questions as best I could and as truthfully as I could. I think I have to be a little less blunt at times. I was pretty good there though.

I am plowing through the Kerry Herd Books Judy Sponaugle of Jams Hundred and the Legacy Dexter Project gave me (I borrowed). Editing the ones I've done right now. Photocopied the other two I didn't enter or scan. I want to get the books published on the web site and credit her for loaning me the books. I would like the Irish books 62 and earlier. I am not trying to form another registry. There are enough. Kinda two things. The Irish Strategy did say that one of the limitations to the genetic study of the breed is that it is in book and not electronic form (except for more recent pedigrees). I will get them a copy of it. I also want us (U.S.) to do a genetic study of the U.S. and international herd as well. We will genotype the remaining cows. I also want an analysis of the pedigrees with as much data as possible to help us develop a strategy for conserving our Kerry cattle. Judy was a HUGE help.

I did pull off the first Kerry Cattle Breeders Meeting since 1917! Robert Reilly and his assistant secured the space at the First Ever Shaker Settlement in Albany. Patti Adams, Dana Wakefield and Dave Adams helped tremendously before the meeting. Jonathan White brought cheese and bread from his operation. The conversation was great. ALBC and Rare Breeds Canada were there... See picture above...(need to figure out how to place photo where I want to in this blog).

Let me see, ~back row~Dave Adams, Jeanette Beranger (ALBC), Ted Lawrence (Rare Breeds Canada), Sean Stanton, me, ~front row~Robert Reilly, Liz MacKenzie (Rare Breeds Canada), Patti Adams, Dana Wakefield, Jonathan White and Jonnie Larason (Plimoth Plantation). Photo taken with Patti Adams camera.

Tom Tucker rang back tonight. The lads are in CA. Well some are there/were there... They are laying the new surface for the Thoroughbred Race tracks. After that one horse died from the leg break, most of the surfaces on these tracks are being done over. It is kinda neet. He will ring back with a start date for the aging/farm market building.

Have to get two more pages edited and go to bed. Chevre tomorrow!

Fall Market Cheese

I'd like to start the blog with a title that actually reflects my mood. I don;t think it is appropriate for a mother of a 5 year old to swear that vehemently.

Day started ok like. Dave agreed to run the trailer plug to John and Lisa Kirby (yup John you are mentioned in the blog again). Claire and I went to church. A nice place. I like the people there. They had this dedication for a stained glass window. It is pretty. I'd like to hire the guy who installed it. Looks like he actually knows how to work on an interior of a house. Kinda rare to find in these parts. We stayed for cidre and muffins/cookies/cake. Claire got to tell people we were going to kill birds after church...

We got home. She was cooperative for the most part and did agree that changing out of her fashion statement of the day into something that is ok to get grubby in was fair enough. I went to cheese plant to acid wash cans and clean up some more. Move the small fridge back to the house. Get the drains cleaned. You know, tiddy time!

Well! While filling the vat up with water for its acid wash, I looked at the fridge. It was making on off sound. Sure enough, the Gouda's on the top (you know the ones ready to market this weekend) were kinda melty. The ones on the next shelf were cracked and melty!!! Crap. Powerful stink while I open the cooler door. Damn, the hose I dropped in the vat just flapped back at me and drenched my right leg...

82 degrees F after the door was open while I reached in to get the thermometer!

Cheesemakers need pigs.

Vile smelly unruly undisciplined (however tasty) pigs eat cheeses that go off and then supply you with the most wonderful bacon and chops...

So much for fall market Gouda! I only have one wheel in the house right now.

Did talk to the goat guys. Goat guys don't even drink their goats milk. Not sure if that is a good thing. They say more than a couple words on this visit. They have less milk to offer than I thought. Maybe I can help them this winter...

I need about $7000 - 10000 to finish this cheese project. I make damn good cheeses in a retrofit milk house attached to our barn. I age the poor buggers in reach in coolers (kinda like shack farming).

I hate shack farming! We did that when we bought the place. Looks a lot different now. I feel better about inviting people here. Sheeps don't have the best place, but at least the pastures are nice this year. They get posh digs over the next 12 months.

I'll keep on this digression mind thought instead of trying to paste lines here and there. I have a hard enough time making sense of this vent, let alone trying to edit a vent!

Basically depressed in afternoon. Craving any carbs after this allergy sniffing diet thing. Coffee is one of them, by the way. Cannot have that nectar of the gods anymore...

Anyhow..

Went to Quacks with Dave and Claire to consume carbs. Had a Reuben sandwich and their horrid fries. The sandwich was good. Claire likes the grilled cheese. Dave not so much his meat/gravy/potato thing. He never likes it and yet orders it most every time. I guess expecting that you will not like it, yet with the hope that maybe you will like it is an ok menu item search technique.

I don't know. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and sell Moose (pregnant with Irish semen) and Lorenzo. Damn the cooler!

Sooooo Cooold

I have these sayings going through my head. You know like --
"Be careful what you wish for" - 'we need some cold days for the maple trees to run sap'
"too much of a good thing" - global warming means the cows get to graze in January
"Biological Systems are Cyclical" - very warm, now very cold

All these things. Pipes burst in dairy plant. Someone or somehow the door was open 1/2" on the night of January 5th. That was the big wind -22 degree day... Also took out a check vlave in teh vat. That took $204 to fix. Pipes another $34 in supplies and time.

I am just cold all of the time. The poor small ruminants in the pole shed are cold. 4 lambs so far. Only one ewe. No kids thank God! I am hoping that they will hold off until it is consistently 40-50 degrees out.

Cheese has been put on back burner again. Doing wonderful experiments. The Appenzellar is actually very nice. The Asiago needs to be lower in fat, but promising. The Wenslydale is not quite there. The Double Gloucester needs more salt and something... not quite balanced and too bland. Toasts like nothing else though. The Leicester is getting there. Better than fall, but needs another 4 or 5 batches and another 5 months...

Entering the Colwick in a cheese cake contest on March 31st. It is a lovesly rustic cheese. Lactic drained one. Goes best with a glaze of bluberries and cultured cream.

Yoghurt/Labneh experiments going VERY well. Need to see what is up with the new TA 060 cultures. I am not the only one having problems with it. Elmond said a batch of moz. was crap after using that culture. My Cacciocavallo took for evvvver to get going and then dropped acid like a rocket. It was during a rainy period and Dave did start feeding the haylege in teh silo. It just seemed interesting that Elmond has a similar experience with it...

Happy New Year

Almost said Happy New York... I'm posting while listening to Fords funeral on radio. Unger is here to look at some animals. Not worth starting the bull calves we found. Got $50 for a 8 week jersey cross and $200 for a 450# holstein bull calf. Well, not unless we sell them in plastic packaging anyways.

I just did some research on catching up on registrations of Ayrshire, Kerry and Arapawa animals. Did the To Do list for the New Year. Getting the house organized for the first time since we moved here.

I meet with a bee guy tomorrow to trouble shoot the beeswax issues I have. He gave me some good ideas. We'll wax cheese tomorrow. Tomme and Appenzellar, which will be interesting to see what turns out. Nutty cheese with mead character. Maybe called Backlava??

The order report stuff is on-line now. I'm going to see how that works out today. Promised to get them in on a timely basis for now on. My bad. Seems a shame to send in a report and pay $.46 for one month and a couple of dollars for the next. Planning on making a bit of cheese this year, so that will change.

Artisan cheese listserve was ended abruptly. Hope it wasn't because people told the moderator that she was sarcastic to a newbie. Seemed more agressive a post than she normally does. I hope things are ok with her. I was enjoying the conversations about the swiss style cheeses. I wouldn't worry so much about the eye development as I would the flavor. Flavor is what gets the price. Eyes are free to the customer. Besides, I prefer Guyere and Beufort types of Apline cheeses and they don;t have the ementaller type eyes.

Siobhan calved. Got her to milk with machines without kicking too bad. She is not going to be the most friendly cow in the earth, but by the time Patti gets her, she will be a good little dairy cow! Bull calf. We will name him Kieran. After St. Keiran (and St Piran for Cornwall). Vigorous little guy.

I hope all who read have a wonderful and prosperous New Year!