Saturday, July 09, 2011

A Day in the Homestead Kitchen

We dried Buttercup off a long time ago. I believe it was before Christmas. She is old and does not do well milking through the winter and she had been in milk for about 18 months. I was making lots of cheese. We gave some as gifts and we have eaten some. We just finished our last round of that cheese yesterday. So, today, I am making cheddar cheese. We will eat this round fresh, but will start putting more up to age. I would like to find a large commercial refrigerator, used of course, for cheap. I need more room to store my cheese. I know the odds of me finding one that works for cheap are slim to none, but a girl can hope.

This next picture shows you the amount of cream on Honey's milk. We got 2.5 gallons from her last night.



The cream is thick and mounds up on the spoon. It is not quite as thick as Buttercup's, but we are NOT complaining. I took the cream off of 2 gallons and will make butter from that. I also made some yogurt today. I will put it in the fridge right before we go to bed.

I also had enough cucumbers from the garden to make some pickles. I do want to ferment some this year, but we LOVE our dill recipe. We add garlic and a couple of hot peppers. Normally, I do slices. This time I did some spears and some of the smaller ones, I canned whole.

My cheese is cheddaring right now. I will put it in the press in about 15 mins. You can see the cream in the jar behind the pickles in the above picture. I will be shaking that into butter here in a bit as well.

Things will only get busier from here, but I really do enjoy it. I get worn out and tired some times, but love to use the bounty God has provided to put up food for the months ahead.

What is going on at your house?


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