Slow Cheese

Slow Cheese you say? yes good cheese can take some time and it can also be simple.My Slow cheese is simple and takes time but mostly is not demanding.but is one of the things we do here in sitkum please visit ;Sitkum Soapworks
to see some of the other things we also do here.
Out here in Sitkum ,being a long way and many gallons of gas to get there from town we try and make do with what we have and use as much of our own products in as many ways as possible. To that end I make cheese. Many years ago my DH stated he wanted these cute little animals he introduced me to at the fair. Dairy Goats! Not miniature pygmy goats, not meat goats but dairy goats. So in 1976 I brought home our first goat. One became two became many and today years later we still have about 10 goats. Over the years we have done many things with the goats. We drank the milk and feed it to our kids, we took the goats to the fairs and won prizes and money with them, We bred them and traded them and sold lots of goats to lots of people and almost every day over these 33 years with goats we milked at least some of the goats. Now to win in the show ring a goat must make a fair amount of milk, remember I said they were Dairy goats, and our goats made a lot of milk. Not just today but yesterday and tomorrow too and the day after as well. So it became necessary to find ways of using this milk.
Well why not sell it you say? that is the subject of another blog for sure. but lets just say most of the time selling milk has not been an option. So other means of using the milk became necessary. What do you do with 2 to 5 gallons of milk every day? That is the big question we had to face and I think over the years we have came up with some very good Ideas. Over the next few blogs I will cover some of these uses we have found. Here's a short list to let you see what I'll be blogging about.
Raising young animals, calves,Goats,Pigs,Lambs, puppies, kittens and many others.
Making products like the best soap, lotion and cheese, a lot of cheese. I never got good at Cheddar ,I like another brand for that but I make a soft Chevre. A fresh cheese that is eaten in a variety was. On a bagel, plain on crackers or in many dishes from lasagna to chocolate Truffles.
Slow Cheese is a name for untimmed cheese No clock watching.
Start with fresh milk if possible or good store milk add 1 cup Store bought buttermilk and 15 drops liquid rennet to two gallons milk and let it sit. How long? Well not 24 hours but maybe 6 to 12 hours,
Cut the curd into chunks and let the cheese rest.
How long? oh 2 to 6 to 12 hours, Get the idea? Let your life tell you when to start draining the cheese curds. busy now, wait a bit. as long as the whole process is done in two days you should be good. Curds are drained in any thin cloth that will let the liquid through. Let them drip for at least 6 hours but 12 is better. Try Your cheese!
More details will follow in future blogs so stay tuned.

What was done at Club Sena today.

Well under the stairs that lead to the loft over the wood working shop there was storied a lot of old windows and doors. My Pottery studio is not big enough so I wanted to clean out that space. I have a friend that is building his own greenhouses and needed windows so off we set today to get the area cleaned and the windows loaded for transport to Don's house tomorrow since I am going to go to town anyway to see my sister who is traveling through. We are a few miles from town (25) so in light of the energy problem all trips are planned in advance to do as much as we can while we are out. So tomorrow I will deliver windows, see my sister and pick up a load of wood my friend Don has for me. We both try to use what we have and share where we can.
In my cleaning I have came across a pile of very old window pains. I must see what I can do with them. Slumped glass dishes comes to mind. I have a few gold firing to do before Oct so it would be the perfect time to try something with them. I'll write up what I do and what happens and post it on her or my Hand made Goats Milk Soap web page, www.sitkum.com.
The next task I have to do is to link this blog and my web page. I'm hoping Don can help me with that. Then I will try some affiliated marking on that site .

Second post;

Someday I will get the hang of this all! It has taken a good amount to get this post and it is not even a blog entry.
I'll keep trying!

Second post;

Sitkum

The first Sitkum post. Miles and miles from any town in the hills of southern Oregon ,Sitkum's days of glory are over and about all that is left is just quite beauty. A few big cow farms and a few hardy soles that like t out here. I'm one of those. I love it out here. I even like the challenge of trying to survive the power outages we seem to have . In the morning from my deck I look at the cliff that is to my north. Wild birds of all sort nest up there and it can be exciting when the falcons feel thir best in danger.
So what are we going to try and tell you about on this Sitkum blog? How and why I survive out here. What I would like to see happen here in Sitkum and what there is to do here. First list. As I remember things I'll list more.
1, Pottery, All forms. I have 50 years playing in clay behind me and would some day like to be able to share that knowledge. I have equipment like wheels and kiln and many nice toys to play with.
2. wood working shop
3.garden, sm greenhouse
4.goats. For milk and meat.
5, cheese, see above
6 soap. another blog as we make ours from our goats milk. See www.sitkum.com
ok well thats enough for now, more tomorrow.