April Update: We’re licensed!

Yes, we’re licensed–both the dairy and cheese plant, and now we’re ready to get started making cheese on a larger scale. No more pots and pans crowding the kitchen, and refrigerators in the living room. The cheese kitchen is slick and clean, and the vat worked great the first time. We still have lots of things to finish up, and of course will be tweaking our technique and equipment as we move forward, but it’s a great feeling being able to move into the next phase. Our cheeses must be aged at least two months before sale, so it will be several months before anything is available. Meanwhile, we’re happy to get the goats out onto the fresh green pasture, the creamy milk into the cooling tank, and the curd pressed into the molds.  Life is very good!

Our vat in the new creamery.

Hard to believe the vat was lying in a cow pasture last summer. A bit of work though, and it is excellent.

Hooray! Prize winner!

Wow, were we excited to find out that the cheeses I sent to the American Dairy Goat Association annual goat cheese competition received some attention.  Our cheeses took 2nd and 3rd place in the hard cheese category. The recognition validated our cheesemaking progress and spurred us to work hard to eventually win a first place ribbon. Next year we can enter the commercial category and are eager to see how our cheese fares against some of the best in the world. 

We entered waxed rounds of our Cascadia cheese using two different cultures. It’s a washed curd cheese that’s lightly pressed and brined, then waxed and aged for at least two months. It’s a bit like a gouda or colby, with a farmstead flavor.

Cute kids — they are bouncing around and growing quickly. We’ll be keeping eight little doelings to add to our dairy herd. The little guys will be off to happy homes.

March — It’s kidding season!

Ginger and Mary Ann, our two new girls.

We’ve got the covered feeder up and running, built onto the side of the milking parlor, and the does love it. They bury their heads in last summer’s sun-dried alfalfa and enjoy it so much. Until the pasture is grown up a bit more, they can’t wander off too far, so the hay feeders are very popular. Some of these does are just two or three days away from their kidding date. Then they can get back on the milking stand again–something they have missed. It’s interesting how much dairy goats love to be milked–to get that attention and fuss.

 

Construction Updates

We’ve been working on the buildings, trying to get the interiors finished up so we can begin milking the does in the new milking parlor when they start freshening. Two are set to kid within the next couple of weeks, with more coming due every few weeks. The last to kid will be in June.  

Above is the interior of the milking parlor, where we will build a milking stand for milking the does. Below is the room ready for the milk chilling tank. It seems you just can't have enough sinks in a dairy!

 

 

Sinks and hot water heater in the milk room. We'll move the cooler into place next.

 

 

Terry is putting up sheets of concrete board on the cheese room walls. We’ll cover it with a layer of FRP plastic board next.

 

 

 

This extension on the milking parlor will shelter the does when they grab a little hay after milking.

January News

December went so fast–we had lots of snow, but the overhead extension Terry built on the back of the barn kept the goats out of the white stuff. They hate walking in snow!  A blizzard before Christmas prevented us from taking two wethers to the butcher because the roads were impassable. Miraculously, a lovely family came by looking for hiking goats, and Napoleon and Tut went off to a happy adventurous future as pack goats. As they were loading into the new owner’s pickup for departure, Nap called out in a very odd voice. We think he was saying goodbye to the herd, which was out of sight at the time.  

But, the snow is all gone now, and the grass is greening up and the promise of spring is around the corner. We’re finishing the milking parlor, have gotten the hot water heater fitted in under the three-compartment sink, added a hand washing sink, and the next step is to somehow move the chill tank from the barn where we’ve had it stored for months, into position. Then adding a few finishing touches, like paper towel dispensers, a recording thermometer, and self-closing door hinges, and I think we’ll be ready for inspection!

We had a nice visit by our ODA inspectors, Janis and Karel, and they gave us lots of advice. It won’t be long and we’ll be ready for milking. Just waiting on the babies, shortly.  With 16 does to kid, we will be very busy. We’ve found homes in advance for a few, but will have many to send out into the world as brush eaters, pets, or hiking companions.

We’ve had a buck staying here for all the goat “weddings,” and he’s been such a fun guy. The girls all love him–briefly–then ignore him for alfalfa. His name is Honor, a purebred Nubian. Here’s a picture of him and Terry in October.

November News

We’ve been busy putting in the drain system, adding new roof extensions so the goats can stay dry when the rain begins in earnest here, and finishing the interior of the milk house. 

We found some wonderful-smelling alfalfa and grass hay to get us through the winter, along with kelp and molasses for vitamins and minerals. We’ve dried up the does, which are hopefully bred after the buck’s visit last month. We’re still milking Serene and Glory, two dainty nubians, so we have plenty of milk for ourselves and a few customers. Now that Brian’s 13 he seems to have a bottomless appetite and loves fresh milk. 

I discovered a great fall ice cream recipe–actually it’s “vegetable” ice cream! Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream–without the pie.To my usual ice cream recipe (2 cups Nubian milk, 1 cup cane sugar, 2 tblsp corn syrup, 4-6 egg yolks) add 1/2 cup cooked pumpkin and several pinches of spice (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger). Cook to custard, 170-degrees, then cool and freeze in an ice cream maker. It’s great!   We’ll be eating it for breakfast often.

October updates

We’ve been busy finishing the interior of the milking parlor and putting in the drainage systems. We’ve got a 1550 gallon tank to hold wastewater during the rainy season here, so no dirty water will go out onto the pastures. Terry also dug trenches and put in an underground drainage system for the cheese room. It’s lot of work for these sort of things, and they really don’t show up. But, they will make it successful. And, the tank will let us save water from the rainy season to use on the pasture during the dry summers we have here.

The milking parlor is taking shape