What do you do with a Fridge full of goat milk? Make CHEESE (and soap, and yogurt, and, drink it!) so I wanted pizza and we made mozarella and someone asked me to post directions with pics! Here it is!
Take 1/4 C. Cool water and add 1 1/4tsp citric acid (Hoeggers goat supply and some health food stores carry it) and add it to a large stainless steel pot. Add 1 gallon of fresh goat milk to the pot and bring to 88 deg. F. Remove from heat and add 1/4 C of Cool Water with 1/4 tsp rennet (again hoegger's or a cheese supply company will carry this) Stir in well. Let sit for 15 min. Cut the curd and then let sit for 10 more minutes. Immerse in a HOT bath for 35 minutes.
Drain the curds in cheese cloth for about 15 minutes to let all the whey drain off.
Heat in Microwave for 50 seconds and use a spoon to begin stretching the cheese. after about 8 minutes, reheat for 25 seconds and continue stretching until you can handle the cheese with your hands and stretch more!
We use our mozarella for many different things - crackers with cheese and salami, pasta salads and PIZZA of course!!!! Nothing better than fresh, homemade mozarella.

Back in Business!

Our milk supply was quite small and most of my soaps have sold but we are back in business. Miss Priss is milking 1/2gallon plus once a day and Tirzah is milking about 3/4 quart 2X a day so I'm making soap and cheese. Here is my first batch of soap out of the molds.
This one is Gluten/Wheat/Corn Free Lavender with a slight purple tint from Mica.
My kitchen smells so good!
I also just made a batch of Cucumber (this one is not gluten/wheat/corn free.) The soap will be ready for sale in about 4 weeks. IF you would like some - get your orders in now! The gluten/wheat/corn free soaps don't last. Neither does the cucumber scent for that matter.
G/W/C Free soaps are $6.00 a bar and the Regular bars are $5.00 a bar. They are over 4 oz each. Some smaller bars are available. Next batch is G/W/C Free Lavender Peppermint.

Perfect Mozarella and Tirzah.

My beautiful Tirzah has been in milk now for a little over 2 months. She has dropped some from the last time I weighed her milk but that was my fault. I separated her son from her because he's a bit of a randy little fellow and was irritating the girls in the pen with them so i began bottle feeding him. But Hope was really only nursing off of one side while the other side was dropping. When I noticed the drop finally I separated Hope off as well and began milking 2X a day. I am slowly bringing Tirzah back up but I did weigh her milk yesterday and the amounts aren't as horrible as I expected. Yesterday she did 1.3 and 1.4 lbs of milk in her am and pm milkings. NOW, to put all that milk to use.......

I stayed up WAAAAAY too late but for good reason.

I made PERFECT Mozarella cheese. Oh my what a rush! I really do enjoy making cheese.

I want to learn to make lots of different kinds of cheese but so far I can only boast 3 - Chevre, Mozarella and Ricotta. I've made Feta twice and it only turned out good ONCE! Lame. It's funny what little things get you excited.

We are 3 weeks away from our next kidding - Coral. Keeping fingers and toes crossed for twin doelings. Still am unsure if Stars is Pregnant or not - she sure doesn't look it but I never saw her come back into heat. I am thinking about sending her blood in (with Corals) for CAE, CL and pregnancy testing. (I'll skip the preg test on Coral though, she is very obviously pregnant!)

If she's not - she's got a hot date with the new buck.....

SWNDGC Milk Test in Edgewood.

May 7, 8th of 2010 I was honored to perform my first milk test ever as a certified milk tester through Langston DHI. Wow was that every fun. We tested 17 does.

What a way to start my "career" LOL!

Several herds were there being tested, and several more folks showed up to lend a hand and help. We had a potluck Friday night and Dan made his awesome breakfast burritos Saturday morning (Thanks Dan!) and it was hosted by Prairie Wood Ranch in Edgewood. Some of the does were really good - and some required a lot of "wrangling" to get them milked. But all in all I do think we will have a few stars out of this group! Will post when I get official results for everyone!
YES, it really did take 3 folks to get this doe milked. She sure is a pretty doe though. She just earned a leg toward her permanent Ch. at the last show.

I hope PrairieWood keeps her in milk for the June show so she can maybe finish.

May 7, 2010

Today as I headed out to the canyon to perform my first milk test (as an official tester) I stopped by the Dennison's place who bought two of our does last year and bred one (CBF Ent's Whistling Dixie) to our Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm. I got to see Chocolate Truffle (see here) pregnant with my hopefully future doe out of MCH Lost Valley ML Nekoda *S).
And two of the cutest babies. Wow did Storm and Dixie do good. This is Karmel. a Lovely little blue eyed chocolate buckskin.
and Hershey and lovely dark Chocolate Chamoisee doe with white belt. Oh my goodness are they both lovely does! Congrats Dennison's we'll be waiting on pins to hear about your next two kiddings (Prairie Wood Memo *D/*M X Rosasharn's HB Gideon *S/*B - yes ! buck kids from this breeding will have their *'s inherited!) and CBF CS Chocolate Truffle X MCH Lost Valley ML Nekoda *S/*B. It looks like you are off to a great start on your little herd of Nigies!

Alyssa Update.

Yesterday was another very interesting Hospital day for us.

Our first appt was at 8 am (that's what time I usually milk goats - hah!)

to get her IV in and her labs drawn. While we were there they informed us that our insurance wasn't going to cover our CT scans. OH! Great! Sooooooo we went anyway and at the last minute were informed that no indeed - we'd have to wait until June for them to cover the CT scans.

So we had 3 hours before our next appt - which was at 1pm for a DEXA (bone density) scan.

Alyssa got a new bathing suit for Camp Enchantment (Camp for Kids with Cancer) which she goes to at the end of the month. We also have more tests on May 20th which include the ECHO and Pulmonary Functions tests. Then we should be meeting with Dr. Winter for our next move (game plan?) Oh, and this month is CLIFF's Amusement Park. The kids are sooooo looking forward to this one.....I guess you could consider it a perk to having a kid who had cancer (thanks but I'd skip Cliff's and Cancer if I could!) if there is such a thing. HOPEFULLY I will remember to get pics this year but I'm not counting on it. I am the milk tester for SWNDGC One Day Milk Test and will be driving back and forth to the canyon on top of going to Cliff's , I am not counting on having my brain fully functional.....But it will be a fun FULL weekend!

TinFays Cleopatra Home At Last!

Cleo finally got to come home. She's weaned and is here making friend's with her new buddy Hope! It has been really hard to wait for her to be weaned and come home but here she is!
No updated photo shoot would be complete without our mandatory butt shot - I mean Escutcheon shot!
Look at that long strait back and neck! She looks like a little deer wandering around the goat pen. And wow is she uphill like her beautiful sire Gideon. LOVELY angularity and the dairy character is all there.
Cleopatra is a wonderful collection of some wonderful Bloodlines that all sort of fall into my herd very nicely and she brings in some much desired bloodlines that I have admired for a long time now! She has the Peaceful Voyage and Baywatch from her Dam's side along with some of my favorite Twin Creek's and Piddlin Acres animals which is already in my herd through Storm, Joie and Tirzah. And she brings in the Rosasharn's bloodlines through her Sire - Rosasharn's HB Gideon *S *B. There are lots of milking stars, *Sire's and Dam's and around 10 ARMCH's. Including Rosasharn's TL Arwen, Tiger L, Elfin, Buckwheat Honey, and Eclipse and Goodwood WaterLilly, Kauri Tree and Tom Thumb.