homemade

We are really lucky to have Roo, our family's milk cow. Right now she gives about 4 gallons of milk a day. So, I make mozzerlla cheese, yogurt, ice cream, sour cream and butter.  I thought you might like seeing how easy it is.

This gallon of milk is from last night's milking. By morning, the cream has risen to the top of the jar. See the color change in the top 1/5 of the jar or so? That's cream. I use a ladle to skim off the cream and put it in a blender.

The remaining milk is what we pour into bottles for the table.

After blending the cream on high for anywhere from 3-7 minutes butter separates from the milk. After you strain the milk away, this is what I have to work with. 

I take this over to the sink and wash away the extra milk under cold water...working the milk out of butter clump by pressing and mushing it and folding it over itself. When no milky colored water squeezes out, it's ready to be salted and put in a bowl.

One gallon of our creamy Jersey milk yields 1/4 pound of butter.

Recently I was interviewd by Janna Goerdt who is a small farmer in Embarrass as well as a writer for the Hometown Focus, a small energetic newspaper in Virginia, MN. Among other things, the paper is featuring local food in anticipation of the Iron Range Earthfest that's coming up. The article about our farm will appear in a few weeks, I guess.  appeared in the April 2nd edition.

Janna asked me to write a little  how-to article to accompany the interview. She suggested it be my mozzerella cheese recipe - which really isn't mine...it's just the one I make.  I added lots of coaching notes to it though. I don't know how much of the recipe and instructions will appear in the paper.

 I was kinda long winded. People who know me will not be surprised by this!

I have added  a few pictures.

Making Mozzarella Cheese in the Microwave in 30 minutes?

Yes , you can!  Really you can! Well, okay the first time might take 45 minutes while you fumble around a little bit...but the next time it'll be zippy quick! You also don't have to use the microwave. It's just a bit quicker and easier.

It takes just a few ingredients that are easily purchased at Natural Harvest Food Coop in Virginia ( you don't have to be a member to shop there!) or online from http://www.cheesemaking.com/.  My recipe is from that website. The owner of the company is Ricki Carroll who is known as the Cheese Queen. She is mentioned in lots of magazines and books, including Animal, Vegetable , Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

I am lucky and have my own milk cow and use her milk for my cheese, but you can use raw milk or plain old grocery store whole  milk for this recipe.  It's important to note that it cannot be Ultra Pasteurized Milk which is a process some organic milk producers use to increase the distance they can ship their products.  The citric acid costs about $5 at the co-op is is enough for many batches of cheese. The Co-op is great about selling rennet and lets you buy just one tablet at a time for about 75 cents....this is enough for 4 batches of cheese.

Put one gallon of milk in a big pot on the stove,  add 1 1/2t of citric acid  and stir for just a bit to mix it in. This is going to sour your milk...don't be alarmed by the little clumpy things that form.

Place a 1/4 of a rennet tablet into a 1/4 cup of cool water and dissolve it. When you cut the tablet...it probably won't cut very neatly. Don't worry about using a 1/2 tablet instead. I do it all the time. Keep the rennet solution handy. Heat the milk slowly to 90 degrees. Remove the pot from the heat, slowly stir in the rennet solution in an up and down fashion for about 30 seconds. Cover and let it sit for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes check out your milk. It should have sort of gelled into one firm unit like a big white jello. Take a finger and press into it. In a perfect world you'll have a clean break and the cheese breaks apart without crumbling. You'll see the liquid (whey) has separated from the jello-y stuff (curd).

In a perfect world, the whey will be clear liquid with a bit of green tinge to it. If your curd hasn't set really nice, you can try giving it just a bit more heat and let it sit another 5 minutes.  Then -  no matter what it looks like - we move on.  If your curd ended up looking like a swirly globby mess on top of that greenish water, do not fear! The cheese will turn out great anyway. It happens to me every now and again. Don't stop now!

Take a long straight knife and cut down into the curd in a checkerboard fashion making little cubes.  Then do it again holding your knife at an angle to make those long deep cubes into smaller chunks.

We are  breaking up the curd to release more whey. No need for perfection we are just gently breaking up the curd.  If you have the swirly messy looking curd, you can skip the curd cutting.  Hang it there, swirly curd people. It really will be okay.

Put the pot back on the stove and heat it to 105 degrees stirring gently.  It's okay that the whey is  turning white...it's supposed to.

Now you need to work quickly. You want to pull your curds out of the whey. You can dump the whey down the sink, feed it to your pigs and chickens, or use it for special recipes. But your goal is to save the curds.  I tip my pot to gently pour out the whey and then use a big slotted spoon to work the whey out. You'll get the hang of it.  Dump your curds and what's left of the whey into a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for one minute on high power. 

Dump your curd into a  colander and work out some more whey in sort of a kneading fashion.  Don't worry. You can't do it wrong. It's going to look sort of smooth and shiny. As it cools you'll see it becomes harder to work. Pop the curd back into the bowl, and microwave another 35 seconds.  Work out some more whey....it's getting pretty hot now isn't it? 

 I keep cold water running in my sink and cool my hands as I work the cheese. Add some salt, start with a 1/2 tsp and see what you think. I use more.  When it comes out after the 2nd 35 seconds it might be hot enough to stretch..this is fun. Grab your curd and pull it apart, it should stretch without breaking.  Work it this way until it cools too much to work. If it won't stretch, zap in for another 35 seconds. After you've stretched it, microwave one more time to make it pliable again. Taste to check the salt level adding more if needed. Shape into a nice disc. Put it in a bowl or on a plate.

Let it cool a bit and enjoy. Or cover with plastic wrap and keep in fridge...but it's really the best when it's warm and fresh.

After you have done this a few times, you'll note that the more you work it and the more times you heat it the firmer a cheese you'll get. That is the kind my husband likes  - while my son prefers is a little softer. Don't worry. It's all good. Make it and let me know how it came out by emailing me at wycoff@frontier.com

A while ago, our youngest daughter Maggie and I made rhubarb juice using our Mehu -Liisa which is a Finnish juice extractor pot thing. It works really great.

We also made 4 batches of strawberry jam and 2 big batches of strawberry sauce using berries that we bought from Nelson-Shine produce.

Nelson's is where we bring our chickens for processing. Shannon and I brought our chickens there one Sunday to be processed, and found them just starting strawberry season. One of Ron and Barb’s older boys, 23 year old Nick has just been discharged from the National Guard after two tours in Iraq. He and his bride have decided to start farming near the family home. In the meantime, they have bought a few cows and started a strawberry operation on Nick’s home place.These berries had just been picked as we arrived in Brainerd. Maggie and I made 2 batches of jam and sauce on Monday. It was so good that when Jack and I went to retrieve the frozen birds, we bought 2 more flats of berries! Those I made into a big batch of stawberry sauce.