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Written by Nigel
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Wednesday, 02 April 2008 |
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I can’t quite believe how quickly things have changed around here. Only last week we were under six to eight inches of snow. This week we’ve had temperatures in the high teens and I’ve been out working in a t-shirt. After the wintry remission it seems spring has made a comeback.
 Of course along with spring comes a new set of jobs to be done. The new veggie beds need finishing off, the greenhouse wants tidying too. The tomato, chilli and herb seeds we ordered have arrived, so we’ll be getting those into the propagator next week and they’ll be out in the greenhouse before you know it. Speaking of outside, the goats went out to graze for the first time in quite a while this week. Either they had forgotten what to do and how much they liked it or they were just being plain dumb as about an hour and a half later I found them back in their stalls in the barn. They had got through/over/under the electric fence, braved the 11,000v and gone back inside. I’ll give them another try later and maybe a bit closer supervision.
The buck kids that Bengt and I slaughtered have been butchered, maybe dismembered is a better term, as there was little skill involved. Skill or not, they job is now done and my freezer is stocked with plenty of goat meat. I’m looking forward to the roast leg of kid for a birthday supper. I’m also searching for a good authentic curry goat recipe if anyone has one… it is one of my favourite Caribbean meals [along with rice and peas] and now I have the main ingredient I’d like to give it a try.
I’ve been chatting with Fredrik – my young bee farmer friend - and it seems my winter losses are far from exceptional. He knows people who have suffered much bigger losses this year than previously. He blames the very wet mild winter and then the late snow. He managed to get over ninety percent of his six hundred plus hives through the winter and puts this down to his use of mesh floors in his hives. I can understand the logic behind this; it would reduce condensation etc. keeping the hives healthier. I will certainly have to give this idea more thought and maybe give it a try. I’ve order a couple of new hives from him, and they will be ready to collect around the beginning of May. With it being a bad winter for the bees here Fredrik wants to do a couple of inspections before selling any stock this year, just to make sure things are OK and all the hives are queen-right.
 My foray into cheese making has had its ups and downs which I suppose is normal when learning a new skill. The cottage cheese I made was good, a little squeaky at first, but it matured well and twenty four hours later it was wonderful. Buoyed by this success I tried Feta, hmmm what can I say. The first attempt was a bit of a disaster. Trying to figure out why, I came to the conclusion that either the recipe I followed was either a) badly worded, or b) had a stage missing. A Google search found a recipe that had the curds being ‘cooked’ which was what I thought the first recipe lacked and I made a second attempt. Without wishing to jinx anything this time it seems to be working. Everything came together as I expected and now my embryonic feta has been sliced and salted to harden it up before being brined for around a month. Cheese making is definitely not for the impatient. It will be May before I know if it was successful. I want to make a second feta using the same recipe [a big thank you to Fias Co Farm, www.fiascofarm.com for the recipe and the excellent instructions] I may even take some photographs and do a post here – we’ll see if I find the time. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 02 April 2008 )
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