A Snake of Another Sort

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

I like snakes. I have always admired them. We often have a kingsnake that visits the farm and also some smaller ones that I like to think are her babies. I had hoped I would never encounter a rattlesnake on our property...

But a couple weekends ago, my youngest son and I were camping and Max the dog allerted us to this. Even though I could hear the rattle, I kept hoping it wasn't so. I got closer and shined my flashlight on it. Yeah, diamondback rattler. If the dog wasn't as smart as he is, he'd have been struck. Thankfully, Max the dog lives to show off whatever he has cornered on the property. He circles and barks until his humans arrive. This dog just has the guardian instinct built in.

Maybe a braver person would have caught the snake and set it free elsewhere, but to me, this was a dangerous situation. Young child. Dog roaming the property. Livestock. I did not want this particular snake loose on the property. The risks were too many. I would have been putting myself at risk by attempting to capture it. I didn't have the proper equipment to do so safely.

So I had to make a decision that wasn't easy for me.

I don't watch a lot of TV, but my family does watch Survivorman and Dual Survivor. I've seen the people on those shows kill snakes many times. I've watched them skin them and cook them. And I feel that if a life is going to be taken, then it should not be wasted. I had an axe and I did my best to be quick.

So, I skinned the snake. I taught my son about the inner workings of it, pointing out the intestines and lungs. I gutted it. I washed the meat and...

I grilled it over mesquite and we even ate some. Nothing went to waste. I even salted the skin and brought it home to later cure with glycerin and rubbing alcohol.

I still can't believe I did this. I hope that through all of it, my son learned that it is not an easy thing to take a life, but sometimes it might have to happen. It should be done with reverence and respect. I didn't want to do it, but I truly believe that my dog would have come upon this snake another time...or one of my kids.

If you're curious, it did sort of taste like chicken. I seasoned the meat with season salt and garlic powder because that's what I had onhand in the camper. The meat was chewier than chicken, but it was good.

Pie Post

The Three Sisters Garden was a huge success squash-wise. The corn didn't do much and there are still stalks of it trying to grow in the first row. The beans--none harvested to date. However, they are hanging on in that first row among the corn and yes, squash. Pretty sure that last group of plantings is yellow squash although it could very well be stubborn zucchini. To date, half of the Three Sisters garden has been seeded with cole crops: Broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. I also tossed in a few winter banana squash seeds, you know, cause I need more squash like I need a hole in my head!

The other half is still being built. Rows of manure and bad straw, laden with soil are resting beneath tarps and waiting/composting for spring planting. I have plans to re-fence this garden since the existing fence was a roll of low, used field fence I found at the back of the property. But not to worry. I have lots of old but in better shape fence to carry out this task. (More on why that is so later.)

Anyways, what to do with all those pumpkins...

PUMPKIN PIE

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 large eggs
3 cups pumpkin (boiled, skinned, mashed, strained)
1 cup goat milk

2 unbaked pie shells

Mix everything in a bowl untill well blended. Pour half into each pie shell and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in pie center comes out clean. Chill and then eat.

You will notice that fresh pumpkin that is boiled for pies comes out a lighter color than canned. I've often wondered why. My theory is that they grind up the skins into the canned version which would explain the definite orange-ness of it (or maybe it's food coloring?). Skinless is decidely dark yellow. From past pumpkin experiments I've decided that the skins are too gross and rubbery to go into recipes and are much better off given to the chickens.

Pumpkin Muffins

Today my favorite teenager in the whole world came over to bake pumpkin muffins again with me. Remember those cute, little pie pumpkins in our patch? Alas, they are no more. We boiled them all up and converted them to mashed pumpkin for baking. The seeds were saved for planting and many are already in the ground (thanks to Farmer C's friend, Jaxon). They will probably be too late for Halloween, but they should be just in time for November pumpkin pies.

Angelica and I made a double recipe of these delicious muffins, so there were plenty for eating right away and plenty for sharing later.

You can also used canned pumpkin if you don't have garden fresh ones. If you'd rather have a loaf of pumpkin bread, bake 1 1/4 hours and do the toothpick test to be sure the center is cooked through. I like muffins because they're so portable and make a great single serving snack to grab on the go.

PUMPKIN MUFFINS

5 1/4 cups flour
3 tsp, soda
2 1/4 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
6 eggs
3/4 cups water
3 cups boiled, mashed pumpkin

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Build a dent in the middle of the dry ingredients and add all wet ingredients. Beat eggs and fold mixture together to form batter. Mix well.

Ladle batter into papered muffin pans and bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.

Mozzarella

When you have goats in milk you will almost always have more milk than you and your family can use up in a day. We freeze our excess in canning jars (leave space for expansion or you will have explosions). We save up enough for a cheesemaking party. The first cheese I learned to make was Chevre which you can read about here. The second cheese I learned to make was mozzarella. The recipe I first used came from The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company website and I modified it slightly to suit my needs. I'm not a fan of hunting down citric acid or waiting for it to come in the mail, so I substitute lemon juice. Here is the original recipe: Mozzarella in 30 Minutes

Here is my version:

Easy Mozzarella
Ingredients:
1 gallon of raw milk (I use goat's)
juice of 2 large lemons, strained so you don't get seedy cheese (ew)
1/4 cup DISTILLED water (don't use tap or the recipe will FAIL)
1/4 tsp rennet
1 teaspoon salt

Tools:
A Stainless Steel Pot and lid large enough to accomodate your milk
Measuring cups and spoons
Ladle
Microwavable bowl
Container to store your cheese in the fridge

Place your raw milk and lemon juice in a large stainless steel pot. Stir. Heat to 90 degrees fahrenheit. The lemon juice is what creates the acidity and make the cheese stretchy later.

At 90 degrees, remove your pot from the burner. Mix your rennet with the distilled water and then pour that slowly into the milk and juice mixture. Stir with a ladle for about 30 seconds. Place a lid on top. Let set up for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes touch the edge of the milk and it should be thick like custard and separate from the edge of the pot. If it doesn't, let it set up longer.

If it has reached custard consistency, slice it with a long knife in a checkerboard pattern. Return the pot to the burner and heat to 105 degrees fahrenheit, slowly stirring. Your cheese may drop or glob together.

After the cheese reaches 105 degrees, remove it from the burner and continue to stir at least five minutes. I like my cheese fairly dry so it's the consistency of the packaged mozarella from the grocery store, so I let it set up about 5 minutes longer.

Remove your cheese curds from the pot with a ladle or your cleans hands if you're fairly heat tolerant and place them in a microwavable container. I prefer a Pyrex casserole dish. Drain off the excess whey.

Place in the microwave and heat on high for 1 minute. Take it out and knead the curds like bread dough. Drain any excess whey.

Microwave again on high for 35 seconds. Knead again. Drain excess whey.

Add salt to desired taste. Sprinkle it around. About 1/4 teaspoon does it for me. Knead it in good. You can taste your cheese at this point to see if you have enough salt. Add more if you like.

Microwave on high a final 35 seconds.

Knead, Stretch like taffy and then roll it into a ball.

I place mine in a screw top platic Ball brand container and put it in the fridge to cool and harden. The container gives it a uniform shape that makes it easy to slice later on. You can also shred it or just eat it as is! We like to make homemade thin crust pizza weekly with ours as well as fresh basil from the garden.

Chevre

Since the guys make their haloumi cheese, I've been wanting to brave the cheesemaking process myself. So far, they've only made haloumi, failed mozerella, and yogurt (which has never appeared before me--how mysterious!). I went ahead and ordered a small cheesemaking kit from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company so I could try to make a French cheese called Chevre. Now, I'd never tried that cheese before, so I had no idea what it was or what to expect, but Koulis' wife, Camilla, said it was yummy and that she sometimes buys it at her local famer's market.

My kit came in the mail in a small box which I promptly opened so I could store away the rennet and packets of cheese cultures. (Rennet goes in the fridge and packets go in the freezer.) I read the little booklet which was thankfully written in layman's terms. It sounded pretty easy!

Feeling courageous, I got started with the morning's gallon of milk. For me, the smaller batched recipe is great since this is for home use, not the restaurants.

I gathered my ingredients and items:

1 gallon of goat's milk
the Chevre culture packet

A stainless steel pot
a thermometer
my kit provided butter muslin
my kit provided cheese strainers
a tub to drain the cheese in

This is about a two day project depending on how you like your cheese.

Day One:

I heated the milk to 140 degrees for 30 minutes to pasturize it. I drink our goats' milk raw and like it just fine, but since this is a curdling process, it's just safer to pasturize since the cheese will be sitting out to set up.

After the alloted pasturization time, I cooled the milk to 86 degrees F by placing the whole pot in a sink with ice and cold water.

At 86 degrees F I added the Chevre culture packet and put a lid on the pot--for 12-20 hours or until the cheese becomes firm.

Day Two:

I lined my cheese strainers with the butter muslin and ladled globs of the curdled milk into each strainer.

Then I let them drain...

...for 6-12 hours.

PLAIN, TOMATO BASIL, DILL
Once strained, the cheese is ready to use as is. I added salt because it was a little plain for my taste. I also added Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil seasoning to one batch and fresh dill from the Gigantic Garden to another batch.

It all came out delicious and spreadable on bagles, which is how the kids and I have been eating it. Hubs also put some on a pizza last night and said it was better than mozerella. The kids and I were away camping at the ranch, so we can't vouch for him, but the picture of the pizza looked tasty.

Halloumi Cheese

We have a close friend, Koulis, who loves to make all kinds of things. He cooks, hunts, fishes, camps, makes homemade sausage (in mass quantities), is building a huge outdoor brick oven in his yard, and would fit well in a bygone era when we had to live off the land and hard work outdoors. There's something rewarding in making things from scratch and knowing where all the ingredients came from, a certain pride in a job well done that certainly could be done easier and with less effort due to today's modern gadgets, but is just better when done the old-fashioned way. Koulis wanted to make halloumi cheese. He's from Cyprus where Halloumi is very popular.

I am not allowed to share the recipe yet as Hubs and Koulis felt this first batch wasn't quite perfect. But it included two gallons of goat milk and rennet in a small amount, I believe it was a half a teaspoon, but check online for other recipes to be sure. At the end of the cooking you'll need salt.

Cheesemaking is an interesting process that reminds me of a science experiment. I came over after my husband and Koulis had been working on the brick oven one day and I brought 2 gallons of frozen goat milk with me. Koulis defrosted the milk to prepare for the expermint, um I mean, process.

After the milk was defrosted, it was added to the pot.

The milk was heated to 88 degrees F.

After the addition of rennet, the milk began to curdle.

See the curds and whey?

The curds are gathered up to be placed in molds to drain.

The curds are packed into molds.

Not one to waste anything, Koulis re-boiled the whey to skim
off another bit of curds which we used to make a dessert cheese.
That second cheese was similair to cottage cheese, only drier.
Koulis topped it with honey and walnuts.
It didn't last long!

Still draining.

After the whey drained (apx 45 minutes) the cheese was boiled in the molds back in the whey.
Once boiled, the cheese was removed, flattened like a thick pancake and dusted with salt.
It was placed in the fridge and ready to eat the following day.
Some people also add mint to the cheese.

Halloumi is often grilled and sprinkled with lemon juice.
Delicious!

Koulis saved the remaining whey in the fridge and the following evening we boiled spaghetti in it for dinner.
Waste not, want not...

Peanut Butter Fudge

It's no fun to do all the work of milking if the "goods" don't get used for anything, so I was excited to try my first recipe using goat milk. I have never been able to do fudge properly, having tried a few times before around the holidays. I figured I wasn't being patient enough for the "soft ball" stage, and with added patience and a thermometer, it happened!

Peanut Butter Fudge
1 Cup Goat Milk (This recipe can be made with cow milk as well.)
2 Cups Sugar
2 TBSP Butter
2/3 Cup Peanut Butter
1 TSP Vanilla

In a pan (large enough to allow for the crazy heated sugar reaction), place the sugar and milk. Heat this at medium-high and stir to help dissolve the sugar into the milk. Cook to a slow boil, constantly stirring until it reaches 234 degrees F. Be patient. Test for the "soft ball" stage. That's when a drop of the mix placed in cold water will form a soft ball.

When soft ball magic happens, remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the butter, peanut butter, and vanilla. Beat it by hand until it's thick and smooth, then pour the fudge into a greased 8X8 pan.

Let cool and slice into bite size squares. Feed to family and friends.

Peanut Butter Fudge