Tag Archives: feta

Down on the Farm Diary

DOWN ON THE FARM UPDATE #4

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Well it has been a while since I have shared how things are going on our little farm.  Summer is over and Autumn is here and it is a lovely time of the year.

We had a couple of fires this year within our brigade – one being a header that caught fire. This isn’t our header, it was working on one of our neighbours property.  Below is a picture of the header after it was put out.

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Our local fire brigade also burned along the sides of the road from our place to the next town, about 12 kms.  This is to keep the grass down and hopefully stop the fire from jumping into the paddocks.

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Here is one of the fire trucks out the front helping to keep the fire along the side of the road and not in our paddocks.  Our Brigades are all run by volunteers and they do a great job.DSC_0899[1]This is what it looked like out the front of our house. It looks black for a little bit and then the green starts to show through.

My husband is still milking two cows each morning and we are still making feta and cheddar cheese. Below is where he does the milking, it is good in the summer but can be a bit difficult in the winter. We are in the process of moving the milking area to the end of our wool shed and the power is waiting to be attached at the moment. Once that is done the men will concrete it out and move everything over. This will make milking more pleasant in the winter and also make it feasible to milk more cows.

DSC_0987Here are the two cows that we are milking at the moment.  Both cows are a Fresian / Jersey Cross bought from a dairy farmer friend who uses a Jersey bull over his heifers as they deliver smaller calves and thus making it less likely to loose either cow or calf.   Both are totally different looking one looking more Jersey and the other more Fresian.

DSC_0988The cow not facing us has been here for quite a while and her name is Cornetto (after an ice cream we can buy here).  I think the other ones name is Daisy and that really suits her.

The piglets are still growing well and when it gets a bit cooler we will be butchering a few of them.  The bigger ones will go first of course. We have really enjoyed the last lot of sausages that we made from our own pork so I think that will be first on the list to do.

DSC_0994My husband is keen to make some dried cured meat and we might do our bacon that way this year.

Here is Roses our little kitten. We have two kittens and a cat at the moment, so the younger children have one each and the cat – Smokey belongs to all of us.  They really help keep the mouse and rat population down.

DSC_0992If you knew my husband well you would know that he has an aversion to cats, especially inside as he is allergic to them and if they are inside they give him asthma.  Over the years he has really softened towards them and now I find out that he is feeding them milk each morning down at the shed.

We have been offered an alpaca, and I hope that it will be delivered shortly. I don’t have too many details as yet but I feel very blessed that it isn’t costing us anything as they can be quite expensive. Maybe we will get it a mate when we find out what type it needs.

Well that’s all for now, stay tuned for the next episode.

What’s happening on your farm or homestead at the moment?

Psalm 24:1  The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Cheesemaking Diary

FETA CHEESE RECIPE

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I’ve been making cheese on and off for quite a few years.  I usually make a farm house cheddar but I found a very easy very yummy feta recipe.  I make this cheese once a week, sometimes two.  It is great in salads, on pizzas and is extremely great on toasted sandwiches. So here it is…

Feta Cheese

  • 4 Litres of full cream milk – I use somewhere between 4 – 8 litres with 1 teaspoon of rennet diluted in 1/2 cup water for the larger amount.
  • 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Calcium Chloride diluted in 1/4 cup of water.

The addition of Calcium Chloride generally improves the rennet coagulation properties of your milk and this is particularly true when using pasteurised milk from the grocery store.

  • 1 dose MO 030 Mesophilic culture – I use a butter knife and put a few grains on the end.
  • 1/4 rennet tablet or 1/4 teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in 1/2 cup of water.
  • 2 tablespoons of salt.

Directions

  • Mix your Calcium Chloride solution into your 4 litres of milk.
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No 2  daughter adding the calcium chloride
  • Slowly heat milk, using indirect heat, to 30° C – I bring my milk in straight from the cow and it is already at 30 degrees and saves heating it.
  Two stainless steel ‘stock pots’ with water in the large pot and milk in the small pot makes an effective ‘water jacket’, heating your milk indirectly.

 

  • Add starter culture and stir well. Leave to incubate for 1 hour, maintaining the temperature at 30° C. – place an old bath towel over the pots to keep the warmth in.
No 1 daughter adding starter culture
No 2 daughter adding starter culture
  • Add rennet solution and stir in gently using an up and down motion for one minute to ensure that the rennet is evenly distributed. Allow to rest undisturbed for one hour, maintaining the temperature at 30° C.
  • Check for a ‘clean break’. If the curd is not firm enough leave for another 5 minutes and check again.

Patience is the key here, wait for a clean break, and do not despair if this takes a while. If you do not get a clean break after several hours, do not throw throw your mixture out, but keep it warm overnight perhaps, and then drain it through a tight weave cheesecloth. Your end result might be a soft cheese, instead of feta, but it still is a cheese.

  • Once the curd is firm enough and gives a clean break, cut the curd into 1.5 centimetre cubes. Let rest for 10 minutes.
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No 2 daughter cutting the curd
  • Gently stir the curds for 20 minutes, being careful not to break them down. – I like our Feta to be quite firm so I stir quite vigorously.
No 2 daughter stirring the curd
No 2 daughter stirring the curd
  • Gently pour the curds into a colander, lined with your cloth, to drain off the whey. Tie the corners of the cloth together to form a bag and hang to drain for 5 hours. The curds will knit together into a solid mass. – I don’t have anywhere to hang our cheese so I just leave to drain on the sink and if it is really moist I squeeze it out.
Curds draining in sieve
Curds draining in sieve

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  • Untie the bag and cut the curds into 2.5 centimetre cubes.
Curd ready to cut
Curds ready to cut

 

Curd cut into container with salt on top
Curd cut into container with salt on top

 

PS.  As I have said before I am not really a measuring type of cook and I am probably the same with my cheese.  I found that it still works well.  We eat this cheese the next day and it lasts for about a week.

PPS. Sometimes this cheese sits on the bench all day, depending on what I have to do.  I have found that it is alright to do so but ultimately it is best to have it draining by the late afternoon.

PPPS.  I get my starter culture and calcium chloride from Green Living Australia and my liquid rennet from Cheeselinks (you can get rennet from Green Living but I like to buy a bigger amount.

Let me know how you go if you try it or let me know if you have a cheese recipe I could try.

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