What do we do with all the goat milk?

I work full time as a realtor on Whidbey Island, part time as a self-employed landscaper/arborist (I am an ISA certified arborist) and part-time as a farmer. So what do I do with all of the milk our girls produce? I don’t have the time to make complicated aged cheeses but we do several things.

Currently I am milking the goats once per day – mornings – and allow the kids free choice of milk from their mothers and grain/alfalfa. I am getting about one gallon of milk a day from them, and this adds up quickly.

The easiest product to make is kefir. Kefir is a probiotic drink made by adding fresh milk to live kefir grains, letting it stand on the kitchen counter at room temperature for 24 hours. I then strain out the kefir grains saving them in the refrigerator until needed again. I usually make three quarts at a time. Kefir is known as the champagne of milk as in the process alcohol is made and gives the drink a sparkle. Add a little sugar and fruit and you have something wonderful. My wife and I use it like milk in our morning cereal. Good for you and it tastes wonderful.

Yogurt is easy to make and I love it, again added to my morning cereal. I don’t like to add powdered milk, so my yogurt comes out thin. After 24 hours or so in the two-quart yogurt maker, I pour it through a cheese cloth and hang it for eight hours, the end product a very thick yogurt. I LOVE it!

Our next staple food from goat milk is Panir. This is by far the easiest cheese to make. I heat up one gallon of milk to 195 degrees F. on the stove and keep it between 190 and 195 for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. I then add a couple of “gulps” of vinegar. The milk solids separate from the whey and I run this through a cheese cloth and hang it for two or three hours. The result is a solid ball of cheese. Panir does not melt when you heat it. I cut it into cubes and use it in stir fries. Panir will pick up the flavors of what you cook it in. Any recipe that calls for tofu you can use Panir in. Panir will also freeze very well and can be used during the winter when we don’t have any fresh goat milk. I usually prepare it by cutting it into cubes of about 1-inch by 1/2-inch, coating it with olive oil, pepper oil, soy sauce and Worchester sauce and broiling it on a mid-rack in the oven.

I make a Chevre cheese that I add to my lunch every day. Chevre is made by heating a gallon of milk to 86 degrees F., adding a culture and letting it set in a warm place for 24 hours, and then draining it in cheese cloth for 12 hours.

I’ve been working on making feta cheese; it’s a little more work but when it comes out good it’s wonderful. My last batch came out a little moist so next time I’ll drain it for a couple of hours more.

This morning I made custard for the first time. Four duck eggs, one quart of fresh goat milk, ½ cup raw sugar and a little salt and vanilla – bake for an hour.

USDA and the Family Farm

In late December 2009 I discovered that the USDA was giving grants to farms for a high tunnel. What is a high tunnel? This is from my application:

“Farming in a high tunnel will increase our yield of warm weather crops allowing us to bring to the local market organic produce that is normally not available from local farmers. The High Tunnel will also extend the growing season by about 2 weeks in the spring and 2 weeks in the fall. The High Tunnel is an unheated greenhouse that uses the sun for heat and natural breezes for cooling. In the process of producing fresh vegetables and fruit to take to market, our goals are to (1) reduce water usage, (2) reduce nutrient loading to ground and/or surface water, and (3) improve soil tilth and soil quality related to improved productivity.”

Yesterday I talked to a person at the Mt. Vernon office of the USDA. They have finally come up with a price per square foot of $2.97 for new farmers (farming less than 10 years which includes us). Our proposal is for a high tunnel of 20’ wide and 96’ feet long. This would cover about 90% of our costs to construct one. The USDA uses a ranking system of points to determine who gets a grant. What I discovered yesterday was farms with additional “critical” needs get more points. I think they are using the “gift” of a high tunnel as the carrot to get farmers to correct other problems.

We have three USDA critical needs (problems): (1) water runoff problems from the 60 acres above us that has been clear-cut to build view homes; (2) lack of pollinators; and (3) noxious weed problems, specifically Canada thistle.

When we have a heavy rainfall of ½ inch or more within a 24 hour period the water that appears becomes extreme. We end up with a pond by our garden and a fast moving stream through our garden into the blueberry area. Their idea is to help (design and fund?) us create a swell that is planted in native grasses and shrubs that will slow down this water movement and allow the water to enter the water table without moving through our property.
Our second problem, as is a concern throughout the world, is a declining population of pollinators. We normally rely on the native bumblebee for most of our pollinating. Some years we have millions of them swarming through our property. To a lesser extent is the honeybee. I don’t know of any beekeepers within two miles of our farm but this spring we have been visited by them early, covering our plum and apricot trees. I have not noticed many bumblebees this spring and that concerns us. The USDA wants us to create a native bee habitat, probably as part of the plantings for water control.

The third major problem we have is a noxious weed known as Canada thistle, Cirsium arvense. The root system in this plant is extensive, going down to 3.5 feet. In our garden it comes up out of the hard pan and I have had no luck digging it out. Being an organic farmer does not allow me to use the strong chemicals that could be used to kill it so we have to come up with another solution. I explained to the USDA person how we are controlling Tansy ragwort by introducing a moth that lays eggs on the plants, with a caterpillar hatching that eats the plant. We have controlled over 90% of the Tansy on our property. Is there a bug that can kill the thistle? I have heard there is one.