Fall 2011

The official rain year runs September 1st through August 31st each year.  Our normal rain fall for Greenbank is about 18 inches (we are in the Olympia Mt Rain Shadow).  Last year we measured 30.8 inches at our farm.  Yes it was a wet year.  Fall has been very nice and dry this year, with only a fraction of the amount of rain that we had last year.  Because of all of the sun we have one of the best winter gardens ever.  Four beds of greens, beets and carrots.  This last Saturday evening Pam made our dinner consisting of fried chicken gizzards, baked potatoes, and a roasted beet salad with goat cheese.  Other than the spices and olive oil, everything was from our farm - and completely organic.  We couldn't have bought a better dinner at a fine restaurant.

One of our fall/winter garden beds

T

We had a good apple harvest, with 8 - 25 lb buckets from our trees.  These are being dried for late winter when our frozen fruit is gone.

Our goats are doing well, with three of the does bred, one to go.  Surely is due January 3rd, Alure is due February 11th, and Alder Rose is due March 5th.  The next time Nettle goes into heat we will breed her, so she give birth mid to late April or in May.

Our four does with Pooh Bear

Some of the boys eating their morning grain.  We'll butcher the four boys next May

Our milk flow has been outstanding this year.  Both Nettle and Alure are in their second year (the saying goes, never judge a doe on their first year), Nettle has averaged 1 gallon per day and Alure 3 quarts since late July when we separated them from their kids.  Nettle peaked at about five quarts for a couple of months, Alure a little less than a gallon.  We are beginning to dry off Alure as we want her to "rest" for two months before she births in February.  Nettle should continue to produce through February, about the same time we'll start receiving milk from Surely.

One of our staples we make with all of this milk is Kefir.  We add, fresh from the goat, milk to about 1/2 cup of live kefir grains and let it sit on the kitchen counter for two to three days, strain out the grains and put the finished kefir in the fridge.  I keep four quarts going all of the time.  We use the kefir on our morning cereal in place or with milk, and also drink a cup in the afternoon as a snack.

"Kefir is a cultured milk drink that has been used for thousands of years. It is made by adding kefir grains to fresh milk and then letting it set at room temperature for 24 hours - strain out the grains and it's completed. It has a light, bubbly sparkle and is often referred to as the "champagne of milk." Traditionally it is made with live grains, and its unique flavor comes from the combination of bacterial acidification (creating a wonderful probiotic supplement for intestinal and immune health) and alcohol produced by yeast during the fermentation process. With proper care the grains continue to grow and sustain themselves."

Straining our Kefir

The kefir ready for today's milk

Our garlic has been planted.  My favorite variety is Pink Music, a hard neck garlic.  Our heads are huge, the size of a baseball, with only five to seven cloves.  The individual cloves are almost the size of a garlic head you would buy in the store, are juicy and have a strong garlic flavor.  This is a true garlic and is easy to peal.  I have been growing it for 15 years, saving the larges heads to plant in the fall.  I gave some to an Italian friend of mine and he said it was the best garlic he has ever had - and he has had lots in his life.  We grow six varieties in a raised bed 5 feet wide by 30 feet long.

Nettle finished being milked in the milk stand

Pharaoh our barn cat waiting for her morning goat milk

Pooh Bear lives full time with the goats