Dairy Delights

It's really cold outside.  I think the high today was 12 degrees.  Certainly not the coldest it has been in the last few winters, but cold enough that the stables canceled all the riding lessons.  I think they generally feel that if the weather is below 20 degrees it's not good for the horses.  I'm fine with that.  It is not easy to stay warm even while riding indoors and trying to clean the tack with a frozen bucket of oil soap and water is actually rather painful.  So.  What to do with a spare afternoon?

Curds, and whey!

We drove the hour-plus round trip to the raw milk dairy and picked up 3 gallons of milk.  And had ice cream sitting next to the wood stove.  Ahh, cozy!  As soon as we got home I started a batch of cheese (queijo fresco) with one of the gallons.  My enzyme bottle is pretty old but I'm pleased to say it still works.  I wonder how long that will be the case?  Regardless, I have a powdered chymosin just in case.  Another half-gallon went to making yogurt.  In the last month or so I've tried to always have homemade yogurt in the house but I usually use ultra-pasteurized whole milk from the store.  Switching to raw is something I wanted to try to see how it affects the flavor and texture.  That will be ready in the morning.

The whey has been saved, to add to oatmeal or anything else that might benefit from a little extra nutritional content.  Last year I saved the whey and mixed it with grape flavored drink mix.  No one but I went anywhere near it.  Likely I won't use it all but I hate throwing things away or wasting food so I thought I'd at least try.

Dinner tonight used the last of the turnips I'd saved from the farm share (they survived being frozen rather well, actually).  I've now worked though everything from that share, except what is still in jars.  The next share is only four and a half months away!